Of all the American streaming services, Netflix is the one that relies most heavily on international projects. Its most critically and popularly acclaimed films and series are regularly projects originating in Europe, K- and J-dramas streamed on Netflix receive high ratings on review aggregators, and, of course, the company is betting big on anime.
Japanese animation arrived on the service in 2014, when Knights of Sidonia was announced as Netflix's first 'original' anime series, followed by many other original and licensed, failed and successful projects, as well as live-action adaptations from Death Note to One Piece, and now, 10 years later, the Netflix series Delicious in Dungeon has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
On that note, the huge deal was the April 5 addition to Netflix's library of the feature-length anime film Suzume by renowned Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai. The film received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike during its theatrical release,...
Japanese animation arrived on the service in 2014, when Knights of Sidonia was announced as Netflix's first 'original' anime series, followed by many other original and licensed, failed and successful projects, as well as live-action adaptations from Death Note to One Piece, and now, 10 years later, the Netflix series Delicious in Dungeon has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
On that note, the huge deal was the April 5 addition to Netflix's library of the feature-length anime film Suzume by renowned Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai. The film received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike during its theatrical release,...
- 4/23/2024
- by louise.everitt@startefacts.com (Louise Everitt)
- STartefacts.com
“A New Dawn,” the feature debut of Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, an animator on Makoto Shinkai’s blockbuster “Your Name,” is one draw in a five-title Annecy Animation Showcase which involves producers of real impact on the global independent animation scene.
The showcase will unveil a second brand-new animation project, “Mu-Ki-Ra,” co-produced by “Unicorn Wars” backer Abano Producións. The Showcase also features two key French prestige animation titles: “Conference of the Birds,” now backed by Le Pacte, and “In Waves,” from Silex Films, Anonymous Content, and leading sales agency Charades. Rounding up the selection is the anticipated Mexican feature “The Language of Birds.”
The Annecy Festival has long been the most important date on the international animation calendar, unfolding on the picturesque shores of Lake Annecy in France each summer.
In 2016, Cannes’ Marché du Film started providing a spring sneak peek at a small collection of work-in-progress titles that would...
The showcase will unveil a second brand-new animation project, “Mu-Ki-Ra,” co-produced by “Unicorn Wars” backer Abano Producións. The Showcase also features two key French prestige animation titles: “Conference of the Birds,” now backed by Le Pacte, and “In Waves,” from Silex Films, Anonymous Content, and leading sales agency Charades. Rounding up the selection is the anticipated Mexican feature “The Language of Birds.”
The Annecy Festival has long been the most important date on the international animation calendar, unfolding on the picturesque shores of Lake Annecy in France each summer.
In 2016, Cannes’ Marché du Film started providing a spring sneak peek at a small collection of work-in-progress titles that would...
- 4/23/2024
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
- 3/18/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Disney+ has revealed the release date for the next title on its growing slate of Japanese anime. The hitman series The Fable, based on the best-selling manga of the same name, will launch worldwide on the streaming service on April 7. The show is the latest anime title released via Disney’s partnership with Japanese publishing powerhouse Kodansha, the home of some of Japan’s most iconic manga IP, including titles like Akira, Attack on Titan and Ghost in the Shell.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Luke Kang, Disney’s president of the Asia Pacific region, spoke of anime’s continually growing global popularity and said that producing more content in the category was Disney’s main priority for the Japanese market. The Fable will also air in Japan on Nippon TV, but Disney holds the exclusive worldwide streaming rights.
The original The Fable manga was written and...
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Luke Kang, Disney’s president of the Asia Pacific region, spoke of anime’s continually growing global popularity and said that producing more content in the category was Disney’s main priority for the Japanese market. The Fable will also air in Japan on Nippon TV, but Disney holds the exclusive worldwide streaming rights.
The original The Fable manga was written and...
- 2/27/2024
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Japanese media industry was surprised recently when Koichiro Ito, the producer of the fantasy adventure anime movie Suzume, was arrested in Japan for allegedly compelling a teenage girl to send him pictures that were inappropriate on social media. At the time, the girl was fifteen years old and in her first year of high school.
