Japanese artist remembered for his ‘unique world of creation’ including comic series that spawned films, video games and TV series
Akira Toriyama, the influential Japanese manga artist who created the Dragon Ball series, has died at the age of 68.
He died on 1 March from an acute subdural haematoma. The news was confirmed by Bird Studio, the manga company that Toriyama founded in 1983.
Continue reading...Kazuki Takahashi found in snorkelling gear floating in the sea off coast of Okinawa, reports say
A Japanese artist who created the hit manga comic series Yu-Gi-Oh!, which spawned a worldwide media franchise including a trading card game, has been found dead in the sea, according to media reports.
Kazuki Takahashi, 60, whose real first name was Kazuo, was discovered wearing snorkelling gear and floating in the sea near Nago, in the southern island prefecture of Okinawa, early on Wednesday and identified a day later, the NHK public broadcaster reported.
Continue reading...The Arab Strap vocalist on late-night horror chats with his mum, spending time with Alan Partridge, and bingeing on Succession
Born in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1973, Aidan Moffat is the vocalist of indie rock band Arab Strap, which he founded in 1995 with Malcolm Middleton. Characterised by Moffat’s half-spoken vocals over lo-fi instrumentation, the band gained international acclaim with 1996 single The First Big Weekend; they went on to release six studio albums before splitting in 2006 and reforming in 2016. Since 2002, Moffat has released music under the name L Pierre, and collaborated with artists including Mogwai and Bill Wells. Arab Strap’s first album in 16 years, As Days Get Dark, is was released this month on Rock Action.
Continue reading...The landmark Japanese cyberpunk animation from 1988 re-emerges as a deeply strange nightmare about destruction and rebirth
A deeply strange message from the future is what this movie is here to (re)deliver: both post- and pre-apocalyptic, a nuclear-age parable of anxiety to compare with Godzilla. Akira, released in 1988, is the cult Japanese cyberpunk animation from director Katsuhiro Ôtomo, who also created the original manga serial. (It is set in the impossibly futuristic year of 2019, so maybe last year would actually have been the time to rerelease it.)
Thirty years on from a devastating explosion that razed the city, a new capital – Neo-Tokyo – has been born: sprawling, chaotic, like the LA of Blade Runner. The city is beset with violence from warring motorbike gangs, and by protesters rioting against unfair taxes. A hatchet-faced army officer says that Neo-Tokyo is “a garbage heap made of hedonistic fools”.
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