Blog Archives

Bubble (2022)

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Spoiler warning: this film gives away the ending of The Little Mermaid. Not the Disney film, but the rather different ending of the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story. The reason for said spoiling is because — among the heady cosmological concepts, post-apocalyptic parkour races, teenage anime angst and energetic music — the dramatic question at the heart of all this hullabaloo is how far Bubble will adhere to, or diverge from, The Little Mermaid’s fate as Andersen told … (read more)

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009 Re: Cyborg (2012)

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If a term for the way in which a single anime is capable of flipping seamlessly and without warning between heart-racing action and mind-bending existentialism hasn’t been invented yet, I propose that we call it 009 Re: Cyborg. Of course, the problem there is that once there’s a term, we’ll have to name the condition of being utterly unable to grasp it, because watching this animated feature, I’m pretty sure I was suffering just that.

All the elements of … (read more)

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Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2008)

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I’m yet to work out whether this is a good thing – on one hand, there’s a long, respected convention in art reflecting life; but on the other, if life is made superficial in order to be represented through art, is it really a good thing? Watching the opening episodes of Gundam 00, it’s not like you can miss the commentary on the state of the world after all, so it’s not like the show is shying away from … (read more)

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Ouran High School Host Club Part 1 (2006)

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Since its release in 2006, Ouran High School Host Club has established itself as a fan favourite. It has a reputation for being a bit strange, but also extremely funny. This is my review of Part 1, which consists of the first 13 (of a total of 26) episodes of the anime.

The Ouran Host Club is where handsome boys with too much time on their hands entertain and charm girls, who also have too much time on their … (read more)

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Death Note (2006)

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It’s impossible when reviewing Death Note not to end up coming across just a little bilingual. I don’t mean as in Japanese English; I mean in terms of analogue to digital medium. Death Note, for the one or two people in the world who don’t already know, started as a manga conceived and written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Hikaru no Go’s Takeshi Obata. It was serialised in Weekly Shonen Jump starting December 2003 and the 12 volume … (read more)

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