This month we memorialize Leiji Matsumoto and the creator of the Anime Music Video (not necessarily in that order).
Anime Review: Overtake
In the Fall 2023 season, we had an interesting occurrence of two different racing series, each covering different kinds of racing, scheduled on the same day, in adjacent time slots (and I believe on different channels). One was MF Ghost, the sequel to Initial D, and the other was Overtake – a series about Formula 4 Racing. While both were about racing, the two were remarkably different.
Read moreAnime Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront
Yasuhiro Nightow is a creator with style by the truckload. Trigun and Gungrave both are works with a tremendous sense of flair, with Trigun also having a strong heart as well. So, when I learned about Blood Blockade Battlefront, I went “I should watch that” — and then never got around to it. When this year’s Anime Secret Santa came around, the show was among my options, and I decided now it’s time had come. I chose wisely.
Read moreAnime Review: MF Ghost (Season 1)
The Fall 2023 anime season featured the spiritual sequel to the classic street racing Anime, Initial D. As people tend to mellow with age, so has the creator of Intial D. MF Ghost continues the concept of racing on regular roads with normal cars, but expands the concept from pure drift racing, and moves it from beyond the underground.
Read moreBook Review: Anime – A History
This week I’ve got a review of a book about film history, covering the history of Japanese Animation.
The Anime Music Videos Playlist and Commentary
In the previous episode of the Anime Explorations podcast, I mentioned that this month’s episode is going to include some discussion of Anime Music Videos, in memoriam of the creator of the medium, James Kaposztas, passing away this past year. I had put together a playlist and had some notes on each of the videos, so in advance of the episode, it’s only appropriate to embed it here, along with my comments on each video selection.
If you’d like to join the conversation in the next episode, please E-mail animeexplorationspod@gmail.com, with your comments, and they may be read on the show.
Vlog: Kumoricon 2023 Con Report
Kumoricon 2023 Photo Galleries
I took a bunch of photos at Kumoricon 2023 of hall cosplay, the Gunpla competition, and the cosplay contest. I will see about embedding those below the cut.
Read moreAnime Only Connect!
One of the things that I was introduced to while watching the 2023 Desert Bus for Hope was the British game show “Only Connect” – with several fan-made games submitted over the course of the week. So, I created my own anime-themed one – and as of this writing I don’t know if it will get picked. Whether or not it does, I figure I’d post the link to my slide deck here! If it does get picked, I’ll also post the video as soon as the Desert Bus Video Strike team posts the video on the Desert Bus YouTube Channel.
Read moreFilm Review: Silence of the Lambs
Very few horror films, and I’d consider Silence of the Lambs in that category (in spite of the book it was based on being credited as having killed the horror genre of novels), have won Academy Awards for Best Picture, never mind the level of sweep that Silence of the Lambs took. So, when I was going for a horror film for Halloween, I decided that Silence of the Lambs was the one to go with, as the last time I’d watched it was on a fairly small TV, and on DVD. Since then it’s gotten a 4K release (which is what I watched), and I have a larger TV to watch it on (and also better speakers), so I felt this was a good time to give it a real re-appraisal.
Read moreFilm Review: House of the Long Shadows
In 1983, when House of the Long Shadows came out, it was heavily panned by critics of the time as being derivative of the old film “Seven Keys to Broadpate”, that the ending undermined the story, and it didn’t have much for scares. I would argue that the critics of the time were simply not picking up what this movie is putting down.
There will be spoilers below the cut.
Read moreFilm Review: Tenebrae
Now that I’m caught up with the most recent anime reviews, it’s time to get back to the horror with some Dario Argento, and him returning to a more… conventional Giallo with Tenebrae. There will be some spoilers for a 20+ year old movie
Read moreAnime Review: Spy Classroom Season 2
Spy Classroom Season 2 is one that is a lot more serious than the first season. It’s not to say that there isn’t a large quantity of slapstick, some comedy around the members of Team Lamplight’s personality foibles, and more development for some of the other members of the group – that’s definitely there. However, it does make an attempt to be more dramatic than last season, with varying degrees of success.
Read moreFilm (Video) Review: Ghosthouse
Anime Review: Oddtaxi
Oddtaxi is one of those truly unique series – on paper it’s the sort of hyperlink-cinema noir story that fits right in with series like Baccano and Durarara (or, for that matter, films like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and Pulp Fiction). However, how the presentation of the story helps make it truly distinct from the other stylistic works that came before. There will be some spoilers below the cut.
Read moreAnime Review: Ayakashi Triangle
So, this anime is a little less “spooky” and a little more “fanservice-heavy”, but it’s a series that also involves the Yokai, which are used in both spooky and silly contexts, so I feel okay including this more recent series, Ayakashi Triangle, into my Halloween reviews.
Read moreFilm (Video) Review: Deep Red
It’s time for the Spooky Season – so let’s do some horror movies from outside the US – first off is Deep Red, a Giallo film from Dario Argento from before he did Susperia.
Film Review: Tentacles
As far as Jaws ripoffs, especially those of the Italian variety, are concerned, Tentacles doesn’t mess around. Within the first 5 minutes of the film, the movie’s antagonist – a giant octopus – has murdered an infant. And the movie barely slows down from there.
Read moreAnime Review: Synduality Noir
Of the Summer 2023 anime series, Synduality Noir is the other of the series that I’d almost describe as “horror adjacent” – in this case not because of the inclusion of traditional gothic horror monsters (Werewolves, Vampires, etc.), but rather because of a few of the elements introduced later in the series.
Read moreAnime Review: Undead Murder Farce
I’m starting off my October horror reviews with a mystery horror anime – Undead Murder Farce.
Read moreAnime Explorations Episode 12: Shirobako
It’s time to get further into the weeds when it comes to how anime gets made.
Read moreAnime Review: Aura Battler Dunbine
It feels weird to call Byston Well, the setting Yoshiyuki Tomino created for Aura Battler Dunbine – a series that many Isekai novels draw their lineage from – as a “joke”. However, arguably no creator has so desperately tried to “make fetch happen” with a setting that Tomino has done with Dunbine – not only with New Aura Battler Dunbine, but also Wings of Rean and Garzey’s Wing. Yet, with the degree of traction the original work obtained, there has to be something there – right?
Read moreAnime Review: TONIKAWA: High School Days
Tonikawa: High School Days is a short 4 episode miniseries that basically makes up one miniature arc. I don’t know where the manga is at by comparison, so I don’t know if this is a case where the studio is waiting on the next arc to wrap before continuing with the story, or what. But what I do know is that this is a nice, warm and cozy little morsel to tide us over until we get the next arc.
Read moreFilm Review: The Replacement Killers
When Chow Yun-Fat came to the US, he brought a reputation from various Heroic Bloodshed epics, from John Woo and Ringo Lam – a reputation as an action star with a strong acting range. So, it’s unsurprising that his early roles would fall into that same category, with The Replacement Killers doing a film in that style, but with some admittedly more Hollywood sensibilities.
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