Hello dear audience!
I hope you are well and prepped for another Saturday full of trailers and badly translated rambling notes (I should work with a native Japanese speaker…).
It’s coming up to that time of the year where everyone throws out their Top Ten whatever lists and I’ll try and do that. I’ve also given some serious though about actually going to Japan instead of constantly writing about it and promising to go. I have started to compile lists of places to visit and contacted friends in Japan. I’ve also taken to speaking Japanese a lot with friends from Japan a lot more than usual. I can go through whole conversations speaking nothing but 日本語 - basic stuff like polite form and describing things, desires and so on (ために practice today) because I find it’s easiest when speaking on the fly – even if some of it is wrong. Well, that’s for next year, coming up next is Christmas and I get a few days off to write a lot and merriment and whatever.
In terms of films, I watched Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno for a 
second time at the cinema and took a friend from Japan with me. We both loved every bit of it and we’re eagerly anticipating the next instalment as is my mother who I took the first time round. Kyoto Inferno is going to be my first review for the New Year (one more Western film and then a lot of Japanese films). I also watched Ichi the Killer and posted about the film Edge of Tomorrow (2014).
Up over on Anime UK News are the previews for the winter 2015 season of anime. Part One and Part Two have key images and PVs!!!
Also… Episode 10 of Parasyte was brilliant. That was one of the most excruciatingly tense and scary episode of anime I have seen in a long time.
What’s released in Tokyo this weekend? The films released over this weekend are diverse but there are only two killer titles for me: ESP Research Club’s 3 Members and Hoozuki no Reitetsu.
Chonoryoku Kenkyu-bu no 3-nin (ESP Research Club’s 3 Members)
Japanese Title: 超能力研究部の3人
Romaji: Chonouryoku Kenkyu-bu no 3-nin
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 115 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Writer: Hiroyuki Ohashi(Original Manga), Shinji Imaoka, Hiroyuki Ohashi, Kosuke Mukai, (Screenplay)
Starring: Manatsu Akimoto, Erika Ikuta, Nanami Hashimoto, Shono Hayama, Yuki Izumisawa, Hiroshi Sato, Masahiro Usui, Nobuhiro Yamashita,
Nobuhiro Yamashita. I’m slowly making my way through his filmography and so far, The Drudgery Train (2012) and Linda, Linda, Linda (2005) are the tops. Cream Lemon (2004) has grown on me with a second viewing (despite the ick factor of the story). Could this be another? Nogizaka46 idol girls are starring in a film based on Hiroyuki Ohashi;s manga short story series, City Lights. The stories follow the daily lives of various people, such as high school girls in an ESP research club or a good-for-nothing teacher at a school for spies. Three members of a certain high school club investigate incidents of UFOs, ESP, and other unexplained phenomena.
Nouka no Yome Anata ni Aitakute 
Japanese Title: 農家の嫁 あなたに逢いたくて
Romaji: Nouka no Yome Anata ni Aitakute
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 89 mins.
Director: Toshiro Enomoto
Writer: Shuji Kataoka, Hiroyuki Ohashi, Kosuke Mukai, (Screenplay)
Starring: Kei Mizutani, Manabu Hamada, Haruka Nishimoto, Yoshino Sayaka, Mutuo Yoshioka, Reiko Tajima,
Ooohh, another entry in the Love Stories season! This one stars Kei Mizutani who was apparently something of a legend for her sexy appearance in the late-night variety show Gilgamesh Night (I just did a quick Google search and found this appalling video on YouTube which is the least sexiest thing I have seen today). Anyway, she plays a woman married to a farmer’s son and after a career working in a bar she finds adjusting to her new life difficult. She has never done a hard days physical work and finds it hard to adjust to the new family, especially her strict mother-in-law, but with her husband’s support, she gets through things but there’s still some bumps in the road.
Oneness Unmei Hikiyose no Kogane Ritsu 
Japanese Title: ワンネス 運命引き寄せの黄金律
Romaji: Wanesu Unmei Hikiyose no Kogane Ritsu
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 94 mins.
Director: Ken Morita
Writer: Ken Morita (Original Novel), Ken Morita, (Screenplay)
Starring: Yui Umemura, Yuichiro Nakamura, Wataru Mori Ayano Tachibana, IZAM,
Yoko (Umemura) and Tomoya (Nakamura) are high school students who fall in love with eachother. They each have memories of meeting eachother in previous lives and go on a journey through space and time reliving different events.
Harmony 
Japanese Title: 和 WA
Romaji: Wa Wa
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 82 mins.
