Don't give up: dying in pursuit of change and The Sky Crawlers
Mamoru Oshii doesn’t make forgettable anime. Be it Ghost in the Shell or Patlabor 2, the man injects so much personality into his films that it’s impossible not...
Tag: philosophical
My name is Squealer
The end of a season is a bittersweet time for anime fans, as the joy of seeing a series reach its climax is undercut by the knowledge that this is the last hurr...
Taiyo Matsumoto’s new manga, Sunny: melancholy and wonderful
I’ve long been a fan of Taiyo Matsumoto, a guy who for years has ranked amongst my favourite mangaka. Hopefully you’ll know him as the author of Tek...
After Life, Angel Beats! and anime blogging
If the anime blogosphere is a living purgatory, then the bloggers are the helpers, themselves stuck, but willing to point others in the right direction. As we s...
Childhood's end: Naruto and Pain
To compare Naruto now to the naive kid he was when this series began tells us of how much he's grown since. He's now the person he always dreamed of becoming, a...
In which I contemplate One Piece (and nothing less than the meaning of life)
One Piece begins with the execution of the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. His death was intended to symbolize the power of the World Government, but had the opposit...
Casshern Sins: You looked as if you were dancing
It’s hard to explain how I feel about Casshern Sins. It’s way beyond anything else I’ve seen this year. More than just another good anime seri...
The world is not beautiful, therefore it is; introducing Kino's Journey
I quite like subversive fairy-tales; the suggestion that there is something ugly and unknown shifting beneath a veneer of superficial beauty. This is precisely ...