Like many fans in the west, my interest in anime really started with Akira. But the anime that followed were sold primarily on the basis of sex and violence. For a short time, this strategy worked but the marketing had a negative effect. It quashed the possibility of getting a wider audience for subsequent releases of anime feature films or TV.
Public consensus still misunderstands anime as being dominated by half-naked schoolgirls and extreme violence, whereas in reality it is as varied in tone as any fiction-based, live-action TV. Besides anime for the very young, there’s sci-fi, horror, romcoms—all genres for all ages. The controversial stuff was only in a tiny minority of releases.
Akira (1988) did lead to an interest in what else Japanese animation had to offer, with a focus on other adult sci-fi anime series. But this didn’t rise above the level of ‘cult’ and enter into the mainstream. Subesequent releases like Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) didn't cause the same stir as Akira.
Recently, some of the most intricate, ground-breaking animated movies in the world have had terribly half-hearted cinema releases, and been overlooked by critics. Astonishing films like Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell 2 - Innocence and ironically Steam Boy (director Mamoru Oshii’s first feature since Akira) have snuck out into cinemas without finding an audience. These are titles with challenging plots, predictive sci-fi, hugely entertaining action—that are often dumped straight onto video.
Admittedly, the west has got a lot of readjusting to do – in Japan the adult consumption of manga has removed the stigma of ‘cartoons’. At least we’re finally appreciating the films of Hiyao Miyazaki. Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle herald a new wave of anime that has finally found a mainstream audience. This has lead to a demand for the twenty year back-catalogue of animated films from Studio Ghibli. Indeed, in France, these older films are getting re-releases in the cinema, not just on DVD.
Enough ranting, here I am still working my way through Miyazaki’s older films. The latest I’ve seen is The Castle of Cagliostro, now available on a Special Edition DVD. This 1979 feature film was the first to be directed by Miyazaki as he was moving up from TV work.
For copyright reasons, it’s been obscured that the film is all about the characters from the long-running Lupin III series of manga and TV. Arch-criminal Lupin is the grandson of Arsene Lupin of French literature, here embarking on an epic adventure with his usual accomplices, somewhere in Central Europe.
After raiding a casino, Lupin notices that rather than being incredibly rich, he merely has a carful of counterfeit cash. He decides to pursue the fake notes back to their source – the royal castle in a small duchy - Cagliostro. As he gets near, he encounters a very young bride trying to escape the castle, and his mission suddenly becomes far more complicated and dangerous than he had ever imagined.
Article comments
1 - Maximillian
"Steam Boy (director Mamoru Oshii’s first feature since Akira)"
AKIRA and GHOST IN THE SHELL are both influential anime that have impressed me greatly. But of course it was Katsuhiro Otomo that directed AKIRA and STEAM BOY. Mamoru Oshii was the director of GHOST IN THE SHELL, INNOCENCE and AVALON.