Books: Japanese Influence on Kids’ TV
By Jonathan Clements.
“What was Saturday morning?” Dr Gina O’Melia asks innocently, upending a whole can of worms for young, millennial scholars who cannot see the resonance of those words. These days, with streaming, narrowcasting and pocket screens, every single waking moment can be “Saturday morning” if you want it to be. The idea of a free, untrammelled time, alone with the telly and without chores or obligations, has a note of twentieth-century nostalgia – O’Melia observes that “Saturday morning”, as Generation X remembers it, ceased to exist in 2014.
But, in its glory days, she describes it as a great, invisible unifier of American children, “the only guaranteed time when television was especially their own,” a grand, nationwide block of programming that all could share, love and obsess about. She parses such unity not only in geographical terms, but across generations – sometimes the same old junk was still being repeated two decades later, creating common ground for parents and their children! But this is all a preamble for O’Melia’s main attraction: the arrival post-1993 of Japanese content that would radically alter the nature of children’s programming in America, starting with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
Her book, Japanese Influence on American Children’s Television: Transforming Saturday Morning, argues that in the two decades before its demise, Saturday morning kids’ programming became increasingly dominated by Japanese and Japanese-style programming, “...not a novelty like Godzilla or merely a niche product, but something that was able to keep a grasp on American children’s media for almost half of Saturday Morning’s entire airing history.” O’Melia is interested primarily in the phenomenology of these shows – like Liliane Lurçat, the first academic to write about Japanese TV abroad, her focus is on how they appeared in this context, dubbed and cut, not how they may have originally appeared in Japan. Rather sweetly, she apologises for this, as if she had already endured the complaints of one too many anime fan in her classroom for not talking about the original version of CardCaptors or Pokémon. Continue Reading
GKids and Anime Limited announce Weathering With You English dub cast. Featuring Lee Pace, Alison Brie and Riz Ahmed.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - London, 9th January 2020
GKIDS & ANIME LTD. ANNOUNCES ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VOICE CAST FOR THE CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED
Weathering With You
FEATURING LEE PACE, ALISON BRIE AND RIZ AHMED
(January 6, 2020) – GKIDS & Anime Limited have announced the English voice cast for Weathering With You, a breathtaking drama from Makoto Shinkai, director of worldwide phenomenon Your Name. The film will feature the voices of Lee Pace (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Hobbit trilogy ), Alison Brie (GLOW, The LEGO Movie franchise), and Riz Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Venom).
Weathering With You has stormed the Japanese box office becoming the top-grossing film of 2019. Ahead of its Western Theatrical release, Weathering With You stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and has been confirmed as the 6th most tweeted about movie of 2019.
Weathering With You will open in cinemas across the UK & Ireland on 17th January with both Dubbed and Subbed screenings.
For more information and bookings please visit https://weatheringwithyoufilm.co.uk/ #WeatheringWithYou
You can watch the official English Language Dubbed trailer HERE
For more information please contact lisa@fetch.fm
For all press info and assets please visit the Fetch site.
SYNOPSIS
High school freshman Hodaka Morishima leaves his home on an isolated island and moves to Tokyo, but he quickly finds himself in financial trouble. Living his days in isolation, he eventually lands a job as a writer for a shady occult magazine. Then one day in an alley, Hodaka meets a young girl named Hina Amano, bright and strong-willed, who possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
English Voice Cast:
Brandon Engman – Hodaka
Ashley Boettcher – Hina
Lee Pace – Suga
Alison Brie – Natsumi
Emeka Guindo – Nagi
Riz Ahmed – Takai
Vinnie Penna – Kimura
Mike Pollock – Yasui
Barbara Goodson – Tachibana
Produced w/ @nyav_post
"Dazzling" ★ ★ ★ ★ Matthew Leyland, Total Film
“Breathtaking Animation! Will Make You Cry Oceans!” Collider
“Stunningly Beautiful” Indiewire
“Skybound Poetry” The Hollywood Reporter
"Blissful" ★ ★ ★ ★ Kambole Campbell, Little White Lies
★ ★ ★ ★ Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
NOTE:
“Weathering with You” has followed in its predecessor’s footsteps in taking Japan by storm, becoming their seventh highest-grossing domestic film of all time after only 52 days, and beating Disney’s Aladdin remake to become Japan’s highest grossing film of 2019. “Weathering with You” also has the awards season in its sights, becoming the first anime submitted for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film since Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” in 1998!
Chaos Dragon
By Paul Browne.
If there’s one holiday destination to avoid this year, it’s the island state of Nil Kamui. Having lost its independence during the conflict between neighbouring countries Donatia and Kouran, the people of Nil Kamui find themselves beneath the heel of the occupying forces. Just to keep things interesting, Red Dragon – the guardian god of Nil Kamui, has also gone berserk.
In the midst of all this is Ibuki, heir to the throne of Nil Kamui but unwilling to pick up arms. For Ibuki, violence solves nothing and he’s more concerned with leading a peaceful life. It would probably be the shortest and dullest anime on record if Ibuki managed to pursue his dream, but events take a dramatic – and ultimately tragic – turn forcing Ibuki to look at reclaiming his throne and fight for Nil Kamui’s independence. Continue Reading
Newswire – 8/1/2020. A preview of what home video releases you can expect from us to begin 2020!.
Happy new year everyone! We hope you've had a great festive break and enjoyed your celebrations welcoming the new decade too! This update blog post is a mixed bag; as it’ll contain a list of forthcoming release dates so you can see what we have incoming over the next few months but at the same it'll also include some date amendments based on information we have received today from our production house following the festive break and reopening this week.
So sit back, (try to) relax, and have a read for what's incoming.
