Future Boy Conan: The Playstation 2 Video Game

Future Boy Conan is the 1978 NHK anime series directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and is a thrilling combination of adventure, romance and comedy, with strong doses of political and environmental themes that would become icons of the Studio Ghibli era. It's a fantastic show and might possibly be the director's greatest work in animation.

And here is the one thing Ghibli Freaks everywhere have begged and pleaded for years: a Miyazaki video game! D3, a software publisher dedicated largely to cartoon-videogame tie-ins, brought Future Boy Conan to the Playstation 2 in Japan.

If you're familiar with the TV series, then you'll love this game, which recreates the entire series from start to finish. Playing as Conan, you explore fully three-dimensional environments, fulfilling mission requirements, searching for objects, meeting characters, and beating up bad guys. In other words, you get to do pretty much everything you saw on the show.

D3 recreates the world of Future Boy Conan with an almost obsessive attention to detail. You can tell the programmers and designers were true fans and not just cashing in a paycheck. Animations are supremely fluid and aim to capture the stylings of the show. I especially enjoyed watching Conan running recklessly, just like he does in a dozen TV episodes.

The graphics are rendered in a style called "cel shading," in which 3D polygon models are layered with a thick black outline that mimics that look of 2D cartoon drawings. It became famous in Sega's Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio in the US), but the technique was pioneered previously in Wacky Races and Fear Effect on Dreamcast and Playstation 1, respectively. You may also recognize this style with Ni No Kuni, which was jointly produced with Studio Ghibli (the sequel uses many of the same animators, even though the studio was on hiatus at the time).

Despite my best investigations, I could not find an English-language patch for PS2 Conan. It was released exclusively in Japan and features a fair amount of text. You may need to consult a FAQ guide for assistance. Physical copies can be found on Ebay for $34.00 - $75.00, but this appears to be a slightly obscure release.

Here are a couple gameplay videos to show off Future Boy Conan. Now give us more Miyazaki videogames! And somebody release this series in the States!

Arrietty Blu-Ray: No UK Dub on GKIDS Reissue

Sad news for American Ghibli Freaks: film distributor GKIDS today announced that their upcoming Blu-Ray release of The Secret World of Arrietty will not include the beloved UK dub as previously hoped. It will only include the Japanese and American (Disney) soundtracks.

The news was reported in an October 1 post on GKIDS Twitter: "Looked like UK had a glimmer of hope but it unfortunately is more thorny than we thought." This presumably refers to the complicated legal rights issues between Japan, US and UK releases of Arrietty. No further details have been given at this time.

It's very unfortunate that North American fans will miss out on the excellent UK soundtrack, which fits the source material perfectly and is superior to the Disney dub (which is very fine in its own regard). Your best option remains to import the UK Blu-Ray, provided you have a way to override your player's region code.

The Secret World of Arrietty will be released on Blu-Ray/DVD on November 21, as part of the GKIDS reissue campaign for the Studio Ghibli film catalog.

Castle in the Sky: You Know Who Else Was a Sky Pirate?

This past Friday, Japanese television network Nippon TV aired Studio Ghibli's 1986 classic Laputa: Castle in the Sky. During the broadcast, the network's shared trivia and memorable quotes on Twitter. One fascinating revelation: the character of Dora, the leader of the pirate clan, was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's mom. He wanted to portray his mother as a brave and rogue-ish-yet-heroic figure. He even remarked that she was a dominating figure, where even a family of four sons would never dare to challenge her. And, of course, he was motivated by the trauma of his mother's long battle with tuberculosis, which lasted nine years during the young Miyazaki's childhood.

Whenever I think of Miyazaki's references to his mother, I am reminded of the mothers in My Neighbor Totoro and Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, who were bedridden with illness. The Nausicaa books contain an especially haunting moment where Nausicaa discloses feelings of isolation and alienation as a result of her mother's ordeal, resulting in one of the most chilling lines of the entire novel: "My mother taught me that some wounds can never be healed. But she didn't love me."

