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....
Yasuo Otsuka Special Interview – Lupin III Perfect Book (2003)
The following is a translation of an interview with Yasuo Otsuka published in the 2003 Lupin III Perfect Book as a celebration of the show's 30th anniversary. The interview goes over Yasuo Otsuka's involvement in the license, the conditions of the show's production...
In Memoriam – Yasuo Otsuka (1931-2021)
On March 15, 2021, studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki announced the death of Yasuo Otsuka at age 89. With him, it is one of the most important figures in world animation that goes away; it is no overstatement to say that Otsuka was the very embodiment of anime and...