Who would have thought we’d be hanging out with Cardcaptor Sakura again, after all this time? It’s a special feeling to be reunited with a show and characters that meant so much to so many of us in our younger otaku years. The trouble is, this ecstatic return has opened our hearts to mourning the many anime series we’d welcome back in a heartbeat. Here … Continue reading Revival reveries: our top five anime that need a sequel
“And the work which has become a genre unto itself shall be called: Cowboy Bebop” This phrase is proudly emblazoned across the seminal series like manifesto, a mission statement that this stylish mix of music, form and story is entirely its own beast. Sure enough, while the series – and creator Shinichiro Watanabe – is indebted to western media, its aesthetic is unique, nurtured during … Continue reading Dear Hollywood, leave Cowboy Bebop alone
Like all art, anime is a reflection of the society that bore it, a means to echo its beliefs, traditions and behaviours. But in isolation, art alone is not enough to decode an entire coutry and can instead present a skewed image of a nation. There seems to be this shared assumption that Japan doesn’t have a drug problem, that its cultural conformity is a … Continue reading The high life: drug use in anime
How do you make an otaku feel old? Remind them Cowboy Bebop is turning 20 this year. To celebrate its 20th birthday, we’ll be running a series of posts, articles and poems. To kick things off, I cast my mind back and explore how I first discovered the show. Time and places have a way of resonating with us despite having never lived in or … Continue reading Cowboy Bebop and my anime awakening
As UK-based anime fans, we pay close attention to the comings and goings of Netflix’s otaku offerings. While there are plenty of quality shows, we’ve taken out the hard work and put together the top seven, so all you have to do is sit back, Netflix and chill. (Not like that. Or like that, if you want. Who are we to judge?) Death Note The … Continue reading Streaming heaven: our top seven anime on Netflix
From the Western World to the Land of the Rising Sun, Star Wars ushered in a collective cultural love of space fantasy. But it was arguably Leiji Matsumoto who popularised the look and feel of action orientated sci-fi in the Japanese consciousness with Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999. It’s no exaggeration to say that Takehiko Ito’s Outlaw Star manga … Continue reading Review: Outlaw Star
It sounds almost like a thought experiment; if a typical individual is immersed in an abnormal environment, do they cease to be normal? Blood Blockade Battlefield poses the question, but comes up short on answers. With ‘normal’ characters in anime, there’s an inescapable sense of ‘they doth protest too much’. Our protagonist, the gutsy Leonardo Watch, is a walking, talking example. There’s a sort of … Continue reading Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront
Soft robotics are all the rage after the unveiling of the super-kawaii silicone octobot, and each new android incarnation out of Japan seems smarter and closer to the real deal. With experimentation into robotics advancing ever further, we’re getting to a point where robots we can naturally relate to don’t seem quite so sci-fi any more. And now, what with Hollywood’s live-action Ghost in the … Continue reading More human than human: anime’s best cybernetic beings
If you’re anything like me, than you’ll obsess over lists and forensically dissect the ins and outs of your favourite anime. Having a definitive favourite is in itself somewhat miraculous, and I often struggle with my own top ten, nevermind what holds the top spot. One month I’ll be convinced Cowboy Bebop is my one and only, while another it might get usurped by Ergo … Continue reading Calling all ani-bloggers – my favourite anime
Before Star Wars even landed in Japan, there was already pornographic manga of Luke, Leia and co. in open circulation. The films’ advertising publicity supervisor, Charles Lippincott, and star Mark Hamill arrived in the East for a press tour. There they stumbled across a few choice manga and brought them back for boss-man George Lucas as a bit of a giggle. But they hadn’t counted … Continue reading Mech suits, starships and space cowboys: Star Wars’ influence on manga and anime
I’ve found with time that many a great anime has gone unnoticed or has been forgotten about when talking with new watchers or those who just didn’t have access to a lot of anime when they first started watching. Yet now some of the best anime ever made is no further than a few clicks away! You get a small library with a Netflix subscription. … Continue reading Guest blog: Essential watching – under the radar anime to binge on
From Parasyte’s fascination with John Carpenter’s The Thing to Cowboy Bebop’s fridge-spawned spoof of Alien, the simultaneous revulsion and attraction to the unidentified proves universal across eastern and western cultures. But in anime, we’ve found there’s more of a tendency to frame a drama around a circumstantial alien presence, rather than putting the invasion at the centre of the story. No matter how they appear, … Continue reading They came from outer space: our favourite anime aliens