How much of that was based on Miyazaki's own childhood? How much is invented solely for the story? Like all artists, he probably took a little from column "A" and a little from column "B". By all accounts, he remained deeply devoted to his mother throughout her life, and she lived to a very old age. His thoughts on the matter have remained private, however, leaving us to speculate and theorize by examining his art.

I like the idea of Dora as a heroic mother, and she's a great, curmudgeonly character who supplies great heart to Castle in the Sky. I can't imagine the picture without her or her bumbling sons. They're not so much pirates as a family on endless adventures.

You can find the Nippon TV Twitter messages here and here, in Japanese, of course. Thanks also to Geek for sharing the news on their site.

Puss in Boots 1969 Trailer

Puss in Boots, the 1969 Toei Doga feature, is one of the all-time classic anime films. If you're a fan of old Tom and Jerry cartoons, then you'll have a blast. It's very funny and goofy, with a number of terrific action sequences, a few song-and-dance numbers, and some really inspired art design. This movie remains almost entirely unknown in the West, which is a damn shame. It deserves to find an audience, and it's a personal favorite.

The castle chase sequence in the final act is probably the most famous, and was animated jointly by Yasuo Otsuka and Hayao Miyazaki. This sequence would later be parodied in 1971's Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, which Miyazaki also animated, and was his final film at Toei before jumping ship with Isao Takahata and Yoichi Kotabe to join their elder brother Otsuka at A Productions. Nearly the entire crew who created Horus, Prince of the Sun worked on this picture, and you can feel the sense of excitement and liberation as they created this classic. What a great movie!

Here is the first of two trailers created for this movie. The subtitles indicate that this was borrowed (ahem) from the Discotek DVD, which is now out-of-print. Obviously, I would love to see this movie reissued again, or even released on Blu-Ray.

Kiki's Delivery Service 1998 VHS Promo

When Disney secured the US distribution rights to Studio Ghibli's films, they clearly had their eyes on Kiki's Delivery Service. Here was a family-friendly movie that was charming, upbeat and very similar in tone to their own movies. For parents who probably associated "Japanimation" with sex, violence and cheap production values, this would be a very welcome relief. Add in a new dubbed soundtrack created by Disney themselves, and you have a guaranteed hit on home video.

This video is the original 1998 promo for the videocassette, and according to the YouTube page, appeared on the VHS for The Black Cauldron. Notice the colorful logo which would be replaced in the DVD that appeared five years later. I always preferred this to the later design, when Disney appeared to be far less invested in Studio Ghibli. I don't care much for the corny narration or the dub, but I'm not the target audience, which would be parents and small children.

It's fascinating how this trailer focuses on the climactic action sequence. There's quite a bit more action that one would expect from a "children's cartoon," albeit with all the hokey narration and preachy moral values. In a Puritanical society, such concessions are necessary in order to sneak past the guards. Mom and Dad will nod with approval at the important messages, and the kids will be thrilled by the exciting flying scenes and the sights of a foreign city (modeled greatly on Sweden, as we all know).

It's really too bad that the relationship between Disney and Studio Ghibli was such a troubled one. They rarely seemed to be on the same page, often viewing one another as rivals rather than partners. The cultural differences were just too great at the time. Also, Hayao Miyazaki probably shouldn't have made a grim and gory Kurosawa epic right when he signed the distribution papers. I can't help but feel that Princess Mononoke burned more bridges than it built, and is really the point where that marriage turned sour. Maybe it's just me.

In any case, here's Kiki to cheer everybody up.

My Neighbor Totoro 1993 US Trailer

Here is a very nice find: the original 1993 theatrical trailer for My Neighbor Totoro in the United States, courtesy of original distributor Troma, Inc. This would be the first Studio Ghibli movie to be released in the States, the beginning of a very long and complicated journey towards mainstream acceptance on our shores.

