As you may have heard, actress Scarlett Johansson recently signed a deal to star in DreamWorks’ upcoming adaptation of Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese transmedia franchise that began as a cyberpunk manga by Masamune Shirow (the author’s pen name) in 1989. There’s a Ghost in the Shell poster hanging above my desk, in my […]
About that new Ghost in the Shell movie Read More »
Jeez. Give away the whole plot, why don’t you? …Moving on. Thursday night at 7:30, I’ll be introducing Ghost in the Shell at the Projection Booth, as part of the Monsters and Martians Film Fest. The festival is sponsored by AE Sci Fi, and other hosts include Rob Sawyer and my own David Nickle (who
Celebrate Maundy Thursday* with GITS Read More »
Kids on the Slope is slice-of-life anime, and it’s also a rare case of director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop; Samurai Champloo) adapting an existing work: a manga called Sakamichi no Apollon by Yuki Kodama. Wikipedia summarizes the plot like this: The beginning of summer, 1966. Because of his father’s job situation, freshman high school student
My Favorite Things: “Kids on the Slope” and Watanabe’s canon Read More »
A while back, I wrote a bit about why you should watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica. At the time, I had only watched four episodes. Now I’ve seen all twelve, and I still agree with that. Here’s why. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, currently streaming for free on Crunchyroll, is quite frankly one of the best
I still think you should watch Madoka. Read More »
I’ll admit it: I’m late to the party, on this one. Since January 2011, the anime-watching public (online and off) has been enamoured of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and I’ve been scoffing at it. They said it was deep. I scoffed. They said it was meta. I scoffed. They said to give it some time.
Girls, Women, and Choice: Why you should watch Madoka Read More »
No, really. It’s not all security, all the time. For example, my latest at Tor.com, on why the Akira adaptation is a big deal. Snip: One of Akira’s distinguishing characteristics is that none of its characters ever gets to be the hero for very long. Kaneda is careless. Tetsuo is weak. The story gives both
I still write about anime, too. Read More »
After receiving word about my book vN this week, the talented and generous Charlie Jane Anders of io9 kindly asked me for a few words about it. And now, the report is up. You can read it here. (You should read the headline, if nothing else. It’s hilarious. And accurate.) Special thanks to Charlie for
No, really. Back in the late 2009, I got into a Twitter conversation with Madeline Ashby about geek culture, fandom, and a bunch of stuff like that. Madeline wrote, “While you were reading Tolkien, I was watching Evangelion.” I thought this was an excellent encapsulation of the divide in SF/F/Whatever fandom, and thus took to
The Tolkien Estate vs. Madeline Ashby & Adam Rakunas Read More »
Warning: the following contains spoilers for the endings of Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis: Evangelion, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Battlestar Galactica, LOST, Supernatural (current) and The Prisoner. I’ve noticed an alarming trend in television finales, lately: God.
What anime can teach you about ending a story Read More »
And you can read it here. I’m slowly figuring out the Tor.com backend. It may sound strange, but at this point I think I’ve worked with just about every major blogging platform there is at one time or another. (I should put that on a CV somewhere, now that I think of it.) Even so,
My second "Bebop" post is up at Tor! Read More »