Archives for category: Madhouse

Summer Wars (2009): Review

November 22, 09 //
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I was stupid lucky enough this Friday to make the 400+ mile round journey up north to the Leeds International Film Festival for the day. Given the length of the journey and the insane price of train tickets here in the UK that might seem a bit excessive to catch a couple of movies, but the festival’s anime weekend was being kicked off by an unmissable double bill. First off was Mamoru Oshii’s lost, experimental classic Angel’s Egg (more on that to follow), being shown in the UK for the first time in over 20 years, but the real incentive for me was to see the UK premiere of Momoru Hosoda’s latest blockbuster Summer Wars.
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COMPETITION: Win Devil May Cry on DVD and Blu-ray

September 30, 09 //
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COMPETITION NOW CLOSED. Winners will be notified shortly by email – so good luck!

Last week I had a brief look at Madhouse’s Devil May Cry anime series based on the popular PlayStation game franchise – and time permitting I’ll still be taking a more in depth look over the next couple of weeks – but my first impressions were pretty strong. It’s a dark and brooding show art-wise, that still manages to maintain a sense of humour while packing in all the stylish demon killing and violent bloodshed of the original games. It might not break any new ground in terms of originality or innovative storytelling, but that’s not really the point. Big guns and even bigger swords – that’s the point.
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UK Anime Releases – October 2009

September 23, 09 //
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There’s been a lot of bad news and vibes around the US anime industry recently – with some rather major players taking a hit – but for once here in the UK things seem to be ticking over quite happily. Sure we might be a few months behind our American cousins, but judging by the amount of screeners and press releases that have been jamming up my mailbox over the last month it looks like the UK distributor’s schedules show no easing up at the moment. It’s certainly more than I can review in detail before they hit shops, so in the first of what will be a regular feature here’s a run down of stuff that’s due to drop next month – keep an eye on the site over the next few weeks for more in-depth analysis of the pick of the crop.
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RideBack 10 – 12 (2009): Review

April 7, 09 //
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(Note: This is the third and final part of an ongoing review of RideBack. Read the first and second parts.)
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RideBack 4 – 9 (2009): Review

March 16, 09 //
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(Note: This is the second part of an ongoing review of RideBack. The first part can be read here and the final part here.)
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The Sky Crawlers (2008): Review

March 13, 09 //
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If you’ve read this site before, or even just glanced over it’s archives, then my appreciation and admiration of director Mamoru Oshii is clearly laid out. As such it would seem not only redundant but also somewhat self indulgent to elaborate further on my love of his tense political sci-fi dramas Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor, or his low budget, live action masterpiece Avalon. Ever since his latest feature film The Sky Crawlers was first announced I have been gripped with excitement and anticipation – although, as always, resigned to the long wait us western fans must endure before we are granted an audience. This week that wait finally ended, and putting aside my deep rooted fanboy allegiances for just under two hours, I was able to sit down and see if anime’s most esteemed auteur could still deliver the goods.
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First episodes round up: Soul Eater, Kurozuka, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Nodame Cantabile

February 9, 09 //
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As you can probably imagine, I constantly have a lot of anime waiting to be watched. Some of it is brand new recently broadcast shows, others entire series from years ago that I’m still trying to catch up with. However, cursed as I am with a job and a life, decisions have to be made as to which shows I follow and review, and which I just reject straight away. Usually watching one or two episodes is enough to tell, but occasionally shows come along that although they don’t earn my full attention, I can see they may still have something to offer to viewers. So, in the first of a regular series, I present a round up of first episodes you might want to check out.
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RideBack 1 – 3 (2009): Review

February 8, 09 //
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There was a point, just a few minutes into the second half of the first episode of RideBack, when I finally decided that it was the first show I’d seen worth following this year. As the main protagonist races her fusion of motorcycle and mecha through her college campus, her skirt bellows in the wind and we hear a passer-by shout “I saw her panties!”. But we, the audience, see nothing. It’s a brief moment, but one that speaks volumes about the series’ intentions.
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