There’s been a lot of bad news and vibes around the US anime industry recently – with some rather major players taking a hit – but for once here in the UK things seem to be ticking over quite happily. Sure we might be a few months behind our American cousins, but judging by the amount of screeners and press releases that have been jamming up my mailbox over the last month it looks like the UK distributor’s schedules show no easing up at the moment. It’s certainly more than I can review in detail before they hit shops, so in the first of what will be a regular feature here’s a run down of stuff that’s due to drop next month – keep an eye on the site over the next few weeks for more in-depth analysis of the pick of the crop.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0

UK release date: 26th October

The big one next month – the UK finally gets it’s hands on the controversial visually over-hauled version of Oshii’s 1995 cyberpunk classic. The DVD screener I was sent had no extras on it, so I’ll hold off until I get my Bluray copy before commenting on the UK release any further – but I will say that the transfer looked great, though I’m still not sure it is enough to dispel my reservations about the changes I raised when reviewing the Japanese Bluray back in January. Stay tuned though, as well as for my imminent look at the Innocence Bluray release. Now, where’s Sky Crawlers?

X The Series – Volume 1

UK release date: 5th October

The other big UK release this October, and long-overdue, is the 2001 TV series based on CLAMP’s legendary demographic defying manga X. It’s been years since I watched the 1996 anime movie based on the same franchise, but i might have to go and grab the DVD of the shelf again, as from first glance the series seems to outstrip that production in terms of visual brilliance – a rare and unusual achievement for a TV show. It certainly captures the manga’s unique (at the time, at least) blend of ornate shōjo visuals and seinen violence, and as such will be one I’ll be examining in much more detail over the coming weeks when I’ve had time to sit down and spend some quality time with it.

Devil May Cry – Complete Series

UK release date: 19th October

My only previous encounter with the Devil May Cry franchise was the first game on the PlayStation 2 several years ago – the stylish, violent, gothic brawler now spawning an anime series that seems to be…erm, a stylish, violent, gothic brawler. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – at first glance Madhouse seem to have hit the nail on the head when it comes to catching the spirit of the game – this is over-stylised, action-packed slightly emo looking exploitation anime at it’s most colourful. I’m interested in how it’ll look on Bluray, and hopefully I’ll it will be fun for the same reasons I enjoyed the game – just minus the occasionally tedious jumping puzzles. Check back next week for a full review.

Claymore – Volumes 5 & 6

UK release date: 12th October

I have to admit, Claymore is one of those shows I probably should have seen but never got round to it. Another Madhouse production, like Devil May Cry it’s yet more stylised violence and demon slaying, but clearly with a little more going on under the hood plot-wise. Certainly coming in at Volume 5 made it a bit hard to follow, but that’s probably a good sign, and the frenetic, over the top sword fights seem like fun. I particularly enjoyed the deep, washed out palette and the soundtrack that seemed to mix up metal riffs, drum and bass breaks and, erm, free-form jazz drumming. Yeah, really.

Bleach – Series 4, Part 1
Naruto Unleashed – Series 7, Part 2

UK release date: 26th October

Ahh, Bleach and Naruto, with your hyperactive but angst-ridden, teen samurai’s and bratty ninjas, will your stories never end? Will your protagonists ever finally come-of age? I’m no fan of either colossal franchise, but then I’m hardly the target demographic – and if you are a fan, then you’ve probably got both these new collections marked in your school planner already. So enjoy. Who the hell am I – some miserable old geezer – telling you what you should be watching anyway? Yeah, like, whatever.

Genius…I’m speechless.

UPDATED: Displaying a staggering sense of humour fail, Ghibli have told Youtube to pull the video. Shame. Seems some people still don’t get this whole internet marketing thing yet. Ah well.

UPDATED AGAIN: And it is back – thanks to NoDeath below in the comments, who has found the video hosted elsewhere. Good work man!

Long time readers may recall my girlfriend’s love for making things Totoro related – including my Valentines Day card and some Halloween pumpkins – and after a busy few months she finally got round to adding something new to the list. These Totoro cupcakes where made for a little friend of ours – a four year old fledgling Ghibli fanatic – who broke her arm right at the begining of the summer break. Look great don’t they? Trust me, they actually tasted even better. More pics after the jump.

