Japanese Films at the Leeds International Film Festival 2013 Part 1: Anime

The 27th Leeds International Film Festival takes place from November 06th to the 21st and there is plenty of anime getting screened on the Fanomenon Anime Day on Sunday, November 17th. There are so many Japanese live-action films that they will get a separate post. Here is the selection of anime titles on offer and these are just as great. Just click on the titles to get more information such as times and ticket prices: 

11:00 a.m.

The Garden of Words                               

Running Time: 46 mins

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Writer: Makoto Shinkai

Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Yukino), Miyu Irino (Takao)

Makoto Shinkai’s latest film is typically visually and audibly stunning and is set to get a UK release thanks to Anime Limited. Why wait for the DVD when you can see it at the festival on the big screen.

“We met, for each of us to walk forward.

Takao is a 15-year-old boy with dreams of becoming a professional shoe designer and was skipping high school, sketching shoes in a Japanese garden when he encounters a mysterious older woman, a 27-year-old named Yukino. Without arranging it they end up meeting again and again, but only on rainy days, deepening their relationship and opening up to each other. But the end of the rainy season soon approaches…

 

HAL                                  

Running Time: 50 mins

Running Time:

Director: Ryōtarō Makihara

Writer: Izumi Kizara (Screenplay),

Starring: Yōko Hikasa (Kurumi), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Haru), Mamoru Miyano (Ryuu)

This near-future romance is called Hal and it sounds like a romantic Time of Eve with its mixture of androids and falling in love.  It stars the voices of Yōko Hikasa (Saeki in Aku no Hana), Mamoru Miyano and Yoshimasa Hosoya (Level E). The director Ryōtarō Makihara has a lot of experience with TV anime like directing an episode of Tatami Galaxy and Monster, Summer Wars and Le Chevalier D’Eon. Music comes from Michiru Oshima who scored the awesome flamenco inspired Fuse: A Gungirl’s Detective Story and the melancholy Le Chevalier D’Eon. The anime is produced by Wit Studio who are bringing a thrillingly dark title to television screens with Attack on Titan.

 

Kurumi (Hikasa) likes Haru (Hosoya) but their seemingly happy life ends when a plane accident takes Haru from the mortal world. A robot version of Haru, Hal, emerges as a substitute. As the two live together Kurumi gradually opens her memories and mind to him.