Andrew Osmond 22
Kiznaiver
By Andrew Osmond. In the same way that Your Name will have viewers delving into the earlier films of Makoto Shinkai, and A Silent Voice draws attention to the work of Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation, so the release of Maquia will increase interest in the two-decade career of writer-director Mari Okada. We’ve posted an […]
Attack on Titan: Garrison Girl
By Andrew Osmond. Nine years after Attack on Titan began, it’s become a paradigm of franchise management. As of writing, the original story by Hajime Isayama continues as a manga and anime, with fans speculating “How will it end?” as eagerly as Harry Potter or Breaking Bad fans did in their time. But Titan has […]
Flavors of Youth
By Andrew Osmond. In 2016, Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name became the highest-grossing Japanese film ever released in China. That may explain the existence of the Japan-animated, Chinese-set Flavors of Youth (as the film is called on pretty much every Anglophone source online, so Brit readers will just have to put up with the American spelling). […]
Interview: Shouji Gatou
By Andrew Osmond. Hands up if Full Metal Panic! was among the first anime you saw. The first 24-part FMP series, introducing the tempestuously strong-willed schoolgirl Kaname and her schoolboy/soldier guardian Sosuke, was made back in 2002. It was followed a year later by the far lighter-hearted Fumoffu, while the action-orientated The Second Raid came […]
Relatives for Rent
By Andrew Osmond. This April, an eye-poppingly extraordinary article about Japan appeared, not in a specialist otaku magazine, but in that august English-language journal, The New Yorker. Its opening line looks like it should start a science-fiction story, like Orwell’s clocks striking thirteen or Ballard’s protagonist eating dog in High Rise. The article, written by […]