Ride Your Wave
By Shelley Pallis.
Hinako has moved to Chiba to pursue her studies as an oceanographer – she just loves the sea, unaware that Minato and Wasabi on the shoreline have been watching her early morning surfing ventures with wide-eyed amazement. Both of them are trainee firemen, but its Minato who gets the chance to play hero when Hinako’s building catches fire.
The fire-fighter’s life in Japan was largely overlooked in anime ever since Susumu Nishizawa’s forgotten Firefighter Daigo (1999) – that is, until recent months saw Fire Force, Promare (also screening at Scotland Loves Anime), and Ride Your Wave. Here, director Masaaki Yuasa zooms in not only on the logistics and technology of Japanese firemen, but of the intimate relationship they have with water, something which makes the two would-be lovers unexpectedly kindred spirits. It’s water that wins out in the end, with the fire-fighting subplot swiftly side-lined in favour of Hinako and Minato’s burgeoning romance, as she teaches him how to surf, and he repays her by gamely mansplaining about coffee and fried eggs. Continue Reading
The Trouble with Budori Gusuco
By Jonathan Clements.
It is difficult to overstate the impact of the author Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) on Japanese literature, and anime. He was still in his thirties when he died, a largely unknown poet living in provincial obscurity, and only really read outside local newspapers after the publication of a Complete Works a decade later. In the post-war period, which saw most of the Japanese school curriculum bleached and purged of any authors with wartime associations, Miyazawa’s gentle, pastoral tales, suffused with Buddhist imagery, swiftly took root, becoming the set books of an entire generation of schoolchildren.
Their impact can be felt even as far away as Scotland, where the last ten years at Scotland Loves Anime have seen many allusions to Miyazawa’s work. His allegory of death and the afterlife, Night on the Galactic Railroad, was excerpted in fantasy sequences in the 2014 award-winner Giovanni’s Island, and was plainly a huge influence on Keiichi Hara’s Colorful. Moreover, Miyazawa’s loving depictions of his beloved homeland in Iwate prefecture, all mist-clad mountain forests and wind-blown cliff-tops, would become a major influence on the work of Sachiko Kawashiba, whose Birthday Wonderland is also playing at this year’s festival. Continue Reading
Patema Inverted
By Andrew Osmond
One of the century’s great philosophers sang that everything you know is wrong, black is white, up is down and short is long. Patema Inverted, by director Yasuhiro Yoshiura, confines itself to Weird Al’s middle axiom, that up is down. The heroine Patema begins in an underground world, falling ‘down’ a chasm to the surface. Once there, she must hang on desperately to anything she can, or plunge into the clouds beneath. A surface dweller appears, and the picture rotates one-eighty degrees to show what he sees; an upside down girl, being yanked up into the sky. “Don’t fall!” she shrieks at him. “Fall where?” he asks reasonably.
It’s a wonderfully fresh starting point for a film, though of course there are precedents. Gravity reminded us there’s no up and down in space. In fantasy cinema, David Bowie strode around an Escheresque castle in Labyrinth (an idea extended in the third Night at the Museum), while Paris rolled up on itself in Inception. A much closer film to Patema was Upside Down. Made around the same time as the anime, this was a French-Canadian live-action film whose leads, played by Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess, are kept apart by competing gravities.
It was close enough to give Yoshiura the heebie-jeebies. “When I was making Patema Inverted, the producer came to me and said there’s a film with the same concept, which was a shock!’ Yoshiura told me. ‘I looked at the poster, then I put it away… I haven’t seen the trailer because I didn’t want to be influenced.” Luckily for Yoshiura, Upside Down was a squib, getting poor reviews and scant distribution.
All The Anime Music #1 – FLCL Vinyl. Everything you need to know about our first soundtrack release on vinyl!.
As many of you know we're a very ambitious company. We like to try new things, break from the norm and do something unique that makes us proud to be the largest independent anime distributor in the United Kingdom.
Get your ears ready, the FLCL soundtrack is being released on vinyl!
A couple of years ago we made it known that we were going to be expanding our horizons again with the news that we would be releasing anime soundtracks on vinyl! We're big fans of soundtracks in general at AllTheAnime HQ, and big fans of vinyl to boot, so this seemed like a natural progression to us.
