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Japanese Theatre News

Japanese theatre goers have been exposed to a few films recently that may be of interest to American Anime Fans.

Taiyo no Hoh ("The Law of the Sun") ranked 1st at the Box office on its opening Weekend of October 28 - 29. This past weekend the film was ranked 2nd. Taiyo no Hoh , which is based on the best-selling inspirational book of the same name, is an entirely CG animated film directed by Tak Ishiyama who also directed the Sakura Wars Anime.

The only other Anime which ranked in the top ten that weekend was Ah! Megami Sama (Ah! My Goddess) which was ranked 8th, and has since fallen to 9th (it opened on October 21st in the #6 spot). Hollow Man and X-Men the movie were ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Another movie which is of course causing quite a stir in Japan is Mamoru Oshii's Avalon, a live action Sci-Fi thriller which has been called "the most artistic, beautiful and stylish [film] in science-fiction history," by James Cameron. Avalon Premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival. A preview of Avalon is availabe at http://www.avalon-net.com

On December 15th Media Factory will publish Oshii's novel Avalon : Hai-iro no Kifujin ("Gray-colored Lady") and the guidebook Avalon Fan book : Reak Quest. The Avalon novel not be a retelling of the story from the film, but a new, related story.

We also recently posted some information about Hideaki Anno's Shiki-Jitsu which won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Tokyo Film festival.

Shiki-Jitsu opens in theatres in Japan on December 13th.

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