Category Archives: Reviews

Unmade movie review: Versus (2008)

Posted on December 13, 2020 by kevnder

The early-to-mid 2000s were perhaps the peak of Japan’s soft power in Hollywood. Anime (or anime-inspired cartoons) dominated all the children’s networks, Hayao Miyazaki won an Oscar, blockbuster movies like The Matrix, Kill Bill, and Transformers flaunted their Japanese influence, … Continue reading →

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Thoughts on Monster Attack Team #12 (1st Edition)

Posted on July 29, 2017 by kevnder

Monster Attack Team is the best English-language magazine on the subject of tokusatsu, so it’s always an event when a new issue comes out. Thus, as soon as I heard about the twelfth installment hitting at a release party earlier … Continue reading →

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Review: Big Comics Original Godzilla special

Posted on July 29, 2014 by kevnder

There’s a surprising lack of buzz in the English-speaking fan community about Big Comic Original’s special Godzilla issue from earlier this month. You’d think that a 342-page comic anthology featuring some of the hottest names in manga writing new Godzilla … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Henge (dir. Hajime Ohata, 2011)

Posted on May 6, 2013 by kevnder

“Henge” translates to “metamorphosis”, but the movie bearing that name feels more akin to Cronenberg’s The Fly filtered through Tetsuo the Iron Man than to anything Kafka ever wrote. The story is that of Keiko and her husband Yoshiaki’s marital … Continue reading →

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Comic Review: Giant Monster (Steve Niles, 2005)

Posted on February 28, 2013 by kevnder

Okay, right off the bat, what kind of title for your giant monster story is “Giant Monster”? It’s like calling a western “Western”, or kung fu story “Kung Fu” (okay, bad example) or your scary movie “Scary Movie” (okay, worse … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Ultraman Saga (dir. Hideki Oka, 2012)

Posted on February 23, 2013 by kevnder

As you may know, there seem to be two major branches in US tokusatsu fandom: those that watch because of Godzilla, and those that watch because of Power Rangers (yeah, there are lots of J-horror fans, but they’re not organized). … Continue reading →

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TV Review: Agon, the Atomic Dragon (Nippon Television, 1964)

Posted on January 30, 2013 by kevnder

When Agon, The Atomic Dragon debuted on Japanese TV in 1968, it must have seemed positively archaic. The problem is that the show was originally produced in 1964, when the kaiju boom was just taking off, and certain tropes hadn’t … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Ready Player One (Ernest Cline, 2011)

Posted on January 13, 2013 by kevnder

Swordquest was a famous series of video games in the 1980’s, promoted by an unusual gimmick: Atari hid numerous clues, “Easter eggs”, in the games, and the first player to uncover them all and reply to Atari would receive a … Continue reading →

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