Category Archives: Anime

New Heroine Headshot: Lio from “Barbarella”

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s another Heroine Headshot. This time, it’s a character from Barbarella, the famous French comic by the late Jean-Claude Forest. More specifically, it’s a character from the second Barbarella comic, titled Les Colères du Mange-Minutes (The Wrath of the Minute-Eater in English). Lio is one of the supporting characters in this story, who Barbarella first describes as “a girl who fancies little paintings.” She is on a mission for her father, the ruler of a city on another planet, to bring back a material vital to her city’s survival, and she relies on paintings to keep herself from falling into a state of depression. Despite this somewhat dark aspect to her nature, I found Lio to be an incredibly sweet character. And very pretty as well! 😊

New Heroine Headshot: Elfie from “Legend of the Coral Reef: Elfie of the Blue Sea”

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s another Heroine Headshot. This time, it’s a girl called Elfie, from a somewhat obscure animated film (at least in the West) titled Legend of the Coral Reef: Elfie of the Blue Sea (サンゴ礁伝説 青い海のエルフィ in Japanese characters). This film was produced by Nippon Animation and broadcast on Fuji Television in Japan, way back in 1986. I only found out about Elfie because I saw part of a review on it on YouTube a few weeks ago. In that review, Elfie was compared to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and the two films certainly have similarities, not least of which is the fact that both Elfie and Nausicaa were voiced by the same voice actress, Sumi Shimamoto. As far as I’m aware, Elfie has never been released in English, but if you’re interested in seeing it in Japanese, someone has uploaded it to YouTube. I quite enjoyed it; it’s a fun, family-orientated adventure with an incredibly sweet, kindhearted heroine.😊

Condolences to the staff at KyoAni

Posted on by
Reply

There is some sad news from Japan today. One of the offices of Kyoto Animation (KyoAni for short), a well-known Japanese animation production company, was the target of an arson attack. Details of the incident are still emerging, but at least one person has died and several dozen others were injured, some of them seriously. The perpetrator is in police custody.

I am a big fan of quite a few of the series produced by KyoAni,in particular. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions and Beyond the Boundary. In my opinion all of KyoAni‘s works are high-quality pieces of art that, without a doubt, brought a great deal of joy to a great number of people around the world, and so I offer my deepest condolences to those affected by this tragedy.

My Thoughts On: “Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms”

Posted on by
Reply

I went to see Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms in the cinema last week and in this post I’m going to briefly relate what I thought of it. There will be no major spoilers.

Continue reading →

The Figma Brand turns 10!

Posted on by
1

In January, 2008, a new type of figure was released as part of the limited edition version of the PS2 game The Confusion of Haruhi Suzumiya (which is of course, part of the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya franchise). This figure was of Haruhi Suzumiya herself as a superhero and it marked the beginning of the figma brand of articulated figures, which are now ten years old!

Continue reading →