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Elsewhere on the Web
Gunslinger Girl (2003)
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)
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Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (2004)
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)
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Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)
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)
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Chrono Crusade (2004)
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)
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Starfish Hotel (2006)
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)
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Eureka 7 (2005)
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)
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Wolf’s Rain (2003)
A relatively young production company made up of a bunch of inarguably experienced — and talented — people from another little studio called Sunrise, Bones Inc has in the last 6 years since its inception, become a name synonymous with quality. Of course, it wasn’t until the cinematic release of an OAV subtitled Knocking on Heaven’s Door that people really started to sit up and take notice, but once Bones was on the map, it was on the map to … (read more)
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Isabella (2006)
Isabella was a pleasant surprise of a film for me. Perhaps it was due to my expectations. I didn’t expect to like it, and I admit that’s because the minute I find out a film is about an older guy and a beautiful young girl, I’m a bit bored; I’m in the wrong demographic to see the appeal. So no, I didn’t really expect to like it. But Isabella surprised me because it wasn’t really what I expected after all. … (read more)
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