Review: Ride Your Wave

When 19-year-old surfer Hinako moved to a seaside town to pursue her passion, she never expected the waves to be this choppy…

Hidden Gems: Tokyo Godfathers

Loosely based on the 1948 John Wayne film 3 Godfathers, Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers tells the story of three homeless outcasts who find a new-born baby abandoned on Christmas Eve and set off across the city on a quest to find its mother.

Review: Promare

The first feature from Trigger, the animation studio behind anime television series such as Kill La Kill and Little Witch Academia, Promare is a sci-fi actioner following a group of high-tech firefighters 30 years after a mysterious event lead to a subset of humans (known as the ‘Burnish’) gaining the ability to control fire.

Manga Madness: Mushishi (2006)

If there was ever a live-action manga adaptation that actually looked promising, Mushishi is it.

Manga Madness: Death Note (2017)

Let’s just start with the obvious: Death Note is a mess.

Manga Madness: Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)

Released in 2000, Production I.G.’s Blood: The Last Vampire stands out for its atmospheric visuals, stylish direction, and stunning digital animation.

Manga Madness: Ghost in the Shell (2017)

“It’s not like there aren’t any East Asian actors who could have done a good job as the Major.” This was me, to my dad, during the height of the Ghost in the Shell whitewashing scandal.

Manga Madness: Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name (2006)

With a manga as world-conquering as Death Note, it hardly comes as a surprise that the series would make the transition into live-action.

Hidden Gems: Millennium Actress

Ever since her swift rise to fame in the twilight years of World War Two, actress Chiyoko Fujiwara was the brightest star of the Japanese film industry, inspiring dedicated fans across the country. She was the ‘it girl’, the heroine, the princess. And then she was gone.

Manga Madness: Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy (2012-2014)

In the golden days before mangaka Nobuhiro Watsuki experienced his undeservedly brief fall from grace in 2017, the phrase Rurouni Kenshin only conjured thoughts of exciting samurai action…