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Cel Shaded
Jason Yadao
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Film festival has ‘Vexille’ for 2 nights
IT'S TIME AGAIN for a day-after-Kawaii-Kon column, where I basically put the column on cruise control as I recover from three days' worth of conventioneering.
That's how it's supposed to work, anyway. Yet there are two events coming up that virtually ensure that there will be no rest for the local anime/manga fan community, and by extension your local anime/manga columnist. So as I rest up and recuperate in an undisclosed location, here's what could keep you busy during the next week.
Right now the Regal Dole Cannery theaters are playing host to the Hawaii International Film Festival's 11th annual Spring Showcase. Several recent spring and fall showcases have featured at least one big anime feature still warm out of the oven from Japan, and this edition is no exception. This time, that film is "Vexille," the latest film from the producer and screenwriter of the 2004 CGI adaptation of "Appleseed."
"Vexille," also a CGI production, explores a future Japan that has developed biotechnology and robotics capable of extending human life. When the United Nations deems the technology a threat, Japan rebels and isolates itself from the rest of the world. Ten years after this happens, a U.S. special-forces unit, led by a female commander named Vexille, heads into the country to uncover what happened there.
It's a great opportunity to catch this movie on the big screen in advance of Funimation's DVD release next month. The Japanese-language, English-subtitled version will be screened at the film festival, but it's worth noting that Funimation's English dub features a few Kawaii Kon guest alumni, including Colleen Clinkenbeard as Vexille, Christine Auten as Maria and Travis Willingham as Leon.
"Vexille" screens Wednesday at 8:45 p.m. and Thursday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $9 for seniors and the military (and technically for children, too ... but honestly, if you want to take your kids to this movie, I'd have to seriously question your parenting skills).
Pick up those tickets at the guest services counter in the theater lobby, by phone at 550-TIKS (8457), by fax at 536-2707 or online at tinyurl.com/3nyulz ...
'Animania' returns
Meanwhile, Sunday brings the return of "Animania," the anime-centric sales event at Suncoast stores at Pearlridge and Windward Mall. That means the all-day trivia contest and the cosplay contest at 3 p.m. are returning as well.
The current "buy one, get one free" sale on all Funimation DVDs also will be in full effect, which means that if you've been waiting to pick up volumes of series like "School Rumble," "Mushi-Shi" and "XXXholic" -- all of which I'd highly recommend, by the way -- now is the time to do so ...
Coming up Sunday
Simplify your manga reading with "Drawn & Quartered" in the Sunday Today section as tag-team partner in fandom Wilma and I look at several single-volume manga from Tokyopop.
Cel Shaded, a look at the world of Japanese anime and manga, appears every Monday. Reach
Jason S. Yadao at
jyadao@starbulletin.com