ANI-MOVIES, *The Tale Of Princess Kaguya

The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter has been adapted for various anime media, including Sailor Moon S: The Movie, but aside a live-action film from the late 80s it didn't have its own animated feature production dedicated to it. Studio Ghibli regular Isao Takahata made his last anime movie this 2013 Oscar nominated movie, whose superb creation landed him his own behind the scenes full-length documentary chronicling the directors etherial swan song. The Tale Of Princess Kaguya takes one of Japan's pinnacle folk tales and makes it open to Western audiences, originally through Disney, and then again after it was requisited by GKids.

A middle-aged bamboo cutter lives in the Japanese mountains. One day, he discovers a tiny Thumbelina-like sprite in the woods which immeadiately turns into a human baby girl after being touched by the bamboo cutter's wife. The baby keeps growing older at an accelerated rate, and is hinted to be a princess as her parents keep finding blessings from heaven to raise the child. With their newfound wealth, the family moves into a stately manor in the capital where the now young lady is officially named Kaguya. Her beauty gets the ears of all the eligible members of the royal court, each of which are sent on their own impossible quest to win her hand in marriage. After every one of the suitors ends up either going broke or flat out dying, the emperor himself tries to claim Kaguya, but this ends up backfiring as Kaguya finally realizes she comes from the moon, and accidently wished to be sent back to her celestial realm. Kaguya was a resident of the lunar kingdom who learned about the romantic Earth from a lady who had lost her magical robe on her trip there, and the young princess wished to be reborn on the mortal world to experience what love is. Her hasteful wish to return comes true as Buhdda himself and his entourage puts everyone guarding Kaguya to sleep, and is ascended back to the moon, but maintains her Earthly memories on her voyage home where its hinted she is reborn again.

Possibly taking a hint from the Ayashi No Ceres legend of a heavenly figure her divinity while growing a family in the human world, Isao Takahata's take on the bamboo cutter tale tries to bridge the seperate sagas into the same continuity. Most of The Tale Of Princess Kaguya movie covers the plotpoints of the source material, but greatly expands on it from the point of view of Kaguya herself and how she wanted to lead a simple life instead of maintaining her position as a rich noble, and how her decisions impact the lives of her adopted family. The entire film is more of an exploration of the title character's perspective on the world around her, despite she the fact she wishes to be merely a mortal instead of a divine being. The style of animation fluxuates during some of Kaguya's more spirited dream sequences which has her interacting with others on a spiritual level. The dub is acceptable, but seems to miss the charm of the previous Ghibli English adaptations. The movie altogether does show Isao Takahata's lifetime of quality as one of the premiere anime legends.

ANI-MOVIES, *Spirited Away

As winner of the first anime to get Best Animated Feature from the Oscars, Spirited Away has gone down as Hayao Miyazaka's masterpiece and the single highest selling anime movie of all time, at least until the recent Demon Slayer film. Studio Ghibli's production was in fact an original idea by Miyazaki, and not based on a prior source like a book series or manga. The film carries the message of Japanese myths, western commerce, and environmental issues without being like an old Captain Planet episode. This modern fairy tale carries young viewers into a scary but stunning world worthy of Wonderland.

Young girl Chihiro is with her parents as they get lost while on their move to a new city, and the family crosses over to a vacation spot in the spirit world. The parents get turned into pigs after dining on the local cuisine, so Chihiro now has to make a deal working for Yubaba, the enterprising elderly witch who runs the resort. Our heroine is befriended by Yubaba's dragon assistant Haku who can take on the form of a young boy, and secretly saved Chihiro's life from drowning in a river when she was younger. Chihiro's time at Yubaba's bathhouse has her catering to a myriad of gods, spirits, ghosts, and other monsters, including a strange creature called No-Face who becomes corrupted by the resort's consumerism. A trip to Yubaba's twin sister witch helps Chihiro break free of her contract and restoring her parents, although they return to the human world realizing that a considerable amount of time had passed during their spiritual encounter.

