AnimeLand Magazine 2014 Miyazaki Issue

These magazine scans are of the January/February 2014 issue of AnimeLand magazine, published in France. Hayao Miyazaki is the cover star of this issue, which devotes 15 pages to the animation legend and his films. In addition to Studio Ghibli, the magazine discusses his work in manga comics and his extensive pre-Ghibli works. Sherlock Hound (known simply as Sherlock Holmes in UK and France) is given an article all to itself, as well as four pages on The Wind Rises.

I really enjoyed looking through these pages. I don't read French very well, and what I do know probably just comes from watching Pepe Le Pew cartoons, but I think anybody can understand the thrust of the articles. The page layouts are very clean and the art assets are suitably colorful. I'm reminded a little of the excellent books Mi Vecino Miyazaki and Antes De Mi Vecino Miyazaki.

Kudos to the Ghibli fan who sent me a .pdf copy of these magazine scans.

Panda Kopanda, Chie, Gauche, Sherlock Blu-Ray and DVD in Japan July 17

Studio Ghibli is scheduled to release Panda Kopanda, Jarinko Chie, Gauche the Cellist, and Sherlock Hound on Blu-Ray and DVD in Japan this July 17. What a surprise! It appears that Ghibli is turning some attention to the "pre-Ghibli" eras of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata's long and storied careers.

None of these titles will feature the "silhouette" design reserved for the Ghibli catalog titles, since all pre-date the studio's founding by a number of years. But the cover designs do feature the original movie posters, in keeping with the remastered Ghibli DVDs.

Jarinko Chie is Isao Takahata's 1981 viciously funny comedy, rooted in the Kansei-region city of Kobe, and featuring the voice talents of one of Japan's popular comedy troupes (somebody out there, please help me with the names!). It's episodic structure is similar to My Neighbors the Yamadas, but more tightly wound around a central plot of a young girl (Chie) her struggles to fit within her dysfunctional family. The comedy leans heavily towards the slapstick and the gross-out, which is highly unusual for Takahata, and helps this movie stand out. Longtime friends and Toei Doga alums Yasuo Otsuka and Yoichi Kotabe served as the film's animation directors. It's a personal favorite of mine, and it remains criminally overlooked.

Gauche the Cellist is Takahata's 1982 feature, one of his true masterpieces. Lovingly crafted over the span of six years, this movie is pure poetry, masterfully blending historic melodrama, beautiful music, and a nostalgic longing for Japan's long-lost agrarian past. I want to live in Gauche's world (which is really Ludwig Van Beethoven's world), the fields and the forests, the gardens, the rainstorms and fiery sunsets, and the small yet tightly knit community, where modernity has yet to destroy nature.

Sherlock Hound was Hayao Miyazaki's 1981 TV series, which was created in collaboration with Italy. The production was scuttled after only six episodes were created, owing to copyrights issues with the Conan Doyle estate. Several episodes were shown alongside Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and finally arrived on TV several years later...unfortunately, with a completely different animation team that was nowhere near as talented as Miyazaki's crew. This Blu-Ray features the "theatrical" version of the Sherlock episodes (meaning, we don't have the wonderful music from the TV show).

Finally, Panda Kopanda was created by Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki and Yoichi Kotabe at the A Productions studio in 1972, hot on the heels of the infamous scuttling of their much-anticipated Pipi Longstockings animated project. Many of Pipi's ideas quickly found their way into this short movie, which played the opening slot for one of Toho's Godzilla pictures. The movie became a hit, and a sequel, Panda Kopanda and the Rainy Day Circus, was quickly commissioned and produced. They're both terrific little movies, and I often enjoy the second one a little more. I do wish more Panda cartoons had been made, and future animators seeking to continue Miyazaki's legacy may find inspiration here. And, as everyone knows, Panda could easily pass for Totoro's uncle, complete with a pipe and hat and that big, silly grin.

These Blu-Rays will retail for 5,800Yen, and the DVD will sell for 4,700. I don't yet know which, if any, will include English subtitles. Both Panda Kopanda and Gauche the Cellist previously had quality subtitles, so that's good. Jarinko Chie's prior BD/DVD releases did not include subtitles, which is too bad; a fansub translation has been available for a few years, and I really wish somebody had the sense to send copies of the script to Ghibli HQ. I don't think the previous Sherlock Hound BD included English subtitles.