Director: Ken Morita
Writer: Ken Morita (Original Story), Ken Morita, (Screenplay)
Starring: Seira Hoshino, Osamu Toumi,
Harmony is a big thing in Japan and the writer Ken Morita has explored this in books and films where people meet and meet again and form strong bonds over time and space. Not even death can prevent people from getting back together again. Anyway, partly inspired by the lack of looting following the Great East Japan Earthquake, he took to the streets of Japan to interview people about harmony, made some animated and live-action films and the results are here in this weird documentary.
Like a Fairy Tale 
Japanese Title: おとぎ話みたい
Romaji: Otogi Banashi Mitai
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 82 mins.
Director: Yuki Yamato
Writer: Yuki Yamato (Screenplay)
Starring: Shuri, Ayako Kobayashi, Kazuki Arima, Nao Okabe, Kenta Ushio, Tami Maeda,
I think that this is a variety of performances at Moosic Lab 2013. The website for this is great. Even if you don’t normally click through to them, try this nicely designed website out.
Yokotawaru Kanojo 
Japanese Title: 横たわる彼女
Romaji: Yokotawaru Kanojo
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 70 mins.
Director: Akihiro Toda
Writer: Yuhito Terato (Screenplay)
Starring: Ayaka Komatsu, Ryo Kimura, Itsuki Sagara, Airi Nakajima,
Momoko (Komatsu) and Midori (Sagara) are sisters and total opposites, Momoko being terribly clumsy but kind-hearted, Midori being far more loof and very lonely. With their parents gone, they find staying in touch hard and when a man named Kumi (Kimura) enters the scene, things get harder….
Naruto the Movie: The Last 
Japanese Title: 劇場版NARUTO-ナルト- 『ザ・ラスト』
Romaji: Gekijouban Naruto – Za Rasuto
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 115 mins.
Director: Tsuneo Kobayashi
Writer: Masashi Kishimoto (Original Manga), Kyozuka Maruo (Screenplay)
Starring: Junko Takeuchi (Naruto Uzumaki), Nana Mizuki (Hinata Hyuga), Noriaki Sugiyama (Sasuke Uchiha), Chie Nakamura (Sakura Haruno), Kauhiko Inoue (Kakashi Hatake), Showtaro Morikubo (Shikamaru Nara), Kiyomi Asai (Hanabi Hyuga),
Straight from Anime News Network:
The moon is beginning to fall, and at the rate it’s going, it is doomed to fall on the Earth. The countdown for the survival of the planet begins. Among the havoc, Hinata’s younger sister Hanabi is captured by the mysterious enemy, Toneri Ōtsutsuki, who mistakes her for the elder sister. Naruto must overcome great danger on a mission to save Hanabi and the world along with Hinata, Sai, Shikamaru, and Sakura. Finally realizing what and who he must protect, Naruto embarks on his final story.
Hoozuki no Reitetsu 
Japanese Title: 鬼灯の冷徹
Romaji: Hoozuki no Reitetsu
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 74 mins.
Director: Hiroki Kaburaki
Writer: Natsumi Eguchi (Original Manga), Midori Gotuo (Screenplay)
Starring: Hiroki Yasumoto (Hozuki), Sumire Uesaka (Peach Maki), Takashi Nagasako (Enma Daio), Ayaka Suwa (Miki) Atsumi Tanezaki (Karashi), Daisuke Hirakawa (Momotaro), Yumiko Kobayashi (Shiro),
This is one of my favourite anime of the year so far, a collection of short tales, all blackly comic, based on the day-to-day life of Hoozuki (Yasumoto) the chief aide to the Great King Enma (Takashi Nagasako) who runs Japanese hell. The different levels of hell are effectively turned into mini-departments of a government which Hoozuki must keep an eye on in order to ensure that they work hard in punishing humans who have sinned in life. It became something of a hit in Japan with both the manga and DVDs seling well. The cinema screening released this weekend collects a bunch of OAVs (original anime videos) that will be bundled with the latest edition of the manga (volumes 17-19).
Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Star-Voyaging Ark 
Japanese Title: 宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199 星巡る方舟
Romaji: Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199: Hoshi-Meguru Hakobune
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 110 mins.
