Category: Anime

An Overview Of The Black Jack Franchise

Published October 5, 2023

Osamu Tezuka’s massive body of work is sometimes overshadowed by the success of Astro Boy, to the point where I’m only able to tell certain people who Osamu Tezuka is by bringing up Astro Boy to them. However, one of the most important series that Osamu Tezuka ever created has, itself, grown into quite a respectable franchise, one that easily attains greater critical reception than that of Astro Boy and is also commercially successful, being Osamu Tezuka’s second bestselling manga behind Astro Boy itself. Therefore, I thought it worth providing an overview of this fascinating franchise, Black Jack.

The Black Jack manga ran from 1973-83 in Weekly Shonen Champion and proved to be so successful that it’s often referred to as having rejuvenated Osamu Tezuka’s career. The manga follows the titular Black Jack, a genius surgeon who is unlicensed, as he encounters all sorts of unusual cases, patients and situations alongside his assistant/adopted daughter Pinoko. The series itself is told episodically with a few chapters fleshing out the background of its main cast but the quality of these stories proves remarkable and, in my personal opinion, is much more consistent than Astro Boy. It is also one of the best-selling manga series of all time with an estimated 50 million copies being sold in Japan!

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An Overview Of The Blood Franchise

Published October 2, 2023

When you think of franchises from Japan, you probably think of Dragon Ball, Godzilla, Pokémon etc. but I doubt many of you think of the Blood franchise. It’s certainly not one that would spring to my mind either but I took a look at it the other day and I noticed that it actually has quite a few notable entries now which prove to be surprisingly diverse in terms of both style and media. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to do an overview of the Blood franchise and look at the various works within it.

Of course, the logical place to start with any overview of a franchise is the first entry and Blood is no different. The origins of this series begins in 2000 when a 45 minute film called Blood: The Last Vampire was released by Production I.G. The film is set in 1966 and follows a girl called Saya who hunts down creatures called Chiropterans, vampires that physically resemble bats. The film was well-received and proved to be an international hit where it sold very well on VHS and DVD. Spin-offs such as manga, light novels and even a game soon followed but the original film itself never got a sequel.

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My Favourite Anime That I’ve Watched Per Decade

Published September 11, 2023

Anime has a long and storied history and I find that classics are all too often overlooked in favour of new releases. Therefore, I thought it might be nice if I discussed my favourite anime that I’ve watched from each decade. These anime can be a film, short, TV series, OVA etc. However, I’ll not be including the 2020s as they have not finished and there will be one decade absent since I don’t believe I’ve seen any anime from it. With all that said, let’s start with the first decade that I want to cover.

1940s – Momotaro: Sacred Sailors

I don’t exactly have many options when it comes to the 1940s anime that I’ve seen but I think Momotaro: Sacred Sailors is my favourite for both its historical importance and for its animation. Originally released in 1945, Momotaro: Sacred Sailors was the first feature-length anime film which also served as a propaganda film where animals led by the legendary Momotaro fight against Devil Island, a thinly veiled version of the US. While its story drags at certain points and many of its messages have aged very poorly, its technical accomplishment for the time period is remarkable and there are some surprisingly well animated sequences with my personal favourite being where the Dutch arrive in Indonesia. It’s no masterpiece but it is certainly interesting to watch and examine.

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Do You Know Of Osamu Tezuka’s Bible Anime?

Published August 31, 2023

Osamu Tezuka did a great many things when it comes to the mediums of anime and manga. Beyond revolutionising TV animation in Japan and producing experimental animated shorts, he produced a great many anime and manga, so many in fact that even dedicated fans often find themselves surprised to learn of something that he’d made. This is where we come to the bible anime that Osamu Tezuka worked on during the last years of his life. Do you already know of Osamu Tezuka’s bible anime? You don’t? Let me tell you all about it then.

The genesis for this series (pun intended) began in 1984 when Osamu Tezuka was contacted by the Vatican, indirectly through the Italian TV network RAI, to adapt the bible into an animated series. As you may imagine, Osamu Tezuka was enthusiastic about the project and eventually agreed to adapt the Old Testament, making sure that it was not watered down to pander to kids. He worked on the pilot for the series, an adaptation of Noah’s Ark, for two years before passing away in 1989. Understandably, this left the future of the series in question.

The first episode of the completed series adapted the story of Adam and Eve.

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The History Of Vampires In Japanese Media

Published August 28, 2023

Anyone who’s familiar with anime, manga, video games or many other forms of Japanese media will know that vampires are a popular subject with numerous vampire fictions being created throughout the history of these mediums. However, it may surprise you to learn that vampires have only recently grown popular in Japan and, so, I thought I’d take a look at the history of vampires in Japanese media.

To begin, it’s interesting to note that vampires are foreign to Japan with vampires typically associated with European mythology. However, blood-drinking creatures can be found in a wide variety of cultures worldwide and Japan is no exception. Amongst the yokai of Japan, two particularly notable examples that drink blood are the Rokurokubi, creatures who look like women but are capable of extending their neck in a snake-like manner or even detaching their head and flying around, and the Nure-onna, creatures that look like snakes with the head of women, sometimes with arms as well, that uses their tongue to suck the blood out of a body.

