What’s inside the Abyss? It’s a giant hole in the middle of an island, thousands of feet deep. It beckons explorers and fortune-seekers to build a city around it, for within its depths are valuable relics—and monsters. Those who dare to retrieve the relics are known as “cave raiders.” Some are orphaned children, exploited by […]

GKIDS today announced it has acquired the North American distribution rights for the animated feature Children Of The Sea. GKIDS will release the film theatrically in both Japanese and English language versions. The film is the latest feature from Japan’s STUDIO4°C (known for Tekkonkinkreet, MFKZ, Mind Game, Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight, and others), and is […]

When Cowboy Bebop concluded in 1998, viewers waited eagerly to see what Shinichiro Watanabe would do next. After directing two short films for the anthology feature The Animatrix in 2003, he released the broadcast series Samurai Champloo in 2004. It was worth the wait. Although it was a science fiction series about a “space cowboy”/bounty […]

In the first two minutes of Anime-Gataris (literally “Talking about Anime,” 2017), the filmmakers offer a hilarious send-up of Gundam, Sailor Moon and the component series of Robotech. If the rest of the show never quite meets that admittedly impressive bar, it’s still very silly, very meta and a great big inside joke for anime […]

Fresh off winning Best Independent Animated Feature at last Saturday’s Annie Awards, Mirai writer/director Mamoru Hosoda is heading to the Oscars. This visionary film is a well-deserved Best Animated Feature nominee. Mirai was my favorite animated film of last year – and #2 on my 10 Best Films of 2018 list. When I told this […]