Coppelion

Coppelion             

Original Manga Creator: Tomonori Inoue, Director/ Character Designer: Shingo Suzuki, Series Composition: Makoto Nakamura, Scripts: N/A, Chief Animation Director: Makoto Furuta

Voice Actors: Haruka Tomatsu (Ibara Naruse), Kana Hanazawa (Aoi Fukasaku), Satomi Akesaka (Taeko Nomura), Yui Horie (Kanon Ozu), Rikiya Koyama (Onihei Mishima), Maaya Sakamoto (Shion Ozu)

Studio: GoHands 

In the year 2016 a meltdown at a nuclear power plant caused Tokyo to suffer huge radioactive contamination which has resulted in the city being put under a blockade. 20 years later and the city is still abandoned but there have been distress signals received from the former bustling metropolis.

 

The Japanese government allow the creation of a new unit in the 3^rd Division of Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force which consists of people with special skills to enter the city and find the survivors. An academy was set up to train a new generation of people to be able to enter the city. We follow a team of three high school girls have been sent to the city.

 

Galilei Donna

Galilei Donna – Storia di tre sorelle a caccia di un mistero  

Director/Original Creator: Yasuomi Umetsu, Scripts: Atsushi Oka, Hideyuki Kurata, Jun Kumagai, Touko Machida, Character Designer/Chief Animation Director: Shingo Adachi, Music: Shiroh Hamaguchi

Voice Actors: Rina Hidaka (Hozuki Ferrari), Rumi Ookubo (Kazuki Ferrari), Kei Shindou (Hazuki Ferrari), Houko Kuwashima (Sylvia Ferrari), Hiroshi Kamiya (Cicinho), Marina Inoue (Anna Hendrix)

Studio: A-1 Pictures 

It is the year 2061 and global warming has stopped being the chief threat to humanity since a new ice age has started and sky pirates roam the air stealing natural resources!

 But that’s just a side show because we’re going to follow three girls!

Hozuki, Hazuki, and Kazuki Ferrari, collectively known as the “Galilei Donna,” are three descendants of the legendary astronomer Galileo Galilei and they live in Tuscany with different parent since mother Sylvia and father Geshio have divorced. Youngest daughter Hozuki is an amazing inventor, middle sister Kazuki is a martial artist and the eldest sister Hazuki is failing her law degree at university.

When a mysterious organization starts searching for the “Galilei Donna” to secure an inherited treasure called the Galileo Tesoro, they work through Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant for the three sisters. The family must put aside their differences to join forces, go on the run and fight the organization and learning their true inheritance and destiny!

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2014 Line-Up

Here it is again! Less than a week to go and I’ve already got my tickets booked!

Genkinahito

The Japan Foundation have announced their Touring Film Programme for 2014 and it goes under the name of East Side Stories Japanese Cinema Depicting the Lives of Youth. It aims to offer ‘an enlightening and expansive introduction to Japanese cinema through showing features that focus on ‘youth’ and a variety of films which show a “vast variety of styles ad tones” and take “a broad look at how the adults of tomorrow have been portrayed in Japanese cinema over the years.”

The festival runs from January 31^st to March 27^th 2014. The festival starts in London at the ICA and then heads out to various regions including Belfast (Queens Film Theatre), Bristol (Watershed), Dundee (Dundee Contemporary Arts), Edinburgh (Filmhouse), Newcastle Upon Tyne (Tyneside Cinema), Nottingham (Broadway), and Sheffield (Showroom Workstation).

The line-up of films for the opening week at the ICA looks awesome and I intend to…

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Kanagawa University of Fine Arts, Office of Film Research, Chiisana Akari, Nuiguruma- Z Japanese Film Trailers

 Well, less than a week to go before I head off to the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme and I’ve got everything booked and ready to go. I’ll be spending a few days in London and then on the day I go back home I’ll head straight for my Japanese lesson. Since I will be busy next week I have some anime-related posts I have been storing for some time ready to go out. Hopefully this all goes like clockwork.

This week was anime heavy. I posted first impressions with Wooser, Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda and Pupa. Yesterday was a trailer post with Idol Master. In terms of films, last Sunday I watched the Korean film Mother and last Friday I watched American Hustle. Two awesome films that I hope to review soon. Actually, I have quite a few film reviews stored up that I need to post…

 

Kanagawa University of Fine Arts, Office of Film Research  

Japanese: 神奈川芸術大学映像学科研究室

Romaji: Kanagawa Geijutsu Daigaku Eizo Gakka Kenkyushitsu

Running Time: 70 mins.

