329 posts tagged with anime.
Displaying 1 through 50 of 329. Subscribe:
The Art of the Benshi: "Full-fledged artists in their own right"
The Art of the Benshi: World Tour trailer. Tour dates (Brooklyn, this afternoon; DC, Apr. 12-14; Chicago, Apr. 16-17--sold out?; LA, Apr. 19 and 20-21; Tokyo, Apr. 26): "During the silent film era in Japan ... film screenings were accompanied by live narrators, called benshi ... [who] enlivened the cinema experience." Films include The Dull Sword (1917; animated); Jiraiya the Hero (1921; see fights at 3:48, 11:37 to see frog magic, and 14:09 for frog vs. snake); A Page of Madness (1926; one of "The 100 Best Horror Movies"; helpful screenplay [PDF] co-authored by Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata); and The Golden Flower (1929; animated). Previously. See also Jess Nevins's 2020 Twitter thread on Japanese horror movies, 1898-1949.
Or, random facts about Imperial China
“The Apothecary Diaries” is an anime (/web novel/novel/light novel/manga/other manga) that takes place in a fictional kingdom based on Imperial China. Youtuber LibeliumDragonfly, a Chinese-Canadian translator, provides an episode-by-episode “viewing appendix” to separate the facts from the fiction. (SLYTPL)
R.I.P. Akira Toriyama, 1955-2024
The Death of the Tsundere
“The tsundere is a well-known anime trope, that many people still love to this day. But something happened to it since its inception, and I want to talk about that.” [19:05] [more inside]
Try Hard --- they sure did!
Alex, an art student, dreams of joining Eve, the "Elite’s Visual School". Together with her best friend Kimmy, they train hard to pass the notoriously impossible entrance exam. Alex’s training turns into an obsession, compromising her friendship with Kimmy.Try Hard is the first of the graduation animations (teaser) made by the class of 2023 at Gobelins, a French school of "visual creation", with each new animation released weekly on Wednesday. English subtitles are available via Youtube's closed captions functionality.
In other words, I can't stop doing 👉👈 in real life
TikTok, emojis and anime now as physical body language. Touching fingers, silently screaming into your hand, the Bella Swan hair tuck—each of these internet mannerisms all require a grossly exaggerated performance.
100+ Years of Yuri
Okazu is the internet's longest-running blog devoted to the study and review of yuri, a genre of manga and anime featuring romances between women and girls. Run by noted yuri expert and historian Erica Friedman, Okazu features loads of reviews ranging from recent series to untranslated classics. There are also essays galore. And if you're new to yuri, you can also find recommendations on where to start.
Anime is as imaginative as ever. It’s also a lot bleaker...
Anime Confronts a New Apocalypse by Matt Alt [The New Yorker] Back in the day, manga was hopeful and positive. Now? Lots of the biggest players are dark and cynical. Alt's piece examines how and why recent times have changed their outlook.
““We’re off to outer space, we’re leaving mother Earth, to save the human race,” the opening lines of the theme song to “Yamato” and “Star Blazers” went, but modern audiences seem more interested in escapes into inner space and saving themselves. Part of this is simply due to changing tastes and styles, inevitable in any youth-oriented medium, and part to how even the most radical subcultures inevitably get co-opted—witness how hip-hop and punk, so edgy and threatening in the eighties, morphed into mainstream pop. Days after Matsumoto’s death, a column about the artist expressed concern about how “cold and cynical many recent anime seem to be.” But is this a criticism of the current crop of animators and fans—or a reflection of Japanese society itself?”
Farewell, Arcadia Of My Youth
One of the major figures in anime and manga, Leiji Matsumoto, has passed away at the age of 85. [more inside]
Donghua has its own identity, and it’s one worth knowing
Chinese animation is a vibrant, distinctive industry — so why do so many people still call it ‘anime’? [Polygon] ““Donghua” — much like “anime” for Japanese speakers — is simply the Chinese word for “animation.” After decades of stagnation in the animation industry, going as far back as the Cultural Revolution, China has entered what many tentatively call a rebirth in the field. It’s the result of 20 years of a Chinese identity crisis in animation, as the industry struggled to compete with the likes of Disney, Pixar, and Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli. While donghua’s current form is heavily influenced by anime, it has its own identity. From the beginning, the medium has constantly evolved to meet the mindset of the society it comes from. Chinese animation has been around for nearly a hundred years.” BONUS: [10 best donghua to get into Chinese animation]
To Be The Very Best
After 25 years, numerous series, and finally winning the title of Champion, the story of Ash Ketchum's path to becoming a Pokémon Master will finally come to a conclusion. [more inside]
Princess Arete deserves to be seen.
