There came a moment in the new Godzilla film where, as I watched a group of nearly identical soldiers (new characters as far as I was concerned) walking down a train track, I realized that the protagonist had been there all along without my noticing. And even then, […]
When I was in school (a statement that gives me crippling feelings of self-absorbed oldness only a millennial can achieve) there was a running joke that went as follows: “an English major is probably the biggest waste of money you could possibly – oh wait, we forgot the […]
I adore listening in on the evolution of western cartoons. Dismissed at best and actively reviled at worst, they’ve long been the cultural dumping ground of toy advertisements, Very Special Episodes, and the assumption of an extremely stupid viewership. And while it is quietly ignored, it begins to […]
Of all the things people were expecting from the Samurai Flamenco finale, a naked marriage proposal probably wasn’t at the top of the list. But I can’t think of a better way to cap off a show that thrived on plot twists both totally out of left field […]
More than once during The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, I found myself getting choked up for reasons I couldn’t quite explain. Or rather, they weren’t necessarily connected to what was happening on the screen. For every melancholy or touching moment woven into the film proper, another […]
The first three drafts of this editorial began with the phrase “Samurai Flamenco is awesome” and optionally included some manner of textual bird flipping. But then I figured that kind of hostility was probably antithetical to an open and levelheaded conversation, and so we’ve ended up on the […]
In the 1980s Studio Ghibli was still getting its feet, and figured that the best way to do so would be by crushing its audience’s collective heart with one of the best anti-war films ever made. Thus was Grave of the Fireflies born, a film based […]
Very few things are so difficult as a satisfying conclusion – share too little and your audience feels as though their investment hasn’t paid off, but give them too much and you run the risk of strangling the agency of the imagination (the infamous “19 years later” epilogue). If […]
The conspiracy theory bits of my brain wonder if Disney’s purchase of Marvel was part of some David Xanatos-like plan to save a few bucks. Lord knows the Frozen team owes Stan Lee a check. Strange, fantastic elemental powers that get stronger with age/puberty and cause the owner […]
It probably isn’t fair to say that people have reached a consensus about Dragon Age II, but it does seem like the most fiery battles have more or less run their course by now (there’s that silly optimism again). For those of you don’t keep up with gaming […]
Fashionable Tinfoil Accessories 