Kaboom: Anime

This anthology project by Katsuhiro Ōtomo (director of worldwide anime breakthrough hit Akira, 1988) is based on three of his manga and assembles a host of ’90s talent. Highlight Magnetic Rose is directed by Kōji Morimoto (co-founder of Studio 4°C and animation director of Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game, 2004), with a script by Satoshi Kon (director of Paprika, 2006) and a remarkable score by Yoko Kanno, who transposed Puccini’s Madame Butterfly to the space age.

This music plays an important role in the narrative, when four space garbage collectors investigate an emergency signal leading them to a traumatised opera diva, who has locked herself into her holographic memories which – as in Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) – become hallucinatory nightmares for our helpful crew.

Most striking about the much more light-hearted Stink Bomb by studio Madhouse, about a none-too-bright laboratory assistant who, by randomly mixing medicines, unwittingly turns himself into a chemical weapon, is its origin as a true story (look for ‘Gloria Ramirez’). Directed by Tensai Okamura (known for series such as Wolf’s Rain, 2003), with a script by Ōtomo himself.

Final short Cannon Fodder, also by Studio 4°C and directed and scripted by Ōtomo, is notably designed as an almost continuous single take. Which provides a sense of space to the steampunk animation’s European-looking world, which revolves entirely around the firing of huge cannons at an enemy who may or may not exist.

And – the most important common thread of this varied triptych – our protagonist is once again a simple worker who is being subjected to the machinations of a heavily armed power.

In his films, Mamoru Hosoda rejects the adage ‘man is wolf to man’. Instead, in the worlds of this anime master, man is man to wolf: his oeuvre is filled with profound relationships between humans and animals – especially those which in reality, humans tend to distrust. Also, there are flying whales.

Take Hosoda’s Belle (2021), Wolf Children (2012) – recently released in Dutch cinemas – and this one, The Boy and the Beast (Bakemono no Ko). Here, the worlds of humans and bakemono – talking animals – are so close, that just by stumbling into a Tokyo alley, you can suddenly find yourself in Jutengai, the beast kingdom. Meanwhile those beasts, their hoodies raised, move unnoticed through our inattentive world.

And so, in Tokyo’s modern Shibuya district, nine-year-old Ren (‘the boy’) meets the gruff Kumatetsu (‘the beast’). Ren is a runaway; bear-like Kumatetsu is embroiled in a career dispute in Jutengai and needs an apprentice in the noble martial arts.

As always, Hosoda’s hand-drawn character animation is excellent, and amidst all these wondrous adventures, his focus remains firmly on the psychological subtleties. Because, just as Ren isn’t eager to be lectured, Kumatetsu truly isn’t born to teach. But their bond will grow, slowly but surely, as together they realise the role and even the importance of anger and how to manage that frightful, dark emptiness within, when you feel like everyone has abandoned you.

Not only is Horus, Prince of the Sun Isao Takahata’s debut film, it also marks the first collaboration between the acclaimed director of Grave of the Fireflies (1988) en The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) and his protégé Hayao Miyazaki, whose role as key animator ballooned into something for which the credit ‘scene design’ had to be invented.
Taiyō no Ōji: Horusu no Daibōken (sometimes translated as Hols or Little Norse Prince Valiant) became known as the first ‘grown-up’ anime, after the medium’s breakthrough with Osamu Tezuka’s TV series Atom Boy (1963). It was based on an epic by the indigenous Ainu, but transplanted to Iron Age Scandinavia (possibly due to sensitivities surrounding that population’s historical mistreatment by the Japanese).
And although the drawings are less detailed than modern audiences might expect, Horus proves that’s much less important than timing and mise-en-scène. Just watch the dynamic opening scene (echoing Takahata’s earlier TV series Wolf Boy Ken), in which young Horus is chased by a pack of wolves, keeping them at bay with an axe on a long rope, until a rock giant comes to his aid.
The socialist message, about villagers who can only defeat their oppressor through communal resistance, was popular with 1968’s students, but not with Studio Toei (with whom the animators were embroiled in a major labour dispute), which pulled the well-received film from cinemas after just ten days. Which led to Takahata and Miyazaki leaving Toei and, some years later, founding Studio Ghibli together. And the rest is anime history.

“How on earth do wolf children grow up?”

Arguably the greatest animated film about motherhood and single parenting, Wolf Children imagines what it would be like to have a lupine lover (go Team Jacob!), have children, and raise them all by yourself. When university student Hana falls in love with a mysterious young man, she discovers he is the last of his kind: a wolf who can shift between human and animal form. Their joyful life is cut short, leaving Hana to raise their two wolf children on her own. Yuki is strong-willed and curious, while Ame is more reserved. But both are torn between the call of the wild and humankind. From small city apartments to Japan’s majestic countryside, Hana’s unwavering devotion to the happiness of her kids will make your eyes water.