Following up his success in Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki came out of semi-retirement to create this original production. As far as animation quality is concerned, this features various realistic designs while still taking influence from Japanese folklore, including taking time to dwell on the mystical background. This can work against it though as some scenes tend to go on longer than necessary, and mostly for those who appreciate the aesthetics of quality animation. Spirited Away succeeds in telling a fantasy tale set in the 21st Century, although it does make it difficult to always tell where the narrative is going with the creator's need to add a new piece of lore to the story with minimal explanation to its relevancy. It's a lengthy film that carries audiences into a completely new realm of imagination, and making them long for more from Ghibli's visual genius.

ANI-MOVIES, *Justice Society: World War II

Originally intended to be a Wonder Woman animated series set in WWII(similar to the first season of the Lynda Carter TV show), Justice Society: World War II is the first DC Comics project starring very first superhero group in their own title outside the regular comics continuity. Supposedly taking place in the same refreshed DC Universe animated movies as Superman: Man Of Tomorrow, this is the also the first DC project bridging the gap between the Golden Age and modern day superheroes.

Prior to the watching the main feature, it would benefit the viewer to seeing the DC Showcase short of Kamandi At Earth's End which indirectly ties into the movie, similar to how DC Showcase: Catwoman was a contination of the Batman: Year One movie. Based on Jack Kirby's post-apocalyptic saga that would later go onto influence his work on Thundarr The Barbarian, Kamandi is thought to be the last boy alive on Earth, and gets thrown into a gauntlet of challenges by a Planet Of The Apex knockoff tribe to be proclaimed as their "mighty one", who it turns out was actually Superman. Kamandi then sets off to find Superman in the wastelands, with a large hint that this was a smaller part of a larger narrative. For a DC Showcase film, it utilizes Kirby iconic designs to shine the light on one of the lesser-known comic book characters.

The feature presentation starts off with Barry Allen(aka: The Flash)visiting Metropolis with his girlfriend Iris, who is black in this story to mirror The Flash TV series. He zooms off to help Superman stop an attack by Brainiac, meaning the evil alien android might have been the one who hired Lobo to hunt Superman in the Man Of Tomorrow. During the fight, Flash travels through a wormhole that takes him to Europe smack in the middle of WWII where the Axis are being held back by a secret team of superheroes classified as the Justice Society of America. Lead by Wonder Woman the last Amazon, the team consists Hawkman, Black Canary(complete with her "Canary Cry"), Hourman, and the Golden Age Flash, this team reports to the Allies through Diana's boyfriend Steve Trevor, and their correspondent referred to as Shakespeare. The JSA gets a mission to rescue Dr. Fate being held in an Nazi-occupied castle, where its revealed that Shakespeare is given the Superman outfit from an unnamed youth who bears a strong resemblance to Kamandi, and the mysterious war reporter is bulletproof. Barry Allen regocnizes Dr. Fate as the one who he saw when going through the wormhole, coming to the conclusion that he's not just in the past but in a pararllel universe, or an Earth-2. The JSA follow Dr. Fate's info to the Bermuda Triangle where they encounter Aquaman and his Atlantean forces, who turns out to be under the mind control of the power of Nazi agent known as The Advisor, which most regular DC Comics fans would be familiar using the moniker of Psycho-Pirate. The rest of the movie seems to loose the traditional DC Comics storyline angle and seems to combine the ending to Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and Throne Of Atlantis where Wonder Woman is in mortal combat with Aquaman while the other heroes focus on the Atlantean forces invading New York. After Hawkman and Steve Trevor had already dies, Shakespeare finally decides to join the fight to stop the remaining Nazi bomber planes back when Superman only had the power to "leap tall buildings", which is similar to having Constantine freeing Wonder Woman from Darkseid's control after she had already killed Etrigan in Apocolips War. The JSA manage to snap Aquaman out of the Advisor's control, but leaving Atlantis as a possible existing enemy in this reality, while the Advisor himself disappears, hinting at a possible rematch. Barry Allen manages to get back to his world thanks to Golden Age Flash where the modern day speedster cements a friendship with Superman and suggesting that they form a league of their own.

