Welcome to the second and last trailer post of the week.
You can find the first one here.
While I’ve been laid up with a knee fracture that is healing, I’ve watched a lot of films. The weekend before Christmas was all 80s horror, the Christmas week was all Koji Shiraishi horror, then last weekend was 80s and 90s anime – the era I grew up with. Let me tell you, the nostalgia vibes of those old character designs and cyberpunk/dark fantasy themes!
That sort of cyberpunk has given way to digital and high fantasy is back with a bang, but the new production methods, while slicker, don’t quite have the charm or colours or aesthetic. Then there are the stories and themes relating to the politics, emergent technology of that era which strike a chord with me. Back then, however, there was more money floating around the film industry so you would get weird little OVAs where creatives could let their imaginations fly… Old man rambling. I haven’t watched a new anime that hasn’t been a film in half a decade now.
Check out titles like Neo Tokyo.
Anyway! Earlier this week, I posted the last film of 2024 and I posted my Top Ten Films of 2024, too. I’ll start posting reviews for newer films from next week!
What are the rest of the new Japanese films this weekend?
The Brownie in Me 
僕のなかのブラウニー 「Boku no naka no Burauni-」
Release Date: January 03rd, 2024
Duration: 58 mins.
Director: Yuta Soma
Writer: Uiko Miura (Screenplay),
Starring: Ayaki Hirano, Akira100%, Ayaka Yamaki, Shota Hirano, Rui Amami,
Website Twitter: @WRA6NwO4eL59080
Synopsis: Kazuki Morimoto is the new kid at an elementary school after moving to town with his father Yosuke, a ramen chef. Seven years previously, he lost his younger sister in an earthquake, a sad situation which prompts him to seek out a fairy named Brownie, whom he heard about from a young carer and which he believes has taken his sister away. The people around him are confused but try to help him on his quest.
Imouto no jikan 
いもうとの時間 「Imouto no jikan」
Release Date: January 04th, 2024
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Reika Kamata
Writer: N/A
Starring: Miyoko Oka, Tatsuya Nakadai (Narrator)
Website Twitter: @shikanokuni_vf
This is a documentary about the Nabari Poison Wine Incident and a possible case of wrongful conviction. It comes in the wake of the Hakamada case where a man was acquitted of the murder of a family after the tireless campaign of his sister. The last time this story was in cinemas was in 2013 and that one also featured narration from Tatsuya Nakadai.
Synopsis: Masaru Okunishi, a man arrested for the killing five women and making twelve others ill with wine poisoned with pesticide in the rural town of Nabari, Mie Prefecture in 1961. He was believed to be the perpetrator because he was seen delivering the wine and his wife and his lover were two of the women killed. He was acquitted in his first trial but sentenced to death at the second. There was no evidence, just a written confession and he had been protesting his innocence but he died in prison in 2016 at the age of 89. Miyoko Oka, Okunishi’s younger sister, formed a defence team and continued to present new evidence and request a retrial but her efforts have been rejected. The film shows Miyoko still believing in her brother’s innocence and vowing to live a long life even as she enters her 90s.
This documentary was first broadcast on Tokai TV broadcast in February 2024. This film version features additional coverage and re-editing.
“Space Battleship Yamato” 50th Anniversary Special Selection Screening Program 2 
「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」放送50周年記念セレクション上映 プログラム2 「Uchuu Senkan Yamato hoso 50 shunenkinen serekushon koei puroguramu 2」
Release Date: January 03rd, 2025
Duration: N/A
Director: Leiji Matsumoto
Writer: Eiichi Yamamoto, Keisuke Fujikawa, Maru Tamura (Screenplays), Leiji Matsumoto, Yoshinobu Nishizaki (Original Creator),
Starring: Kei Tomiyama (Susumu Kodai), Yoko Asagami (Yuki Mori), Goro Naya (Juzo Okita),
Animation Production: Academy Productions, Tohokushinsha Film Corporation
Synopsis: The first episode of the TV anime Space Battleship Yamato was broadcast in Japan in 1974. It became a phenomena that inspired many creatives working to this day. To mark its 50th anniversary, selected episodes from the first TV series will be screened in an event planned and produced by Hideaki Anno who selected three sets of three episodes he took from the original 26-episode run. Crunchyroll had the screening schedule as:
December 27, 2024 – January 2, 2025
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 7
January 3 – 9 , 2025
Episode 16
Episode 18
Episode 22
January 10 – 16, 2025
Episode 23
Episode 24
Episode 26
Each program will be screened in HD remastered versions for a limited period of one week. This is the second set of screenings.