If you are based in the US, and have even just a passing interest in anime or Ghibli films, the chances are you’ve already seen Ponyo over the weekend, it having opened nationwide on Friday. Sadly us poor Brits have got to wait until February, but even before that news broke, I had managed to get hold of a copy of the recently released Japanese DVD. The DVD has an English subtitle track, and I’ve referred to the film here with it’s full Japanese title in order to clarify that this is not a review of the Disney produced dub – it’s not just me being pretentious, for once. With some unprecedented self control I held off watching it for a few weeks, in the vain hope that we would get a theatrical release date shortly after America’s – the irony being that if I’d watched it immediately then this review could have been a little more of a scoop. As it is it’s being published the week that half the internet has been buzzing about Ponyo, it’s become a trending topic on Twitter, and every anime blogger in the world is giving their opinions on the film. In fact, the coverage has been so over-whelming these last few days that I considered skipping writing this at all – but looking back at how much coverage I had given the film since it’s first announcement it seemed wrong not to present my thoughts, even if only for little bit of personal closure.

For Miyazaki Ponyo marks – in many ways – a return to earlier roots. His last two features – Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle – not only dealt with far more complicated plots and a wider roster of characters, but were aimed at an older, more mature primary audience. Ponyo, as a simple fairy tale or fable, harks back to his older works such as My Neighbour Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service, and as such has no pretensions to be anything more than a children’s film. It tells the tale of five year old boy Sosuke, who one day finds a small goldfish swept in from sea, whom he decides to take home and name Ponyo. But, of course, this isn’t any normal goldfish – Ponyo is in fact the daughter of an eccentric wizard and an aquatic goddess, so her disappearance doesn’t go unnoticed, and her irate father finds her and brings her back home. Ponyo, so enchanted with Sosuke and the human world, escapes again and uses her magic to transform herself into a little girl, but while doing so unwittingly unleashes destructive powers that threaten the very existence of the world.

It’s not just the plot, however, that sees Miyazaki-san returning to simpler times – as frequently mentioned in the pre-release hype Ponyo was completely hand drawn, marking the closing of Ghibli’s short lived computer graphics department. Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first – Ponyo is a Ghibli movie, and as such is never less than stunning visually. The character work is, as always, immaculate. The background art – again featuring the masterful work of Kazuo Oga – is breathtaking at times. From the very first scenes the screen is teaming with life and detail, so much so that it feels that no number of repeat viewings will let you absorb everything that is happening on screen. But above all there is one element of the film’s animation that everyone will be talking about – and quite rightly so – the depiction of water and and the ocean. In Ponyo’s world it appears that all water has an inherent magical power, and as storms rage and the sea levels rise it seems to be able to simultaneously take many forms – from strange amorphous blob-like creatures to huge powerful fish – whilst always somehow retaining the distinctive motion and qualities that define it as water. Animating the sea realistically is a famously hard task, but here the Ghibli team do it in a way that seems not only effortless, but both natural and fantastical at the same time. Most surprising to me was the constant references to traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e art – every time we see a wave on screen we make out the lines and feel the energy of Hokusai’s great wave, every time the water takes a fish form it feels like, for maybe just a split second, that we are looking at an ancient wood block print of huge yet graceful carp. It’s as if Miyazaki is aiming to make a point about his rejection of technology by taking us back to anime and manga’s true visual roots. Elsewhere he references his own works, most notably when Sosuke’s mother’s tiny car hurtles along perilous cliff edges it is impossible to not be reminded of the famous, exhilarting car chase from The Castle of Cagliostro, and when the same car disappears over the hilly horizon at night, projecting headlights into the sky, it is a distinct visual nod to Totoro’s Catbus doing the very same. Miyazaki has always had cinematic riffs and effects that he has used as unmistakable signatures, but it is hard to feel here that with Ponyo he is making a more deliberate point; a desire, perhaps, that he wishes to return to simpler times.

