Acclaimed anime director Shinichiro Watanabe’s career didn’t end with the fantastic Samurai Champloo. Even with a long gap between Champloo and his next work, Watanabe has continued to produce quality shows at a steady rate. Returning from our previous episode, special guest Jamie, co-host of The Bebop Beat and AnimeChicago President, joins Neil this time…
Recorded live at C2E2 2023, this episode of Anime’s Game Changers focuses on the early smash hit works of director Shinichiro Watanabe, notably Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Host JPod and special guest Jamie, co-host of The Bebop Beat and AnimeChicago President, discuss Watanabe’s penchant for letting music drive his narratives brimming with loners and…
In this episode of Anime’s Game Changers, hosts Neil and JPod traverse the well-structured sci-fi optimism of director Yasuhiro Yoshiura. We dive deep into Yoshiura’s growing body of work, including the award-winning Patema Inverted, surprise breakout show Time of Eve, and the recent Sing a Bit of Harmony. And that’s not including Yoshiura’s fascinating plethora…
This is Anime’s Game Changers, the podcast dedicated to highlighting the people, ideas, and events that shaped the anime you know and love. For the pilot episode, JPod and Neil tackle Trigger’s trash titan, Hiroyuki Imaishi — the visionary behind megahits like Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill.
While going through a back catalog of shows I overlooked in 2017, I still feel like kicking myself for ever passing up on Houseki no Kuni, otherwise known as The Land of the Lustrous. The first official animated series by Studio Orange, The Land of the Lustrous is not only an impressive step towards three-dimensional computer…
Listen, you can’t always be on top of your game. Sometimes you just need to unwind, and while finding a high-quality beer to pair with a high-quality anime is definitely a worthy cause (and kinda the point of this article series), some days you don’t want to take it easy, and that’s fine. Some anime…
The AnimeChicago team has found their way out from under the heaps of delicious food, piles of wrapping paper, and stacks of discarded “2018” plastic glasses to look towards the new year, for both the entire anime industry and for fans right here in Chicago. (As usual, names have been removed to protect the innocent.)…
Recently, members of the AnimeChicago attended the Murakami exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of an Art Circle Meetup. We’ve gathered together some of our thoughts on the exhibit. (Once again, names have been removed to protect the innocent.) 1) Overall, what was your impression of the exhibit? One board member went…
Hi, I’m Marvin. I work as a developer for an online media company. I was about 5 years old when I started watching anime (Ranma 1/2 is my earliest memory). Nothing gives me any authority to write about Japanese animation. Actively watching shows for all these years is not a qualifier – it just labels…
If you’ve ever been to a brewpub or a taproom, you might have noticed a sense of community that permeates the space. There is this feeling of participation in one’s neighborhood, of locality and growth, development and relationship. They’re quickly overtaking other public spaces, like event halls and lodges, as a focal point for local…