ANI-MOVIES, *Penguin Highway

Tomihiko Morimi wrote the popular Tamami Galaxy sci-fi series, and eventually the one-shot, Penguin Highway, which won the Nihon SF Taisho Award. The hit book got a manga adaptation, and a feature-length movie by Studio Colorido, who later went on to do A Whisker Away. Penguin Highway is a slice-of-life tale mixed in with Twilight Zone levels of weirdness.

Set in a small Japanese town during the summer, penguins periodically appear out of nowhere. Young genius Aoyama decides to unravel the mystery of the wandering waterfowls, and discovers they are related to an enigmatic woman he knows from the local dentist office referred to only as "The Lady" when she conjures a soda can into a penguin. There is also a bizarre sphere of water labeled "The Sea" that has manifested in the nearby forest which Aoyama's schoolmate found, which the Lady's penguins react to when she summons a flock of them to ward off some bullies. Soon, reptilian creatures the Lady calls Jaberwock to feast on the penguins, thus creating an instability in the already fractured reality. Soon, the entire area starts being covered with spouts of explosive water and more strange manifestation which are affected by the Lady's constant struggle dealing with her lack of memory regarding her past. Aoyama has to put aside his growing feelings for the Lady in order to save her and the rest of the town from the disaster caused by what he calls Penguin Energy.

Youthful maturity is the main theme behind Penguin Highway, as the youngsters involved realize that despite how much they learn on their own, its still necessary to seek out for advice from their elders. The standout feature is the animation, especially during the stunning sequences where armies of penguins begin to transform from everyday items into a rushing flood. Alot of the mystery involving the tears into reality is handwaved away with Star Trek technobabble, which might tick off a few nitpicky sci-fi fans. It does make for great watchthrough, although possibly not for non-anime fans.

ANI-MOVIES, *Maquia: When The Promised Flower Blooms

Longtime animator Mari Okada made her directorial premiere in the full-length original feature, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms. Not based on any existing material like a large number of anime movies, this production by P.A. Works was one of their first theatrical releases. A high fantasy drama that manages to separate itself from the standard Tolkien-inspired tropes that have flooded the market in the last few decades, with more emphasis on composite animation instead of relying solely on CGI, plus the added bonus of an amazing musical score by Ghost In The Shell's Kenji Kawaii.

Taking place in a world where most of the legendary magic has retreated due to the power struggles of humans, a race of immortals known as the Iorph spend their time hidden away from civilization weaving enchanted fabrics that records their history. A shy Iorph named Maquia has her life turned upside down when a team of dragon-riding knights from a neighboring kingdom kidnap some of the Iorph females to mix their immortal blood with the royal family. Maquia's friend Leilia is taken to be the mother of a powerhungry prince, so his father's realm can maintain its hold on the nearby kingdoms. Maquia accidently gets flown off by one of the dragons, and falls in the middle of a forest where she finds a newborn orphan boy that she names Ariel. The outcast immortal now sees herself as Ariel's surrogate mother, and raises him with help from some kindly diary farmers. Maquia learns of Leilia being imprisoned in the royal castle, so she sets off with Ariel to take up residence in the capitol in an attempt to rescue her old friend, even teaming up with some other Iorph remnants to free her. Leilia can't escape though as she wants to keep the royal baby she is carrying, forcing the other Iorph's to go into hiding, and Maquia continue to masquerade as a regular human, but having to move around alot as she eventually has to pretend to be Ariel's sister as he continues to grow. From this point, the majority of the story has the struggle between an aging teenager with his adopted mother remaining as a teenage girl. Ariel is later a young man who marries an old frenemy, and now expecting their own child, all while he is a part of the royal guard assigned with defending the capitol from warring nations that have had enough of the magic-snatching kingdom's tyranny. Maquia enters Ariel's life again in another attempt to liberate Leilia, and ends up helping to deliver Ariel's son while he is away with the rest of the guard. The mother and son's reunion is a heartfelt scene that strangles your heartstrings, and the film still has several other extended finales that continue the tale in the spirit of The Return Of The King as all the other characters' plots are concluded.

This is a tender saga of true familial love that will leave you wanting to call your mother for her years of faith and duty. The relationship between parents and their children, whether they are by blood or love, and how struggles of the outside world takes it toll are brilliantly showcased. The passage of time is the major theme highlighting a parentage between an immortal teenager and her mortal son, with how each person shaped the other in the long run. Mari Okada created a pure modern day masterpiece which only reached the level of sleeper hit in the States from Eleven Arts, with an impressive dub just as effective as the Japanese edition. This movie is the ultimate Mother's Day card, and a strong watch for fans of mature fairy tales.

OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Area 88

Having the prestigious honor of being one of the very first manga titles to be released in English, the Area 88 series by Cleopatra DC creator Kaoru Shintani has spawned off a TV anime, and a hit video game by Capcom. But its original adaptation was a 3-episode OVA in the mid-80s just as the manga was ending. Studio Pierrot produced this, which was first released in subtitled English by Central Park Media on VHS and Laser Disc, then dubbed in DVD by ADV Films as two compilation movies, and then again through Discotek Media. It was directed by Hisayuki Toriumi, who also worked on Gatchaman, so alot of details went into this anime shining the spotlight on the military-themed shows that had their own niche of otaku in the 80s.

