Highschool of the Dead ( H.O.T.D.) follows a zombie apocalypse, anime style. It all starts during a typical day at high school. Takashi Komuro was skipping class as usual when he noticed a strange man at the school gate. The PhysEd teachers confront the man…well being a zombie series, the stranger turns out to be…
Cure
When starting this Japanese horror project I did a bit of research into what films were considered the very best of the genre. Several top ten lists later I noticed one name besides Ringu, Ju-On, and Audition kept cropping up: Cure. So naturally I wanted to watch it, but for whatever reason it took me…
Hatsune Miku – Vocaloid
Hatsune Miku is computer software made in Japan that can produce singing by just typing in lyrics and a melody. Technically the backbone of the Hatsune Miku is Yamaha’s vocaloid software. Vocaloid even has released albums. The singer is known as Hatsune Miku and is an anime girl around the age of 16. Yeah, that…
Home Made Kazoku
Home Made Kazoku ( in English it’s “Home Made Family”) is a feel-good hip hop group from Japan. Now normally I can’t stand hip-hop, but this group has uplifting beats and lyrics that makes me smile. The group isn’t anywhere close to the American (c)rap that just talks about ehem “bitches, bling, and guns.” Home…
Ringu
“One curse, one cure, one week to find it” is Ringu’s tag-line and a succinct plot synopsis if there ever was one. Personally I’d say something like; “Teens find weird video in a cabin. It’s a heart-stopping experience.” The title might look somewhat familiar to American readers. The Ring, starting Naomi Watts, was an American…
Ju-on
It’s amazing what one can do using a shoestring budget, if you are skillful at any rate. Takashi Shimizu shows he is just that in Ju-on, better known to my American colleagues as The Grudge. The Grudge is actually a remake of Ju-on, done with a much bigger budget and, of course, Sarah Michelle Gellar….