This has been another anime catch-up week where I watched all of the autumn titles I haven’t dropped like Galilei Donna, Kyoukai no Kanata, and Coppelion. These shows have taken their time to find their feet but I’m glad I stuck with them because they are enjoyable. I also watched the Attack on Titan OVA Ilse’s Journal. Awesome stuff. This being my long week in work means that I have less time than usual and I’m as exhausted as hell. At least I get to go home to awesome episodes of Samurai Flamenco. Episode 10 was brilliant! Over the next few weeks I’ll be pushed for time since I’ll be working overtime, meeting friends, and doing extra Japanese lessons on top of my course. These extra lessons are genuinely pushing me harder than I have been pushed before so I’m hoping my language skills improve.
In terms of the blog, Sunday I posted about my work with Gigan magazine, a print and digital publication dedicated to Japanese films. On Monday I revealed my picks for the Winter 2014 anime season (quite a few awesome shows in the next season – check my Anime UK News chart for a full list) and on Tuesday I posted about the Neo Ultra Visitor Q film that was released. On Wednesday I posted my review for the Korean epidemic disaster film The Flu and on Friday I posted some of the trailers for this week.
Here are the rest of the films getting released this weekend:
A Tale of Samurai Cooking – A True Love Story 
Japanese: 武士 の 献立
Romaji: Bushi no Kondate
Running Time: 121 mins.
Release Date: December 14th, 2013
Director: Yuzo Asahara
Writer: Michio Kashiwada, Yukiko Yamamuro, Yuzo Asahara,
Starring: Kengo Kora, Aya Ueto, Kimiko Yo, Toshiyuki Nishida
This is a historical film set during the Edo period and starring popular talent Aya Ueto.
She takes the lead role as Oharu (Ueto) who is an excellent cook and because of her skills she gets to marry into the Funaki family through Yasunobu (Kora). The Funaki family are the cooks of the Kaga Domain and they utilise Oharu’s cookery talents to to teach Yasunobu how to better his skills.
Yume no Kayoji 
Japanese: ゆめのかよいじ
Romaji: Yume no Kayoiji
Running Time: 85 mins.
Release Date: December 14th, 2013
Director: Toshihiro Goto
Writer: Toshihiro Goto, Yasuyuki Ohno (Manga)
Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Seika Taketomi, Shunya Shiraishi, Kaya Asano, Yui Ueda, Satsuki Okada, Yoshinobu Yamada, Miyoko Omomo
Yasuyuki Ohno’s manga was published in Young King magazine from 1987 to 1988 andd has been adapted by Toshihiro Goto (Monochrome Girl) starring Anna Ishibashi. It is a tale of a girl who transfers to a suburban high school and wanders into an old wooden school building and meets another girl wearing a strange uniform, who turns out to be a ghost.
Horse Festival – The Horses of Fukushima 
Japanese: 祭の馬
Romaji: Matsuri no Uma
Running Time: 74 mins.
Release Date: December 14th, 2013
Director: Yoju Matsubayashi
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Director Yoju Matsubayashi was behind the documentary 311 which was all about the Great East Japan Earthquake. He returns with a new work based on the story of a stallion due for retirement from the racing world that survived the disaster and its recovery from injuries sustained.
Incredible Zorori Film! Dinosaur Eggs 
Japanese: 映画かいけつゾロリ まもるぜ！きょうりゅうのたまご
Romaji: Eiga ka Iketsu Zorori Mamoru ze! Ki ~youryuu no tamago
Running Time: 97 mins.
Release Date: December 14th, 2013
Director: Tomoko Iwasaki
Writer: Takeshi Morita (Screenplay), Yutaka Hara (Original Work)
Starring: Koichi Yamadera, Rikako Aikawa, Motoko Kumai, Nana Mizuki, Masako Nozawa,
The Incredible Zorori is a popular series of children’s books in Japan, created by Yutaka Hara. According to Wikipedia, the stories take place in a parallel wold inhabited by anthropomorphic animeal and Zorori is a fox who goes on adventures with his twin bandit boar apprentices Ishishi and Noshishi. This is his second feature-length film and it involves him travelling to an island where dinosaurs live. They encounter a mother dinosaur and try to rescue a missing egg. It’s animated by Sunrise studio Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Natsuiro Kiseki.
Genkinahito 
Tale of Samurai Cooking needs to go on my next Trailer Weekly (in fact, it was in a draft for #94 from a while back, but then I forget I had that draft!).
Is Yume no Kayoji horror-y? For some reason, the trailer doesn’t want to play for me.
Yume no Kayoji is supernatural and it doesn’t strike me as being the sort of horror you dislike so it might be your type of film (unlike You’re Next). The trailer plays for me. You can copy and paste the Japanese title into a YouTube search or visit the site.