Another Look At Heike Monogatari’s Incredible Final Act
After eleven episodes, the curtain has finally closed on the story of the Heike clan. Although it was a short affair, Heike Monogatari was able to deliver a phenomenal experience from start to finish. However, the final act of the show took it to new heights by...
Production Committees – Understanding the Anime Business Model
Today, as sakuga discourse has become increasingly prevalent within anime fandom, more people have become aware of anime's production process and some of the business behind it, notably the concept of "production committees." Inside and outside Japan, these mysterious...
New Rock and Happy End – Origins of Japanese Rock
Japanese Rock and Pop music has, through the 21st century, become an undoubtedly global phenomenon with genres like J-Pop, J-Rock reaching foreign audiences, and in more recent years, genres like City Pop getting a newfound appreciation with international audiences...
The talents of French Animation
Japanese animation holds a special place in the world scene and among fandoms for its diversity and championing of 2D animation techniques. This is very justified and has only become a stronger tendency now that an increasing number of animation creators outside Japan...
What Sonny Boy Can Teach Us About Living In Times Of Uncertainty
‘It’s been a tough year.’ This is a phrase that we’ve all heard countless times lately. Whether it is through the news, social media or word of mouth, I am often reminded that the world is in the middle of multiple crises and that I’m unwillingly stuck in the...
Belle: Mamoru Hosoda’s Most International Film
Mamoru Hosoda has truly become "the new Miyazaki." By that, I do not mean that he is or has become Hayao Miyazaki's heir or that his work follows up on that of the studio Ghibli director. Rather, I mean that Hosoda has taken Miyazaki's place in Western film discourse:...
Nightmare made film: Phil Tippet’s Mad God
Mad God is a nightmare-made film. Quite literally so, as director Phil Tippett, one of the most renowned animators and special effects artists in American film history, confessed that his long-awaited movie was inspired by a nightmare he repeatedly made as a child. It...
On the Topic of Older Anime
What was the first anime you liked? What was the first one you fell in love with? What was the first anime you watched and realized it was anime? The answer to these questions is important when it comes to answering the question, 'how do we get people to watch...
Hunting Flying Saucers: Contextualising ‘The UFO’ in Anime
Those that follow the Japanese animation scene closely would know that the so-called ‘UFO’ has made a decent number of appearances in the past year and a half. The UFO’s resurgence presents us with an opportunity to draw some connections between it and other...
Keiichi Arawi’s animated works
With his unique sense of humor and round, cute character designs, Keiichi Arawi is an artist whose work always makes you feel good whenever you encounter it. Among animation fans, he’s mostly known for being the original creator of Nichijou, a hit manga that became,...
From lolicon to moe: the adventures of the bishoujo
Japanese otaku fans are often associated with two controversial concepts: lolicon and moe. Outside of otaku circles, both terms are associated with some sort of abnormal attraction for fictional characters. To put it bluntly, they are perceived as two equivalent forms...
MangaTokyo Exhibition Panel – Shigeto Koyama, Yoh Yoshinari & Tsuyoshi Kusano (December 9th 2018)
In December of 2018, the La Villette exhibition center held an exhibition named Manga <-> Tokyo about the representation of Tokyo's city in Manga, anime, and other forms of popular media such as Kaiju movies and Tokusatsu. The exhibition was curated by M....