Suzume
He is charged with forcing a high school student who was to send him photos of herself wearing only her underwear after they met on an online social networking site (Sns). It appears that his purported involvement in the affair has surfaced in the course of the police inquiry into a related crime. The rest of the details about the case will be revealed in the future.
He worked on and contributed to a number of notable anime productions, but his most well-known works include Suzume, Your Name, and The Garden of Words.
Suzume
He is charged with forcing a high school student who was to send him photos of herself wearing only her underwear after they met on an online social networking site (Sns). It appears that his purported involvement in the affair has surfaced in the course of the police inquiry into a related crime. The rest of the details about the case will be revealed in the future.
He worked on and contributed to a number of notable anime productions, but his most well-known works include Suzume, Your Name, and The Garden of Words.
- 2/26/2024
- by Tarun Kohli
- FandomWire
Japanese fantasy adventure anime movie Suzume’s producer Koichiro Ito was arrested in Japan for allegedly forcing a teenage girl to send him n*ked pictures on social media.
According to Tellerreport Ito, the individual in charge of a production company in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, was arrested and charged by Wakayama Prefectural Police with allegedly facilitating child pr-stitution and p*rnography involving underage girls.
Suzume
He is accused of allegedly pressuring a high school student he met on an internet social networking site (Sns) to send him pictures of herself in her underwear. The prefectural police are looking into the potential existence of other victims.
He worked on and contributed to numerous very important anime productions, although he has become best known for Suzume (2022), Your Name (2016), and The Garden of Words (2013). It seems that his involvement came to light when the Police were looking into a different case.
SUGGESTEDDragon Ball:...
According to Tellerreport Ito, the individual in charge of a production company in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, was arrested and charged by Wakayama Prefectural Police with allegedly facilitating child pr-stitution and p*rnography involving underage girls.
Suzume
He is accused of allegedly pressuring a high school student he met on an internet social networking site (Sns) to send him pictures of herself in her underwear. The prefectural police are looking into the potential existence of other victims.
He worked on and contributed to numerous very important anime productions, although he has become best known for Suzume (2022), Your Name (2016), and The Garden of Words (2013). It seems that his involvement came to light when the Police were looking into a different case.
SUGGESTEDDragon Ball:...
- 2/22/2024
- by Tarun Kohli
- FandomWire
A Tiffcom seminar on Thursday demonstrated both a sense of incredulity that Japanese animation “Suzume” could have enjoyed such wide international success and conveyed the depth of passionate behind-the-scenes strategizing that made it happen.
Since its release in Japan at the end of 2022 and international expansion in spring of 2023, following a Berlin festival competition slot, “Suzume,” a fantasy drama about a girl who helps avert natural disasters, sold more than 47 million tickets worldwide.
“And most of those people don’t even speak Japanese,” said the session’s moderator Sudo Tadashi, journalist and professor at the Japan University of Economics.
Sunami Kazuki, MD of producer CoMix Wave Films and the Takeda Akihiro, an executive attached to the president’s office at the film’s worldwide distributor Toho, said that “Suzumi’s” success was not a foregone conclusion.
Its success was years in the making and based on the growing performance of...
Since its release in Japan at the end of 2022 and international expansion in spring of 2023, following a Berlin festival competition slot, “Suzume,” a fantasy drama about a girl who helps avert natural disasters, sold more than 47 million tickets worldwide.
“And most of those people don’t even speak Japanese,” said the session’s moderator Sudo Tadashi, journalist and professor at the Japan University of Economics.
Sunami Kazuki, MD of producer CoMix Wave Films and the Takeda Akihiro, an executive attached to the president’s office at the film’s worldwide distributor Toho, said that “Suzumi’s” success was not a foregone conclusion.
Its success was years in the making and based on the growing performance of...
- 10/26/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
In Japanese mythology, Namazu was believed to be an underground fish that caused earthquakes, as immortalized in several namazu-e woodblock prints of the Edo period. Imprisoned and subdued under a large stone by Takemikazuchi, the god of thunder, earthquakes were believed to occur whenever Takemikazuchi let his guard down, meaning Namazu could wriggle free, flapping his giant body to-and-fro to cause havoc for the unsuspecting citizens above.