Whiile there has been unfaltering praise for Ponyo’s art, the discussions across Twitter and the anime blogging community have thrown up a few doubts and questions about the films plot and narrative. Miyazaki’s decision to go with a simple, child friendly fairy tale of a story has raised some concerns that the film lacks his usual thematic depth or sub-text, but after the luxury of a second viewing this criticism seems, to me at least, more than a little unfair. Ponyo on a Cliff is teaming with ideas, from it’s more obvious environmental message through to reflections on Miyazaki’s own personal views and experiences of family life.

While the uniting of Ponyo and Sosuke is clearly meant to illustrate a need for mankind to get back in touch with nature – a common and recurring them in Miyazaki’s works – it also seems to be part of an almost Aesop style fable about how love can conquer over physical and cultural differences. This perhaps best shown in the scenes where Ponyo’s power wanes and she finds herself regressing into strange, almost grotesque, simple looking half-fish/half-human form. Even as we see her flopping around with strange, almost deformed looking limbs – quite literally like a fish out of water – this alien appearance is never enough to stop the devotion of the innocent Sosuke, whose pure love sees past her scales-deep appearances. In another scene we see Ponyo encountering a couple with a small baby who are stranded in a boat by the rising floods – Ponyo attmpts to give the baby food, and instead the mother explains that the infant can’t eat the ham she has given them, but that the mother can eat it to produce breast milk. It is a scene that has resulted in some commentators claiming it is a bizarre or unsuitable inclusion for a children’s film, but it is in Ponyo’s brilliantly rendered reaction to the infant and mother that the scene’s real purpose is conveyed. In some of the best character expression work seen in anime for years, we see how Ponyo finds herself – even in her human form – to be wholly different from the humans she yearns to live amongst – staring at the baby child she sees something she has never been and will never experience, but is common and natural to all other humans. While certainly an unusual scene at first, it’s an exquisitely drawn and assembled piece of emotion laden animation, and a pivotal moment in the film’s thematic narrative.

Elsewhere the film examines modern family life, and in particular seems to focus on the directors own personal experiences. Apparently an open and conscious aim of Miyazaki’s script (although Miyazaki has recently denied this, the film deals with his relation with his son and reluctant Tales of Earthsea director Goro. Both father and son have openly talked and written about how their relationship has been strained, primarily due to Hayao not spending much time at home during Goro’s childhood, and the same situation is true for Sosuke and his father. The latter works out at sea, and in one of the films most memorable and subtly beautiful scenes we see father, via morse code light flashes, that yet again he won’t be home for dinner. Even then, the real message of the scene seems to be less one of regret, and more of understanding – and intended less for Goro but for Miyazaki’s long suffering wife Akime. As we watch Sosuke’s mother freak out and vent her frustrations at being left alone again, it is clear that Miyazaki is nodding in his wife’s direction, recognising the sacrifice she made – she once also had a career as a promising animator – to stay at home and raise their children. It is perhaps the longest running contradiction of Miyazaki’s frequent use of strong, female leads – and here Lisa’s character seems to reflect some of his guilt for that, showing that a housewife can easily be just as gutsy, strong-headed and dynamic as any of his previous, adventurous protagonists.

A recent discussion with Scott Green also raised some concern’s with me about Miyazaki’s dealing with family life; Scott suggesting that the director’s values may clash with that of modern parents in certain fundamental ways. One of the things that nearly all Miyazki’s films have emphasized over the decades – the best examples being perhaps Kiki’s Delivery Service and Spirited Away – is his belief that children should take on sometimes quite arduous responsibilities at a relatively early age. Ponyo takes this to another extreme, not only putting the safety of the Earth on a five-year-old’s shoulders (something, that in itself, is not necessarily that unusual in a child’s fantasy-adventure story), but having him do so by making what appears to be a lifetime romantic commitment. It’s certainly a jarring idea for most modern parents, and I can’t help but think that perhaps Miyazaki’s real intention was this act to be something more innocent, again similar to a fairy tale or fable ending. If it fails to communicate this adequately then the script and direction are certainly to blame, but it also highlights another, ironic, problem that Miyazaki’s work often faces. It is probably an issue unique to western audiences, and it’s a strange thing to write, but sometimes Ghibli animation is sometimes too good, the motion too realistic, and the attention to detail too perfect. To un-Japanese viewers, who largely still associate animated features with Disney, a Ghibli film is perhaps confusing in the way it combines realism with the fairy tale. While mainstream audiences are used to watching realistically portrayed Hollywood fantasy and science fiction, when they think of true fairy and folk tales they associate it with stylised, cartoon-like animation, and even that seems to be a dying trend in America. Maybe, due to their unfamiliar production values and blend of the fantastic and realistic, Miyazaki-san’s films send a confused message to the mainstream US public? Or is blaming this on the old cliche of ‘cultural differences’ a cop out answer? Hopefully, Ponyo will be seen by enough people that wider reaction can be gauged, and we can see if this is really an issue at all.

