40+ OUR GUIDE TO JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE!

PA G E S O F A NI M E
& M A NG A

ANIME • COSPLAY • MUSIC • ASIAN FILM • MANGA

www.uncookedmedia.com Issue 196
MAKOTO SHINKAI INTERVIEWED / BAND-MAID / CAROLE + TUESDAY
WIN! WARRIORS OROCHI 4 ULTIMATE / SSSS.GRIDMAN / COSPLAY STAR
5 NEW STREAMING ANIME TO WATCH NOW / WEATHERING WITH YOU

©Hirohiko Araki/SHUEISHA, JoJo’s Animation Project.

THE NEO AWARDS: SPONSORED

BEST OF 2019 PARASITE
SONG KANG-HO ON HOPE,
ONSEN
VISIT JAPANESE
BY JAPAN JOURNEYS DESPAIR AND KOREAN FILMS HOT SPRINGS!
£4.99
 008

086 REVIEWS
036 ANOHANA: THE FLOWERS THAT...
060 LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
060 SSSS. GRIDMAN
061 FIRST LOVE
073 CAROLE + TUESDAY
073 SO LONG, MY SON
074 WEATHERING WITH YOU
075 PENGUIN HIGHWAY
075 CALAMITY OF A ZOMBIE GIRL
076 RASCAL DOES NOT DREAM OF...
078 CODE GEASS III GLORIFICATION
078 SAGA OF TANYA THE EVIL
079 JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE...
092 I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS
093 ANIME ROUND-UP
094 PARASITE

004 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 028 CONTENTS
FEATURES
008 NEO AWARDS 2019 068 WEATHERING WITH YOU
Your verdict on the companies, We talk to Makoto Shinkai about
acts and titles of the last year his latest movie

042 JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE 086 SEOUL SEEKING

Our guide to the craziest world Travel with us to South Korea for an
ever created in anime or manga incredible trip full of memories in
the making!
062 PARASITE
Star Song Kang-ho on hope,
despair, and Korean cinema

030
LIFESTYLE
024 MAHIRU’S PAGE 056 J-LIFE
Find out about one of Mahiru’s Dip your toes in the hot springs of
favourite parts of Tokyo Japan with Mark Guthrie!

040 STUFF 096 COSPLAY CORNER

Kit yourself out for winter, and Cosplay from he Witcher and other
get ready for Valentine’s Day titles by Lolita Ward

046 ARTIST SHOWCASE

Find out more about Morag Lewis’
work and inspiration

096
NEW IN JAPAN
028 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL 032 MANGA SNAPSHOT
Are you ready for buckets of gore Jonathan Clements nearly gives
and ultraviolence? hen you’re up on a jailbait manga magazine
Image by TakesThePicsPhoto (takethepics.co.uk)

ready for Blade of the Immortal! that has a surprising twist in its
tail...
030 STARS ALIGN
If you thought you’d never watch
an anime about tennis, check
this out and get ready to change
your mind

REGULARS
006 EDITORIAL 066 COMPETITION
Meet the team Win Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate
on the PS4
016 NEWS NETWORK
Events, new releases, music 080 MANGA EXTRACT
SUBSCRIPTION GIFT! charts, gigs, premieres and more Check out our quirky manga this
issue: Clown Cops
Plus, find out how to save money by 023 RELEASE LISTS
subscribing with a Direct Debit, and pay just Up to date information about 090 SUBSCRIPTION OFFER
new releases Save money this issue and get a
£8.99 every three issues free anime Blu-ray!
054 NEXT ISSUE
Turn to page 90 for more details! Discover what we have in store
for you next month!

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 005

EDITORIAL

WELCOME WELCOME TO issue 196 of NEO! It’s that very

special time when we celebrate the results
of the NEO Awards, this year sponsored by
Japan Journeys! It’s also a really fun time
of year for me in particular as it’s my job to
email everyone right as they’re heading out
for Christmas to tell them the great news
about their wins, and extract quotes and
assets from them for our feature! We’ve got
a great range of winners as usual (you guys
have great taste, after all) so head on over to page 008 to read all about
the best content of 2019!
We have some great interviews this issue as well. Head to page
068 for Makoto Shinkai’s thoughts on his new movie, Weathering
With You, and some interesting observations about how to draw
umbrellas, and the international perception of climate change. We
also have an interview with Song Kang-ho on page 062 about Korean
cinema, and more specifically, his new movie Parasite.
And this editorial wouldn’t be complete without me nudging you
towards our cover feature about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, over on
page 042! I have no words... but luckily, Andrew Osmond has plenty.
So go and read them!
Until next time!

GEMMA COX, EDITOR

MEET THE TEAM

ANDREW OSMOND
“I overdosed on heartbreaks
this month – not my
own heartbreak, but the
anguish of the characters in
Anohana, I Want to Eat Your
Pancreas and Rascal Does
Not Dream of Bunny Girl
Senpai, all reviewed this issue.”
DAVID WEST TOM SMITH
“Awesome to see “Obsessed with
Awkwafina winning Best boardgames based on
Actress at the Golden China recently. I’m currently
Globes for her wonderful playing one based around
performance in The tulou; these are ancient
Farewell, and Bong Joon- circular houses that could
ho’s Parasite continues have up to 300 people
to hoover up awards everywhere it goes. inside! Dread to think what the morning
Asian cinema is in rude health in 2020!” bathroom queue was like...”

MARK GUTHRIE JONATHAN CLEMENTS EMILY LOVELL

“This month I’ve been
engrossed in the Gohsn
affair. It has cast an
unfavourable light on the
Japanese justice system,
particularly as to how it
treats gaijin. He is fortunate
enough to have a vast fortune at his disposal
and was able to escape. Many other
foreigners are not so lucky.”
“I’m reading the English “After an amazing trip
version of Steve Alpert’s to South Korea’s capital,
memoirs of Studio Ghibli, Seoul, last month I thought
which will be published in it would be fun to share a
the summer. Scandalous guide to some of the many
and funny stories of life sights and attractions that
with Miyazaki, although a the city has to offer – from
couple of stories from his original 1990s the traditional to the modern! Head to my
blog that made Disney look *really* stupid feature over on page 086 to check out
appear to have been redacted.” some of my recommendations!”

006 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020

 © 2018 Frederator Networks, Inc

NEO AWARDS RESULTS 2019

Another fantastic 12 months in the world of Asian entertainment for NEO and our readers –
and you’ve flocked to the polls to register your votes in the 2019 NEO Awards, sponsored by
Japan Journeys (www.japanjourneys.co.uk). Here are the results!
 SPONSORED BY

AWARDS 2019

BEST ANIME: CASTLEVANIA (ANIME LIMITED)

“Adaptations of video games into other mediums rarely end well; we
all remember the live-action Super Mario Bros ros movie... With that in
mind, the idea of a Netlix Original animated series of Castlevania
seemed all-set to be a disaster, but the result was anything but,” said
Andy Hanley, marketing manager at Anime Limited. “Is it really
“anime”? Who cares! his animated take on the beloved video game
© 2018 My Hero Academia The Movie
Project © K.Horikoshi/Shueisha
franchise is smart, sassy and oozes style, and is in turn eye-catching
and a laugh riot. We were thrilled to be able to acquire its irst season
for a home video release and give it the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
treatment it deserves, and as fans of the show ourselves we absolutely
agree with its selection as best anime by NEO’s readers and can’t wait
to see more of it!”

© BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA © 2018

Production Committee
DRAGON BALL SUPER the Movie

BEST ANIME MOVIE BEST ANIME MOVIE

(HOME RELEASE): (THEATRICAL):
MY HERO ACADEMIA: DRAGON BALL SUPER:
TWO HEROES (MANGA)
“his is Plus Ultra! My Hero Academiamia has been a key franchise for
BROLY (MANGA)
“Dragon Ball Super: Broly
roly has not only been our most successful theatrical
Manga Entertainment this year, and it all started with the incredible release to date, but also the most exciting to be a part of!” said Fraser
Two Heroes,” said Darcy Giles, the Social Media and PR Manager for Overington, Manga UK’s Community Manager. “hank you to everyone
Manga UK. who voted and helpedped Broly
roly make over £1 million at the UK box oice –
“Many thanks to all the fans who supported the ilm’s release – watch being able to share your passion for Dragon Ball is always a pleasure and we
out for Heroes Rising
sing in UK cinemas this year!” can only do what we do thanks to you.”

www.uncookedm e d ia.c om 009

 BEST SPECIALIST COMPANY: JPU
Another year and another win for the unstoppable specialist company
JPU. What was once a small events company has now turned into a
force to be reckoned with in the world of niche record labels, bringing
timely releases with thoughtful touches that fans have come to love.
“hank you so much for voting for JPU Records! And for voting
for BAND-MAID!!” said Tom Smith. “It’s the irst time that we’ve won
an award as well as one of our bands in the same year! What a year it’s
been!! BAND-MAID’s new album CONQUEROR has been charting
010 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020
around the world, including being the most downloaded album on
Amazon and Google Play’s store, amongst several others! hey truly
are conquering! Taking LOVEBITES to Download Festival and touring
with DragonForce was also so much fun! I can’t wait to see what will
happen in 2020, but thank you so much for your support so far! Lots of
love from the JPU team.”
Head on over to jpurecords.com to check out the label’s releases, to
purchase goodies, and ind exclusive content.
BEST MUSICAL ACT:
BAND-MAID
Since they launched themselves at the world back in
2013, BAND-MAID has entranced the globe with their
combination of rock music and an image that evokes the
very Japanese aesthetic of maid cafes. Founded by singer
and guitarist Miku Kobato, the band’s irst album, Maid in
Japan, was released in 2014 and they embarked on their irst
world tour in 2016.
heir latest and sixth album, CONQUEROR, was
released in December last year and debuted at number one
in the Oricon weekly Rock Albums chart. More great news
for the band followed swiftly after when it was announced
they would be appearing in Netlix’s series Kate, playing
themselves.
“I am truly grateful that BAND-MAID could win such a
wonderful award!,” Miku Kobato told us. “It’s always so much
fun performing to masters and princesses in the UK, and now
it’s going to be even more exciting next time we return!
“I feel like BAND-MAID’s conquest for world domination
is getting closer! hank you all so much!!”

BEST ANIME STREAMING SERVICE: CRUNCHYROLL
WINNER!
BEST STREAMING ANIME: DEMON SLAYER
Since we’ve introduced the ‘best streaming service’ award,
Crunchyroll has scooped it every year, with this being their third year
in a row. he streaming service, which is dedicated to anime and also
features manga, games, and even a store selling licenced products,
has come up against stif competition from other mainstream
services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netlix, both of whom are
commissioning their own anime shows. However, Crunchyroll has
managed to hold its own, even with additional competing services like
Funimation Now and a massive collection of anime added to British
service All4, thanks to Anime Limited.
“Being named the best anime streaming service by NEO Magazine
for the third year running is such an honor and we’re proud to be the
best home for anime,” said Joellen Ferrer, VP of Communications,
Crunchyroll. “We have so much planned for the year ahead – great new
programming, more co-productions, new Crunchyroll Games, events,
SPONSORED BY
AWARDS 2019
TOP TITLES
Crunchyroll’s 2019 lineup
It’s no surprise that Crunchyroll has won
your hearts – one look at their top five
shows of the year, which also includes NEO
fan favourite Demon Slayer, demonstrates
their quality service.
and more for fans all over the world. We can’t wait to show you what we
have in store for 2020!”
With simulcasts, a massive catalogue of well over 30,000
individual episodes, assistance for multiple languages and a presence
across the globe, Crunchyroll remains NEO readers’ favourite place to
stream anime. he basic service is free, but premium users can enjoy
plenty of beneits, including ad-free versions of their favourite shows.
his year, we also introduced a new category to our awards: best
streaming anime. We invited readers to select their favourite and
you spoke in your masses, selecting Demon Slayer – also available
on Crunchyroll’s platform – as the winner for 2019. With an award
winning show available on an award winning platform, Crunchyroll
are poised to go into the new year with plenty of promise – and we can’t
wait to see what they’ll come up with next! To ind out more about their
service, head to crunchyroll.com.
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 011
 BEST GAME: SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE AND
BEST GAME DISTRIBUTOR: NINTENDO
Ninty holds a special place in NEO readers’ hearts – and it’s no wonder
considering the company’s continued dedication to developing beloved
IPs for new generations of hardware, whilst also continuing to innovate
with peripherals like LABO and the equipment for Ring Fit Adventure.
Nintendo has now shifted all its development focus onto one console
– the Switch – and Nintendo fans have been inundated with a range of
012 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020
absorbing and revolutionary games.
Last year we told you that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had been
released too late in the year to make it to our shortlist of nominees for 2018,
but that didn’t stop us from listing it this year – and a good job too, because
it stormed into the lead, beating Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers and
Kingdom Hearts III, both from Square Enix, to the top spot.
BEST LIVE ACTION MOVIE:
ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL
(20TH CENTURY FOX)
You voted in your droves for your favourite Asian movie this year, and
there was stif competition. Alita: Battle Angel was your top winner,
beating One Cut of the Dead from hird Window, which took second
spot, and Master Z: he Ip Man Legacy from Universal, which was in third
place. Rounding out the top ive was he hird Wife from Eureka in fourth
place, while Die Tomorrow from Day for Night was ifth.
here were rumblings of discontent initially when the character
design for Rosa Salazar’s Alita crossed into uncanny valley territory, but
the careful handling of the source material led to fans locking in their
droves to see the movie, which took $404.9 million for a budget of $200
million, making it director Robert Rodriguez’s highest grossing ilm.
“For the readers of NEO to award ALITA the Best Asian Live Action
Movie is tremendously meaningful,” said producer Jon Landau. “We are
also very thankful to Yukito Kishiro for entrusting us with his creation.
he manga world is rich with other stories that I hope Hollywood
someday brings to the big screen.”
 SPONSORED BY

AWARDS 2019

ANIME LIMITED’S TOP

FIVE ANIME OF 2019

Castlevania 1. PROMARE

BEST ANIME DISTRIBUTOR:

ANIME LIMITED
“Since its foundation in 2014, Anime Limited has been striving to give UK anime fans the releases
and experiences they deserve, and we’re proud of how far we’ve come since our inception,” said Andy
Hanley, Marketing Manager at Anime Limited. “From a starting point of creating beautiful Collector’s
Editions for an eclectic mix of titles, we’ve subsequently moved into putting anime in cinemas,
creating memorable event experiences, starting our own vinyl music label and plenty more besides. 2. MIRAI
We’re absolutely thrilled to have our eforts recognised by the readers of NEO – we wouldn’t be here
without your continued support, and we look forward to continuing to serve you to the best of our
ability for many more years to come. hank you so much to everyone reading this!”

3. GUNDAM WING

4. SWORD ART ONLINE ALTERNATIVE:

GUN GALE ONLINE

BEST COLLECTOR’S EDITION ANIME:

DRAGON BALL Z 30TH ANNIVERSARY
COLLECTOR’S EDITION (MANGA)
“Dragon Ball ll Z is always an absolute dream to work on – and this Collector’s Edition is the icing on
the cake! It’s the irst time the series has come to Blu-ray for the UK, so a really exciting project to
work on and we’ve loved hearing how pleased fans are to inally get their hands on it. Make sure
you grab your copy!” Darcy Giles, Social Media and PR Manager for Manga UK 5. SILVER SPOON

www.uncookedme d ia.c om 013

 BEST FRANCHISE: POKÉMON
It’s been another amazing year for Pokémon on fans, as Detective Pikachu
chu stormed the box oice
and did the impossible – made a movie based on a Japanese IP that fans of the original didn’t
hate. Ryan Reynolds helped, but Pikachu was deinitely the star of the show. he franchise
also celebrated its irst home console release in the form of Pokémon Sword and Shield, and
dominated London with a Pokémon Center so popular that people are probably still queuing
Best RetaileR:
to this day, even though the shop closed a month ago. amazon
“he winner of this award is no surprise, Pokémon on is a franchise that continues to bring Another year, another predictable win for Amazon
happiness to so many people. From he First Movie ovie to our most recent release, he Power of in the category of best retailer. Not only are they
Us, we always feel incredibly lucky to play a part in bringing you stories from this wonderful your favourite source for anime, manga, movies and
world,” said Fraser Overington, Manga UK’s Community Manager. music, but now you can buy your bog roll and your
“It’s so lovely to see such an evergreen franchise as Pokémon on still capturing the hearts of shoes from them too. Handy.
NEO readers, and delighting fans of all ages,” added Sarah Anderson of VIZ Media.

Best asian movie

DistRiButoR: sony
Best asian live
action movie
Reissue / RemasteR:
BEST MERCHANDISER: GoDzilla: the
showa eRa (sony /
TOKYOTOYS
Winning the award again thanks to their relentless cheer, bricks and mortar shop, and
cRiteRion)
Stomping all over the competition like Godzilla
himself was Sony, along with their Criterion imprint
fantastic online emporium, it’s TokyoToys! release of Godzilla – The Showa Era. This collection
“Arigatōgozaimashita!!! hank you so much for voting us as Best Merchandiser 2019! We of 15 movies that spanned Godzilla’s antics right
couldn’t have come this far without all our fans’ support, we are truly grateful to you all! We from that original 1954 outing through to 1975 was
will do you all proud and keep providing amazing merchandise with our usual super friendly presented beautifully with incredible transfers.
customer service!”

014 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020

 SPONSORED BY

AWARDS 2019

BEST MANGA DISTRIBUTOR: VIZ MEDIA

KIMETSU NO YAIBA © 2016 by Koyoharu Gotouge/SHUEISHA Inc.

COMI-SAN WA, COMYUSHO DESU. © 2016 Tomohito ODA/

BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA © 2014 by Kohei Horikoshi/

SHOGAKUKAN
SHUEISHA Inc.

VIZ MEDIA
ANSATSU KYOSHITSU © 2012 by Yusei Matsui/SHUEISHA Inc.

TOP 5 OF 2019
MY HERO ACADEMIA
“Goes from strength to strength, selling
more this year than ever before!”
© Junji Ito/Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.

DEMON SLAYER
“This suddenly took off at the end of 2019.”
KOMI CAN’T COMMUNICATE
“The breakout hit of the year.”
JUNJI ITO
“The appetite for horror manga in the UK
is growing all the time, and Junji Ito is the
true master of the genre.”
ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM
“It’s bittersweet to see such a great series
end, but we do now have a gorgeous box
set of the entire series available.”

BEST MANGA: WINNER!

JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE © 1986 by Hirohiko Araki
& LUCKY LAND COMMUNICATIONS/SHUEISHA Inc.

JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE PART

4: DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE
Another year, another win for best manga and best manga distributor from VIZ Media, the powerhouse publishers
responsible for some of the biggest names in the business. Of the win for best manga distributor, Sarah Anderson
told us, “We are so proud to have won the NEO award for best distributor. It’s an honour to bring the best manga to
readers in the UK, and we really appreciate the support of NEO readers, and the magazine. Thank you!”
here were some hot contenders in the best manga category too, but JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4:
Diamond is Unbreakable beat Dark Horse’s Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Beastars from VIZ Media,
and two Kodansha titles, Cells at Work! CODE BLACK and Fate/Grand Order -mortalis:stella-. Of JoJo’s win,
Anderson said, “We are so delighted that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable has won the
NEO award for Best Manga. It’s considered by many to be the best story arc of the series, so clearly NEO readers
have very discerning tastes!”

