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One of my recent Amazon purchases was this 500 page collection of writings by Hayao Miyazaki - Starting Point. As tantalizing as the idea of an autobiography sounds, Starting Point is nothing like that.  Rather, it is a collection of essays, speeches, and interviews written or done by Hayao Miyazaki between 1979 to 1996.  After reading [...]

Binbou Shimai Monogatari , which translates roughly into something like “The Story of Poor Sisters“, is a 10-episode anime based of a seinen manga of the same name.  The general premise of the story is that two girls, the older being in middle school, live alone in a rather modest apartment (think Maison Ikkoku).  They live in relative poverty without parental support, as their mother has passed away and their father has left them for his gambling addictions.  The older sister takes up a part time job while the younger one devotes herself to housework, and by depending on each other, they are able to live independently……

Somehow, it hadn’t crossed my radar that Nodame Cantabile had returned to the airwaves with a new season, probably because I’ve been paying less and less attention to ongoing anime.  Of course, I’ve picked it up again, though I’ve only had the time for one episode so far.  At first glance, it appears to carry on [...]

Before reading further, I will point out that my actual review is found here, while this post will contain spoilers as well as my general impressions of the film’s plot and ending.  I should also mention that my “top ten anime list” has been modified to include Millenium Actress.  I thought long and hard about what [...]

I’ve always heard the name Satoshi Kon pop up in serious anime discussions, but my familiarity with his works has been fairly restricted.  There is, of course, Tokyo Godfathers, which was an enjoyable film that earned quite a positive review from me, but I’ve been told that it is the least indicative of his general style.  After watching Millenium Actress, I think I might have a better idea of what that “style” may be, and it is indeed a very interesting one….

Figure 17 aired back in 2001 under a fairly uncommon format – it consists of 13 episodes, but each episode is about double the length of a typical anime episode.  So in terms of actual length, it is more or less the equivalent of a common 26-episode series.  The story revolves around Tsubasa, a girl from Tokyo who has moved to rural Hokkaido and finds herself having trouble fitting in (not helped by her reserved demeanor).  One day, she stumbles upon a crashed alien ship and discovers a man fighting for his life against a giant, violent creature.  …..

I’ll take a brief break from anime-related discussions to discuss my latest musical endeavors. If you follow my youtube channel, you’ll have seen my latest uploads of a few Studio Ghibli piano pieces – if not, Porco Rosso fans especially should check it out.  However, this post will be centered around a more major project, [...]

The new season’s anime previews has been posted up at CF’s website – you can take a look here.  I’m going to take a page out of psgels’ book and write a commentary on each of the offerings.  However, I’m not as familiar with the backgrounds of various non-Ghibli studios and directors, so my impressions [...]

I took my first Japanese class a few years ago, and found that while it was a fun experience, it wasn’t exactly great use of time.  The entirety of what was taught in the weekly 3 hour classes (throughout the year) could have been covered in a month with efficient self-studying.  So I eventually left [...]

Mamoru Hosoda is probably best known as the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, a film which was fairly popular both critically as well as commercially (despite limited release).  The praise was certainly well-deserved – it was a very well-made film, and clearly showed that Hosada possessed real talent for directing.  Of course, I did have some of my own criticisms of that film, particularly in regards to the balance of the sci-fi elements in the story in the overall plot.  Summer Wars has some similarities….