The Troma version of Totoro featured an English-language dub that is beloved by fans to this day. Many still consider it superior to the 2006 Disney version that later appeared on DVD and Blu-Ray. 20th Century Fox would release the movie on VHS, LaserDisc and DVD, although the latter release was merely sourced from the LD, with the traditional "full screen" pan-and-scan picture.

The original 1993 press release was preserved by the Miyazaki Mailing List, and it's a fascinating read. I'd like to find an original copy, if only for posterity. This marked the first serious attempt to bring Hayao Miyazaki to the American mainstream. Troma's strategy would become the standard sales pitch: Miyazaki as Japan's Walt Disney. This has never been entirely true (if I would compare Miyazaki to any American filmmaker, it would be Steven Spielberg), but understandably necessary when the family-friendly cartoon market was dominated by Disney, which was experiencing their great renaissance in the early 1990s, thanks to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

Here's the relevant text from the Troma press release:

"Japan's Mickey Mouse" 

Troma's release of the award-winning family film MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO will introduce American audiences to TOTORO, which in Japan is a household name. "In Japan TOTORO is more beloved than Mickey Mouse and the Troma Team is honored to introduce this superb family entertainment to American audiences," says Lloyd Kaufman. Throughout Japan, one can see the furry, fat and lovable creatures, called TOTOROs on a wide variety of licensed products including plush toys, tote bags, pillows, lunch boxes and many others. 

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO also introduces the creative imagination and art of Japan's top animation director, Hayao Miyazaki. "Mr. Miyazaki's animation is magnificent and sublime; funny yet very touching. In my opinion he is a genius" comments Kaufman. He is as revered in Japan as Walt Disney is revered in America and has had enormous box-office success, attracting audiences of adults, as well as children.

The tagline "more popular than Mickey Mouse" was commonly used in those days, and was always aimed more at parents than children. I remember that phrase was previously used to describe Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. For Baby Boomer parents, Mickey was the touchstone for children's entertainment. For Generation X/Y and young Millennials? Not so much.

This illustrates once again the immense difficulty in bringing Japanese animation to the States. "Japanimation" wasn't just a variation on familiar cartoons, it was an entirely different art form.

I am aware that it's unlikely to ever happen, but I would like to see a home video release of My Neighbor Totoro that includes the original 1993 Troma dub and trailer. You could include the 2006 Disney dub as well. There's plenty enough room for everyone. I think the fans would be thrilled.

Castle in the Sky 1999 VHS Promo

Ugh, look at that horrible logo! It look like Kermit the Frog exploded. My eyes, the goggles do nothing!

This is the original 1999 VHS promo for Disney's US release of Hayao Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky. It features an English dub that has aged very badly, a corny narration voice-over, and a low-resolution pan-and-scan picture that was a hallmark of the videotape era.

It's fascinating that Disney had originally planned to release Castle in the Sky on video in 1999, no doubt to tie in with Princess Mononoke. However, their shocked reaction to Miyazaki's 1997 film (which was far more violent and adult than they were expecting), as well as the subsequent difficulties with Studio Ghibli (cough, Miyazaki threatening Miramax head Harvey Weinstein with a samurai sword) left such plans in a holding pattern.

Perhaps Castle in the Sky was just too "anime" for the time. Even in the late '90s, Hollywood struggled with the difficulties in selling Japanese animation to a mainstream audience, who expected cartoons to follow in the traditions of Snow White, Mickey Mouse, and Bugs Bunny. An animated Steven Spielberg movie was not only unusual, it was entirely alien. Nobody could wrap their heads around it, and you can see this struggle in this film's movie reviews at the time.

By the turn of the century, Disney would only release one Ghibli catalog title: Kiki's Delivery Service. It was a much easier choice, far closer to the kind of children's fairy tales they wanted from Miyazaki. The home video rights to My Neighbor Totoro would remain in 20th Century Fox's hands for several more years. Mononoke was just too violent for children. The rest of the studio's movies were just too weird, too unconventional, too foreign. We would have to wait for Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and the relentless pushing by Pixar's John Lasseter, to finally end the impasse and move things forward.

