Naoki Urasawa's Monster is widely regarded as being a manga masterpiece so it should come as no surprise that the anime incarnation is just as fantastic. Ten years after it's initial release, the series is finally being released in Australia by the good people at Siren. "What would you do if a child you saved grew up to be a monster? An ice-cold killer is on the loose, and Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop him! Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon with a promising future, risks his career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy named Johan. When the boy reappears nine years later in the midst of a string of unusual serial murders, Tenma must go on the run from the police who suspect him to be the killer. Conspiracies, serial murders, and secret government experiments set against the grim backdrop of the formerly communist Eastern Europe are masterfully woven together in the compelling work of suspense that is Naoki Urasawa's MONSTER...
Before you say it, yes, I'm aware Puella Magi Madoka Magica (or PMMM for short, which sounds like a noise of satisfaction you'd make with a pinched nose) - the deconstruction of the Magical Girl anime genre that would spawn classics like Sailor Moon - started life as a 12-episode anime series followed by a successful series of manga adaptations. I'm also aware that the two discs that form this compilation movie are basically a retread of the series with some of the fatty bits trimmed off, much like what Evangelion did with Death and Rebirth back in the day. I am therefore aware that praises and criticisms I might level come with an asterisk floating beside them, as this is essentially like saying something about a trailer that judges the entire finished product (topical!). But I'm also firmly of the opinion that a movie - that is, a cinematic experience of visuals and sound intended to convey a story - needs to stand as its own thing, whether it's a recap, s...
The following contains spoilers for Red Rising, Harry Potter and Scrubs. --- The series we must now refer to as the Red Rising Saga - as opposed to Trilogy - is the very definition of a mountain work: its peak is in the middle and its slopes are either side. It starts simply enough: in a near-future dystopia, where society is ordered into a hierarchy of Colours, young Martian mining expert Darrow is a lowly Red. With his fellow labourers, Darrow mines valuable gas for the war fleets of the Golds, the top of humanity's new privilege pyramid. Having dreamed of toppling the hierarchy and bringing his downtrodden people up into the light, Darrow is offered a chance to do so through a risky process of death and rebirth, shedding his Red identity and being surgically altered into a Gold. Inducted into the system of humanity's elite, Darrow must then survive the wilds of Mars in a long, bloody trial to determine which House he'll be placed with, which will then deter...
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