50 years on from its initial release, the half-forgotten short feature Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!! – directed by industry stalwart Takeshi Tamiya – might be showing its age. At the same time it has become an unexpected joy. While its … Continue reading REVIEW: Maken Liner 0011 Henshin Seyo!! (1972)
Masaaki Yuasa has spent the last five years aggressively building a reputation as one of Japan’s most inventive and entertaining anime filmmakers. While he earned a healthy cult following with his 2004 feature debut Mindgame, it is through recent hits … Continue reading SFF REVIEW: Inu-Oh (2021)
A new anime feature provides some excellent design work and colour, but is saddled with an overly familiar story and an extended climax which both consign it to the pile of disposable entertainment. It is enjoyable enough to watch, but … Continue reading REVIEW: Bubble (2022)
When The Matrix became a global box office smash, and Warner Bros approached the Wachowskis about writing and directing a sequel, they didn’t just make the one film. Instead they engaged in perhaps the most ridiculously ambitious plan for a sequel ever. … Continue reading REVIEW: The Animatrix (2003)
Time to briefly descend into one of the most fiendishly complicated – and commercially successful – anime franchises in history. Mobile Suit Gundam was a television series that premiered in Japan in 1979, and while it was initially perceived as a failure … Continue reading REVIEW: Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991)
While it lags behind its contemporaries in visual quality, Masayuki Miyaji’s anime feature comes packed with enough character, story, and Japanese mythology to form an entertaining experience. It has taken a decade for it to fully hit English-speaking audiences; thanks … Continue reading REVIEW: Fusé: Memoirs of the Hunter Girl (2012)
There have been attempts to adapt videogames into feature films going on for decades now. Hollywood in particular is an industry on a constant look-out for intellectual property with strong ready-made brands, and popular games would seem as viable a … Continue reading REVIEW: Animal Crossing: The Movie (2006)
In recent decades Japan has seemed the last bastion of traditional animation, continuing to release hand-drawn anime features while the USA and other countries have transitioned almost entirely to computer-generated images. Even that is now shifting, however, with a growing … Continue reading REVIEW: Poupelle of Chimney Town (2020)
Kokone (Mitsuki Takahata) is a teenager living two lives. When she is awake, she is a Japanese schoolgirl on the run after her father was arrested and a mysterious tablet computer was shoved into her hands. When she sleeps she … Continue reading REVIEW: Napping Princess (2017)
There is something to be said for the anime feature. Not only is the animation generally more detailed an expressive than the bulk of serialised anime, it also seems better tailored for the time-poor fans of the genre. There is … Continue reading REVIEW: Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (2020)
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