“How many of them will come back?” a man on the shore ominously asks as he watches the young people of his island ship out to pursue their education in the comparatively better equipped capital. Ru…
7 days ago • Subscribe
More like this
Kai Ikarashi 【五十嵐海】Works Sakuga MAD
This showcase includes anything Kai Ikarashi has animated, as well as anything that falls within the 4 episodes for which he had the most creative control. As storyboard…
The Approach of Autumn (秋立ちぬ, Mikio Naruse, 1960)
A small boy finds himself trapped between the new society and the old in Mikio Naruse’s often deceptively cheerful childhood drama.
The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor (十階のモスキート, Yoichi Sai, 1983)
A beaten-down beat cop’s existential crisis progressively deepens after he throws himself into financial ruin to buy a computer in Yoichi Sai’s debut feature.
365 Nights (三百六十五夜, Kon Ichikawa, 1948)
A noble architect’s life is ruined by an obsessive stalker in Kon Ichikawa’s stylish though improbably post-war melodrama.
Review: "The Wind Rises" (風立ちぬ) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of “Ghibli” film studios, is the undisputed king of Japanese animation. As the medium increasingly becomes domi...
Nosari: Impermanent Eternity (のさりの島, Tatsuya Yamamoto, 2020)
An ore ore scammer’s cynical worldview is challenged when he finds temporary harbour with an elderly woman in Yamamoto’s touching indie drama
Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 4 ( くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
The problem with writing alternate history is that you have to figure out where things go, as china has discovered in Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki series. To understand…
Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 2 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
While we are all waiting for the Seven Seas release of I Fell In Love With the Villainess, (of which I had read the first few chapters in…
Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 3 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
In Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 3 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月), Satsuki comes face to face with a political group that wants, not just foreigners’ expulsion from Japan…but their deaths…
Nagi’s Island (凪の島, Masahiko Nagasawa, 2022)
A young girl begins to put the past behind her while comforted by an idyllic island community in Masahiko Nagasawa’s gentle human drama.
Spring 2013: The Shows that Matter
Valvrave Valvrave has garnered lots of attention. I probably don’t need to describe it. I take it as further confirmation of my belief that the CE Gundam opening…
Yoko (658km、陽子の旅, Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, 2023)
An isolated woman begins to rediscover herself while hitchhiking to her estranged father’s funeral in Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s quietly moving road movie.
52ヘルツのクジラたち
52ヘルツのクジラたち is a bestselling novel by Sonoko Machida that won the 2021 Japan Booksellers’ Award Grand Prize. In March 2024, the story was adapted into a feature film…
川のほとりに立つ者は
A young woman named Kiyose was recently promoted to the position of manager at an independent café. She devotes her love and attention to the business, but all…
Yuri Light Novel: Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 1 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)
In late Edo Japan, she was cool, That successful businesswoman Vlad Dracul. With Satuski her guard Who was handy with a sword. My complaints with this book are…
Crossroad (死の十字路, Umetsugu Inoue, 1956)
An adulterous industrialist’s life unravels after he accidentally kills his wife and tries to cover up the crime in Umetsugu Inoue’s gothic noir.
The Mole Song: Final (土竜の唄 FINAL, Takashi Miike, 2021)
Undercover cop Reiji finds himself increasingly conflicted in his mission to take down Todoroki in the final instalment of the comedic trilogy.
Youth (Spring) (青春, Wang Bing, 2023)
Wang Bing turns his camera on the mostly young workers in the textile factories of Zhili.
Early Spring (早春, Yasujiro Ozu, 1956)
A dejected office worker and his disappointed wife battle the emptiness of the “salaryman dream” in Ozu’s embittered marital drama
The Deer King (鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅, Masashi Ando & Masayuki Miyaji, 2021)
A lone survivor comes to represent both salvation and destruction in Ando & Miyaji’s fantasy adventure.
Leaving the 'Monastery'
More memories from British animation veteran Tony White.
ODDTAXI – The Importance of Leaving on a Bang
ODDTAXI certainly lives up to its name. It's an unusual anime with strong Western influences in the narrative.
Spring Anime 2013 [Belated Final Impressions]
Here are my belated final impressions on the series that ended this past Spring 2013. In no particular order: [Hataraku Maou-sama!, Kakumeik...
Cely_belly nonsense | Anime blog
Chihayafuru 2, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!, Nyaruko-san: Another Crawling Chaos W, Oreimo 2
A bit on Yoshida From Watamote
Introduction The short 12 episode anime Watamote sadly never introduced some great characters that show up later in the manga. One of them is Yoshida Masaki. Yoshida…
Samurai Kids (水の旅人-侍KIDS-, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1993)
A small boy grows closer to the natural world while guiding a tiny samurai on his journey to the sea in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s charming family adventure.
Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) March ED (3月の歌) - Little By Little, Spring Arrived (ちょびっとちょびっと春がきた)
Sung by (歌): Kumiko Ōsugi (大杉久美子) Lyrics (作詞): Hachirō Satō (サトウハチロー) Composition (作曲): Masaharu Kikuchi (菊地雅春) Arrangement (編曲): Akihiro Komori (小森昭宏) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this…
The Anime You Should Have Watched in Spring 2013
Travel back ten years and revisit some fan favorite anime and hidden gems.
