Tag: Japan

June 26, 2023 · 0 comments

By Shelley Pallis. Suzushiro might seem a little bit old to be doing a paper round, but he’s a college student on a “newspaper scholarship” who needs the money. Well, everybody needs the money – Japan is on the skids after an “unprecedented disaster”, that might be covid-19, or might be whatever the next jackpot […]

June 22, 2023 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. What is nationality? That is the question at the heart of Go (2001), Isao Yukisada’s award-winning film adapted from Kazuki Kaneshiro’s 2000 novel of the same name. The movie explores the endlessly complex subject of nationality and ethnic belonging, via a coming-of-age story sprinkled with romance. A critical and box office success […]

June 19, 2023 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. In the film The Tunnel to Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes (which has just won a prize at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival), a modern Japanese boy and girl are caught up in a new version of one of Japan’s oldest stories. It’s a kind of time travel story; it also […]

June 16, 2023 · 1 comment

By Jonathan Clements. “I have loved novels, films and animation since I was a child,” says scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, “and I was hugely interested in the world of stories. But it was not until I graduated from university when I thought I would make a career out of it.” However, she wasted no time after […]

June 13, 2023 · 0 comments

By Andew Osmond. Anime’s first ever star was an A.I. character, Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. While the series stressed the boy bot’s Kryptonian-level powers – 100,000 horsepower, in Tezuka’s phrase – the anime also made clear his mind, his personality, compassion and principles are entirely artificial. Like most A.I. characters in anime, Astro Boy is […]