Reviews– category –

(Neo, Uncooked Media) Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions is an excellent teen comedy-drama – a label that fits a show that’s broad comedy for the first half and urgent drama for the second. It’s by the studio (Kyoto Animation) and director...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) Thanks to his friend, Ryo, the sensitive, weepy Akira is merged with a demon in a blood-drenched orgy. Now he transforms into the berserk hero Devilman, created to save humanity. Or was he? Now on Netflix, Devilman ...

I reviewed both halves of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime series for (Neo, Uncooked Media). My review of the first half is on the Neo website, while my review of the second half is below. In Neo 143, we heaped praise on the first h...

(Neo Magazine, Uncooked Media) French director Jean-Luc Goddard declared, “All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun.” In the 1980s a gang of Japanese geeks declared, All you need for an anime is a girl and a mecha... Okay, make that ...

(Neo, Uncooked Media - There are also further observations on the film in an article I wrote for the AllTheAnime blog.) Ever since she made a terrible mistake in her childhood, schoolgirl Jun has been afraid of speaking. But then she’s p...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) 2196: the Earth is under attack from the mysterious “Jovian Lizards”. A new ship is launched against the enemy, the Nadesico, with the most eccentric crew imaginable. But they’ll learn that everything they think abo...

I wrote an article comparing the anime and manga versions of A Silent Voice for the AllTheAnime blog, while the following review was published in the BFI's Sight & Sound. Even more than last year’s blockbuster Your Name, the Japan-an...

(Sight & Sound Magazine, BFI) In recent years, the Japanese animated films which have reached British cinemas have tended to be Studio Ghibli products or films like them, such as The Wolf Children (2013) and Giovanni’s Island (2014)....

(Neo, Uncooked Media - I also made further observations in an article on the film on the AllTheAnime website) Have you seen the series The Tatami Galaxy? If you have, then this film is Tatami Galaxy: The Movie, from the same maverick dir...

I wrote an article for the AllTheAnime blog reflecting on Perfect Blue as a horror film, while my Neo, Uncooked Media review of the 2013 Blu-ray release follows. Following Cowboy Bebop, the fledgling label Anime Limited’s new release is ...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) You may have heard of Shimoneta’s reputation as a smutfest, and we’re here to tell you that… the reputation is deserved. The title means “dirty joke” and the show tries furiously to find enough jokes about sex, sex ...

(SFX Magazine, Future Publishing - there are also further reflections on the series in an article I wrote for the MangaUK blog.) Oh, you’re awake. Lie there on the ground for a moment, and listen to me. Welcome to the Afterlife Battlefro...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) (Volume 1 review) Heavy Object rings several changes on the usual mecha show. One of the most obvious is that the fighting machines aren’t giant Gundam humanoids, but come in a variety of shapes. There are giant met...

(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,...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) Grimgar does something unusual and impressive. It tells a fantasy adventure story that’s a small story of everyday, mundane, universal life and death. It’s about kids in a world of magic and monsters, one of the mos...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) How far is too far? It’s a question asked by the 2004 series Koi Kaze, but it equally apples to the series. Anime has pushed against acceptability for decades, often by linking sex and violence in shocking ways. Koi...

(Neo, Uncooked Media) This is the Tenchi that British fans are likeliest to have seen already, the 13-part video series from the early 1990s that looks better than most TV fare today. It began a sprawling franchise but remains highly acc...

(Neo Magazine, Uncooked Media) Previously, we expressed amazement that Belladonna of Sadness, a 1970s erotic “art” animation, could get a British home release. Momotaro, Sacred Sailors is even further out there. It’s a black-and-white ki...

(Neo Magazine, Uncooked Media - I also wrote an article about the production of the film for the AllTheAnime blog and another article that's reproduced below the review.) Picture a world different from ours in intricate, tiny details, ye...

(Sight & Sound, BFI) It’s sadly appropriate that a boy robot reject from a high-tech future world is the hero of a CGI cartoon that’s already flopped in America and Japan, the two countries he might call home. Astro Boy (Mighty Atom ...

My review of the first two Psycho-Pass: Sinners of the System films is on the AlltheAnime website.

(Neo, Uncooked Media - I also have an article on the live-action Netflix version on the AlltheAnime site.) (Volume 1) If Stephen King scripted an anime, it might look like Erased, which Anime Limited is releasing in two six-part volumes....

My review of Mamoru Hosoda's film Mirai for Sight & Sound is available on the BFI website. [amazon_link asins='B07LD4P4BN,B07K8ZSKVT' template='ProductGrid' store='anime04c-21' marketplace='UK' link_id='bb3bb72c-4dd0-4ac8-97f0-260016...

My review of the film for Neo magazine (Uncooked Media) is below. I also wrote several online pieces related to the film; the links are at the bottom of the review.   In Japan, Your Name is the success story of the year. Makoto Shin...