Not that any of this distracts from the honest truth: Ponyo is a breathtaking, compelling and massively enjoyable film. It is easily his strongest work since Spirited Away, and easily but sadly puts his son’s misfiring Tales of Earthsea to shame. Being able to watch it on repeatedly at home is fantastic, but right now I’m more eager than ever to see it on the big screen. Partly because I’m intrigued and excited to see what sort of job Disney have done with the big-name dub – and I know some tiny little people that can’t read subtitles yet that will enjoy the hell out of it – but mainly because this is a movie that demands to be viewed on the biggest screen possible. If you are lucky enough to be living somewhere where Ponyo is playing, then turn off the computer and go now. Go, not just to show your support for anime theatrical releases, but also to have one hell of a time. You won’t regret it.

Special thanks to everyone on Twitter that’s discussed this movie with me, and in particular Scott Green of Aint it Cool Anime and Scott VonShilling of Anime Almanac.

If you’ve been lucky you may have missed – buried away amongst all the other media hype and internet buzz – the controversy over Disney’s decision to re-record the Ponyo theme tune. I first found out about it over at The Ghibli Blog, and I have to say I was pretty shocked. The original is a cheerful, simple nursery rhyme sung by a child – reminiscent in many ways of the My Neighbour Totoro ending theme – and always makes me smile when I hear it, if for nothing more than it reminds of visiting Japan last year, where it was still being played wherever you went.

It’s hard to imagine a piece of music more suited to the children’s fairy tale that is Ponyo, but apparently Disney reckon they can. And that involves taking the original, speeding it up and drenching it in bad synth riffs, generic beats and – shudder – auto tune vocals. The song has been re-recorded by Disney engineered celebrity fetuses Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas – who also provide the voices for the two child protagonists on the English, and according to most reports do a great job with the script, despite being so recently ejected from the Mouse’s secret talent-birthing lab. Don’t get me wrong – I can understand why Disney have made this move – as an attempt to introduce Ponyo to their legions of pre-pubescent fans – but the manner the have gone about it seems ill-advised, and the result like the punchline to a tired, unfunny joke. Sure, the song needed translating for the dub – but could it have not retained it’s original production style?

You can check out both the versions below and make up your own mind, but coincidentally I was reading Miyazaki’s essay collection Starting Point: 1979-1996yesterday and found this quote – from his production plan for Totoro, written in 1986 – that seems hugely appropriate:

Animation theme songs are frequently used to promote pop idols. This may be trendy, but these singers lack vocal ability, and the current narrow range of song stylings does not capture the hearts of children.

What children long for are songs that they can sing by opening their mouths wide and raising their voices.

Hmm. Interesting. I wonder if Disney COO, Ponyo dub producer and Miyazaki fanatic John Lasseter has read that? I’d hope so, as it’s from a book he wrote the foreword for.

One of the most common misconceptions about us Brits is that we don’t indulge in displays of emotion. It’s not true – in fact it’s a trait limited only to our gangly, socially-inept ruling classes – you know, the ones we would have eradicated if we’d had a proper revolution – and spread around the world by the constant stream of Jane Austen adaptations we shit out and the inexplicable popularity of ’stars’ like Hugh Grant. Anyway. I can assure you right now I am displaying emotions – several in fact – but actually the dominate one is so typically British. It’s disappointment.

