ANI-MOVIES, *Miss Hokusai

Even casual admirers are aware of the classic artwork by Katsushika Hokusai, at least from his Great Wave Of Kanagawa, a woodblock print of a giant wave off the Japanese coast. The life of Hokusai's daughter, O-Ei, was chronicled in a manga series by the late Hinako Sugiura, which was later turned into a full-length animated movie by Keiichi Hara, whose previous works dealt with more family-centered titles like Shin-chan and Doraemon.

Set in Japan's capital city Edo during the early 1800s, Hokusai is a celebrated artist, whose techniques seem to have a supernatural life of its own. His daughter O-Ei helps him with his work, and is a proficient artist on her own usually specializing in erotica. Hoskukai has a younger daughter, O-Nao, who is O-Ei's half-sister that unfortunately is blind and weak from constantly being ill. O-Ei has difficulty settling on her feelings for more than one romantic inspiration, either her father's only student Zenjiro, or another fan of Hokusai. She ultimately tries to find passion with a crossdressing geisha, but still can't focus her heart's direction into her work. O-Nao continues to struggle with her condition, and believes her father won't visit her because he's afraid of sickness, all while O-Ei keeps consoling her sister as she tries to show her what the visual world is like.

The anime has been released dubbed through GKids, although though quite alot of the material is not especially for all ages. The quality of production that Madman Entertainment put into this project is impressive, despite the occasional drop in performance making it appear like something more out of a made-for-TV movie instead of a theatrically released film.