The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Funimation: $64.98, 5 discs, (4 Blu-ray and one DVD) Despite the series title, Haruhi Suzumiya (Wendee Lee) is hardly melancholy. She’s one of the prettiest girls in her high school, but also the strangest and the loudest. Haruhi dismisses normal people as “boring” (“What kind of fun does a ‘normal’ […]

GKIDS has released its US trailer for Miss Hokusai, the latest feature from Japanese animation powerhouse Production I. G. (Ghost In The Shell, A Letter To Momo). The NY-based distributor will release the film on October 14th in New York and Los Angeles prior to a North American expansion. The film by renowned director Keiichi […]

GKIDS has announced it has acquired distribution rights to Miss Hokusai, the latest feature from Japanese animation powerhouse Production I. G. (Ghost In The Shell, A Letter To Momo). The film by renowned director Keiichi Hara (Colorful) took home the Jury Prize at the Annecy Film Festival, swept the top jury and audience awards at […]

When Chiyo Sakura (Juliet Simmons), the heroine of the broadcast series Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (2014), awkwardly tries to confess her love to classmate Umetaro Nozaki (Ty Mahany), she mistakenly says “I’m your fan!”–and he responds by giving her an autograph from a special pad. Nozaki is tall, handsome and terminally clueless; he’s also the creator […]

Although he had worked as an animator and director on numerous TV series and three “Digimon” features, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was the first film to showcase Mamoru Hosoda’s talent as a director. If you were to ask her, Makoto Konno (Emily Hirst) would say she regards herself as a normal high school […]

The Japanese pop music industry is famous–or infamous–for manufacturing pop groups that become the flavor of the month, then quickly fade from view. Shonen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49 (2014) offers a mildly upbeat look at the phenomenon.