There are so many things to love about the movies of Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli, but the one I’ve always admired the most is the worlds they take place in. Those worlds, so often based on European and Japanese...

When playing video games, it’s easy to get caught up in the notion of utility. Is this ability useful to me, does this skill make my character more powerful, will it improve the ratio of my numbers to my opponents’ ...

No doubt about it: we all love video game world-maps. That moment when you first set foot into a game’s wide blue yonder and see just how far the horizon goes… it’s magic. While video game world-maps are often plent...

The term Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) is useful shorthand for a certain way of character-led storytelling and combat mechanisms. But there are times when it’s tempting to recognize such rubric as restrictive and embrace ga...

If you’ve ever seen one of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films, you’ve encountered the work of composer Joe Hisaishi. His haunting, gorgeous compositions have accompanied films from Castle in the Sky to My Neighbo...

When Evangelion director Hideaki Anno isn’t busy making the new Evangelion movies — or ridiculous trailers for the Evangelion movies that feature no characters or robots, but instead just a piano made of rainbows or...