The Guardian Weekly magazine is a round-up of the world news, opinion and long reads that have shaped the week. Inside, the past seven days’ most memorable stories are reframed with striking photography and insightful companion pieces, all handpicked from The Guardian and The Observer.
Golden Boy is the story of Kintaro Oe, a twenty-five-year-old in pursuit of life’s lessons. A brilliant student, he dropped out of Tokyo Universiy’s law program because he had had mastered the entire curriculum. Now he lives a simple life, traveling on his bicycle and working numerous part-time jobs ranging from software companies to noodle restaurants in order to learn everything that he can about the world. Although he’s a kind and giving person, Kintaro’s only weakness lies in his lust for beautiful women. However, as long as he can control himself, he may just manage to save the day, and win a few hearts in the process.
In modern day Tokyo, society lives in fear of Ghouls: mysterious creatures who look exactly like humans-yet hunger insatiably for their flesh. None of this matters to Ken Kaneki, a bookish and ordinary young man, until a dark and violent encounter turns him into the first ever Ghoul-human half breed. Trapped between two worlds, Ken must survive the violent conflicts of warring Ghoul factions, while attempting to learn more about Ghoul society, his newfound powers, and the fine line between man and monster.
Mato Kuroi just got into junior high school, and on the first day, someone catches her eye; her classmate Yomi Takanashi. The two meet. The innocent and naive Mato, the mature Yomi. Seemingly opposites, but the time they spend together only strengthens a growing friendship. But as they go into their second year at the school, they get placed in separate classes, and they begin to grow apart. But somewhere simultaneously, in another world, a young girl, blue fire in her eyes, Black Rock Shooter faces another young girl; this one holding a jet-black scythe, Dead Master, and a battle to the death begins to unfold.
A benchmark series in the history of anime, Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most widely discussed in anime. It’s not the first series to combine mecha (futuristic machines, especially robots) with theology and a character-driven story, but it does so exceptionally well.
The story is set in 2015, 15 years after a cataclysmic explosion in Antarctica that caused the ice cap to melt, killing a large portion of the Earth’s population. Although it was reported as a meteor impact, the explosion was caused by human interaction with Adam, the first of a series of powerful, sentient creatures known as “Angels” to appear on Earth. To defend against their depredations, humans rely on NERV, a secret agency dedicated to destroying the Angels with their gargantuan robot suits called Evas. Only teenagers with special psychic powers can pilot the Evas, and the best pilot is the repressed 14-year-old Shinji Ikari, who is a more interesting, believable character than standard mecha pilots.
Inspired by her grandfather’s stories, young Shinko embarks on wild flights of fancy about the history of the little town she lives in. But dreams can’t fend off the realities of growing up.
A samurai lord has bartered away his newborn son’s organs to forty-eight demons in exchange for dominance on the battlefield. Yet, the abandoned infant survives thanks to a medicine man who equips him with primitive prosthetics—lethal ones with which the wronged son will use to hunt down the multitude of demons to reclaim his body one piece at a time, before confronting his father. On his journeys the young hero encounters an orphan who claims to be the greatest thief in Japan.
In this latest cinematic adventure, Ash meets the Mythical Pokémon Volcanion when it crashes down from the sky, creating a cloud of dust—and a mysterious force binds the two of them together! Volcanion despises humans and tries to get away, but it’s forced to drag Ash along as it continues its rescue mission. They arrive in a city of cogs and gears, where a corrupt minister has stolen the ultimate invention: the Artificial Pokémon Magearna, created 500 years ago. He plans to use its mysterious power to take control of this mechanical kingdom! Can Ash and Volcanion work together to rescue Magearna? One of the greatest battles in Pokémon history is about to unfold!
Ginko, a Mushi-shi has always been attuned to the Mushi, creatures close to life itself and able to affect and alter their surroundings. He cannot stay in one place for too long so he wanders, helping the inhabitants of rural Japan understand the Mushi around them and how to coexist peacefully.
In the year 2122, Ikki and children like him have pet robots called medabots, with A.I. (artificial intelligence) capabilities. They take their medabots and robattle against each other until a champion medabot team is determined. A boy named Ikki Tenryou, using his Metabee, participates in Robottles; fights that square off robots, or ‘Medarot’, against eachother. Ikki must also stop the plans of the nefarious “RoboRobo Dan”.
Two university students come across a seemingly harmless girl named Lucy, unaware that she’s actually a mutant serial killer with a split personality.
Sakamoto Takuma was so strong in the MMORPG Cross Reverie that his fellow players came to call him the “demon lord.” One day, he gets summoned to another world in his avatar form, and meets two girls who both insist that they’re the one who summoned him. They cast a spell used to enslave summoned beasts on him, but that activates his unique ability, Magic Reflect, and the girls end up being the ones put under the spell! And thus begins the otherworldly adventure of a demon lord (pretend) who blazes his own trail through overwhelming power.
