Sony’s home video side here in North America has a few anime feature films under their belt and they’ve now put together a really well priced edition for fans to check out. The new collection is priced at $35.99 and contains four films with Memories Paprika, Steamboy and Tekkonkinkreet. The set is DVD-only unfortunately but it includes French, Portuguese, Spanish and English dubs on top of the original Japanese and offers subtitles in the same. The set is scheduled for an October 18th, 2016 release.
Memories: Created by celebrated animé 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.
Paprika: Prepare to enter the realm of fantasy and imagination — where reality and dreams collide in a kaleidoscopic mindscape of sheer visual genius. The magical tale centers on a revolutionary machine that allows scientists to enter and record a subject’s dream. After being stolen, a fearless detective and brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device — before it falls into the hands of a “dream terrorist” in this gripping anime thriller from acclaimed director Satoshi Kon.
Steamboy: From the leader in animé Katsuhiro Otomo (Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis, Memories), comes his first feature- length directorial project since his breakthrough film (Akira). Ten years in the making, witha total budget of $22 million, Steamboy is the most expensive Japanese animé production ever. A retro science-fiction epic set in Victorian England, Steamboy features an inventor prodigy named Ray Steam, who receives a mysterious metal ball containing a new form of energy capable of powering an entire nation, the Steam Ball. Young Ray Steam must use the Steam Ball to fight evil, redeem his family, and save London from destruction.
Tekkonkinkreet: From the creators of Animatrix comes this visually-stunning new anime film based on a popular Japanese manga written by Taiyo Matsumoto. In Treasure Town, where the moon smiles and young boys can fly, life can be both gentle and brutal. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White, two street urchins who watch over the city, doing battle with an array of old-world Yakuza and alien assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis. TEKKONKINKREET is a dynamic tale of brotherhood that addresses the faults of present day society, true love lost, and the kindness of the human heart. A brutal elegy for our changing times as well as a tour-de-force of visual artistry, TEKKONKINKREET is a deeply resonant story with a heart. The title TEKKONKINKREET is a play on the Japanese words for ‘concrete,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘muscle,’ and it suggests the warring images of steel and concrete cities amassing against the powers of the imagination.
