Japan 454
Books: The Early Miyazaki
By Andrew Osmond. It’s been only months since the publication of Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli’s Monster Princess, an anthology of papers about Miyazaki’s fantasy blockbuster (reviewed here). Today Bloomsbury releases another Miyazaki book, Hayao Miyazaki: Exploring the Early Work of Japan’s Greatest Animator. This one’s by a solo writer, Raz Greenberg, who’s written on […]
Go to Hell Bastards!
by Jeremy Clarke. A private eye gets caught in the middle of a Tokyo gang war, when two gun-running yakuza clans are ripped off by a third. Made by cult director Seijun Suzuki at Nikkatsu in 1963, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards! was also his first to feature Jo Shishido in a leading […]
Your Name: Another Side
By Andrew Osmond. First, this translated spin-off book is not a sequel to Makoto Shinkai’s blockbuster Your Name. Rather it’s an “alternative” retelling of parts of the story, complementing the straight novelisation, which we’ve reviewed elsewhere. Another Side: Earthbound presumes you’ve seen the film, as it leaves out large parts of its plot. The book’s […]
Angelic Layer
By Hugh David. In the near future, the biggest sporting phenomenon in Japan and a hit on Japanese TV is the fighting ‘electronic doll’ game Angelic Layer. The ‘Angels’ are remote-controlled android dolls, while the ‘Layer’ is the combat arena. Twelve-year-old Misaki Suzuhara moves to stay with her aunt in Tokyo, but stumbles across a […]
Books: Gaijin at Ghibli
By Motoko Tamamuro. There are plenty of books written about Studio Ghibli, although it is difficult to tell how well they sell. Hayao Miyazaki’s collected writings seem to do well enough for Viz Media, but producer Toshio Suzuki’s memoirs only limped out from a small, expensive academic press. Perhaps these diminishing returns explain why Stephen […]