Even then, Disney always seemed to be dragging their heels in regards to Studio Ghibli, never fully understanding these movies or how to sell them to the American public. To be fair, this is a daunting challenge, one we still grapple with today. We have more or less accepted that Ghibli will never achieve more than cult status in the United States. It's just what it is. We live in a country where reality show stars become Presidents and cartoons about talking poop become blockbuster hits.

Laputa: Castle in the Sky Recreated in Minecraft

Japanese artist Mocci Hajikura has spent the past four years recreating the environments and locations from Studio Ghibli's classic Laputa: Castle in the Sky. He has now completed his project, releasing several videos to YouTube. All of your favorite scenes from the movie have been rendered to scale, including the industrial town, the pirate ship, and most famously, the floating city of Laputa itself.

In 2015, he created a series of YouTube videos to correspond with the movie's television broadcast. These final 2017 videos also correspond to the latest Castle in the Sky broadcast presentation.

This is highly impressive. We have seen many Minecraft works based on Studio Ghibli movies, and this is easily the most ambitious yet. Most of Miyazaki's scenes and designs are rendered in painstaking detail; even the movie's title sequence has been recreated perfectly.

Courtesy of Hajikura, here are all seven Castle in the Sky Minecraft videos, complete and unabridged. Thankfully, there are no scary Creeper attacks. Those guys nearly gave me a heart attack in Minecraft Alpha. Enjoy and share!

Interview With Telecom & Ghibli Animator Atsuko Tanaka

Writer Katy Castillo at YattaTachi has just posted an impressive interview with legendary animator Atsuko Tanaka. They discuss her experience working on various anime productions, including the recent blockbuster , the differences between Japan and America's animation (mostly lip-syncing), and her opinions on Hayao Miyazaki. It's a very fascinating read, and as always, I wish there were more.

Tanaka-san began her career at Shin-Ei Animation, later joining the Telecom studio, where she met up with Miyazaki, providing key animation on Lupin the 3rd: Series Two, The Castle of Cagliostro and Sherlock Hound. In 1984, she was part of the small team that created the 1984 Nemo pilot film, one of the all-time great anime masterpieces. At Studio Ghibli, she worked on My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Pom Poko, Mimi wo Sumaseba, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Tales From Earthsea, Ponyo, The Secret World of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There. Most recently, Tanaka joined the staff at Studio Ponoc for Mary and the Witch's Flower.

It's a great interview well worth reading. In these clips, Tanaka discusses what it's like to work with Miyazaki:

How would you compare working at Studio Ghibli to working at other studio environments? 

We’ve heard that working with Miyazaki can be a bit… stressful. I’ve been working alongside Miyazaki for a long, long time, even before Ghibli. And before that, I think he was much scarier to be around. After Ghibli, of course, he was very strict on the work we do. However, he wasn’t really doing anything with us, so that was good.

Was it easier because you understood his mannerisms and knew that his approach was a bit more upfront and direct? 

As long as he is not making movies, he is a very nice and gentle person. This is my personal opinion, but Miyazaki is very, very into his production, of course. He gets tough if somebody else is not thinking as deep as he is, but it is almost impossible because it’s his creation. That is kind of how it is. Especially with understanding the movie, he always wants more. Miyazaki has a lot of knowledge about different things. Let’s say there is a car in a scene: he knows everything about this car. About how to cook? He knows everything about how to cook. When I worked on the scene in Howl’s Moving Castle where they cook bacon and eggs, I didn’t know at the time that you make the egg using the bacon’s oil. I didn’t know that, but of course he did. He knows a lot about airplanes and other things. Although he says, “Oh, I don’t have much knowledge,” he does have a lot of knowledge, even about daily life and cooking, so it’s very hard to catch up to him.

