A perpetual outsider seeks direction but discovers only nihilistic despair in Sogo Ishii’s apocalyptic biker movie
Feb 18, 2022 • Subscribe
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Crazy Thunder Road (1980) review
“A nihilistic and wild exploration of the self-destructive nature of a relentless search for a dose of pleasure.”
Crazy Thunder Road (1980) [Film Review]
Crazy Thunder Road; or, Falling Down I founded the Maboroshi group eight years ago. Now I'm one of its seniors. You should know I'm on ...
Crazy Thunder Road
by Jeremy Clarke. Following on from Arrow’s superb BD of Sogo Ishii’s Burst City (1982) comes Third Window’s equally impressive BD release of its predecessor in the Ishii…
Labyrinth of Dreams (ユメノ銀河, Sogo Ishii, 1997)
“If both held their courses they would collide in nine seconds, and catastrophe would be inevitable” according to the voiceover which opens Sogo Ishii’s ethereal psychodrama Labyrinth of…
Electric Dragon 80000v (エレクトリック·ドラゴン 80000V, Sogo Ishii, 2001)
A supercharged free spirit clashes with an electric Buddha man at war with himself in Sogo Ishii’s cyberpunk fever dream.
いただき
The newsletter is out, and the podcast is online: This month I wrote about いただき (itadaki). Yes, just いただき. I had this bizarre internal sense that いただき was…
Hanasaku Iroha 花咲くいろは
Ohana, a Tokyo high school girl, who had been living alone with her single mom has no choice but to relocate to her grandmother’s inn when her mom…
August in the Water (水の中の八月, Sogo Ishii, 1995)
How does the world, or perhaps the cosmos, attempt to communicate with us? As Douglas Adams once did, August in the Water (水の中の八月, Mizu no naka no Hachigatsu)…
Itsuki Tsuchigami【土上いつき】Sakuga MAD
Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwrI-DkXiWQ Itsuki Tsuchigami (alternatively miso) is a favorite animator of mine, and I've planned to make a MAD with his work for a long time. Now that FGO…
Third Window Films Unleashes Gakuryu (Sogo) Ishii’s “The Crazy Family” on Blu-ray on June 17th
Information on the Third Window Films Blu-ray release of Gakuryu (Sogo) Ishii’s “The Crazy Family,” scheduled to drop on June 17th
Sorasoi (そらそい, Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, Yuka Osumi, 2008)
Students on a dance summer camp pick up a few lessons in authenticity and self-confidence while staying in an out of the way hotel in Ishii, Miki, &…
Thunder Dagwon
General Information Unit type: robotHeight: 20.7 metersWeight: 58.5 metric tonsMaximum running speed: 440.0 km/hMaximum speed: Mach 5.8Maximum output: 270,000 horsepowerSpecial attack(s): Moon Cutter, Spark ThunderArmament: Thunder Lancer/Javelin x…
Thunder Baron
Robot mode Thunder Jet mode Robot mode Thunder Jet mode General Information Unit type: robotHeight: 22.0 meters (Robot mode)Length: 22.5 meters (Thunder Jet mode)Weight: 120.0 metric tonsMaximum running…
Dag-Thunder
Robot mode Thunder Bike mode Robot mode Thunder Bike mode General Information Unit type: robotHeight: 10.6 meters (Robot mode)Weight: 19.0 metric tons (Robot mode), 0.5 metric tons (Thunder…
Thunder Shuttle
General Information Unit type: support vehicleLength: 32.0 metersWeight: 37.5 metric tonsMaximum speed: Mach 2.8Maximum output: 270,000 horsepowerOriginal mechanical designer: Kunio Okawara Lineart N/A
Thunder Geist
Robot mode Dinosaur mode Robot mode Dinosaur mode General Information Unit type: robotHeight: 11.2 meters (Robot mode), 11.1 meters (Dinosaur mode)Length: 18.4 meters (Dinosaur mode)Weight: 41.6 metric tonsMaximum…
The 11 Cats (11ぴきのねこ) and Other Tales (1976, 1980)
At long last, a certain dream of mine for almost four years now has come true—namely, for Group TAC’s long-forgotten classic film The 11 Cats, which was originally…
Katsuhito Ishii as Animator
By Tom Wilmot. For those clued up on modern Japanese cinema, the name Katsuhito Ishii is sure to ring a bell. Renowned for his surreal imagery and off-kilter…
Immersion (忌怪島／きかいじま, Takashi Shimizu, 2023)
An attempt to recreate the “real” in the “virtual” causes a rupture between this world and another in Takashi Shimizu’s high tech horror.
