4,306 words
Porco Rosso is one of the more famous Studio Ghibli films, released in 1992. It is the midpoint of an unofficial Miyazaki trilogy examining flight as a method of personal and national liberation, beginning with 1989’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, and concluding with 2013’s The Wind Rises. Porco Rosso is the strongest of the three, being bright, bold, and easy to follow whilst touching on more serious themes than its premise might suggest. (more…)
2,433 words
The prolific manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori (1938-1998) spent his formative years in the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. At just 16, he published his first manga, and at 18 he became an assistant to the “God of Manga,” Osamu Tezuka, where he worked on Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy). He was likely influenced by Tezuka’s desire to help heal Japan after the war, with the latter’s Astro Boy personifying atomic energy’s non-destructive potential. (more…)
1,231 words
Kemono Friends is a clever twelve-episode anime that revolves around an adventurer, Kaban, and her attempts to find out where she belongs in the mysterious, sprawling and derelict “Japari Park.” Airing January through March 2017, it’s since become a surprise hit and amassed a cult following thanks to its effective storytelling and “strange deepness” that makes it more compelling than first impressions may suggest.
3,148 words
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (more frequently Gurren Lagann) is a 2007 fantasy adventure by Gainax. It’s an explosive, white-knuckle roller-coaster ride of mecha action, as well as featuring stunning dialogue and character design. (more…)
2,275 words
Aggretsuko, or Aggressive Retsuko, is a 2017 Netflix anime that has garnered notable fanfare, praise, and controversy from critics and audiences. When I say “critics,” of course that means the establishment organs of liberal NPCthink who have been falling over themselves to gush about the goodness of the ridiculous, hysterical anti-male tropes in this bizarre musical comedy. (more…)
1,839 words
Girls’ Last Tour (2017)
Directed by Takaharu Ozaki
Written by Tsukumizu
Girls’ Last Tour is a short (twelve episodes, manga-based) slice of life/adventure anime. Unlike the cutesy and safe setting of contemporary Japan common to the genre, Girls’ Last Tour is a post-apocalyptic journey through an industrial wasteland. (more…)
2,447 words
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Written & directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Studio Ghibli, 1989
Kiki’s Delivery Service is a fantasy anime film from the world-famous Studio Ghibli, (more…)
890 words
I feel like the skinhead who went to see Cats because he’d heard that T. S. Eliot was a fascist.
Japanese cartoons are very popular in our circles. They have even been reviewed at Counter-Currents. The closest thing I had seen to a Japanese cartoon is Twilight of the Cockroaches. But that mixed animation and live action, and it was more than 25 years ago, so I remember almost nothing about it. (more…)
Squealer
2,528 words
Reviewing anime for a White Nationalist site can be hard, for the want of good subject matter. There are infinite complaints that can be made against mainstream anime that reflects Western memes. (more…)
1,173 words
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
Kyoto Animation, 2017
Anime is typically bullshit, and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is no exception. This seemingly inoffensive, slice of life cartoon is made of the same sugar-sweet superficiality that liberals and weebs wrap around themselves as a protective blanket against hurt feelings. (more…)
1,168 words
Rick Wilson, a GOP strategist, has made some clickbait headlines by saying that alt-rightists are “screamers and crazy people who have Hitler iconography in their Twitter timelines” and “childless single men who masturbate to anime.” He followed up this painfully rehearsed line by staring dead into the camera, shaking with anxiety, (more…)