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 015

NEWS
Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll
NEW IN JAPANESE
CINEMAS!
Get ready for an amazing 2020 for anime movies
2019 was a tremendous year for cinema anime. here was Makoto
shinkai’s blockbuster Weathering With You, now opening in Britain;
it topped Japan’s box-oice, beating such Hollywood imports as he
Lion King. (Take that, “photo-real” simba!) hen there was Trigger’s
laming Promare, the furious franchise celebrations of One Piece
Stampede, and, for arty types, the bewilderingly beautiful Children
of the Sea (imagine Ponyo if it was directed by Terrence Malick).
Two 2020 anime ilms will have a special meaning for Japanese
viewers. One is a new Violet Evergarden ilm, the second, scheduled
for Japanese release in april. his will be the irst ilm created by
Kyoto animation since the murderous arson attack on the studio last
July, which killed 36 staf. It’s sadly itting that Violet Evergarden is
about the victim of a terrible past, learning how to live again.
Just before the ire, Kyoto animation had inished its irst
016 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020
W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND
Evergarden ilm, subtitled Eternity and the Auto Memory Doll. It
was shown in Japan last september, and made national headlines.
Tearful viewers attended the ilm as an act of remembrance, with the
credits listing the staf-members who died in the ire. he next ilm
is designated simply Violet Evergarden: he Movie. It marks Kyoto
animation’s return, less than a year after the tragedy that made us
wonder if the studio would ever make anime again.
Fans had also been wondering if Hideaki anno would ever get
round to following up Evangelion 3.33. hat was released seven years
ago in Japan, ending with its remaining characters wandering into
post-apocalypse limbo. But the new ilm’s really coming; June 27 is the
Japanese release date of what’s called Evangelion 3.0+1.0 – that’s Eva 4
to us. and yes, the ilm’s demonstrably in production. he opening ten
minutes previewed in Paris last July, and are easy to ind online.
 Evangelion 2.22
Violet Evergarden
he big news this December, though, was that
Anno wrote an article for Japan’s business magazine
Diamond, making clear that the new Eva wasn’t a
Studio Gainax property, and that the Gainax company
had disgraced its once-feted name. Anno claims that
Gainax is mired in unpaid debts, unreturned loans and
underhand deals. Anno’s khara studio, which makes
the new Eva ilms, sued Gainax in 2016 and won, but
Anno’s article puts still more water between Gainax
and Evangelion (and Anno himself). he piece was
plainly prompted by the December arrest of Tomohiro
Maki, Gainax’s representative director, who’s charged
with sexual crimes against an aspiring actress.
here was one more major announcement in
December, but it warned against expecting a new
ilm. Toshio Suzuki of Studio Ghibli stated on an NHK
documentary that Hayao Miyazaki is indeed directing
a new anime feature, How Do You Live?... but he’s
directing it at a rate of a minute a month, with the ilm
only 15% complete. (Miyazaki has been working on the
ilm for the last three and a half years.) he animation
website Cartoon Brew speculated hopefully that
Miyazaki may be grinding through development and
storyboards, and the pace could pick up later… but it
seems certain we won’t see the new ilm anytime soon.
In its 2020 New Year message, Ghibli stated it was
working on two ilms, though it didn’t say if the >>>
MEANWHILE IN HOLLYWOOD…
Fans don’t always get what they want. Last year’s live-action Alita: Battle Angel
was embraced by many lovers of the source manga, but there’s still no word
of a sequel, despite a Twitter campaign in December. We suspect fewer fans
are enthused by the live-action Your Name remake, but this is happening,
according to Shinkai when he appeared at a Weathering screening in London.
“Bad Robot Productions are already working on it… I don’t know if it’ll go
well or not, but I am interested to see the outcome,” Shinkai said. Bad Robot
Productions is the studio led by J.J. Abrams, attached as producer – Abrams
and his studio also handled that little film called Rise of Skywalker. According
to earlier reports, the live-action Your Name will transpose the story to
America and it’ll be directed by Marc Webb (Amazing Spider-Man, 500 Days
of Summer). However, given that no cast has been confirmed as of writing, it’s
extremely unlikely that the film could be finished in time for a release this year.
The same goes for the still-in-development sequel to the timeloop action film
Edge of Tomorrow. That wasn’t based on an anime, but rather on a Japanese
sci-fi novel, All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 017
NEWS

How Do You Live?... FURTHER INTO THE ABYSS…

January 17 sees the Japanese release of the long-awaited anime
continuation of Made in Abyss. Subtitled Dawn of the Deep Soul,
it sees our young heroes go… well, deeper. The original series
was memorable for how it started out looking like a cute kids’
adventure a la Laputa, only to turn really horrible later on. Now
the new film has been rated “R15+,” meaning only over-15s can
see it in the cinema. Consider our blood well chilled…
There were two Made in Abyss films released in Japan last
year, but they were both compiled from the series. If you were
wondering about the continuation of another anime series, the
steampunk Princess Principal, the cinema sequels had been due
to begin in 2019. However, the first film, subtitled Crown Handler,
is now due in Japan on April 10. The Japanese actress who voiced
Ange suffered ill-health; a new actress will voice her in the films.

>>> unnamed one was a cinema feature. (It could be, for example, a
short for the Ghibli museum.) Two years ago, Ghibli announced that GUNDAM’S BLAST FROM
Miyazaki’s son Goro would direct a new Ghibli feature, but his name
wasn’t mentioned in the new announcement.
THE PAST
The new Evangelion film may hog the attention, but mecha fans
In any case, it’s been many years since a Ghibli ilm that wasn’t
are looking forward to another summer release in Japan, Gundam:
by Hayao caused box-oice excitement in Japan. For now, the
Hathaway. It’s a feature film that’ll pick up a character from
commercial king of Japanese features is shinkai. Yet glass-empty
vintage Gundam; Hathaway Noa, the troubled son of the heroic
types can note that while Weathering was a hit, it earned only about
Commander Bright Noa. Hathaway’s backstory was told in the
half the takings of Your Name in Japan. Can shinkai reverse the slide?
film Char’s Counterattack, made back in 1988. The new Hathaway
Interviewed recently by the Deadline website, shinkai said he wanted
film picks up the character when he’s 12 years older, in a story from
to release his next ilm within three years. However, he fretted that he
novels by Gundam’s prime mover Yoshiyuki Tomino. The new film’s
hadn’t had any ideas for it yet. still, we wouldn’t bet on Miyazaki beating
director is Shukou Murase (Genocidal Organ).
shinkai’s next pic to the cinema…
But if you hanker after Ghibli-style fantasy and have Netlix, try the
just-dropped Ni no Kuni ilm, inspired by the video RPG by Level-5. as
you may know, the original game included Ghibli animation. he new
ilm’s not by Ghibli but looks very Ghibli-esque, complete with a score
by Miyazaki’s regular composer Joe Hisasishi.

LUPIN’S NEW DIMENSION

Lupin the Third has featured in countless anime, but December 2019
saw the rubbery thief debut in a CG film in Japan, called Lupin the
© SOTSU • SUNRISE

Third: The First. The online trailer makes clear that it’s trad Lupin action
fun (only in CG) with the usual voice cast. The director-writer is Takashi
Yamazaki, best-known for live-action hits such as The Eternal Zero;
he also directed the two-part live-action Parasyte. In 2014, Yamazaki
helped take another beloved anime character into CG with Stand By
Me Doraemon. He co-directed both that film and the upcoming Stand
By Me Doraemon 2, which is due this August.

018 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020

 HOW THE PAST CAN CATCH
UP WITH YOU ...
Out on Blu-ray
27 January

CELLS AT
WORK
A STORY
STORY
ST
STOR
ORY ABOUT YOU
Y ... AND YOUR
YOUR BODY.
BOD
BODY
Out on Blu-ray
20 January

available from all

good stockists

NEO’S
TOPTEN
Music Stories Hitting The UK
A new year, a whole heap of exciting new releases
and shows from some of Japan’s most exciting rock
and pop outfits! Coming up we have new music
from members of BABYMETAL’s band, Japan’s most
powerful girl band and the return of a familiar face from
the visual kei scene. Bring on another awesome year!
NEW ALBUM AND MAGAZINE!
2.SCANDAL 14 FEBRUARY
Once tipped as “the most powerful Japanese girl band”, and for having
a positive afect on the country’s sale of musical instruments to young
women, SCANDAL aren’t showing any signs of waning as they say goodbye
to major label Sony after ten years and release their irst album from
their own label. he label’s called “her” and the new album Kiss from the
darkness is getting a rather special overseas release on 14 February courtesy
of JPU Records.
he overseas edition has two versions, the regular CD version with
a yellow cover, and a limited edition magazine and CD version with a
pink cover. he magazine will be the irst time that SCANDAL’s oicial
publication (also entitled her) has been translated into English, and it’s
02 0 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
DEBUT MAJOR SINGLE!
1. LIE AND A CHAMELEON
OUT NOW!
his bunch of guitar mashing hooligans had already hit it big when
their digital release 0 (“zero”) became the latest theme song to Bleach:
Brave Souls, the oicial mobile game of the Bleach franchise. Now, as
this issue reaches your hands, the band has unleashed their debut major
label single mononoke in the fiction. he three-track release includes the
titular anthem, which is also the band’s irst tie-in with anime. It is the
theme to hit new series In/Spectre, starting on Crunchyroll this month.
Expect big things! he single is available to stream, download and add to
playlists now.
exclusively available from jpurecords.com while stocks last. Once the
original print run has sold out, there will be no more copies made, so if
you usually wait until Comic Con to get your JPU haul, it might be better to
order online and secure a copy before it’s too late!
Kiss from the darkness will include 11 tracks digitally, while the
physical editions include a bonus track and booklet with English
translations and transliterations so you can sing along. At the time of
writing the band’s latest song to be released from the album is A.M.D.K.J.
(pronounced “amidakuji”). It’s available to download now ahead of the
album release, and features as the current theme to anime series GeGeGe
no Kitaro, currently airing on Crunchyroll.
 3 4
5 6
8 9
We remember a time when a year didn’t go by without the band [3] MUCC
coming to the UK in some shape or form, whether as part of the now
defunct Taste of Chaos tour with a bunch of punk and metal from Europe
and America, or on one of their numerous headline tours. In recent years
international releases and appearances from the band have been slim –
until now!
MUCC will be making their long-awaited return on 16 April at the O2
Academy Islington. General tickets are on sale now priced at £36.75, with
a VIP upgrade available for €77 that includes early entry, a VIP laminate,
a merch item and a group photo with the band. Eagle-eyed fans may have
noticed an extra person in the band’s group picture, on the far left. hat’s
Tooru Yoshida, a keyboardist and producer who worked with MUCC on
upcoming concept album Kowareta Piano to Living Dead.
[4] Sumire Uesaka, the quirky J-pop singer and voice actress, will
release her brand-new album on CD and digitally in the UK from February,
entitled NEO PROPAGANDA. he release follows her massive hit with the
theme to POP TEAM EPIC. he album looks set to be another truly unique
romp through the next generation of Japanese pop, collaborating with
some of Japan’s most creative minds. Lead track NEO TOKYO SINGING sees
Ryohei Shima, frontman of rock band he Dresscodes, create a magical and
modern reimagining of old-fashioned Japanese pop songs brought up to
date for the Reiwa-era with a distinctive Sumire Uesaka spin.
A number of other producers also put their mark on NEO
7
10
PROPAGANDA, including NARASAKI (writer of BABYMETAL’s
Headbangeeeeerrrr!!!!! and Catch Me If You Can) and Japanese rock legend
Kenji Ohtsuki (credited as inluencing Neon Genesis Evangelion) who
joined forces on album track SPY, AI-KID (THE LETHAL WEAPONS)
bringing a fantastically retro ‘80s power vibe to Run Fast, Rasputin!, and
Akihabara pop inluencers MOSAIC.WAV on the album’s fast paced tribute
to a Romance of the hree Kingdoms general in Super Lu Bu Lu Bu Paradise!,
amongst many more.
You may have heard of KAMI BAND, the group of white-faced
musicians that join BABYMETAL on stage. You may not have heard of
their alter-ego [5] KARI BAND, originally a three-piece unit creating epic
instrumentals in the jazz / prog rock genre comprising of BOH on bass,
Yuya Maeta on drums and the late Mikio Fujioka on guitar. heir second EP
Nimaime is out now digitally with a snippet of lead track Samurai Groove
available on Twitter. he EP also features several musicians from Japan for
guest guitar, violin and piano parts.
Gigs fans, look out for steam punks [6] FATE GEAR at the Underworld
in Camden on 17 February, [7] NINGEN ISU set to rock the same place in
London on 21 February, followed shortly by electronic noise makers [8]
Crossfaith, back on tour of the UK at the start of March.
Hitting a HMV near you when this issue is out are the latest albums
from [9] BAND-MAID (CONQUEROR) and [10] LOVEBITES (ELECTRIC
PENTAGRAM) – what a way to start the year!
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 02 1
 NEWS
W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T

FAIRY TAIL NEWS

Hiro Mashima’s hit manga Fairy Tail comes
to consoles this spring in a magical rPG. he
eponymous game draws upon the events of the
Tenrou Island, Grand Magic Games, and Tartaros
storylines. Players assemble a battle party of up
to ive characters from a roster of more than 15

A STRAW HAT including Natsu, lucy, Gray, ezra and wendy as they
ight to make the Fairy Guild the strongest in the
land of Fiore. Plus, there will be playable characters
from other guilds, including sherria Blendy from

STAMPEDE
Pirates ahoy for one day only!
lamia scale, Kagura Mikazuchi of Mermaid Heel,
Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki from Blue Pegasus, and
sting euclife and rogue Cheney of sabertooth.
winning battles together strengthens the bond
between the characters, unlocking scenes featuring
dialogue written specially for the game. Fairy Tail
he One Piece anime series celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2019 and Toei Animation will materialise on the Ps4, Nintendo switch and PC
marked the occasion with One Piece Stampede, the 14th feature ilm outing for lufy and via steam on 19 March from Koei Tecmo.
the straw Hat Pirates. he ilm was released on 9 August 2019, opening at number #1 at the
box oice and going on to become the tenth top grossing ilm of the year in Japan, where
it beat likes of Star Wars: he Rise Of Skywalker, Godzilla: King Of he Monsters, and
Detective Pikachu (we’re as surprised as you are about that last one).
Anyway, the good news is that One Piece Stampede is heading for a theatrical release
here in the UK thanks to the good folks of Manga entertainment, opening with a limited
run exclusively on 2 February that will include both subbed and dubbed screenings of
the movie. he story sees lufy and his shipmates sailing into chaos and conlict at the
Pirate Festival, a race where the prize is a treasure that belonged to the legendary Pirate
King, Gol D. roger. of course, the straw Hat Pirates aren’t going to miss a chance at that,
and the festival pulls in a veritable host of familiar faces, some friendly, some hostile,
including the Marines, the worst Generation, the agents of Cipher Pol, the shichibukai
and more. Plus, there’s a new foe to face in the form of Douglas Bullet, who once served
the great Pirate King roger. To ind your nearest screening, tickets and showtimes, visit
onepieceilm.co.uk. Followers
Photographer turned ilmmaker Mika Ninagawa
made a splash in 2007 with her visually
sumptuous debut feature Sakuran about a geisha
searching for love and independence. hat was
succeeded by Helter Skelter concerning a model
obsessed with her own beauty. Now Ninagawa
joins the ranks of ilmmakers moving to Netlix
with her new drama series Followers, looking
at two women in contemporary Tokyo as
Ninagawa examines fame in the digital age. Miki
Nakatani plays limi Nara, a successful fashion
photographer, alongside elaiza Ikeda as Natsume
Hyakuta, an aspiring actress. Natsume is full of
self-doubt but she suddenly inds herself thrust
into the social media spotlight when limi shares
an image of her on Instagram. Followers streams
on Netlix from 27 February.

02 2 NEO MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020

 UK release schedule
Date title Distributor
23/01 i’m standing
tanding on a Million lives 5 Kodansha
23/01 Farewell, My Dear Cramer 1 Kodansha
23/01 20th Century boy oys: the Perfect edition 06 ViZ Media
23/01 Golden
lden Kamuy 13 ViZ Media
23/01 t ra Formars 22
ter ViZ Media
23/01 black Clover 19 shonen
nen Jump
23/01 Demon slayer: yer: Kimetsu no Yaiba 10 shonen
nen Jump
23/01 Dr. stone 9 shonen
nen Jump
23/01 Haikyu!!
ikyu!! 36 shonen
nen Jump
23/01 Kaguya-sama:
guya-sama: love is War 12 shonen
nen Jump
23/01 the Promised Neverland 13 shonen
nen Jump
30/01 aPosiMZ MZ 4 Vertical
30/01 the Quintessential Quintuplets 7 Kodansha
30/01 living-
ing-room m Matsunaga-san 1 Kodansha
06/02 arakawa under the bridge ridge 7 Verticall
06/02 10 DaNCe 6 Kodansha
06/02 boarding
oarding school Juliet 10 Kodanshaa

ANIME 06/02
06/02
06/02
Granblue Fantasy (Manga) 3
Homestuck epi pilogues
logues
an incurable Case of love Vol 2
Kodansha
ViZ Media
shojo
hojo
jo beat
Date title Distributor
06/02 anonymous
nymous Noise 18 shojo
hojo
jo beat
27/01 Mobile suit Gundam the origin gin V-Vi
V-V (Collector’s blu-ray)
-ray) anime limited 06/02 Daytime
ytime shootingoting star Vol 4 shojo
hojo
jo beat
27/01 Mobile suitt Gundam Wing Part 2 (blu-ray)
( -ray) anime limited 06/02 snow White with the red Hair 5 shojo
hojo
jo beat
27/01 i Want to
t eatat Your Pancreas (DVD / blu-ray)
-ray) Manga
nga 06/02 the leg egend of Zelda: twi
t light Princess 6 Viz Media
27/01 Code Geass: lelouch of the rebellion (DVD / blu-ray)-ray) Manga
nga 13/02 Kino’s Journey: the beautiful World 5 Verticall
27/01 sag
aga of tan
t ya the evil (DVD / blu-ray)
-ray) Manga
nga 13/02 beyond
eyond the Clouds 1 Kodansha
27/01 anohana: Flowers We saw thatt Day (blu-ray)
( -ray) MVM 13/02 a Man and His Cat 1 square
quare enix
nix Manga
03/02 Hellsing
llsing ultimate Vol 9-10 (DVD / blu-ray)
-ray) Manga
nga 20/02 Don’t ttoy
oy With Me Miss Nagatoro 2 Vertical
03/02 ssss.Gridman (DVD / blu-ray)
-ray) Manga
nga 0/02 Cells at Work! CoDe blaCK 4 Kodanshaa
10/02 ZoMbie laND saGa a (DVD
( / blu-ray
-ray / Collector’s) Manga
nga 20/02 Fairy ttail: 100 Years Quest 3 Kodansha
10/02 Plastic Memories Part 1 (Collector’s blu-ray)
-ray) anime limited 20/02 o Maidens in Your savage avage season 6 Kodansha
17/02 Kizumonogatari:
zumonogatari: Nekketsu (blu-ray)
( -ray) MVM 20/02 saint
aint Young Men 2 Kodansha
17/02 Calamity of a Zombie Girl (blu-ray) anime limited 20/02 saiyuki
aiyuki 1 Kodanshaa
17/02 King’s
ng’s Game (Collector’s blu-ray) anime limited 20/02 Danganronpa another episode: ultra Despair Girls 2 Dark Horse
17/02 Mobile suit Gundam 00 Part 1 (blu-ray) anime limited
17/02 Jo bizarre adventure set three: stardust Crusaders (blu-ray)
JoJo’s Manga
nga
17/02 How Not to t summon a DemonD lord (DVD / blu-ray) Manga
nga
24/02 a silent Voice (ltd
l ed DVD/blu-ray)
ltd anime limited
24/02 Penguin
nguin Highway (Collector’s blu-ray, blu-ray, DVD) anime limited
24/02 that time i Got reincarnated as a slime 1:2 (DVD / blu-ray) Manga
nga
24/02 star blazers: space battleship Yamato 2199 (DVD / blu-ray) Manga
nga
02/03 Mobile suit Gundam 00 Part 2 (blu-ray) anime limited
02/03 Plastic Memories Part 2 (Collector’s blu-ray) anime limited
02/03 Fruits basket 1:2 (DVD / blu-ray) Manga
nga
02/03 over the Garden Wall (DVD / blu-ray) Manga

ASIAN FILM
Date title Distributor
24/01 Detective Chinatown 3 t nity Films
tri
24/01 Present. Perfect. iCa
a Films
F
27/01 sansho the bailif sonyy Pictures Home entertainment
07/02 Parasite Curzon artificial eye
ye
10/02 so long g My son Curzon artificial eye
ye
14/02 First love sig
ignature entertainment
14/02 sonic the Hedgehog Paramount

MANGA 17/02
24/02
24/02
the leg
Dragons
egend of the stardust brothers
agons Forever
Heroes shed No teat rs
third Window Films
88 Films
88 Films
Date title Distributor 24/02 longg Day’s Journey into
o Night New Wave Films
23/01 City 7 Verticall 24/02 one Missed Call tri
t logy arrow Films
23/01 the seven
en Deadly sins 36 Kodansha 24/02 raining
ning in the Mountain eureka
23/01 sailor Moon eternal edition 7 Kodansha 09/03 the Climbers Cine asia/tri
t nity Films
tri
All dates correct at time of press, but are subject to change.

www.uncookedme d ia.c om 02 3
 HANGING OUT
IN ASAKUSA
NEO’S RESIDENT IDOL SHARES HER FAVE
SPOTS AROUND THE FAMOUS SENSOJI TEMPLE
I’m mahIru KurumIzawa, zawa, reporting from a very cold Tokyo!
za
Today, I would like to introduce tourist spots in asakusa that can
be visited in January and February. One of the most famous spots in
asakusa is the Sensoji Temple (if you’re playing Mario Kart: World Tour
on mobile, the big red lantern and gate from this temple is included
in the Tokyo Blur stage!). You don’t need me to tell you about that, so
instead I want to teach you about some of my favourite places around
the temple that tourists might miss.
here are three things I like about asakusa. First, going there is
a good excuse to wear a kimono! many any people think that they can
an
only wear Japanese clothes such as yukata in the summer, but there
are traditional costumes in Japan, such as kimonos, which are also
suitable for cold seasons like right now. January in Japan is cold, but
the sun is warm and comfortable enough to wear a kimono. here is
a place in asakusa that will rent you a kimono and arrange your hair
for 2900 yen (around £20). For this trip I visited the shop “wargo”
0 24 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
(Instagram: @kyotokimonorental.wargo), they have many kimono
patterns and hair styles to choose from. hey also seem to be popular
with foreign customers, so they can answer any questions you have in
English.
Next, eat!
here is road that leads from asakusa Station to Sensoji Temple
called Nakamise-dori. I love the shop that sells strawberry skewers
just of of this street. It’s called “Strawberry Dorayaki Specialty Store
Sotatsuki”. his shop opened in 2019 and here you can taste various
types of strawberries. I like white strawberries, which is rare, but I
love ordinary red strawberries too. You can buy strawberry daifuku
(mochi, Japanese rice cake with a strawberry inside) and dorayaki
(two pancakes with a strawberry illing). So if you like, please eat.
Speaking of asakusa and food, If you turn left at the big crossroad
before going to Sensoji Temple you will ind “asakusa menchi”, one
of two windows selling food with many people lined up outside. he
other window is a curry bakery. Both of them sell
freshly made food quickly, so you can get them without
waiting much, even if the queue looks long. menchi is
ground beef in breadcrumbs that’s been deep-fried,
you can ind it in convenience stores too but the one at
asakusa is one of my favourites! It’s also very cheap,
just 300 yen / £2.
he third thing I like to do in asakusa is to take a
photo! Before going to Sensoji Temple, turn right at the
crossroads and keep going. here is a big photogenic
booth, decorated with red paper-windmills. You can
take photo using goods, such as a giant fake melon
bread. Check the place out over on Instagram:
@asakusa.kagetsudo. asakusa is just one place, but so
many things to do and enjoy! If you visit there, let me
know about your trip! @mahiru104 on Instagram.

www.uncookedme d ia.c om 02 5
 ULTRA SCAM
JONATHAN CLEMENTS ON A LEGAL DISPUTE SO COMPLICATED
CHINA SET UP ITS OWN STUDY GROUP TO RESEARCH IT

I
t looks like Christmas came early for Tsuburaya 1
Productions, after the Los Angeles Court of Appeal
ruled in the company’s favour in the irst week of
December 2019. he studio that most famously gave
the world the Spandex-clad superhero Ultraman has
been locked in a legal battle for 23 years with Sompote
Saengduenchai, a hai director who claimed that the late
Noboru Tsuburaya, son of studio founder Eiji, had sold
him the rights to exploit Ultraman outside Japan.
he judgement airms a ruling already made in 2017,
that the contract Sompote has been waving around since
1996, and claims to have signed in 1976, doesn’t have
Noboru Tsuburaya’s real signature on it, and even if it did,
makes several suspicious errors regarding the names of
Tsuburaya properties. Sompote, meanwhile, has behaved
with entertaining evasiveness, refusing to provide the
original of the passport that, he claims, “proves” he was
in Japan in 1976, and being hand-wavingly vague about 1. The legal arguments have
2
what exactly Tsuburaya is supposed to have received in continued for decades. 2. Ultraman
return for this deal. X, just one of many entries in the
franchise.

