Charles Solomon

Editor

Internationally known animation historian and critic, Charles Solomon has written over 15 books books including Enchanted Drawings: The History Of Animation, The Art of Disney’s Frozen, The Making of Peanuts Animation, and Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast .

Articles By Charles Solomon

Anime

“The Art of The Boy and the Heron” opens with director Hayao Miyazaki’s self-deprecating Project Memo: “Isn’t it proof that you are aging when you imagine you’re still capable, but in fact you have memory loss due to senility? I would say yes.” Audiences who saw the Oscar-winning film would say “no.” The Japanese title […]

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Anime

Kazuhiko Torishima spent more than 47 years as an editor at “Shonen Jump,” the most popular manga magazine in Japan. (Its current weekly print run is about 1.3 million copies.) Before becoming editor in chief, he worked closely with three celebrated manga-ka (artists), helping them develop their graphic tales: Masakazu Katsura (“Video Girl Ai”), Koji […]

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Anime

As athletes prepare for the Paris Olympics, the Japanese men’s volleyball team is enjoying an unprecedented popularity, thanks in part to an animated feature. One of the big hits of 2024, Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle (produced by Production I.G. and airing on Crunchyroll) has helped fuel a surge in interest in volleyball in Japan. Volleyball […]

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Commentary

Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2023 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the […]

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Anime

Over the last 15 years, Makoto Shinkai has emerged as one of the leaders of a new generation of anime directors who are pushing storytelling in interesting new directions. In Suzume (Suzume no Tojimari—literally, “Suzume’s Closing or Locking,” 2022), the title character begins as a normal high school girl, living with her aunt. Her mother […]

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More From Animation Scoop

BOOK REVIEW: “The Art of The Boy and the Heron”

“The Art of The Boy and the Heron” opens with director Hayao Miyazaki’s self-deprecating Project Memo: “Isn’t it proof that you are aging when you imagine you’re still capable, but in fact you have memory loss due to senility? I would say yes.” Audiences who saw the Oscar-winning film would say “no.” The Japanese title […]