Based on the manga by director Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira (1988) is regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements in anime filmmaking to date. Proving the potential of animation to tell adult stories, Akira represents a cultural and technological landmark that continues to inspire modern animators. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is […]
Archive for the ‘Anime’ Category
Gutiérrez, Tartakovsky and Chung celebrate “Akira” Anniversary Screening at Academy
November 12th, 2019 
Jerry Beck 
Posted in Anime, Events 
Tags: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo 
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INTERVIEW: Makoto Shinkai, Director, “Weathering With You”
November 5th, 2019 W.R. Miller It’s the summer of 2011. The long-range weather forecast for Tokyo is rain. And it’s not. Going to. Stop. Such is the sad state of affairs in Weathering With You, from Japanese director Makoto Shinkai. His previous work, Your Name, became the first anime not directed by Hayao Miyazaki to earn more than U.S. $100 […]
2019: A Sea Odyssey: An Interview with the Makers of “Children of the Sea”
October 31st, 2019 W.R. Miller As a young girl, Ruka Azumi had an amazing encounter with the sea life in her father’s aquarium, as they gathered and looked at her through the sea window. Years later, as a 14-year-old junior high student, she crosses paths with two boys, brothers, who are able to breathe and talk underwater, both raised by […]
INTERVIEW: Ji Zhau, Co-Director of “The White Snake”
October 28th, 2019 W.R. Miller Five hundred years ago in China, during the late Tang dynasty, the Dark General made people catch snakes that somehow energize him with supernatural power. The snake people—demons—don’t like this. So a beautiful young woman, Blanca, tries to assassinate him. She fails. Despite her martial arts prowess, she is subdued. She wakes in a remote […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Yu Yu Hakusho Ghost Files”
September 29th, 2019 Charles Solomon Like Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 14-year-old Yusuke Urameshi (Justin Cook), the hero of the brawling fantasy-adventure Yu Yu Hakusho (1992), is “a low-down cheap little punk.” He boasts that he’s the toughest kid in Sarayashki Junior High. He cuts classes and loves duking it out with other guys, especially with his red-haired […]
TRAILER: Fuminori Kizaki’s “Human Lost”
September 17th, 2019 Jerry Beck From the chief director of Psycho-Pass, the director of Afro Samurai, and the studio that brought you Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters comes the animated feature film Human Lost – Osamu Dazai’s masterpiece of Japanese literature re-imagined into a hyper-kinetic deep dive into human consciousness. Funimation Films will give Human Lost a limited theatrical release, […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Golden Kamuy: Season One”
September 10th, 2019 Charles Solomon Alternately ground-breaking, engaging and grisly, Golden Kamuy (2018) can be challenging to watch, but it’s difficult to ignore. Based on the 2014 manga by Satoru Noda, the story takes place near the end of the Meiji era (1868-1912). While serving in the 1st Division of the Imperial Army during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Saichi Sugimoto […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Cells at Work!”
September 4th, 2019 Charles Solomon Both upbeat and offbeat, Cells at Work! (2018) is a quirky fantasy series that may initially remind some viewers of Osmosis Jones (2001). But the program is lower key and much less hip: It feels closer to the old police drama “The Naked City”: “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has […]
GKids to Open “Promare” and “Another Day Of Life” in September
August 22nd, 2019 Jerry Beck Lest you thought GKids was sitting out Awards Season… They have two big pictures opening in September for Academy Award consideration. Raúl De La Fuente & Damian Nenow’s Another Day of Life will bow September 13th in both New York and Los Angeles. A week later, on September 20th, the distributor will open Studio Trigger’s […]
ANIME REVIEW: Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Part 2
August 8th, 2019 Charles Solomon Cardcaptor Sakura (1996) probably ranks as the best and best-loved work by the four-woman artists’ collective, Clamp. A textbook magical girl adventure, the animated series debuted in 1998 and ran for 70 episodes, followed by two features and an OVA. A rather timid 4th grader who lived with her older brother Toya and their widowed […]
Charles Solomon on Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” – 20 Years Later
July 17th, 2019 Charles Solomon Twenty years ago, I met Hayao Miyazaki for the first time. Princess Mononoke was his first film to receive a major US release, and my editors at the LA Times let me do a profile of him. We met at a hotel in West Hollywood; we sat at a garden table where he was free […]
ANIME REVIEW: “Sound! Euphonium: The Movie – Our Promise: A Brand New Day”
July 10th, 2019 W.R. Miller Imagine an animated feature with no explosions. No fart gags. No giant robots pummeling each other. No wacky talking animals. Instead, we have a movie anchored in the real world, a slice-of-life story of high school students practicing their musical instruments, all the while wrestling with issues of self esteem. The biggest threat? Losing a […]
Katsuhiro Otomo Announces New Film “Orbital Era” and New Anime Adaptation of “Akira”
July 4th, 2019 Jerry Beck Sunrise Inc. has announced plans to produce a new animated sci-fi feature film entitled Orbital Era. The film will be directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, one of the most celebrated and influential Japanese creators in the world. The joint announcement by Director Katsuhiro Otomo, Makoto Asanuma (president of Sunrise Inc.) and Yasumasa Tsuchiya (producer at Sunrise […]
Gkids Acquires Studio Trigger’s “Promare”
June 13th, 2019 Jerry Beck GKIDS announced today it has acquired the North American distribution rights for the animated feature Promare. GKIDS will release the film theatrically in both Japanese and an all new English language version starting in September. This marks the first feature film from Studio TRIGGER, founded by former studio Gainax animator and director Hiroyuki Imaishi, whose […]
GKids Aquires Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You”
May 24th, 2019 Jerry Beck GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced it has acquired North American distribution rights for the animated feature Weathering With You, the new film from director Makoto Shinkai and producer Genki Kawamura, whose previous film Your Name set box office records in Japan and around the world ($360 […]
