Although he had worked as an animator and director on numerous TV series and three “Digimon” features, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was the first film to showcase Mamoru Hosoda’s talent as a director. If you were to ask her, Makoto Konno (Emily Hirst) would say she regards herself as a normal high school […]

Based on the manga by Yusei Matsui, the series Assassination Classroom has a premise that’s bizarre, even by the freewheeling standards of anime. An alien destroys 70% of the moon, leaving just a permanent crescent. He threatens to do the same to the Earth unless certain conditions are met. The creature insists on being made […]

Laboriously unfunny, tasteless and derivative, The Angry Birds Movie feels both unwelcome and overdue—like an obnoxious cousin who shows up for your parents’ 50th anniversary party a week late. Created by the Finnish company Rovio, the Angry Birds game debuted in 2009, became a huge fad, then, inevitably, faded. (How long ago was 2009 in […]