Fernando Ramos is Editor-in-Chief of Anime3000.com. Hailing from beautiful San Diego, California, his incurable addiction to cartoons has led him to his current residence of Saitama, Japan, where staying up late winter nights editing articles only reminds him that SD would never get this cold. An avid photography and video fan, he also produces occasional videos and he also writes the photography/rant column Japan Jumble for the site. Find him as Saitamarama on Flickr and HelloNavi on Twitter.

Anticipation for Assault Girls has been mixed, to say the least. While it has Mamoru Oshii on the marquee line and implications of being a follow-up to 2001’s brain-teaser Avalon, most fans (like myself) were skeptical about just how utterly mainstream everything looked. Dune “inspired” sandworms and gals with fetish-tastic outfits packing heavy firepower to blow them up are fun and all, but it just lacks the depth and psychology by way of sociopolitics that drenches Oshii’s work and makes it stand out from the glut of countless Japanese-girls-with-guns pieces. It didn’t help matters that the previous two shorts that form the basis of Assault Girls were little more than flashy (and hilarious) action set-pieces with, you guessed it, hot girls.

However, the aforementioned shorts were virtually devoid of any context. We barely knew who our characters were or what they were after besides one last bite of KFC. It was boom-boom-bang-bang night after day and roll credits. This left Oshii open to take the characters in virtually any direction he so wished; and boy did he ever.

Simply put, he shoehorns all the chaos of the shorts into the timeline of his previous live-action film, Avalon. A lengthy voice-over prologue explains (in many big words) to us in no uncertain terms what that goulash was all about: capitalism had reached it’s brink due to our technological advances and society has been pushed to its logical limit. Now we are in the age of Pax Technologica: in short, a world-wide Neo-Communism. Having settled fanboy arguments over just what parts of Avalon actually did happen, we find that the Avalon game has also gotten itself some upgrades since the days of Polish MMORPGers, now seeming to run on Windows Vista instead of Commie-DOS.

Also of note is that, where Avalon was constantly jumping between and blurring the line between the real world and the online one, here we are firmly in the virtual. Outside of a few select throwaway lines and a single scene lasting less than a minute, there is little suggestion of there being a world outside the game. When Avalon was first released in 2001, World of Warcraft was in its infancy, Google was just a search engine and Wikipedia had just begun to be noticed. Humanity was still able to exist disconnected. Things have changed. “We are wired and there’s no getting out now,” is what Oshii seems to be saying. Furthermore, instead of the overexposed yellow slosh over everything in the previous film, Assault Girls opts to merely mute all but the loudest colors if to acknowledge that that the binary may well be just as just tangible as the physical.

Similarly, the tone of the film is much more colorful than the somber Avalon, at times having more in common with Takashi Miike or Quentin Tarantino than with the man who brought us Ghost in the Shell. Characters are introduced with campy still-frame title cards and the furious fun of the action screams for a wild saxophone score instead of the Kenji Kawai mood-synth that does. As icing on the cake, the film is separated into pretentiously titled chapters, Kill Bill-style.

In fact, despite writing the script himself in lieu of his frequent collaborator Kazunori Ito, this is probably Oshii’s least “Oshii” work since Beautiful Dreamer. Basset hounds are nowhere in sight (we do get dogs, but more on that later), the fisheye lenses are put in storage and, prologue notwithstanding, the movie is, much like the trailer promised, mostly concerned with hot chicks blowing shit up real good, visually if not thematically. The three leads jump, run and gun with beauty and grace. While Meisa Kuroki makes for a foxy heroine in her skin-tight rear-accentuating battle gear, it is Babel beauty Rinko Kikuchi as the cute mute mage Lucifer who steals the show for this reviewer. She gets no dialogue beyond a few dubbed-over crow calls (don’t ask), her Harajuku-influenced attire and playful ethereal dancing had my and my equally silent fellow theatre-goers’ full attention.