Justice Society: World War II has a greater production than what Warner Bros. put into the previous movie of Superman: Man Of Tomorrow. The opening credits pay homage to films of the 1940s, and the plot moves along in the style of old movie serials. It does switch paces though from a war movie to an atompunk story with the introduction of Aquaman and the Nazi-controlled Atlanteans, with a large emphasis spent on letting the viewer know that any of the heroes could be casualties of war. Old school comics fans should thrill at all the references to DC Comics' history layered throughout the film, and recent comics readers should get a kick out of the Golden Age crackerjack action!

ANI-MOVIES, *The Secret World Of Arrietty

As one of several adaptaions of The Borrowers book series by Mary Norton, this was the first new Studio Ghibli animated movie of the 2010s. The Sercret World Of Arrietty is a family fantasy film taking the concept of "little people" that has been a genre on its own since before the days of the Grimm Bros. Hiyao Miyazaki handled some material simlarty to this in Nausicaa with giant insects, but Arrietty is greatly scaled down and brings a large perspective on a relatively minimal scale. However, Miyazaki only did the screenplay on this project, where as it was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi who went on to greater success with his second movie, When Marnie Was There. It was Japan's biggest movie of 2010, and later got dubbed by Disney, which is now owned by G Kids, as well as a seperate English dub done for the UK by Studio Canal featuring future Spider-Man, Tom Holland.

Sickly young man Sho has to spend some time at the country estate of his grand aunt while he prepares for an upcoming heart surgery. While he's there, Sho notices a tiny girl known as a Borrower, and tries to befriend her by leaving her a sugar cube. The girl called Arrietty has started carrying on the family tradition of being a Borrower, learning from her parents who she lives with underneath the house floors. Sho and Arrietty's friendship expands, but his knowledge of the Borrower's existernce leads to them having the small people leaving to find a new home. But Sho manages to help them escape the machinations of his aunt's nosy housekeeper. The American dub has some additional narration by Sho about how he never saw Arrietty again, but still hear's rumors of other nearby little people, its not known however if this is canon with the Japanese and British editions of the film.

Like most Ghibli movies, there is great detail given to the characters background and enviroment, especially how someone only a few inches high would view the world from a scale much smaller than humans. You can see how a premise like this might make for a great video game about micro-humans struggling to survive in a world with the threat of what would be them giants to them. The music is enchanting by French composer Cecil Corbel, and brings a distinct sense of whimsy to the production. The Secret World Of Arrietty is an amazing animated attraction for the entire family, and specifically enjoyable even for non-otaku!

ANI-MOVIES, *Kiki's Delivery Service

Eiko Kadono's popular Kiki's Delivery Service book series premiered in Japan during the mid-80s, and was appealing enough for Studio Ghibli to make it an international hit by producing a 1989 animated movie. Hayao Miyazaki once again directs the family-frlendly anime done as a supernatural light comedy. This successful anime had a 4-part manga adaptation, as well as several different dubs, one specifically by Robotech's Carl Macek for international Japanese flights, and then later on by Disney, with various edits made to it for different releases emitting dialogue that didn't fit with the original script, or replacing the opening/closing theme by American talent. The current version is now available through GKids who ended up re-releasing most of the Ghibli films.

Set in a modern day version of our world where witches are accepted as part of everyday society, teenage witch Kiki sets off on her year long journey away from home to discover her special talent. Aside from having some experience flying a broom, Kiki's only other real witch ability was talking to her cat Jiji. The wannabe witch settles down at a town by the seaside, and sets up business as a flying delivery girl while helping out at a bakery that let her stay there. Kiki reluctantly befriends local aeronautics enthusiast Tombo who becomes fascinated with her flying skills, even though his familiarity with some of the more snobbish teenagers put Kiki off, leading to her having an existential crisis. This depression causes her to temporarily loose her powers, but gains them back when she has to rescue Tombo from a runaway blimp, as most Miyazaki productions tend to have unique aircraft in abundance.

