Magical academies! Spunky heroines! A big orchestral soundtrack! …sounds really boring, right? But in the hands of skilled craftsmen, convention can be compelling, and that’s what Little Witch Academia taught me. Now that all the good people that made up Gainax exist in the form of a studio named...

In the simultaneously stylish and seedy Tokyo neighborhood known as Roppongi lies the headquarters of Japanese TV giant TV Asahi. In addition to being host to a Doraemon-themed cafe promoting the new movie with a theme song by Perfume, something else Nakata Yasutaka-related lies on the opposite side of...

SHAFT always struck me as a unique studio. Their keen eye for design as a result of tight budgets and scheduling, their ties to subculture with the songs used in their shows, and their off-beat otaku edge made them a studio worth paying attention to. It also helped that...