Perhaps Takemikazuchi doesn’t do a good job — Japan has, on average, 1,500 earthquakes a year, with its 700 islands sitting perilously close to the Pacific Earthquake Belt, also known as the suitably demonic “Ring of Fire.” In “Suzume,” , this mythical giant catfish is replaced by a snakepit of burning, writhing, fire-red worms, who escape from a hellish netherworld bent on causing geographical devastation. Siloed away in a magical land, these worms are normally contained by doorways secured by “keystones,” with doors guarded and kept...
Perhaps Takemikazuchi doesn’t do a good job — Japan has, on average, 1,500 earthquakes a year, with its 700 islands sitting perilously close to the Pacific Earthquake Belt, also known as the suitably demonic “Ring of Fire.” In “Suzume,” , this mythical giant catfish is replaced by a snakepit of burning, writhing, fire-red worms, who escape from a hellish netherworld bent on causing geographical devastation. Siloed away in a magical land, these worms are normally contained by doorways secured by “keystones,” with doors guarded and kept...
- 2/23/2023
- by Steph Green
- Indiewire
Following his short feature “Voices of a Distant Star”, which won him the Animation Kobe Award along with the Seiun Award for Best Media, director Makoto Shinkai continued his journey into animation, science fiction and love triangles in “The Place Promised In Our Early Days”. The movie, which was awarded Best Animation Film at Mainichi Film Concours, while exploring similar themes, has a much wider scale than his previous works. Similar to other works in Japanese animation, concepts like time, parallel worlds and combining various layers of reality constitute the foundation of a story following the lives of three individuals, but also hints at Japanese history and the nation’s outlook at an uncertain future.
The story takes place in an alternate version of the world, in which Japan not only lost World War II, but was also divided, with its north being occupied by the Soviet Union.
The story takes place in an alternate version of the world, in which Japan not only lost World War II, but was also divided, with its north being occupied by the Soviet Union.
- 9/20/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
“Your Name” (or Name/Kimi no na wa) follows his 2013 “The Garden of Words”,which won the Satoshi Kon Award for Best Achievement in Animation and Best Animation Feature at the 17th Fantasia Film Festival. His first foray into the genre was in 1999 with the monochrome “She and Her Cat” (Standing Points) a five minute short award-winning anime about the relationship between a male cat and his female owner, told through the perspective of the cat. A massive hit in Japan and Asia on release, “Your Name” has since superseded Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” (2001) as the highest grossing anime of all time. “Your Name” also garnered a number of awards for best animated feature including 71st Mainichi Film Awards and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards (2016); however, despite its critical and commercial success, it failed to be nominated for an academy award unlike “Spirited Away” which remains the only...
- 3/26/2020
- by Colette Balmain
- AsianMoviePulse
One week ago, Shinkai Makoto's Weathering With You opened in U.S. theaters and is already among my favorite films from the past 365 days. It's also been widely acclaimed by critics, as noted at Rotten Tomatoes, and has proven to be a popular success, as calculated by Box Office Mojo. The story "takes flight into the fantastical while never losing sight of earthbound realities," as I wrote in my review, and thus fits well within the director's oeuvre, including his features Your Name (2016), 5 Centimeters Per Second (2007) and The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004), as well as the shorter Voices of a Distant Star (2002). Among those fine films is The Garden of Words (2013), which is now being mounted in...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/24/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Soaked with climate-altering passion, Makoto Shinkai’s new animated spectacle “Weathering With You” once again pits two young lovers against forces beyond their control, treading similar waters as his 2016 global hit “Your Name,” for a thrilling extravaganza of scintillating imagery, uproarious music, and gravity-defying stunts with spiritual panache.
Torrential rain drowns Tokyo like it hasn’t in recent memory, and with every enormous drop that reaches the ground, the city’s dwellers long a little harder for the sunshine of summer. Such inclement conditions welcome 15-year-old Hodaka (voiced by Kotaro Daigo), a small-town dreamer who’s run away from home to the chaotic metropolis.