“THE MYSTERY REMAINS – DID

SOMPOTE REALLY TRAVEL TO JAPAN
IN 1976 AND SOMEHOW SECURE AN
INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS DEAL FROM A 2

NOBORU TSUBURAYA, A DEAL WHICH

CONVENIENTLY WENT UNMENTIONED BY
ANYONE, SOMPOTE INCLUDED, UNTIL AFTER
TSUBURAYA WAS DEAD? OR IS HE LYING?”
While all this has been going on, Sompote’s company
Chaiyo has not only been making its own Ultraman
movies, but also selling merchandising deals and even
licensing the rights for US DVD releases with reputable
companies. he battle has been fought not only in hai
courts, which ruled in Sompote’s favour in 2009, but
also in China, which found the whole thing so confusing
that Beijing courts ordered the setting up of an Ultraman
Copyright Study Group, and inally swung in Tsuburaya’s
favour when it was brought to America.
he mystery remains – did Sompote really travel to
Japan in 1976 and somehow secure an international rights
deal from a Noboru Tsuburaya, a deal which conveniently
went unmentioned by anyone, Sompote included, until
after Tsuburaya was dead? Or is he lying? Or did he meet
someone who claimed to be Tsuburaya, who proceeded to
sell him the Japanese TV equivalent of London Bridge? If
so, that would make Sompote the victim, and the entire,
prolonged shambles merely the fall-out from a scammer
blagging a few free lunches.
You might think it all unlikely, but Sompote wouldn’t
be the irst. I know of one prominent Captain Harlock fan
who spent several happy hours getting drunk in a Tokyo
bar with a “Mr Matsumoto”, unaware that the real Leiji
Matsumoto had given up waiting for him in the hotel
lobby and gone home after 45 minutes.

02 6 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 ANIME EXPOSÉ
BLADE OF THE
IMMORTAL History mired in blood
Last montH we mentioned trigger warnings and how people who need
them probably shouldn’t stream new anime series. Blade of the Immortal,
unusually, does have a content warning at the start. Boy, does it need it.
Flippancy aside, this is harsh, splashed with gore, torture and
violence, including intense sexual violence. It goes way further than, say,
Ninja Scroll; no surprise that it isn’t actually a tV series. In all territories
including Japan, Blade of the Immortal is being streamed exclusively to
amazon Prime. Like Devilman Crybaby on netlix, Blade is an object
lesson in how much further onas (original net animations) can go than
their broadcast brethren. But unlike Crybaby, Blade is being serialised
week by week like a tV show; it wasn’t dropped all at once in a binge-able
dollop, like netlix’s shows.
we’ve foregrounded Blade’s ultraviolence because there’s no
alternative, but this isn’t just a bloodbath. Based on a long manga (30
volumes, completed), Blade is a revenge drama set in shogun Japan. It has
a small if pivotal fantasy element; the titular “immortal” is a wandering
swordsman called manji, who’s practically impossible to kill. as
highlighted in samurai ilms since Kurosawa, swordighters have their
limbs lopped of; it’s their biggest occupational hazard. he diference
with manji is he can just stick his severed parts back on again. manji’s
secret is “bloodworms,” magic-seeming creatures which infest his body.
no, he’s not unkillable – decapitation would inish him, and there’s a
02 8 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
special poison that’s his kryptonite – but he is dang hard to dispatch.
manji is the title character, but not the main character. more
important is Rin, a 16-year-old girl who’s already seen the world’s full
cruelty. Her family were leaders of a dojo, a ighting school, and they were
massacred before her eyes by a rival group. now she’s wandering in her
crimson kimono, intent on revenge. an aged (immortal?) woman, lurking
in a graveyard, bids Rin make manji her bodyguard. when the girl inds
manji on a riverbank, he’s contemptuous, as ronin always are. Yet manji
admits that Rin’s desperation afects him; she reminds manji of his own
murdered little sister. so they travel together, seeking the agents of the
murderous “Itto-ryu” clan and its magnetic, serenely lethal boy leader,
anotsu.
not Just a deatH FRenzY
Blade of the Immortal is one of those series (Goblin Slayer was another)
which viewers might drop after one episode; but Blade’s irst episode is
very misleading in some ways. Yes, it points up the cruel violence, which
is fair warning. But the episode has an especially grotesque extreme-
body-horror punchline, which is so demented that it feels like JoJo’s
Bizarre Adventure gone psycho (and indeed, Psycho). But it’s not really
representative of the series.
he same goes for the irst episode’s aggressive artiness; it’s all

“LIKE DEVILMAN CRYBABY ON NETFLIX, BLADE OF THE
IMMORTAL IS AN OBJECT LESSON IN HOW MUCH FURTHER
ONAS (ORIGINAL NET ANIMATIONS) CAN GO THAN THEIR
BROADCAST BRETHREN.”
scratchy sepia and monochrome backgrounds
splashed with hot red blood, to an indiferent
background chorus of insect imagery and poems
about death. his artiness will jangle alarm bells
if you know Blade’s anime director, Hiroshi
Hamasaki, for his 2007 series Shigurui Death
Frenzy. hat was a mindbogglingly disturbing
samurai anime, directed with clinical cruelty to
rival david Cronenberg. It was devoid of warmth
and hope, with only its art to distance you from
the merciless horrors. From Blade’s irst episode,
it feels like Hamasaki is taking the story the same
way… so it’s worth highlighting the fact that he
doesn’t.
while Blade is a tough watch, it also has a
quotient of warmth and humanity that’s a blessed
relief. much of it is Rin’s story, of her striving for
vengeance but also questioning what revenge is
worth in a world of so many tragedies. some of the
best episodes play as little character studies. Rin
meets foes, male and female, whom she cannot
just dismiss as monsters. (all the monsters are
human, incidentally; no dragons or yokai here.)
Beyond the gory horrors, Blade’s narrative is closer
to western crime ilms such as Leon and Road to
Perdition, where young, vengeful protagonists are
guarded by trained killers, without necessarily
losing all their innocence.
still, this is a cruel show. some horrors are
handled obliquely or at least briely, implying
the worst; but then there are protracted attacks
on women that viewers may ind unwatchable.
Like the anime Perfect Blue, the assaults tend
to be framed from a female perspective; even a
torture-rape scene (which is really, really horrible)
moves us into a woman’s thoughts as the one place
left inviolate. he woman isn’t Rin, incidentally.
he later episodes bring in new characters and
factions; there’s a duel between a ighter who’s a
decent man and a sadistically evil one, who are
each clearly the “hero” of their respective stories.
his is the third screen telling of Blade of the
Immortal; it follows a 2008 tV anime and a live-
action ilm by takashi miike.
ALSO STREAMING…
MADOKA MAGICA SIDE STORY
It’s coming up to seven years since the last
Madoka Magica anime, the fan-dividing film
Rebellion. The title of this new series suggests
it won’t be a straightforward continuation, but
then neither was Rebellion. Based on a mobile
phone RPG, Side Story introduces a new city
and a new girl protagonist, Iroha, seeking
her missing sister. However, some familiar
characters will appear, including a certain
funny-eared smiley feline git...
IN/SPECTRE
The other two upcoming fantasy series were
both previewed at the MCM Comic Con event in
October. Set in present-day Japan, In/Spectre
pairs up a magic girl, Kotoko, and a supposedly
“ordinary” boy, Kuro, both of whom perceive
the yokai (spirit) world. Together they resolve
various conflicts and mysteries that bring
humans and spirits together. Kuro is voiced in
Japanese by the famed Mamoru Miyano, Light in
Death Note, Okabe in Steins;Gate and Setsuna in
the recently home-released Gundam 00.
SOMALI AND THE FOREST SPIRIT
Somali and the Forest Spirit is a lovely-looking
fantasy, set in a picturebook world in which
a (very) young girl was raised by a towering
ancient “Golem,” a scary-looking but gentle
Guardian of nature. Now the pair roam a
colourful world of non-human creatures, as
the Golem seeks a true home for his daughter.
The premise recalls The Ancient Magus’ Bride,
albeit with a parental rather than a romantic
relationship; from what NEO has seen of the
series, it has a comparable appeal.
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 02 9
 ANIME EXPOSÉ
STARS ALIGN Leave your issues of the court
Today’s BriTish anime fans have wide tastes. still, it’s unlikely that
“tennis anime” is a tag to get fans racing to watch Stars Align; whereas “tennis
anime by the director of Noein and Vision of Escaflowne” would interest
them. you may also know Kazuki akane, the director in question, for Heat
Guy J and Birdy the Mighty: Decode. more recently he helmed Akito the
Exiled, a video miniseries set in the world of Code Geass (see boxout). none of
them have much to do with sports.
actually, though, there are a couple of foreshadows of Stars Align in
akane’s best-known fantasies. Escaflowne’s opening minutes were a sports
show; the girl protagonist, hitomi, was a sprinter at her school, which was
handy when she was whisked to a fantasy world and went up athletically
against dragons and giant robots. as for the world-crossing Noein, one of
its main characters in “our” world was a boy being pressed towards mental
breakdown by his domineering mother. moreover, one of Noein’s driving
themes was its young characters’ fear of who they might become in an
uncertain future.
hat baggage crosses over to Stars Align, though it’s plainly not sci-i /
fantasy. But it’s also plainly not just work for hire for akane, who wrote the
story himself, not leaning on a manga or other source material. and it’s not
just a tennis series.
True, at irst it’s a typical sports set-up. he setting is a Tokyo school near
the broad Tama river, which is a tranquil backdrop for some quieter out-of-
school scenes, and a party destination for a barbecue. We’re introduced to the
030 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
school’s “soft tennis” players – soft tennis uses rubber balls that give you a welt
but not a concussion. speciically we meet the boys’ club, a set of no-hopers.
all the boys, in the middle of their middle school (about 14) seem listless and
lackluster, with the exception of their captain, glasses-wearing Toma; he’s
quietly studious and high-strung.
meanwhile another boy, maki, moves into the neighbourhood with his
mother. he hares up and down his apartment block’s stairs (why wait for the
lift?), makes both their meals, and remembers whatever item his mum forgets
when she bustles out to work each morning. in short, maki is more like an
attentive adult partner than a child.
maki transfers into the school where Toma recognizes him – the two
were friends as elementary schoolers. hen, in a quintessentially “sports
manga” happenstance, a stray kitten runs into the classroom, leaping over
maki... who catches kitty with ease. Toma sees his friend has developed
impressive hand-eye co-ordination; we admire the lively animation.
you’ve surely guessed part two already. Toma persuades maki to
join the softball club, though the deal they strike is less expected. maki
has never played tennis before, which doesn’t stop him being a natural
prodigy, or asking wonderingly why the other players (bar Toma) are so
hopeless. interestingly and believably, Toma is as furious at this comment
as anyone else; he is the captain. soon though, Toma and maki are working
together to bring the no-hoper boys – there are six all together – up to speed,
literally and iguratively.
 TENNIS ANIME
The great tennis anime sagas are Aim
for the Ace! in the 1970s (from a girls’
manga with a girl lead) and Prince of
Tennis in the 2000s (from a Shonen
Jump manga with a boy lead). 2014’s
Baby Steps ran 50 episodes, but none
of these shows seem to have caught
on much with British fans. There’s also
Happy!, a long 1990s tennis manga
by Naoki Urasawa (Monster, 20th
Century Boys), which has never been
translated into English to date.

TWITTER STORM
Some of Stars Align’s most appealing
animation is in its end titles, where
the show’s characters are shown
performing various energetic dance
2
movements. However, this caused
an unexpected storm when two
3 online Japanese dancers went onto
Twitter to accuse the animators of
stealing their dance choreography.
The dancers were Miko Nanakawa
(female) and Melochin (male).
Eventually the series’ official Twitter
posted an apology for being careless
with “creative ownership,” and added
that the dancers were now working
with the animators.

1. Toma strains to lead the softball club. 2.

Maki, always calculating the next split-second
move. 3. The eight-strong boys team gather
round their adult adviser, Mr Sakurai.

iT’s darK off The fieLd

The visuals are handsome rather than outstanding; the tennis matches look
most exciting at their climaxes, as drama demands. however, what makes
the show distinctive isn’t the tennis. as the story continues, it’s revealed that
all the characters have issues, deep problems and traumas, often related to
their parents. one has insecurities from being adopted; another was scalded
as a baby by his out-of-her-head mother. several others have conflicts with at
least one parent. one student isn’t sure of their gender identity, or indeed their
identity (as in Zombie Land Saga, the character’s friends don’t see it as an issue).
maki himself is threatened by his estranged, sadistic father, who can
loom up at his apartment door at any time, demanding money. in most of the
series, maki is the calm, rational type familiar from TV anime; but he’s also
shown reduced to terriied jelly by his dad. hardly complex characterization,
but it’s still a vividly nasty twist on the epitome of autopilot character types. MISSING GEASS
he story forces the viewer into uncomfortable self-questioning. he As mentioned in the main text, one of Akane’s more recent
revelation that all these kids have issues seems laughably contrived. But is it directing posts was on Code Geass: Akito the Exiled. Made in 2012,
that unlikely in the real world? (many of these kids’ cases wouldn’t be picked this was a video series consisting of five 50-minute episodes, set
up by oicial statistics.) you may also ind it unlikely how these boys open in the same timeframe as the original Code Geass TV series (in
up to their peers about their problems, but then this is a show about a team other words, a side-story). It follows characters fighting Britannia
bonding together. hanks to that, the issues are forgotten for long stretches in Europe, although the titular Akito is from Area 11 – i.e. he’s
of the series, where the characters struggle through tennis games. it satisies Japanese. Manga Entertainment announced it would release Akito
the TV audience who’s turning on for a sports anime; but it also feels like in Britain, but to date, it’s still not materialised.
akane’s comment about knocking your troubles away.

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 031

 2

GOD ALMIGHTY
Born in 1968, The God App
creator Shosho Kurihara
made his professional
debut aged just 17, using
a pseudonym because
he was still at school. His
longest running series,
in Business Jump, was
Uramiya Honpo, which
essentially asked what the
world would be like if the
A-Team were contract
killers. TV Tokyo turned it
1
into a live series in 2006.

032 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 MANGA SNAPSHOT
YOUNG CHAMPION Jonathan Clements swims in a sea of jailbait
I S S UE # 9 5 8 // D E B U T Y E A R : 1 9 8 8 // PA GE C O UN T: C . 3 5 0 // P UB L I S HE R : A K I TA S H O T E N // P R I C E : 4 2 0 Y E N (£ 3 .1 9) // C Y C L E : BI W E E K LY
You’re luCkY there are only 11 of them on the cover (1). here are
apparently 30 barely-legal girls competing to be Miss Young Champion,
a questionable honour that brings with it the opportunity to travel to yet
more Paciic beaches and pose in yet more swimwear, while answering
vague questions about their hobbies posed by a photographer whose
name is apparently luckman. But that’s what you get when the boys’
manga magazine stands on the threshold of being a man’s manga
magazine. he manga themselves get edged of the cover to be replaced
by pictures of real girls, and the internal colour pages that would usually
be given over to comic splashes instead turn into a pigpile of soubrettes.
You have to look down to the very bottom of the cover to see any sign of
the manga that are supposedly Young Champion’s raison d’etre, and the
largest on display is the wonderfully titled Friction Girl (2), by noga.
I don’t know what you were imagining, but I certainly wasn’t
expecting Friction Girl to be a manga about bouldering – which is, in case
you were wondering, a sort of mini-golf version of mountaineering. once
simply a form of training for climbers, the use of indoor climbing areas or
smaller, problematic rock faces has blossomed into a sport all of its own,
orbited by a statistic-loving fandom of nerds stroking their chins about
whether rock-face x should be classed as an 8c diiculty level, or is more of
an 8b+ once you realise you can get around that diicult overhang with a
simple heel-hook.
Yes, even as I type these words, I am boring myself, but that, of course,
is the challenge that noga sets themself – can they impart the excitement
and obstacles of the bouldering world to an audience of couch potatoes?
our hero is an enthusiastic boulderer, who has attracted the attentions of
at least two girls, one of whom is already hoping to win his afections by
proving that she can boulder like the best of them. We see her practising in
the city by scaling a ire escape on the outside, already establishing links
between bouldering and its equally bro-friendly cousin, parkour.
I fear, however, that noga may have bitten of more than they can
chew. unlike card games, or shogi, or even more everyday activities like
tennis or golf, the complexities of bouldering are incredibly diicult to
impart in black and white inks. he action in this chapter is reduced to
a girl in gym clothes, hanging onto jutting bits of rock while her friend
shouts “You CAN Do It!” from down below. he artist gives up any
attempt at imparting the shape and feel of the rocks, the muscles or body
positioning required to navigate them, or even the risks of falling.
Writ slightly smaller on the cover is Platonic Love Junkies (3) by
kyo hatsuki, which imagines the editor of a magazine, let’s call it...
erm... Young Challenger, who looks to all intents and purposes like
a mild-mannered milksop. But he is the sole scion of the family who
runs a shrine in Japan famous for granting fertility, which leads him to
become the inadvertent and occasionally unwilling centre of a coterie
of women desperate to take him to bed. one can only imagine why
this one appeals to the editorial staf of Young Champion magazine, as
leading man Juntaro blunders efortlessly through a series of dates and
pick-ups, protesting all the while that he is happy to help out, as long as
the ladies in his life understand that it can only be about the sex, and that
he is not looking for a relationship. Drama, such as it is, arises from the
women who won’t take no for an answer. like any harem story, the plot
is driven by the eternal question of which of several prospects is the right
woman for him, a question with which the author wrestles on an entirely
justiiable and tax-deductible trip to hawaii. Who ever said that manga
didn’t pay?
he third and smallest manga previewed on the cover is Sense (4)
by “haruki” – the title deliberately puns on sensation and sensei, the
Japanese word for teacher. For Sense is an oft-hallucinogenic, somewhat
edgy tale of the only male teacher in a girls’ school, who is often spurred
into fantasies and speculations about his charges. he dodginess of this
pretext is insulated by two levels of smoke-screen – won’t someone think
of the poor young ictional girls that he is only fantasising about anyway?
Your mileage may vary: Sense is a story that puts fantasy to a cunning and
quite insidious use.
FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS
Still, no surprises, there. Young Champion has been pandering to the
priapic male reader for 31 years, enough time for some of its original
purchasers to be grandfathers by now. A large number of the stories in it,
however, seem to pander to young men keen to read all about the thug life.
Not to be confused with Natsuo kirino’s wonderful novel of the same
name, OUT (5) by tatsuya Iguchi and Makoto Mizuta is the tale of a small-
time gangster trying, and spectacularly failing, to go straight. released
from juvie after promising to avoid his old homeboys, he is soon drawn
into a series of ights and skirmishes over... well, over what? Much like
the rumbles of Young King (Neo 194), it is diicult for me to get my head
around the reason to punch strangers in the face over who gets to hang out
at the local dump, but this is at least part of Iguchi’s narrative point. he
tale is purportedly based on incidents from his own life as an underclass
brawler in West Chiba, and accords scraps in the street the same sort of
armchair generalship imparted to tales of samurai warlords. I thought
I would ind such exaltation distasteful, but was surprisingly won over
by its vainglorious self-regard – in describing a ight at a trash heap as if it
were the Battle of Sekigahara, Iguchi makes an underhand point about
history’s perverse love of killers of every stripe.
kaname, Iguchi’s leading man, might well be a skinhead with a
baseball bat, but he hails from a culture that, in its way, is no better or
worse than that of some samurai-era daimyo. he is the seventh leader >>>
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 033

