After twenty-five years of fans debating, discussing, speculating and impatiently waiting, Hideaki Anno finally brings his Evangelion saga to a conclusion in the feature Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01: Thrice Upon a Time, airing on Amazon Prime. The broadcast series Neon Genesis Evangelion debuted in October, 1995. Eerie female voices exhorted, “Zankoku na tenshi no you […]
GKIDS’ latest feature from celebrated director Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, Ride Your Wave) Inu-Oh, is an Official Selection of the 2021 Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. The film will make its world debut at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section, followed by its North American premiere in the Toronto International […]
What do Ren and Stimpy, Spongebob, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Batman and Superman the animated series, Early Sesame Street, Osamu Tezuka, The Simpsons, Beatles Yellow Submarine, Akira, Charlie Brown and Peanuts, Kim Possible, Jay Ward, Hayao Miyazaki, Sonic the Hedgehog, Nightmare Before Christmas, Mr. Magoo, Brave Little Toaster and ‘The Art of Bill Plympton’ have in […]
Kenji Iwaisawa’s offbeat On-Gaku: Our Sound (2019) has attracted a loyal following in the US; it even earned an Annie nomination for Independent feature. Although it’s based on a self-published manga by Hiroyuki Ohashi, Iwaisawa wrote the screenplay, directed the film and animated it almost single-handedly. He simply couldn’t afford professional animators; the film’s shoestring […]
Many recent anime TV programs reflect Japan’s daunting socio-economic problems in the post-Bubble economy: An aging, shrinking population; a bleak financial future that makes many young people undesirable as potential marriage partners; growing economic inequality; the persistent trauma from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident Westerners call Fukushima—and the government’s ineffectual response to it.