Finally, will there be a US release for any of these titles? Discotek Media has released Panda Go Panda (the Westernized title) and Sherlock Hound on DVD. A Blu-Ray release isn't beyond the realm of possible. I know I would be thrilled to work on any of these projects. If you'd like that to happen, please send an email or letter directly to Discotek.

Outside of the United States, I would think that these movies would arrive in the usual territories sooner or later. As the Studio Ghibli catalog winds down, publishers will look to the earlier Takahata/Miyazaki films and find a host of hidden gems. It has to happen. It's only a matter of time.

Sherlock Hound: Complete and Unabridged (DVD)

Sherlock Hound: Complete and Unabridged is a 6-DVD box set that contains the complete 1984-85 TV anime series in Japanese and English soundtracks. Discotek Media secured the rights from previous owner, Manga Entertainment, earlier this year. This series began production at the Telecom studio for TMS, directed by Hayao Miyazaki and helmed by such animation luminaries as Yoshifumi Kondo, Kazuhide Tomaga,  Nobuo Tomizawa, Kyoto Tanaka, and Nizo Yamamoto.  You may recognize this team (sans Miyazaki) as the ones who created the famous 1984 Nemo pilot film, one of the all-time great anime masterpieces.

Sherlock Hound was conceived as a fun, lighthearted romp, aiming back to the goofy cartoon chaos of Animal Treasure Island. It's style feels very similar to Lupin III and Future Boy Conan, which makes sense since most of the top animators were involved on those projects. This series never tried to change the world, just have a lot of fun with cartoon Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, and a lot of thrilling car chases that exist purely for its own sake.

As we all know, the Sherlock Hound (Meitantai Holmes, or "Famous Detective Holmes," in Japan, the same title given to Arthur Conan Doyle's stories) series was produced in 1981, but mothballed after only six episodes were completed, due to disputes with the Doyle estate.  For Miyazaki, this was another setback during a time of many setbacks.  Future Boy Conan and Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro failed to become hits, and the Lupin III "red jacket" TV series had ended its successful run. A number of animation projects, including an early draft of My Neighbor Totoro, and a radically different Princess Mononoke, were stuck in the image board stage.  Hayao Miyazaki was unable to find work as an animation director.

The final blow came in 1983, when Miyazaki joined a Japanese delegation headed by Isao Takahata, and including Yasuo Otsuka and Yoshifumi Kondo, to the United States as part of the infamous "Little Nemo" film project.  Both Takahata and Miyazaki walked away without any success,* and Miyazaki returned home feeling deeply dejected and defeated. His nearly 20-year career in animation was all but finished. And so he returned to his first love, Japanese manga comics, and began crafting a monthly adventure serial titled, "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind."

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if Sherlock Hound is available or not.  There is little to no press coverage, no publicity, no reviews, no hype whatsoever. The box set is currently listed on the Discotek website for "pre-order" status, yet gives a release date of October 23, 2014. I shall have to investigate a little further.

I do enjoy the cover design for this newest Sherlock Hound, although it's nearly identical to the old Manga design. Discotek is probably using the same source, which means the show merely exchanged hands. Both Japanese and English language soundtracks are included, which is very helpful. As for extra features, I'm not aware if this box set has anything.  This may be a bare-bones release, which would be very unfortunate, if true.

What I'd really like to see is a single-disc release of just the original 1981 Miyazaki-directed episodes. The latter 1984-85 episodes aren't nearly as good, in my opinion, nor were the animators anywhere near as skilled as that legendary Telecom crew.  But I'm sure most kids won't mind. This is a fun after-school cartoon, with slapstick gags and car chases.  Just the perfect thing to take your mind off your homework for a little while.

Every Miyazaki fan owes it to themselves to have Sherlock Hound in their library.  I highly recommend purchasing a copy from Discotek, and put it on the shelf next to Lupin and Horus.