3 5
A MODEL
CAREER
Platonic Love Junkies’
creator Kyo Hatsuki is,
surprisingly, a woman – she
wanted to be a musician
when she was young, but
dropped out to become
a truck driver, bar hostess
and model, before falling
into manga illustration, like
you do. She has recently
become a leading figure in
the Be Smile project that
aims to provide respite care
for abused children.
NO, REALLY...
Masaki Sata, whose life
provides the inspiration for
Demekin, did eventually
find a way out of his
criminal life. He quit as the
leader of the Phantom
biker gang and became...
a stand-up comedian. The
chapter in this issue shows
him and his friends coming
up with the idea, which
seems unlikely, but...
034 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
4 5
“ YOUNG CHAMPION HAS BEEN PANDERING TO THE PRIAPIC MALE
READER FOR 31 YEARS, ENOUGH TIME FOR SOME OF ITS ORIGINAL
PURCHASERS TO BE GRANDFATHERS BY NOW. A LARGE NUMBER
OF THE STORIES IN IT, HOWEVER, SEEM TO PANDER TO YOUNG MEN
KEEN TO READ ALL ABOUT THE THUG LIFE.”
>>> of his clan, a shrewd tactician and an able diplomat,
holding together a war-band of pugnacious street-
urchins. And yes, they are ighting over a pointless scrap
of land, but isn’t everybody, in the end?
In what is clearly something of a theme for the Young
Champion reader, young toughs are back again in Demekin
(6), by Masaki Sata and hajime Yu, which moves the street-
ighting action to the apparently mean streets of Fukuoka.
Considering how many of these gang manga claim to be
based on true stories, I invite some fun-loving academic to
draw up the manga gangland map of Japan, to see if the turf
and tales of Demekin, for example, ever overlaps with the
stories told in Young King’s Donketsu manga, which is set in
nearby kokura. But for now, we deal solely with the navel-
gazing ennui of three would-be tough guys, as they lurk
on a beach and speculate cluelessly about what the future
holds. he pathos, here, is that the future doesn’t really hold
anything for them, and they know it. No jobs, no prospects,
6
no safety network... in what may be an inadvertent
evocation of takeshi kitano’s idle movie gangsters, their
violence towards themselves and others seems to derive
from a desperate desire to avoid confronting the millions of
chances they have already blown. he irony here, however,
is that this is a true story, and readers will know that great
things awaited our leading man (see sidebar)...
I would have thought that this was all old hat when
Young Champion was new, but it seems there is always a
fresh group of readers ready to wallow in the misfortunes
of others. like a bunch of “x-becomes-teacher” stories
never happened, Mister CB (7) by Masaya tsunamoto
and Isao tanjima features a former player from the not-
very-big soccer leagues, washing up in a backwater town
where he somehow has to whip a local team into shape.
Its achievement, such as it is, lies not in the usual team-
building nonsense common to many a sports manga, but
the tense politics behind the scenes. he leading man is not
 6 7
8 8
necessarily newly-arrived coach Gasaragi – it just as easily
might be Chigira, the rookie player with potential, or even
umeno, the tough team director, originally introduced
as a bitter rival for Gasaragi, but possibly just an ally with
diferent priorities. Miss hoshikawa, a journalist from the
local sports newspaper (someone apparently wants to read
about this) is the reader’s eyes and ears, eavesdropping on
the various slanging matches and training pep-talks.
SURPRISE ATTACKS
I was starting to think that Young Champion had nothing
to ofer me, and was about to write it of as another low-rent
manga for the practically illiterate. But then two strips leapt
out at me with real impact and verve.
Kami Appli (he God App, 8) by Shosho kurihara is
a lovely little idea, although just how original it appears
depends on whether or not you understand a pitch meeting
that probably went something like: “It’s Death Note
with a smartphone.” God tools, the corporation behind
the story’s super-technology, starts out as a believeably
cutting-edge company, ofering such innovations as
Stealth smartphones that don’t show up on GPS read-
outs. But its output comes to include a whole series of
God Apps, which can hack into public utilities and local
networks, or summon battle robots to do agents’ bidding.
God tools is beta-testing a whole bunch of these widgets
out in the real world, efectively creating a random posse
of super-heroes, super-villains and adjudicators, as well
as the traitors’ Alliance – a band of rebels determined to
thwart the company’s activities. What with the real-world
resonances to ID theft, data harvesting and privacy, as well
9
as the interference of Big Data in contemporary politics, I KITCHEN WARS
am very surprised that this story hasn’t made the jump to Chiran is not creator Santa
anime already, particularly considering the scope it ofers Uonome’s first encounter
for propelling random members of the public to super-hero with cooking under
status by simply granting them the right chip. adverse conditions. His
And then there is Chiran (9) by Santa uonome, which War Grub ran in several
is utterly fascinating, since it is a manga about life in the publications from 2015
canteen for the military personnel on a 1940s airbase onwards, and similarly dealt
training “Special Attack units.” In case you didn’t know, with kitchen management
that’s the codeword for what are better known in english in the 1940s. He also
as kamikaze pilots, infusing the whole soft-focus story produced the long-running
with an overwhelming sense of tragedy. kindly matrons series of one-shots, Dining
scrape up dwindling food supplies to feed the nice young Hall Memories.
boys who come to their kitchen. hey assemble for parades
in the street to see of new graduates, and sew lucky
bandanas for the boys, all the while desperately trying not
to acknowledge that their dinner guests are all members of
a suicide squad. In a moving sequence, a drill sergeant calls
out the name of a fresh-faced young boy, who steps forward KILLING JOKE?
with a smile. Unsurprisingly, most of
“he was my childhood friend,” muses the female Sense-creator “Haruki’s”
narrator. “And his dream was always to get in a plane...” manga have been adults-
With their provocative, thoughtful ways of only, although he did
approaching time-worn stories, he God App and Chiran produce the four-panel
are the saviours of Young Champion for me. A magazine I gag strip Mr Assassin and
had frankly written of as boobs and brawls just managed something called Parasite
to rustle up some interesting story-telling at the last Doctor Suzune... oh,
minute. two stories out of 15 might not be a high score, but wait, it’s about parasites
then again, I am hardly this magazine’s target audience, that turn women into
and haven’t been since roughly the year it started. If you like nymphomaniacs. As you
bikes or boulders, then this is sure to get your rocks of. were.
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 035
 W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND

[ANIME REVIEW]

ANOHANA: THE FLOWER

WE SAW THAT DAY
A ghost story that foreshadowed A Silent Voice
Jintan does; Menma died in an accident several years ago.
2 7 J A NU A R Y // M V M // 1 2 // R E L AT I O NS HIP S , R O M A N C E , Jintan tries to ignore Menma, insisting she’s an illusion,
S UP E R N AT UR A L // £ 3 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) // 2 5 5 MINS // 1 1 a mere memory-ghost. (It’s obvious Menma’s death is
MEMOIR EPISODES why he’s a shut-in.) Yet soon after Menma appears, Jintan
Okada’s memoir
inds himself leaving the house and meeting more ex-
From Truant to
Anime Screenwriter PLOT In a Japanese rural town, the boy Jintan has acquaintances – living ones, though several have a “dead to
is available in English forgotten how to live. The adorable Menma, a girl who me” attitude, and they can’t see or hear Menma.
(Amazon sells it played with him as a child, arrives to cheer him up – here’s Naruko, a girl desperate to pretend she doesn’t
on Kindle). In it, which is surprising as Menma died tragically years ago. care about the drop-out Jintan. here are also Chiriko, a
Okada describes her girl, and Natsumo, a boy; they’re clean-cut school high-
discomfort when

I
t’s hard to say “the exquisite agonies of adolescence” lyers who walk round together without being a couple.
Anohana – which was without smirking, keeping your distance from such Natsumo is jerkishly hostile to Jintan, hinting at baggage
originally set in a town
feelings. In Anohana, a 2011 TV series by the feted between them. Last, there’s the afable Tetsudo (called
like her home town
anime writer Mari Okada (Maquia), adolescent agonies “Poppo” by everyone), whom Jintan inds in the “secret
Chichibu – ended up
are indeed shown exquisitely. But they’re never ironic base” shack where all six kids once played.
being specifically set
in Chichibu, and her or distanced, though the script inds some very funny ways Back then they were the Super Peace Busters,
mum’s house ended of lancing emotional boils. Although Anohana is set up inseparable grade-school playmates. Now they’re
up being the model as a ghost story, about a sweet girl returning to haunt her distanced, their burgeoning lives and loves stained by
for Jintan’s house in one-time playmate, the supernatural stuf is just a frame. memories of when Menma died. But thanks to Menma’s
the anime. Okada has Within it, characters are struggling to live. “return” – at least to him – Jintan starts tentatively tugging
complicated feelings he setting’s Chichibu, a rural town north of Tokyo, but their old bonds.
about her past, as that’s irrelevant to Jintan, a morose boy. He’s stopped going By the second part, several of the old gang are playing
she explains in her
to school, shut of from the world in his father’s tidy but videogames together in a bedroom, like old times. Soon the
book. Inevitably, when
empty-feeling house (his mum’s deceased). He’s playing whole gang somehow comes together, friends reunited,
Anohana became a
videogames when he realises he has a companion crouched and some may even believe Jintan’s claims that Menma
hit in Japan, some
fans found where the beside him, who didn’t come in through the door. Menma is among them. But unlike Menma, the living teens all
real house was, and (real name Meiko) is a slip of a girl in a white ruled gown. hide secret shames, resentments and attractions, hashed
Okada’s mum started Her blue saucer eyes can only be described as “anime.” up together. Menma may be a ghost, but what haunts her
getting visitors… Menma used to play in Jintan’s house when they were friends is angrier and gnarlier.
younger, and sees nothing odd about being with him now. Teens troubled by childhood memories, centred on an

036 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 MARI OKADA
Japanese and English
tracks. Mari Okada
may be best-known
for Maquia, but the
relationship-centred
Anohana is closer to
some of the TV anime
she wrote, such as
Kiznaiver and A Lull in
the Sea (especially the
second half). But the
“Okada” anime most
obviously linked to
innocent girl, who are reunited only to confront their issues character dynamics and fascinating support characters Anohana is the 2015
anew… here are startling parallels between Anohana and that you can easily root for more than the leads. hat’s cinema film Anthem
a Japanese hit of the next decade, A Silent Voice. If you saw especially true when they’re kicking against their second- of the Heart. As well
that irst, you might feel Anohana is a crude ancestor, not bill status in the eyes of the people they like (in that sense of as an Okada script,
it shares Anohana’s
least for how Menma draws on two toe-curling anime “like”). here’s a conversation early on between two of the
director (Tatsuyuki
types; she’s both a magic girlfriend and a little “sister” for girls, the vulnerable Naruko and the imperious Chiriko,
Nagai), character
Jintan. (Later we learn Menma had her own little brother, about how Naruko presents and deines herself. It would designer (Masayoshi
fail the Bechdel test – feelings for boys lurk behind every Tanaka), studio (A-1
“ALTHOUGH ANOHANA IS SET UP AS word – but the conlicts between and within the girls
crackle bright.
Pictures) and real-
life setting (Chichibu

A GHOST STORY, ABOUT A SWEET GIRL here are some terriic moments of humour slicing
through the melodrama. One uproarious scene has Jintan
town). It’s not a sequel
to Anohana, but still

RETURNING TO HAUNT HER ONE-TIME trying to save a friend’s reputation from lewd gossip, only
to spread embarrassment around him like smoke. Later, a
has interesting fraught
teen relationships, and

PLAYMATE, THE SUPERNATURAL STUFF IS random comment about somebody’s eyelashes somehow
saves the world. A couple of huge character twists may
a comparable moral
about letting your

JUST A FRAME. WITHIN IT, CHARACTERS ARE
STRUGGLING TO LIVE.”
but she was clearly fonder of playing Jintan’s little-sis.) he
ghost Menma has supposedly aged up like her friends,
but you wouldn’t know it to look at her. Anohana’s
opening minutes have a sexual joke about Jintan getting
“uncomfortable” while Menma’s on his lap, as if to
discourage non-fan viewers – the kind who might have
loved Silent Voice, for example – from watching further.
Mercifully, that joke’s a one-of. Mostly, this is a
wonderful show about fraught love polygons, dynamited
have critics complaining that they each needed a backstory
emotions sing. You
may still be able to find
episode. But the brevity works; it feels less judgmental copies from Anime
of the characters and makes the series more interesting Limited.
to rewatch. he inal minutes of the last episode are “too
much,” but then we like the characters too much to grudge
them one more catharsis.
The animation by the A-1 studio is expressive and lovely,
though a few scenes in the middle episodes look off. The
marvelous character designs, simple-seeming yet strongly
dimensional, are by Masayoshi Tanaka, whose work is all
over this month’s cinema release, Weathering With You.
Look past the fan pandering and this is a masterful
character-driven drama.

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 037

//OUT NOW
ELIER D SK TRIL GY
D I S T R IB U T O R : K O E I T E C M O

Make 2020 the year you master alchemy as three

classic entries in the long-running Atelier
franchise enjoy fancy high definition makeovers in a
new collection for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC
via Steam. Included herein are Atelier Ayesha: The
Alchemist Of Dusk, Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists
Sky, and
Of The Dusk Sky
The Dusk Sea, plus all the associated DLC. In related
news, the soundtrack to Atelier Ryza has just been
released on Spotify!
 WE LOVE THIS STUFF!
Check out NEO’s pick of the coolest merchandise around this month
1. KPOTEUSA LOPPY PLUSH
1 4
WARM EARMUFFS
Keep your ears warm and
have plausible deniability
for ignoring anything
anyone says to you with
these gorgeous AMUSE
earmuffs! They come in
pink, white, grey and white,
and caramel and white for
£13.99 at tofucute.com.

2. JPU MERCH
Y can still pick up some
You
cool JPU merch at their
site jpurecords.com, where
beanies and T-shirts are a
tenner each and hoodies are
£20 (and mega comfy!).

3. FUZZBALLS VALENTINE’S CARDS

How best to show your love 5
this February 14th? Fuzz-
balls.co has it covered, with
these cheeky cards, priced
£2.50 each!

4. SACRIFICES HOODY
Over at GenkiGear.com,
you can fight off the cold
2 weather with their Sacrifices
hoody, priced £28, on black
snuggly fabric!

5. MEOWGICAL ALL OVER

PRINT SHIRT
Can you get more
majestically kawaii than
this all over print tee from
Fuzzballs.co? Priced at
£24.99 it’s their first all over
print, and is strictly limited
edition!
6
6.SHARKBITE MERMICORNO
TOKIDOKI PLUSH
Genki Gear carry officially
licenced Tokidoki
T plushes,
and our current
cu favourite is
this £12 Sharkbite
Sh Mermi-
3
corno 8-inch
8-in plush, available
from GenkiGear.com.
Genk

0 40 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
//OUT NOW
DRAGON BALL Z:
AROT
D I S T R IB U T O R : B A ND A I A M C O

If ever you’ve dreamed of experiencing the Dragon

Ball

help is at hand. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

live like a Saiyan, training, fishing, and of course
fighting the series’ iconic battles in an explorable
 ©Hirohiko Araki/SHUEISHA, JoJo’s Animation Project.

04 2 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 JOJO’S BIZARRE
ADVENTURE:
IT’S JOJO’S WORLD AND
WE’RE JUST LIVING IN IT
andrew Osmond tackles the phenomenon created by Hirohiko araki
as manga launches JoJo at the uK!
Last summer’s fiLm Yesterday imagined a world where the Beatles
had never existed. One consequence the ilm didn’t explore is that if the
Beatles had never existed, a stupendously epic action manga series would
have had a diferent name. “JoJo” comes from the late Beatles song Get
Back, which starts, “Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner” – one
of umpteen music references in Hirohiko araki’s opus. Without Get Back,
araki would have had to have named his hero after something else. One of
his strip’s arcs is called Stardust Crusaders, so we’re guessing araki would
have gone for Ziggy’s Bizarre Adventure – not bad, but it doesn’t have the
same ring.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is… a misnomer, for starters. here are loads
of diferent adventures, and there are several diferent guys nicknamed
JoJo, though they all look similar and they can all eat crushed baddies
for breakfast. Basically, JoJo is a multi-generation afair. it has multiple
arcs in diferent timeframes – that’s why you may have heard JoJo
“starts” in Victorian england, weird though that sounds. But each arc
begins in a new time and place; for example, Stardust Memories starts
in 1980s Japan. Crucially, each arc introduces a new JoJo, with his own
personality and attitude. hat means each arc is a possible starting point
for newbies; it’s a trick comparable to Doctor Who, and look how long
that’s lasted.
JoJo can be justly called a Shonen Jump strip – it began in that
magazine in 1987 and stayed there more than 15 years, switching to the
more adult Ultra Jump in 2005. he switch wasn’t surprising. JoJo has the
addictive appeal of Shonen Jump’s other epics, but it’s way more violent
and bloodthirsty than Naruto or One Piece. But JoJo doesn’t dwell on
the violence; it doesn’t dwell on anything. he adventure hurtles like an
armoured tank on a jetpack. as NeO said in a previous (rave) review, “JoJo
never calms down, never takes time of, never has a smidgen of nuance or
development, except what’s needed to reach the next level, the next face-
of, the next crazy ight.”
FROM AUSTEN TO INDIANA
manga entertainment’s two JoJo sets this month carry the tV anime
version animated by David Production. his version began in 2012, when
the manga was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and goes right back to the
strip’s beginning. he irst set (26 episodes) covers the irst two manga arcs,
which were far shorter than later JoJo epics and ease you in… Well, we could
say gently, but we’d be lying.
Phantom Blood is JoJo’s origin story. it’s the JoJo set in Victorian
england, and it starts as a war between brothers, growing up in the kind
of stately home you’d ind in a Jane austen costume drama. Only these
brothers are huge and they’re beating merry hell out of each other. hey’re
not really brothers, though. One is the noble, honourable Jonathan Joestar,
the irst JoJo hero. he other is the horrible Dio (named for the heavy metal
legend ronnie James Dio), who slithers into the household by trickery
and means to destroy everything Jonathan loves. soon, though, Dio
becomes something worse. he adventure itself transmogriies into a mix
of Dracula (with an “england” like a fantasy transylvania), martial arts
ilm and superhero yarn. Jonathan is trained up by a top-hatted ighting
master called Zeppeli (nodding to Led Zeppelin) and ights towards a inal
reckoning with Dio. But the story has a great sting ending.
he second, longer arc is Battle Tendency, set a half-century later
in 1938. Now the hero is Joseph Joestar, whom araki describes as a
swindler and trickster. He’s much funnier than Jonathan, with banter
like a wisecracking spider-man. Joseph’s adventure roams the world,
with shades of Indiana Jones (Nazi heavies) and he Mummy (deadly
superbeings are unearthed). One of Jonathan’s worst challenges, though, is
his merciless combat teacher, Lisa Lisa. araki says she was inspired by an
intimidatingly smart girl who tutored the artist as a child. Aww…
Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency are separate arcs, but they each
have elements which feed into the third JoJo arc, Stardust Crusaders, on the
next page… >>>
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 04 3
 “JOTARO HAS BECOME BIG ENOUGH TO FUNCTION AS A SYNONYM FOR JOJO AS A WHOLE,”
ARAKI SAID. “I’VE ACTUALLY BASED SUBSEQUENT JOJOS ON HIS VISUAL DESIGN AND
DIFFERENTIATED THEM FROM THERE.”
INSPIRED
VILLAINS
Araki said he realised
that if he showed battles
between characters with
supernatural powers, the
combatants didn’t have
to all be musclemen. He
particularly enjoyed having
a “scary old woman” as
one of the main heavies
in Stardust Crusaders,
the witch Enya who
weaponises fog. “Enya is
chock full of all my favourite
aspects of horror, so I had a
fantastic time drawing her,”
Araki said.
MASSIVE MANGA
In Japan, the eight manga
arcs of JoJo have filled up
more than 120 tankobon
volumes so far. VIZ Media
is currently translating the
manga in larger hardback
volumes (Crusaders takes
up ten in that format). As
of writing, that edition
is midway through the
next JoJo arc after
Crusaders, the Diamond is
Unbreakable story arc.
04 4 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
>>> he situation with Stardust Crusaders is a bit like the
one with Dragon Ball Z. it’s not the start of the franchise,
as the previous pages explained, but it’s where many
fans started. here are a couple of reasons for that. One
is that Stardust Crusaders was the irst part of araki’s
manga to be translated into english in the 2000s, by ViZ
media. some fans were drawn to it by a spinof CaPCOm
arcade game called JoJo’s Venture (sic). Others would
know Stardust Crusaders from a video anime serial in the
1990s and early 2000s, not to be confused with the newer
version by David Production.
he arc had these advantages overseas; however,
araki’s comments suggest it was the arc that “made” the
JoJo franchise in Japan too. if so, that was thanks largely to
the hero of Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro Joestar. “Jotaro has
become big enough to function as a synonym for JoJo as a
whole,” araki said. “i’ve actually based subsequent JoJos on
his visual design and diferentiated them from there.”
THE DELINQUENT
so who is Jotaro? for a start, he’s the irst “Japanese” JoJo. He’s
meant to be Japanese on his dad’s side, though his dad’s never
seen in the series, being supposedly a musician on perpetual
tour. araki had envisaged the whole JoJo saga as running
three arcs, with Crusaders as the inale. Given that the irst
JoJo hero, Jonathan, was British and the second, Joseph, was
american, araki thought it would be itting to make the last
JoJo Japanese.
Not that Jotaro spends much time in Japan. after a
handful of Japan-set episodes, he rushes of to other parts
of the world. he main reminder that he’s Japanese is that
he keeps wearing his high school uniform, which becomes
a running joke in the show. admittedly, Jotaro makes his
own gangster-style addition to his uniform – a huge chain
hanging from his coat (absurdly heavy, but tell that to Jotaro).
he fashion choice signiies that Jotaro is no obedient
Japanese student. rather he’s a delinquent, a foul-mouthed
punk. He’s irst seen not at school but in a cell after a ight (of
course), being shockingly rude to his angelic mother. He’s
rough and stony faced, with a demeanour that’s surly at best.
and yet… could Jotaro’s ugly behaviour be all an act?
from early on, there are signs that Jotaro is a truly good guy,
a chip of the block of his forefathers. for a delinquent, he
spends an awful lot of time saving lives and protecting the
weak, with no interest in reward.
for araki, that was the point. he author explained,
“my image of a hero is that of a loner. as opposed to someone
who does the right thing looking for compensation or
attention from others, my idea of a hero is someone who is
an unappreciated symbol of justice. here are times when
taking the correct path leads to loneliness. i also think that
heroes shouldn’t be in the business of making friends. Jotaro
goes on his journey while keeping his feelings bottled up
inside because he’s a lone hero.”
THE CLINT CONNECTION
fans have linked Jotaro to the “delinquent” protagonists
in other manga, such as the boy biker hoodlums in Akira.
Jotaro also keeps his ancestors’ big builds, which araki
traces back to “the era of muscles” in 1980s Hollywood, the
heyday of stallone and schwarzenegger. But araki says
the model for Jotaro was a leaner Hollywood star – Clint
eastwood. speciically, araki cited the Clint who brandished
his .44 magnum in gritty police ilms like Dirty Harry,
rasping, “Do i feel lucky?” even Jotaro’s inger-pointing
pose was borrowed from Clint’s nonchalant-lethal way of
© Hirohiko Araki&LUCKY LAND COMMUNICATIONS/SHUEISHA•JOJO’s Animation SC Project
pointing a gun. However, we suspect Jotaro is much softer at heart.
Anyway, Jotaro doesn’t need guns; he’s got Stands.
Aside from Jotaro, Stands are the most-cited reason why Crusaders
clicked more than the earlier JoJos, which didn’t have them. Looking at the
Stands now, they may seem common in anime, but that’s because they’ve
been copied so much – Blue Exorcist is a recent case. Stands are magic ighters
bonded to human ones, ighting beside the humans. Naturally, most of
JoJo’s baddies wield Stands too. Some Stands are spectacular – monstrous
or beautiful creatures, or a robot knight (“Silver Chariot.”) Jotaro’s Stand is a
blue-skinned version of himself (“Star Platinum”), even more imposing than
the original.
Some enemy Stands are far less easy to spot, such as a nasty assassin
who’s like a reverse vampire – he only appears in relective surfaces. Horror
ilm fans will have a ield day with other specimens, such as an animated
puppet with a love of sharp blades – maybe a nod to the irst Child’s Play in
1988? An episode with a menacing car and its unseen driver nods blatantly to
Duel, a road-rage thriller ilm directed by a pre-blockbuster Steven Spielberg,
with a dash of Stephen King’s Christine. And as for an episode where a
character has his arm possessed by a malign talking tumour… Well, take your
pick, but maybe Araki was spooing the Parasyte manga.
he story is even more of a globetrot than the Battle Tendency arc. Jotaro
learns he’s being targeted by a very old enemy of the JoJo family – namely DIO,
a new evolution of the rotter Dio from Phantom Blood, who’s still kicking
after a hundred years. hen Jotaro’s mum’s life is threatened (and for all his
foulmouthed attitude, Jotaro would rather die than let harm come to his
mum). So he sets of to ind Dio, accompanied by several muscled companions
– some of them former slaves of Dio’s power whom Jotaro ights and liberates,
plus an old hand who was a key player in Battle Tendency.
After planes prove too dangerous, Jotaro and his companions embark
on a long land and sea journey, taking them through Hong Kong, India and
Pakistan (inspired by Araki’s own travels when he was young). he inal
confrontations will take place in Egypt, but that’s an epic story in itself – it’ll be
in Manga’s next JoJo set, due in February.
BEYOND THE CRUSADES
Araki may have originally planned for Stardust Crusaders to be the inal
JoJo arc, but it didn’t happen like that. After inishing the manga version
in 1992, he immediately followed up with what would be an equally long
JoJo storyline called Diamond is Unbreakable, with another new JoJo.
hat was followed by two more epics, Golden Wind and Stone Ocean, each
focusing on further members of the JoJo family. (he Stone Ocean arc
was the irst to have a female lead.) As of writing, David Production has
animated everything up to the end of Golden Wind. Some of the Diamond
is Unbreakable arc was also adapted as a 2017 live-action ilm by Takashi
Miike, which won the NEO award for best Asian movie in 2018.
But even that’s not the end. Following Stone Ocean, Araki started an
alternative JoJo timeline with Steel Ball Run, which returns the franchise
to the 19th century, but this time in America. he sequel, JoJolion (set in the
present day) has been running in manga form in Japan for eight years, with
a hero called Josuke. Just imagine if the Beatles had never existed, and the
character was called “Ziggysuke” instead. No, that really doesn’t have the
same ring…
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 04 5
10xx N E O M A G A Z I N E M A R C H 2 0 1 9
 NEO ARTIST SHOWCASE
THE BEST IN
READER TALENT
EVERY ISSUE, NEO WILL BE FEATURING OUR FAVOURITE WORK
FROM ARTISTS INSPIRED BY ANIME, MANGA AND GAMES

