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The traditional hallmarks of shonen anime are action, adventure, friendship, and the hero's journey. Unlike shojo anime, romance tends to be a subplot at best. Elements of comedy tend to be running jokes with comic relief characters, like Miroku in InuYasha.

Related: 10 Shonen Anime That Forget To Be Funny

Sitting back and enjoying an anime packed with action, comedic characters, and clever, zany plot twists is a great mood-lifter. Shonen, especially the classic titles, tends to go for slapstick humor, like tsundere characters who lash out violently, but that can get old hat. Some shonen anime embrace parody, clever turns of phrase, and comedy of errors plots.

Updated on June 16, 2023, by Vera W.: Shonen anime is known for its plucky protagonists, ensemble casts of friends and foes, and its certain brand of humor. Shonen humor tends to be physical gaffs where characters fight and smack each other around (like...

Anime romances have the potential to sweep audiences off their feet. Many are so dynamic that the couples seem destined for each other. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, as many anime characters hardly have any chemistry with their partners at all.

Related: 15 Worst Couples In Shonen Anime, Ranked

Ill-fated anime couples may seem like good matches at first blush, yet they lack real connection in the long run. These couples may be too different or too stubborn for their pairings to truly work long-term. Even if they come from great romance anime, these couples tend to have the worst chemistry and do not belong together.

This article mentions physical assault. Reader discretion is advised.

Otonashi & Katori (The Ice Guy And His Cool Female Colleague)

Although no one in The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague is officially together yet, three main couples are strongly hinted at. One...

Demon Slayer's main characters usually have tragic and painful memories of their families, such as protagonist Tanjiro Kamado returning home to find his family dead or Muichiro Tokito losing his parents and brother one after another. However, the love Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji, bucks this trend in surprisingly deep ways with her own flashbacks.

Recent Demon Slayer episodes depicted Mitsuri's childhood; for once, a demon slayer could look back fondly on the good old days. Mitsuri had a great family and a cozy home life, which means she had to dig deep within herself to find the courage and motivation to become a demon-fighting warrior who actually had a lot to lose.

Related: Demon Slayer Reveals the Origin Behind a Piece of Mitsuri's Clothing

Mitsuri's Flashbacks Balance Demon Slayer's Mood

Earlier in Season 3, Demon Slayer depicted a heartbreaking flashback for Muichiro Tokito, the Mist Hashira, but Mitsuri Kanroji's own...

Luffy is a happy-go-lucky character who acts first and thinks later. He has a tendency to cause his own misfortune, especially when he charges forward without a plan. It's usually his crew's job to bail Luffy out when he makes stupid mistakes, which results in some of the best moments in One Piece.

Related: Top 10 Most Successful Attack On Titan Villains, Ranked

However, not all of Luffy's hardships are his own doing. Considering how rough his life has been, it's a miracle Luffy has maintained a positive attitude. His upbringing and the mistreatment he's faced are undeserved. Luffy would have every right to be mad at the people who have caused him misfortune.

Dragon Abandoned Luffy

Found family is the most important theme of One Piece, but that doesn't mean the characters don't have any blood relatives. Luffy's father is the famous Revolutionary Dragon, who thinks fighting the government is...

Blue Lock is easily one of the most brutal sports anime, combining soccer with a death game, but the show is actually more brutal because it doesn't kill off its characters. While that isn't unusual in most sports anime, it is rather peculiar for a death game anime. And despite its nonlethal competition, Blue Lock certainly qualifies as a Death Game anime.

Blue Lock focuses on the radical soccer training program of the same name, which sets 300 promising young soccer players against each other in a competition to determine who will be Japan's top striker. The program puts these players against each other in soccer-based challenges that test different aspects of the game and their abilities. While being eliminated from this program won't kill the participants like in other death games, it will prohibit them from ever playing on Japan's World Cup soccer team. This will effectively crush their dreams,...

Every era of anime has its defining shows and heroes who represent the sensibilities of the time they symbolize. In the 1990s, Neon Genesis Evangelion's Shinji redefined the image of a mecha protagonist, and Dragon Ball Z's Goku took over the shonen genre. In the early 2000s, Shonen Jump's Big Three showed everyone the new ideal shonen hero in Luffy, Naruto, and Ichigo.