(*There is a bright moment in Miyazaki's 1983 visit to California. It was on this trip that he met a young Disney animator named John Lasseter, who was experimenting with the new frontier of computer animation. This new friendship would pay off handsomely for Miyazaki, and Studio Ghibli, decades later.)

Sherlock Hound Returns to DVD This September

Discotek Media announced today that they have acquired the rights to Sherlock Hound, and will be releasing the complete TV series on DVD box set this September 30.  They will include both Japanese and English-language versions, perhaps using a dual-sided format similar to the older (now out-of-print) Pioneer DVD releases.  It will be great to see this classic anime series return to American shores, and especially nice to have all 26 episodes in one box.

Sherlock Hound originated as a 1981 TV anime series, directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated at Japan's Telecom studio (associated with TMS), alongside such luminaries of the period as Yoshifumi Kondo and Kazuhide Tomonaga.  Unfortunately, only six episodes were completed when the project was scuttled.  Fortunately, interest in the series was revived after two episodes were shown in theaters alongside Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind in 1984.  This led to a new production at TMS in 1984 and 1985.

Personally, I find the original 1981 Miyazaki-directed episodes to be far superior to the later episodes; you can spot the dramatic drop-off in talent, as most of the best animators and artists followed Miya-san to Studio Ghibli.  That said, this is a really fun cartoon show that doesn't aspire to be anything more than a really fun cartoon show, with MacGuffin-fueled plots and ridiculous car chases.  And having English dubs helps tremendously with selling to a wider audience.

I'm really looking forward to seeing Sherlock Hound again.  I do have the three Pioneer DVDs with the Miyazaki episodes (they're scattered about, the fiendish bastards!), but I'll definitely pick up the new Discotek release when it arrives this September.

No word yet on extras or bonus material, such as essays or audio commentaries.  As always, I'm happy to contribute and am regularly harrassing the Discotek people with emails.  Maybe I should send a fruit basket or something.  Who do I have to call around here?

Poster - Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Sherlock Hound

Here is another addition to our gallery of Nausicaa movie posters from Japan. This poster shows us not only the feature, but the opening short - which just so happens to be two episodes of the (then) never-aired Meitantai Holmes, or Sherlock Hound as it's known in the West.

For Sherlock Hound, this was the first time Japanese audiences were able to see any episodes of the show. Perhaps the success of Nausicaa in theaters is what led to the series being revived and put back into production. However, by the time Sherlock Hound mkII aired on television, all of the principal players had since moved on, with Miyazaki, to Studio Ghibli. And the people left running the series had nowhere near the skill nor talent.

It's really striking to see the difference in quality between the six original Miyazaki-directed Sherlock Holmes episodes with the MkII version. The original Telecom series, after all, had such supreme talent as Kazuhide Tomanaga and Yoshifumi Kondo and Nobuo Tomizawa and Kyoto Tanaka...the same group responsible for the spectacular 1984 Nemo pilot. Oh, and good 'ol Yasuo Otsuka makes a cameo for one thrilling chase scene involving a giant locomotive car. I always love how these episodes would find some excuse to stage a car chase.

The Nausicaa half of this movie poster is a reworking of an earlier Nausucaa poster that we looked at before. It's an iconic image that means more to the readers of the manga series, which was still very much ongoing in 1984. Roughly one-quarter of the complete saga was written by the time Miyazaki created his film adaptation, and, as we all know, the manga took many radical shifts over the later years, exploring the deeper themes of the story and fleshing out Nausicaa's world in far greater detail.

I'm sure there are many fans who would love to see the complete Nausicaa manga turned into an anime, but it's far too long and far too complex. It is, as the old phrase goes, the "un-filmable story." Hayao Miyazaki famously avoids sequels. That said, he poured many of the complex themes of Nausicaa into Princess Mononoke, which also happened to be his first directorial feature after finally ending the manga. Truly, Mononoke can be seen as the third part of a thematic trilogy, after Nausicaa the movie and Nausicaa the graphic novel.

