Category: Film

  • Ancien and the Magic Tablet

    I mentioned last year really wanting to see the movie Hirune Hime (seems that the official English title is now Ancien and the Magic Tablet), and here’s a review of the film over at Time Out Tokyo. Considering that it’s directed by Kenji Kamiyama, who was behind Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and…

  • Your Name

    I finally watched Your Name (Kimi no Na wa), the biggest film in Japan last year, and I loved it. When the movie came out and was breaking box office records, I started looking into its director, Makoto Shinkai, and really enjoyed everything I watched. Just like the rest of his work, this movie is a…

  • Gantz: 0

    I’ll start by saying what I didn’t like about this movie, and that’s the distracting breast animations on the two main female characters. But other than that, I had a blast watching this. The animation is beyond slick, and it makes all of the action incredibly stylish to watch. Definitely some of the best CG…

  • Spring 2017 Anime Season

    Looking at the lineup for the Spring 2017 season of anime, I gotta say there’s nothing much that seems to be for me — even less than the winding down Winter 2017 season (the only series that really grabbed me this season was Onihei). Of all the regular series debuting, the only ones I’m interested…

  • Miyazaki, An Art Show Tribute

    “Miyazaki – An Art Show Tribute” was an exhibition held at San Francisco’s Spoke Art gallery this past month, and luckily we can browse through all of the pieces (and even buy them) on the gallery’s site. Pictured, Justin Hillgrove’s “Miyazaki Totems.” Found via Booooooom.

  • Miyazaki Is Back (Again)

    It’s not the first time he “retires,” and who knows if we’ll see the same thing happen again, but it was officially confirmed by Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki that Hayao Miyazaki is working on a new feature film for the studio. To be honest, I’m much more interested in hearing about other future plans for…

  • Like it’s 1985

    So I started the year by watching 30 movies from 1985, over a period of a month and a half. Why? Good question. It sorta happened by accident. During one of the first days of January, I watched The Goonies with my wife (she had never seen it), and not only did we have a really…

  • Chicano

    “Chicano” is a short documentary by Louis Ellison and Jacob Hodgkinson that looks at the similarities and differences between Chicano (Mexican American) culture in America and in Japan. It was shot in Tokyo and Osaka.

  • Wood-cut Style Ghibli Illustrations

    This is a beautiful series of illustrations by Bill Mudron inspired by traditional wood-cut prints, depicting characters and scenery from Ghibli films.

  • Lu Over the Wall

    I was so excited when I found out that we were getting a new film directed by Masaaki Yuasa this spring (Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome), and now there’s the news that, by the way, he has yet another movie coming out this spring. Here’s the trailer for Lu Over the Wall, which comes off…