ANIME GEMS

The ANIMATOR Festival will present groundbreaking works in the history of the genre and will begin the process of acquainting the audience with its long tradition.

In this perspective, anime is not only a genre of film storytelling, but also a whole cinematic tradition and language. An artists largely involved in its continous creation is Keiichi Hara, a guest and Jury Member of the 16th ANIMATOR Festival, whose works we showcase in a dedicate RETROSPECTIVE. Aside from his projects we will be screening several classics listed below.

ON-GAKU: OUR SOUND (dir. Kenji Iwaisawa, Japan 2019)

When you’re a bored teenager looking for thrills, sometimes the only thing you can turn to is rock ‘n roll. Having no skill, money, or even a full set of drums, a feared trio of high school delinquents nevertheless decide they are destined for musical glory in a quest to impress their only friend Aya, avoid a rival gang, and – most importantly – jam out.

Animated almost entirely by director Kenji Iwaisawa, and featuring a lead performance by Japanese alt-rock legend Shintaro Sakamoto, "ON-GAKU: Our Sound" brings its own sound and vision to the Hiroyuki Ohashi manga from which it was adapted. With pitch-perfect deadpan humor, the film presents a highly original take on the beloved slacker comedy: a lofi buddy film with a blaring musical finale that will leave you wanting an immediate encore.

MEMORIES (dir. Katsuhiro Otomo, Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura, Japan 1995)

Created by celebrated anime master Katsuhiro Otomo (“Akira”, “Roujin Z”), “Memories” consists of three dazzling stories, each delivered with its own astonishing style. "Magnetic Rose," directed by Koji Morimoto (“Animatrix”) based on a manga short by Otomo, concerns two space travellers following a distress signal drawn into a magnificent world created by one woman's memories. In director Tensai Okamura's (“Wolf’s Rain”) "Stink Bomb," a young chemist accidentally transforms himself into an unstoppable biological weapon set on a direct course for Tokyo. Otomo's own "Cannon Fodder" depicts a day in the life of a city whose entire purpose is the firing of cannons at an unknown enemy. 

SATOSHI KON, THE ILLUSIONIST (dir. Pascal-Alex Vincent, France 2021)

The mangaka and anime filmmaker Satoshi Kon died suddenly in 2010, at the age of 46. He left behind a short and unfinished body of work, which is nevertheless among the most widely distributed and influential in the history of contemporary Japanese culture.

Ten years after his death, his family and collaborators finally speak out about his work, while his heirs in Japan, France and Hollywood look back on his artistic legacy. "Satoshi Kon, The Illusionist" illustrates the trajectory of a solitary author, whose life was dedicated to comics and animation for adults.

GHOST IN THE SHELL (dir. Mamoru Oshii, Japan 1995)

2029 A.D. - The near future, where corporate networks cover the planet, electrons and light saturate the world, but informatization has not yet erased boundaries between nations and among ethnic groups. It is a time when networks of information envelope the world in many layers, and computer crime and cyber terrorism takes place daily. Motoko Kusanagi of National Public Security Section 9 is sent to investigate an elusive hacker called the Puppet Master, for whom there are international arrest warrants. "Puppet Master" is a code name that comes from the particular technique used by the criminal -hacking human brains to control memory and behavior- but in fact, his identity is unknown. After investigating a number of incidents, Kusanagi seems be getting closer to the Puppet Master than ever, but the reality is that the Puppet Master was also trying to approach her. And when, finally, the mysterious criminal comes face to face with Major Kusanagi of Section 9, truth seems to surpass any imagination...