NAME MORAG LEWIS, AKA 2

SUN KITTEN
AGE 40
BASED IN CAMBRIDGE
PROFESSION SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
(GENETICS / NEUROSCIENCE)
FAVOURITE ACT OF TEENAGE
REBELLION
SAVING UP FOR AND BUYING A
SAILING DINGHY AGAINST MY
PARENTS’ WISHES.

BIOGRAPHY
I like telling stories, and I like drawing. So comics seem quite obvious in
retrospect, although I didn’t put the two together until 2002, when I started
my first webcomic. I joined Sweatdrop Studios in 2004, which has given
me a platform for printing, publishing and selling the comics which until 3 4
then had only been online, as well as some wonderful supportive friends
and fellow artists to share the fun and frustration of making comics. I’m
now working on Nobody’s Library, my sixth webcomic and tenth series,
and I’m aiming for a comic that’s easy to read in instalments on a variety of
platforms while still managing a story arc, which is a challenge.
I’m a Christian and a molecular biologist; I study the genetics of
progressive hearing loss by day and draw comics at night. And the
weekends. I’ve never had formal art training, but I have benefited from
going to life drawing sessions, and also several workshops on writing –
people often don’t think about it as much, but good writing is as essential to
a good comic as good art (personally, I think it’s more important).
I love my job, it’s fascinating and interesting, and I get to work with my
hands as well as my brain. It’s great to work on a project which is hugely
relevant to so many people in the world, including in my own family. I find
having an absorbing hobby is beneficial to my work and vice versa, because
1. Elf mage girl: I got a new brushpen, and playing with it was so much fun I didn’t want to put it down.
switching from one to the other gives my brain a break and a chance to 2. Magical High School Life: This was also drawn for the Minami Con conbook for the 2019 convention.
stew on things. Creativity is hugely important in science as well as in art. I tried to fit in as many tropes as possible! 3. Fairy sailboat : This was drawn for a Minami Con conbook.
The Minami mascot is a fairy. 4. Sun Fish Moon Fish: This is the cover from my graphic novel Sun Fish
Moon Fish, and is probably my favourite cover image (I find them really hard to do!).

NEO WANTS YOU

If you are interested in
submitting work to be
featured in the NEO
ARTIST SHOWCASE,
please email gemma@
uncookedmedia.
INSPIRATION
com with ‘ARTIST
Good writing, good art and good world building are all inspiring. So is
SHOWCASE’ as your
visiting other places, especially other countries, and seeing how different subject header, along
people and different cultures address common challenges. History is great with an internet link with
for inspiration too, I get lots of ideas from visiting museums and sites like examples of your work.
Sutton Hoo. I particularly like the history of pre-Roman Britain.

wwwunco o kedm edia. co m 04 7

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February ’20 • Issue 196
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INITIAL D
ALL 3 MOVIES IN ONE ULTIMATE
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Out now!

DEVILS’ LINE
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IS IT LOVE OR BLOODLUST?
IT’S CERTAINLY FATAL ATTRACTION!
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available from all

good stockists

HOT STUFF!
Mark Guthrie takes you for a soak in the tub, Japanese style
When I was a kid, I was always of the impression that life was too short
for baths. Why waste your time soaking in the tub when there were bikes
to be ridden, balls to be kicked and swings to be, um, swung on? Being
in Japan, however, has changed that outlook. For the Japanese there is
nothing more cherished than the time spent soaking in the tub, and this is
all down to the onsen.
WHEN THIS CATFISH’S A’ ROCKIN’…
Seismic activity is so ingrained in Japanese life that folklore tells of
Namazu, a giant catish who lives beneath the country and is restrained
by the god Kashima. However, when Kashima lets down his guard,
Namazu thrashes about, causing violent earthquakes. To live in Japan is to
see this activity as part of daily life. But, as with all things we must make
the best of what comes our way, and here this takes the form of onsen,
the hot springs that the ‘catish below the earth’ arouses throughout this
volcanic country.
here is evidence that Japanese have enjoyed these baths since time
immemorial, and excavations in Ehime Prefecture uncovered 3000-year-
old pottery where the site of Dogo Onsen now stands. his gives rise to the
claim that it is the oldest extant onsen in Japan, and so famed is it that it is
even believed to be the inspiration for Yubaba’s bathhouse in the Ghibli
masterpiece, Spirited Away.
It isn’t known when these spas were irst used for their perceived
restorative quantities, but during the warring times of the Sengoku
Period (1467-ca.1600), Buddhist monks propagated the healing properties
of the mineral-laden waters, enhanced by a tale of a wounded heron
that returned repeatedly to Dogo until its broken leg had recovered,
05 6 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
Provided by Yamanashi Tourist Organisation
and warriors injured in battle who would make their way to onsen for
rejuvenation and rehabilitation.
After the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu united Japan in the 17th century,
the warring period came to an end. But when his government began
importing barrels of spring water from the onsen heartlands to the
capital, Edo, this elevation of esteem encouraged a burgeoning tourism
trade, turning spa houses from places of simple recuperation to must-
visit destinations for the upper classes. he woodblock ukiyo-e prints of
masters such as Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen in the mid-18th-
century depicting bathhouses spread the word of the onsen to the masses,
and further illustrate how much the Japanese came to see onsen as
holiday locations, a situation that continues to this day.
WHAT? YOU HAVE ONLY ONE KIND OF BATH?
While we Brits see a trip to the seaside as the natural holiday destination,
whether in the freezing cold of winter or in the sweltering humidity of
summer, an onsen is the location of choice for Japanese looking to get
away. A 2013 survey by JTB, one of Japan’s largest travel companies, found
that 84 percent of its respondents visited an onsen at least once a year,
with nine percent going more than ten times.
here are approximately three thousand onsen in the country and
they can be found in all shapes and sizes, from outdoor footbaths, to the
small tubs of guest houses, to massive complexes.
In these larger establishments you will ind a wide range of facilities
including massage chairs and table tennis, the latter being a surprisingly
important part of onsen culture, with many kids citing it as the highlight.
On the other side of the curtain, however, is where the action happens. >>>
 1
Provided by Gifu Tourist Organisation

1. With its changing leaves, autumn

2 3
is a beautiful time in Japan, and what
better way to watch it than soaking
in a tub? 2. Namazu the catfish,
getting a wriggle on. 3. When you’ve
Provided by Iwate Tourist Organisation

been on your feet all day, what could

be better than a quick soak in the
streets? 4. Seriously, what’s hotter
Wikicommons Public Domain

than an onsen in a volcanic cave?

5. It’s traditional for indoor tubs to
have pastoral artwork on the walls,
like here at Dogo Onsen, Japan’s
oldest bathhouse, as well as on the
E. Honda level on Street Fighter. 6.
(next page) Hope there’s no one
crossing that bridge when you’re
enjoying your hadaka no tsukiai!

4 5
Provided by Yamanashi Tourist Organisation

Provided by Ehime Tourist Organisation

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 05 7

 6
>>> here are the indoor baths, which are piping hot and must contain at
least one of 19 designated naturally occurring chemical elements (there
have been numerous scandals when it has been revealed that onsen were
found to be artiicially adding ingredients to the water). Further to that,
there are cold plunge pools, sauna and steam rooms, massage areas and
hot-stone therapy rooms, but the best of all are the rotenburo, or outdoor
baths.
he rotenburo are what makes onsen so special, particularly in
winter, when you can sit in the steaming water as the snow falls, and
some places aford you spectacular views. In Shizuoka and Yamanashi
Prefectures some of the best rotenburo overlook the mountain ranges,
with Mount Fuji in the distance. It’s a stunning view that no visit to Japan
is truly complete without.
DIVE IN! (ACTUALLY, DON’T. IT’S REALLY BAD MANNERS.)
Outwardly, Japan is something of a prude and conservative nation
when it comes to exhibitionism, but that all changes when you get to
the onsen. In the baths everything hangs out; there’s no being shy in
your bathing costume here. Japanese believe in the beneits of hadaka
no tsukiai [naked communion], breaking down barriers and meeting
on a level footing. his can be somewhat daunting for those not used to
public nudity, but as baths are usually same sex, it is no diferent to a
gym locker room. Back in the day, baths were unisex, but the arrival of
westerners in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) with their prissy ideas of nudity
put an end to that. If you do feel the need to cover your modesty, you can
use your hand towel. Any fan of he Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
will know the importance of bringing a towel wherever you go, and
onsen is one of those places where it is especially crucial. his towel is
dual-purposed, as it can be used to wipe away sweat in the humid air, as
well as providing a degree of modesty for those who require it.
Before taking the plunge, you should wash thoroughly at the shower
station, and don’t be too surprised if a complete stranger ofers to wash
your back for you; it’s considered a common courtesy. It’s important
that you rinse well afterwards as you don’t want to contaminate the
minerally goodness of the water and have some angry obasan [old
05 8 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
Provided by Iwate Tourist Organisation
woman] or ojisan [old man] berate you before you even get in to the
water; it isn’t exactly conducive to a relaxing soak. he same goes
for your small towel. It can sit on the side of the bath or on a rock in
the rotenburo, or you can do as the locals do and rest it on your head,
something that does a great job of soaking up the sweat. Because, with
waters of up to 42 degrees Celsius, sweat, you most certainly will.
Once you’re there, just enjoy the relaxing feeling of the hot waters
pulsing through you and the (supposed) beneits of the minerals for as
long as you can take it. It is advised to get out of the water occasionally
to cool of. he last time I visited I was submerged a little too long and,
when I got out, I was bright pink from the nipples down, like a par-
boiled lobster. But that’s when you take a quick plunge in the cool pool,
rinse and repeat.
ONSEN PROBLEMS
With the Olympic Games coming to Japan this summer, some concerns
have arisen surrounding the number of foreigners who will want
to enjoy onsen. he main worry is to do with tattoos, which have
traditionally been banned due to their connections with yakuza
organised crime groups, though the government is doing its best to
educate the onsens in the fact that just because you’re tatted, it doesn’t
mean that you’re gonna start cutting pinkies of.
Another is alcohol. Due to the extreme heat of the baths, having just
a drink or two can go straight to your head. I was once in a rotenburo in
the ski resort town of Hakuba, and a New Zealander had overindulged
at the après ski, and climbing out of the bath he collapsed, smashing
his head on a rock. It’s safer to just stick to the lavoured milk that is,
alongside onsentamago [eggs soft-boiled in the bath water], a mainstay
of onsen cuisine. However, with that said, one of my Japanese friends
swears that there is no better feeling than sipping on cold sake as you
take in the view. You just have to be bloody careful!
If you visit Japan, hitting up an onsen is a must if you really want
to get to grips with Japanese culture. In onsen people are at their most
relaxed and their personalities, as well as their bodies, are laid bare. It’s
time to get some hadaka no tsukiai!
 W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T

[FILM REVIEW]

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

the ire of her gangster boyfriend.
24 F E BR U A R Y // NE W WAV E F IL M S // 1 8 // D R A M A // £ 1 9 . 9 9 While Bi employs many genre motifs, there’s none of
( D V D) // 1 3 8 MINS the bubbling tension or snappy dialogue of traditional ilm
noir. Instead the ilm slips back and forth chronologically
PLOT Years after leaving his hometown of Kaili, Lou as Lou’s quest to ind Wan takes him to their old haunts,
Hongwu (Huang Jue) returns hoping to find his old delving into the past. Bi questions the unreliability of
lover Wan Qiwen (Tang Wei), but she might be just a memory, illing the screen with smudged mirrors holding
TRIVIA half-remembered dream. only blurry relections. hen, at the midpoint, Lou falls
Bi Gan used
asleep in a cinema and Bi launches into an ambitious
three different
In contrast to the glossy, self-conident vision of China continuous single take lasting around an hour. It’s not
cinematographers,
ofered by Jing Wu’s Wolf Warrior II, or Jia Zhangke’s angry clear if Lou is dreaming or awake, yet that only makes the
including French
cinematographer David critiques of consumerism and greed, Bi Gan’s Long Day’s experience more fascinating.
Chizallet who shot the Journey Into Night ofers a decaying, rundown image of his is not a ilm that readily gives up its secrets, but it’s
hour-long continuous the country. he irst half plays like a languid ilm noir, visually sumptuous and deeply satisfying.
take. chronicling Lou’s illicit afair with Wan Qiwen which earns

W O R D S B Y A L E X J O NE S
[ANIME REVIEW]

SSSS.GRIDMAN THE COMPLETE SERIES

study of emotionally fragile teens, comparisons between
3 F E BR U A R Y // M A N G A // 1 5 // A C T I O N , S C I - F I // £ 2 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - Gridman and Evangelion certainly aren’t unwarranted.
R AY ) , £ 24 . 9 9 ( D V D) // 3 0 0 MINS // 12 EPIS ODE S But just as Eva itself was inspired by Ultraman (also from
ROBOTS IN Gridman’s Tsuburaya Productions), SSSS.Gridman takes
DISGUISE PLOT Amnesic high-schooler Yuta Hibiki merges those inluences and spins them into something fresh.
Not content with with the Hyper Agent Gridman to transform into a Between its classic superhero story lies a narrative
just paying tribute to superhero and battle giant monsters – the cause of that places the villain at the forefront, cautiously walking
the original Gridman which are a lot closer than they realise. the line between presenting her as a reprehensible
series, almost every
monster and a broken child. he mid-season twists put
character design in
A spiritual sequel to 1993’s Gridman the Hyper Agent isn’t events in a whole new light, those quieter moments of
SSSS.Gridman has
direct references to what most were expecting as Studio Trigger’s latest full- relection suddenly just as valuable as all that monster-
Transformers – with length series, but if there was anyone capable of retaining smashing eye candy.
some being especially the “nothing at half measures” attitude of live-action Trigger have taken Gridman’s cult status and
obscure! tokusatsu in an animated setting it was them. Blending revived it for a whole new audience.
beautifully animated monster battles with a character

06 0 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

[FILM REVIEW]
FIRST LOVE
Little time for love on the run
1 4 F E BR U A R Y // S I GN AT UR E E N T E R TA INME N T // 1 5 //
T HE AT R I C A L // A C T I O N // 1 0 8 MINS
PLOT Leo (Masataka Kubota), a young boxer with a
brain tumour, accidentally becomes the protector of
Monica (Sakurako Konishi), pursued by rival criminal
gangs who believe she’s stolen a drug shipment.
F
irst Love inds director Takashi Miike in
comparatively restrained form. Sure, it’s still
full of beheadings, bloodshed and violence,
but the ilmmaker approaches this story with a
straight face rather than trying to be subversive
or even particularly shocking. Instead he delivers a
lean, hard-boiled action movie that is, once the plot
gets underway, a series of ights and chases.
he premise sees a greedy yakuza, Kase (Shota
IF YOU Sometani) concoct a scheme with dirty cop Otomo
(Nao Omori) to rip of a shipment of crystal meth from
LIKE THIS Kase’s own syndicate. heir plan is to blame the theft
For some of the best
on Monica, a young woman forced into prostitution to
of Takashi Miike’s
pay of her abusive father’s debts.
genre filmmaking,
Leo is a ledgling professional boxer facing the
see 13 Assassins, One
Missed Call, the Dead prospect of his career and his life coming to an abrupt
Or Alive Trilogy, and end after he’s diagnosed with an inoperable tumour,
the stomach churning so when he sees Monica being chased down the street,
Audition. he seizes the chance to do one last good thing with
his life and comes to her rescue. No good deed goes
W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T
unpunished and he’s quickly dragged into the rapidly
escalating conlict between Kase, his angry yakuza
employers, and the Chinese triads who haven’t been
paid for their crystal meth.
Sometani is pure sleaze as Kase, but it’s Becky –
aka Rebecca Rabone – who steals the movie as Julie,
a girl whose boyfriend is murdered, transforming
her into a vengeful fury who tears through her every
scene screaming for blood in her underpants.
Her energy and capacity for mayhem make
Julie enormous fun, although it does show up how
little Sakurako Konishi has to work with as Monica.
Her role is largely limited to playing the damsel in
distress and her character is very passive, which is
disappointing.
Masataka Kubota seems to be going for a subdued
moody James Dean or Paul Newman in Somebody
Up here Likes Me vibe as Leo. He doesn’t have their
charisma, but the ilm is largely propelled by the plot
rather than the characters, so he doesn’t have to carry
much of the dramatic weight.
here’s a really fantastic showdown when the
yakuza and triads converge in a hardware store,
leading to a lot of dismemberment and even a sword
ight, all directed with precision and a keen sense of
nihilism by Miike as the body count rises higher and
ever higher.
First Love may not be ground-breaking in style or
subject, but Miike keeps the action coming non-stop in
a giddy rush that’s hard to resist.
www. neo m ag. co . u k 06 1
 TO HAVE AND
HAVE NOT
one of Korean cinema’s biggest stars, Song Kang-ho talks to nEo’s David West
about addressing inequality in Parasite, hope and despair in his ilms,
and why director Bong Joon-ho is like a bear.
In 2019, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite became the irst Korean ilm ever to win
the Palme d’or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.
It’s the story of two very diferent families. he Kims live in a basement
apartment where they eke out a living folding cardboard boxes for a pizza
delivery company and trying to connect to the nearest free wi-i signal. he
Parks, on the other hand, live in a beautiful home designed by a famous
architect and the head of the household, Park Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun), is
the CEo of a successful business.
But after Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) is hired as a tutor to Mr Park’s
daughter, Da-hye (Jeong Ji-so), he gradually brings the rest of the Kim
family into the Park’s home with his sister Ki-jeong (Park So-dam) posing
as an art tutor, his mother Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin) as a housekeeper,
and his father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho) as a chaufeur. It’s a chance for the
Kims to taste the good life, but there’s a secret beneath the apparently
blissful life of the Park family that won’t stay hidden.
Song Kang-ho has previously worked with director Bong Joon-ho on
the crime thriller Memories Of Murder, the amazing monster rampage
movie he Host, and the science iction ilm Snowpiercer. He jokes that
when he irst read the script for Parasite, he thought he was being ofered
the role of the good looking, successful CEo Mr. Park, not the basement-
dwelling grifter, Kim Ki-taek.
06 2 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
“Actually, when I was young, I lived in a semi-basement home like
Kim Ki-taek and as an actor I went through inancially diicult times,”
says Song. “of course, it wasn’t in the lower depths like that character Kim
Ki-taek, but I am quite familiar with that kind of environment, not because
that’s how Korea is but from my own personal experiences.”
Parasite addresses the enormous disparity between the rich and poor
in South Korea, although the actor believes that the theme is accessible to
audiences around the globe. “To be honest this issue of class isn’t just limited
to Korea or the UK. It’s an environment that the entire world is facing
currently,” says Song. “here are details in this ilm that are very speciically
Korean but actually I think the response was better in other countries,
particularly with the humour and even some of the small details that we
thought foreign audiences wouldn’t understand. Korean audiences can’t
really be objective about this story. Everyone is very desperate and they’re
noticing all the things that are very close to their own lives, everything feels
very intimate. It seems like foreign audiences react more straightforwardly
to this ilm and that’s been great to see.”
he scenes between the four actors who play the members of the Kim
household are remarkable for the cast’s ability to convey the closeness
of a family bonded through thick and thin. “he best advice for building
chemistry was drinking,” says Song, laughing. “First of all, all of the actors

