Anime
Akira (1988) - Katsuhiro Ôtomo [Amazon.com]
Definiton
Anime is Japanese animation, often characterized by stylized colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in fantastic or futuristic action-filled plots. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime [Nov 2004]
Anime is Japanese animation, sometimes referred to in the Western world by the portmanteau Japanimation. It is often characterized by stylized colorful images depicting vibrant characters in a variety of different settings and storylines, aimed at a wide range of audiences. Anime is influenced by Japanese comics referred to as manga. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime [Jul 2005]
Akira (1988) - Katsuhiro Ôtomo
This classic movie led the way for the growing popularity of anime, and according to many people caused anime to become quite popular in western Europe in the mid-1990s. In North America, Akira was the beginning of the current wave of anime fandom and served as inspiration to the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix trilogy of motion pictures. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(film) [Nov 2004]
Spirited Away (2001) - Hayao Miyazaki
Spirited Away (2001) - Hayao Miyazaki [Amazon.com]
In the movie, Chihiro Ogino is a little girl who moves to the country with her parents, Akio and Yuko . She is clearly unhappy about the move and appears rather petulant. They lose their way and come across a tunnel, and out of curiosity, enter it, unaware that it actually provides access into the spirit world - and specifically to a spirit bath house - a place where the spirits and gods (drawn from the Shinto religious tradition) go to rest and relax. The family enters what is apparently an abandoned theme park populated with restaurants, and Chihiro's parents, finding a place to eat, immediately help themselves to a meal. Chihiro is uneasy, and hesitates outside, watching her parents eat like pigs; soon they actually transform into large pigs. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away [Jan 2005]
The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million), Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi) is a dazzling film that reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasy worlds. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice, Chihiro (voice by Daveigh Chase--Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch) plunges into an alternate reality. On the way to their new home, the petulant adolescent and her parents find what they think is a deserted amusement park. Her parents stuff themselves until they turn into pigs, and Chihiro discovers they're trapped in a resort for traditional Japanese gods and spirits. An oddly familiar boy named Haku (Jason Marsden) instructs Chihiro to request a job from Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), the greedy witch who rules the spa. As she works, Chihiro's untapped qualities keep her from being corrupted by the greed that pervades Yubaba's mini-empire. In a series of fantastic adventures, she purges a river god suffering from human pollution, rescues the mysterious No-Face, and befriends Yubaba's kindly twin, Zeniba (Pleshette again). The resolve, bravery, and love Chihiro discovers within herself enable her to aid Haku and save her parents. The result is a moving and magical journey, told with consummate skill by one of the masters of contemporary animation. --Charles Solomon for amazon.com
Princess Mononoke (1997) - Hayao Miyazaki
Tree spirit in action in Princess Mononoke (1997) - Hayao Miyazaki [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime 1997) is a Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki.
It is set in medieval Japan, and centres on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who need its resources, as seen by the outsider Ashitaka. "Mononoke" is not a name, but a description that might be rendered in this context as "avenging spirit", making the title of the film Princess of the Avenging Spirits. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke [Mar 2005]
see also: biology
Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend (1989) - Hideki Takayama
Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend (1989) - Hideki Takayama [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Japan and France are also known to share ideas with each other in the realms of art and cooking. Japan has been heavily influenced by French cuisine within the past few decades, as seen on the television show Iron Chef. Anime is popular in France, and French historical figures and settings from medieval, Renaissance, Napoleonic, and World War eras have served as models for certain popular stories in Japanese entertainment. The purity of Japanese painting and illustration, and likewise the modernity and elegance of French visual arts has resulted in hybrid styles in those creative fields. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_France#Japan [Jul 2005]
see also: Japan - France - anime - film - 1989
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