Yet beyond the absurdity lies a subversive shadow. Oshii has never been beyond playing with the audience. This is the man who threw Hitler and Christ into Urusei Yatsura for crying out loud. The most noticeable of these subversions lies with the fact that we have an all-Japanese cast speaking English. It is well-written modern English peppered with slang, but the performances are stilted and frequently garbled by a Sky Crawlers-esque static filter. However, unlike that film, it is not a mere atmospheric flourish. Here, it is made apparent that this is a rule imposed by the game: only English is permitted with “local languages” being verboten.

It doesn’t take a political science major to see the subtext of political subjugation via linguistics. Sealing the deal is the abundance of Japanese symbology in the landscape of Avalon(f): a statue of Ninomiya Sontoku (a fixture at Japanese schools but historically noteworthy for his economic and humanistic philosophies) and, instead of the infamous basset hound, a shiba inu, one of the domestic breeds of Japan, sniffing around at it. Also, randomly, a character takes out an antagonist in a direct visual quote of General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon. It’s not subtle symbolism or commentary, but it stands out in the parade of explosions and live-action fanservice. It’s Oshii throwing yet another middle finger to the Establishment, much like the undertones of cultural warfare in the Patlabor movies.

This is all well and good, but the film does have infuriating aspects that keep it from being an instant classic. Like Oshii’s earlier live-action work in the Keroberos Panzer Corps universe, it feels more like a salad bowl of ideas than an actual good movie in its own right. The lack of actors and no major sets adds to the feeling that this was just a side project Oshii wanted to bang out in a few months than his next opus. Perhaps the most infuriating thing is the absence of an ending. This is not an exaggeration. We tune into this world for 80-some minutes and then, just when things are looking to really get heated up, we’re thrown into the credits. As the ending theme by otaku favorite KOTOKO starts cranking up and the audience around me starts getting cranky, we are reminded of a possible rationale:

“GENEON UNIVERSAL PRESENTS: A FILM BY MAMORU OSHII”

Figures.

I was stupid lucky enough this Friday to make the 400+ mile round journey up north to the Leeds International Film Festival for the day. Given the length of the journey and the insane price of train tickets here in the UK that might seem a bit excessive to catch a couple of movies, but the festival’s anime weekend was being kicked off by an unmissable double bill. First off was Mamoru Oshii’s lost, experimental classic Angel’s Egg (more on that to follow), being shown in the UK for the first time in over 20 years, but the real incentive for me was to see the UK premiere of Momoru Hosoda’s latest blockbuster Summer Wars.

Hosada has already made big waves with his 2006 hit The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – the charming sci-fi comedy-drama that touched the hearts and imaginations of both critics and audiences and earned a place in my list of 10 anime films to see before you die – and as ever following up such a renowned piece of work is a tough challenge. Set in an alternate 2010, the film centers around 17 year old otaku Kenji Kosio, a socially inept maths genius, who spends most of his waking hours immersed in the virtual reality world Oz, the ultimate convergence of communication technologies that has fused social networks, online games, telephone systems and just about every other form of internet related activity into a single, all encompassing interface. Shocked one day to be invited by his unrequited crush Natsuki Shinohara to go and stay with her and her family in Nagano over the summer, Kenji nervously agrees, believing he is going to lend a helping hand with the grand celebrations for Natsuki’s grandmother’s 90th birthday. Which is why he is even more shocked when he is introduced on arrival as Natsuki’s fiancee, the girl wanting to assure her aging grandmother that she is happy. While watching him clumsily take on the part we are also introduced to Natsuki’s huge extended family in another fantastic display of Hosoda’s ability to portray realistic, everyday characters with humanity and humour. It was the hallmark of TGWLTT, and here Hosoda does it again with apparent ease and flourish, especially considering the scale of the cast he has chosen – I can’t remember another anime film that effortlessly portrays so many fleshed out, convincing characters without once resorting to easy stereotypes. While certain archetypes have obviously been chosen – the insolent, black-sheep-of-the-family-uncle, the prissy aunt and the moody, reclusive video gaming teenager are all here – not once throughout the course of the story does Hosada leave you in any doubt that this are real people, with emotions and depth beyond their initial two-dimensional appearances.

