Blog Archives

Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013)

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Posted on October 3, 2013 by Justin

Here at Heroic Cinema, we’ve got a lot of love for the evergreen Ghost in the Shell universe. It seems to sprout a new variation every few years, and they’re always worth watching.

Akira and the original Ghost in the Shell film were my personal introduction to anime, many years ago, and I remember how refreshing it was to find cinematic visions of cyberpunk science fiction that just dumped you headlong into the mirrorshades-and-AI future, posing the sort of questions … (read more)

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Black Butler (2008)

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Posted on May 22, 2011 by Deni

Genre is a funny thing. On the one hand, it gives you a ballpark for your expectations. Science fiction? Space ships and aliens. Horror? Dark scary places and the liberal splashing about of blood. Gundam? Bloody big robots. But on the other hand, genre can also confine and confuse in the face of reality, and looking at genre definitions across cultures can make things even harder. Black Butler (known to the early uptakers as Kuroshitsuji) originally ran in a … (read more)

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Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance (2009)

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Posted on August 27, 2010 by Samson

The Reel Anime Festival 2010 is finally here! Thanks to Madman, I have the opportunity to preview for you the exhilarating Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance and spectacular Summer Wars. Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, which I reviewed earlier this year, will also be screening. So this is a great opportunity to catch some of the best recent animes on the big screen, and I urge you not to miss it.

Evangelion 2.0 is the second … (read more)

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Ouran High School Host Club Part 1 (2006)

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Posted on August 11, 2009 by Samson

Since its release in 2006, Ouran High School Host Club has established itself as a fan favourite. It has a reputation for being a bit strange, but also extremely funny. This is my review of Part 1, which consists of the first 13 (of a total of 26) episodes of the anime.

The Ouran Host Club is where handsome boys with too much time on their hands entertain and charm girls, who also have too much time on their … (read more)

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RahXephon (2001)

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Posted on March 23, 2006 by Deni

Any similarities RahXephon has to another character-driven, mecha-orientated anime are, I’m relieved to say, purely cursory. Of course, commonalities in both theme and execution are there if you look for them, but as I might have argued in other reviews, one of the greatest strengths present in genre is not the likenesses between series, but the key differences. In RahXephon, Ayato Kamina might, like Shinji Ikari, be victim to a mysterious and impersonal system, might find himself piloting what … (read more)

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Escaflowne (2003)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

On an evening when both her athletic skills and confused lovelorn feelings are put to the test, Hitomi is transported to a planet located behind the far side of the moon. What she encounters there reconfigures her coming-of-age problems; the imaginary subordinates reality, enabling her more time to experience, understand and judge herself. Through her eyes we encounter the world of Gaea, a place populated by feudalist human factions, furry half-breed creatures and ‘dragons’ of both classical and mechanical robot … (read more)

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