Release Date: January 25^th, 2014

Director: Yuichiro Sakashita

Writer: Yuichiro Sakashita (Screenplay),

Starring: Kaori Iida, Chihiro Kasahara, Tomoya Maeno, Kazuhiko Takasu,

Wordy title, unattractive text heavy poster and yet I am intrigued by this film. The trailer had me laughing at some of the deadpan humour. The last film I saw that was about film students was Who’s Camus Anyway? Which I found enormously entertaining. Kanagawa University of Fine Arts, Office of Film Research played at last year’s Skip City Internatonal Digital Cinema Festival and it won the Special Jury Prize. Lookng at the trailer makes me think that this is the world that the film nerds from The Kirishima Thing would enter if they continued to pursue a movie career at university.

Okuda works in the Film Department of Kanagawa University of Fine Arts. When he witnesses students stealing school equipment he is ordered by film professors to hide the truth and make a false report. He is torn between reporting the students and not rocking the boat and causing trouble. Then another incident occurs on campus and the situation seems to spiral out of control…

Website

 

Genome Hazard, Little House, Fireworks Ideas, My Father Iemoto, THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE: Kagayaki no Mukōgawa e! Japanese Film Trailers

There are seven Japanese films released this weekend but I’m still splitting them up into two posts. This weekend’s lack of quantity sees an upsurge in quality as the dramas, action adventures and documentaries look better than the normal output. The first film today is a Japanese-Korean co-production which stars some great actors and looks a lot of fun. Fireworks Ideas is another title which looks beautiful and intriguing what with its existential crises, screaming and yelling people and dude waltzing around with a horse head.

Genome Hazard           

Japanese: ゲノムハザード　ある天才科学者の5日間

Hangul: 무명인 (Moomyoungin)

Running Time: 120 mins.

Release Date: January 24^th, 2014

Director: Kim Sung-Su

Writer: Kim Sung-Su (Screenplay), Shiro Tsukasaki (Original Novel)

Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Kim Hyo-Jin, Yoko Maki, Masato Ibu, Yuri Nakamura, Manabu Hamada, Lee Kyoung-Young

This is a Japanese-Korean co-production and it has a great cast of actors like Hidetoshi Nishijima (License to Live) and the super-sexy Yoko Maki (The Ravine of Goodbye). It’s directed by Kim Sung-Su who was the chap who helmed The Flu. Even though I liked that film, when I talked to a Korean girl about it she burst into laughter and said it was awful.

Ishigami’s (Nishijima) life is ticking along like normal until he returns home to find his wife dead and two men who claim to be police are looking for him. Ishigami manages to escape tehm and goes on the run and soon hooks up with a Korean reporter named Kang Ji-Won (Kim Hyo-Jin) who offers to help him. Ishigami surprises the two of them when he starts speaking Korean and having vague memories of being Korean. What’s going on? Ishigami and Kang Ji-Won are on the case.

Website

World Conquest: Stratagem Star (Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda) Winter 2014 First Impressions

World Conquest: Stratagem Star (Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda)

Director/Series Composition: Tensai Okamura, Series Composition/Script: Meteor Hoshizora, Original Character Designer: Kouhaku Kuroboshi, Music: Tatsuya Kato

Voice Actors: Natsuki Hanae (Asuta Jimon), Misaki Kuno (Kate Hoshimiya), Mao Ichimichi (Renge Komadori), Mariya Ise (Itsuka Shikabane), Kana Hanazawa (Natasha), Erii Yamazaki (Robo-ko). Kousuke Toriumi (Yasube Morozumi), Minako Kotobuki (Miki Shirasagi)

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Website

The central premise is one most anime fans have probably wondered about… What would a world ruled by a cute moe girl look like?

Prologue

The world has been conquered. We see rubble strewn everywhere and there is no sound, only silence. The destruction and lack of life is a testament to some epic struggle in the past but in the distance…

 

Wooser’s Hand to Mouth Life Season 2 Winter 2014 First Impressions

Wooser no Sono Higurashi 2 Kakusei-hen  

Director: Toyonori Yamada, Original Creator/Character Designer: Yoshiki Usa, Series Composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, Character Design: Tomoko Fujinoki,

Voice Actors: Mamoru Miyano (Wooser), Haruka Nagamune (Ren), TiA (Yuu), Minori Ozawa (Rin), Yuri Sato (Miho),

Studio: Sanzigen

Website

I can imagine people passing over this quite easily. The cute characters and short running time of about three minutes speak of a throw-away project developed on a shoestring budget but I liked the first season of Wooser’s Hand-to-Mouth Life and was happy to jump into the second.