STUDIO4℃ is making an English subtitled version of Princess Arete available for free on YouTube until Dec. 2nd 2022. Animation Obsessive has a consideration of the film along with a history of its making. [more inside]
She's got a life in the sky and another here on Earth
Qualitative Research: how did this get published
The 2022 American Sociology Association Conference has had some drama, between podium tipping, security calls for gang affiliation, and most notably, a presentation about The Paper. What is The Paper? Which to be precise was a 'Research Note'.
Content note: masturbation, depictions of CSA in fiction, CSA and CSEM [more inside]
A single chip called life
Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of the hugely successful manga, anime, and trading card game franchise Yu-Gi-Oh!, has passed away at the age of 60. [more inside]
"The most anime of retro anime that ever anime-d"
YouTuber KaiserBeamz has made a name for themselves with detailed dives into various retro anime titles - both notable works like Area 88 and questionable dreck like Mad Bull 34,along with their excellent Merrie History of Looney Tunes retrospective on the history of Termite Terrace. Having hit the milestone of 100 episodes, they decided to cover one of the most famous retro anime titles from the 80s that played a major role in building Western anime fandom, a title filled with silliness, geeky gags, and just plain oddity - Project A-Ko.
it can't be helped perfectly cromulent in Knife Crime Island English tho
One of the more annoying 'controversies' in anime/manga/etc fandom is that of localisation versus literal translation, with a small core of (often right wing) fans prefering their subtitles to be as exact to the Japanese as possible. Professional translator Sarah Moon thought to prove them wrong by using the excellent official slang laden subs of currently running anime romcom My Dress-Up Darling/Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi o Suru and providing a literal alternative for them.
Barefoot Gen -- A powerful statement against war.
Barefoot Gen (English sub-titled) (dubbed) Barefoot Gen is a 1983 Japanese anime war drama film loosely based on the Japanese manga series of the same name by Keiji Nakazawa. Directed by Mori Masaki and starring Issei Miyazaki, Masaki Kōda and Tatsuya Jo, it depicts World War II in Japan from a child's point of view revolving around the events surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and the main character's first hand experience of the bomb. IMDb Wikipedia [more inside]
The Beat-Alls: Get Back
21 years ago this month, Cartoon Network aired a very special episode of The Powerpuff Girls. Though nominally a harmless kids series about three adorable kindergarten superheroes, creator Craig McCracken attracted an unexpectedly diverse audience (50% male, 25% adult) by sneaking in a surprising amount of violent mood whiplash and adult in-jokes -- and on that last point, this particular episode was king. Broadcast on the 37th anniversary of their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, "Meet the Beat-Alls" was an extended and sophisticated metaphor for the rise and fall of The Beatles, cramming more than forty song references and dozens of visual jokes into only ten minutes of animated allegory. Catch the original episode here or read the transcript, but for the full effect, watch this remarkable YouTube mash-up (playable via the Wayback Machine!) that splices the referenced song clips directly into the audio track. Want more PPG goodness? You can start with the special "Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!", a sly, hyperkinetic celebration of the show's tenth anniversary directed by McCracken himself that features every character (and totally subverts an important one). But as far as weirdness goes, it's hard to top Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, a long-running fan-made webcomic which stars the trio alongside Dexter, Samurai Jack, Invader Zim, and tons of other network icons in an unusually dark manga adventure. Oh, and don't forget your plate of beans. [more inside]
Is it NSFW if it's claymation?
Minna Agechau
How Gay is Gay Enough?
"What kind of representation actually counts as gay representation? What counts as pandering? What counts as baiting? And what's the difference?" How Gay is Gay Enough? (about the anime Yuri on Ice* but also about queer representation in media in general) [more inside]
A Czech Angel's Thesis
Documentary director Ondřej Hudeček has created a documentary about the Czech ice hockey victory in the first Olympics of the professional era of the Games - with an opening that promptly broke anime Twitter.
Just the tip of the iceberg
Transgender & Non-Binary Visibility In Japanese Media and EVEN MORE Transgender and Non-Binary Characters in Japanese Media: Andrea Ritsu looks at trans and non-binary characters in anime, manga and video games. BONUS: more in depth looks at the misgendering of Kino from Kino's Journey and why trans zombie girl Lily from Sombie Land Saga was not a Crunchyroll invention.
On Beeing
Take Care of Yourself
A train station in Japan's Fukuoka Prefecture posted public service messages about the country's current Covid-19-related state of emergency using a typographical style reminiscent of legendary anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Japanese social media users have noticed and have been having some fun with it.