As this is a new arena for us to enter we wanted to sure we got everything 100% right, and as the entire process of putting together a vinyl record release was something we had to experiment with as we went along, we went dormant on any news to do with this until earlier this year when we announced our first vinyl record release would be coming later in the year in the form of the soundtrack to the classic series, FLCL.
Getting some of the final logistics to do with this has taken a longer than expected, but now your patience will be rewarded as today we're delighted to confirm all the details you need to know about our first vinyl record release! Read on below for all the details.
WHAT IS ALL THE ANIME MUSIC?
Simply put, it's our chance to make anime soundtracks available in physical form in the United Kingdom & Ireland (and in some instances, other territories too). After establishing ourselves when it comes to anime films and television series releases on home video, we're taking our love and passion for that to the next level and putting that into soundtracks that you'll want to own, keep and listen to, again and again.
Who knows where things could ultimately lead, but if some of our past home video releases are anything to go by you know we're going to our utmost to bring something you'll need to have in your collection!
RELEASE #1
FLCL Soundtrack
The artwork being used for the front of the gatefold packaging. (Is also the artwork used for the square print!)
Product: FLCL Official Soundtrack
Format: Vinyl record
No. of LPs: 2 x black 180g vinyl
Release date: 11th November 2019
Cat. No.: ANIM0006
Suggested Retail Price: £34.99
Our first release will be the soundtrack of the classic anime series, FLCL on vinyl. To make this clear from the outset, we not only hold the license to this in the United Kingdom, but all English speaking territories.
This will be a 2LP 180g vinyl set. The product itself will have gatefold packaging to keep both LPs inside. Additionally inside there will be liner notes that include the lyrics to the songs included on the set, and exclusively through our AllTheAnime online store for UK & Ireland orders and RightStuf.com for North American orders there will be an additional square print included as well!
The track listing for this release is as follows -
FLCL Soundtrack Vinyl - Coming 11th November 2019
SIDE A
01 - LAST DINOSAUR
02 - Ride on Shooting Star
03 - Sad Sad Kiddie
04 - CARNIVAL
05 - RUNNERS HIGH ~FLCL Ver.~
06 - Instant Music
07 - STALKER
SIDE B
01 - Rever's Edge (B-6)
02 - STALKER GOES TO BABYLON
03 - ONE LIFE
04 - PAIN (A-7)
SIDE C
01 - Comedian's Gallop
02 - HYBRID RAINBOW
03 - Selfish-b (B-5)
04 - Pink (A-6)
05 - Beautiful Morning With you
06 - Sleepy Head
SIDE D
01 - Bran-new Lovesong
02 - Come Down
03 - Advice ~FLCL Arrange Ver.~
04 - LITTLE BUSTERS
The release date for our first vinyl record release will be 11th November 2019 with a Suggested Retail Price (SRP) of £34.99. Pre-orders for this launching on Friday 6th September 2019 - so tomorrow!
WHERE CAN I ORDER THIS?
For those in the UK & Ireland you can order this through our AllTheAnime online store using the link below starting tomorrow (Friday 6th Sept.) at 5pm
~ AllTheAnime.com Special Offer ~
From Friday 6th Sept. Thursday 12th Sept. 2019 you can pre-order this from our online shop for £29.99!
And for those of your reading this in North America, TheRightStuf.com will be taking orders for this also from Friday (6th Sept.)
CLICK HERE TO VISIT RIGHT STUF ANIME
*NOTE: RightStufAnime link above has been updated with the appropriate link
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
This section is designed to (hopefully) answer some questions you may have that weren't covered from the information above.
-- Do you have the rights to the FLCL anime?
No. We only hold the license to the soundtrack for the anime. The series itself is licensed and released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD by our friends MVM Entertainment.
-- Do you have the rights to FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative? Be it the series themselves and/or their soundtracks.
In short, no.
-- Will you release the FLCL soundtrack on any format/platform?
As things stand we can only confirm the release state for the vinyl record release. But we do want to make it known we intend to make this available on CD as well in the future. We have no other details to share on that at this time.
-- For UK customers, will this be available to order anywhere else?
As things stand this will be available to order exclusively through our AllTheAnime.com online shop.
-- I live in North America, when and where can I order this?
For customers in North American, you'll be able to order this exclusively from RightStufAnime.com. Pre-orders will launch on their site on Friday 6th Sept.
-- Will I be available to order from anywhere else if I'm in North America?