Why mess with perfection, I ask? Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is just about the greatest anime film ever made, especially for purveyors of "cool" anime. And the Nausicaa novel is Hayao Miyazaki's crowning masterpiece. Any attempts to tinker with the formula will only lead to chaos and ruin. Look to Meitantei Holmes. Look to Sherlock Hound. Let's hope and pray that Michael Bay never gets wind of that manga.

Sherlock Hound (2006 Review)

April 6, 2006

Sherlock Hound, as it's known in the West (in Japan it's simply "Meitantei Holmes," or Famous Detective Holmes) doesn't have all that much to do with Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. The whole setting is really just a framework to create an fast-paced adventure show, with slapstick comedy bits piled onto spectacular car chases. In other words, it's a terrific piece of animation, a giant ball of fun.

Sherlock Hound was started in 1981 at animation studio Telecom, with Miyazaki at the helm, and an amazing amount of talent; chief among these include Yoshifumi Kondo (animation director), Kazuhide Tomonaga, Tsukasa Tannai, Nobuo Tomizawa, Masako Shinohara, Koichi Maruyama, and Atsuko Tanaka. The great Yasuo Otsuka even makes an uncredited cameo for one episode.

The series was very clearly an homage to Animal Treasure Island, the 1971 Toei film that largely cements the "Miyazaki Style." The Telecom staff was thrilled at the opportunity to create something with the same boyant energy, and it shows in nearly every frame. This is the perfect example of just how effective animation, hand-drawn animation, can be in the right hands. I don't think anything in the CGI age has yet matched it.

There's something of an instant, pick-up-and-play feel to Sherlock Hound, very lightweight, that marks it as the end of an era. Miyazaki's worldview was becoming more clouded, more complicated, as middle age approached. Future Boy Conan carried serious, somber undertones just under the surface; by the time Nausicaa made its way to the big screen in 1984, that darker side was taking over. His inner conflict is something that defines the Ghibli era, that battle between youthful idealism and adult cynicism; note for example the third acts of Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro, and the crises of identity in Kiki's Delivery Service and Porco Rosso.

The "Classic Miyazaki" period of Puss in Boots and Animal Treasure Island and Lupin has long passed, and Sherlock Hound is kind of an Abbey Road to the era; in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Now on to the history lesson. Six episodes were created at Telecom before the series was put on hiatus. As far as I understand, this was due to conflicts with the Conan Doyle estate, who apparantly weren't too pleased with this unorthodox treatment of the Sherlock Holmes characters. The series was shelved, until Miyazaki refashioned two of the episodes as the opening short film for Nausicaa in 1984. The public was enthralled, so the series was revived, with 20 new episodes set in production. However, these new episodes were not created by Telecom nor any of the principle players (apart from the actors), but at another Japanese studio, and the difference shows. The original six episodes were integrated into the TV series as follows:

Episode 3 - A Small Client
Episode 4 - Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage
Episode 5 - The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
Episode 9 - Treasure Under the Sea
Episode 10 - The White Cliffs of Dover
Episode 11 - The Sovereign Gold Coins

In 1984, Tomonaga, along with Kondo (director), Tomizawa, Tanaka and Nizu created the famous Nemo pilot, which is one of the greatest pieces of Japanese animation ever devised. This was Tomonaga's baby, and he masterfully packs all the excitement of Sherlock Hound into a four-minute action classic. It's just another example of the amazing talent at that time. If only their version of Nemo was the one that finally made it to the screen. If only Miyazaki and companay could have made more Hound episodes. All part of the great "what ifs?" of life.

Here in the States, Sherlock Hound is available on DVD from Pioneer; the entire series spans six seperate DVD's, but the original Telecom/Miyazaki episodes are on the first three. Those discs should be part of your collection and put into heavy rotation. The later episodes? Eh, not so good.

Sherlock Hound on YouTube

Update: TMS has disabled embedding for the Sherlock Hound episodes. Sigh. It's always two steps forward, one step back, isn't it? Alright, class, repeat after me - embedding! is! good!

Excellent news for Ghibli Freaks and animation lovers everywhere. Japan's Telecom studio, aka TMS, is releasing Sherlock Hound, the entire series, on YouTube.

