another anime movie review

By Andrew Osmond. Unlike 2022, which saw big upheavals in anime streaming, things have been relatively stable for the last year. Crunchyroll remains the most prominent anime platform for British viewers, with other new titles available from Netflix, Disney+, HIDIVE, Amazon Prime and ITVX. So let’s get to it… CRUNCHYROLL As usual, Crunchyroll is streaming […] http://dlvr.it/T0q1cH

By Shelley Pallis. Ran is a “Child of Impurity”, a warrior with the power to exorcise monsters, but only by taking on their curses himself. As a result, he is a toxic figure, shunned by the villagers he defends, doomed to a short life-span when the accumulated poisons eventually overwhelm him. And he has acquired […] http://dlvr.it/T0gdys

By Helen McCarthy. None of us believed that the ostentatiously non-marketed event known as “the last Hayao Miyazaki film” was actually the last Hayao Miyazaki film, and we were right. On the red carpet before the international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Studio Ghibli Vice-President Junichi Nishioka told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that […] http://dlvr.it/T0Z5cj

By Zoe Crombie. A gorgeously illustrated guide to stories, characters, and cultures of the films of the beloved studio, An Unofficial Guide to the World of Studio Ghibli isn’t just a book with a mouthful of a name. It’s a wonderfully crafted ode to Ghibli, designed with their youngest viewers in mind, providing not just […] http://dlvr.it/T0McjH

Jonathan Clements on some of the battles behind The Wings of Honneamise. Nobody knows who it was who walked into a Tokyo coffee shop, one summer day in 1984, and ordered a mix of Assam and Darjeeling, known in Japan as a Royal Milk Tea. But there was a cluster of earnest young men at […] http://dlvr.it/T0F3hH

By Zoe Crombie. Kaiji Ito has fallen so far on hard times that he is reduced to stealing the logos off cars and slashing tyres. Japan is in the middle of a recession, and there are no opportunities for a new arrival in Tokyo… until he is made an offer he can’t refuse, about a […] http://dlvr.it/T06VKW

By Hugh David. Tatsumi is a self-acknowledged country bumpkin who is nonetheless a well-trained fighter. He and two companions leave their remote village to head to the Imperial City to find a way to relieve their friends and family from ruinous taxation imposed by the authorities. Yet the Imperial City is filled with unimaginable amounts […] http://dlvr.it/SzytTB

By Andrew Osmond. Kids on the Slope was the first collaboration between director Shinichiro Watanabe and composer Yoko Kanno following the iconic Cowboy Bebop. The new anime proved to be an enormously entertaining teen love-triangle drama, with a great central trio and some of the best music set-pieces ever created in anime. It’s the 1960s, […] http://dlvr.it/SzvQGC

By Andrew Osmond. Anime is often compared to live-action cinema. If so, Flowers of Evil is the cultish indy film, whose moody images sing with the torments of alienated schoolkids. It has dollops of black comedy, moments of painful lyricism, and a real human sympathy under the cruelty. Few other anime feel so likea live-action […] http://dlvr.it/SzpYGl

By Andrew Osmond. Shirobako is an animated series about making animation. You might think it’s something only Japan could do, as anime can go so boldly into real life. Could you imagine someone going to a Hollywood studio like Disney or Pixar and pitching an animation about animators? Actually, though, Shiraboko has precedents in some […] http://dlvr.it/SzlrdG

By Hugh David. Soma Yukihira’s old man runs a small family restaurant in the less savoury end of town. Aiming to one day surpass his father’s culinary prowess, Soma hones his skills until, out of the blue, his father decides to enrol him in a classy culinary school! Can Soma really cut it in a […] http://dlvr.it/SzfvNn