August 7, 2021 · 0 comments

By Shelley Pallis. And then she woke up, and she’d been transported to the world of her favourite real-time strategy engine. These light novels don’t hang about, do they? The woman known only as BugSis confesses in a prologue that in her favourite computer game (coyly unmentioned), she always used to love playing the arachnid […]

August 4, 2021 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. The treasure trove of Ghibli vinyl soundtracks released by Anime Limited represents the composer-director relationship in anime. Joe Hisaishi has written music for Hayao Miyazaki for nearly forty years. Whenever you watch Spirited Away, or Princess Mononoke, or Totoro, or Ponyo, you’re listening to Hisaishi’s evocations of Miyazaki’s vision. Aug 4, 2021Jonathan […]

July 29, 2021 · 0 comments

By Shelley Pallis. The trouble with Rentt Faina is that he isn’t very good at his job. He’s spent ten years wandering the ruins of a haunted dungeon, where, for reasons that defy logical explanation, a menagerie of different creatures lurk in various rooms, guarding treasure. But he’s a pretty mediocre adventurer, ever-ready to cut […]

July 26, 2021 · 5 comments

At the start of this month, we teased you with the prospect of a summer sale, but now we think you’ve waited long enough and it’s time for us to lift the lid on our plans. Whether you’ve been out enjoying the recent weather or hunkering down to avoid it as best you can, there’s […]

July 26, 2021 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements. “My stay here has been so short,” said Rabindranath Tagore to Japanese students in 1916, “that one may think I have not earned my right to speak to you about anything concerning your country.” Pallavi Aiyar chooses to quote him in the final chapter of her Orienting: An Indian in Japan, a […]

July 23, 2021 · 1 comment

By Helen McCarthy. The mascot characters of the Tokyo Olympics are Miraitowa and Someity, selected from over 2000 entries in an open competition over four years ago, and spattered over every conceivable surface, screen and item of merchandise. They even had an animated appearance, showing up in two online shorts, participating in every planned Olympic […]