Related:35 Most Popular Characters In Anime History (According To MyAnimeList)

But who fans will remember as the defining heroes of modern anime is yet to be determined. Today's anime landscape is as saturated as ever, yet, only a handful of shows will go down in history as classics. These anime heroes will definitely make the cut as those who shaped the medium of this decade.

Itadori Yuji (Jujutsu Kaisen)

Replacing Shonen Jump's Big Three in the limelight, the emerging Dark Trio paved the way for grittier,...

Warning! Contains Major spoilers for One Piece and Chainsaw Man!

While One Piece and Chainsaw Man are incredibly different, their ultimate antagonists, Imu and Makima, are surprisingly similar. The two manga by Eiichiro Oda and Tatsuki Fujimoto respectively are some of Shonen Jump's most popular for very different reasons. One Piece comes from an older age of Shonen storytelling while Chainsaw Man is leading a vanguard of modern stories.

Part of what makes Chainsaw Man revolutionary is its main villain Makima. Makima is the head of a government organization tasked with hunting devils, although ironically her real identity is the Control Devil. As the Control Devil, she manipulates everyone around her and attempts to make the protagonist Denji's life miserable so she can ultimately control Chainsaw Man as well. This callous manipulation is what makes her Shonen Jump's best modern villain. Her ultimate goal is to erase the evils of...

A talented cosplayer shares their impressive take on one of the members of the Yamada Asaemon family of executioners from Hell's Paradise.

Created and posted on Reddit by Akunohako, the Sagiri costume recreates the swordswoman's stunning white-and-red wardrobe. It also sees the cosplayer appropriately wielding a katana and standing in front of a flower-filled background. The costume-making master has also fabricated equally impressive interpretations of other fan-favorite characters from pop-cultural IPs like the Falling Demon from Chainsaw Man, Yae Miko from Genshin Impact and Ada Wong from Resident Evil.

Related: Hell's Paradise's Sagiri Has a Sobering Connection to Jujutsu Kaisen's Yuji Itadori

Yamada Asaemon Sagiri cosplay be Xenon, photo by me(Aku) by u/Akunohako in cosplay

Yuji Kaku's Hell's Paradise first appeared on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ website in January 2018 with the final chapter getting published in January 2021. Considered one of the members of the shōnen genre's Dark Trio,...

Romances and rom-coms are some of the most popular anime genres among general audiences. Whether it's shonen, shojo, josei or even seinen titles, love stories of all kinds have hooked viewers since the birth of anime as a medium. However, lately, romance anime has witnessed a consistent change in terms of depicting more realistic and not-so-typical stories with better character development and personality tropes. The main couple's personality types are one of the most important aspects of a successful rom-com anime series, and over the years, rom-coms have come to develop significant favoritism for introverted male protagonists.

Male leads in romance anime have to be held to a certain standard because one wrong move and the show will never get rid of the "toxic masculinity" tag. Fortunately, the audience has been treated to some of the best romance anime in recent years, supported by characters and relationships that feel relatively realistic and down-to-earth,...

Shonen is home to some of anime's greatest and most beloved characters. Among them, none are more adored than the iconic shonen heroes. With lovable personalities and compelling backstories, many of shonen's heroes have stolen the hearts of fans everywhere and changed the face of anime forever. But while it almost feels impossible to dislike them, plenty of shonen heroes have almost ruined their likability.

Related: 10 Most Unique Shonen Anime Of The 2000s

Whether it's due to their obnoxious personalities or because of an unforgivable act they commit, many shonen heroes have character flaws that leave their overall image tarnished and make fans think twice about them. But despite these glaring issues, they somehow manage to remain popular nonetheless, ultimately saving their reputations.

Joseph Joestar (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

As one of JoJo's Bizarre Adventures' earliest protagonists, Joseph Joestar has certainly made a name for himself over the years.

Portgas D. Ace, the older brother of Monkey D. Luffy, will get his own One Piece manga spinoff in 2024.

