Andrew Osmond 53
Books: Princess Mononoke
By Andrew Osmond. Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli’s Monster Princess is published by the Bloomsbury Academic imprint, with the kind of academic price-tag this blog has often complained about. But most of the anthology’s authors are doctoral candidates or university lecturers, and the book’s main readership will surely be university students who can access the […]
Princess Arete
By Andrew Osmond. The film Princess Arete is the tale of a little girl growing up in a castle, refusing to resign herself to being married to a hunky Prince Charming. Then a sorcerer, frightened by a prophecy about the girl, effectively buys her from her father and imprisons her in his remote castle… but […]
When the Wind Blows
By Andrew Osmond. “They say it’s the correct thing to wear white. People in Hiroshima with patterned clothes got burned where the patterns was and not so much on the white bits. Even the buttons showed up.” “Yes, but they were Japanese.” In the late 1980s, two unusual animated films were released aimed at adults; […]
Books: Ghost in the Shell
By Jasper Sharp. The Paramount live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell (1995) arrived with much fanfare and more than a little controversy earlier this year. Andrew Osmond’s pocket-guide companion to the anime original was initially intended to arrive in time to capitalise on its success, although for various reasons, the publication was held up […]
Ajin: Demi-Human
By Andrew Osmond. Based on a red-hot manga by Gamon Sakurai, Ajin is part of the resurgence of horror anime which began with the world-beating Attack on Titan. The protagonist is Kei Nagi, a withdrawn Japanese schoolboy. He lives in a present-day Japan, but with a tweaked history; seventeen years ago, a number of ‘Ajin’ […]