Lu Over the Wall: All the Anime Reviews the New Masaaki Yuasa Movie

Who is the greatest talent in Japanese animation today? Unquestionably, it's Masaaki Yuasa, the visual firebrand who has been blazing trails and blowing minds for over a decade. His 2004 movie Mind Game remains a milestone for hand-drawn animation. In 2017, his newest movie has arrived: Lu Over the Wall. And it looks absolutely spectacular. It appears to be a romance between a young aspiring musician and a mermaid; hearing the music causes the mermaid to sprout legs and walk on land, leading to discoveries, unwelcome attention from the locals, romantic rivalries, and an angry father who may end up flooding the entire town.

Hmm. This sounds vaguely familiar.

Scottish anime website All the Anime has written a lengthy review of the new film, which is currently screening at the Scotland Loves Anime film festival. Critic Johnathan Clements raises the obvious comparisons to Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea. Personally, I welcome our new aquatic overlords. I found Ponyo to be a spectacular movie, visually dazzling and inspiring, a heartfelt tribute to the joys of hand-drawn animation. Nine years later, we're seeing a younger generation take their inspiration and push the medium further.

I think if Fellini had made animated features, they would look very much like Yuasa's. Why is he still so obscure in the West? Anime and cartoon lovers should embrace him as a visionary genius. Every time I watch something he's created, I feel like I'm rediscovering the medium all over again. Here is something thrillingly, excitingly new. Aren't you sick and tired of all these stupid franchise sequels and formulaic cartoons? Aren't you tired of the endless recycling of the same soapy moral lessons and tired sitcom plots? Don't you want something better in your lives?

I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie. Don't let another Yuasa masterwork fall through the cracks.

Video: Heidi Meets Super Mario Kart

This Heidi-meets-Super-Mario-Kart video never gets old. It always leaves me with a big, silly grin. Why can't somebody make a real video game like this? I'd pay good money to play. Wouldn't you? Of course, you would.

Japanese Voice Actor Ryuji Saikachi Has Died

Sad news for anime fans everywhere. Veteran Japanese voice actor Ryuji Saikachi died on September 29 from congestive heart failure. He was 89 years old. He was a fixture on more than 80 anime films and television series, dubbing American movies (including Disney's The Lion King), videogames and commercials.

His animation credits include the following: Dragon Ball Z, Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Galaxy Express 999, Wolf's Rain, Unico in the Island of Magic, 3x3 Eyes Seima Densetsu, Roujin Z, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Mermaid Forest and Tensai Bakabon.

For Ghibli Freaks, Saikachi is remembered for playing the train engineer in Laputa: Castle in the Sky, a member of the orchestra in Gauche the Cellist, and most famously, Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables.

Thanks to Anime News Network for their article and research.

Was Anne of Green Gables Dubbed Into English?

Was Anne of Green Gables ever dubbed into English? I Miss Bionix examines various issues surrounding the 1979 World Masterpiece Theater production, including the discovery of episodes that were dubbed for Western markets. What happened? Who were the intended countries for this version? And how is it possible that this fantastic series was never released in North America?

This article explores several issues, including the very complicated issue of international copyrights. These Anne episodes appear to be owned by Belgian/German company Studio 100, who were responsible for the recent CGI remakes of Heidi and Maya the Bee. In 2008, the company bought Germany's EM Entertainment, which included a number of classic World Masterpiece Theater series, including Heidi, Maya and Anne. Previously, EM acquired the catalog from KirchGroup, who may have been the original broadcast distributors in the 1980s.

If you're wondering why it's so difficult to obtain the rights to many classic anime movies and TV series, this is a perfect illustration. Any North American distributor would have to navigate through several companies in Japan and Europe, each party demanding a hefty paycheck and attaching strict conditions. And without a possibility for TV or cable broadcast, the costs would be far too prohibitive for most indie distributors.