The iconic supporting character from Eiichiro Oda's legendary series will take to the page once again as the English translation of his light novel series manga adaptation will have a Spring 2024 release date, as confirmed by Sportskeeda. This manga will bring the two-part One Piece: Ace's Story novels, written by Sho Hinata and Tatsuya Hamazaki, to life with an official English translation. Boichi, the artist behind the popular Shonen series Dr. Stone, illustrates the spinoff. Viz Media's account revealed all of this information in a tweet, featuring a look at the cover art.

Related: One Piece Nico Robin Is a Picture-Perfect Straw Hat Pirate in Accurate Cosplay

Announcement: Based on the novel series One Piece: Ace’s Story, this action-packed prequel features the adventures of Luffy’s beloved brother Ace!

Many types of characters exist in anime, but one of the more provocative is anime womanizers. These Lotharios are charming and handsome, and know just the right things to say to have women fall at their feet.

Related: 15 Worst Couples In Shonen Anime, Ranked

These seductors are typically self-important and love to show off. They have high standards for their appearance and are threatened by other male characters. They also seek validation in their romantic conquests. Even so, anime womanizers still find themselves with more female partners than they know what to do with (even if their hearts are really only set on one person).

Makoto Ito (School Days)

Makoto Ito is one of the most womanizing characters in anime. Despite claiming that he has a crush only on Kotonoha Katsura, he fools around with Sekai Saionji as well. Thinking he can play the two girls off of each other,...

Focusing on the wealthy Hornsby family and their efforts to keep their cracker conglomerate open, Royal Crackers charts the awkward, bizarre, and surprisingly heartfelt relationship between the put-upon Stebe (Jason Ruiz), his ambitious wife Deb (Jessica St. Clair), his nu-metal dirtbag brother Theo (Andrew Santino), and his soft-spoken and sweet-natured son Matt (Maile Flanagan). Alongside their board of directors -- and a few lingering manipulations from Stebe's now largely comatose father -- the Hornsby family is just as likely to burn the whole business down as they are to save it.

The series takes a Succession-style concept and gives it some of that anarchic energy Adult Swim is known for, all hiding a surprisingly strong emotional throughline about a flawed but enduring family's efforts to chart their future. During an interview with Cbr, Royal Crackers Creator and star Jason Ruiz breaks down the biggest surprises he discovered across the show's first season,...

The following contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 224, "Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown, Part 3" by Gege Akutami, John Werry and Snir Aharon, available in English from Viz Media.

As of Jujutsu Kaisen Chapter 224, the world's strongest sorcerer, Gojo Satoru, has been exchanging blows with the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna. This is one of the most high-stakes brawls in the series thus far, and with so much on the line, Gojo simply must prevail. The sorcerer is proving himself a worthy opponent to the powerful ancient curse so far, but one crucial aspect is making their fight more difficult for him.

Sukuna's current vessel is Megumi Fushiguro, the boy Gojo has dedicated the last ten years to raising and mentoring. The two have a very close relationship, so the idea of hurting or even having to kill the teen weighs on Gojo. However, Megumi bears an incredible resemblance to his father,...

Shonen is arguably the most popular anime demographic of all time, with an expansive library of titles that cover a range of genres. Though shonen targets young boys, just about anyone can enjoy these occasionally sublime stories. The medium has evolved greatly over time, and often strays away from the typical heroic tales fans are so familiar with.

Related: The 10 Coolest Anime Guns, Ranked

The typical shonen series tends to end on a happy note, with the hero accomplishing their goals and making their dreams come true. However, not every shonen storyline gets wrapped up in a nice little bow. Many series end on a dark, depressing, or bittersweet note, serving as a harsh reminder that not every story has a positive outcome.

Updated on May 11th, 2023 by Ajay Aravind: A sizeable fraction of the Shonen genre includes very few deaths, although these shows contain copious amounts of violence and brutality.

As the buzz around Oshi no Ko's fame and success begins to taper off, some may wonder how it made anime history in the first place. The series' huge launch is certainly thanks to its unique premiere episode, which took on the vibe and duration of a feature film. Viewers already had their own expectations of what was coming, but they were subverted thanks to the honed skill of editing and pace.