Even though narrator Yuki fears this might get laughed off as a mere fairy tale, director Mamoru Hosoda has given us a grounded and deeply empathetic film, drawn from his own childhood and mother, who raised him as a single parent. The man behind modern anime classics like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Mirai, and Belle slows the rhythm down for a richly told slice-of-life story with folkloric wonder. Despite its fantastical elements, Wolf Children feels as real and intimate as your own life. A lyrical meditation on love, nature, and the bittersweet necessity of letting go, it speaks about being a mother, being a child, smiling against all odds, and finding your true self along the way.

The Galaxy Express rides again!

Although the machines’ home planet has been destroyed, the Machine Empire is as great of a threat as ever. Earth has become a battlefield, reduced to smoldering ruins. Young Tetsuro, older and more battle-worn, is summoned back into the interstellar fray, reinvigorated by the hope of seeing his beloved Maetel once more. The resistance against Queen Promethium is crumbling, and it’s up to Tetsuro to end the conflict once and for all. As boy becomes man, comrades fall, old friends reunite, and new allies are made. The time of rebellion has come …

Time has largely forgotten Rintaro’s sequel to Galaxy Express 999, overshadowed by the original’s cult success. Yet this is a leaner, grittier anime that opens on the battlefront and plunges headfirst into war and death. It’s an underrated conclusion to Tetsuro’s life-changing journey that the internet has re-evaluated as the what The Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars: A New Hope – you can even hear shades of John Williams in the score. Whatever your relationship with the original, the sequel undeniably is a high-speed bullet train of emotions and brutal battles. It’s a fitting and epic requiem for Tetsuro’s dreams spun from stardust and steam. An adieu at full throttle.

“When the sky turns black… Why do I feel so blue?”

Welcome to town, Treasure Town. A city that has a certain je ne sais quoi; a never-never land if you will. Part gritty urban fable, part kaleidoscopic fever dream, Tekkonkinkreet follows Black and White – two orphaned boys who prowl the streets of Treasure Town, a surreal asphalt jungle and pan-Asian hybrid stitched together from Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bombay, and beyond. Black is sharp, dangerous, and never backs down. Street royalty in the making. White is a wandering innocent, unscathed by this armpit of a city. Together, they call themselves “The Cats”, an inseparable force ruling over back alleys and rooftops. That is… until yakuza schemes, corporate vultures, and their own inner demons threaten to tear both their bond and the city apart. As the seasons pass by, violence escalates, chaos reigns, and Black descends into madness. Is Treasure Town ripe to devour itself?

Michael Arias, who started out as a VFX artist inspired by Douglas Trumbull, became the first non-Japanese filmmaker to direct a major anime. And boy, did he come in swinging! Based on Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga, Tekkonkinkreet is a hustling-‘n-bustling coming-of-ager that wears the tag “chaos” proud on its sleeve. Arias incorporates live-action camera techniques (like handheld framing and long tracking shots) and mixes them with Studio 4°C’s trademark experimentation, fusing traditional 2D with innovated 3D CGI animation. This result is a dazzling sensory overload that channels Masaaki Yuasa, Moebius, and street art into an emotional hymn (and a warning) for the modern metropolis. Tekkonkinkreet is an orgy of images that will likely impress newcomers to anime as well as the seasoned geek. As far as city trips go, this might be the wildest ever, and you don’t even have to leave your seat for it.

With a knack for drawing, writing, and daydreaming, Suzu is a kind-hearted, creative young woman growing up in 1930s-40s Japan. At 18, she leaves her seaside hometown near Hiroshima to marry a young military clerk in the naval city of Kure, just 20 or so kilometres away. As Suzu adjusts to life away from her family, the shadow of war begins to loom over the townspeople. Slowly, air raid sirens and bombings become routine, and life shifts into survival.

There have been numerous films about “the bomb” and Japan’s suffering during WWII – Ghibli’s harrowing classic Grave of the Fireflies and the Hiroshima-set Barefoot Gen among them – but few have foregrounded the country’s natural world and its quietly resilient people as powerfully as Sunao Katabuchi’s remarkably understated In This Corner of the World. Drawing on thousands of photographs, journals, diaries, and old maps, Katabuchi and his team spent years developing this adaptation of the manga of the same name.

The film’s sunlit, hand-drawn and water-coloured world evokes hope even amid its depictions of lost childhoods, young men getting drafted, women left behind, food rationing, and untimely deaths. Though Katabuchi once served as an assistant under Hayao Miyazaki, his storytelling has more in common with Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata. In This Corner of the World is a poignant reminder of the power of the human spirit in the face of war. Even when surrounded by humanity’s darkest acts, beauty still manages to endure in small, quiet corners.

