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Zodiac Killers (極道追踪, Ann Hui, 1991)
Melancholy exiles seeking a better future in the dying days of the bubble economy find only futility in Ann Hui’s nihilistic gangster noir
Those Swell Yakuza (極道渡世の素敵な面々, Seiji Izumi, 1988)
A former banker flees the corporate world for an old school sense of manly autonomy as a gangster in Seiji Izumi’s ironic yakuza drama.
PARALLEL (Daiki Tanaka, 2021)
A wounded young woman in search of a protector and a nihilistic serial killer fight for the meaning of existence in Daiki Tanaka’s dark romantic drama
Meet Director TANAKA Daiki
Born in Tokyo in 1994, freelance film director, Tanaka, is a graduate of Nihon University College of Art's film directing course. Tanaka’s genre-defying thesis film, Filament, won awards…
iyashikei 癒し系
A blog about Japanese words in anime and manga, with romaji and explanations.
Grown-ups (わたし達はおとな, Takuya Kato, 2022)
A young couple struggle to reorient their lives while dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in Takuya Kato’s intense relationship drama.
Books: Leiji Matsumoto
By Jonathan Clements. For all the passion and excitement that the contributors bring to the new collection Leiji Matsumoto: Essays on the Anime and Manga Legend, their subject…
Leiji Matsumoto: A Tribute
On the 20th February the world learned that Manga and anime legend Leiji Matsumoto had died aged 85 on the 13th Feburary some 7 days prior. A titan…
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Tokyo Higoro: Matsumoto Taiyo
I don’t consider myself a huge Matsumoto fan, but I also buy everything he releases as soon as I can get a hold of it. Which is definitely…
Leiji Matsumoto (1938-2023)
“Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has departed for the sea of stars.” That was how his daughter Makiko Matsumoto, who heads his office Studio Leijisha, announced Matsumoto’s death on…
Nishizaki vs. Matsumoto, 2002
The story of the legal battle over Yamato‘s authorship is a sketchy one with many details still unknown more than 20 years later. But fleeting glimpses of it…
Leiji Matsumoto 1938-2023
The week it was announced that renowned manga artist Leiji Matsumoto had died on 13th February 2023 of acute heart failure in a Tokyo hospit...
Winny (Yusaku Matsumoto, 2023)
A software developer finds himself defending the right to innovate when accused of abetting copyright infringement in Yusaku Matsumoto’s tense courtroom drama.
Dreaming of the Meridian Arc (大河への道, Kenji Nakanishi, 2022)
Dedicated civil servants do their best to put their town on the map while celebrating a local hero in Kenji Nakanishi’s warmhearted dramedy.
![Featured image for Grown-ups わたし達はおとな (2022) Director: Takuya Kato [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220801/1659350340.41038.70909.jpg)
Grown-ups わたし達はおとな (2022) Director: Takuya Kato [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]
Grown-ups わたし達はおとな (2022) Director: Takuya Kato [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]
Ragna Crimson by Daiki Kobayashi, Vol. 6—Review
Daiki Kobayashi’s Ragna Crimson continues to impress in the sixth volume.
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Rapid Review: Daiki Kobayashi’s Ragna Crimson, Vol. 2
Volume 2 of Daiki Kobayashi’s Ragna Crimson is better than the first.
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WINNY (2023) Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto
A gracefully simple screenplay brought to life by a great ensemble leads to an easy to understand dramatisation the Winny prosecution, a complex case from Japan’s early digital…
![Featured image for Bagmati River バグマティ リバー Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220312/1647076114.32728.60775.jpg)
Bagmati River バグマティ リバー Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Bagmati River バグマティ リバー 「Bagumati Riba-」 Release Date: 2022 Duration: 29 mins. Director: Yusaku Matsumoto Writer: Yusaku Matsumoto, Kentaro Kishi (Screenplay), Starring: Junko Abe, Kenji Kohas…
A Mother’s Touch (桜色の風が咲く, Junpei Matsumoto, 2022)
A young man begins to ponder the meaning of his life while losing both his sight and hearing in Junpei Matsumoto’s heartwarming biopic.
Tea Friends (茶飲友達, Bunji Sotoyama, 2023)
Japan’s rapidly ageing society has provoked an epidemic of loneliness but also perhaps new business opportunities in Bunji Sotoyama’s empathetic social drama.
Manga Review: Ragna Crimson by Daiki Kobayashi, Volume 11
Ragna and the Argentum Corps’ battle against the Blood of the Wing ends in this volume. Here are my thoughts…
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Manga Review: Ragna Crimson by Daiki Kobayashi, Volume 12
Ragna Crimson just got more interesting… Here are my thoughts on Volume 12.
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Rapid Review: Ragna Crimson by Daiki Kobayashi, Vol. 5
In this post, I share my thoughts on Volume 5 of Daiki Kobayashi’s manga series, Ragna Crimson.
