For some reason, anime director Masaaki Yuasa never gets quite the level of international acclaim as those for his contemporaries. Certainly it’s not for a lack of work. His debut feature Mindgame (2004) was a worthy cult hit, and subsequent works … Continue reading REVIEW: Ride Your Wave (2019)
Since the mid-1980s Studio Ghibli has been the world’s premier production house for animated films. Led by directors Hayao Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata, Ghibli has produced more than 20 features in an unparalleled run of creative successes. They … Continue reading REVIEW: Earwig and the Witch (2020)
Or, to give its full translated title: Kazuo Oga: Ghibli’s Image Artisan: The Art Who Made Totoro’s Forest. This is a 75-minute documentary focused on Kazuo Oga, who has worked since the mid-1980s as an art director and background painter for … Continue reading REVIEW: Kazuo Oga: Ghibli’s Image Artisan (2007)
Penguin Highway, a 2018 animated feature based on the Tomihiko Morimi novel, represents the best and worst of anime. On the one hand it boasts a richly developed and wonderfully imaginative story that boasts both clever ideas and a warm, … Continue reading REVIEW: Penguin Highway (2018)
A particular kind of anime fan will likely have a ball with Blame!, a 2017 feature film based on a Tsutomi Nihei manga. Produced with fluid and impressively detailed computer-generated animation, it offers a serious science fiction story backed up with … Continue reading REVIEW: Blame! (2017)
This is one of the more unusual feature film projects that I have seen. In the mid-1980s the independent movie studio New World Pictures, run by the legendary low budget film producer Roger Corman, acquired the American rights to the … Continue reading REVIEW: In the Aftermath (1988)
Kai lives a sullen life in the coastal Hinashi Town with his umbrella-making grandfather and recently divorced father. Kai plays in a teen band with his friends Kunio and Yuho, though he is thinking of quitting. When a trip to … Continue reading REVIEW: Lu Over the Wall (2017)
A group of four animals – a puppy, a pheasant, a monkey, and a bear – leave their families to help with the Japanese war effort. After basic training, they are dispatched as paratoopers to invade Suwawesi and wrest control … Continue reading REVIEW: Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (1945)
An Enoshima high school is visited by a new exchange student with unearthly psychic powers, who seems to be taking over and controlling the student body one by one. At the same time a short chain of unrequited love affects … Continue reading REVIEW: Psychic School Wars (2012)
In medieval France, a young couple approach the local lord to request permission to marry. Rather than receive permission, the bride-to-be – Jeanne – is violently raped by members of the court. Abandoning her broken fiancee, Jeanne makes a pact … Continue reading REVIEW: Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