Also as with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, just when Hosoda has lulled you into believing it may be just another, all be it exquisitely crafted, romance tinged family comedy, he reminds you of Summer Wars‘ science fiction roots. On the first night at Natsuki’s family home, as the embarrassed Kenji is trying to catch some sleep, he receives an anonymous text message inviting to him to solve a complex maths code. Unable to resist the challenge he stays up till dawn trying to solve the puzzle, only to wake for breakfast – in one of the films most amusing sequences – and find himself the main story on the TV news. It turns out that he has not only inadvertently helped someone hack Oz’ highest level security systems, but also allowed them to frame him for it. Suddenly Kenji has to not only convince Natsuki’s family that he’s not a cyber-terrorist, but also try to enlist their help in stopping the mysterious hacker before the damage to Oz has devastating consequences for the real world.

Summer Wars isn’t a film heavy on subtext or philosophy, with its perhaps most obvious theme being modern society’s over-reliance on technology, but elsewhere Hosoda seems to have something to say about the nature of families and relationships in the internet age. To say it is about virtual communities versus real families would be an over simplification, and certainly he doesn’t want to take sides – even while Kenji is envious of Natsuki’s close knit clan, we are subtly reminded that family life is never perfect, and how non-biological bonds can often be the strongest. It is tempting to see this as a response to Miyazaki’s outspoken comments on the detrimental effects of the virtual world, especially in light of Hosada’s short-lived career at Ghibli, but in reality the director is refusing to preach at all, the main message here being that strength and happiness lies in the bonds between individuals, and the nature of the connection – digital or analogue, blood or friendship – is ultimately immaterial.

Visually the film is as stunning as could have been hoped for after the subtle splendor of TGWLTT. The character design is immaculate throughout, with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto again not resorting to generic or stereotyped work despite the unusually huge cast. Similarly the background work is exquisite, and instantly reminiscent of the best of Makoto Shinkai’s productions, and elsewhere TGWLTT’s eye for subtle slapstick makes a welcome, occasional return. However where the film really grabs the attention is in the depiction of the virtual world Oz. Those that remember the brief, stylish CGI time leap sequences from Hosoda’s last film will recognize the basic aesthetic feel, but here influences from video games, anime, consumer GUI and Japanese mascot design are drawn together to make a frenetic, futuristic but utterly believable environment populated by avatars that somehow look both cutting-edge and all-too familiar.

Perhaps the film’s only weakness is its only briefly explored back story as to the identity of the mystery hacker. I won’t reveal the answer here, but it’s a cyberpunk standard familiar from everything from Neuromancer through Ghost in the Shell to Denno Coil – the later, incidentally being a work that Summer Wars seems to give a noticeable nod of acknowledgment to. Both Madhouse productions seem to want to achieve the unlikely pairing of VR techno-thriller and Ghibli-esque family adventure, and while both succeed, there’s no denying Summer Wars does it in a more big-budget blockbuster style. And I mean that as a compliment; while it may be louder and more colorful than the The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, at its heart still lies a similarly subtle, intelligent and touching film. As such Summer Wars is a rare treat, and one you should enjoy as soon as you can.

More information on Mamoru Oshii’s upcoming live-action flick Assault Girls have emerged, this time via the film’s official Japanese language website. Finally we have a clue to what is going on in that crazy trailer showing girls-with-guns fighting sand-whales, and it’s pretty damn exciting. Based on Google Translate and my most trusted of Japan based operatives Fernando Ramos it seems that the film is set in the same world as Oshii’s sublime live-action movie Avalon – that is to say it appears to be set around another massively multiplayer, virtual reality video game. In fact, the text seems to be suggesting it’s a new, or different, version of the game from the earlier film, known as ‘Avalon (f)’.

