Akira Toriyama (1955-2024)
The manga creator Akira Toriyama, who died on 1st March, was cited by the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump as being the prime catalyst in driving the magazine to its six-million circulation in the 1980s. The antic humour of his Doctor Slump (1980-84) and the sprawling, brawling sci-fi saga Dragon Ball (original series 1984-95) made […]
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it
By Amelia Cook. Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It is a comedy about two intense postgraduate students who develop feelings for each other in their research lab. Before the first set of opening credits, elegant and confident Himuro states her feelings for her aloof intellectual rival, Yukimura. He is stunned, and […]
Somali and the Forest Spirit
By Andrew Osmond. Somali and the Forest Spirit is mostly soft and enchanting, the story of a little girl’s journey through a wondrous world, under the protection of her indefatigable non-human dad. And yet bits of the series are really tough. Anime often plays merry hell with Western expectations of animation and children’s media. The […]
Books: Anime’s Knowledge Cultures
By Jonathan Clements. The subtitle of Jinying Li’s new book, “Geek, Otaku, Zhai” alludes to the rise of fandom and fans as movers and shakers in modern media and culture, tracking the Rise of the Nerds from a period, say, when only “losers” read comics in the eyes of the mainstream, to an age where […]
The Rise and Rise of Mari Okada
By Zoe Crombie. As far as creators of anime go, Mari Okada has experienced one of the strangest rises to power from her humble origins to her current position as one of the most well-known writers and directors of the mode. There are only a handful of prominent female directors in anime, with Okada and […]
Blue Thermal
By Jonathan Clements. Tamaki Tsuru ignores her mother’s complaints and applies to Aonagi University in That Fancy Tokyo, where she intends to make friends, fall in love and maybe do some studying eventually. Much more important is the selection of the right school club, because that will be the talent pool that supplies her future […]
A Place Further Than the Universe
By Zoe Crombie. Kimari is a high school student teetering on the edge of experience, wanting to live while she’s young but needing the right push to do so. That extra encouragement comes in the form of Shirase, a fellow student whose belief that her mother, a missing Antarctic explorer, is still waiting her in […]
Manga: Kafka
By Tom Wilmot. As part of its latest wave of Japanese releases, Pushkin Press has taken the plunge into the world of manga, starting with Nishioka Kyodai’s Kafka. First published in Japan in 2010, the manga adapts several short stories from Bohemian-born author Franz Kafka, who’s widely regarded as one of the most important literary […]
Granbelm
By Zoe Crombie. Have you ever wondered what an anime series that combines the cute slice-of-life antics of magical girls with the spectacular action of giant mechs would look like? If so, then wonder no longer – Granbelm is the series for you, combining these evergreen anime subgenres with a surprising degree of success. Centred […]
Hula Fulla Dance
By Jonathan Clements. Unsure of what direction to take in life, high-school graduate Hiwa Natsunagi (Haruka Fukuhara) decides to become a professional hula dancer, like her late sister Mari. But she soon begins to wonder if hula dancing is the thing for her, when she proves to be the clumsiest, least hula-competent girl in her […]