Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival Preview
The full programme for this year’s Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival has been revealed ahead of the event which has expanded to take place at two locations, Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on Saturday June 07th and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Saturday June 21st.
This is the fourth festival and as usual it features an eclectic mix of titles that mix the high-brow with the fan favourites to bring a diverse range of anime for people to experience. One title, Colorful, will only be screened at Cardiff, which will also be the location for the marketplace and raffle.
Here are the films programmed and more details of events:
Patema Inverted
Screened: Cardiff, Aberystwyth
Director: Yasuhiro Yoshiura
Duration: 99 mins
Patema Inverted begins in an underground world made up of a network of tunnels where a community of people dwell. A young and cheerful princess named Patema loves to explore the ‘danger zone’ – a region where a passage has been forbidden by the leaders of the community. As she investigates the ‘danger’, Patema falls into a deep pit which leads to the surface of the earth and ‘falls’ upward into the sky! Just as all seems lost she is saved by a teenage boy named Age who lives on the surface world. Although Patema’s gravitational pull is different from everybody else’s (their ceiling is her floor!), she’s in even greater danger than she might realise but with the help of Age the two will turn everybody’s world upside down!
Patema Inverted is the latest directorial effort from Yasuhiro Yoshiura, director of Time of Eve and Pale Cocoon. It reaches Kotatsu after a successful release in Japan and a tour of the film festival circuit where it was screened at places like Nippon Connection and the 2013 Scotland Loves Anime festival, where it won the Audience and Judge awards. See it on the big screen ahead of Anime Limited’s release.
With a weird scenario, a plot full of twists and turns and loveable characters getting into exciting adventures, Patema Inverted is sure to delight the whole family.
By Your Side (Short Film)
Screened: Cardiff, Aberystwyth
Director: Tsuneo Goda
Duration: 5 mins
This short film is a collaboration between Tsuneo Goda, the creator of Domo, and the singer Sade. It was created through the Zapuni project which unites Japanese visual artists with world-renowned musicians to create and dedicate videos to charities that help children affected by the 2011 Great Tohoku Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Japan.
Mai Mai Miracle
Screened: Cardiff, Aberystwyth
Director: Sunao Katabuchi
Duration: 95 mins
Shinko is a third grade elementary school student with a magically active imagination. She spends a lot of her time listening to her grandfather’s history lessons, imagining what her town was like 1,000 years earlier. One day, a sad and sombre girl called Kiiko transfers to Shinko’s school from Tokyo. A strong friendship soon grows between the two girls as Shinko helps Kiiko come out of her shell and deal with her loss – all thanks to their adventures, both imagined and real.
Mai Mai Miracle was directed by Sunao Katabuchi (episode director on Black Lagoon and assistant director of Kiki’s Delivery Service) and produced by MADHOUSE in 2009. When it was first released it won a slew of awards including Best Animated Film at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montréal along with the Excellence Prize for Feature Length Animation at the 2010 Japan Media Arts Festival.
Evangelion 3.0
Screened: Cardiff, Aberystwyth
Director: Hideaki Anno
Duration: 105 mins
Fourteen years after the third impact, Shinji awakens to a world that is in ruins and former allies turned against him as Nerv has ceased to exist. He does not know what happened. He is now trapped in a harrowing cycle of death and rebirth, and an ongoing battle against the angels – even as the world spirals down towards what could be a tragic end.
Evangelion: 3.0 is the third film in Hideaki Anno and anime studio Khara’s four-part remake of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series as he attempts to make the ultimate epic mecha anime.
Colorful (2010)
Screened: Cardiff
Director: Keichi Hara
Duration: 127 mins
A dejected soul reaches the train station to death but is informed that he is ‘lucky’ and will have another chance at life. The soul is placed in the body of a 14-year-old boy named Makoto Kobayashi, who has just committed suicide, for a limited time – in which the soul must discover why Makoto committed suicide and what the soul’s biggest sin in life was.
Colorful is a 2010 anime directed by Keiichi Hara. It won the award for Excellent Animation of the Year at the 34th Japan Academy Prize.
Tickets for the films will be released soon.
Here are details on the other events taking place at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff:
Workshop
Teacher: Lexémon from Turnip Starfish
Age: 11 – 16, £29.50 per person
Bookings via email to laura@turnipstarfish.co.uk
Are you as mad about Manga and Anime as we are?! This Manga drawing workshop teaches you how to draw and create characters in the popular Japanese style. You will be taught construction techniques to strengthen your artwork and how to pose your Manga characters. You are also encouraged to bring your own sketchbooks to show Manga Expert Lexémon! She will give you tips and tricks to improve your art.
Raffle Tickets
Again this year we are having another of our infamous raffles with more great prizes up for grabs, and the winners announced in a frantic gap between films around 6pm. On offer is the chance to win anime from MVM, Gundam models and more awesome anime goodness. Tickets will be available from the beginning of May from the Chapter Box Office and Super Tomato. If you buy tickets but cannot attend or wait for the prize draw at 6pm, please ensure your name/address/telephone are printed on the back of each ticket so we can get in touch should you be fortunate enough to win.
Market Place
The Comic Man
Selling a selection of manga and anime comics and magazines at very reasonable prices.
Selling a Japanese music label “OPUS KURA” and English hand knitting yarns.
Kodawari-Chaya
Selling self published fan illustration book “Do-jinshi”.
RAZARHAWK
The explosive action adventure comic by creators Ian Matthews and Dani Abram. It ain’t knowingly post-moderningly clever, but it is a truck load of fun!
Cardiff based specialist retailer of retro videogames, manga, comicbooks, and toys – both from the UK and imported directly from Japan.
Cardiff based artists selling original artworks and drawing materials.
Local artist selling Japanese inspired art works.
Food shop from local Korean & Japanese restaurant The Seoul House.
Xander’s Gallery
Local artist selling original paintings including sumi-e ink washes of anime themed characters
Venues and Contact Details:
Kotatsu:
info@kotatsufestival.com
http://www.kotatsufestival.com/index.html
Chapter Arts (Sat, June 07th)
Chapter Market Road, Canton Cardiff, Wales UK CF5 1QE
tel: +44 (0)29 2030 4400 e-mail: enquiry@chapter.org
Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Sat, June 21st)
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DE
tel: +44 (0)1970 62 32 32 e-mail: artstaff@aber.ac.uk