Vampires have sunk their teeth in film history. From the OG Dracula himself and fang-tanstic turns by Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt to an overpowered, sparkly Robert Pattinson who made pale the new chic; on-screen vampires are the stuff of collective (wet) dreams. Yet, the coldest (half-)vampire of all is D, a cooler-than-Clint Eastwood dhampir and lone bounty hunter who roams a far-future Earth that has somehow become the most gothic of wastelands. D has been summoned to track down Charlotte Elbourne, a young woman who has been abducted by vampire nobleman Meier Link. At war with himself, feared by all, tortured and alone, D is set on securing his bounty.

A stand-alone sequel to the original 1985 OVA adaptation of Hideyuki Kikuchi’s novel(s), Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is a genre hybrid somewhere between post-apocalyptic western, the Castlevania games, Lovecraftian horror, dark fantasy and gothic romance with a criminally good-looking (anti)hero cutting across the wastelands on a cyber-horse. Its moody and stylish characters (designed by Yoshitaka Amano) and richly animated, blood-soaked action set pieces make it a cult classic that’s as immortal as its protagonist. Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, The Animatrix), Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust celebrates its 25th anniversary as the ultimate gothic fever dream.

If you could see your own colour, what kind of colour would it be? For Totsuko, a vivid and religious high school student, this question lingers in her mind as she navigates life at her Catholic boarding school. Gifted with the ability to see the 'colours' of others, she is captivated by Kimi, a classmate whose blue colour is unparalleled. But when Kimi drops out of school, a chance encounter at a secondhand bookstore leads the two girls to form an inpromptu band with Rui, a reserved dreamer and theremin player whose mother expects him to become a doctor. As the trio practices in an old, abandoned church, their shared musical and emotional journey lets them find freedom, joy, and love.

In her first feature film for Science SARU, the anime studio known for the films of Masaaki Yuasa, director Naoko Yamada continues her lyrical exploration of youth. Reuniting with screenwriter Reiko Yoshida and composer Kensuke Ushio - with whom she made A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird - she crafts a musically inspired coming-of-age tale about the complex road to self-discovery. As in her previous work, Yamada favours a mix of realistic and impressionistic animations with gentle and detailed character designs.

The Colors Within is a contemplative portrait of adolescence, finding harmony in both music and friendship. As the final performance of Totsuko, Kimi and Rui crescendos into one of the year's most heartfelt third acts, Yamada leaves us with an afterthought - one that will echo long after the last note fades: what colour lives inside your heart?

Laten we een absolute klassieker van Japans familie-entertainment bekijken: Night on the Galactic Railroad is een bewerking van de klassieke fantasyroman met dezelfde naam uit 1934 van Kenji Miyazawa, gelezen door generaties Japanse schoolkinderen. In deze symbolische en doordachte film stappen Giovanni en Campanella, de eerste een blauwe kat, de tweede een roze kat, aan boord van een stoomtrein die hen door het heelal brengt. Bij elke halte die steeds surrealistischer wordt, ontmoeten de jongens meer bizarre personages, waaronder een geobsedeerde archeoloog en een vogelvanger die zijn vangst in snoep verandert. Maar met elke halte wordt de bestemming van de treinreis ook onheilspellender.

De film toont een grote interesse in de Europese cultuur, van de namen van de personages tot de interesse in christelijke thema's en het gebruik van de geconstrueerde taal Esperanto, waar Kenji Miyazawa zeer in geïnteresseerd was. Met liefde geanimeerd en geregisseerd door een veteraan in de industrie, is Night on the Galactic Railroad een weinig gezien juweeltje dat het verdient om op het grote scherm te worden bekeken.

Satoshi Kon regisseerde slechts vier speelfilms, voordat hij in 2010 overleed, en Millennium Actress (2001) is zijn meest subtiele. De film is losjes gebaseerd op het leven van de actrices Setsuko Hara (1920-2015) en Hideko Takamine (1924-2010) en bevat een documentairefilmcrew die de gepensioneerde acteerlegende Chiyoko Fujiwara interviewt. Terwijl Chiyoko haar levensverhaal vertelt, raken privéleven, geschiedenis en cinema verweven, wat resulteert in een unieke filmische ervaring.

