-
Belladonna of Sadness
(Neo, Uncooked Media) 1973 and Mushi Production, the studio that propelled postwar anime with Astro Boy, is bankrupt, collapsing and dying. Its founder Osamu Tezuka has jumped ship. Just before the end, the studio releases a movie… Bella… -
Ajin: Demi-Human
(Neo, Uncooked Media) Ajin is Tokyo Ghoul meets 24. That’s not a subtle analysis, but then this horror-action-thriller isn’t in it for the subtlety. It’s about grabbing the viewer early and propelling you through chases, story rug-pulls,… -
Sound! Euphonium (S1)
(Neo Magazine, Uncooked Media) Kumiko, a euphonium (brass instrument) player, wants a fresh start at her new high school. With a couple of classmates, she joins the school’s apparently hopeless orchestra. But both Kumiko and the orchestr…
-
Interstellar
(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing) You wait years for a serious-minded space blockbuster, then two arrive almost at once. Following Gravity, a tight adventure… -
Attack The Block
(Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion) The cannily populist Attack the Block, by new director Joe Cornish, is about an interstellar first contact with the most fe… -
Retrospective: The Company of Wolves
(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing) The sign on the soundstage door warns, “Wolves on set.” Within, the fairy-tale forest is darkened. This is a night scene, i…
-
A Christmas Carol (2009)
(Sight & Sound, BFI) It’s common wisdom among animators that humans are the hardest species to simulate realistically, because we know the true articles … -
Disenchantment
My review of the first ten-part season of Matt Groening’s Netflix series Disenchantment is on the AlltheAnime website. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp_RnJ… -
Rise of the Guardians
(Sight & Sound, BFI) Jack Frost is an ageless boy who delights in freezing the world at winter, but is frustrated that no ordinary people can see him. He…
-
My Neighbor Andrew Turned Out to Be the Real Totoro—A Trek Through the Sayama Woods
You have been doing a lot of research recently about Hayao Miyazaki’s film ‘My Neighbor Totoro.’ That’s right. Are you interested in where Director Miyazaki … -
I Boarded the Galaxy Express with a British Friend and Ended Up Debating the Soul of Leiji Matsumoto world.
We’ve been to the Leiji Matsumoto 50th anniversary exhibition in Roppongi, which Andrew wrote up as a report for Animation World Network, illustrated by Carl… -
From Heidi to Kaguya: Our Visit to the Takahata Exhibit
We recently went to the Isao Takahata Exhibition in Tokyo to report on it for Animation World Network (our report is here). As fans of Takahata’s work, we ha…