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Movie Directors I Consider To Be My Favourite

Published August 17, 2023

I love the medium of film and I can acknowledge the great effort that goes into making them. However, I, like most people, have found myself drawn to particular directors whose works left a profound impact on me. To give some criteria for this article, I have to have seen at least half or more of a directors filmography, I’m going to be generous and say that they only need to have directed two or more films and their body of work needs to have transcended entertainment and affected me on a personal level. This last criteria is the most important because there are many directors out there who are highly regarded and, while I appreciate the craftsmanship of their films, their movies don’t leave me thinking and contemplating them long afterwards. With all that said and done and in no particular order, let’s take a look at some of the movie directors that I consider to be my favourite.

1. Wes Craven

I recently had a bit of a Wes Craven marathon where I watched fifteen out of the twenty films that he directed over the course of his lifetime with his films that I haven’t seen being Swamp Thing, The Hills Have Eyes Part II, Deadly Friend, Vampire in Brooklyn and Music of the Heart. Like many people, I started with his Scream films and A Nightmare on Elm Street and loved them with A Nightmare on Elm Street briefly becoming my favourite horror film of all time. I experienced other films from him in piecemeal over the years such as The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes but I finally settled down to watch as many of his films as I could recently. As you may imagine, watching the majority of his work one after another gave me a deep appreciation for his talent and, while there were a few that I didn’t care for like My Soul to Take and Cursed, his films have proved to stick with me for both the right and wrong reasons with The People Under the Stairs being an underrated masterpiece and Shocker being a movie that’s so crazy and all over the place that I derive great pleasure from watching it.

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Tatsunoko Production: An All Too Often Overlooked Anime Studio

Published August 3, 2023

If you were to talk to Western anime fans about some of the most important anime studios of all time, I’d expect many of them to bring up names such as Studio Ghibli, Sunrise, Toei Animation, perhaps even Mushi Production but I wouldn’t expect anyone to bring up Tatsunoko Production despite their massive contribution to the medium of anime. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at Tatsunoko Production, an anime studio that I feel is all too often overlooked.

The company was established in 1962 by the mangaka trio of Tatsuo, Kenji and Toyoharu Yoshida and released its first product in 1965, a TV anime called Space Ace. However, it was their next series that cemented their place within anime history as one of the most important anime studios. In 1967, their second TV anime, which was in colour unlike the black and white Space Ace, began airing on TV. Its original Japanese name was Mach GoGoGo and it was picked up for broadcast in the US within months where it was localised as Speed Racer.

The logo for Tatsunoko Production.

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One Of The Most Fascinating Modern Anime Directors, Masaaki Yuasa

Published July 24, 2023

I’ve spoken before about my love for anime that use a distinct art style but, while every anime does have some difference when it comes to art, I’ve found that a lot of modern anime aren’t fulfilling my criteria for distinct artwork. Of course there are some such Puella Magi Madoka Magica, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Redline etc. but each year feels like anime artwork becomes more and more homogenous. Then I watched some of Masaaki Yuasa’s films and was overwhelmed by how fresh and distinctive his artwork and animation felt within the field of not only anime but animation itself. Therefore, I thought it worth looking at one of the most fascinating modern anime directors, Masaaki Yuasa.

Born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1965, his enthusiasm for animation at a young age eventually led to him entering the anime industry. He started out working as an animator on a variety of anime series and films such as Chibi Maruko-chan, Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan etc. He later became a freelance animator and began directing some short films such as Slime Adventures: Yay, the Sea! and the critically acclaimed Cat Soup. Even as he began to become more and more successful with his later films and TV series he directed, he continued to work as an animator for other projects until 2015.

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Several Anime And Manga That Were Cancelled

Published July 13, 2023

I’ve spoken before about manga seeing their English releases cancelled but it’s quite different when a series, anime or manga, sees their release in Japan cancelled. When it comes to anime, it can be a little nebulous about when something is cancelled but I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some anime and manga series that ended up getting cancelled, some of which may prove quite surprising.

Considering the sheer size of the Gundam franchise, which grossed nearly $1 billion last year, it may shock some of you to hear that the series that started it all, Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979-80, was originally due to run for 52 episodes but suffered from poor TV ratings and ended up having its episode count cut to 43 episodes. While a trilogy of compilation films revitalised the franchise, eventually resulting in Gundam becoming one of the most valuable intellectual properties in the world, it’s always surprising to remember that this titan of anime started out as a ratings failure which resulted in its cancellation.

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Anime Ltd And Their Lack Of On-Disc Extras

Published July 6, 2023

I recently saw Anime Ltd announce that they were going to be releasing Hideaki Anno‘s OVA classic, Gunbuster. When they finally set up preorders, I hurriedly checked to see what I would be getting if I picked it up. When I checked what the contents on the disc would be, my heart sank. All that’s on the disc are the six episodes with both English and Japanese audio. While the package itself was still worth it enough that I ended up preordering anyway, it also reminded me of all the times that I’ve looked at an Anime Ltd product, saw it had little to no extras, and passed on it. Therefore, I thought it’d be interesting to discuss Anime Ltd, their lack of on-disc extras in their releases and why this is a problem for me.

For those of you unfamiliar with Anime Ltd, they are a distributor of anime in the UK and Ireland and I distinctly remember when the formation of the company was announced. They proudly and boldly declared that their goal was to become the “Criterion of Anime“. Anyone familiar with the quality of Criterion releases will know that this is quite the statement. Over the years, we’ve seen some good, even great, releases from Anime Ltd but, beyond my criticism that they focus too much on recent anime rather than releasing classic anime TV and films, I find myself increasingly disappointed by their lack of on-disc extras.

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