It's available to order exclusive through RightStufAnime.com only.
-- Is this a limited edition product like your other collector's editions?
Yes. It's a one-time print run.
-- Can you talk about where the master tapes for the music being used in your release have come from?
The masters used for this vinyl record were supplied by our partners in Japan, King Records, who we have worked very closely with to ensure the best quality possible for this release.
-- I appreciate you could just respond with "as large as a 12" vinyl", but can you share the exact dimensions of the packaging the LPs will be held in?
Sure thing! The gatefold if 313mm x 313mm square with an 8mm spine. With the gatefold opened, it works out at 634mm wide.
-- Can you confirm the size of the square print and liner noes?
Yes! They'll both be slightly smaller than the packaging itself, so they both fit inside without being folded. They both be 300mm x 300mm.
-- What's the required playback speed of this record?
33rpm
-- Are there more vinyl releases in the works?
Yes! We're got multiple projects on the go when it comes to vinyl records - one of them being the soundtrack to the film A Silent Voice; more to follow on that in the coming months - but it's worked out that we'll be kicking things with our release of FLCL. Also, the catalogue number doesn't represent a single format of product, so don't read too much into the number itself.
-- Many moons ago I received a discount code for the AllTheAnime.com online shop to be used on a purchase of a vinyl record. Is that still valid?
Providing you've not used it on any other product, yes! (A quick note that this discount code is only applicable to those who placed an order for one of our Christmas 2017 Mystery Boxes - yes it was that long ago, I wasn't joking when I said it was a couple of years ago we first announced plans for vinyl record releases. Any order using the discount code will be validated.)
-- I have a question that's not covered in the above information. What's the best way to contact you to ask it?
Feel free to reach out to us on our social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or you can email us at shop.uk@alltheanime.com
That's everything you need to know about our FLCL soundtrack release on vinyl! Don't forget that pre-orders launch tomorrow (6th Sept.) We hope you're as excited to own this as we are to bring it to you!
Signing out~!
Jeremy
© 2000 King Record Co., Ltd. Tokyo Japan © 1999 I.G/GAINAX/KGI
Anime Limited acquires “Weathering With You” in UK & Ireland. The new film from the director of Your Name is coming to cinemas in early 2020!.
Glasgow (September 4, 2019) -
Anime Limited, the UK’s leading independent distributor of anime, is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the distribution rights to the UK and Ireland of the much anticipated animated feature WEATHERING WITH YOU, the latest film from Makoto Shinkai, the director of 2016’s international hit Your Name.
Japanese theatrical poster
©2019 TOHO CO., LTD. / CoMix Wave Films Inc. / STORY inc. / KADOKAWACORPORATION / East Japan Marketing & Communications, Inc. /voque ting co., ltd. / Lawson Entertainment, Inc.
Anime Limited will release the film theatrically across the UK and Ireland in early 2020, with screenings in both Japanese language with English subtitles and English dub available.
“We are so excited to be back working on a national theatrical release of Makoto Shinkai’s latest work, having brought Your Name. to UK audiences in 2016. Anime Limited prides itself on making Japanese animation more available in UK cinemas and being able to bring a film as stunning as Weathering With You to audiences means a lot.” Andrew Partridge, CEO Anime Limited.
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.
Based out of Glasgow, Scotland Anime Limited brings a fresh approach to distributing the best in anime direct from Japan. As an independent company the emphasis is both breathing new life into much loved classics and introducing the cutting edge of theatrical offerings. With a focus on bringing more anime to the big screen, releasing beautifully packaged collector’s editions and trying new ways to reach fans digitally, Anime Limited is committed to offering a wide range of experiences for UK audiences.
UK Premiere Screenings this October
We're also delighted to announce that your first opportunity to see the film in the United Kingdom will be this October at the Scotland Loves Anime film festival in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The UK Premiere screening in Glasgow will be on Saturday 12th October at the Glasgow Film Theatre.
And then there will also be a screening at the Edinburgh Filmhouse on Saturday 19th October.
A note that both of these screenings at Scotland Loves Anime will be in Japanese with English subtitles only.
Book your tickets today!
BOOK GLASGOW TICKETS HERE
BOOK EDINBURGH TICKETS HERE
As mentioned earlier, the film be coming to cinemas in UK & Ireland in early 2020. Stay tuned for more details on that later this year.