Necessity propels him to take a live-in job transcribing for a scruffy father figure, Keisuke (Shun Oguri), whose occupation is to write engaging fake news. But his luck changes when he, gun in hand, attempts to defend Hina (Nana Mori), a “sunshine girl” with the power to momentarily stop the downpour.
Torrential rain drowns Tokyo like it hasn’t in recent memory, and with every enormous drop that reaches the ground, the city’s dwellers long a little harder for the sunshine of summer. Such inclement conditions welcome 15-year-old Hodaka (voiced by Kotaro Daigo), a small-town dreamer who’s run away from home to the chaotic metropolis.
Necessity propels him to take a live-in job transcribing for a scruffy father figure, Keisuke (Shun Oguri), whose occupation is to write engaging fake news. But his luck changes when he, gun in hand, attempts to defend Hina (Nana Mori), a “sunshine girl” with the power to momentarily stop the downpour.
- 1/17/2020
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
It’s pretty easy to forget (maybe not so easy if you have a young kid or two), but Frozen (2013) was The movie of 2013. It was a massive blockbuster hit that stuck around in theaters over a year after it debuted in November of that year, and it reminded us of just how powerful the Disney Princess formula was when the company was firing on all cylinders. Sure, Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (2013) was my favorite movie from that year, and Makoto Shinkai’s The Garden of Words (2013) was the best animated movie of that year, but Frozen
‘Frozen II’ Surpasses the Original In (Nearly) Every Way...
‘Frozen II’ Surpasses the Original In (Nearly) Every Way...
- 12/5/2019
- by Brian Hadsell
- TVovermind.com
“Musubi is the old way of calling the local guardian god. This word has profound meaning. Typing thread is Musubi. Connecting people is Musubi. The flow of time is Musubi. These are all the god’s power.[…] Musubi – knotting. That’s time.”
Makoto Shinkai’s animated film “Your Name” (Kimi no na wa.), distributed by the prestigious Toho, has been a record-breaking hit, threatened to be surpassed only by the new upcoming Shinkai’s movie. This genre-defying film is simply beautiful and captivating, and its huge success everywhere does not surprise. “Your Name” also introduces a contagious verve of joy that the previous movies did not have and that can almost catch by surprise those more used to the introverted and romantic style and to the troubled characters, so peculiar to the director.
“Your Name” is screening at Anime Film Festival 2019
Mitsuha and Taki are two teenagers, living in two very different parts of Japan.
Makoto Shinkai’s animated film “Your Name” (Kimi no na wa.), distributed by the prestigious Toho, has been a record-breaking hit, threatened to be surpassed only by the new upcoming Shinkai’s movie. This genre-defying film is simply beautiful and captivating, and its huge success everywhere does not surprise. “Your Name” also introduces a contagious verve of joy that the previous movies did not have and that can almost catch by surprise those more used to the introverted and romantic style and to the troubled characters, so peculiar to the director.
“Your Name” is screening at Anime Film Festival 2019
Mitsuha and Taki are two teenagers, living in two very different parts of Japan.
- 9/4/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Japan has chosen “Weathering With You” (Tenki no Ko), by record breaking director Makoto Shinkai as national entry for the Best International Feature Film Category at the 2020 Oscars.
“Weathering With You” – that has just reached the $100 million (10.7 billion yen) mark at the domestic box office – is the first anime, since ‘Princess Mononoke’ by Hayao Miyazaki in 1998, to be designated to represent Japan at the Academy Awards.
The two protagonists are voiced by Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka) e da Nana Mori (Hina), and the theme-song “Ai ni Deikiru Koto wa Mada Aru Kai” is composed by popular j-rock band Radwimps that had greatly contributed to the success of “Your Name”.
Other members of the crew include Masayoshi Tanaka (“Your Name”) in charge of the character design, Atsushi Tamura head of animation, and artistic director Hiroshi Takiguchi (“The Garden of Words”, “Ajin”).
