One of the big hits of the last decade, Kohei Horikoshi’s “My Hero Academia” (2014) has sold more than 30 million books worldwide. The TV series is in its fifth season, and the eagerly awaited third feature will debut this summer. Horikoshi set “Academia” in an alternate world where many children are born with “Quirks:” […]
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ANIME REVIEW: Satoshi Kon’s “Paranoia Agent”
December 15th, 2020 
Charles Solomon This first—and long overdue—release on Blu-ray of Satoshi Kon’s one television series, Paranoia Agent (2004), reminds viewers of the exceptional talent animation lost when he died a decade ago at 46. As he did in Millennium Actress and Paprika, Kon deftly blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy: Neither the characters nor the viewer can […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Demon Slayer”
October 13th, 2020 Charles Solomon One of the big hits of 2020, the supernatural adventure Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba began as a manga by Koyohara Gotouge. It’s sold over 100 million books worldwide and been adapted to three light novels and a stage play, as well as this 2019 broadcast series. The story is set during the Taisho era […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna”
October 6th, 2020 Charles Solomon The theatrical feature Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna premiered in Japan in February, marking the 20th anniversary of the franchise. (A subtitled version of Last Evolution was slated for US theatrical release in late March, but the run was postponed due to COVID 19, then cancelled.) Takeru “Tai” Takaishi (Joshua Seth) and Yamato “Matt” Ishida […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Dr. Stone”
September 23rd, 2020 Charles Solomon In 2017, Writer Riichiro Inagaki and illustrator Boichi scored a hit with their adventure-comedy manga Dr. Stone in “Weekly Shonen Jump.” Both a popular and critical success, Dr. Stone went on to win a Shogakukan Manga Award in 2019. (Viz has published 15 volumes of Dr. Stone in English.) For the 2019 animated adaptation, director […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?”
September 16th, 2020 Charles Solomon The hit broadcast series Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (2015) blends elements of two popular anime genres, the fantasy adventure and the harem comedy, into an appealing mix. Long ago, the gods who dwelled above the city of Orario descended, looking for entertainment: They limited their powers and began interacting […]
ANIME REVIEW: Rumiko Takahashi’s “InuYasha”
September 4th, 2020 Charles Solomon Rumiko Takahashi’s “feudal fairy tale” InuYasha (2000) was one of the big hits of the early 21st century in Japan and the US. Kagome Higurashi (Moneca Stori), a normal 15-year-old high school girl, falls down the dry “Bone Eater’s Well” in her family’s Shinto shrine–and emerges during the “Warring States“ period (1467-1615). At the shrine, […]
MANGA REVIEW: “Blue Flag”
August 19th, 2020 Charles Solomon High school is a miserable time, when kids battle raging hormones, crushing insecurities and never-ending drama. In Kaito’s new manga Blue Flag (Ao no Flag), the students at Aohama High experience all the usual problems–plus some unusual ones. Alienated senior Taichi Ichinose has never forgiven himself for failing to prevent a cat from getting run […]
ANIME REVIEW: “How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?”
August 3rd, 2020 Charles Solomon The 2019 broadcast series How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? (Danberu Nan-Kiro Moteru?, literally “How Many Kilograms of Dumbbell Can You Lift?”) could have been animated with ultra body-conscious Southern California in mind. Koyo Women’s Academy student Hibiki Sakura (Madeleine Morris) loves to eat. As she walks home with her friend Ayaka, she consumes […]
REVIEW: “Robotics;Notes” Part One
June 30th, 2020 Charles Solomon High school seniors Kaito Yashio (Clifford Chapin) and Akiho Senomiya (Lindsay Seidel), the heroes of the offbeat sci-fi adventure Robotics;Notes, are the last remaining members of the Robot Research Club. But Kaito’s only interest is the video game Kill-Ballad: He’s ranked as the number five player in the world. He reluctantly helps his childhood friend, […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Tokyo Godfathers”
June 17th, 2020 Charles Solomon Shout Factory!/Gkids’ re-release of Tokyo Godfathers (2003) — with an English dub for the first time — serves as a reminder of the exceptional talent the art of animation lost when Satoshi Kon died in 2010 at the age of 46. Tokyo Godfathers was his third feature, after Perfect Blue (1998) and Millennium Actress (2002). […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life”
June 9th, 2020 Charles Solomon As every otaku knows, choosing your club is a key decision in Japanese high school life, and the kid who’s the only member of a beloved but obscure club is a standard anime character. Schools eliminate clubs with fewer than five members, so recruiting more kids is vital, whether it’s for the Classical Literature Club […]
BOOK REVIEW: “Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli”
June 1st, 2020 Charles Solomon Although there have been numerous books and countless articles published about Studio Ghibli and its creations, few, if any, journalists have been able to write about the internal workings of the studio. Steve Alpert, who speaks Japanese fluently, came to Ghibli in 1996 and spent the next decade and a half there as a senior […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Promare”
May 21st, 2020 Charles Solomon At a time when many American features look so much alike, the brilliant colors and boldly stylized imagery in Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Promare hit the viewer like a bucket of ice water. As Imaishi, screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima and many of the animators worked together on the popular series Gurren Lagann, the flamboyant visual style won’t surprise […]
Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2020
Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2020 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the […]