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It is no longer the decision of the artist or the audience if art has any value. Indeed in our capitalist society, value is defined by authorities such as collectors, gallery owners and auction houses, resulting in art no longer being for the people but for a selected few. In her new satire “Maru”, director Naoko Ogigami (“Ripples”) takes this development and tells the story of an artist who becomes famous over night and without this being his goal. However, besides dealing with the aforementioned issues, she also manages to direct a feature which serves as a story about art in the era of social media and influencers, as well as the overall more significant discussion on the purposes of art as a whole.

Maru is screening at Nippon Connection

Sawada (Tsuyoshi Domoto) is a struggling artist working in the studio of a much famous painter to make ends meet.

It's been an exciting year so far with all the new and returning Netflix shows, but things are about to get even better with the release of this upcoming Japanese series on the streaming platform. It's being described as a mix of these two hit shows, Squid Game and Shōgun. I don't know about you, but that sounds like something I definitely don't want to miss!

It's a period drama titled Last Samurai Standing, and it's based on the highly regarded Japanese manga series Ikusagami by Shogo Imamura. Michihito Fujii, Kento Yamaguchi, and Toru Yamamoto directed the episodes. In addition, Fujii, Yamaguchi, and Risa Yashiro wrote the scripts. While the exact episode count for the first season remains unknown, it's likely to fall between eight and 10 episodes, which is the typical range for a Netflix series.

An official release date has not been announced yet. However, Netflix has already set a November 2025 release.

Junichi Okada, who enters this dangerous game with one goal: to save his ailing wife and child.”

Who is in the cast for Last Samurai Standing?

For a long time, Junichi Okada was the only confirmed cast member. Some Netflix subscribers would be familiar with Junichi Okada if they streamed the Japanese crime-thriller Hard Days. Others may recognize him for his voice work on animated titles Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill. Outside of Netflix, the actor has starred in several historical dramas.

Junichi Okada shared his excitement with Netflix about the project;

“When Netflix executive producer Mr. Takahashi reached out to me, I was still acting in historical dramas. Back then, I was already thinking of ways to make this genre a hit, not just in Japan, but all over the world. I saw their potential for action, drama, social commentary, and entertainment, but I knew they could be taken further.

One of the biggest trademarks of anime is its proclivity for intense action, leading to some of the greatest actions movies of all time. While many great shows have nothing to do with the genre, many of the biggest anime in history have been ones that have had a heavy focus on action, whether it be grounded in reality or the fantastical.

Feature-length anime films are often when animators are given complete time and freedom on a project, and that often leads to anime movies focused on action, which takes their stories and animation to incredible levels, especially if they were part of an ongoing franchise, and being some of the best things to watch in the entire medium. This has always been the case for old and new movies alike, with a few taking it far enough to be some of the best action-centric anime films for fans to watch.

Hiroyuki Imaishi is–in the very best way–one of animation’s finest ambassadors of Adhd. His 2004 directorial debut, Dead Leaves, is a masterpiece of sci-fi action insanity: 50 minutes of delirious stylized motion, featuring ultra-angular “superflat” designs combining the most expressive deformities of Eastern and Western comics and cartoons; a psychedelic adrenaline rush that diffuses the full density of a pulpy jailbreak action flick into half the running time and several times the visual scope. It is the pure cinematic embodiment of a film viewer, and filmmaker, whose bountiful imagination strikes dynamite creative synthesis with a short-fuse attention span. Dead Leaves was a minor event at the time, consigned to direct-to-dvd release overseas and ultimately, perhaps, too aggressively weird and explicit to capture the fancy of either mainstream critics or otaku. But 15 years later, Imaishi–who found breakout success in TV anime and co-founded his own studio, Trigger–has become...