TMS has begun by releasing the original six episodes from 1981 - the Hayao Miyazaki-directed episodes. Wise move, very wise move. For anime fans, these are the shows to watch, the pure gold. When the series was revived a few years later, the original production team was long gone, most of them following Miyazaki to the newly-formed Studio Ghibli.

Unless I'm mistaken, the Pioneer DVD set is now out of print. So either you'd have to track those discs down - and the Miyazaki episodes are scattered across three DVDs - or hunt around the internet for fansubs. Now Telecom has delivered the goods in a major way.

The next step for Telecom, obviously, is to release Sherlock Hound on iTunes. This is something that I've been shouting about for some time, and I've devoted a number of blog posts to the idea. I think this is way for independent animation to find its audience - by taking advantage of the digital distribution channels of the internet.

For anime fans, this really is the future. Manufacturing and production costs for DVD sets are enormously expensive, and most of these classic series and movies are too obscure, or fit outside the acceptable "anime cliques," to ever sell. The internet is the key to finding those audiences. Digital distribution is essential, and YouTube must be seen as an ally, not a rival. Building loyalty and word-of-mouth is essential to any sort of future.

For taking these early steps, TMS should be congratulated. Sherlock Hound will now find an audience. That's much better than clinging to antiquated copyright law. I hope they can find a way to make this work.

Sherlock Hound - Blu-Ray DVD

Since I'm mentioning Jarinko Chie, I should also mention this Blu-Ray DVD which should be released on the same day, July 25. Sherlock Hound is a personal favorite of mine, one of the best examples of Hayao Miyazaki's classic adventure serial style. That only six episodes were created is such a shame, a lost opportunity, but what a great run.

I should point out, however, that this BR release contains only two episodes. Baffling, to say the least. But these two episodes were shown as the opening shorts to Nausicaa in 1984; in fact, this was the first time that Sherlock Hound (or "Meitantei Holmes" - "Famous Detective Holmes" - in Japanese) was ever shown. Of course, the wise decision would be to include all six original Miyazaki-directed episodes. Heaven knows this isn't breaking the bank on the BR format. Who in their right mind would shell out money for one measely hour? What cheapskate genius made that decision? Is it just me, or does it seem like corporate executives everywhere are melting down? This isn't as bad as selling SUV's while peak oil strikes, but it's pretty lame.

Given this, I really couldn't recommend this for a purchase. If we had all six episodes, then I'd definitely give the green light. Perhaps someone will import this series for the North American market and fix this problem. Considering that Pioneer's Sherlock Hound DVD's are now out-of-print, there's a large Miyazaki-sized hole that needs to be filled.

For everyone else, my best advice is to scour the internet merchants or ebay for the old Pioneer discs. You'll only need volumes 1-3; those contain the original six shows, and the rest are from the revived series later. Those later episodes are.....ehhh, no thanks. Don't bother. Just stick with the Miyazaki's.

Miyazaki Riffs #7

Imagine the things I keep forgetting during the holiday season. We haven't highlighted any Miyazaki riffs in some time, so let's get back into action. This riff, like so many others, draws back to the Toei era. The screenshot we see here comes at the end of Miyazaki's classic, hilarious pirate batttle from Animal Treasure Island. I often cite this slapstick/action sequence as among Miyazaki's very best scenes, and an essential study for all students of animation. This scene should be taught in schools.

When Miyazaki and company at Telecom went into production with Sherlock Hound, it was with the enthusiasm of recapturing the thrills and spills of Animal Treasure Island, so it makes perfect sense to pay tribute in one of the episodes. The mass crowd on a sinking ship, hurling out insults, comes from the episode, "Treasure Under the Sea."

One of the great things about Miyazaki's comedy is his use of massive crowds and his comic timing. It's the hallmark of his classic, pre-Ghibli period, and it's something I truly miss from his later work. The only Ghibli movie to really aim for that comic adventure style was Laputa: Castle in the Sky, although Porco Rosso has some short moments here and there. Part of me prays for the elder statesman to revisit his youthful style just once more, although I'm more than perfectly happy with his evolution into complexity and surrealism. Hayao Miyazaki has mutated into Frederico Fellini, and it seems to suit him these days.

