Whether you’re an outdated hand at arthouse or simply dipping a toe into the rising otaku subculture of anime aficionados around the globe, this column lists curated titles that problem, consolation, and often combust your expectations.
This week’s picks for Ctrl+Alt+Cinema couldn’t be extra totally different on the floor — one’s a six-episode anime a couple of pink alien octopus attempting to unfold pleasure, the opposite is a stark Georgian drama a couple of rural physician beneath scrutiny for her function in a botched supply — however each are crushing portraits of what occurs when the constructions meant to take care of folks fail them.
From the drafting board
Takopi’s Original Sin sounds just like the type of present you’d anticipate to cheer you up after an extended day. It’s received a smiling alien octopus from Happy Planet, right here to assist just a little lady with magical devices and good intentions. But earlier than the top of the primary episode, it’s fairly clear that this isn’t that type of story.
The present follows the titular tentacled alien, whose naivety and earnestness bump up in opposition to a world much more difficult than it might probably afford to know. Shizuka, the lady he desires to assist, lives with a disappointment that no gadget can erase, and Takopi won’t cease at attempting to make her smile as soon as extra.
A nonetheless from ‘Takopi’s Original Sin’
| Photo Credit:
Crunchyroll
Streaming now on Crunchyroll and already breaking viewing information, Takopi is the shock anime triumph of 2025. Adapted from Taizan 5’s manga and helmed by Made in Abyss director Shinya Iino, this six-episode gem weaponises its cute camouflage, solely to peel it again in direction of one thing deeply, disturbingly human.
Like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster (2023), Takopi explores the methods youngsters are formed and generally shattered by the alternatives of adults. Fans of Wonder Egg Priority, BoJack Horseman, and even Requiem for a Dream can even really feel proper at dwelling (or fairly, proper on edge).
What makes Takopi exceptional is how deftly it binds character, type, and feeling. The attractive artwork shifts from childlike sketches and chiaroscuro dread, whereas the writing threads collectively a number of views right into a tightly wound gut-punch. If you’ve ever beloved one thing like A Silent Voice, or discovered your self undone by the emotional honesty of Look Back, that is the anime to take a seat with.
Foreign affairs
While most movies about abortion have a tendency to border the problem as a binary of alternative and consequence, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April is after the emotional climate of feminine company beneath siege. It additionally begins with one of many creepiest, most unsettling opening pictures you’re more likely to see this yr.
Currently streaming on MUBI, the movie follows Nina, an obstetrician-gynecologist in rural Georgia, who performs abortions in secret and who comes beneath malpractice investigation after a botched supply. Dea, whose 2020-film Beginning introduced her as a significant voice in Georgian cinema, now returns with larger maturity and restraint. It’s a sluggish, unsettling portrait of a lady pushed to the perimeters and Dea’s course is exacting and spare.
A nonetheless from ‘April’
| Photo Credit:
MUBI
What makes April particularly vital proper now’s when and the place it arrived. The movie overtly portrays abortion and the desperation of girls searching for it, which is a rarity in Georgian cinema. Even although abortion continues to be authorized in Georgia, the movie has been inexplicably banned there, probably as a result of it dares to talk overtly a couple of topic that the majorly orthodox inhabitants nonetheless desires to maintain hidden. It additionally comes at a time when reproductive rights are beneath a worldwide siege, and sits with the load of what it means to be a lady attempting to make selections in a world that retains attempting to limit them.
If you appreciated the sluggish, painful revelations of Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always or the ethical complexity of Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, April belongs in your listing. It’s not simple to look at, however on this second, few movies really feel extra essential.
Ctrl+Alt+Cinema is a fortnightly column that brings you handpicked gems from the boundless choices of world cinema and anime
