Category: Anime

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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Anime And Manga That Are Primarily About Food

Published June 29, 2023

I’m sure we’re all aware of the many lovely shots of food that we see in anime and manga and how delicious they look with examples that primarily spring to my mind being the food from the restaurants in the film “Your Name” and the ramen from the manga and anime “Naruto”. However, there’s also plenty of anime and manga that whose purpose when it comes to food is much stronger, being a central core around which the whole story revolves. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to talk about some anime and manga that primarily deal with food as part of their story.

When it comes to the history of these food anime and manga, the earliest example that I’m aware of is a manga called “Cake Cake Cake” written by Aya Ichinoki and Moto Hagio, one of the Year 24 Group, which centred around a girl, who adores sweets and cakes, moving to Paris in order to learn more about preparing pastries. With regards to anime, the earliest example that I’d aware of is a series called “Mister Ajikko”, an adaptation of the manga of the same name that aired from 1987 to 1989. Of course, I’m sure there must be earlier examples and I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a comment if you are aware of any earlier titles.

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The Stunning Impact Of Anime Director Osamu Dezaki

Published June 26, 2023

When I cover the topic of directors on this blog, I typically cover directors who specialise in films such as Mamoru Hosoda, Makoto Shinkai, Hiromasa Yonebayashi etc. rather than those who predominantly work in television. However, the director that I wish to cover today is one of the most important individuals within the history of anime and, while having done films and OVAs, has directed some of the most critically acclaimed anime of all time. Therefore, I thought I’d cover the stunning impact of the anime director Osamu Dezaki, his works and his history.

This stunning impact starts in 1963 when Osamu Dezaki, at the age of 19, was hired by a company called Mushi Production, not as a director but as an animator for the, at the time, newly released Astro Boy anime TV series. While working on Astro Boy, he ended up directing episodes of it as well and later directed episodes of other Mushi Production series such as Big X, Dororo and Moomin. However, it was in 1970 when he got the chance to direct a series himself and, as it turned out, it ended up becoming one of the most critically acclaimed anime series of all time, Tomorrow’s Joe.

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Some Of The Longest Anime Films By Runtime

Published June 8, 2023

Animated movies are typically shorter than live-action films, as evidenced by the recent shock that Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is going to be the longest American animated film at about two hours and sixteen minutes. I’ve seen multiple reasons why animated movies tend to be shorter than live-action such as some being targeted at children or the amount of effort required for every second of footage. Interestingly, Japan tends to dominate lists when it comes to longest animated films and so I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the longest anime films by runtime. One thing I do want to emphasise before I start is that I’m only going to be looking at films that were originally movies. What this means is that I’m going to ignore compilation anime films which simply combines anime footage, typically TV anime, along with a little bit of new footage in order to create a film.

1. In This Corner (And Other Corners) Of The World (168 Minutes)

The original release of In This Corner Of The World was released in 2016 and clocked in at a respectable 129 minutes. However, in 2019, they released an extended edition of the movie called “In This Corner (And Other Corners) Of The World” which brought the total runtime up to 168 minutes, making it the longest anime film of all time. As far as I’m aware, this extended edition has yet to see an overseas release but, considering the extremely positive critical reception of the original film, I do hope it does see a Western release someday.

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I Miss The Stylish Violence And Sex Of Older Anime

Published May 29, 2023

I confess that the rate at which I watch anime has slowed in recent years. There’s numerous reasons for this such as having less time for recreation, a larger variety of hobbies, difficulty getting my hands on specific anime etc. However, one thing that I’ve come to miss is the stylish violence and sex of older anime. That’s not to say that these elements have vanished in the present day but it certainly feels like it’s receded. Therefore, I decided to share my thoughts on the matter.

I should first start off by saying that I’m not looking for violence and sex in anime for the sake of it. While I’m partial to a bit of gratuitous content, it isn’t the sole thing that draws me to works. If that were the case, I’d actually like things like Elfen Lied and Urotsukidoji rather than despise them. Rather, I love violence and sex when it works to enhance the story. There’s also a strong possibility that I have strong nostalgic attachment to the idea of graphic violence and sex in anime because I, like so many other fans of anime, first began watching anime due to a lack of adult content in Western animation. I also want to point out that, as I said before, I haven’t seen as much recent anime as in the past so it’s entirely possible that I’m missing some recent ones that would fit my criteria. If that’s the case, feel free to let me know about some recent anime that are of good quality but also possess a lot of violence and sex.

The DVD cover for Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. — If you want an example of an anime full of violence and sex, one of the best is Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne.

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A Look At The Massive Entertainment Company Sanrio

Published May 25, 2023

When you think of the titans of the Japanese entertainment industry you might think of Toho, a company responsible for many kaiju films, or perhaps of an anime studio such as Studio Ghibli or TMS Entertainment. However, I thought that I’d take a look at a massive entertainment company which is quite often overlooked when it comes to the Japanese entertainment industry, Sanrio.

Interestingly, when Sanrio was founded in 1960, the company began life as Yamanashi Silk Center which, unsurprisingly, focused on the sale of silk products. After expanding to producing rubber sandals, they noted an increase in sales when cute designs such as flowers and strawberries were added and began to focus more and more on creating cute characters and designs after changing their name to Sanrio in 1973. Their most notable IP was created the next year, 1974, that being Hello Kitty which has since become a franchise worth billions of dollars!

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