The English Anne episodes are currently available on YouTube, minus one episode. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to watch, as I'm not in the proper country. D'oh.

Here is a short preview of the English-language dub of Anne. It was produced in South Africa, who were responsible for many European anime dubs in the 1980s. Sounds very good.

Movie Review: Ghiblies "Episode 1" (2000)

Ghiblies was a 12-minute animated short that aired on NHK TV in Japan in April 8, 2000, as part of a  television special about Spirited Away, which was then in production and scheduled for release the following year. It is among the most rare pieces in the Studio Ghibli canon; it has never been released on any home video format, and only appears now and then on social media sites.

The cartoon is a spoof of Studio Ghibli, and all of the characters are based on the staff, led by the Machiavellian Toshio Suzuki, who seems to delight in tormenting his workers. One interesting character is a ghost who is actually a corporate spy sent by a rival animation studio, but chose to remain as part of the Ghibli staff. Much of the material seen in this special was later reworked in the 2002 theatrical short Ghiblies Episode 2.

The art and animation design follows the sparse watercolor approach as My Neighbors the Yamada, which, at the time, was the latest feature film by the studio. This is an interesting approach, as Yamada was a box-office bomb and the studio's biggest commercial failure (one would think Ghibli would want nothing to do with it). There may also have been a rift between the two directors, which led to Takahata's withdrawal from directing. In the 2013 documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, Miyazaki is still visibly upset about Takahata's management of Ghibli during the production of Yamada, where the studio restructured from cel animation to computers (all subsequent Ghibli movies have been created digitally).

In 2003, Takahata contributed one short scene for the anthology film Winter Days, and then returned for the 2010 Anne of Green Gables anthology movie that was given a brief theatrical run. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya would arrive three years later, receiving an Academy Awards nomination.

It's fascinating, then, to see Ghibli return to that watercolor style for a number of short film projects, including Ghiblies. It speaks well to their talents as artists that they are willing to continue the visual experimentation. Working in television also gave them an added degree of freedom, creating some of the studio's best work.

Both Ghiblies episodes were directed by Yoshiyuki Momose, who by all measures was the studio's true heir to the director's chair. He directed three Capsule music videos in 2004 and 2005, which are probably my favorite animated shorts created by Ghibli (specifically, Ghibli offshoot Studio Kajino). He developed a unique way of joining hand-drawn and computer animation that is wholly unique, and suggests an alternate future where Studio Ghibli, and anime in general, could have evolved. Why he was never given a feature film to direct remains an astonishing mystery, and an astonishing blunder.

In any case, get your hands on Ghiblies "Episode 1" by any means necessary. And tell Studio Ghibli to release it on home video, already. Shut up and take our money!

Update: Oh, look, somebody uploaded it to YouTube. It plays at double the speed, presumably to evade the copyright bots, and the subtitles are in French, but you'll be fine.

Miyazaki Art Show at Spoke Art Gallery

New York's Spoke Art gallery held a "pop-up" exhibition this weekend devoted to Studio Ghibli. Titled "Miyazaki Art Show," this weekend show featured artworks by over 100 artists throughout the world, celebrating the films of the acclaimed director.

The description from Spoke Art website, "Including a diverse array of original painting, sculpture and limited edition prints, the Miyazaki Art Show offers each artists' perspective and interpretation of beloved characters and themes throughout Miyazaki's films. Imbued with the legendary director's sense of adventure, deep reverence for nature and strong female characters, this dynamic exhibition is not to be missed."

Unfortunately, this exhibition ran only during this past weekend, September 29 to October 1. By all accounts, the show was a success, as most items were sold. Prices for artworks ranged from as little as $25.00 to $1,600.00. More artworks will be added to the Spoke Art website in the coming days.

Here are a few select pieces from the Miyazaki Art Show. You can see more of the artworks on the gallery website here and here. Be sure to send a thank you to the gallery and encourage more Ghibli exhibitions.