Japanese Films at the BFI London Film Festival 2013

The 57th BFI London Film Festival is running from Wednesday 09th October to Sunday 20th October, a mere week after the end of the Raindance Film Festival. The London Film Festival programme was and the Japanese selection is rather good. The big news for me is that Sion Sono's latest film, Why Don't You Play in Hell? has been selected to play! Other entries include Yuya Ishii's Great Passage and Hirokazu Koreeda's Like Father, Like Son. The latter was probably the most obvious choie for inclusion but it's great to see Ishii getting noticed.



Here are the films (click on the titles for more info like dates and times):

Yoko Kanno at Otakon 2013: "PIANO ME"

When Yoko Kanno was announced as a musical guest for Otakon 2013 a few months ago, I knew immediately that I had to go. Yoko Kanno debuted her new concert PIANO ME at Otakon. It consists of her playing piano solos alone on the stage, without any instrument or vocal backing. Yoko Kanno is easily my favorite anime composer -- her spectacular body of work include the soundtracks for Cowboy Bebop, Macross Frontier, Wolf's Rain, Genesis of Aquarion, Ghost in the Shell, and countless other incredible soundtracks that have created a huge mark in anime music.Copyright (c) 2013 . All licensed material are owned by their respective parties.

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Top Ten

My friend and fellow blogger John Muir took another science fiction related reader poll. This was one of his toughest assignments yet - to pick the top 10 science fiction films from the years 2000 to 2013. Lots of great lists were provided and you can check out the results .



This one was very difficult for me. As I mentioned to John, I haven't been as voracious with my movie watching in the last five to ten years as I used to be. Well, let me qualify that, I haven't been up on my new movies as much as I used to be. Instead I've been delving back into the past, seeking out gems and seeing if I can unearth some new favorites. I've also been delving deep (and some may say too deep) into nostalgia. Ten years ago, I would have jumped at seeing PRIMER or SUNSHINE. These days, I've heard of the films, but haven't sought them out. The sad thing is, the recent movies I have seen haven't left much more than a surface impression on me. I found it difficult to find make selections on movies I'd only seen once and didn't remember too well.

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The Future is Now: Anime Mirai Review

