Category: December

Do You Remember Raijin Comics?

Published December 29, 2022

American manga magazines have an interesting history with the rise of Shonen Jump and Yen Plus in the physical format before eventually transitioning to digital and, in Shonen Jump’s case, reforming themselves. However, an interesting manga magazine from this era which seems to have largely been forgotten was Raijin Comics. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at Raijin Comics, what it was and to remember the path it attempted to thread.

The company responsible for Raijin Comics was Gutsoon! Entertainment which was a subsidiary of Coamix, a company founded by mangaka Tetsuo Hara and Tsukasa Hojo. Along with running manga magazine Weekly Comic Bunch, the decision was made to release a manga magazine in America called Raijin Comics. This magazine ended up debuting shortly before Viz Media released their Shonen Jump manga magazine.

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Did You Know That There Are Pinocchio Anime?

Published December 26, 2022

I think it’s fair to say that the book “The Adventures of Pinocchio” has had a great impact on popular culture. Not only is it one of the most translated books of all time but it has been adapted into numerous media such as the new Guillermo del Toro film and the classic 1940 Disney animated film. Interestingly, Japan has also produced several Pinocchio adaptations, all of them animated, and, since I didn’t know about these before, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of these Pinocchio anime.

The first series that I want to take a look at is a little unusual given that it’s an international co-production between Rankin/Bass Productions, an American production company, and Dentsu Studios in Japan. Titled “The New Adventures of Pinocchio”, the series was animated in stop-motion and aired as 25 minute episodes made up of five 5 minute segments. The series also saw Tadahito Mochinaga, a legend of Asian stop-motion, working with Rankin/Bass for the very first time, a partnership that would see the production of several series and films.

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My Thoughts On The Films Of Lars Von Trier

Published December 22, 2022

I’ve heard of the name “Lars von Trier” with relation to films such as Antichrist and Nymphomaniac but it wasn’t until recently that I ended up watching his films. As I perused the Disturbing Movie Iceberg for the few films that I was actually interested in seeing, I noticed an interesting title called “The House That Jack Built”. I found the film on Blu-ray for a respectable price and eventually watched it. While not a perfect film by any means, I still found The House That Jack Built to be fascinating and I was immediately curious about the rest of his filmography. Eventually I managed to order the majority of his filmography and, having recently finished watching them, I thought it would be interesting to share my thoughts on the films of Lars von Trier.

Lars von Trier typically splits his films into thematic trilogies so I’ll be taking a look at each trilogy and what I think of each film that make them up. The first trilogy that Lars von Trier created was the Europa trilogy which is made up of The Element of Crime, Epidemic and Europa. Since I ended up watching the Lars von Trier films that I had in production order, I started with The Element of Crime which I found to be a very odd film that I felt quite mixed about. The lighting and cinematography are excellent but the colour scheme, sepia, ended up frustrating me after a while. The plot was quite confusing on first watch but I did end up watching it a second time and felt more capable of understanding the plot. Epidemic may be my least favourite film that I’ve seen from Lars von Trier which I think is a shame as the film does have a clever premise. However, I found the pacing poor and I ultimately ended the film feeling “Why did I watch that?”. Thankfully, Europa proved to easily be the best of the trilogy with a wonderfully intriguing story, an interesting main character and an ending that proved to be incredibly memorable. While Lars von Trier’s first trilogy proved to be quite rough, it’s clear that, by the end, he’s finding his style and improving as a director.

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My First Impressions Of My Steam Deck

Published December 19, 2022

After selling some of my physical games for my older consoles on eBay recently, I decided to spoil myself by buying an item that I’d been debating for some time, a Steam Deck. Having heard much praise for Steam Decks, the recent availability of Steam Decks without reservation encouraged my interest in picking one up. I ordered a 64GB model and ordered a 512GB microSD card to use with it and it arrived within a couple of weeks. I’ve been using it for about a month now and, while I don’t think I’ve used enough of its features to do a review, I thought it might still be interesting to share my own first impressions when it comes to the Steam Deck.

When I first got my Steam Deck, I ran through the games that I had currently installed on my computer and looked to see which ones were either Verified or Playable and that I thought would make a good fit for the device (sorry Point and Click, First-Person and Strategy games). I ended up installing fifteen video games on the Steam Deck and have played through four of them since, Higurashi Chapter 1, Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna), Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Lucah: Born of a Dream. I’ve yet to explore much of Desktop mode with probably an estimated five minutes of use since I first got it so don’t expect me to touch on that in this article.

