Tag: Japan
August 23, 2020 · 0 comments
Books: Christian Sorcerers on Trial
By Jonathan Clements. It didn’t matter that some of the accused had already died in prison. When they were sentenced in 1829, the survivors were marched through the streets of Osaka, along with the salt-preserved corpses of their fellow believers. Then all, dead or alive, were crucified as devotees of the “pernicious creed” that worshipped […]
August 20, 2020 · 0 comments
Books: How Geniuses Think
By Alex Dudok de Wit. The filmographies of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, the two geniuses of this book’s title, stand as monuments to their creativity. But how do we weigh the achievement of Toshio Suzuki, the third man at the head of Studio Ghibli? Suzuki’s influence on Ghibli is hard to summarise because it […]
August 17, 2020 · 0 comments
Konosuba
By Andrew Osmond. Konosuba, or to give its full name, Konosuba – God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World!, is a thorough piss-take of gaming and fantasy. It takes one newly deceased boy gamer, a dimwit goddess, a couple of loony girl followers, and some profoundly silly monsters. Anime has a heritage of funny fantasy, going […]
August 14, 2020 · 0 comments
Ride Your Wave
By Andrew Osmond. Ride Your Wave by director Masaaki Yuasa is a romantic-supernatural drama about a young couple, their love for each other, the wonder of sea and surf, and the magic properties of water. It’s an unpredictable film, with crazy and heart-breaking story developments, and as such, it reflects Yuasa’s anime over the past […]
August 11, 2020 · 0 comments
Fish Story
by Jeremy Clarke. A comet threatens to destroy life on Earth. Three years earlier a religious cult attempts a ferry hijack. In the 1970s a punk band records and disbands before the Sex Pistols do. Welcome to the bizarre and quirky vision of Yoshihiro Nakamura’s Fish Story (2009). As well as being the screenwriter of […]