Pupa Winter 2014 First Impressions

Pupa       

Staff: Director: Tomomi Mochizuki, Original Creator: Sayaka Mogi, Character Designer: Maki Fujii

Voice Actors: Ibuki Kido (Yume Hasegawa), Nobunaga Shimazaki (Utsutsu Hasegawa), Kyoko Narumi (Maria), Koji Yusa (Shiro  Onijima),

Studio: Studio DEEN

Website

Synopsis

Utsutsu and his little sister Yume Hasegawa are close so when Yume sees a mysterious red butterfly and her body undergoes a strange metamorphosis into a creature that eats humans, Utsutsu struggles to find a way to restore his sister.

 Mild Spoilers for Anyone not Familiar with the Story

Bilocation, Futaridetsukuru, The Love and Death of Kaoru Mitarai, Plastic Love Story, Toshiue no Kanojo (Hito) The Movie, Half Grey vs Yakuza, Hana-dama Japanese Film Trailers

Ah, I hope everybody reading this is in good health! The week for me has seen me say goodbye to a Japanese friend as he returns home but we will keep in touch. On a more positive note my Japanese lessons have started again and I am learning a lot and I am on top of my anime and drama pile. I also had a great time at a relative’s house eating pizza and cake and watching the films Primer and the French film Untouchable. In terms of writing for this blog I finished off my list of Best Anime of 2013 and started a series of First Impressions for the 2014 Winter Season with Nobunaga the Fool and the super fun Nobunagun. I then posted about the Japanese Films at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2014. Yesterday saw me post the first batch of trailers and this is the second post.

Before we get into the trailers, congratulations go out to Shuhei Morita for being nominated for the best Animated Short Film Oscar for his short Possessions

 

Congratulations are also in order to Studio Ghibli since The Wind Rises has bee nominated for the Animated Feature Film Oscar!

Today’s trailer post has some great films here. The best looking titles are Futaridetsukuru, Bilocation and Plastic Love Story! Here are the trailers!

 

Bilocation           

Japanese: バイロケーション

Romaji: Bairoke-shon

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: January 18^th, 2014

Director: Mari Asato

Writer: Mari Asato (Screenplay), Haruka Hojo (Original Novel)

Starring: Asami Mizukawa, Kento Senga, Sho Takada, Wakana Sakai, Yosue Asari, Kosuke Toyohara,

Mari Asato, director of The Grudge: Girl in Black, is here with this thriller where an aspiring painter named Shinobu Takamura (Mizukawa) is accused of using counterfeit money even though she was no memory of it. Things get stranger when she encounters a police officer named Kano (Takito) who reveals that Shinobu have something akin to a doppelganger effect in their life that looks and acts like them. This effect is called “bilocation”.

Website

Au revoir l’ete, Black Butler, The Story of CNBlue Never Stop, Message from Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium Sea, Kazu-chan to Ore, Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters: Dinosaur Great Battle! Farewell, Eternal Friends Japanese Film Trailers

Welcome to the first of two trailer posts to cover a weekend where there are about thirteen new Japanese films released. I’ve mixed the films up about to place the low-budget dramas, documentaries and super-sentai shows together with the big budget anime/manga adaptations and the star studded titles so there is a nice mix of titles for everyone. There are some great titles released this weekend like Au revoir l’ete which stars the ace actress Fumi Nikaido and is going to play at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival and lots of dramas in tomorrow’s post like Bilocation, Futaridetsukuru, and Plastic Love Story.

 

Au revoir l’ete          

Japanese: ほとり　の　朔子

Romaji: Hotori no Sakuko

Running Time: 125 mins.

Release Date: January 18^th, 2014

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada (Screenplay)

Starring: Fumi Nikaido, Mayu Tsuruta, Kanji Furutachi, Taiga, Ena Koshino, Makiko Watanabe, Kiki Sugino

Fumi Nikaido takes the lead as a girl named Noriko who is preparing to take her university entrance exam and on the advice of her aunt Kie (Tsuruta) stays over at a relative’s house where she meets her aunt’s childhood friend Usagikichi (Furutachi), his daughter Tatsuko (Sugino) and his nephew Takashi (Taiga) who is from Fukushima. A great cast of actors and an intriguing trailer have me interested in this one.

Website