April 29, 2022 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. After what has been a tough couple of years for the film industry, it’s uplifting to see an indie gem that proves the magic of filmmaking is well and truly alive. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is the brainchild of screenwriter Makoto Ueda and directed by first-time filmmaker Junta Yamaguchi, the film […]

April 26, 2022 · 0 comments

By Helen McCarthy. A book can be a ground-breaking work of scholarship and still accessible to any intelligent reader. Language capable of being understood by the average well-read media fan is also capable of carrying the most challenging ideas. So, I’m always delighted to read new work that takes its subject and its readers more […]

April 23, 2022 · 0 comments

By Shelley Pallis. And then he died. In his sleep, because of a particularly powerful sneeze. Ryoma Takebayashi wakes up at tea party in heaven with several gods, and accepts his fate with customary light-novel equanimity. A downtrodden salaryman in a dead-end job, he had seen many of his co-workers die from overwork and a […]

April 20, 2022 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements. It’s hard indeed to compete with the sort of granular detail and insight of Shirobako, but Animeta does a fine job from the very first pages, in which cynical staff at an anime company bicker over the poor quality of new hirelings. Facing a bunch of talentless drudges, the go-getting director Kujo […]

April 17, 2022 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements. In 1939, Japanese embassy personnel in London were ordered to destroy stacks of compromising documents, and made the mistake of hiring a local company called Tottenham Dust Destroyers. Explicitly told to burn crates full of books and papers and not to tell the police, the Dust Destroyers immediately did so, alerting MI5 […]

April 14, 2022 · 0 comments

By Helen McCarthy. Japan: Courts and Culture was originally scheduled to open in 2020. Like so many of that year’s best-laid plans, it had to be shelved. But the wait has been worth it. The exhibition is a refined, elegant and entrancing look at a centuries-long relationship between two island empires separated by “ten thousand […]