JANUARY 2020
TOKYO GHOUL:re - PART 1
Product: Tokyo Ghoul: re – Part 1
Format: Blu-ray Collector’s Edition, Standard Edition DVD
Release date: 13th January 2020
Cat. No.: ANI0475 (Collector’s BD) / ANI0476 (DVD)
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99 (Collector’s BD), £29.99 (DVD)
Inside our Tokyo Ghoul: re Part 1 Collector's Edition Blu-ray!
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF TOKYO GHOUL:re - Part 1 HERE
CODE GEASS FILM III: GLORIFICATION
Product: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion III: Glorification
Format: Blu-ray Ltd Collector’s Edition
Release date: 13th January 2020
Cat. No.: ANI0350
Suggested Retail Price: £39.99
Code Geass III: Groification
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF CODE GEASS FILM III: GLORIFICATION HERE
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM THE ORIGIN V & VI
Product: Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin V & VI
Format: Blu-ray Ltd Collector’s Edition
Release date: 27th January 2020
Cat. No.: ANI8038
Suggested Retail Price: £39.99
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF GUNDAM THE ORIGIN V & VI HERE
MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING: PART 2 (standard edition Blu-ray)
Product: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Part 2 Blu-ray (standard edition)
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 27th January 2019
Cat. No.: ANI8040
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99
Now some of you may have noticed some titles not mentioned in the list above. As alluded to at the top of this post, following an update we've received from our production house today, some dates of upcoming releases have had to be amended. So with that in mind, here is how things are now looking for February and the start of March...
FEBRUARY 2020
PLASTIC MEMORIES: PART 1
Product: Plastic Memories Part 1
Format: Blu-ray Ltd Collector’s Edition
Release date: 10th February 2020
Cat. No.: ANI0229
Suggested Retail Price: £39.99
Plastic Memories Part 1 - Blu-ray Collector's Edition
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF PLASTIC MEMORIES: PART 1 HERE
KING'S GAME
Product: King’s Game
Format: Blu-ray Ltd. Collector’s Edition
Release date: 17th February 2020
Cat. No.: ANI0513
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99
King's Game - Blu-ray Collector's Edition
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF KING'S GAME HERE
CALAMITY OF A ZOMBIE GIRL
Product: Calamity of a Zombie Girl
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 17th February 2020
Language: Japanese with English subtitles only
Cat. No.: ANI0510
Suggested Retail Price: £19.99
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF CALAMITY OF A ZOMBIE GIRL HERE
GUNDAM 00: PART 1 (standard edition)
Product: Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Part 1 Blu-ray (standard edition)
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 17th February 2019
Cat. No.: ANI8030
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99
VIEW ALL THE ANIME LISTING HERE
PENGUIN HIGHWAY
Product: Penguin Highway Limited Collector’s Edition
Format: DVD/Blu-ray
Release date: 24th February 2020
Language: Japanese and English with English subtitles
Cat. No.: ANI0544
Suggested Retail Price: £49.99
Coming 24th February 2020
Product: Penguin Highway
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 24th February 2020
Language: Japanese and English with English subtitles
Cat. No.: ANI0545
Suggested Retail Price: £19.99
Product: Penguin Highway
Format: DVD
Release date: 24th February 2020
Language: Japanese and English with English subtitles
Cat. No.: ANI0546
Suggested Retail Price: £17.99
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF PENGUIN HIGHWAY HERE
A SILENT VOICE (2020 Limited Edition Set)
Product: A Silent Voice Limited Edition
Format: DVD/Blu-ray
Release date: 24th February 2020
Language: Japanese and English with English subtitles
Cat. No.: ANI0541
Suggested Retail Price: £34.99
A Silent Voice - 2020 Limited Edition Blu-ray
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF THIS NEW A SILENT VOICE LIMITED EDITION SET HERE
(EARLY) MARCH 2020
PLASTIC MEMORIES: PART 2
Product: Plastic Memories Part 2
Format: Blu-ray Ltd Collector’s Edition
Release date: 2nd March 2020
Cat. No.: ANI0230
Suggested Retail Price: £39.99
Plastic Memories: Part 2 - Blu-ray Collector's Edition
READ MORE ABOUT OUR RELEASE OF PLASTIC MEMORIES: PART 2 HERE
GUNDAM 00: PART 2 (STANDARD EDITION)
Product: Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Part 2 Blu-ray (standard edition)
Format: Blu-ray
Release date: 2nd March 2020
Cat. No.: ANI8031
Suggested Retail Price: £59.99
VIEW ALL THE ANIME LISTING HERE
And that about wraps this preview of the next few months! I'll say now, it's entirely possible a few other things may sneak into the lineup before March, but we're playing it safe and holding off on mentioning them inc case something goes awry. And you can likely expect news about titles coming from March onwards in early February time all going well.
And don't worry if there's a title not mentioned above you were hoping for, it's not been forgotten about. There's a heck of a lot planned for this year, but as some of you eagle eyed folks will have noticed there's one or two omissions from things we had mentioned in passing late last year. The festive period can play havoc with production on some things, and we can't escape that. So until things are locked in and we have concrete information on thing, we're not jumping the gun on things.
Signing out~!
Jeremy
Shinkai on Weathering
By Andrew Osmond.
It’s been three years since Makoto Shinkai was last in London. “I don’t remember it being this dark or this cold,” he says. A moment later, he confirms that his new film, Weathering with You, is chiefly inspired by the climate crisis. “I don’t know how things are here in London, but in Japan we’re getting heavier and heavier rain every summer, and we’re clearly getting more flooding. This climate crisis that we’ve been hearing about for a while is now a reality. We’re actually experiencing it and the world is out of control.” Continue Reading