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Manga Tie-Ins That Came Out Before Their Anime

Published December 15, 2022

When I first learned of an anime called “Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne“, a series I highly recommend by the way, I remember doing some brief research and learning that a light novel was in release before the anime started airing. Without pursuing it further, I assumed that the anime was an adaptation. Of course, you know what happens when you assume! Some time later, I actually looked deeper and learned that the novel had only begun a month before the anime started airing and was only completed after the anime had ended! Similarly, many original anime series may decide to release manga tie-ins prior to the anime airing and so I thought it might be interesting to take a look at a few examples and to consider why a company, likely a production committee in these cases, would choose to do this.

When I think of manga tie-ins that came out before their anime, the first one that comes to mind is Neon Genesis Evangelion. Beginning nearly a full year before the anime began airing, the manga adaptation was done by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who also served as the character designer for the TV series, and ended up running for over 18 years. It’s since proven to be quite financially successful with about 25 million copies sold and has also been very well received and, while this is very much a personal statement, I actually ended up preferring the manga over the anime TV series.

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The Fascinating History Of Toei Animation

Published December 12, 2022

When I first learned of Toei Animation, I merely associated them with producing some of the most popular anime TV series such as Dragon Ball, One Piece, Sailor Moon etc. but, as I learned more and more about the history of anime, I slowly realised that Toei Animation are much more significant than I realised. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the fascinating history of Toei Animation.

Toei Animation was originally founded in 1948 as Nihon Douga Eiga, Japanese for Japan Animated Films, and ended up being acquired by Toei Company in 1956 which resulted in the studio being renamed to Toei Animation. Soon after, Toei Animation began work on their first feature-length animated film, The Tale of the White Serpent. The production of the film was a massive undertaking for the then small Japanese animation industry with an estimated 13,590 staff working across two years. The film later ended up seeing a release in America under the name Panda and the Magic Serpent in 1961. While I’m unsure how The Tale of the White Serpent performed in the box office, it’s notable that it inspired a young Hayao Miyazaki to work in the anime industry.

A shot of Xu-Xian and Bai-Niang from Panda and the Magic Serpent. — The Tale of the White Serpent.

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My Ranking Of The Gamera Franchise Part 2

Published December 8, 2022

Here is the conclusion to “My Ranking Of The Gamera Franchise Part 1“.

6. Gamera vs. Gyaos

Gamera vs. Gyaos is quite an important film in the franchise as it introduced Gyaos, the only monster to make appearances across multiple films while also establishing that children would serve as the protagonists throughout the rest of the Showa era Gamera movies. However, the kid protagonist in this film is actually not annoying and there’s some great fights between Gamera and Gyaos. While the transition of Gamera from monster to ally isn’t smooth, Gamera vs. Gyaos is quite entertaining.

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My Ranking Of The Gamera Franchise Part 1

Published December 5, 2022

With the announcement that a new Gamera project is in the works, I thought it might be interesting to do a ranking of all twelve Gamera films. This is quite exciting for me since I’ve recently become enamoured with tokusatsu but have been finding it difficult to get my hands on various important series and franchises. However, Gamera was the first tokusatsu franchise that I was able to watch in its entirety so it makes sense that my first ranking of tokusatsu be the Gamera films.

12. Gamera vs. Viras

If you’re familiar with the Gamera films then it might be a mild surprise to see Gamera vs. Viras ranked at the bottom but I can honestly say that, while watching the twelve Gamera films, Gamera vs. Viras was the only truly miserable experience I had during this franchise. Most of the film follows two young boys who are trapped on a spaceship who are insufferably irritating as they awkwardly provide humour and outwit these supposedly highly intelligent aliens. The worst crime that I think this film commits though is making the titular battle between Gamera and Viras so uninteresting. If I ever watch through the twelve Gamera films again, this’ll easily be the one I dread most.

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What Are Musou Video Games And Are They A Genre?

Published December 1, 2022

Earlier this year, I had the fortune/misfortune of being given a copy of Touken Ranbu Warriors to review for UK Anime Network. My experience with the game wasn’t particularly pleasant but it did remind me of a term that I see thrown around every so often, Musou. I’ve limited experience with these games but I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what Musou video games are, whether they’re a genre and if they deserve the somewhat negative reputation that they’ve gained over the years.

Let’s start with where their name came from and what they are. The name “Musou” comes from the Dynasty Warriors series which is called “Sangokumusou” in Japan. These games follow characters who are capable of wiping out hundreds upon hundreds of rank and file troops and who occasionally fight stronger enemies like commanders and captains as they complete missions. The success of Dynasty Warriors has inspired some competitors to adopt this gameplay style while Koei Tecmo, the publishers of Dynasty Warriors, have been developing licensed games using this gameplay as well.

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