Set in the late 70s-early 80s, a Middle Eastern country named Asran has a civil war going on between two factions battling for the throne. To get outside help, Asran's government sets up a special squadron of mercenary fighter pilots acting as a foreign legion, some of which are shanghaied by getting tricked into signing up for. One of these unlucky jet jockeys is Shin Kazama, a young Japanese pilot whose two-faced friend Satoru gets him signed up for Area 88 where the merc flyers are stationed at. Anyone in Area 88 must either work for a total of three years or accumulate a high enough money for an earlier ticket home. Shin tries desperately for years to work up to go back to his girlfriend Ryoko, but he has to shoot down enemy fighter planes to pay his way out. Shin gains and loses comrades during his tour of duty, even having to deal with an assassin sent by Satoru, but he does eventually manage to work his way out of service. His trip back to France to find Ryoko has him going from one bad situation after the other, leading Shin to believe he can't escape the life of a fighter pilot with all the lives he's taken. So, despite spending after three feature-length episodes pining for his love, after a half-hearted phone call with Ryoko, Shin decides that civilian life isn't for him, and zooms back to Area 88 just as the regime change causes the merc pilots to engage in one final battle, to which the OVA ends just before Shin arrives back, leaving us wondering about the fate of Shin and his crew.

The Area 88 OVA has a crucially facepalming conclusion, whereas the original manga has a more poetic finale, although if you only got the Japanese version though as the English release through Eclipse never completed the series through its single-issue format. There is an overwhelming amount of ennui and melodrama involving Shin's plight with trying to get back home coupled with his incompatible nature of trying to accept a normal life outside of being a merc, all of which pads out the OVA to a 3-episode series run. The major draw though is the uncanny dogfighting and flying sequences which are bloody as hell, like if Tarantino was directing Top Gun. The minority of military otaku might see this as an essential watch, but unless you buy into anime where the jets don't transform into space robots, it might seem like a long haul that reaches a weak conclusion.

MISC. MANGA, *Night Hunters

Floating World Comics is proficient in its publishing of independent titles, with its latest, Night Hunters, being an homage to high-octane cyberpunk anime like Ghost In The Shell, Angel Cop, or A.D. Police. Writer Dan Baker collaborated with Space Riders artist Alexis Ziritt to create this futuristic thriller.

Set in the Venezuela in the late 21st Century, two brothers are separated after living with their father on the streets. Years later, Julian is a cyborg soldier for the corrupt police, and Ezekiel goes by the name Junk Boy as he leads the city's resistance force. The brothers' destiny has their opposing forces clash in a kidnapping plot leaving a long bloody trail of destruction.

Night Hunters features fine artwork with Ziritt's neon style coming through great, and Baker is an amazing storyteller. The only major drawback is the printed versions darkening of Ziritt's design which usually sticks out like a blacklight poster. The darker print also makes it difficult to make out alot of the lettering in a black background, which is a good portion of the narrative. If a digital version becomes available, it might brighten up its murkier printed edition.

ANI-MOVIES, *The House

Having no relation to the Hugh Laurie show, The House is a stop-motion animation production by Nexus Studios from Britain. Originally conceived as a mini-series(similar to Love, Death, And Robots), Netflix decided instead to release it as single 3-part anthology feature. Nexus Studios is more renown for creatin short commercial productions, so this dark comedy is a major step forward in the ascension with others in the field like Laika.

The first chapter takes place around Victorian England where a poor family has their second daughter, who are constantly snubbed by their upper class extended relatives. The father in a bit of drunk depression makes a Faustian bargain with a mysterious benefactor who offers them a newly created townhouse further up the road from their old place. Despite being given free room and board, the family are subject to the interior constantly under reconstruction. The parents eventually give into the madness of the house's creepiness, and are transformed into furniture, leaving to two daughters to escape as a fire eventually engulfs part of the structure.

The second chapter takes place supposedly in the same house, but now in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic rodents. A developer puts all of his focus into selling a house he has remodeled, to the point that he lives in its basement while periodically contacting someone he cares for. All but two possible buyers leave during his sales party. the unusual duo decline to leave as they keep claiming to want to purchase the house. After having enough of his deadbeat clients, the developer contacts the police to get rid of them, only for it to be revealed that the person he kept calling throughout the story was merely just his dentist, leaving the viewer to question his sanity. All this while the developer is in a constant struggle with the insects infesting the house, and leads him to joining the bizarre clients who are some kind of mouse/insect hybrids, leading the developer devolving into a common rat.

The finale is set further in the future where all the inhabitants are felines, and most of the known world has flooded. One of the last seen standing places on land is the same house, or at least some version of it. The building is now studio apartments, and the fickle owner Rosa keep insisting that if she can get the house remodeled for possible better tenants, aside from the two resident deadbeats still living with her, the lazy Elias and the airheaded hippie Jen. Jen gets a visit from her soulmate Cosmos, a wandering mystic who agrees to help Rosa with her construction. However, Cosmos instead helps liberate Rosa from the hold the crumbling house has on her by transforming it into a boat-house, allowing her to remove herself of the curse the house had on it.

The House is uniquely bizarre, seriously amping up the discomfort someone might experience giving into earthly materials like a place to live, despite the fact that humans(and cartoon animals)need those comforts in order to survive. Each chapter acts as its own separate mini-movie, with the "house" itself being the same structure in all three narratives. The stop-motion is groundbreaking, even though still slightly behind the quality of an average Tim Burton campaign. This is not a clean cut horror anthology, instead of mixed blend of sneaky discomfort and spiritual emancipation.