DC 5th Annual Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon

This year markes the fifth installment of the DC Annual Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon, part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. This year's Japanese Street Festival, Sakura Matsuri, will feature their "J-pop Land" as well as many other events (http://www.sakuramatsuri.org/, for more information). The Anime Marathon and Japanese Street Festival will both take place on Saturday, April 14, 2007.

And for the big news, just announced, an extremely very special guest will be in attendance during the Anime Marathon at Freer. Are you ready for this? The one and only Satoshi Kon!!! That's right, Satoshi Kon, director, character designer, and writer for films including "Perfect Blue" and "Millennium Actress." Kon will introduce and discuss two of his films. Tickets are first-come, first-serve (limit 2 tickets per person) at 10:30 AM. Visit http://www.asia.si.edu/ for more information.

The scheduled line-up is as follows:

11:00 AM - "Yu-Gi-Oh: The Movie" (Katsuki Tsuji, English Dubbed)
Here we adventure to Egypt, where Yugi must defeat the awakened ancient evil spirit, Anubis, to vanquish evil once again. The overall movie is less than mediocre with the dubbing and plot below par. Nevertheless, it should provide some entertainment to more avid fans of the series and card game.

1:30 PM - "Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters" (Mamoru Oshii, Japanese with English Subtitles)
From Production I.G. and the genius who brought us "Ghost in the Shell," Mamoru Oshii, comes an animated feature film that depicts one entire nation's dietary history. This comedic parody is based on the original novel written by Oshii himself. I personally have not seen this movie yet and am anxiously waiting for April to come.

4:00 PM - "Tokyo Godfathers" (Satoshi Kon, Japanese with English Subtitles)
We kick off the Satoshi Kon section of the marathon with "Tokyo Godfathers." This film marks the adventures of three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum, who encounter an abandoned newborn. They run into many obstacles as they set off to find the baby's parents. I always enjoy watching this movie, it brings a smile to my face. Here I go...*clears throat*..."Climb every mountain..." Okay, I'll stop.

7:00 PM - "Paprika" (Satoshi Kon, Japanese with English Subtitles)
Finally, we end the run with "Paprika." I've written several posts on this movie, so I won't go into much detail here. A device with the ability to read dreams is stolen and it is up to Paprika to capture the culprit and save the world. I'm excited to get a chance to watch this again. Last time I saw this was in Paris, France and since then I've been eager to see it a second time. I'm also excited to see what Kon's comments will be. For most, this will be the first time area residents can watch this movie. The movie is set to be released on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and UMD this May in Japan; and is set for a theatrical release in the US in May.