The joy of Sadness: Belladonna of Sadness, the (very) experimental animated production that was the last thing out of Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Pro animation studio, is hitting theaters (and later home video) in a 4K restoration. It is admittedly one of the least-animated animated films out there, but it's still more phenomenal to look at than many of the more-animated animated films out there. I think I will re-use that sentence in my review. (Here's a review from Meniscus mag.)

And a trailer:

Let's see how long we'll have to wait: The lucky folks overseas are getting Blu-ray Disc sets of both the original 1972/3 Devilman and the 1995 Evangelion. I'm betting the latter has far more of a chance of showing up Stateside than the former, but my experience with reverse importation issues tells me Eva on Blu won't show up for at least another two years because of this. Please do prove me wrong.

Ladies, take the stage: The Takarazuka Revue is staging their own version of Rurouni Kenshin. There's not enough good things I can say about such a move.

One door closes, another opens: With Studio Ghibli's future very much in doubt (and on its 30th birthday, no less), the producer of Princess Kaguya, Yoshiaki Nishimura, has launched his own new studio, Studo Ponoc. Their first production doesn't look all that auspicious — it's an animated ad for Japan Railways West — but hey, humble beginnings and all that.

One door opens, another door closes: Anime in Singapore is ever more popular, but plans for a Chinese festival showing of Attack on Titan have been scrapped due to the recent ban on the title in that country. Idiotic.

Ghost in the browser: If you've got a fast Internet connection, a late-model PC, and a modern browser, check out this 3D Motoko Kusangi model. It takes a while to load, but it's worth the wait.

A giant of robos: From 2006, a few words with Yasuhiro Imagawa, director of G Gundam, but who lives forever in my own heart as one of the main men behind Giant Robo.

About the Author

Serdar Yegulalp (@GanrikiDotOrg) is Editor-in-Chief of Ganriki.org. He has written about anime professionally as the Anime Guide for Anime.About.com, and as a contributor to Advanced Media Network, but has also been exploring the subject on his own since 1998.
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