Will Sherlock Hound Soon Go OOP?

I've been informed that Geneon will soon take their Sherlock Hound DVD's off the market. I send an email to the company asking for confirmation, but have yet to receive a response. Considering that the series was released in February, 2002, it wouldn't be surprising.

I would suggest that until we learn otherwise, we should assume that Sherlock Hound will soon go out-of-print at the end of this month. As I wrote in an earlier post, the Telecom, Miyazaki-directed episodes appear on Sherlock Hound Case Files 1-3, so be sure to purchase those DVD's via your local retailer or Amazon. When I bought mine, I paid about $20 for each.

Sherlock Hound

Sherlock Hound, as it's known in the West (in Japan it's simply "Meitantai Holmes," or Famous Detective Holmes) doesn't have all that much to do with Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. The whole setting is really just a framework to create an fast-paced adventure show, with slapstick comedy bits piled onto spectacular car chases. In other words, it's a terrific piece of animation, a giant ball of fun.

Sherlock Hound was started in 1981 at animation studio Telecom, with Miyazaki at the helm, and an amazing amount of talent; chief among these include Yoshifumi Kondo (animation director), Kazuhide Tomonaga, Tsukasa Tannai, Nobuo Tomizawa, Masako Shinohara, Koichi Maruyama, and Atsuko Tanaka. The great Yasuo Otsuka even makes an uncredited cameo for one episode.

The series was very clearly an homage to Animal Treasure Island, the 1971 Toei film that largely cements the "Miyazaki Style." The Telecom staff was thrilled at the opportunity to create something with the same boyant energy, and it shows in nearly every frame. This is the perfect example of just how effective animation, hand-drawn animation, can be in the right hands. I don't think anything in the CGI age has yet matched it.

There's something of an instant, pick-up-and-play feel to Sherlock Hound, very lightweight, that marks it as the end of an era. Miyazaki's worldview was becoming more clouded, more complicated, as middle age approached. Future Boy Conan carried serious, somber undertones just under the surface; by the time Nausicaa made its way to the big screen in 1984, that darker side was taking over. His inner conflict is something that defines the Ghibli era, that battle between youthful idealism and adult cynicism; note for example the third acts of Castle in the Sky and My Neighbor Totoro, and the crises of identity in Kiki's Delivery Service and Porco Rosso.

The "Classic Miyazaki" period of Puss in Boots and Animal Treasure Island and Lupin has long passed, and Sherlock Hound is kind of an Abbey Road to the era; in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Now on to the history lesson. Six episodes were created at Telecom before the series was put on hiatus. As far as I understand, this was due to conflicts with the Conan Doyle estate, who apparantly weren't too pleased with this unorthodox treatment of the Sherlock Holmes characters. The series was shelved, until Miyazaki refashioned two of the episodes as the opening short film for Nausicaa in 1984. The public was enthralled, so the series was revived, with 20 new episodes set in production. However, these new episodes were not created by Telecom nor any of the principle players (apart from the actors), but at another Japanese studio, and the difference shows. The original six episodes were integrated into the TV series as follows:

Episode 3 - A Small Client
Episode 4 - Mrs. Hudson is Taken Hostage
Episode 5 - The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
Episode 9 - Treasure Under the Sea
Episode 10 - The White Cliffs of Dover
Episode 11 - The Sovereign Gold Coins

In 1984, Tomonaga, along with Kondo (director), Tomizawa, Tanaka and Nizu created the famous Nemo pilot, which is one of the greatest pieces of Japanese animation ever devised. This was Tomonaga's baby, and he masterfully packs all the excitement of Sherlock Hound into a four-minute action classic. It's just another example of the amazing talent at that time. If only their version of Nemo was the one that finally made it to the screen. If only Miyazaki and companay could have made more Hound episodes. All part of the great "what ifs?" of life.

Here in the States, Sherlock Hound is available on DVD from Pioneer; the entire series spans six seperate DVD's, but the original Telecom/Miyazaki episodes are on the first three. Those discs should be part of your collection and put into heavy rotation. The later episodes? Eh, not so good. I'll go into greater detail on later posts.