Violet Evergarden: The Movie. Long after the end, her legacy lives on..
By Jeannette Ng.
Violet Evergarden: The Movie is a film about second chances, piecing oneself together after tragedy and allowing oneself the luxury of love despite the overwhelming guilt of survival. The very real tragedy of the arson attack on Kyoto Animation’s studio haunts the film. It is one of the reasons for the film’s delay and it is thus impossible not to see the shadow of it in certain lines, such as one about how a simple celebration has now become a memorial for the dead. That the film exists at all is something of a miracle.
Taisho Secrets. The real world of Demon Slayer..
By Tom Wilmot.
The unprecedented success of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba continues to perplex spectators, with the franchise’s film entry, Mugen Train, shattering records to become Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time. Much of the attention on the property is paid to the stunning animation and action-packed narrative. However, there is something to be said about the historical era in which the show is set. While the series protagonist Tanjiro Kamado and his merry band of demon slayers would easily slip into an anime set during the Edo period (1603-1868), the story instead takes place during the short-lived Taisho era (1912-1926). Although the setting is not the focal point of Tanjiro’s journey, several aspects of this fascinating era are wonderfully realised in Demon Slayer.
PROMARE returns to the UK with new Limited Edition Steelbook
It's hard to believe it's been a year since we first released Studio Trigger's beloved film PROMARE on Collector's Edition Blu-ray, and ever since then we've had plenty of questions asking whether we had any other plans for exciting things to do with the film.
Today, we're joining forces with our friends at Zavvi to bring you news of a Limited Edition of PROMARE on Blu-ray... in Steelbook form!
This Steelbook edition of the film features iconic art on both sides of that Steelbook case, and alongside the film on Blu-ray you'll also find a series of four art cards capturing some of the amazing visuals created to promote the film.
The PROMARE Limited Edition Steelbook is set to ship on Monday, 9th August 2021, with an SRP of £29.99 - however, you'll be able to pre-order this item on both Zavvi.com and AllTheAnime.com for just £21.99!
To pick up a copy for yourself, pre-orders for this release launch this Thursday, 24th June 2021 at 5PM, so steel yourself to pick up a copy at the links below:
Whether you already own the film, are dying to do so, or haven't even seen it yet, we hope you're excited to pick up this great new edition of PROMARE!
Giants and Toys. Space suits, caramels, and all-out corporate war!.
By Tom Wilmot.
As three caramel companies, World, Giant and Apollo duel for market share, fresh-faced World employee Nishi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) assists his ambitious boss, Goda (Hideo Takamatsu) in making a star out of the rotten-toothed tomboy Kyoko (Hitomi Nozoe), who is to be the face of their space-themed campaign. As each company’s marketing drive escalates to the point of lunacy, friendships, sanity, and health are all lost in a bid to win the sales war.
A prolific director in his day, Yasuzo Masumura was hot off the back of releasing four films in under a year when he took on what stands to be one of his most important projects, Giants and Toys. The movie, which is overshadowed to an extent by the filmmaker’s more erotically charged works in the sixties, is comfortably one of the most unorthodox Japanese films of its era.
Books: History of Chinese Animation. A snip at £250!.
By Jonathan Clements.
Released as part of a Routledge series of translations of Chinese scholarship, Sun Lijun’s two-volume History of Chinese Animation is the largest work yet published in English on the subject, boasting 572 pages on a century of innovation, tribulation and entertainment in the Chinese cartoon business.
The book is unforthcoming about its original incarnation – no chapter is assigned to a single contributor out of the seven credited, nor is it made all that clear when the book was originally published in Chinese (2011), or what is missing from this “selected” translation. But it appears that this is a relatively complete English-language version of a comprehensive account of animation in China.