I worked with are all amazing performers and as you can see in the ilm we
had many scenes together,” he says, referring to Choi Woo-shik, Park So-
dam, and Chang Hyae-jin. “We performed in the same space, we spent a lot
of time having conversations in-between shooting so it was very natural in
how we were able to develop that chemistry and I think that’s really why
you see it in the movie.”
DO BEARS FILM IN THE WOODS?
Parasite tackles heavyweight themes concerning inequality and class, but
they’re delivered with a razor sharp, dark sense of humour. Song says the
atmosphere on set was never tense or too serious, despite the subject matter,
“In Korea we have a saying that bears are very playful and director Bong
looks like a bear so on set he is very humorous,” he says. Likewise, in person
Song is relaxed and quick to laugh, so it’s not surprising to learn that he isn’t
some brooding presence during ilming, even for the most dramatic scenes
in Parasite when his character reaches breaking point. “It’s not as if I need
time to prepare for those scenes,” he says, “but personally I do tend to talk
less on set. I prefer a quieter atmosphere.”
one of Song’s great strengths as an actor is his ability to communicate
his characters’ inner lives through the smallest gestures, body language,
and facial expressions. It’s a talent that lends enormous depth to his
performances, demonstrated in the scene wherein Kim Ki-taek overhears
Park Dong-ik complaining about the way he smells. “It’s a trade secret I
can’t share with anyone!” says Song when asked about his acting method. “I
think that’s all thanks to director Bong, the camera angles he selects and the
very detailed blocking he coordinates for the actors.”
Similarly, the actor picks out the sequence when the Kim family is
he family that grifts
together, stays together.
When you walk into a
room to get something
and forget what it was.
evacuated to a gym after their basement lat is looded. “In that decisive
moment you have Ki-taek covering his eyes with his arm,” says Song. “With
just that one gesture you know that his personhood has been destroyed, you
understand that internal pain that this character is going through. hat’s
not something I did, that was all due to director Bong’s direction. Another
example is when Ki-taek and Mr Park are in his car, they’re having a
conversation and Ki-taek gives him the Care business card and he pretends
to be all sophisticated and elegant, but seconds later a car busts into his lane
and he bursts out cursing.
“hat was something that director Bong improvised on set and at that
moment when he gave me that direction I thought, what a genius. It wasn’t
even in the script. After we shot that scene I said, ‘How did you even come
up with that idea?’ Director Bong very casually said, ‘oh, I just thought of it
while shooting,’ so that was very surprising. Like director Bong, directors
like Park Chan-wook and Kim Jee-woon always come up with these
amazing directions on the spot and those moments are when I’m like, wow,
they’re genius ilmmakers.”
SHADOWS OF WAR AND OCCUPATION
In Kim Jee-woon’s thriller he Age Of Shadows, Song gives one of his
inest performances as a Korean police captain working for the Japanese
occupation forces in the 1920s. His character, Lee Chung-jool, is torn
between his loyalty to his country and his subservience to the occupiers.
“He was a very charming character, but it was quite a diicult role to play.
he Age Of Shadows was fun but at the same time the process was diicult,”
says Song. “During shooting it was a little more sombre but outside of
ilming, we were all so cheerful because director Kim Jee-woon also has >>>
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 06 3
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT: PARASITE
Kim Chung-sook and
Kim Ki-taek dream and
scheme for a better life.
ARRIVALS AND
DEPARTURES
Next up for Song will be
Han Jae-rim’s airplane
disaster movie Emergency
Declaration, co-starring
Lee Byung-hyun. But unlike
Lee, Song isn’t interested in
Hollywood. “I would like to
step aside for Lee Byung-
hyun,” he says. “We’re very
close friends. I’ll leave him all
the room to do that.”
KING OF THE
UNDERDOGS
“I think because when
audiences see me, they feel
like they’re watching their
neighbour or even a part
of themselves,” says Song.
“That’s why they resonate
deeply with my characters
and I think a large reason
why is because I don’t look
like Jude Law.”
06 4 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
“KOREAN PEOPLE LOVE CINEMA. I THINK IT’S THE SAME HERE IN THE UK,
A LOT OF PEOPLE APPRECIATE AND LOVE FILMS, IT’S ONE OF THE MOST
APPRECIATIVE AUDIENCES IN THE WORLD.” SONG KANG-HO
>>> a great sense of humour. he Age Of Shadows was
based on a true story and the character that I played was
an historical igure so there was a duality to that time and
a lot of pain. It’s about the painful history of Korea during
the Colonial period so because the story itself wasn’t super
cheerful, it was a little diferent on set.”
Much of the Korean cinema that reaches audiences in
the West displays a deep thread of darkness. It’s there in
he Host, he Age Of Shadows, and Parasite. Given Korea’s
history of turmoil, including the brutality of the Japanese
occupation and the rupture of the Korean War, this tendency
towards a bleak view of human behaviour may relect a
national cynicism. “It does add this certain dynamic element
to ilms,” says Song, “but it’s not as if we can lie about the dark
history that Korea has had, and I think that’s why a lot of
ilms end with a certain kind of darkness.”
he Host is a perfect example, concluding with Song’s
protagonist, Park Gang-doo, sitting in his little hut on
the banks of the River Han, waiting for the next threat to
Park Da-hye falls prey
to the charms of her
new tutor Kim ki-woo.
emerge from the darkness. “hat ending is a mixture of
despair and hope,” says Song. “He loses his daughter, but
he gains another child, and so that new child represents
hope and the daughter he lost represents the despair he
faced.” Song sees a parallel between he Host and Parasite
in that regard. he latter ends with a leeting glimpse of
hope, as Kim Ki-woo dreams of one day being able to rescue
his father Ki-taek. “You know it won’t really be possible in
reality, but the ilm still makes the audience root for this
character, this young son,” says Song. “It’s a very subtle
ending. he same with Snowpiercer, the ending of that
ilm carries despair and hope, so I think it’s director Bong’s
genius touch in all these endings.”
he ilms share the ability to leave the audience
longing to know what happens next to the characters
after the credits roll. “I think that’s a commonality among
all great ilms,” says Song. “Rather than just the two hours
you spend watching it in the theatre, you spend a much
longer time after you leave the cinemas thinking about

he irst cuckoo in the nest – Kim
Ki-woo posing as a college student.
them, and director Bong’s ilms always manage to
do that.”
100 YEARS OF KOREAN CINEMA
he success of Parasite at Cannes where it claimed the top
prize took Song by surprise. “I didn’t expect it at all,” he says.
“As you know, it’s not as if they announce it beforehand. It
was a very emotional moment, particularly because this
year marks the 100th anniversary of Korean cinema, so the
award felt like an amazing gift to Korean cinema fans.”
It’s all the more remarkable in light of the fact that prior
to the turn of the millennium, Korean cinema was barely
even a blip on the global movie landscape. Park Chan-
wook’s Oldboy led the charge, setting the groundwork
for the international releases of everything from he Host
to he Handmaiden. In the space of less than 20 years,
Korean cinema has gone from obscurity to acclaim. “A lot
of Korean ilmmakers including director Bong and all these
amazing artists have endlessly taken on the challenge of
creating new and original ilms. of course, they weren’t all
successful, but I think the reputation that Korean cinema
has gained is the fruit of all the eforts these artists have put
in throughout the years,” says Song.
one of the deining traits of this emergent Korean
cinema has been the ability of the ilmmakers to take long-
established genres and cast them in a new light. he Host
he Park family relaxes at home, blissfully
unaware of the trouble that lies ahead.
tackles the creature feature, he Good, he Bad, he Weird THIRSTY WORK
is a Western set in 1940s Manchuria, and Park Chan-wook’s In Thirst, Song plays
hirst ofers a twist on vampire movies. What’s the secret a Catholic priest who
behind Korean cinema’s knack for reinventing genres? becomes a vampire. “Not
“his is a question we get asked very often,” says Song. easy at all,” says Song
“When we go to Japan, which is right next to Korea, a lot of about the role. “It wasn’t
people ask why Korean ilms are so dynamic and diferent easy to take my clothes
and I think that really relects the quality of the Korean off onscreen!” he laughs.
audience. Korean audiences always expect new ilms and “It was a really fascinating
you have to take on these new challenges to survive within project, but definitely not
the industry. It’s the same for any country, particularly an easy one.”
Korea has an environment where artists are encouraged to
continually create new and better ilms.” THE BIRTH OF
Koreans certainly seem to be passionate moviegoers. In PARASITE
a country of roughly 50.8 million people, the most popular The seed that would
ilms can sell between ten and 17 million tickets. Parasite sold blossom into Parasite
over ten million tickets – that’s one in ive of the population! came from writer and
“Korean people love cinema,” says Song. “I think it’s the same director Bong Joon-ho’s
here in the UK, a lot of people appreciate and love ilms, it’s own experiences when
one of the most appreciative audiences in the world. Even he worked as a tutor while
Hollywood is taking note of the passion that Koreans have for he was a student. It’s a
cinema, so they premiere ilms in Korea at the same time as common job for Korean
the US, and a lot of Hollywood actors are now visiting Korea students and a way to
to promote their ilms. Korean fans are very passionate.” supplement their income.
Feel the passion when Parasite opens in cinemas on 7 Bong wrote the screenplay
February from Curzon Artiicial Eye. over four months in 2017.
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 06 5
 WIN 5 COPIES OF WARRIORS
OROCHI 4 ULTIMATE ON PS4
his issue, thanks to Koei Tecmo, we have ive copies of Warriors Orochi 4
Ultimate on the PlayStation 4 to give away to lucky NEO readers! his is the
HOW MANY PLAYABLE CHARACTERS FEATURE IN
latest in the company’s dynamic crossover series and features characters
from Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, and ancient gods of history,
WARRIORS OROCHI 4 ULTIMATE?
all battling it out against swarms of enemies. Along the way they must
seek answers as to why they were reunited to battle in this mysterious
A) 165
new world. he number of playable characters has been boosted from the
original count of Warriors Orochi 4 to 177, and new characters include Joan
B) 170
of Arc, the heroine of France, Mother Earth goddess Gaia, Ryu Hayabasa
from Ninja Gaiden, Greek god Hades – king of the underworld, and
C) 177
Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War. As well as that, there’s an all-new True
Ending which brings the gripping tale of the gods to a close, and some fresh You can enter by emailing your answer along with your name and
game modes to boot! address to neomagcomp@gmail.com, with the subject header NEO 196
Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate is out on 14 February from Koei Tecmo for Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate Competition. Alternatively, you can enter
an RRP of £49.99 on the PS4, Switch and Xbox One, but if you want to get by sending the correct answer on the back of a postcard, along with your
your hands on a copy, all you have to do is answer the following question address, to the Uncooked Media editorial address printed on page 054.
correctly to be entered into our draw: Closing date: 20 February

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

No correspondence will be entered into. No employees of Uncooked Media or the companies providing the prizes may enter. No cash alternative is offered to
these prizes. Entries are only valid if they reach us by the closure date. Multiple entries will be disregarded. The publisher’s decision is final. Good luck!

06 6 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0

MR SUNSHINE
Makoto Shinkai talks to NEO’s David West about capturing the colour of rain,
the predominance of teenagers in anime, and broaching climate change
in his blockbuster hit Weathering With You.
You
IN 2016, MakOtO Shinkai’s Your Name ame swept all before it at the
Japanese box oice, where it was the highest grossing ilm of the year
– taking more than double Shin Godzilla
illa in the #2 spot. It became the
fourth highest grossing movie ever released in Japan, and the second
highest grossing animated feature, beaten only by Studio Ghibli’s
Spirited Away, although globally, Your Name ame has now taken the
top spot from Hayao Miyazaki’s ilm as the most successful anime
feature ilm worldwide. So, expectations have been sky-high to see
how Makoto Shinkai would follow-up his breakout smash hit and the
ilmmaker surprised everyone by choosing a topic that most people
only mention when they’re complaining about it – the rain.
Weathering With You is the story of two teenagers in
contemporary tokyo – Hodaka Morishima, who has run away from
what appears to be a violent home life, and Hina amano, who’s
struggling to make ends meet while looking after her younger brother.
While both the city and the nation are constantly drenched in rain,
Hina possesses the remarkable ability to temporarily drive away the
clouds and draw out the sunshine, but as teens existing on the fringes
of society, Hodaka and Hina run afoul of the authorities.
IMAGINING THE SUNSHINE GIRL
“Several things inspired me to make this ilm,” says Makoto Shinkai
068 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
©2019 TOHO CO., LTD. / CoMix Wave Films Inc. / STORY inc. / KADOKAWACORPORATION / East
Japan Marketing & Communications, Inc. /voque ting co., ltd. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
talking to NEO on a promotional visit to London. “he biggest was
probably the fact that in Japan recently every summer the rain seems
to get worse because of climate change, and there is more and more
looding damage. another thing was, when I was walking in the rain
one day, the asphalt on the road is pitch black in the rain and I just had
this vision of a girl dressed in white standing on the pitch black road in
the rain with a beam of light coming down illuminating her.”
Choosing to set his story in a world that’s constantly wet brought
its own particular challenges for Shinkai and his team of artists and
animators. “It certainly takes a lot of time because when it rains the
ground gets wet and then you have relections of people, so that takes
twice as much drawing,” he says. “If people are carrying umbrellas,
we have to deal with the structure of the umbrellas, and then you have
droplets of water on windows and they have to move as well so it takes
a lot of time.”
Where Your Name ame was full of sunlight and bright colours,
Weathering With You has a cooler palette to it in with its water-logged
backdrop, right down to the chillier quality of the lighting under the
cloudy skies that hang over tokyo in the story. “Colour was one of
the things that I really wanted to get right in this ilm,” says Shinkai.
“Up to Your Name, I was quite often responsible for doing the lighting
design and choosing the colours myself but this time I made a point
“IT CERTAINLY TAKES A LOT OF TIME BECAUSE WHEN IT RAINS THE GROUND GETS WET AND
THEN YOU HAVE REFLECTIONS OF PEOPLE, SO THAT TAKES TWICE AS MUCH DRAWING.”
MAKOTO SHINKAI
of trying to delegate as much as possible so there was a young staf
member who was responsible for the lighting design. We went back
and forth a lot of times, I had a lot of discussions with her. We didn’t
always see eye to eye but that’s how the colour scheme came about.”
TALES OF TEEN ROMANCE
Like Your Name, Weathering With You is built around the bond
between two teenagers and much of Shinkai’s work has dealt with the
trials and tribulations of the young, from Voices Of A Distant Star
tar to
he Place Promised In Our Early Days, the protagonist of he Garden
Of Words, and asuna, the heroine of Journey To Agartha.
Agartha Industry-
wide, anime is dominated by ilms and series written about and aimed
at teens.
“I think animated ilms are in essence something for young
people, just as in my teens I watched Miyazaki’s ilms, I read a
lot of manga and novels,” says Shinkai. “animation has a way of
teaching you what you need to know and encouraging you through
entertainment. It seems to have something that is right for a young
person growing up. Once you’ve grown up, a lot of adults don’t watch
animation, a lot of adults don’t watch ilms because they’re settled in
their own character by that point. But animated ilms have something
to ofer young people as they are growing, that’s why I continue to have
young people as my protagonists.”
However, while manga and anime might be squarely aimed
at the young, they are written, created and directed by adults. as
writer and director, Shinkai seems to have a knack for capturing the
voices of teenagers in his screenplays. “I hadn’t really thought of it as
particularly challenging,” he says about writing for the teen audience
from an adult perspective.
“I didn’t go out and interview any teenagers, I’m not a teacher so
I’m not surrounded by teenagers the whole time. I guess I just base it
on what I remember of being a teenager myself. It’s true that the way
they talk and the pop culture references have changed but I think their
feelings have not changed that much. heir concerns, their worries
about love, their dreams, their worries about the future, all of that I
think remains the same.”
Perhaps one of the things that makes teenagers compelling
subjects for anime, and iction in the wider sense, is that they lack
the emotional ilters that adults develop as they mature. “Sometimes
when I interact with teenage actors, for example, or my own daughter,
I have a nine-year-old daughter, I realise just how overwhelming
and how blinding the world is for them, how much they are swayed
by their feelings,” says Shinkai. “If they’re sad, they’re really sad.
Something that really isn’t a big deal can really keep them >>>
www.uncookedm e d ia.c om 069
 SOUNDS
F
FAMILIAR
The theme song for
Weathering With You, Is
There Still Anything That
Love Can Do?, o?, comes
o?
from Japanese rock band
RADWIMPS. Their music
will likely be very familiar to
any fan of Your Name, for
which they recorded the
soundtrack album which
topped the Oricon album
chart for two weeks.
RAIN OR SHINE
Japanese superstitions
about people who
influence the weather
are firmly ingrained in
the popular imagination.
Weathering With You ou refers
to Hina as the Sunshine
Girl, which is hare-onna in
Japanese. A manm who has
the misfortune to bring rain
with him wherever he goes
would be referred to as
ame-otoko.
0 70 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
>>> worrying for days or if they’re happy, they’re
really over the moon, and the world can be quite an
overwhelming place.”
A SENSE OF PLACE
he place in question for Weathering With You is tok t yo,
drenched in unrelenting rain, longing for the sun to
come out. he script has a strong sense of being grounded
in the familiar – the images of tok t yo on the screen
and the details of everyday life possess the quality of
verisimilitude, on top of which Shinkai sprinkles a touch
of magic. here’s a literary tradition often referred to as
magical realism that seems like a natural it for the ilm,
as opposed to the high fantasy y of Lord Of he Rings
ngs set
in a place borne of an author’s imagination, but it’s not a
genre tag that Shinkai has encountered before.
“his is the irst time I’ve heard the term magical
realism, but it seems like this would it the description,”
he says. “It’s not completely fantastical, it’s set in the
real tok
t yo, a tok
tokyo that looks and feels like the tok
t yo
we live in, and then it has these elements of iction and
fantasy that change the protagonists in a big way. Young
audiences in Japan ind it easier to access magical realism
than they do high fantasy.”
he ilm ofers a view of a very diferent side of tok
t yo
from the bright, clean metropolis of Your Name. Here the
city looks drained of colour, washed out by the rain, and
is populated by characters who cling on to the fringes
of society. here’s Suga, who runs a little publishing
company putting out magazines illed with oddballs
and outlandish stories; Hina, struggling to look after
her brother Nagi without drawing the attention of the
authorities; and Hodaka the runaway. “I wanted this to
be the story of the young boy Hodaka inding his own
place in the world,” says Shinkai about the outcasts in
his tale. “He meets Hina, he meets the writer Suga, and
I wanted to depict how he forms this pseudo-family and
in order to do that, the ilm needed to feature not just
the main players in society, but people who are on the
edges.”
hroughout the ilm Hina is referred to as the
Sunshine Girl because of her remarkable ability to
banish the rain clouds, and all the characters in the ilm
accept this honoriic title without question. While it’s
not a reference familiar to Western audiences, it would
resonate at home. “It’s something you hear very, very
often in Japan,” explains Shinkai. “It’s like horoscopes or
telling someone’s fortune by their blood type. You might
have a Sunshine Girl, or a Rain Boy, and it just means
that if that person is at a particular event, you know the
sun is going to come out. It’s really as simple as that but
it’s a concept that the Japanese audience is very, very
familiar with.”
Much of Shinkai’s earlier works have been deined
by melancholy and a measured, observational style of
directing. hat approach is evident in 5 Centimetres Per
Second
ond and he Garden Of Words, studies of failed love
and loss that are rich in melancholy. By contrast, despite
all the rain, there’s an energy and sense of movement
in Weathering With You that comes to the fore most
clearly in a big chase scene when Hodaka lees from the
police. he sequence shows a diferent side of Shinkai as
a ilmmaker.
“It was fun directing the action scenes. I wanted
to show that Hodaka had been gradually dropping out
of society in order to protect someone he loves,” says
Shinkai. “He’s driven to commit crimes and gradually
pushed out of society and so I needed the scene of him
“I WAS SURPRISED COMING HERE THAT I’VE BEEN ASKED ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE IN EVERY
SINGLE INTERVIEW BUT IN JAPAN NOBODY ASKS ABOUT IT. THE REACTION HAS VARIED A LOT
BY COUNTRY. IN CHINA AND IN RUSSIA, IT’S BEEN SIMILAR TO JAPAN IN THAT PEOPLE HAVEN’T
BEEN TALKING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE IN RESPONSE TO THE FILM, BUT IN INDIA AND IN THE
US, EVERYONE HAS HAD SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.” MAKOTO SHINKAI
running from the police in order to show that. and nd I also wanted it to be “If this prompts someone to start thinking about climate change,
entertaining for the audience as an action scene. It was fun to direct, and then that’s great but I really want people to be able to enjoy the ilm as
it was fun to igure out. I went to the actual locations and walked around a piece of entertainment irst and foremost, as a fun boy-meets-girl
and tried to igure out how Hodaka would escape.” story and I hope as many people as possible will go and see it as a piece of
entertainment. hen if they ind a message in there about being pushed
DON’T MENTION THE WEATHER to the edges of society or about climate change, that’s up to each member
alongside the action, there appears to be a strong environmental of the audience.”
message in the script, particularly as the relentless deluge from the skies after Your Name
ame enjoyed such record-breaking success, Weathering
threatens to swamp tok
t yo. However, it seems that that angle of the story With You looks set to follow in its predecessor’s illustrious footsteps. It’s
may not generate the same reaction in Japan as it has in the West. sold more than ten million cinema tickets in Japan, where it’s currently
“I don’t think that climate change is as much of a topic of the 12th top-grossing ilm of all-time, but Shinkai was apparently
conversation in Japan as it is in Europe, particularly in London,” says unfazed about the prospect of replicating his past success. “I don’t think
Shinkai. “I was surprised coming here that I’ve been asked about I felt that much pressure,” he says. “I feel like the director’s responsibility
climate change in every single interview but in Japan nobody asks about is to make the best ilm they can. Whether that sells or not is then down
it. he reaction has varied a lot by country. In China and in Russia, it’s to the producers and distributors. as long as I know that I’ve made the
been similar to Japan in that people haven’t been talking about climate best ilm that I possibly can, then I’m happy.”
change in response to the ilm, but in India and in the US, everyone has Bring your umbrella to watch Weathering With You, open in
had something to say about climate change. cinemas now from anime Ltd.