Totoro is at 16:35
this is weird I'm out
Kimetsu no Yaiba anime sets Japanese box office record despite pandemic
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (鬼滅の刃) went from manga to anime to feature film in just a few short years as it quickly gained a large following in Japan. Since the second feature film, 鬼滅の刃 無限列車編 (Kimetsu no Yaiba: Infinity Train) was released domestically on October 16, despite the ongoing COVID threat, it already set a box office record by reaching the ¥10 billion mark twice as fast as any other movie. [more inside]
it really whips the llama's ass
Happy Friday! Here's a fully interactive and functional museum of classic WinAmp skins.
Spongebob Squarepants: Anime-Style
Have you ever dreamed of seeing Spongebob Squarepants re-imagined as a seinen anime? Of course you have. (SLYT) [more inside]
Magical Girls as Metaphor: Why coded queer narratives still have value
To me, queerness is about all of these things: transformation, growth, family, love, solidarity, self-determination, collective strength, and building a better world. Taken to be true, it makes perfect sense that magical girl and idol anime felt queer to their very core ten years ago, and feel exactly the same to me now. [more inside]
“...it’s a chaotic, desperate age and therefore has to produce art.”
Ben Wittes and Kate Klonick of LawFare interview Renaissance historian, science fiction writer and anime consultant Ada Palmer on their YouTube channel In Lieu of Fun. [more inside]
Star Renegades
All to sell miso soup apparantly
Why does this commercial have a better plot than half of the shows y’all be watching? asks Dripjutsu on twitter. [more inside]
Robert Louis Streamin', Son
Treasure Island. The reason we think of pirates the way we do. It has, of course, had many adaptations, but these five animated ones are among the most unique:
Treasure Island (anime series later edited into a movie, Japan, 1978-79/1987).
The Treasure Planet (Bizarre sci-fi version, Bulgaria, 1982).
Treasure Island - has two different fan-translations via YouTube subtitles - Option A and Option B parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (gorgeous animation interspersed with live-action singing pirates, USSR, 1988).
The Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Treasure Island (USA, 1990).
Legends of Treasure Island (epic funny-animal animated series, UK, 1993-1995 - link is to the entire series on Dailymotion - they're also on YouTube here but the uploader announced her intention to remove them from there in response to the YouTube COPPA ruling, although she has long missed her claimed deadline).
Treasure Island (anime series later edited into a movie, Japan, 1978-79/1987).
The Treasure Planet (Bizarre sci-fi version, Bulgaria, 1982).
Treasure Island - has two different fan-translations via YouTube subtitles - Option A and Option B parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (gorgeous animation interspersed with live-action singing pirates, USSR, 1988).
The Adventures of Ronald McDonald: Treasure Island (USA, 1990).
Legends of Treasure Island (epic funny-animal animated series, UK, 1993-1995 - link is to the entire series on Dailymotion - they're also on YouTube here but the uploader announced her intention to remove them from there in response to the YouTube COPPA ruling, although she has long missed her claimed deadline).
City of Smiles
Shehr-e-Tabassum (2020). Pakistan's first ever anime film about a dystopian cyberpunk future with Pakistani characteristics. 9 minutes long and with English subtitles.
everything is forum wars
The debate over subtitles, explained
In January, Parasite director Bong Joon-ho planted his flag in the subtitle camp, stating during his Golden Globes acceptance speech (for Best Foreign Language Film) that “once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” After Parasite’s Oscar win, it seemed that fans of foreign films had punched a sizable hole through that wall.
No stand-in used here
That time Jewelpet Sunrise, a Japanese magical girl with fluffy mascots cartoon series did a shot for shot recreation of the audition scene from Flashdance.
Hood Cowboy Bebop
KING VADER presents a live action parody of the animated adventures of Spike Spiegel: Hood Cowboy Bebop (Part Two)
It seemed impossible for a sheep to become a wolf.
