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Ninja Scroll 10th Anniversary Edition (Uncut) (1994)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Alison

Can you believe that I got through ten years of life without ever having seen Ninja Scroll? I can’t either but I’ve just made up for it, with the 10th anniversary edition. And wow, what an experience. The colours are brilliant, the remastered animation is crisp and clear, and the action never stops.

What can I say about the story? Well, this classic of the genre takes you back to a mythical Japan where historical samurai meet demons with … (read more)

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Orphen (2001)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Deni

Beyond the opening credits of the first volume of Orphen lies a world of light and dark, a place where contradictions work towards the same purpose, a space where opposites co-exist simultaneously. Light adventure and dark conspiracy mix with slapstick comedy and serious drama. This is anime that effortlessly embraces the adult and the childish simultaneously and actually manages a balance between them that prevents it from collapsing in on itself into the ridiculous or bland. Instead everything just seems … (read more)

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Infinite Ryvius (1999)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Andy

Wearing its Neon Genesis Evangelion influences on both of its sleeves, Infinite Ryvius multiplies the number of kids, removes most of the giant robots and keeps the teenage angst simmering at about the same temperature.

Our nominal hero Kouji is a deadringer for Evangelion’s Shinji Ikari right down to the haircut and white short sleeve shirt. Unlike Shinji’s paternal issues, Kouji’s emotional problems come in the form of his younger brother, the rakishly handsome but moody Yuuki, who harbours … (read more)

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Noir (2003)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Ching Yee

Kirika Yumura and Mireille Bouquet are Noir, top female assassins for hire. Noir is also the name of an ancient legend which states that the ‘peace of the newly born’ is governed by the black hands of two maidens. The series alludes to the two maidens being Mireille and Kirika.

Kirika is a natural born killer, cold and unemotional, able to assassinate her targets even under extreme pressure. But her flawless killing skill is also her biggest source of agony, … (read more)

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Neon Genesis Evangelion: End of Evangelion (1997)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Andy

After sitting through Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth, I’m glad I had the second movie, End of Evangelion ready to drop into the disc the tray of my DVD player. It becomes immediately apparent that the second half of Death & Rebirth is the start of End. Yep, that’s right, the material is repeated. In effect the second half of Death & Rebirth is a preview for End.

End of Evangelion, is the real meat, essentially … (read more)

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Patlabor 3 – WXIII (2003)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Deni

There was an excellent documentary on SBS a little while ago, about filmmaking in Japan. In it, for perhaps a tenth of the overall screen time along-side mention of the great Japanese directors — Ozu, Mizuguchi and Kurosawa — and the post-war cult films of Toho Studios, stood a single representative of the modern anime industry, one Satoshi Kon. What he had to say about anime, that it was not the industry’s ultimate goal and that animation was a means … (read more)

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Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Deni

When Final Fantasy The Spirits Within came out in early 2001 there was talk not so much about the film itself but about the future of filmmaking. There was a great deal of hype about how realistic this all-CG film was, about how life-like the characters were, right down to individual strands of hair and their eyelashes. There was even, at one point, a fair amount of fear-mongering (at least in the media) about how this film was the way … (read more)

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Astro Boy (1980)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Andy

Straight up I’m going to admit to not watching all fifty-one eps that make up this ten disc set of the color Astro Boy series from the eighties. This admission is probably breaking some critics’ code of ethics so if I’m killed in what appears to be an incident with a knight of the Templar, it wasn’t an accident.

Having left behind the present of hipster jeans & CSI: Franchise West and returned to my childhood of pastel v-neck sweaters … (read more)

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