A gentle melancholy hangs over the anime feature Penguin Highway (2018), setting it apart from similar fantasy-adventures. Fourth-grader Aoyama (voice by Kana Kita) is almost too precocious and self-possessed. Never at a loss for a reply to a bully or an interfering adult, he says what viewers may wish they’d thought to say in school. […]
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ANIME REVIEW: “My Hero Academia: Two Heroes”
March 30th, 2019 
Charles Solomon One of the biggest anime hits of recent years, the broadcast series My Hero Academia (2016) blends the popular genres of the superhero adventure and the high school comedy-drama. The first feature, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, earned a 100% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and a respectable $28 million in its US theatrical release […]
BOOK REVIEW: “Aardman: An Epic Journey Taken One Frame at a Time: An Autobiography”
March 27th, 2019 Charles Solomon For decades, “animation” meant drawn animation in America. Except for George Pal’s Puppetoons, stop-motion was a minor variant, used for movie monsters, Alka-Seltzer commercials and the occasional holiday special. But in recent years stop-motion animation has enjoyed an unprecedented efflorescence. One of principle creators of that flowering is the Aardman Animations studio. The found dialogue […]
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Anime Review: “Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us”
March 26th, 2019 Charles Solomon Although Pokémon is no longer the craze bordering on mania it was 20 years ago, the property remains extremely popular. The TV series, which runs to more than 800 episodes, enjoys a worldwide audience on TV, streaming services and discs; YouTube lists more than 100,000,000 Pokémon films. Pokémon merchandise is ubiquitous, and on a typical […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Samurai Champloo: The Complete Series”
March 4th, 2019 Charles Solomon When Cowboy Bebop concluded in 1998, viewers waited eagerly to see what Shinichiro Watanabe would do next. After directing two short films for the anthology feature The Animatrix in 2003, he released the broadcast series Samurai Champloo in 2004. It was worth the wait. Although it was a science fiction series about a “space cowboy”/bounty […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Anime-Gataris: The Complete Series”
February 9th, 2019 Charles Solomon In the first two minutes of Anime-Gataris (literally “Talking about Anime,” 2017), the filmmakers offer a hilarious send-up of Gundam, Sailor Moon and the component series of Robotech. If the rest of the show never quite meets that admittedly impressive bar, it’s still very silly, very meta and a great big inside joke for anime […]
ANIME REVIEW: “ReLife: Final Arc”
January 1st, 2019 Charles Solomon The 13-episode broadcast series ReLife (2016) felt like it ended prematurely, with the main characters’ stories unfinished. The four-part Final Arc OAV (2018) brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. Arata Kaizaki (voice by Micah Solusod), had been a promising high school student. Warm and caring, he brought out the best in the people around […]
ANIME REVIEW: Prequels and Sequels to “Free!”
November 19th, 2018 Charles Solomon The adventures of the swimmers in the Free! (2013) series proved so popular, they spawned follow-up series and feature films High Speed! Free! Starting Days (2015) is a prequel to the original series: Four talented young athletes enter Iwatobi Middle School. Kind, soft-spoken Makoto (Johnny Yong Bosch) tries to look after everyone. Introverted Haruka (Todd […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”
November 16th, 2018 Charles Solomon Hiromu Arakawa’s “Fullmetal Alchemist” was one of the first successful adventure manga created by a woman. Ordinarily, the animated versions would be classified as shonen (boy’s) series, but the complex characters and intriguing plot attracted fans of both genders—on both sides of the Pacific. “Fullmetal” centers on the prodigies Edward and Alphonse Elric. The boys […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Mamoru Hosoda Movie Collection”
November 6th, 2018 Charles Solomon In the 12 years since the premiere of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), his first personal feature, Mamoru Hosoda has built a reputation as one of the most interesting writer-directors working in animation–as this collection affirms. His films center on bright teen-agers who feel more interesting and complex than many of their American […]
Dragonball’s “Goku” to make Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Debut
November 2nd, 2018 Charles Solomon Macy’s has announced that Goku, the hero of the hugely popular anime saga Dragon Ball, will appear as a giant character balloon in the 92nd annual Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, Nov. 22nd, 2018—a first for an anime figure. Goku will be depicted in his Super Saiyan Blue form, a staggeringly powerful avatar that he […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Planetarian”
October 29th, 2018 Charles Solomon The dystopic science fiction tale Planetarian began as a kinetic or visual novel by “Key” in 2004. Twelve years later, it was adapted to five-part ONA (Original Net Animation). The story opens long after a biological/nuclear war devastated most of the Earth; the few surviving humans lead a hardscrabble existence, scavenging the ruined cities for […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Saiyuki Reload Blast”
October 15th, 2018 Charles Solomon Saiyuki is one of several anime series based loosely—very loosely in this case—on Wu Ch’êng-ên’s Ming Dynasty novel “The Journey to the West,” sometimes called “Monkey” in English. The book chronicles the misdeeds of the Monkey King, Son Goku. (Akira Toriyama’s hit series Dragon Ball is also derived from the novel.) Goku’s antics disturb even […]
BOOK REVIEW: “Winsor McCay: His Life and Art” by John Canemaker
September 21st, 2018 Charles Solomon Although he would be horrified to have his work linked to Sausage Party and The Emoji Movie, Winsor McCay deserves the title of father of animation. He didn’t make the first animated films, but he was the first to suggest the real potential of the medium. The art of character animation can be traced to […]
Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2018
Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2018 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 […]