Eastern Standard Time is a quarterly magazine that focuses its attention upon Japanese animation and Hong Kong action films. In this issue we see some upcoming releases (
Love Hina,
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door), some feature artitics ("Blood & Gatts", "I Know Wire Fu" and "
Jin-Roh: The Big Bad Wolf") and some comentaries ("The Baron of Blood"). We also see some excellent artwork to accompany those articles, a layout style that makes the entire magazine easy to read and follow and a familiar style of writing that conveys an informal, conversational tone (and thus makes it easier to read).
Obviously, this doesn't mean a damned thing if you're not into either anime or Hong Kong action movies. That's okay; Eastern Standard Time isn't a general-interest magazine, doesn't pretend to be and (if the gods aren't capricious bastards) never will be one.
While the previews are interesting, and the commentaries are quite insightful, it's the feature articles that make this magazine. In a world now dominated by the speed of Internet communication, previews and reviews are no longer the point of a print periodical; if those feature articles are better used as toliet paper, then the magazine will die.
"I Know Wire-Fu", the article that explains the explosion of wirework in Western cinema and how that came to pass, is a great example of what I speak. Within this article, someone who has no idea beyond The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would find answers to some basic questions--"Where did this come from, and why?"--as well as some of the better cinematic examples of wirework in Hong Kong film. As a primer article, this is excellent. Folks who get paid well to write articles for magazines don't do this sort of quality work.
"Blood & Gatts" is all about Berserk, a fantasy story that has roots in comics, animation and videogames. It's hailed as some of the best Western-style fantasy to come from Japan to date, so this article was as much a primer on the property as it is an evaluation of why this story is a better fantasy saga than others to come from Japan (such as Record of Lodoss War). Having read it, now I want to investigate for myself. That's a desireable result.
The two Jin-Roh articles are well-written pieces that delve into the moral complexities of this excellent film by Mamoru Oshii. The first, "A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing", is a review of the film that delves into the complexities of the film's moral stance (and how the characters show that complexity). The second, " Jin-Roh: The Big Bad Wolf", is a far more detailed piece that dives deep into the film and comments upon both its obvious and subtle touches. The piece is filled with spoilers, but that's just fine by me because you can't write meaningfully about this film without doing so. Alone, the comparison between the film and the original version of "Little Red Riding Hood" ( Das Rotkaappchen; note that the lack of an umlat is compensated by the double-letter A.) is incredible. By tying this to the theme of critical thinking vs. blind obedience, it is one of the better pieces of film criticism that I've seen in some time. It's the best article in the magazine.
In closing--because there's no topping that article-- Eastern Standard Time's first issue is well worth the paltry sum that I spent to get it. Do check it out.
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