www.uncookedm e d ia.c om 071

 W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T

[FILM REVIEW]

so long, my son Living in the long shadow of grief personal sacriices in the cause of the One Child Policy,
1 0 F E BR U A R Y // C UR Z O N A R T IF I C I A L E Y E // 1 2 // D R A M A // which is introduced as one of China’s great reforms to bring
£ 1 5 . 9 9 ( D V D) // 1 8 5 MINS about the worker’s paradise but is later abandoned, making
a mockery of all they’ve endured. he script heaps woe
upon the pair, but Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei deliver
PLOT After their son dies in an accident, Yaojun naturalistic, understated performances that help the ilm
Key TalenT (Wang Jingchun) and Liyun (Yong Mei) move to a avoid tipping over into melodrama and Wang has a lighter
Wang Xiaoshuai new town and adopt another child, but struggle to touch than some of China’s Fifth Generation ilmmakers
brought in British find peace and happiness. like Tian Zhuangzhuang. he cinematography, by Korean
prosthetic make-up
DoP Kim Hyun-seok, is elegantly expressive, framing the
artist Matthew Smith
With So Long, My Son, director Wang Xiaoshuai turns his characters against their surroundings, hemmed in by state
to help age his actors in
his decades-spanning
attention to China’s One Child Policy and the tumultuous pressure and the weight of their grief.
story. Smith’s credits shift from Communism to capitalism. he story is largely he ending is incredibly sad, but Wang ofers the
include X-men: First told non-chronologically, which adds pathos to the plight hope of forgiveness and reconciliation in a beautifully
Class and World War Z. of husband and wife Yaojun and Liyun as the full impact realised, heart-breaking story.
of events gradually becomes clear. he couple makes huge

W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND
[ANIME REVIEW]

Carole a nd T uesday PART 2

mostly passengers in their own story, with zero interest in
O U T N O W // NE T F L I X // T B C // D R A M A , MU S I C , S C I - F I // exploring the girls’ friendship or their creative process. If
Trump S T R E A MIN G // 2 8 0 MINS you want to see a Watanabe music anime with lavoursome
English and Japanese. friendships and political overtones, see Kids on the Slope.
The show’s warning PLOT Carole and Tuesday, budding girl musicians on his second half’s largely episodic, which works.
against xenophobia Mars, have come far, but they have a mountain still to here are no more endless X-Factor contests, and the
seems targeted climb – especially as the driven girl megastar Angela is individual episodes have things to enjoy, be it a catchy song,
specifically against determined to crush them. a sweet moment or a maniacal music pro. But the girls,
Trump. Watanabe
the story, and the other diversions feel like placeholders,
said recently that,
Netlix dropped the second half of Shinichiro Watanabe’s unkept promises for a more substantial anime. It sours
“Someone who was
unthinkable to be a musical opus over Christmas, which was good timing. even Watanabe’s cheeky sign-of at the very end: “Will be
President is now a It’s feelgood, featherweight and politically “progressive” continued… in your mind.”
President of a certain in the same dopey way as Love, Actually. he Grinch-ish We won’t deny it’s enjoyable, but Watanabe’s well-
country.” objection that we threw at the irst half of the series holds. meant series is still so thin.
he show reduces its delightful leads Carole and Tuesday to

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 07 3


SPOILER ALERT!
[ANIME REVIEW]
WEATHERING WITH YOU
Today’s forecast is mainly angst
O U T N O W // A NIME L IMI T E D // 1 2 A // A D V E N T UR E , FA N TA S Y,
R O M A N C E // IN C INE M A S // 1 1 2 MINS
PLOT Arriving in Tokyo after running away from
home, teenager Hodaka Morishima meets Hina
Amano, who can banish the clouds and bring out the
sunshine in a city deluged by rain.
A
ny new ilm from writer and director Makoto
Shinkai faces the unenviable task of being
measured against 2016’s brilliant Your
Name. In some respects, Weathering With
You feels like Shinkai trying to capture that
same magical formula with another ilm about two
teenagers falling in love under strange, fantastic
IF YOU circumstances, and the screenplay hits many of the
same plot beats.
LIKE THIS he most obvious diference is in the look of
For more anime with Weathering With You. Set in a country where it never
an ecological angle,
stops raining – except for those moments when Hina
try Nausicaa Of The
uses her powers – it’s a greyer, soggier world than
Valley Of The Wind,
the one of Your Name. hat’s not to say it’s not an
Princess Mononoke,
and Pom Poko, all aesthetically pleasing ilm and the rain-soaked scenes
from Studio Ghibli, or serve to make those moments when Hina summons
Origin: Spirits Of the sunshine all the more striking.
The Past. Shinkai’s script isn’t quite as impressive as the
visuals. It’s vital to the story that Hodaka is someone
0 74 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T
living on the edge of Japanese society, keen to avoid
any encounters with the police. It’s implied, quite
strongly, that he has led a violent home life, but
this proves to be a dead-end as a plotline. [SPOILER]
When Hodaka is eventually sent back home by
the police, there’s zero sense of him returning to a
troubled situation, only his own frustration at being
separated from Hina. Given that the whole tale is
begat by Hodaka running away and his refusal to even
contemplate going back no matter how hard his life is
in Tokyo, this strand of the script needs more weight.
Similarly, the plot relies on several coincidences
that seem forced, from Hodaka inding a gun
presumably dumped by a yakuza, to the moment
when a friend on a scooter appears in precisely the
right place and at exactly the right time to help him
escape the authorities. he chase scene that follows is
directed with energy and excitement, but the set-up is
unconvincing. he core of the ilm is the relationship
between the two teenage leads, although Kotaro
Daigo’s performance as Hodaka crosses over the line
between impassioned and overwrought shrillness.
And it’s frustrating that Hina’s role can be reduced to
a damsel in distress in need of being rescued from her
own incredible powers by a brave boy.
Weathering With h You is surely doomed to suffer
from comparisons with Your Name me and it doesn’t feel
as boldly original or dramatically compelling as its
predecessor. But from any other director at any other
time it would be considered rather beautiful.
 W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND

[ANIME REVIEW]

PENGUIN HIGHWAY A merry waddle
24 F E BR U A R Y // A NIME L IMI T E D // T B C // M Y S T E R Y, S C I - F I //
D V D (£ 1 7. 9 9 ) , B L U - R AY (£ 1 9 . 9 9 ) , B L U - R AY / D V D (£4 9 . 9 9 ) //
1 1 7 MINS
PLOT When penguins inexplicably appear in a quiet
Japanese town, the locals are baffled... but one super-
confident little boy is determined to solve the mystery.
Penguin Highway has a sci-i mystery underpinning
EXTRA its meandering whimsy. It also has hordes of cute
English and Japanese.
penguins overrunning a rural Japanese town, and
The Collectors Blu-
ray / DVD edition will a grade-schooler trying to discover where on (or
include a 300-page of) Earth they’re from. his boy’s a delight, staying
full colour storyboard unruled even when bullies tie him to a vending
book. machine. His reverence for the scientiic method
is matched by his feelings for his best friend, a
mischievous good-humoured adult woman who’s
genuinely afectionate. (he boy likes her boobs, but
even that feels innocent.)
As our hero joins other kids inding secrets in deep
woods, there are shades of Stranger hings but with
only mild scares. he meandering is pleasant for a long
while, but inally irks – the later scenes could have
been easily compressed. he wonders at the inale are
appealing, but not so diferent from other anime. he
end is also shortchanged emotionally, partly because
the inal story “explanations” are so vague. Yet the ilm
remains as efortlessly likable as its titular waddlers.
A good film, though its leisurely narrative could have
worked better as a TV serial.

W O R D S B Y A L E X J O NE S
[ANIME REVIEW]

CALAMITY OF A ZOMBIE GIRL

something accidentally brilliant.
1 7 F E BR U A R Y // A NIME L IMI T E D // 1 8 // H O R R O R , C O ME D Y // he base premise is nothing a horror fan wouldn’t
£ 1 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) // 8 0 MINS have seen done over a hundred times before, with

KEPT YOU PLOT After having a mysterious stone stolen from her
characters so bland that it’s hard to even care when
they begin to die in a series of wonderfully over the top
WAITING body by a group of university students, Euphrosyne deaths.
The announcement of Studion awakens as a zombie to retrieve it – resulting he saving grace comes in the ilm’s inal third, where
an anime adaption of in a very bloody conflict. all sense of logic is completely thrown out the window.
Calamity of a Zombie
he ridiculous story twists and even sillier climax don’t
Girl dates as far back
As a genre that often seems much less concerned with necessarily make it any better, but rather the kind of train
as 2012, with editor
Masahiro Onai also quality than others, horror is undoubtedly the main wreck that you can’t seem to look away from.
expressing interest in purveyor in delivering media that qualiies as “so bad Calamity of a Zombie Girl has certainly has the gore,
a live-action version it’s good”. It’s a badge that Calamity of a Zombie Girl but it’s charm and imagination that truly elevate trash to
as well. would wear with pride, but trying to achieve it feels like treasure – and there really isn’t enough of either here.
an exercise in box checking rather than the creation of

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 07 5


[ANIME REVIEW]
RASCAL DOES NOT DREAM OF
BUNNY GIRL SENPAI
his rom-com is a hundred times smarter than it sounds.
1 7 F E BR U A R Y // M V M // T B C // R O M - C O M , D R A M A , S C I - F I //
£ 3 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) , £ 6 9 . 9 9 (C O L L E C T O R ’ S B L U - R AY ) // 3 0 0
MINS // 1 3 E P I S O D E S
PLOT In a coastal town near Tokyo, a high-school
boy encounters a beautiful girl who isn’t there – at
least, that’s what everyone else insists. Can two teens
ignored by society convince the world it’s wrong?
B
unny Girl isn’t as misleadingly named as I Want
To Eat Your Pancreas (page 092) but it’s a close
EXTRAS second, suggesting a fanservice farce full of
Japanese and English
half-clothed cuties. Instead, it’s a smart, sweet
tracks – the Collector’s
rom-com that’s populist and surprising and very,
Edition contains art
very good.
cards and an artbook.
The series has an “Rascal” is a good-natured schoolboy called Sakuta,
“ending” but the whose worst crime is winding up his girl acquaintances
questions it leaves with risqué deadpan one-liners. He encounters a
may be addressed beautiful school senior called Mai, who’s an actress
in the sequel – a and model… and who for some reason walks round the
cinema film, Rascal local library in a bunny girl suit. Stranger, no-one sees
Does Not Dream of a her except Sakuta. She seems invisible to the world and
Dreaming Girl, which
Sakuta tries to help her – he’s a social outcast too.
opened in Japan last
hat situation lasts a few episodes. Subsequently
June. The film had a
Sakuta meets other girls with impossible problems –
very limited cinema
release in America last timeloops, bodyswaps – and helps them, though his
December; any British heart is captured already. he show front-loads all of its
release is still to be male-centred, male viewer wish-fulilment. We haven’t
confirmed. even mentioned Sakuta’s adorable-adoring little sister, or
how she and Sakuta live together without parents. In total,
076 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND
Bunny Girl’s set-up does everything to entice a certain part
of anime fandom, while warning others to stay away…
Except that it’s so much better than that. Instead
of skirt-lipping farce, this is a real rom-com. he
relationships are sweet, the dialogue funny, the
situations poignant, whether in a beautiful scene where
Mai and Sakuta use verbal wit against their fears as they
lie in a shared hotel bed, or when a character vanishes
between frames, in a piece of magic so swift that it leaves
a phone dangling from the hook. Far from being a bunny
(she hardly ever wears the costume again), Mei recalls
another composed student goddess from the time before
moe – Madoka in the 1980s anime rom-com Kimagure
Orange Road.
Bunny Girl’s characters discuss scientiic thought
experiments (Schrodringer’s Cat, Laplace’s Demon),
but the girls’ “impossible” problems are teen social
commentaries, rooted in conformity, bullying and self-
image. Sakuta embarrasses himself in front of his entire
school as a blow against groupthink. Later he shields a
girl from a bully in a triumph of uncoolness.
he last arc unravels much of the male-centred
wish-fulilment – the inal problem is only marginally
paranormal, though it’s contrived for max weepiness.
It doesn’t make the series self-critical in the manner of
Madoka (or to take a romance-related example, the new
Little Women ilm), but it ends the show very diferently
from how it began, avoiding cheap happy closure.
Don’t be balked by the bunny! his is a wonderful
romantic comedy-drama.
 W O R D S B Y A L E X J O NE S

[ANIME REVIEW]

CODE GEASS: LELOUCH OF THE

REBELLION III – GLORIFICATION
a far better structured and streamlined film.
2 7 J A NU A R Y // A NIME L IMI T E D // T B C // A D V E N T UR E , S C I - F I // Despite this part of the story featuring Code Geass’
£ 3 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) // 1 4 0 MINS
SIMILAR BUT descent into silly twists and sillier sci-fi babble, the condensing
of these episodes allows the film to do away with this part
DIFFERENT PLOT As his plan to bring down the Holy Britannian quickly and focus on the more interesting material. The trials
While Glorification
Empire reaches its climax, Lelouch will also need to and tribulations of Lelouch’s plan are wonderfully laid out
primarily uses existing
face off against everyone that was ever close to him. against a background of fantastic mecha fights, and over a
footage from the series
it also includes several
decade later its ending is still just as powerful: even with the
new scenes, many of With 50 episodes to cover in only three films, one of the knowledge of an all-new sequel film that follows on.
which reintroduce a issues with the Code Geass movies has been pacing. Glorification minimises Code Geass’ weaker elements
character who died in However as the trilogy reaches its final third, only eight to provide a very satisfying end to this movie trilogy.
the original series. episodes from the show’s second season remain, resulting in

W O R D S B Y D O MINI C C U T HBE R T

[ANIME REVIEW]

SAGA OF TANYA THE EVIL THE COMPLETE SERIES

ruthless military strategist and her will to survive, more
2 7 J A NU A R Y // M A N G A // 1 5 // A C T I O N , M A GI C A L , MIL I TA R Y, than her mission to ind her faith, sees her quickly excel
I S E K A I // £ 2 7. 9 9 ( D V D) , £ 3 4 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) // 3 0 0 MINS // through the army ranks as a pre-teen.
1 2 E P IS O D E S Tanya is great at posturing and convincing others she’s
one thing or another, but beneath it all she’s conniving
ISE-WHAT? PLOT Killed by a disgruntled ex-employee, a self- and sly and we’d have it no other way. It remains to be seen
Saga of Tanya the serving salaryman is reincarnated as a little girl in a whether she’ll truly ind her faith, but the irst series is
Evil offers a fresh parallel 20th century to discover faith in God. darkly comic and exhilarating throughout, with a perfect
spin on the isekai
performance from Aoi Yuuki.
formula which, literally
Riing on both World Wars, the political backdrop is It’s easy to forget we’re watching a reincarnated
translated, means
“different world”. drawn in broad strokes, opting for the easy worldbuilding salaryman and not a sociopathic little girl playing war
A recent example of a parallel history. While the political manoeuvring will hero. However it’s framed, it’s almost impossible to tire
includes Rising of the entice fans of Code Geass, the show’s greatest strength is, of watching Tanya outmanoeuvre her enemies, curse the
Shield Hero. undoubtedly, Tanya herself. he attributes that deined almighty and smile madly to camera.
her former life as a salaryman make her a cunning and

078 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T

SET TWO,
PART ONE

[ANIME REVIEW]

JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURES:

STARDUST CRUSADERS
1 7 F E BR U A R Y // M A N G A // 1 5 // £ 3 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) // A C T I O N ,
A D V E N T UR E , FA N TA S Y // 5 7 6 MINS // 24 E P I S O D E S
PLOT When the evil, powerful vampire DIO awakens
from slumber, teenager Jotaro Kujo is pulled into a
generations-old conflict alongside his grandfather
Joseph Joestar to stop DIO’s quest for world
domination.
defeat this latest challenger. Most of these plotlines
are resolved in a single episode, others run a little
longer, but that’s the essence of the show. In true
anime tradition, characters spoon-feed information
to the viewer during battles. “It wouldn’t be
honourable to defeat you without explaining my
powers irst,” volunteers Polnaref, a hulking
Frenchman wearing what appears to be a boob-tube.
he action scenes are inventive due to the sheer
range of Stand powers and a delightful disregard for

T
he essence of camp as an artistic choice is logic and consistency – Stands are invisible to normal
to take silly things very seriously. By any humans until it its the plot to dump that idea.
measure, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust It’s very much a boys’ club. Jotaro’s mother,
Crusaders is one of the campest anime ever Holly, is being slowly killed by her own Stand and
made. It’s a series full of hyper-masculine Joseph explains it’s because women aren’t strong
men with rippling muscles and deep, gruf voices, enough to handle the power (an idea later disproven
yet their imposing appearances are undercut by by several female Stand users). It can be decidedly
their lamboyant fashion choices and proclivity crude – Jotaro frequently calls his mother a bitch,
for striking dramatic poses. he series’ greatest but she always just laughs it of. In fact Jotaro is
strengths lie in character design and visuals, with a dismissive of every woman he encounters, which
pop art style approach to colour complimenting the only heightens the unspoken gay subtext of the show
TRIVIA outlandish outits. and, compounding the general air of misogyny,
The series is packed he heroes and villains possess powers called there’s a scene in which Anne, a young girl who tags
with references to
Stands, manifest expressions of their spirits that take along with the heroes, is sexually menaced by an
Western rock music,
a variety of forms including a powerhouse punching orangutan (don’t ask) while naked in the shower.
including Dio, Reo
machine and an armoured knight with a sword. To Tasteful.
Speedwagon, J. Geils
Band, Steely Dan, and defeat DIO, Jotaro and Joseph must travel from Japan JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures
res is impressively vapid, but
The Bangles’ Walk to Egypt and along the way they ind new allies and it throws colour and ideas, no matter how goofy, at the
Like An Egyptian is the fend of the enemy Stand users sent to stop them. he screen with such abandon that despite the repetitive
closing theme. episodes are formulaic in construction. A new Stand format of the scripts it’s always entertaining.
user attacks the heroes before they igure out how to

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 MANGA EXTRACT
CLOWN COPS
By Daniel Hunt
This issue we have a fun and unusual manga extract
for you, which neatly demonstrates the diversity of the
online comic creating community! From artist Daniel
hunt, we present Clown Cops!
we asked hunt to describe the action in the
following pages. “Mandy Bleu just wants to read
her book in peace when a spatting couple take their
argument in her direction,” he told us. “he argument
soon takes a dark turn however, when one of them
is shot dead. Afraid of being blamed for the incident
by the locals, Mandy makes a run for it! in another
part of the city Delia is also on the run, goading the
eponymous Clown Cops as she lees. Just as they almost
catch her, they hear about the murder that Mandy was
witness to, and take of to solve the case!”
Of the overall story, he added, “in the distant future
on a far away planet, but also the ‘90s, Lestera Pierre
and her partner Colin Charles iii are the Clown Cops!
Dedicated to stopping crime and protecting the people
of shellstoke City, our pair encounter all manner of
cases and criminals in the pursuit of peace!”
we had to ask how hunt came up with the concept
behind the comic. “i had just inished a weekly
comic and wanted to start another project with more
structure than before. i’ve had an idea for a story for
years but i’m not satisied with my skill as an artist just
yet to tell it, so i decided to come up with something
new! For some reason i decided i wanted a title with
alliteration, and while walking to work the name
Clown Cops just hit me! he characters, world and story
grew from there into a series that i love creating!”
we also asked about the inspiration behind the
series. “where do i begin? i’ve always been a fan
of seGA and the quality games they produce, but
the games NiGHTS into Dreams..., Jet Set Radio and
of course the Yakuza franchise were the ones that
inluenced me the most. As far as other manga are
concerned, i’ve always been a big fan of Bleach,
Fullmetal Alchemist, and Hellsing. Tite Kubo is one
of my favourite artists and his style deinitely left an
imprint on me. As for western artists, Jamie hewlett
has absolutely had a big inluence on me, from his work
on Tank Girl to my favourite band Gorillaz. Growing up
in the NiGHTS fan community, i was naturally drawn
to the fantastic art of Lynne Triplett, creator of the
webcomic Engelbaum! i could go on for days about all
of the things that have inluenced me but then there’d
be no more pages for Clown Cops!”
Of his work on other projects, he said, “i am
currently in charge of www.nightintodreams.com,
the biggest fan website dedicated to the previously
mentioned NiGHTS franchise! i created a 100+ pages
free webcomic for this website over a few years, which
was met with praise from the fanbase! Clown Cops is
my priority as far as projects are concerned just now
though.”
You can ind hunt on Twitter at @DexLaCabra
and @Clown_Cops respectively, and the comic is
uploaded on to Tapas, webtoon and Tumblr.

