The movie adaptation of long-running Shonen Jump shows tend to follow a strict formula. They usually feature a standalone story occurring outside the main series continuity so that fans can …
The historical manga is one genre that is traditionally not well represented in English translation. Sure, there’s plenty of manga set in the past (or in fictional worlds that resemble…
Lupin the Third is one of the longest running franchises in anime and manga. With multiple TV series, a handful of movies, and a long line of TV specials, it’s something of an institution …
Back in the early noughties, the original Hellsing was a big hit. The 2001 TV series was a lot of fun, and overcame the occasionally wonky animation (from the notoriously occasionally wonky Studio…
Ever since the original Toy Story came out, Computer Generated imagery has ruled the big-screen animation output in the west. Fantastic as some of these films may have been, for lovers of the art…
Long before Spirited Away, before Studio Ghibli, one of Hayao Miyazaki’s first directorial gigs was the Lupin III TV series. One of the most enduring characters in anime and manga aimed…
Chaos;Head centres on 17 year-old Takeru, a massive anime otaku who lives in a storage container. So all-consuming is his obsession that he completely rejects “three-dimensional girls”…
[ Please Note: The initial batch of Panty & Stocking have been found to have a production fault that means some footage is missing. Please see Manga’s website for details on what to do…
In the 21st century a growing number of anime have been adapted from not manga, but what are known as Light Novels. As the name suggests, these are short novella-style books that are aimed at the …
Way back in the dark and distant past (well 1994 to be exact) Roujin Z was an unusual release for (what was then) Manga Video. The smartly satirical sci-fi comedy sat oddly alongside their mostly…
On March 20th 2012 the world of anime lost another one of its leading lights. The industry has lost several big names in recent years: Osamu Dezaki last year and Satoshi Kon the year before that. …
I have fond memories from way back in the heyday of the original Playstation. I remember popping the black-bottomed discs into Sony’s little grey box and waiting for the fun to start. The…
In reality, NHK is Japan’s equivalent of the BBC: their national licence-fee funded broadcaster. Much like our very own Beeb, they run several TV and radio stations – including …
So far Hollywood’s attempts to turn anime and manga into major live action movies have either resulted in commercial and critical flops (Speed Racer, Dragonball) or have languished in…
The first season of Birdy the Mighty Decode was a wonderful surprise; a reboot of a largely forgotten original that actually worked. It arrived without much fanfare or hype, yet it turned out to…
Supernatural creations are everywhere in anime and manga. Ghosts often feature, demons are dime a dozen. There are more vampires then you shake a particularly pointy stick at. Zombies, on the…
This is actually the second Birdy The Mighty anime, but you’d be forgiven for never having heard of it. Based on a short-lived 80s manga, the original OAV never made it to the UK, and was released…
Way back in the 1980s no one in the UK knew what anime was, except for maybe a handful of hardcore fans (and Helen McCarthy). Yet long before the days of simulcasts and specialist anime labels, there…
If you know anything about the history of manga and anime, then you should know who Osamu Tezuka was. He may not have been the first Japanese person to draw comics, but no other individual has had …
In the final volume of this series, Rin and Manji are getting ever closer to their goal of obtaining vengeance for the murder of Rin’s parents. Having already defeated ten members of the …