Similar to Whisper Of The Heart, Kiki's Delivery Service is also a coming of age story, but on a somewhat younger scale, and set in a fantasy world. Not your standard "magical girl" anime as Kiki isn't fighting demons every week, the movie is a far less cynical story, not totally on the level of fairy tale, while also not being a dark gothic story with all the typical supernatural elements in various other anime. The animation quality is brilliant with serious detail given to the literal ups and downs involved in human flight, plus the character designs are of standard Ghibli fashion, although slightly more expressive to keep it comedic. The preferred version of the dub you would probably appreciate the most is the current GKids edit keeping the Disney dub, but leaving out the Americanimsms that were done to make it seem "trendier".

ANI-MOVIES, *Whisper Of The Heart

The late Yoshifumi Kondo had been a veteran in the anime biz for decades before taking up director duties on the only project he oversaw for Studio Ghibli, Whisper Of The Heart was the first film done by the studio not to be directed by either Haoyo Miyazaki or Isao Takahata(more noted for Grave Of The Fireflies), and became a great note for Kondo's legacy just a few years before he passed away. The movie was based on the manga by Aoi Hiiragi, who hasn't had many other her other titles released in English, so the anime is one of the few exposures Western audiences have to her work. This anime was the first theatrical film not directed by Ghibli's Big Two, and unlike their former titles wasn't a fantasy/adventure, but a modern day coming of age story.

Middle schooler Shizuku is struggling with schoolwork while constantly reading fairy tales and other fantasy fiction, while spending most of her time reading books from the public library her father works at. She notices most of the books she gets were previously checked out by another boy named Seiji. One day she follows a roaming cat to a hidden away antiques shop run by a kind old man whose grandson happens to be Seiji, which at first she can't believe because Shizuku's first encounters the fellow schoolmate with him teasing her, despite the fact that his original attempts to gain her attention were met with failure as she was lost in her own world. Seiji informs Shizuku that he'll be in Italy for two months to become a violin crafter, and might not be joining her as they move onto high school. Shizuku dedicates the intervening time proving to herself that she can work towards a goal by creating a story based on the mysterious cat statue she amazes over in Seiji's grandfather's shop. She completes her self-appointed task just as Seiji returns early to declare his love for her.

Aside from the slice-of-life nature of a theatrical Studio Ghibli project, its real life setting makes it slightly hard to sell to younger viewers hoping to see something more whimsical like My Neighbor Totoro. This makes Whisper Of The Heart somewhat of a cult hit among Ghibli titles. The original Disney dub has a great cast to it, which was eventually re-released through GKids, and the different versions of Take Me Home played in both the English and Japanese editions througout the film make for an interesting piece of American nostalgia. This movie was followed up by a spinoff of sorts titled The Cat Returns based on Shizuku's story she wrote in itself was more of a fantasy adventure, even though Whisper Of The Heart is a heartwarming and purely endearing feature on its own.

MISC. MANGA, *Black Blizzard

As one of the very first genuine manga titles ever made, Yoshihiro Tatsumi made this crime drama in late 1956, featuring both color and greyscale sections, which is a standard in even modern manga as the beginning usually begins with a few pages of color. Black Blizzard was a crime drama that unlike most of the Tezuka manga of the 60s, it didn't feature aliens, robots, or superheroes. In fact, Tezuka was a collegue of Tatsumi who encouraged him to make longer stories during a time that most Japanese comics were anthologies of short segments. Tatsumi decided to instead create manga intended for mature readers, which on its own was a turning point in the history of Japanese publishing, bringing on more pulp fiction themed titles.

Two fugitives escape from a train, and are handcuffed together. Now on the run, the professional criminal Shinpei and newly convicted Susumu ge better acquainted with Susumu going over the story of how becamed a wanted man. The young man fell for the singing daughter of a circus owner, but was found with the owner's corpse with no alibi. His affair lead to his arrest, but Susumu does find salvation in a shocking twist that links his and Shinpei's fates together.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi got his idea for Black Blizzard from the Count Of Monte Cristo, which itself was later turned into a sci-fi anime series. Drawn and Quarterly did a fine job cleaning up the vintage manga for English readers, and the plot is engaging for fans of The Fugitive and The Shadow.