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www. neo m ag. co . u k 05 7
 To be
conTinued in
cLoWn coPS
08 6 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 south korea:
seoul City Guide 
Emily Lovell is your guide to one of the most exciting cities in Asia –
South Korean capital Seoul.
SEOUL IS THE perfect city to visit if you want to experience an
exciting mixture of modern and traditional South Korean culture.
Soaring skyscrapers dominate the skyline, but as you explore further
you’ll catch glimpses of the mountains rising up behind you. From
gargantuan shopping malls and indoor theme parks to grand palaces
and cosy traditional tea rooms, Seoul has it all.
Despite being a large city, all the major tourist sites are easily
reached by jumping on the subway. It’s cheap and easy to navigate, with
signs and announcements in English. Buy individual tickets or top up a
T-Money card or Seoul City Pass and tap in and out at stations like you
would on the London tube. Taxis are cheap too, but it helps to have your
destination written in Hangul just in case your driver doesn’t speak any
English. International map apps such as Google maps won’t work in
South Korea, but a popular alternative is Naver Map.
Seoul SightSeeing  Gangnam (fancy fashion) and Myeongdong (Korean beauty stores
If you fancy immersing yourself in traditional Korean culture then head
to Bukchon Hanok Village. As you explore the narrow winding alleys,
you’ll discover hundreds of traditional houses (hanok) which have been
renovated or rebuilt to look as they would have hundreds of years ago.
You can venture inside some of the non-residential buildings, which
have been transformed into cafes, art galleries and cultural centres.
Signs dotted around the area remind visitors to explore quietly, out of
respect for the residents who call these beautiful buildings their home.
You can’t visit Seoul and not visit at least one of its five magnificent
palaces! Despite the majority of the buildings having been
reconstructed over the years, the palaces are stunning, and will whisk
you back 600 years to the Joseon era. If you’re on a whistle stop tour of
Seoul and only have time to visit one, then Gyeongbokgung Palace is the
largest, and arguably most impressive, plus the pavilion and pond have
been preserved despite the rest of the palace being destroyed during the
Imjin War. Hire a hanbok (traditional Korean dress) and you’ll get free
entry! Don’t miss the Changing of the Guard ceremony which takes
place on the hour several times a day.
Seoul is a shoppers paradise, whatever your budget! Some of the
most popular shopping areas are Dongdaemun (wall to wall malls),
galore). Street markets are a great way to pick up a bargain and are
scattered all over Seoul. Namdaemun is the largest market in the
city and sells just about everything you can imagine, from jewellery,
clothing and electronics to souvenirs and food. If you want to go big,
then you can’t get much bigger and more extravagant than Lotte >>>
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SEOUL CITY GUIDE

1. Take a side trip to Busan and explore >>> World Mall – a gigantic shopping mall which also sit down meal or a quick snack to grab while you’re
Haedong Yonggunsa, a temple by the houses an indoor theme park and an aquarium! on the go, give your taste buds a treat and sample an
sea. 2. Explore Seoul’s magnificent he hongdae district, hongik university Street in array of delicious Korean food, from super spicy to
grand palace Gyeongbokgung. 3. particular, feels similar in vibe to the harajuku area indulgent and sweet. look out for specialities such as
You’re never far from a soaring of tokyo, and has a youthful buzz to it. hink colourful Bibimbap (a rice dish topped with a mixture of meat
skyscraper in Seoul, and the city
fashion stores, nightclubs and cute dessert cafes with and veggies) and hotteok (sweet pancakes with a
boasts many impressive views. 4.
Seoul is beautiful any time of year but instagram-worthy ice creams galore. You’ll also ind nutty sugary illing). in the mood for some chargrilled
head there in spring or autumn and young street performers singing their hearts out – meat? Well you’re in luck, because BBQ restaurants
the city comes alive with stunning perhaps hoping to become the next big thing in K-pop! if are in abundance in Seoul and cater for every budget.
blossom or autumn leaves. 5. Sit back you’re missing your pets back home then you may want if you’re vegan or vegetarian then your dining options
and relax in a traditional Korean tea to stop by one of Seoul’s many animal cafes. his is your are a little more limited, but fear not, as there are plenty
room to sample medicinal teas and chance to get up close and personal with all sorts of cute of dedicated plant based restaurants and cafes dotted
delicious sweets. and loveable critters! Spend quality time with dogs, cats around the city.
and even sheep, meerkats and raccoons. Food markets are a cheap and easy way to snack
TRY A TEA if all that sightseeing has got you feeling peckish, whilst you’re sightseeing, and shopping malls often
HOUSE then it’s time to eat! Whether you’re looking for a have vast food courts with restaurants, cafes, bakeries
The perfect way to
unwind from a busy day 4
of sightseeing is to soak
up the cosy atmosphere
in a traditional Korean
tea house. Kick off your
shoes, sit cross legged
at a low table, and order
a medicinal tea with a
side of sugary Korean
confectionary (hangwa)
and fluffy rice cakes
(tteok).

08 8 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
 3

“From garganTuan shopping malls anD inDoor Theme parks To granD

palaces anD cosy TraDiTional Tea rooms, seoul has iT all. ”
and supermarkets ofering both Asian and western the sea. Or if you’ve picked a rainy day, the Museum BIRD’S EYE VIEW
style food. You’ll never go hungry in Seoul! of Movies will keep you entertained with interactive Get a bird’s eye view of this
exhibits based around the history of Korean movies. magnificent metropolis by
Day Tripping  If all this has got you dreaming of jumping on a venturing up one of Seoul’s
Got some spare time on your hands and fancy heading plane then you may be wondering what time of year soaring skyscrapers. North
out of the city? You might want to hop on a speedy bullet is best to visit. Spring and autumn are popular times Seoul Tower sits atop
train and head to the coastal town of Busan for a couple to visit Seoul; enjoy lufy clouds of cherry blossom or Namsan Mountain and
of days. his lively city by the sea has it all! hink Seoul colourful autumn leaves and warm (but not scorching) offers jaw dropping 360
on a smaller scale, but with the added bonus of some temperatures. Really though, Seoul is a great year round degree views of the city,
fantastic beaches too. For outdoorsy fun, take a trip to destination, with plenty of indoor and outdoor fun to be including the Hangang
Haedong Yonggungsa – a beautiful temple overlooking had in any season! River. If you want to visit
the tallest building that
5 South Korea has to offer,
then take a trip to Lotte
World Tower. A super
speedy elevator will rocket
you up over 100 floors,
taking you to Seoul Sky,
where stunning vistas of
the city await.

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 SUBSCRIPTIONS
SPECIAL OFFER!
PURCHASE A UK 12 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION AND GET A FREE
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to those kind people over at MVM Entertainment,
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Work! on Blu-ray as a special thank you for your
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The Blu-ray is on sale now at an RRP of £39.99,
although you can bag a copy for a discounted price
of £27.99 at MVM’s own retail store www.anime-
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Cells at Work! is rapidly proving to be a firm
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calling it “imaginative, educational, and above all,
entertaining.” The show takes you inside the body
to watch millions of cells going about their daily
business to ensure everything runs smoothly. Of
course, there are plenty of challenges for our hero
cells to overcome, from the common cold to food
poisoning! Adapted from the manga by Akane
Shimizu, the show is charming and great fun!

09 0 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
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www.uncookedm e d ia.c om 091

 W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND

[ANIME REVIEW]

I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS

Living with dying
2 7 J A NU A R Y // M A N G A E N T E R TA INME N T // T B C //
R E L AT I O NS HIP D R A M A // £ 1 5 . 9 9 ( D V D) , £ 1 9 . 9 9 ( B L U - R AY ) //
1 0 8 M INS
PLOT A boy who doesn’t want friends encounters
a buoyantly cheerful girl who insists on being friends
with him. After all, the boy accidentally learned the
secret that she’s been keeping from all her peers –
that she’s dying.
to cut of real life, and the slowly revealed story that
Sakura is telling about their real lives. To complicate
things, Pancreas can be slammed as an ofensively
bad story in itself – Dying Manic Pixie Dream Girl
Teaches Bland Boy About Life.
You can trash it that way if you want. Or you can
choose (and choice is central to Sakura’s philosophy)
to embrace it as a very good story of people who each
have manically opposed viewers on life. he boy gets
the Shinkai-style voice-over, but it’s very easy to see
the ilm from Sakura’s point of view instead. It’s also
a relationship drama where you couldn’t improve
things by swapping the main characters’ genders.

L
ike many anime protagonists – and honestly, like Sakura would be unbearably stalkerish if she was a
real teenagers as well – the boy in this intense dying boy, latching onto an indiferent girl.
THE LITTLE teen drama shuns people and relationships, he ilm feels very static at irst – there are long
PRINCE preferring to bury himself in books. hen a book
entraps him. He’s in a hospital reception (nothing
two-hander conversation scenes between the leads,
but these are actually pointed and involving. here
Japanese and English
tracks. The script has serious), when he notices a book on a seat. He opens it; are certainly missteps – a silly, hackneyed scene
many references to it’s the secret diary of a female classmate. But instead where Sakura takes on a thug, a burst of J-pop that’d
The Little Prince, a of romantic crushes and growing pains, it’s about the embarrass even Shinkai – but the rich emotional
French children’s story girl’s medical condition – a defective pancreas – which scenes far outweigh them. here are overtly sexual
which is beloved in will soon kill her. elements including an upsetting assault, but they’re
Japan. The fantasy he girl, Sakura, spots him reading her diary justiied by context, unlike the sexuality in many
imagery near the end
and asks the boy what he thinks of her condition. He teen anime (for example, in Shaft’s trite fantasy ilm
of the film is based on
responds indiferently; she’s stunned but delighted Fireworks). he end is bold, not least because so much
Prince’s illustrations.
by such a “wrong” answer. hen Sakura declares of it is “spoiled” in the ilm’s very irst scene, but it’ll
Also, you should
wait through the end how she’ll spend the rest of her life. She’ll hang out have cynics bawling like the rest of us.
credits – there’s a very with the boy, teaching him to relate to people. It’s an Pancreas has faults, and some viewers will
important post-credits uphill task, given the boy doesn’t even want to give be angry with its premise, but it works, and darn
scene. his own name. powerfully too.
his is a ilm about stories; the books the boy reads

09 2 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
W O R D S B Y A ND R E W O S M O ND

NEO
RELEASE
ROUND-UP
THE STATE OF THE UK
1

1. That face when you realise the

mistake in last issue… Thanks for
demonstrating, Tanya. 2. Get ready
for two parts for Plastic Memories…
MARKET THIS MONTH Sorry. 3. Hellsing Ultimate: let’s all sit
in the dark and brood. 4. Coming next
First, we have to say sorry for an unfortunate error month: Zombie Land Saga.
in last month’s NeO. he issue included a review of the
series Plastic Memories, which was described as being
released in December by anime Limited in a single Blu-
2
ray. he release date has been moved back, and in fact
the series will be released across two Collector’s Blu-ray
volumes. he irst part of Plastic Memories – carrying
the opening seven episodes – is now scheduled for 10
February. he second volume – carrying the inal six
episodes – is due further ahead on March 2. apologies
for the mistake.
here’s a great deal of mecha due at the end of
January, and also two heartfelt teen anime dramas, and
they’re all out on the same day – 27 January. Let’s start
with those heartfelt dramas. Anohana: he Flower
3
We Saw hat Day will be a Blu-ray from MvM. Manga
entertainment will release the ilm I Want to Eat Your
Pancreas as both a Blu-ray and DvD. hey’re both
reviewed this issue.
as for the slew of mecha, anime Limited will
bring out the second half of Gundam Wing on Blu-ray.
he company is also releasing a Collector’s Blu-ray
containing the ifth and sixth episodes of the lavish
“prequel to the irst Gundam” series, Gundam: he
Origin. Manga entertainment is releasing new editions
of Code Geass – that’s the full 50-part tv series. On
4
DvD, there will be two volumes (seasons one and two),
both going on sale on the same day. he Blu-ray edition
will have all 50 episodes in one volume. Manga releases the fantasy comedy How NOT to
27 January also sees Manga’s release of the little- Summon a Demon Lord on DvD and Blu-ray, and
girl-tyrant show Saga of Tanya the Evil, reviewed also the third Blu-ray set of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures,
this issue. continuing the Stardust Crusaders storyline from the
February kicks of with vampires and more second. MvM will release a standard Blu-ray of the
mecha. On February 3, Manga entertainment is second Kizumonogatari ilm, Nekketsu.
bringing out a Blu-ray and DvD containing the last On the same date, anime Limited will release a
two instalments of Hellsing Ultimate, volumes 9 and Collector’s Blu-ray of the deathmatch show King’s
10. Manga’s also releasing SSSS.Gridman, the trigger- Game, a standard Blu-ray of the irst half of Gundam
animated mecha show. On February 10, it’s releasing 00, and the schlock-horror ilm romp Calamity of a
the delightful dead idol series Zombie Land Saga, Zombie Girl. Later, on 2 March, MvM has a Collectors
which was reviewed last issue. Blu-ray of the leftield romcom Rascal Does Not Dream
February 17 is another blow-out. hat’s when of Bunny Girl Senpai, reviewed this issue.

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 09 3


[FILM REVIEW]
PARASITE
Cuckoos in the nest
7 F E BR U A R Y // C UR Z O N A R T IF I C I A L E Y E // 1 5 // D R A M A //
T HE AT R I C A L // 1 3 2 MINS
PLOT Out of work, Kim Ki-taek’s (Song Kang-ho)
family lives in a grubby basement until his son, Ki-woo
(Choi Woo-sik), is hired by the wealthy Park family as
an English tutor.
O
ne by one, the Kims become employed by the
Parks, with daughter Ki-jeong (Park So-dam)
becoming an art tutor to the Parks’ restless son
Da-song (Jung Hyeon-jun) and Ki-taek becoming
chaufeur to the head of the household Park
Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun). he last hurdle in their way is
the Parks’ long-serving housekeeper Moon-gwang (Lee
Jeong-eun), but getting rid of her will expose the Kims to
the secret lying beneath the Parks’ beautiful home, with
devastating consequences.
With Parasite, director Bong Joon-ho turns his
attention to inequality and class division, delivering
KEY TALENT a biting blend of macabre comedy and drama. he
Lee Jeong-eun, who
production design, costumes, and cinematography are
plays the housekeeper
superb, contrasting the two very diferent worlds that
Moon-gwang,
the families inhabit. he Parks live in a house built by
provided the voice
of the pig in Bong’s a famous architect that’s all clean, smooth lines and
2017 film Okja, which muted colours, whereas the Kims occupy a basement lat
is streaming now on where the ceiling presses down upon them and the small
Netflix. windows ofer only a view of the spot where the local
drunks stop to relieve themselves as they stagger home.
09 4 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
W O R D S B Y D AV ID W E S T
he distance between the two families is physical
as well as inancial – the Parks’ stunning home is on
the side of a mountain, while the Kims’ lat is down in
the lower depths of the city. here are shades here of
Kurosawa’s High And Low, but Bong tells a very diferent
story to Kurosawa’s calculated thriller, although Parasite
is no less meticulous in execution.
he Kim family, for all their reduced circumstances,
are immediately sympathetic and charismatic. Ki-woo
and Ki-jeong are slick and charming as they insert
themselves into the Park household – Ki-jeong’s art
therapy schtick is particularly convincing and richly
comic. Ki-taek may lack their smarts, but he clearly loves
his family dearly and endures being patronised by his
new boss Park Dong-ik.
he two wives are a study in opposites. Park Yeon-
gyo (Cho Yeo-jeong) is slender and beautiful, but highly
strung, neurotic, and completely without anything to
do in life but worry over her young son and indulge his
every whim. Ki-taek’s wife Kim Chung-sook (Chang
Hyae-jin) could hardly be more diferent. She’s a former
athlete who won medals in the hammer toss, she’s
earthy, robust, tough and, when it matters, ruthless.
It’s not the easiest role in the ensemble, as Chung-sook
lacks the charm of her children and the optimism of her
husband, but Chang Hyae-jin draws out what warmth
there is in the character.
he big surprise is the Parks’ original housekeeper,
Moon-gwang, whose unlappable, buttoned-down
appearance is quite deceiving and Lee Jung-eun is

excellent in the role, particularly when Moon-gwang
turns from contrition to vengeful fury.
“IT’S AT ONCE FUNNY AND TRAGIC
WATCHING TWO SETS OF THE HAVE-
NOTS TEARING AT EACH OTHER’S
THROATS FOR THE MEAGRE CRUMBS
THAT FALL FROM THE HIGH TABLE…”
In some respects, the ilm unfolds in two distinct
halves. he irst is the grift as the Kims gently and
smoothly invade the Parks’ good graces, seeing a chance
to enjoy a little of the good life. hen the mood turns
darker, even as Bong’s penchant for a certain vicious
humour asserts itself, with the Kims ighting to keep
hold of their sliver of the pie. It’s at once funny and
tragic watching two sets of the have-nots tearing at each
other’s throats for the meagre crumbs that fall from
the high table, while the Parks are insulated from the
worries of the world by their wealth, keenly guarding
their privilege.
“I can’t stand people who cross the line,” says Dong-
ik, and it’s clear that he wants his employees to know
their place. hese aren’t his friends and there’s no loyalty
or bond between boss and worker – clearly seen when
TRIVIA
In January, Parasite
became the first
Korean film ever to
win a Golden Globe,
claiming the Best
Motion Picture –
Foreign Language
award. Will an Oscar
be next?
Yeon-gyo entices Ki-jeong to attend a birthday party
by ofering to pay her for her time. Dong-ik complains
about the way that Ki-taek smells and Yeon-gyo replies
that people who ride the subway have a particular odour,
but she hasn’t had to ride the subway for years.
Bong has touched on class issues before, albeit
sometimes more obliquely as in he Host and Mother, but
he inds fertile ground here for a scathing attack on the
callousness of modern society. As much as the Parks are
cocooned and entitled, the Kims are never saints but the
actors make the Kim family so lively and engaging that
they never shake of your sympathy even at their worst.
And that’s no mean feat as the story explodes with bursts
of violence – some of which balances a very ine line
between slapstick and wince-inducing pain.
Cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, who worked
with Bong on Mother and Snowpiercer, does superb
work, making great use of the lines and geometry of the
Park home, and pressing in upon the characters as the
tension starts to rise higher and higher. Director Bong
has delivered dark endings in the past – think of Song
Kang-ho’s hapless protagonist watching the river at the
end of he Host – but he outdoes himself here, teasing
the audience with the promise of a brighter future that
will never materialise.
It’s one final sucker punch to the gut in a film that
constantly blindsides the viewer by striking when
least unexpected. Masterful storytelling that delivers a
savagely sharp commentary on class and family.
www. unco o kedm edia. co m 09 5
COSPLAY
STAR

Ciri –
The Witcher
BY OLIVIA / LOLITA WARD

URLs
• instagram.com/lolita_ward
• purpleport.com/portfolio/
lolitaward

PHOTO BY IPHOTOUK,
IPHOTOUK.PIXIESET.COM

Character
I was drawn to Ciri because she’s not your
typical princess. She’s ballsy, rebellious, not
just a pretty face, and I think I connected with
her because of that.

Photoshoot
This photoshoot was at MCM Comic Con
London, and it was the COLDEST day known
to man. I think it hit about 4 degrees outside
that afternoon. However it was totally worth
braving the cold to get some amazing photos
back, like this one taken by one of my best
friends, Iphotouk.

he Witcher
When I played the game, my initial experience
was finding it too hard and wanting to give
up after repeatedly being killed, but pushing
through that and it becoming one of my
favourite games. Can’t wait to try it on Switch!
Oh, and trying to have Yennefer and Triss and
losing them both...

Cosplay
Making Ciri was a labour of love. She was
my first full on cosplay build. My boyfriend
taught me how to sew to make the collar and
leather accessories from scratch. My step dad
helped me with some metal work to detail my
belt; the sweetest personal touch. Fun fact,
the studs on my trousers are painted googly
eyes! I would say she took over 100 hours to
get to this point...and there’s still so many
improvements to make.

09 6 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0
Suicide Squad Harley Quinn.
Photo taken at Saracen House
Studio by Digi-Steve Photography
(digistevephotography.com).

Bombshell Harley Quinn. Photo by

WadeWilsonJustShotYou (andrew-tm.com/
cosplay), taken at MCM London Comic Con.

Geralt (by AdamVonK, instagram.

com/adamvonkcosplay) and Ciri from
he Witcher at MCM London Comic
Con. Photo by wadewilsonjustshotyou
(andrew-tm.com/cosplay).

Princess Leia. Photo by Chrissy

Sparks / Dollhouse Photography
(dollhousephotography.co.uk).

www. unco o kedm edia. co m 09 7

 Ciri from he Witcher. Photo
taken at MCM Comic Con
London by TakeshePicsPhoto
(takethepics.co.uk).

09 8 N E O M A G A Z I N E F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0