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 12 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
Yesterday I said that I was reviewing two series this week that focused on complicated relationships. The first was Volume 9 of Otona ni Nattemo, by Shimura Takako…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 7 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
When I reviewed Volume 6 I said of that volume that it was like a fever finally breaking. “You don’t feel “good,” per se, but you feel better,…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 9 ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
When we first met Miwa, she was unsure of herself. And when we met Saeko she seemed very confident. As we’ve got to know them, we’ve come to…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 6 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
You know how you feel after you’ve had a fever, when the fever breaks and you’re soaked in sweat? You don’t feel “good,” per se, but you feel…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 4 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
In Tamifull’s Yuri drama Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 4 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな), we are confronted with something we don’t see very often at all in Yuri…two people who may just…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 8 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
“The characters and the art have grown, Tamifull’s narrative skills are excellent here. We’ve been with them through a lot…and we’re still here as they enter the next…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 10 ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
Life is complex – humans are complex systems and relationships are complex systems made up of other complex systems interacting. Things are always complicated in Tamifull’s Tsukiatte Ag…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 11 ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
In my review of Volume 10, I said, “I’m ready for something to lighten up.” Welp, Volume 11 of Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな) by Tamifull is not…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 5 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
As a reviewer, I understand that spoilers are sometimes unavoidable in order to make a review make sense. As a reader, I don’t particularly mind spoilers…until I do.…
Crazy Week
Man, this has been an absolutely insane week. On Tuesday, my area got hit by a really bad storm that caused damage and power outages all across the…
Party 7 (Katsuhito Ishii, 2000)
A series of strange events bring a collection of lonely souls to Hotel New Mexico in Katsuhito Ishii’s zany crime comedy.
Yuri Manga: Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 3 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
2020 marks an interesting new phase for me in regards to Yuri manga. Because there are so many more comics about adult women, written for adults, my specific…
いい歳
How to Know You're in the Good Old Days - How to Japanese - May 2021
Toward the Terra (1980)
Toward the Terra (1980) I tend to really enjoy stories that feature big concepts – especially imaginings of the future, and Toward the Terra features both of those…
Voice actor roundtable, 1980
In September 1980, a book titled Be Forever Yamato Setting Data Collection presented a wealth of material on the film. It included a conversation between four veteran voice…
1980 Lookback, mecha designs
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine, Vol. 15 (October 2022): mecha designers Arashi Ishizau and Mika Akitaka look back at the progressive year 1980 and share…
Bona (Lino Brocka, 1980)
A young woman besotted with a bit player actor attempts to change her life but finds little in the way of freedom in Lino Brocka’s searing character study.
How to Subtly Flirt in Japanese No. 2 好きな人いる？
Learn Japanese with Me - https://bit.ly/4drmyU2
Okiku and the World (せかいのおきく, Junji Sakamoto, 2023)
A samurai’s daughter falls for a lowly manure man in a city on the brink of change in Junji Sakamoto’s touching dramedy.
Thunder 3 Volume 1 Review
Thunder 3 surprises the readers with an intriguing story with endearing characters and interesting art.
The Child of the Thunder
In among the hills of Echizen, within sight of the snowy mountain called Hakuzan, lived a farmer named Bimbo. He was very poor, but frugal and industrious. He…
The Moon (月, Yuya Ishii, 2023)
A writer overwhelmed with grief takes a job at a care home, but it is shocked by what she finds in Yuya Ishii’s hard-hitting drama.
![Featured image for Episode #64 (S9E2) – Battles Without Honor and Humanity [仁義なき戦い] (1973)](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230519/1684487322.61321.95479.jpg)
Episode #64 (S9E2) – Battles Without Honor and Humanity [仁義なき戦い] (1973)
This week, Perry is joined by Jordan Forbes, co-host of the Shonen Flop Podcast. We discuss Kinji Fukasaku’s 1973 yakuza film, Battles Without Honor and Humanity (仁義なき戦い). It’s…
Crazy Astro Font
I found this image of a really strange Astro Boy themed premium typeface a few weeks ago. It came from some kind of marketing exhibition in...
Crazy Food Truck
Crazy Food Truck is a manga that follows a food truck driver, Gordon, as he journeys around a post-apocalyptic desert with Arisa, a girl he found sleeping in…
The Crazy (?) Political Aspirations of Japan’s Super Crazy-kun
A former biker gang member and musician is angling to be Miyazaki Prefecture's next governor. Does he stand a chance in hell?
Vintage Report 27: July 1980
This was the last round before the premiere of Be Forever Yamato in theaters, and thus became the single busiest month in all of Yamato history until the…
Astro Boy (1980) 40th Anniversary
It’s the 40th Anniversary of Astro’s colour version this year! A fact which makes me realise that this particular show and I are getting on a bit (I’m…
Vintage Report 32: December 1980
As we look back over the entire sweep of 1980, December was the lightest month with the least amount of activity. That wasn’t the case for Yoshinobu Nishizaki,…
Vintage Report 26: June 1980
As Toei Studio’s animation staff labored through their final month on Be Forever Yamato, the publicity machine ramped up with major media coverage and the first live events…
Kaiju Transmissions podcast: Virus (1980)
While there hasn’t been a new Maser Patrol episode in a hot minute, Kevin (along with author John LeMay) had a chance to drop by the Kaiju Transmissions…