Synopsis
Hodaka Morishima runs away from his remote island to Tokyo,...
“Weathering With You” – that has just reached the $100 million (10.7 billion yen) mark at the domestic box office – is the first anime, since ‘Princess Mononoke’ by Hayao Miyazaki in 1998, to be designated to represent Japan at the Academy Awards.
The two protagonists are voiced by Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka) e da Nana Mori (Hina), and the theme-song “Ai ni Deikiru Koto wa Mada Aru Kai” is composed by popular j-rock band Radwimps that had greatly contributed to the success of “Your Name”.
Other members of the crew include Masayoshi Tanaka (“Your Name”) in charge of the character design, Atsushi Tamura head of animation, and artistic director Hiroshi Takiguchi (“The Garden of Words”, “Ajin”).
Synopsis
Hodaka Morishima runs away from his remote island to Tokyo,...
- 8/28/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
“Weathering With You” (Tenki no Ko) is a fable about friensdhip and climate, written and diected by acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai (“Your Name”. “The Garden of Words”, “Journey to Aghartha”, “5 Centimeters per Second”)
Produced by CoMix Wave (same studio behind “Your Name” and “Flavors of Youth”) the film premiered in Japanese Cinemas on the 19th of July and it’s already a huge hit.
The two protagonists are voiced by Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka) e da Nana Mori (Hina), and the them song “Ai ni Deikiru Koto wa Mada Aru Kai” is composed by popular j-rock band Radwimps that had greatly contributed to the success of “Your Name”.
Other members of the crew include Masayoshi Tanaka (“Your Name”) in charge of the character design, Atsushi Tamura head of animation, and artistic director Hiroshi Takiguchi (“The Garden of Words”, “Ajin”).
Considering the well-known passion and ability for weather rapresentation that director...
Produced by CoMix Wave (same studio behind “Your Name” and “Flavors of Youth”) the film premiered in Japanese Cinemas on the 19th of July and it’s already a huge hit.
The two protagonists are voiced by Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka) e da Nana Mori (Hina), and the them song “Ai ni Deikiru Koto wa Mada Aru Kai” is composed by popular j-rock band Radwimps that had greatly contributed to the success of “Your Name”.
Other members of the crew include Masayoshi Tanaka (“Your Name”) in charge of the character design, Atsushi Tamura head of animation, and artistic director Hiroshi Takiguchi (“The Garden of Words”, “Ajin”).
Considering the well-known passion and ability for weather rapresentation that director...
- 7/31/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.
Last Friday saw the release of Laika’s “Missing Link,” a singular and exquisitely crafted piece of stop-motion animation at a time when generic, computer-generated fare is dominating the market (IndieWire’s positive review can be read here). Naturally, it bombed.
This week’s question: In an attempt to call attention to the films that treat feature-length animation like the art form that it is, what’s the most beautifully animated film ever made?
“5 Centimeters Per Second”
Hoai-Tran (@htranbui), SlashFilm
Makoto Shinkai may be best known as the director behind the 2017 global mega-hit “Your Name,” but he has long established himself as a singular anime filmmaker whose pensive metaphysical plots are only bested by his gorgeous photorealistic renderings of modern-day Tokyo. While his 2013 short film “The Garden of Words” is objectively...
Last Friday saw the release of Laika’s “Missing Link,” a singular and exquisitely crafted piece of stop-motion animation at a time when generic, computer-generated fare is dominating the market (IndieWire’s positive review can be read here). Naturally, it bombed.
This week’s question: In an attempt to call attention to the films that treat feature-length animation like the art form that it is, what’s the most beautifully animated film ever made?
“5 Centimeters Per Second”
Hoai-Tran (@htranbui), SlashFilm
Makoto Shinkai may be best known as the director behind the 2017 global mega-hit “Your Name,” but he has long established himself as a singular anime filmmaker whose pensive metaphysical plots are only bested by his gorgeous photorealistic renderings of modern-day Tokyo. While his 2013 short film “The Garden of Words” is objectively...
- 4/15/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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