Anime REVIEW: Godzilla Singular Point

Godzilla Singular Point is available in streaming form on Netflix

It's hard to believe that despite being a franchise spanning over 65 years at this point, there's never been a fully-fledged Godzilla anime series. We've had a couple of American cartoon series over the years and a trilogy of CGI animated films from Toho and Polygon in 2017-18, but in 2021 did the King of the Monsters properly jump into television anime with Godzilla Singular Point. A co-production between acclaimed studios Bones and Orange, Singular Point is a "Netflix Original" series that released weekly in Japan between April and June before all 13 episodes dropped worldwide on the 24th June. The series was written by Toho Enjoh, an award-winning Japanese author specialising in science and speculative fiction.  

First Impressions: Godzilla Singular Point

Despite it not being an anniversary year, 2021 is looking to be a big year for Godzilla. As well as finally facing off against King Kong in American Monsterverse sequel Godzilla vs Kong, over in Japan the King of Monsters is also starring in a brand new anime series. Godzilla Singular Point is a co-production between studios Bones (Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka Seven, Mob Psycho 100) and Orange (Land of the Lustrous, Beastars), and has been licensed by Neflix much like the Godzilla anime movie trilogy produced by Toho and Polygon in 2017-18. While the series began airing in Japan at the beginning of April, Netflix's preferred binge-model for the rest of the world means that its official intentional release is still unknown outside of "some time later in the year".

Anime REVIEW: Land of the Lustrous

Land of the Lustrous is available in streaming form on HIDIVE

The prevalence and use of 3D CGI in Japan is perhaps one of the biggest ongoing debates you'll find in the anime fandom. Despite the medium coming a long, long way in recent years and resulting in both notable films and shows, you'll always find that sect of fans that argue that it doesn't hold a candle to traditional 2D animation. However if there's one show that can hopefully change this, it's Land of the Lustrous (Hōseki no Kuni). Based on the manga series by Haruko Ichikawa and animated by CGI specialist studio Orange as their first lead project (though their vast repertoire includes the likes of Accel World, Macross Frontier, Ghost in the Shell: Arise, KanColle and more), Land of the Lustrous was one of the hottest shows of the 2017 fall anime season - and with very good reason.