"Someone has to shoulder the fate of mankind." GKids has unveiled the full-length official Us trailer for the Japanese anime feature film Promare, from animation filmmaker Hiroyuki Imaishi. We featured the first teasers previously, but give this full trailer a look. This is the first feature-length film made by the acclaimed studio known as Trigger. "Promare uses a bold cel-shaded visual style to tell a blistering action-adventure story, and is the spiritual successor to many of director Imaishi’s former works." The story follows Galo and the Burning Rescue Fire Department who battle against "Mad Burnish", a group of mutants who are able to control and wield flames, and the fire disaster they have unleashed on Earth. The main Japanese voice cast features Arata Furuta, Tetsu Inada, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Masato Sakai, Taichi Saotome, and Kenichi Matsuyama. Glad to see this will be playing in theaters in the Us. Here's the...

"Together with your flames and stupid ambitions!" GKids has debuted the first Us trailer for the Japanese anime feature film Promare, from animation filmmaker Hiroyuki Imaishi. This is the first feature-length film made by the acclaimed studio known as Trigger. "Promare uses a bold cel-shaded visual style to tell a blistering action-adventure story, and is the spiritual successor to many of director Imaishi’s former works." The story follows Galo and the Burning Rescue Fire Department who face off against "Mad Burnish", a group of mutants who are able to control and wield flames, and the fire disaster they have unleashed on Earth. The Japanese voice cast features Arata Furuta, Tetsu Inada, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Masato Sakai, Taichi Saotome, and Kenichi Matsuyama. I dig the visual style and look of this, not what we usually see. And I like the cool subtitle design they use in this trailer. Give it a look below.

Injecting an intoxicating shot of frantic energy and sleek color directly into your pupils, the postapocalyptic sci-fi action saga “Promare” plays like an anime-induced euphoric trip.

Marking the first feature release for both Japanese outfit Studio Trigger and its co-founder and director Hiroyuki Imaishi, this visual potion spiced with fiery duels and supernatural machinery is at its most potent when taken without much concern for its bewildering mechanics.

Imaishi is best known for fan-favorite shows “Kill la Kill” and “Gurren Lagann,” works that feature campy erotic innuendos mostly missing from “Promare.” And he carries over the vividly graphic style of animation and fast-paced editing from those episodic hits into his theatrical debut, based on a screenplay by longtime collaborator Kazuki Nakashima (“Batman Ninja”).

Also Read: 'Your Name' Director Makoto Shinkai's 'Weathering With You' Acquired by Gkids

Envisioned for the big screen, “Promare” benefits from visibly...

Two productions being introduced to buyers at Hong Kong Filmart.

Japan’s Village Inc. is launching sales on samurais-battling-demons story Asura and avenging samurai love story Midare Uguisu at Filmart.

The films are part of Geki Cine’s portfolio which, motivated by fans who complained their star-powered stage plays’ runs were too limited, started shooting the productions two times each with 20 HD cameras, and then doing post-production including sound mixing and special effects at Warner Brothers.

Hiroyuki Hata, director of International Operations at Village Inc. said: “The productions have much more work in them than your average independent film. For instance, top notch sound mixing by BAFTA winner Mike Prestwood Smith, who has worked on films such as Casino Royale and Mission: Impossible

Directed by Hidenori Inoue and written by Kazuki Nakashima (Kill La Kill), Asura stars Somegoro Ichikawa (Semishigure), Yuki Amami (Amalfi), Tsuyoshi Ihara (Thirteen Assassins).

Midare Uguisu as a film is in pre-production with Izumi Inamori...

Crows Explode (Kurôzu Explode)

Written by Kosuke Mukai, Rikiya Mizushima, Takashi Hasegawa and Hiroshi Takahashi

Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda

Japan, 2014

The live-action adaptation of manga properties in Japanese cinema is just as popular and frequent as Hollywood’ s thirst to translate comic book tales originating from DC, Marvel and lesser-known publishers in North America. Both come with their share of trials and tribulations, such as what to leave in, what to leave out, and what to change in order to smoothen the transition from the page to the silver screen. The Crows series — which began with 2007’s Crows Zero, was followed by 2009’s Crows Zero 2, and continues with this year’s Crows Explode – is in a special situation considering the change in directorial talent handling each entry. The first two were guided by the crazy genius that is Takashi Miike (which is completely normal considering the premise), whereas the...