In 1978, Takashi Yanase, beloved among children for his Anpanman character, wrote a picture book about a lamb who swears revenge on the wolf who killed his mother, and therefore goes to the very same wolf to learn to become a killer himself. Later the same year, Sanrio (yes, the people who make Hello Kitty) adapted it into a 47 minute-long film. "Chirin’s Bell is like if, instead of Bambi being raised by his father after the death of his mother, he sought out the hunters who killed his mother and insisted they teach him how to use a gun. Or if Simba, instead of running from Scar after his father’s murder, decided to join Scar in his conquest of the Pride Lands. Because, that’s basically what happens in this movie!" [more inside]
this post is full of neon
How Youtube’s Algorithm Turned an Obscure 1980s Japanese Song Into an Enormously Popular Hit Building on the video essay by Stevem ("What Is Plastic Love?"; 10m SLYT), a short explainer on the song that was probably cropping up in your Youtube recommendations for most of 2018. But an unusual copyright claim took it off the internet (10:40m SLYT), further amplifying its Streisand Effect popularity, though an amicable agreement was soon reached (6:39m SLYT), restoring the song that's now become the face of the City Pop genre. [more inside]
Technically, it should be called "Peachowser"
ProZD (aka Sungwon Cho) makes the internet’s most geekily delightful ultra-low budget videos, from when you have a REALLY good turn in a card game, games where your choices don't actually matter, to cutscenes that keep the stupid clothes you put on your character, and the classic harem anime where everyone but the protagonist is sentient furniture. [more inside]
"A Cruel Angel's Edit" : The Lingua Franca of Pop-culture Deconstruction
With the recent arrival of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" to Netflix, the internet was again seized by one of the most squabbled-over animes of all time. But if there is anything about NGE that the internet can agree on, it's that the opening theme song and video, "A Cruel Angel's Thesis", totally kicks ass. Its hyper-paced and heavily-layered editing is at once prototypical AMV eye-candy, while also being a solid narrative deconstruction of a show you'll never really understand. As with other anime fan edits, it quickly became popular to re-cut other anime in the same style. But it was its discursive potential, mixed with the totally over-the-top tunes, that made the "Cruel Angel's Edit" such a powerful meme outside of anime, and has inspired a series of truly high-effort good-posts over the years re-rendering all aspects of culture. Here are some of the internet's best, and below the fold some honorable mentions: Arthur | King of the Hill | Diner's, Drive-ins, and Dives | Regular Show (original) | Super Mario 64 | Marianne Williamson | Drake and Josh | Hey Arnold! | Steam Summer Sale | The Legend of Zelda | Windows 98 | 2018 World Cup [more inside]
Kyoto Animation studio hit by an arson attack
Thirtythree dead and thirtysix injured in an arson attack on anime studio Kyoto Animation this Thursday morning. Confirmed as the worst post-war massacre in Japan, the news hit anime fans hard, with #PrayForKyoani trended worldwide on Twitter. [more inside]
Both involve water
In Japan this summer there are two highly anticipated anime releases. Weathering With You is the next film by Makoto Shinkai, writer/director of the mega-hit Your Name.
Also being released this summer is Children of the Sea. It's also visually stunning, and the trailer doubles as a music video for the film’s theme song, “Umi no Yurei” (“Ghosts of the Sea”) by Vocaloid songsmith-turned-singer Kenshi Yonezu.
Classic videogame/anime music interpreted for the xylophone
A YouTube channel where three Japanese women play classic videogame and anime music on a giant xylophone while wearing themed hats. "Corridors of Time" from Chrono Trigger
"Big Chocobo" from Final Fantasy III
"Love Song" from Dragon Warrior II
“OBJECTION!” ☞
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review [US Gamer] “A judicial system where literally any old scrub can practice law. A court that's apparently never heard of being in contempt. A courtroom in which playground insults can be hurled around and witnesses can be cautioned for "wanton winking." Welcome to the world of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the first three games of which have been repackaged in glorious, non-pixelated HD for the Ace Attorney Trilogy. Phoenix Wright is a detective series of games consisting of collecting evidence and interrogating suspects, as much as it is a courtroom showdown of proving contradictions and errors in witness testimonies. Practicing law in the anime world is a hell of a good time.” [YouTube][Trailer] [more inside]
"A fascinating look at a future that came to be..."
Why you should watch Paranoia Agent (some mild spoilers within - major spoilers with a warning half-way through): "There's a quote from Satoshi Kon that I really like, in which he states, 'A world that a person perceives is filtered by their own fantasy and paranoia,' and you can see this same quote reflected in every character of Paranoia Agent. Rather than the show telling us how we should perceive each of its characters, the series is instead more focused on how they perceive themselves, and the reality around them, and all of the delusion and fantasy that comes with that." From the late director Satoshi Kon (previously), 2003’s Paranoia Agent (spoiler-free MyAnimeList description and reviews) is a limited anime series that starts with a seemingly simple crime: a string of physical assaults all perpetrated by the same mysterious figure, known as Lil' Slugger / Shonen Bat. Content warning: discussions of assault, sexual violence, and racism. [more inside]
Kirby's Collab Collab
The ever-growing corpus of collaborative piecemeal remakes grows once more with Kirby Reanimated Collab, a collaborative animation about a collaborative animation.