As the trailers and synopses promised, Oshi no Ko follows the supernatural story about an ob-gyn doctor who is reincarnated as his favorite idol's child. With more nuance, meaning and heart than initially expected, the premiere showcases only the most important details. This decision to use a faster pace is part of a recent trend in anime that has grown increasingly popular and well-received over time. In fact, some of the most successful anime in recent years have...

While the most popular anime ideally conclude and get the same ending as the manga they're based on, not all shows get that privilege. Sometimes, fans are stuck waiting for years or indefinitely for an anime with only one season to be further adapted.

Related: 10 Anime Heroes More Evil Than Their Villains

An even smaller subsection of anime that never concluded is those with only one season. Some have great hope for a season 2, while others seem to have no hope at all and are stuck as one-season wonders that will never catch up to their beloved source material. It's a shame, as the shows often never reach the best parts of their story.

Kotaro Lives Alone

Kotaro Lives Alone is one of the best slice-of-life anime, as well as one of the most heart-wrenching. The story follows a young boy named Kotaro who moves into an apartment complex by...

Shonen series have been home to some of the greatest heroes of all time. No matter what genre they come from, shonen heroes are universally adored by fans and admired for their bravery and strength. However, it's no secret that some shonen heroes get more love than others.

Related: 15 Worst Shonen Couples In Anime, Ranked

As a result, a lot of amazing shonen heroes are severely underrated by fans. Many don't get much attention, and some are even forgotten over time. But despite it all, these overlooked heroes are still worthy of love and praise from fans.

Morgiana (Magi: The Labyrinth Of Magic)

Among the three main protagonists of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Morgiana is undoubtedly the most underrated. While it's easy to write her off as just another typical female lead in shonen, she has so much more to offer than that.

Unlike most shonen damsels, Morgiana has...

Hange Zoë is consistently one of the most interesting and well-written characters in Attack on Titan. Unlike the other members of the Survey Corps, Hange doesn't hate the Titans and strives to learn more about them, hinting at humanity's connection to the monstrosities from the very beginning of Attack on Titan. As Eren Jeager and the 104th Cadet Corps progress, Hange becomes more important to their efforts, eventually assuming the role of Commander of the Survey Corps.

Related: 20 Anime To Watch If You Love Attack On Titan

Hange is relatable in a way that few Attack on Titan characters are, due in large part to their affable personality and nerd-like obsession with Titan physiology. During their time in the series, they utters numerous memorable quotes, some of which perfectly capture the overwhelming struggle of their people.

Updated on May 11, 2023, by Kennedy King: Although the latest Attack on Titan special...

One Piece fans may not know what Netflix’s adaptation will look like, but they at least know how much of it they’re getting.

According to a Twitter post from popular One Piece news source One Piece Defender, the first season of the live-action series will consist of eight episodes, each running around one hour, with titles that hint at how quickly the show plans to move through the source material. While Episode 1 is understandably titled “Romance Dawn,” the fact that Episode 4 is titled “A Frog in the Well,” referencing Mihawk’s comments upon meeting Zoro over 20 episodes into the anime, is a sign the storytelling style fans can expect from Netflix’s adaptation. The post also included details about the show’s budget – which reportedly hovers around $100 million – as well as its plan to tackle Zoro’s three-sword style by inserting the third sword with CGI.

Related: Bleach...

Anime's shonen genre delivers action-packed and suspenseful storytelling that caters to younger male audiences. Shonen series frequently make up some of anime and manga's most successful properties; there's a level of comfort found in the tropes and formulaic ideas that accompany the popular genre.

Related: 20 Best Shonen Anime Tropes

The best shonen series understand how to subvert the expectations surrounding the genre, but certain stereotypes still entertain audiences and can be fun to explore. Shonen series can be guilty of egregious tropes that represent anime's worst habits. However, some stereotypes can become a shonen series' secret weapon when they're put to proper use.

A Former Villain Becomes A Trusted Ally

The various villains that strike in shonen series are typically ruthless enough that they're committed to killing the heroes rather than merely issuing a warning. Shonen protagonists are willing to reciprocate this level of violence and execute their enemies when it's necessary,...

Warning! Contains spoilers for Ginka & Glüna Chapter 26!