Some news was circulating this week about about the UK release date for Miyazaki’s Ponyo and frankly, it was such bad news that I had to get it confirmed myself. A quick email to distributors Optimum – who have the license for Ghibli product in the UK, not Disney – triggered this response and my worst fears:

Hi Tim,

Ponyo will be released in cinemas nationwide on February 5th 2010. The DVD will be released in mid June 2010. Whether or not it will be released on Blu-ray is yet to be confirmed.

Many thanks.

Best wishes,

Nice Optimum PR Person

February? And no UK DVD until June next year? Ouch.

Hugely disappointing, especially as us poor Ghibli-loving limeys have been soaking up all the hype about the film and Miyazaki’s appearances in the US. Not that I’m blaming Optimum for this – I have no knowledge of the behind the scenes legal, economic and political dealings that have lead to this decision – plus they have always provided first class products with all their previous Ghibli releases. In fact – unlike Disney – as they have no fear of releasing un-dubbed versions, we actually have had some titles released over here that have yet to surface in the US – Tales of Earthsea and Only Yesterday being two great examples. The flip side is that the ones that Disney do want to honor with a dub seem to be delayed, as though we’re getting the Mouse’s second pickings. Like I say, I can’t claim to know the in and outs of whats happening behind the scenes, but it does leave a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth.

As for the DVD release date, well that just seems like an unfeasibly long way off. Presumably it’ll be out on DVD in the US by year end, and most likely on Bluray too. Either way, it doesn’t seem like a particular helpful delay for an industry trying to fight off internet piracy. I’ve actually got hold of a copy of the Japanese DVD release, but was holding off watching it, hoping that I’d be able to see it at the cinema first. As you can imagine I’m not waiting until February now, so that’s something to do this weekend. Look out next week for a full review.

With the English language release of Ponyo imminent, and his recent promotional and speaking visit to the US causing a stir, there’s no denying that there’s a buzz around Hayao Miyazaki at the moment. And it’s a buzz that’s not just getting the attention of anime fans, but also grabbing the interest of the wider mainstream media and audiences – something that is, arguably, long overdue. As such it’s either luck or great timing that Manga Entertainment have just released Panda! Go Panda! on DVD here in the UK, and while it’s been out in the US for several years, this was the first time I’d had a chance to sit down and watch this early chapter in Miyazaki-san’s career.

Made in 1972, to cash in on Japanese ‘Panda madness’ spawned by the arrival of some of the cuddly beasts from China for a breeding program, Panda! Go Panda! was actually directed by Ghibli co-founder and genius in his own right Isao Takahata (Only Yesterday, Grave of the Fireflies). Miyazaki wasn’t slacking on the project though; he wrote the script, designed the characters, drew the storyboards as well as doing some keyframe animation on the film. Script wise there’s nothing too exciting here; it’s a simple kids story about young girl Mimiko, who is living alone while her grandma is away, and lets two panda’s move into the house with her. Unsurprisingly, hilarity and chaos ensues. Like I said, nothing groundbreaking, but it was popular enough with the Japanese public – as pandas still were, presumably – to warrant a sequel a few months later. Both are on this disk, with a combined running time of about 75 minutes.

So the story might not be some of Miyazaki’s finest work, but the character designs – while also not his best – are undeniably his. Any fan catching just a glimpse of the two pandas will instantly see how they were a blueprint for the Totoros, and similarly Mimiko herself seems to be a precursor to the redheaded Mei of the same film. She also bears some similarities to Pippi Longstocking – a character that Miyazaki is reportedly a fan of, and who had unsucessfully tried to get the rights for just prior to making Panda! Go Panda!. But it is the similarities with Totoro that shine through – to see the Pandas smile, and to see Mimiko jump up and hug Poppa Panda will make Totoro fans grin with joy, and for them is probably reason enough to pick up the film. The quality of the animation throughout is pretty good, and although it lacks the sophistication of later Miyazaki and Takahata works like Future Boy Conan it’s still arguably better than a lot of the mass produced anime of that period. Plus it’s worth remembering what this is – not some undiscovered Ghibli classic, but an apparently hastily thrown together, opportunistic anime special meant to cash in on a passing fad. As such, the fact that it’s still as charming as it is to watch is yet more testament to the duo’s unique and lasting talents.