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Wicked Priest (極悪坊主, Kiyoshi Saeki, 1968)
A bunch of corrupt monks get a lesson in business ethics from one of their own in Kiyoshi Saeki’s aptly titled Taisho-era romp.
Manga Review: Ragna Crimson by Daiki Kobayashi, Volume 10
The action in Ragna Crimson continues to impress in Volume 10.
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帰り道 ~The long road home~
Myself;Yourself concerns a city boy and the country girl. Both are people who grew up in the same place but went separate ways just before the edge of…
It’s All My Fault (ぜんぶ、ボクのせい, Yusaku Matsumoto, 2022)
A young orphan and a homeless drifter attempt to overcome the legacy of parental rejection in Yusaku Matsumoto’s sensitive coming-of-age drama.
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An Interview with Yusaku Matsumoto, Director of BAGMATI RIVER [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An Interview with Yusaku Matsumoto, Director of BAGMATI RIVER [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Basic Japanese Sentence Structure No.8 友達 Friend #learnjapanese
Learn Japanese with Me - https://bit.ly/4drmyU2
The Manga Review: RIP Leiji Matsumoto
On February 20th, Leiji Matsumoto passed away at the age of 85. Matsumoto made his professional debut in the pages of Manga Shonen magazine in 1954, dabbling in…
Auto-tagged Galaxy Express 999, Queen Emeraldas, Space Battleship Yamato
Memories of Leiji Matsumoto, March 2023
Following the February 20th announcement of Leiji Matsumoto’s passing, a growing number of observances, memoirs, and biographical pieces flowed in a worldwide torrent (which included a 3-hour wake…
Noise ノイズ (2017) Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto
This is my V-Cinema review of Yusaku Matsumoto’s film “Noise” from back in 2017.
#MechaMarch2022: Voltes V
Starting this post, I feel like this is a good place to start this event. This session of Mecha March is going to be full of classic anime…
Cosmo Attacker V
General Information Unit type: space fighter Lineart Rear view
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Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V Author: Chris Kohler Publisher: Boss Fight Books Publication Year: 2017 Pages: 165 Final Fantasy V is a book about the experience of growing up in…
Contemporary Japanese Literature
Auto-tagged Legend of the Crystals: Final Fantasy
![Featured image for Bagmati River バグマティ リバー Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] vcinema review](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220411/1649657078.34389.62815.jpg)
Bagmati River バグマティ リバー Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] vcinema review
My rewrite of my review for Bagmati River バグマティ リバー Dir: Yusaku Matsumoto (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Anima (莫尔道嘎, Cao Jinling, 2020)
Two brothers find themselves on either side of an unbreachable divide when modernity begins dismantling their village in Cao Jinling’s timely eco drama
Special Report Division / 特殊報道部
Who doesn’t like a good conspiracy theory? There are plenty of allegedly supernatural phenomena out there. Personally, I’m a skeptic. Despit...
Auto-tagged Ace Attorney
How to Japanese Podcast – S02E06 – Performative Adjectives and 系
Adjectives in Japanese are not always what they appear to be! I think part of this is because they function as what I call “performative adjectives.” One of…
A Personal Look Back at Matsumoto Leiji
The news of Matsumoto Leiji’s death shocked me. While the passing of an 85-year-old shouldn’t be too surprising, it still makes me contemplate so many things. The number…
MANGA: These Days (Higoro), by Taiyo Matsumoto
An original work with an interesting backstory.
Memorial Stream for the Legendary Leiji Matsumoto
Hello, friends! This month on the Anime Nostalgia Podcast, I’m going to try something different. In honor of the passing of the iconic Leiji...
Ep. 59: Ping Pong by Taiyo Matsumoto
This week on Mangasplaining we cover Ping Pong by Taiyo Matsumoto, published by VIZ Media. You will not believe that a manga about Ping Pong can be this…
Insterstella 5555: The Daft and the Matsumoto
Talking about this piece of media is interesting because I am not sure where to place it in what it is. It’s one of those pieces of media…
More thoughts on Daiki Kobayashi’s Ragna Crimson, Vols. 3 and 4
Another post praising Ragna Crimson by Daiki Kobayashi 😀 (Just kidding, but not really.)
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![Featured image for Out of TOKYO202x Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] V-Cinema](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220518/1652858576.36521.65385.jpg)
Out of TOKYO202x Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] V-Cinema
A rewrite of my review of Out of TOKYO202x, a refreshing sci-fi short from Japan that takes the time-slip formula and uses it on the summer Olympics! Director: Akinori…
Date A Live V
Majihiku wa? Oh well. This is it. The final stretch. After dating and conquering the Spirits to seal their powers, it all boils down to this. Date A…
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Shin Megami Tensei V
While SMT fans have no doubt chomped at the bit in anticipation of a new numbered entry arriving on consoles, some might still want to cling to the…
*Abridged* V-Day Special!
Happy Valentine’s Day~! 💛 If you’ve been following my blog for even a year, you’ll know that V-Day is something I take quite seriously. It has become tradition…