One Shonen Jump series is using flashbacks to defeat its ultimate villain in a genius way. That series is Ginka & Glüna by Shinpei Watanabe, which has put an innovative spin on a variety of classic Shonen tropes over its short time in serialization. Most recently, it has introduced Shonen Jump's ultimate antagonist Magaraka, who is too powerful to defeat through ordinary means.

In chapter 26, translated by Casey Loe, Glüna is finally taking the battle into her own hands. Since more typical magic has failed to affect Magaraka, she decides to use a dangerous forbidden magic to do the job. This magic enables her to use her happy memories as attacks at the price of forgetting them afterward. This works, forcing Magaraka to flee, but it also leaves Glüna a hollow shell, having forgotten all the happiness that Ginka brought into her life. It's...

In shonen anime, friendships are a key part of the story. The types of friendships usually depicted are between the male characters or the characters who cause more action-based or intense scenes to attract the male youth. Notable shonen friendships include Hinata and Kageyama from Haikyuu!! and Denji and Power from Chainsaw Man.

Related: 10 Anime Villains Who Just Want Friends

These friendships push the story forward, as the idea of a common struggle toward a similar goal is ideal and relatable in a situation that wouldn't usually be relatable. However, some friendships are overlooked in shonen series, as they either get overshadowed by the show's plot or are taken for granted, especially girl-girl friendships.

Levy & Lucy (Fairy Tail)

When Lucy first joined the Fairy Tail guild, one of the first friends she made was with one of the guild's literature enthusiasts, Levy. Beyond the first few seasons, there isn't much...

In the world of anime, fans tend to pay the most attention to a handful of specific genres. Shonen anime in particular has become incredibly popular over the last 20 years. There is a lot more to anime than shows centering on a violent journey of a ninja, or a competition in a ring. Slice-of-life and romance anime can often be overlooked by audiences, but Toradora! became very popular after its launch.

Related: 10 Best Anime Romances In Anime Not About Romance

Inspired by a light novel of the same name, it might not have a lot of sword fights or magical girls, but it does have a lot of heart as it traces Taiga and Ryuuji's path to finding love - though not in the place they initially expect. Amongst the 25 episodes, these have been rated the best thanks to Internet Movie Database users.

Author and screenwriter Colo Tavernier O’Hagan has passed away. France’s Institut Lumiére shared the news that the former wife and collaborator of Bertrand Tavernier died of cancer on June 13. A César Award winner for Tavernier’s 1984 drama Un Dimanche A La Campagne, she also worked with such filmmakers as Claude Chabrol and Pierre Granier-Deferre.

Among her credits are the screenplays for her then-husband’s Une Semaine De Vacances (1980), La Passion Béatrice (1987), Dirk Bogarde-starrer Daddy Nostalgia (1990) and L’Appat (1995) — the latter scooping Berlin’s top Golden Bear prize. She also provided the French translation for 1986’s multi award-winning jazz film ‘Round Midnight.

With Chabrol, she collaborated on 1988’s Une Affaire De Femmes and with Granier-Deferre on 1995’s Le Petit Garçon. Of Irish and Franco-Spanish origin, Tavernier O’Hagan also wrote for television and penned the 2013 book about words, Les Maux Des Mots.

Bertrand Tavernier said today, “Life had separated us,...

Any list of the greatest foreign directors currently working today has to include Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The directors first rose to prominence in the mid 1990s with efforts like “The Promise” and “Rosetta,” and they’ve continued to excel in the 21st century with titles such as “The Kid With A Bike” and “Two Days One Night,” which earned Marion Cotillard a Best Actress Oscar nomination.

Read MoreThe Dardenne Brothers’ Next Film Will Be a Terrorism Drama

The directors will be back in U.S. theaters with the release of “The Unknown Girl” on September 8, which is a long time coming considering the film first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016. While you continue to wait for their new movie, the brothers have provided their definitive list of 79 movies from the 20th century that you must see. La Cinetek published the list in full and is hosting many...