Millennium Actress was Satoshi Kons tweede speelfilm, na het succes van Perfect Blue (1997). In tegenstelling tot de vorige film kreeg Kon veel meer creatieve vrijheid voor Millennium Actress, waaronder het inhuren van componist Susumu Hirasawa, die hij al lange tijd bewonderde, om de muziek voor de film te maken. Zoals Kon later vertelde, kwam het oorspronkelijke idee voor Millennium Actress voort uit zijn gesprek met producer Taro Maki dat ze een film wilden maken die leek op een trompe l'oeil, een zeer overtuigende optische illusie. Met Millennium Actress leverde Kon een liefdesbrief aan de Japanse cinema na de oorlog, die tevens dient als een aangrijpende overpeinzing van de rol die cinema speelt in ons leven.

Steamboy was Katsuhiro Otomo’s first feature film after Akira (1988). Originally intended as three 40-minute original video animation episodes, Steamboy remained in production for ten years and was at the time of release the most expensive Japanese animated film ever produced. While not an immense success on release, the film has gathered a large fanbase over the years and its themes of industrialization, pollution and technocriticism have grown more poignant over the years.

Adapted from the graphic novel Sarusuberi by Hinako Sugiura. Tokyo, 1814. Versatile and stubborn visual artist Tetsuzo tirelessly works in in the garbage-loaded chaos of his house-atelier, assisted by his equally talented 23-year-old daughter O-Ei. She has contributed immensely to his fame. Very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. The film sketches a a lively portrayal of a free-spirited, utterly outspoken and hugely talented woman and artist, unfolding through the changing seasons: ‘We’re father and daughter; with two brushes and four chopsticks, we’ll get by anywhere.’ Tetsuzo became best known by one of his many names: Katsushika Hokusai. He would inspire a lot of artists, like Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, Debussy, Baudelaire and Rainer Maria Rilke. His iconic wood cut The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1832) is still often on view in major exhibitions and popular in marketing campaigns and merchandizing.

In a world devastated by a nuclear war, martial arts-master Hokuto Shinken is confronted with his former friend Shin as they engage in a duel over Kenshiro’s fiancé Yuria. After being left for dead, Kenshiro recovers and dwells through the desert to protect the weak. After working together with Rei, who is seeking his kidnapped sister Ari, Kenshiro Shin tries to track Shin down and has to fight a new warlord, Raoh.

Fist of the North Star is based on the eponymous manga published between 1983 and 1988, and is produced by the same team that was in charge of its popular television show with the same name. Director Toyoo Ashida directly came on board after directing another cult classic, Vampire Hunter D (1985). An archetypal example of post-apocalyptic martial arts cinema from the 80’s, Fist of the North Star is a film that is a must to see on the big screen.

And a fun bonus: this is the first European screening with the brand new remaster of this film, in its original 4:3 aspect!

Due to the creation of the virtual city of Oz, anyone can access the Internet at any time, for information, to pay bills or play games online. In his spare time Japanese high-school student Kenji works as a maintenance computer programmer for Oz. When Natsuki, the girl with whom he is secretly in love, invites him to go to Nagano for a few days for a family party, he promptly accepts. The night after the banquet, Kenji has gone to bed when he receives a strange email on his mobile phone that contains numbers and the following message: Decode me! Piqued by this challenge to his mathematical abilities, although still half-asleep, he tries to work out the puzzle and solves it. Next morning he learns that his avatar, the personification of an individual in the virtual world, is causing trouble in Oz and that he is wanted by the authorities.

After the brutal murder of his mother, Tetsuro, a young boy, travels to various planets with the sole mission to avenge her death.

During WW II, Junpei and his little brother enjoy a relatively carefree childhood on a small island in a remote corner of Japan. They were named after Giovanni and Campanella, two characters from their late mother’s favourite book. When Japan capitulates in 1945, the Red Army arrives on the island. Houses and part of the school are requisitioned for the soldiers’ families. Gradually, the Japanese and Russian children spontaneously learn to sing each other’s songs and love blossoms between Junpei and the Russian commander’s daughter. Until Junpei’s father Tatsuo is picked up for resistance activities and the Japanese islanders are transferred to an internment camp in the USSR, where they spend a few years in horrible conditions. After fifty years, Junpei returns to the island in the company of his previous schoolmarm.
Heartrending Japanese drawn animation, based on true events, about the aftermath of war, family ties, (budding) love and death.

Batou is a living doll. His whole body, even his arms and legs, is entirely man-made. What only remains are traces of his brain and the memories of a woman. In an era when the boundary between humans and machines has become infinitely vague, humans have forgotten that they are humans. This is the debauchery of the lonesome ghost of a man, who nevertheless seeks to
retain humanity. Life is... Innocence.

When Mokoto discovers her ability to travel through time, she decides to use it to prevent various incidents. She then discovers that there is another person close to her with the same ability.

Spike Spiegel and his team of bounty hunters are in hot pursuit of a terrorist who has killed scores of people in Mars with a biological weapon and stop him before he strikes again.