Books: Kore-eda’s Elemental Cinema
By Jasper Sharp. 
Ask anyone about the state of contemporary Japanese cinema and the one name that is sure to come up is that of the subject of Linda Ehrlich’s The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema, surprisingly the first book-length focus on the director.
For well over two decades, Kore-eda has enjoyed widespread overseas distribution and a critical acclaim that has, in the more recent cases of Like Father, Like Son (2013) and Shoplifters (2018), been matched by a noteworthy degree of domestic box-office success. Shoplifters (pictured) pulled off the remarkable feat of winning both the Palme d’Or at Cannes and becoming that year’s top-grossing home-grown live-action release in Japan. His themes, as Ehrlich outlines in the introduction to her book, include exploring “such fundamental questions as: what might happen to us and our memories after death? How can we protect the vulnerability of children? How can we honor their resilience? How can women transcend the role of sexual object? How can we expand our view of those who live on the margins of society? What is the nature of justice? Of truth? Of family?” Continue Reading
Podcast – 20th April 2020
"Basking in the sun like a cat"
The David Bowie of Animal Crossing, steam punk boxing and all routes leading to doom! A random show to being what will no doubt a random week in general!
Jeremy and Andy are back to bring you another show filled random chatter and of course talk on anime they've been watching! A more laid back show than usual some might say.
Today on the show, they look back their respective weekend which on the surface seemed quite different. There's also talk on anime production started to be impacted before thoughts on the boxing series Levius on Netflix, A Certain Scientific Railgun T on Crunhyroll and Funimation, and My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! on Crunchyroll!
And just when you think choices of what we watched and the reason behind them couldn't get anymore random, Harry Potter is also talked about this podcast.
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WATCH-A-LONG DISCUSSION TOPIC ON FRIDAY: The Dragon Dentist
This coming Friday our watch-a-long discussion style of podcast will return as we watch the first episode of Studio Khara's, The Dragon Dentist. You can watch this dubbed on Channel 4's All4 service HERE, and subtitled on Crunchyroll HERE.
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Programme schedule note going forward: We talk about this near the end of the show, but we do want to make a note we'll now be moving to a schedule of two podcasts a week. So our next show will be this coming Friday.
A fun and random show to kick of the week! Speak to you all on Friday.
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Books: Manga Cultures & the Female Gaze
By Shelley Pallis.
Kathryn Hemmann’s new book, Manga Cultures and the Female Gaze, quotes an incident oft-cited in discussions of fandom – Anne Rice’s complaint that critics of her vampire novels were “interrogating the text from the wrong perspective.” Rice was famously furious that many of her readers disapproved of the direction her books were taking, turning this into one of several well-documented quarrels over fan fiction and the law. “Who is a writer, after all,” comments Hemmann, only half in jest, “to tell readers how their work must be interpreted?” Readers can read what they want into a text, and for women, that often means “resistant reading”, even arguing against what the author seems to be wanting to say.
Hemmann describes the history of manga as perceived through the eyes of three men – Eiji Otsuka, Hiroki Azuma and Tamaki Saito, and criticises them for not considering the possibility that women might be reading and appreciating the manga and TV shows that they are writing about. “Readers of all genders,” Hemmann writes, “can find appeal in stories that offer a pointed critique of the narrative refusal to see female characters as anything more than the objects of male discourse and desire.” The initial examples here are two poignant anime/manga serials for girls – Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth, both of which end their first arcs with remarkably downbeat, traumatic confrontations and denouements, liable to be read differently by girls and boys. Continue Reading
Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 2 comes to Blu-ray and DVD. 15th June 2020 is when this ray of sunshine will be available to add to your collection!.
UPDATED: 6th May 2020 -- Please note the release date for Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 2 has been amended to 15th June 2020. The release information on this page has been updated accordingly.
We're bringing some sunshine into your lives today as we're excited to (finally) be able announce our plans for bringing Love Live Sunshine Season 2 to the UK on Blu-ray and DVD!
We know it's been a long wait since our initial release of Season 1, but now we can shine a light on what you can expect from this when it's available to add to your collection on 15th 2020!
Read on below for details. Continue Reading
Podcast – 17th April 2020 (w/ Dr. Jonathan Clements)
"Why is that giant robot skipping?"
Dr. Jonathan Clements returns to bring some fascinating insight on a number of topics that also gives him a chance to discuss reindeer herders and his love of Gunbuster!
We conclude the week with Jeremy and Andy welcoming Dr. Jonathan Clements back to the show to provide a (what we guess is now a periodic) update on life in lockdown in Finland! (Following on the Jonathan's previous appearance on the show,) this leads onto some unique Finnish historic insight into the reindeer herders and what a political minefield that is.
We then get onto some anime related chatter beginning with some follow-up chatter on Gunbuster, following it being mentioned by Jonathan during his last appearance, and more specifically the theatrical condensed version of it, and then why Jonathan isn't a fan the follow-up, Diebuster.
Then, after it was first mentioned on the our Escaflowne special last week, we get some fascinating insight into who is(n't) Hajime Yatate. We talk about how this pseudonym first came about, why this came about and is still a factor in the anime world today, especially when nowadays credit for work is something very much encouraged in society.
As if that wasn't enough, we also delve into the subject of titles that were far more popular outside of Japan, but also the subject of how a title is perceived or presented both inside and outside Japan; how important is foreign money to a title and how did that notion come about?
A fun and incredibly insightful 75 minutes to end the week!
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