I watched the UK premiere of Calamity of a Zombie Girl in Edinburgh during the Scotland Loes Anime film festival. The whole audience was laughing at it, snorting in disbelief at times, but probably not in the way the director or Gonzo, the production company, wanted. I’m not sure what sort of story Calamity of […]
The dark hour: A review of Persona 3 – The Movie #1 Spring of Birth
There are more than 24 hours in the day. There’s a dark hour that exists between days, when machines stop working, people vanish into coffins and monsters called Shadows come out to hunt. The occasional human isn’t lucky enough to transform into a safe coffin clad item during the Dark Hour. They stay real, active […]
Turn off your brain: Girls und Panzer der Film
I hadn’t seen any Girls und Panzer before catching the film during the Scotland Loves Anime festival. Now I don’t need to. I think I’ve got the hang of this anime but if I’m visiting a friends flat, they want to watch some more, I won’t object. You might assume you know what’s in Girls […]
Stunningly clever: A review of Your Name
Your Name is something of a slice of life anime from the acclaimed Makoto Shinkai. Makoto Shinkai is probably best known for titles like Garden of Words and 5 Centimeters Per Second and while they’re both good, especially Garden of Words, I think Your Name is a significant step up. I think Your Name has […]
The anime to move you: A review of A Silent Voice
A Silent Voice is the anime to show those nagging friends who think anime only features bikini catgirls in space pirate battles. This is a hard-hitting slice of life drama about bullying. The anime was directed by Naoko Yamada who is probably best known for K-On – another school drama but a world apart from […]
Always accelerating: A review of Accel World Infinite Burst
I’ve not seen any of the Accel World series before watching Infinite Burst. I’m not especially keen to watch any of it now that I have. My main challenge with Accel World: Infinite Burst is that I don’t know when the re-cap finished and the actual movie started! That’s a weird one but at least […]
Flirting with the surreal: A review of Kizumonogtari
I’m told it has previously been quite hard to jump into the quirky, sometimes adult, Kizumonogtari series. Actually, a quick look on Amazon seems to confirm that with a host of anime and manga with similar names and characters. The good news is that this three-part film is a prequel. Start here. I’m glad I […]
Gorgeous but flawed: A review of Kingsglaive – Final Fantasy
Kingsglaive Final Fantasy and Warcraft are in a battle over which is the best ‘movie based on a computer game’. That’s another way of saying that Kingsglaive looks great, is entirely loyal to the franchise, takes itself very seriously, nearly works but is missing something. In the computer game Final Fantasy XV we follow Prince […]
Killed by kindness: A review of Harmony
In a perfectly designed city of bubblegum pink towers everyone is happy. Everyone is happy until thousands are persuaded to kill themselves and the masterminds behind that plot give everyone else a sinister deadline. Harmony is set in the near future. The ‘first world’, just as we know it today – the rich countries – […]
Double or quits: A review of Psycho-Pass the Movie
Let’s begin this review with a caveat: there are times in this anime that the characters speak English and some of those dialogues are wince worthy bad. I watched the UK premier at Scotland Loves Anime and I very much hope the studio can dub over these sections before a general release. I really enjoyed […]