“Everywhere is the wind of heaven; round and above all are boundless sea and sky, infinite space and a great silence” — Katherine Routledge The familiar saying attributed to Charles Dudley Warner that “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” is turned upside down by Japanese director Makoto Shinkai (“Your Name”)…
Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a film not unlike the Pokémon that populate it. On the surface it appears simple — a collection of seen-it-before neo-noir aesthetics, cute creatures, and a generic story, all tied together with a few charming leads. However, this is merely a façade. Before long it reveals itself to be a beast…
“Gantz” is a 37-volume manga series written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku from 2000-2013, whose worldwide distribution has sold an excess of over 20 million copies. Hallmarked by its sexual overtones and sadistically gory aesthetic in tandem with deep sociological, psychological and anthropological themes dissecting morality, it is considered one of the most controversial seinen…
Mary and the Witch’s Flower, based on the English book “The Little Broomstick” by Mary Stewart, is the first female-led action action fantasy film exploding into theaters in 2018. Originally released in Japan in 2017 this new movie, engineered by some of the directors and animators behind classic cartoon adventures such as “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s…
The Godzilla franchise has seen its shares of ups and downs since its inception in Ishirô Honda’s 1954 effects opus “Gojira,” boasting a filmography spanning 30 features and two major Hollywood adaptations, with another four currently in development (two of which are Hollywood backed). Interestingly, none were animated. Now, along with anime juggernaut Gen Urobuchi…
The benefit of foreign cinema is that they tend to tell stories that shed a light on their own culture and tell stories a U.S. production would probably warp and bend into something more palatable for our sensibilities, losing that bit of cultural spark that elevated the material in the first place. The drawback is…
From the opening frame to its final musical note, When Marnie Was There evokes bittersweet recall of childhood memories; a love-letter to breezy seaside holidays, passionate yet fleeting friendships, and the anxiety of growing into an adult world. Animation studio Studio Ghibli almost seems to have selected these themes to reflect their own farewell. In…
