A rare glimpse of early Japanese sound anime and prewar Japanese culture, The Roots of Japanese Anime features the masterworks of such pioneers of Japanese animation as Noburo Ofuji, Yasuji Murata, and Kenzo Masaoka, in addition to Mitsuyo Seo’s Momotaro’s Sea Eagle, the notorious war cartoon billed as Japan’s first feature anime. These movies represent the brilliance and variety of anime, ranging from beautiful Japanese paper animation to powerful multiplane cel cartoons. They also evoke the fascinating complexity of Japan, a nation that is then both marching towards war, enlisting kids in militarist nationalism, yet also delighting in a mixture of modern popular culture, ancient folk tales, irreverent comedy, and the everyday life of prewar Japanese children.

A woman encounters a chair with strange properties, but can't decide if the experience is exciting o...

One night, Reine, a young loner, sees among the urban chaos a moving oneness that seems alive, like ...

There's a war going on in ancient Kyoto. A war fought in shadows, between the forces of the Shogunat...

Giovanni currently lives a dreary life of near non-stop work. At school, his peers ridicule him ince...

The first theatrical release, titled Bonobono, opened in theaters on 1993-11-13. The film has since ...

This colorful adventure tells the story of an impetuous mermaid princess named Ariel who falls in lo...

A man goes on a journey finding the literal Paradise in hope of resurrecting his late wife, only to ...

Summer, 2006. A 5th grader Ryuhei discovers a notebook entitled "Tokyo Exploring Records." It was a ...

A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and ins...

A toon hating executive has a hare raising experience when he meets an out of work toon rabbit.

A daughter is constantly overshadowed by her famous father, but she is determined to make her own ma...

To save her father from certain death in the army, a young woman secretly enlists in his place and b...

When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loo...

A lonely fisherman drifts into haunted waters in search of food and finds much more than he bargaine...

All of the Clow Cards have been captured, and Sakura Kinomoto, the new Master of the Cards, is prepa...

An unlikely crew – an astronaut, his intrepid daughter, and a quintet of sympathetic, albeit violent...

Aki isn’t a brave little boy, but he’s dedicated nonetheless to safeguarding his sickly, mute friend...