Wayfarer took the metal world by storm with their sweeping black metal epic album American Gothic in 2023. The album provides a unique look at the history of the United States, and drummer Isaac Faulk has previously discussed numerous different elements that influenced the album’s creation. Faulk’s long-running relationship with anime manifests itself in countless ways in Wayfarer’s music, as well as the music of his numerous other projects like Stormkeep and Blood Incantation. From anime OSTs to subject matter to artistic presentation, the medium is deeply influential in his creative process. I chatted with Faulk to learn a bit more about how Trigun and Flcl were pivotal in making one of the year’s best albums. American Gothic has been such a smash success and ended up on so many “Album of the Year” lists! What was that recording process like? Isaac : The last record was more in this big,...
- 3/16/2024
- by Alex Lebl
- Crunchyroll
(Welcome to Ani-time Ani-where, a regular column dedicated to helping the uninitiated understand and appreciate the world of anime.)
Fantasy is not a common genre in anime. Though most of the shows premiering each season have fantasy elements, they are mostly isekai that borrow more from JRPGs than literary fantasy and focus more on a power fantasy than an adventure. There are exceptions, of course, like "Ranking of Kings" and the Dungeons & Dragons campaign-turned-anime "Record of Lodoss War."
Now, we have a new anime that fully understands what makes fantasy unique and effective for storytelling. This is the anime fans of "Lord of the Rings" have been waiting for, a fantasy epic unlike any other — "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End."
The premise is simple: the Demon King has been slayed and the party of heroes who defeated him return home. Their 10-year-long adventure meant a significant journey that eternally...
Fantasy is not a common genre in anime. Though most of the shows premiering each season have fantasy elements, they are mostly isekai that borrow more from JRPGs than literary fantasy and focus more on a power fantasy than an adventure. There are exceptions, of course, like "Ranking of Kings" and the Dungeons & Dragons campaign-turned-anime "Record of Lodoss War."
Now, we have a new anime that fully understands what makes fantasy unique and effective for storytelling. This is the anime fans of "Lord of the Rings" have been waiting for, a fantasy epic unlike any other — "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End."
The premise is simple: the Demon King has been slayed and the party of heroes who defeated him return home. Their 10-year-long adventure meant a significant journey that eternally...
- 2/29/2024
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
Platforming has been a part of video games since the early days, but as technology improved, so did game genres. Several designers started adding features such as RPG mechanics and unlockable abilities, and also took away other gaming staples such as a sense of direction. Thus the Metroidvania genre was born.
Several new Metroidvania titles are released every year. This steady drip feed of content guarantees fans of the genre have no shortage of games to play, but not all Metroidvanias are created equal. Most titles exude a sense of polish and quality, but some surpass others and stand as shining specimens of the genre. That’s just statistics. But which Metroidvanias are the best? Here are the games we think serve as the best example of what it means to be a Metroidvania.
15. Shadow Complex
Most mMetroidvanias take place on a 2D plane. Even when a game utilizes 3D graphics,...
Several new Metroidvania titles are released every year. This steady drip feed of content guarantees fans of the genre have no shortage of games to play, but not all Metroidvanias are created equal. Most titles exude a sense of polish and quality, but some surpass others and stand as shining specimens of the genre. That’s just statistics. But which Metroidvanias are the best? Here are the games we think serve as the best example of what it means to be a Metroidvania.
15. Shadow Complex
Most mMetroidvanias take place on a 2D plane. Even when a game utilizes 3D graphics,...
- 12/31/2023
- by Matthew Byrd
- Den of Geek
Before “The Last of Us” and “Arcane,” it was Netflix’s and Powerhouse Animation’s “Castlevania” (now in its fourth season) that broke the video game adaptation curse with a highly stylized, anime-inspired horror-action show based on the Konami video game series. Now, the spinoff series “Castlevania: Nocturne” moves the action forward 300 years to the time of the French Revolution. With the new time period comes new themes, an expanded worldview, and a big change to the show’s visual style. Unsurprisingly, the biggest change was in the action, all thanks to one invention: Firearms.
“We had guns,” director Sam Deats told IndieWire. “A rifle-axe was my favorite thing, inspired by a trip to a New York museum that had a whole display of different weapons mixed with guns, and I just wanted to incorporate some of that in the show.”
“Castlevania: Nocturne” follows Richter Belmont, a descendant of the original show’s monster hunter,...
“We had guns,” director Sam Deats told IndieWire. “A rifle-axe was my favorite thing, inspired by a trip to a New York museum that had a whole display of different weapons mixed with guns, and I just wanted to incorporate some of that in the show.”
“Castlevania: Nocturne” follows Richter Belmont, a descendant of the original show’s monster hunter,...
- 10/4/2023
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Indiewire
Spend enough time in anime fandom and you hear a common refrain: "They don't make shows like they used to anymore." Do they? There's plenty of great anime still being made: Fall 2022 alone brought an incredible bumper crop of anime series across multiple genres. Some may prefer the masterpieces of the past, but those masterpieces were exceptional even then. Even so, it is indisputable that certain kinds of anime are simply not made anymore. Original anime series are scarce. Modern shows rarely last beyond 12 or 13 episodes. Robots drawn in traditional 2D animation, outside of specialist studios like Trigger or Sunrise, are rare. Even the newest "Gundam" series, usually the industry standard for 2D giant robot shows, struggled weekly to maintain the standard of its mechanical animation. To find series like the long-running psychological thriller "Monster," or the slice-of-life mystery "Haibane Renmei," you have to go back 20 or 30 years in the medium's history.
- 1/25/2023
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
(Welcome to Ani-time Ani-where, a regular column dedicated to helping the uninitiated understand and appreciate the world of anime.) We don’t see nearly enough fantasy in anime. Sure, there are countless isekai shows where someone gets reincarnated in a fantasy Jrpg, but there’s not a lot in terms of pure high-fantasy epics like Game of Thrones […]
The post ‘Record of Lodoss War’ is an Epic Anime Version of a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Record of Lodoss War’ is an Epic Anime Version of a Dungeons & Dragons Campaign appeared first on /Film.
- 5/6/2021
- by Rafael Motamayor
- Slash Film
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