First-time Polish director Anna Zamecka watched many films in preparation for shooting her début feature, Komunia / Communion. Inspired by many works of both fiction and nonfiction, one in particular had an emotional impact. Nagisa Oshima’s Boy (Shonen) from 1969 is based on real events reported in Japanese newspapers at the time about Toshio Omura, a boy forced by a conniving father to participate in dangerous scams in order for him to stay with the family. While Zamecka’s young protagonist, Ola — a 12-year-old living with Marek, her alcoholic father, and Nikodem, her autistic brother, in a cramped and crumbling-down […]...

Confirmed titles include Måns Månsson’s Yarden [pictured] and Eiji Uchida’s Lowlife Love.

Film Fest Gent’s 43rd edition (Oct 11-21) is planning a focus on Nordic cinema and a spotlight on Japan.

Titles showing in the Nordic Focus include The Yard (Yarden) by Måns Månsson from Sweden, the Swedish/Norwegian/Danish drama A Serious Game by Pernilla August and Norwegian children’s film Solan & Ludwig: The Big Cheese Race by Rasmus A. Sivertsen.

“By dedicating our film programme to Nordic Cinema, we aim to show that strong, intelligent and moving drama from the countries of the Northern Lights is not restricted to crime literature and popular TV series, but can also be found in the present-day film production of the area,” said festival artistic director Patrick Duynslaegher.

“With movies that are not as heavy and dark as one might expect, filled with deadpan humor, psychological finesse, tantalizing sensuality, weird comedy and a heavy portion of social...

David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:

Three Resurrected Drunkards comes across as what Nagisa Oshima might have considered a breather in the midst of his insanely prolific run of the late 1960s. Cobbled together between his more ambitious projects Death by Hanging and Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, this is inarguably a minor work that probably has a bit more prominence than it otherwise deserves due to its inclusion in Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties, where it holds the virtue of injecting a bit more levity into what is an otherwise thematically hefty set.

Not that Three Resurrected Drunkards should be regarded as an altogether lightweight romp. The film follows a trio of three young men, in real life members of a Japanese pop group called The Folk Crusaders, who become victims of mistaken identity when their matching Beatle-esque outfits (circa Shea Stadium ’65) are...

Japanese film-maker best known for the sexually explicit In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, starring David Bowie

In a sense, it is unfortunate that the Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, who has died aged 80, was more infamous than famous, due to one film, In the Realm of the Senses (also known as Ai No Corrida, 1976). Although it was, for many, in the realms of pornography, the film was a serious treatment of the link between the political and the sexual, eroticism and death (previously dealt with in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris), and a breakthrough in the representation of explicit sex in mainstream art cinema. Like Bertolucci, Oshima was held and acquitted on an obscenity charge.

Based on a true cause célèbre, In the Realm of the Senses tells of a married man and a geisha, who retreat from the militarist Japan of 1936 into a world of their own,...

The renowned Japanese director, who died on 15 January, was best known for his explicit In the Realm of the Senses – but there was far more to his work than that. We take a look back at his career highlights

Reading on a mobile? Watch video clip here

After a short apprenticeship at the Shochiku film studio, Nagisa Oshima made his directorial debut aged 27 with A Town of Love and Hope in 1959, but it was his 1960 follow-up, Cruel Story of Youth, that propelled him to national attention. Drawing on techniques of the then-nascent European new waves, and striking a chord with its frustrated adolescent protagonists, Cruel Story hit a nerve in the roiling social mood of the early 60s.

Reading on a mobile? Watch video clip here

After his explicitly political Night and Fog in Japan (also 1960) was withdrawn by a nervous Shochiku, Oshima spent the next few years working in TV,...

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson 

Rating (out of 5): ***

The great Japanese director Nagisa Oshima is known for shaking up the quiet, stately Japanese cinema of the 1960s with his stories of youth, social realism, social critique, and even a bit of surrealism. His most notable titles from this period are arguably Boy (1969) and The Ceremony (1971), though none of his early films is well known in the West. Instead, Oshima is best known here for his pair of 1970s erotic arthouse hits, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) and Empire of Passion (1978). Though these movies put Oshima on the world map, many early fans consider them a diversion from Oshima's true talent.

This leads us to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), Oshima's follow-up to Empire of Passion, newly released via Criterion Collection. With the world's attention, he turned to this international production, based on an autobiographical novel by Afrikaner Laurens van der Post,...