There's something about the playful, magical realist novels of Tomihiko Morimi that seems to lend itself to animated adaptations. Those adaptations include TV series like "The Tatami Galaxy" ("Yojohan Shinwa Taikei") and "The Eccentric Family" ("Uchoten Kazoku"), plus last year's film "The Night is ...

So-called anthology films, made up of multiple shorts based around the same theme, are a staple of the anime industry and are generally created to a) give young directors a chance, b) show off what studios are capable of, or c) keep a director ...

Though anime director Mamoru Hosoda rarely diverges from his pet theme of family, the scale of his movies rises and falls like the tide. "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (2006) was an intimate tale of high school life, "Summer Wars" (2009) dealt with ...

On the 30th anniversary of the release of the animated version of 'Akira' in Japan, we examine the enduring legacy of Katsuhiro Otomo's sci-fi classic.

Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk masterpiece, "Akira," has gone through multiple English-language incarnations throughout the years, but reader demand has never wavered.

When I tell Kuni Tomita the anime classic "Akira" turns 30 years old this month, she shakes her head and laughs. "Unbelievable," she says. The animator has a very personal connection to the movie: She was one of more than 60 key animators assembled to bring ...

A few months ago, I proposed to the editors at The Japan Times that we do a piece paying tribute to the classic cyberpunk anime film "Akira," which turns 30 years old on July 16. They were enthusiastic and the pitch ballooned (not unlike ...

A crack of thunder. Pulsing polyrhythmic percussion. The roar of a passing motorcycle. A haunting symphonic chorus. Once you've heard the soundtrack to "Akira," the anime classic that turns 30 years old this month, it's almost impossible to forget it. Like every other aspect of the ...

If you were watching anime in English in the 1990s and 2000s, chances are you've heard a dub recorded by Les Claypool III. Some of the films and series that passed through Claypool's studio, Magnitude 8 Post, include "Macross Plus," "Ghost in the Shell" ...

Joe Peacock vividly remembers the first time he saw "Akira," the influential sci-fi anime film that turns 30 this month. It was "a random Thursday night" in 1990. Peacock was a young teen; his father drove him to a screening of the film at the ...