This is the google translation of the first few paragraphs of the story page on the site:
Virtual space “Avalon (f)> already there, that mimics the desert wilderness after thermonuclear war =” Desert 22 “monsters that haunt the” Sunakujira “aims to show his players —— Gray , Lucifer, kernel, and Yeager. Three men and one woman, in their arms “Sunakujira” a flock of whale. Next we had the players and make a kill during the war, Yeager is possessed for a chance to pet one of them was gobbled up, stuck in the kill. That time, three other people before the end of the target is very big in this field = “Madarasunakujira” that was on the scene. That, prior to its overwhelming strength, they are forced to retreat …

Return to base in the crater of a volcano, Gray settle the battle outcome. Terminating target “Madarasunakujira” but missed, Gray is not a bad score. And such for her master had said the game cold. “You can knock down levels of the target can not be terminated,” “Look at other players and formed a party if” and.

Well, make of that what you will. If you have elite Japanese skills and can provide a better translation then PLEASE give me a shout. I was already pretty excited about Assault Girls based on what I’d seen already, but the idea that it may be a continuation of one of my favourite sci-fi movies of the last decade is just thrilling. As always, more info when I get it.

UPDATE: See below for the first two Assault Girl shorts – the first taken from Oshii’s own Shin-Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden, and the second from Kiru ~ Kill – a movie made from climatic fight scenes from non-exist films by various directors – of which Oshii was one. Plus get this: Twitch are reporting that during a press conference in Shibuya today to promote the release of the full-length film that Oshii announced that Hollywood had already approached him about a US remake. Wow. Lets hope the his head doesn’t get too big for that dope hipster hat of his.

Special thanks to Brian Ruh, author of the excellent book Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii, for the tip off on this one.

Not strictly anime I know – but the marketing people think you guys might be interested in seeing this, and I can see why. Shane Acker and Tim Burton’s dark looking CGI movie 9 opens here in the UK on October 28th, and below you can catch the trailer in HD. A post apocalyptic Pinocchio-style tale of sentient rag-dolls, it kind of reminds me of Takashi Nakamura’s (Akira, Nausicaa) A Tree of Palme at first glance. Worth checking out.

Last month we had the first details of Mamoru Oshii’s new live-action flick Assault Girls – today we have a teaser trailer, courtesy of Nippon Cinema. The site also has some more details about the plot:
In the aftermath of global thermonuclear war, the Earth’s surface has been turned into a desert battlefield. Three beautiful female hunters: Gray (Meisa Kuroki), Lucifer (Rinko Kikuchi), and Colonel (Hinako Saeki) traverse the barren landscape armed with powerful assault rifles to fight a group of deadly sand-dwelling monsters called “sunakujira” (sand whales). When the the epic battle eventually seems to be coming to an end, the sparkle of muzzle flash dies down and assault ship flies overhead. Suddenly, a gigantic super mutation called “Madara Sunakujira” attacks.

To me it looks like Oshii might be letting off some steam here, and making a balls out, low budget action movie – but that might just be editing and the clips that have been used here. Hopefully we’ll also get some of the moody, down-tempo stuff he did so well in Avalon. Wither way, the Dune influences still seem pretty strong. So what do you think? Hit the comments below and let me know.

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.

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.

Just in case some of you aren’t already reading Daniel Thomas MacInnes’ sublime Ghibli Blog and had missed this I thought I’d post it here – UK paper The Independent has an interview with the world’s greatest animated film-maker Hayao Miyazaki. Its a great piece – as well as a brief overview of his work, he talks about working on the forthcoming Ponyo, and why he made the decision to avoid digital techniques in it’s production:

Having experimented with digital and CG technology on Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki has gone back to basics for Ponyo, which is made up of a stunning 170,000 individual hand-painted frames. He says he has seen none of the landmark digital animations of the past two decades, including Toy Story and Pixar Studio’s recent smash Wall.E, despite being friends with Pixar’s creative director John Lasseter.

He is known to lecture constantly on the need to find harmony between the human hand, eye and brain, and the ever-expanding computer toolbox. Ponyo, he says, is partly about living without technology. “Most people depend on the internet and cellphones to survive, but what happens when they stop working? I wanted to create a mother and child who wouldn’t be defeated by life without them.”

It’s a fascinating read, but somehow makes that August release date seem even further away…