Spring 2013 Anime so Far : Bundle #2
Continuing from last time, I am going to write my opinions on currently airing anime. I will put priority on those I recently watched, because I have pretty…
Spring 2013 Anime so Far : Bundle #1
Ahhh. Spring 2013. Not a bad season, honestly. Unlike last time, there are a lot of anime that I find watchable. By watchable, I mean that I will…
Six Singing Women (唄う六人の女, Yoshimasa Ishibashi, 2023)
A man finds himself trapped in a strange place after travelling to the mountains in the wake of his estranged father’s death in Yoshimasa Ishibashi’s surreal dra
A Son (二十歳の息子, Ryuichi Shimada, 2022)
Documentarian Ryuichi Shimada follows a social worker who decides to adopt a 20-year-old man recently released from juvenile detention.
Children of the Beehive: What Happened Next (その後の蜂の巣の子供たち, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1951)
In an interesting piece of meta docufiction, Hiroshi Shimizu revisits the Beehive a few years later to find out how the orphans live now.
The Workhorse and the Bigmouth ばしゃ馬さんとビッグマウス (2013) Director: Keisuke Yoshida
“The Workhorse and the Bigmouth” is one of Keisuke Yoshida’s most palatable drama/comedies as it follows two characters trying to make it in the movies and offers a…
Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction (騙し絵の牙, Daihachi Yoshida, 2020)
A maverick magazine editor attempts to ride the waves of the Japanese publishing industry while in the middle of a succession crisis in Yoshida’s literary farce
The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭 Kotonoha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese...
The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭 Kotonoha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese anime film produced by CoMix Wave Films and directed by Makoto Shinkai. Garden of Words [Blu-ray]
The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭 Kotonoha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese...
The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭 Kotonoha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese anime film produced by CoMix Wave Films and directed by Makoto Shinkai. Garden of Words [Blu-ray]
The Island Closest to Heaven (天国にいちばん近い島, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1984)
A young woman comes to a new understanding of herself while travelling abroad in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s laidback kadokawa idol movie.
Yasuhiro Yoshiura and Yutaka Izubuchi On Rebooting the Essence of Patlabor
(Originally written for Anime-now! in 2016) Sequels, reboots, remakes and side stories are everywhere today. But many times, the key to success—and
The Nineteen-Year-Old’s Map (十九歳の地図, Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1979)
An alienated young man maps out moral failure and eases his sense of futility through empty threats of violence in Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s dark youth drama.
Series and Chapters Leaving Azuki on May 1
Due to content licensing restrictions from Kodansha, the following chapters will be leaving Azuki on May 1. This is part of Kodansha’s policy of removing simulpub chapters from…
Firing The Lighter Gun (ピストルライター の撃ち方, Kohei Sanada, 2022)
Residents of a moribund town on the edge of a nuclear exclusion zone find themselves trapped in existential purgatory in Kohei Sanada’s bleak indie drama.
Thoughts on the Kalafina 15th anniversary, The Music and band longevity
On January 23rd 2023, Kalafina’s debut single, Oblivious, turned fifteen years old. It was also five years since their tenth anniversary concert at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan arena, which…
Judai no seiten / 十代の性典 (‘Teenage Sex Book’, 1953)
Obscure Japanese Film #114 Ayako Wakao When high school student Fusae (Yoko Minamida) is excused from PE one day due to having her perio...
Girls in the Orchard / 花の中の娘たち / Hana no naka no musumetachi (1953)
Obscure Japanese Film #109 Mariko Okada Toho’s first feature film in full colour concerns the Ishii family, who live in the rural area of ...
Beast Alley (けものみち, Eizo Sugawa, 1965)
A hotel maid is dragged into conspiracy after murdering her bedridden husband in Eizo Sugawa’s incredibly dark post-war noir.
Takano Tofu (高野豆腐店の春, Mitsuhiro Mihara, 2023)
A sudden brush with mortality convinces an ageing tofu maker to marry off his middle-aged daughter in Mitsuhiro Mihara’s charming dramedy.
Along the Sea (海辺の彼女たち, Akio Fujimoto, 2020)
A migrant worker from Vietnam is faced with her lack of possibility after discovering she is pregnant while living undocumented in Fujimoto’s unflinching social drama
Interview: Reiko Yoshida
By Jonathan Clements. “I have loved novels, films and animation since I was a child,” says scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, “and I was hugely interested in the world of…
My Atomic Aunt (波の向こう, Kyoko Miyake, 2013)
Documentarian Kyoko Miyake explores the plight of those left in limbo after the Fukushima nuclear disaster through the story of her pioneering aunt Kuniko
The Quintessential Quintuplets – 15 – Leaving the Nest
Nino insists Fuutarou take a shower to thoroughly wash off the river, but mostly wanted someone to talk to and break the monotony of her solitary hotel life…plus…