Blog Archives

Ashura-jo no Hitomi (2005)

(from , dir: )
Posted on October 22, 2006 by Alison

Ashura-jo no Hitomi was based very closely on a hit kabuki stage play called Blood Gets In Your Eyes (which is my candidate for finest title ever). I found both film and play quite intriguing, and I’ll talk a little about the play below.

Back to Ashura. The film opens at a broken bridge, with a haunting tune sung by the girlish Emishi, She Who Sees. Emishi and Bizan, a demon dressed as a Buddhist nun, confront Kuninari, Master … (read more)

Comments Off on Ashura-jo no Hitomi (2005)

Tenjho Tenge (2004)

(from , dir: )
Posted on October 14, 2006 by Deni

Tenjho Tenge is a fan-service wonderland. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to say, but the manga it’s based on actually makes the anime look like material suitable for kindergarten story time. Which kind of makes me – a fan-girl and not terribly impressed by the classic shounen fan-service cues so carelessly and frequently applied to fighting anime titles – want to respect it just a little bit. After all, it’s got to be hard to live up to … (read more)

Comments Off on Tenjho Tenge (2004)

Gunslinger Girl (2003)

(from , dir: )
Posted on September 15, 2006 by Deni

I’m a cynical anime watcher, and that has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a girl in a fanboys’ world. It’s a mine-field of gratuitous panty shots, triple-D bra cups, big-eyed pre-teens and unnecessary bathing scenes. Not to say that these things are automatically bad, but let’s just say they’re not exactly points of interest for someone like me. So it’s perhaps understandable if I avoid (somewhat like the plague) anything that involves a) girls and mecha, … (read more)

Comments Off on Gunslinger Girl (2003)

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (2004)

(from , dir: )
Posted on September 15, 2006 by Deni

In an astonishingly original interpretation – an inspirational mix of baroque style and science fiction sensibilities – Gankutsuou is a series painted in light, literally. It’s visuals are breathtaking, a wild riot of colour and pattern, a moving Gustav Klimt painting where a glowing palette of elaborate textures have been mapped over what would have normally been flat panels of cell shaded colour, from the sides of buildings to characters’ hair. Verbal descriptions can in no way communicate the lush … (read more)

Comments Off on Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (2004)

Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

(from , dir: )
Posted on September 15, 2006 by Deni

Every now and again, a series comes along so highly anticipated it can’t possibly live up to its own hype, and reviewing it is an exercise in disappointment. Happy to say that in this case, that would be some other review of some other series, and not this one, because this series is fully capable of living up to expectations. In fact, Fullmetal Alchemist is a series fully capable of exceeding them.

Based on a still-running manga by Hiromu Arakawa … (read more)

Comments Off on Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

Chrono Crusade (2004)

(from , dir: )
Posted on September 15, 2006 by Andy

I honestly don’t know whether to be appalled or impressed at Chrono Crusade’s astonishing absence of production direction. Having chosen to set Chrono Crusade in the roaring twenties, Studio Gonzo proceeds to jettison the time period like ballast in a Richard Branson balloon. Characterisation, dialog and costuming are straight from the anime action props department. Except for a few greatcoats, clockwork cogs and antique cars, the whole thing feels, well — contemporary… I’m not saying I’m a stickler for period … (read more)

Comments Off on Chrono Crusade (2004)

Starfish Hotel (2006)

(from , dir: )
Posted on September 10, 2006 by Deni

It might surprise to realise that the director/writer/producer of Starfish Hotel, starring the likes of Koichi Sato (Aegis, When the Last Sword is Drawn), Kiki (Vital) and Akira Emoto (Scrap Heaven), is a Brit. It’s certainly surprising considering the film seems to have a wholly Japanese aesthetic – gorgeous and exact, with the kind of subtle surrealism more at home in the sedate moments of a Miike film, or a Tsukamoto. Under the … (read more)

Comments Off on Starfish Hotel (2006)

Eureka 7 (2005)

(from , dir: )
Posted on September 3, 2006 by Andy

Like most otaku, I lie awake at night and come up with my perfect anime series. During the late nineties it was Neon Genesis Evangelion as done by Studio Ghibli. Two things caused me to recently revise my dream team: Miyazaki hadn’t returned my calls in close to ten years and Full Metal Alchemist turned up on the scene with its perfect mix of action, character and cerebelum-rattling, ‘good guys on the bad guys’ team’. Disturbingly then Eureka 7 almost … (read more)

Comments Off on Eureka 7 (2005)