A couple of quick news updates for you: this Sunday (May 3rd) sees the annual Sci-Fi London Film Festival’s annual Anime All Nighter swing into action – highlights this year being a showing of the controversial Ghost in the Shell 2.0, and – most interestingly – a very rare screening of a little film from 1972 called Panda! Go, Panda!
The first thing about Shinji Aramaki’s Viper’s Creed to grab my attention when scanning through last season’s schedules was that it is a mecha series that deals with life within a Blackwater style Private Military Company, or PMC. Set in the crumbling, flooded Fort Davia, a fictitious city attempting to rebuild itself after the devastation of global warming and a subsequent world war, it follows a squad of ‘Blademen’ – mecha pilots employed initially by Arqon Global Security (AGS) to defend the city from rogue, discarded automated weapons. However, as the plot unfolds events become far more complex, with the main characters finding themselves embroiled in conspiracy and the object of hatred from a dissatisfied public.
If you haven’t seen The Girl That Leapt Through Time then you need to rectify that immediately; the film is one of the most charming and skillfully made anime movies of the last few years. Excitingly the film’s director Mamoru Hosoda and screenwriter Satoko Okudera have a new project launching in Japan this year – Summer Wars. According to Anime News Network…
According to on-line store CD Japan, Miyazaki’s latest Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is being released on DVD (and VHS, charmingly) on July 3rd, with the DVD also including an English subtitle track. Excellent news for European importers, and those in the US with region-free players.
It’s the same old story: too much anime, not enough time. The new spring season kicks off in Japan this week, and here I am still trying to catch up with last season’s offerings. Well at least I can save myself – and maybe you – some time; this month’s first episodes round up features two shows I might watch more of and two I’ll shortly be dragging to the trash can. Still, that’s not to say you might not enjoy them.