Manga Entertainment have put together a nice product with this disk – the packaging is bold and bright, with the reverse of the cover made up of a huge image of a grinning Poppa Panda, just in case you still hadn’t noticed the similarity with Totoro’s smile. Plus there’s a warning that it ‘contains one scene of smoking’, just in case you had forgotten this was a Miyazaki film. As for the contents themselves – well, the quality of the transfer is great, remarkable even for a film of it’s age. There’s both English and Japanese audio tracks, with the dub being of surprisingly good quality – even if Poppa Panda sounds strangely like Rainier Wolfcastle at times. The extras section is a little disappointing – the main thing of interest being the original Japanese title sequence, that apart from the text isn’t that different from the English version, to be honest. Apart from that there’s just a couple of those slighty pointless text only biographies – but really, expecting anything else for a for this old and obscure is perhaps a little unrealistic. Somehow I don’t think making interesting DVD extras was really top of Miyazaki and Takahata’s priorities back in 1972 as they struggled to get their early careers off the ground.

So should you pick this disk up? If you’re a hardcore Ghibli fanatic like myself, keen to see what these two geniuses where doing before they were famous then yes: Panda! Go Panda! is an unmissable purchase, especially as it can be picked up fairly cheaply. Similarly, if you’ve got young children that enjoy the likes of Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service, this offers you another – perhaps slightly less challenging – option for keeping them entertained. Just be warned that if they do take a liking to it, and insist on watching it over and over again, the theme tune (see below) may well drive you insane.

Regular readers will know about my fanatical love for the animated works of Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers), but they might not realize how much I also bug-out for his live action films. His last feature length work Avalon came out in 2001, and became an instant favourite in my household, the film getting played so much by me and my better half that we nearly wore out the DVD. Which is a good thing, considering how much I paid to import it from Japan. Anyway, with that in mind you can imagine how excited I got today when the first details were announced about his latest work, due to hit Japanese cinemas in December.

Assault Girls is a sci-fi action film about three female hunters battling huge ’sand whales’ in a desert setting, the costume design and themes obviously referencing another great love of mine; Frank Herbert’s Dune. Anime News Network has some more details:

Elsewhere, as part of promotion for both the Sky Crawlers Blu-ray/DVD release and the cinema release of his latest project, Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, the usually shy and quiet Oshii has been making far more media media appearances then normal. Akibanana sat down with him and talked about the new release:

Check out the full interview here, and keep an eye on this site – as always I’ll be bringing you news and details on all Oshii’s projects as soon as I get them.

More sad news about a terrible loss to the anime industry – one of it’s true legends and artists Yoshinori Kanada passed away yesterday, after suffering a heart attack at the age of just 57. After making a name for himself in the 1970s working on sci-fi and giant-robo series, he eventually ended up at Studio Ghibli, working closely with Hayao Miyazaki on such monumental works as My Neighbour Totoro, Porco Rosso and Princess Mononoke among many others, and his face will be familiar to anyone that’s sat enthralled watching the extras on Ghibli DVDs. His work was so distinctive and influential that ‘the Kanada style’ became a term commonly used by Japanese animators, and if you want to see just a tiny selection from his massively impressive CV check out the report over at Anime News Network.

This is truly a devastating loss for the industry and fans worldwide. My best wishes and thoughts go out to his friends and family.

I’m off on my travels again – not Japan this time, but the sun soaked Socialist republic of to Havana. Ten days of snorkelling, rum, fat Cuban cigars and blissfully internet free chilling awaits me. As a result there will be no updates here for a while – and my ninja-like accomplice Flotsky will be moderating comments here – and I’ll reply to them all when I get back. Apologies in advance.

But just as I’m leaving this town, I thought I’d leave you will with a little bit of homegrown goodness. As if Rory Doona and a certain well known anime blog weren’t enough evidence that Bristol is the anime culture epicenter of the UK, here’s a fantastic bit of giant Mecha CGI work from local artist Justin Dowling. Enjoy.

truth tv – giant bipedal weaponised military unit from Justin Dowling on Vimeo.