Unquestionably in the last few years we have seen an explosion in the popularity of anime, be it through the whimsical magic of the films of Studio Ghibli or the directors like Quentin Tarantino recruiting studios such as Production IG to provide animated sequences for “Kill Bill Vol:1” the interest in Japanese animation has really never been higher.

Despite being an industry which in 2014 was valued at around $13.5 billion, its also a genre which has over the years been unfairly branded as being solely about large eyed characters, demons, tentacles and fan service schoolgirls with even the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki being dismissed much to his chagrin as the “Disney of the East”.

So for this month I felt it was time we took another look at the anime genre and with the release live adaptation of “Ghost In The Shell” fast approaching what better time to discover Mamoru Oshii’s original 1995 anime for example or perhaps the antics of super thief Lupin the 3^rd in “The Castle of Cagliostro which Steven Spielberg credits as being his inspiration for the action scenes of “Indiana Jones” there really is a wealth of fantastic films to discover within the genre from battling robots and psychological thrillers through to touching flights of fantasy and historic drama there really is no typical anime film, so while not watch something different this month or perhaps share your own favourites.

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