The Anime Mirai project, also known as the Young Animators Training Project, was showcased this year at Otakon. Anime Mirai has been around for three years, and as a partnership between the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) and Otakon's 20th anniversary, all three years' winning films were shown, one set per day of four films each. I had the privilege of making it to the screening of this year's films, presented by YTV producer Michihiko Suwa and Studio Madhouse director Yuzuru Tachikawa, who also directed the first short in the showcase. To quote the Otakon Press Release, for they have said it best: Anime Mirai is put together every year by JAniCA and the Japan's Agency of Cultural Affairs. "Partially a response to increased outsourcing of Japanese animation projects, the intention is to ensure that up-and-coming animators have opportunities to pursue their own works and gain experience leading projects. Each year, four studios are selected to produce short films, which play in theaters and may serve as springboards to larger projects." Each film lasted about a half hour and featured the best of what the studio had to offer. Each had a solid story of a different genre, and brought something progressive to animation as well. The first film was Tachikawa's, a Studio Madhouse work called Death Billiards. The film's setting -- which takes place in a high-class, hotel-like pool hall in what is most likely a Shinto-style purgatory -- had the "typical" finery that goes into Ghost in the Shell -- fancy marble backgrounds and soft lighting that glows. Where the studio introduced something new was the rainbow shine effects in crystal, flowing water, and piano strings. Also challenging was animating magic inside of pool balls, and the technical sophistication necessitated to reproduce a game of pool so well. The short packed a lot in -- demons, watchdogs, mysteries, plot twists, a moral message, as well as an enthusiastic fight scene between an old man and a young buck that didn't stay just on the pool table. Oh, and rampant symbolism in the form of jellyfish. It was a wonderful film to lead with, and they only got better from there. Second on the list was Alv Razul -- Mechanical Fairies, a sci-fi flick by studio Zexcs that focused on the question of souls and memory as they pertain to belonging. In the near future, a man's little sister was lost in and electronic accident something akin to Sword Art Online, but she returns to his life, hunted by establishment special ops and now able to hack near anything with nanomachines. Over the film we see their rather "close" relationship reveal itself, as well as a great deal of philosophy. "Dreams may seem like they exist to push us forward, but really they exist to help us look back and help the people behind us who are suffering," the girl, Shiki, says at one point. It's definitely a film that captures you from the first moments, and is readily inspiring. It can easily become a new series or full-length feature film, and I want to see that happen. The main punch was definitely in the story for this one, but there was some out-of-the-box elements in the animation as well: the shot size changed occasionally, mimicking manga with images cropped by black. The shadows of people were all animated with the ethereal element of pencil lines, also mimicking manga. These two elements went along with the fantasy quality of the story, and together make for a very interesting and incredibly well-made indie film. San-ban-m in the lineup was Ryo, a studio Gonzo film. It focuses on a historical Japanese figure in the Meiji Revolution named Ryoma, who was a revolutionary on the wrong side of the war. Suwa, introducing the film, said it was "based on historical facts of the man ... trying to depict who he might have been." In the film, he took in several orphans and trained them to fight for the war while maintaining a peaceful idealism; the orphan who bonded most closely to him shows the viewer a story of their time together. The short challenges convention with scenes at sea that seem aesthetically arranged similar to Ukio-prints. Like with some of Gonzo's other historical films, it's a challenge to tell characters apart at times, but the plucky rainbow of gi make for a fun time. "Take care not to become an assassin" may just be my new favorite line of anything, ever. The final film was Little Witch Academia, the adorable one of the bunch and smartly slated last, it lets the audience depart with happy feelings along with the mechanical fairy dust in their pockets. Made by Trigger Studios, the brightly-colored story follows a witch-in-training who is the incorrigible dreamer at a prestigious witchy boarding school for girls. Where everyone else holds stodgy, hardcore magicians as their heroes, Academia's model is a show performer, who brought magic to the world of normal people. Through a grand adventure of dungeon mining, a dragon, and flying mishaps, the crew learns more about themselves and overcome adversity, too. The cast of characters is the most diverse and vibrant of any of the films, and the animation style is definitely indie: it could be a cousin to Soul-Eater, with big, droopy eyes, strange color schemes, and very malleable body physics. Everything about it is fun, and definitely worth a look. It's given me great respect and curiosity for a studio whose name I had never before heard. If you ever get a chance to see any Anime Mirai showings, they're sure to be the best of the best of Japanese animation, and some of the only anime examples of that fine art known as the animated short. It's always good to promote non-commercial animation projects as well. During his presentation, Suwa hinted at a desire to make all Anime Mirai film sets available to a general audience, so keep an eye out for the chance to add these to your collection on a more permanent basis. They're definitely worth it.
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Nate Reports: Japan Expo 2013

You would hear about Japan Expo around areas in Europe as it is one of the biggest conventions in the area. Just last year, they have held a record attendance of 208,000 attendees! Wow even Anime Expo can't beat that! It's so big that they would put a subsidiary convention in the United States. And wouldn't you know it, Japan Expo's first US convention was located here in the Bay Area. Of course I would take advantage and planned to attend this convention hoping for an awesome time (before school begins for me.....)



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Anime Trailers: Kill la Kill, Space Dandy, Ghost in the Shell Arise

This past week, it seems every anime studio wanted to get their trailers out in front of the world! First up we've got out first real look at Kill la Kill, Trigger's October anime series featuring dueling ladies in a fantasy school (made by Gurren Lagann director Hiroyuki Imaishi!). A clear look at Space Dandy also showed up! This is a January 2014 series from Cowboy Bebop creator Shinichiro Watanabe, featuringwella dandy guy in space! Both look really impressive. Lastly, a short trailer for Ghost in the Shell Arise: border 2, Ghost Whispers was uploaded, which is the next chapter in the direct-to-video reimagining of the series. Check out all the trailers below!
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