Although there have been numerous books and countless articles published about Studio Ghibli and its creations, few, if any, journalists have been able to write about the internal workings of the studio. Steve Alpert, who speaks Japanese fluently, came to Ghibli in 1996 and spent the next decade and a half there as a senior […]
Archive for the ‘Anime’ Category
BOOK REVIEW: “Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli”
June 1st, 2020 
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ANIME REVIEW: “Promare”
May 21st, 2020 Charles Solomon At a time when many American features look so much alike, the brilliant colors and boldly stylized imagery in Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Promare hit the viewer like a bucket of ice water. As Imaishi, screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima and many of the animators worked together on the popular series Gurren Lagann, the flamboyant visual style won’t surprise […]
ANIME REVIEW: “One Piece: Stampede”
May 4th, 2020 Charles Solomon Eiichiro Oda’s pirate comedy-adventure One Piece may well be the most popular animated franchise on the planet. The 96 paperback collections of the original manga have sold more than 450 million books–not far behind the “Harry Potter” series. More than 939 episodes of the animated TV series have been produced with no end in sight. […]
ANIME REVIEW: “RobiHachi”
April 30th, 2020 Charles Solomon The outré sci-fi adventure-comedy RobiHachi (2019) presents the future as a tourist trap. Tall, lanky, and self-indulgent, Robby Yarge is a shameless if unsuccessful skirt-chaser and ne’er-do-well. After a series of get-rich-quick schemes crash and burn, he’s left owing a fortune to Mr. Yang. To collect the debt, Yang sends bright, eager Hatchi Ika. Hatchi […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Fire Force”
April 21st, 2020 Charles Solomon Fire Force is set in a future Earth that was ravaged by The Great Disaster decades earlier, when much of the planet was rendered uninhabitable by terrible conflagrations. Many survivors took refuge in the Tokyo Empire. The Tokyo Emperors brought together personnel from the Holy Sol Temples, the Fire Defense Agency and armed forces to […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Mix Meisei Story, Part 1”
April 9th, 2020 Charles Solomon Baseball is enormously popular in Japan, and the Summer Koshien tournament that determines the national high school championship is one of the most anticipated sports events of the year. Nearly every Japanese schoolboy dreams of pitching in the Koshien. Dreams of the Koshien tournament haunt the shonen (boys’) sports series, Mix Meisei Story. In 1986, […]
Anime To Binge While Sheltering in Place
March 30th, 2020 Charles Solomon To help fill the enforced hours at home of “sheltering in place,” here are some anime series that lend themselves to binge watching. Some are older, some recent; adventures, comedies, romances. Typically, the adventures take the main characters on quests where they face much realer danger than American counterparts. The comedies have a take-no-prisoners silliness […]
From Power Ranger to Power Villain; Johnny Yong Bosch performs Nine on “My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising”
February 27th, 2020 W.R. Miller Johnny Yong Bosch may be more widely known as the second Black Power Ranger, Adam Park, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but since then, his career has exploded in the realm of voiceover acting with over 360 credits. His most notable roles include Vash the Stampede from Trigun (his first anime character); Renton Thurston in […]
INTERVIEW: The Cast of “My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising” Discuss Their “Quirky” Roles
February 24th, 2020 W.R. Miller Imagine a parallel Earth where 80% of the population possess superhuman abilities, or “quirks.” Some become heroes. Others, villains. Then there are those without powers who desire to become heroes. That’s the case with high school student Izuku Midoriya. Luckily for him, he befriends a mentor, All Might, who happens to be the world’s greatest […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Natsume Yujin-cho the Movie: Ephemeral Bond”
February 10th, 2020 Charles Solomon The 2018 feature Natsume Yujin-cho the Movie: Ephemeral Bond is based on a popular manga by Yuki Midorikawa that ran from 2005 to 2019. It’s also been adapted to a TV series that lasted six seasons and several CD dramatizations. Natsume Yujin-cho means “Natsume’s Book of Friends.” Takashi Natsume is a orphaned teen-ager who was […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Hinomaru Sumo”
January 20th, 2020 Charles Solomon In almost any boys’ sports anime, the short and/or red-haired guy is the eager firebrand: Hinata in Haikyu (volleyball), Nagisa in Free (swimming), Gion in All Out! (rugby). He never doubts that he and his teammates will win the big game, the tournament or the nationals. Hinomaru Ushio, the star of Hinomaru Sumo (2018), embodies […]
Studio Ghibli Films to Stream on Netflix outside US and Japan
January 20th, 2020 Jerry Beck Netflix announced today that beginning on February 1st, 21 films from Studio Ghibli, the Academy Award-winning Japanese art house, will be made available on the service globally (excluding US, Canada, Japan), through distribution partner Wild Bunch International, as part of the company’s continued efforts to grow its best-in-class library of animated films. For the first […]
REVIEW: “Dragon Ball: A Visual History”
December 3rd, 2019 Charles Solomon Since its modest beginning as a serial in Weekly Shonen Jump 35 years ago, Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball has become one of the most popular properties in the world. It’s sold more than 250 million books, and has been animated for four TV series, twenty theatrical features, video games, etc. It’s also accounted for billions […]
TMS Entertainment Announce “MEGALOBOX 2” in Development
November 18th, 2019 Jerry Beck TMS Entertainment announced at Anime NYC that Megalobox 2 the highly anticipated sequel to 2018’s hit anime, Megalobox, is currently in development. Megalobox began as a project to commemorate the iconic manga series Tomorrow’s Joe. Highly lauded for its unique visual style and hip-hop inspired soundtrack, Megalobox followed the story of a mysterious boxer Joe […]
ANIME REVIEW: Netflix “Dino Girl Gauko”
November 18th, 2019 Charles Brubaker In today’s TV anime environment there seems to be less interest in producing anime for children than in the past. Most children’s anime airing today are decades-old properties that just happened to never leave airwaves, shows like Crayon Shin-Chan, Doraemon, and Chibi Maruko-chan for example. So I was intrigued when I heard about a new […]