Chief Director: Makoto Bessho, Yutaka Izubuchi,
Writer: Leiji Matsumoto, Yoshinobu Nishizaki (Original Creator), Yutaka Iubichi (Screenplay)
Starring: Daisuke Ono (Susumu Kodai), Houko Kuwashima (Yuki Mori), Kenichi Suzumura (Daisuke Shima), Takayuki Sugo (Captain Juuzoo Okita) Aya Hisakawa (Lt. Kaoru Nimi), Aya Uchida (Warrant Officer Yuria Misaki),
The new Yamato anime is about to launch and I have turned to Anime News Network for a plot synopsis because I haven’t read the manga or kept track of the TV series:
2199 AD. Yamato tried to leave behind the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, after receiving a “Cosmo Reverse System” at its destination, Iscandar. However, suddenly, it encounters a mysterious group at the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The crew finds out that the group is called the “Gatlantis,” and that its leader is the Gutaba expeditionary force commander who calls himself “Goran Dagaamu of Thunder.” The commander demands that Yamato be handed over to him. Yamato, wanting to hurry to Earth, escapes the fray. However, Yamato is attacked by a devastating beam weapon called the “Flame Direct Attack Cannon” that can transcend space.
Yamato was able to retreat, but ends up getting lost, and finds itself in a strangely colored irregular dimension. The crew decides to turn off the engine on the ship, and explore a mysterious planet. In order to collect information, Kodai, Kiryū, Sawamura, Niimi, and Aihara land on the planet. What they saw when they arrived was a ship that was not supposed to be there.
Dagaamu chases after the traces of Yamato’s warp, and also reaches the strangely colored space. The planet on which Yamato landed was in fact what Dagaamu had been looking for all along.
BUMP OF CHICKEN “WILLPOLIS 2014″ Movie 
Japanese Title: BUMP OF CHICKEN “WILLPOLIS 2014” 劇場版
Romaji: BUMP OF CHICKEN “WILLPOLIS 2014” Gekijouban
Release Date: December 05th, 2014
Running Time: 103 mins.
Director: Shuichi Banba
Writer: N/A
Starring: Atsushi Kano (Interviewer), Bump of Chicken Members: Motoo Fujiwara , Hiroaki Masukawa, Naoi Yoshifumi, Hideo Masu,
Earlier this year Bump of Chicken went on tour and played to 25 million people in 20 performances that culminated in the Tokyo Dome. With short animated sections and lots of interviews, we get a documentary that shows us the guys rocking out.
Over The L’Arc-en-Ciel 
Japanese Title: Over The L’Arc-en-Ciel
Romaji: Over The L’Arc-en-Ciel
Release Date: December 05th, 2014
Running Time: N/A
Director: Ray Yoshimoto
Writer: N/A
Starring: L’Arc-en-Ciel are Vocal: hyde ／ Guitar: ken ／ Bass: tetsuya ／ Drums: yukihiro
I have a few Hyde albums. I like his music. L’Arc-en-Ciel are also awesome. And it looks like the rest of the World are in agreement because this documentary shows because in 2012 the guys went on a world tour across ten countries including Indonesia, South Korea, America, France, and the UK, and the fans flocked to see them as the trailer shows! See more in this documentary.
Also, check out a cool review of the concert in Indonesia from the most passionate L’Arc-en-Ciel fan I know! She also posted about the latest news on the band, so check that out as well.
The Message from Kato-Kun 
Japanese Title: 加藤くんからのメッセージ
Romaji: Kato-kun kara no Messeji
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 90 mins.
Director: Watage
Writer: N/A
Starring:
My first thoughts upon seeing the trailer:
“よかいになりたい” o_0
Is this guy for real? Is this documentary for real?
It looks like it follows a university grad named Kato-kun, a 36 years old freeter/neet, whose dream is to be a ghost. He had taken three years to get into Waseda university and then took 11 years to graduate from there. He hasn’t been successful in either love or in making a career for himself having failed at being a cartoonist. He was working as a contract employee and living from hand to mouth but because he couldn’t give up his dream of becoming a ghost and has decided to live as a ghost called KATOH SHI. The director, Watage used to be an office worker who always had an ambition to make a film. She spent two years filming Kato-kun.
(thanks go out to my teacher for discussing this film with me)
Dagu Auto no Mukou Iwa wo Ikiru to iu koto 
Japanese Title: ダグアウトの向こう 今を生きるということ。
Romaji: Dagu Auto no Mukou Iwa wo Ikiru to iu koto
Release Date: December 06th, 2014
Running Time: 100 mins.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
Starring: Yokohama DeNA BayStars
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars have had a number of documentaries made of their team’s progress in the Japanese baseball league and after a couple of tumultuous years marked by some losses and retirements, the 2014 season is brought t the cinema screen to show how they are faring now.
And that’s your lot as far as badly translated trailer posts go. Random music video:
[Youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi07uPJXHxQ]
Also, random anime OP from my childhood:
