17 Jan 2014, 4:38 am
Anyone heard of Mamoru Hosoda's movies?
Works include:
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Summer Wars
Wolf Children
...and the first Digimon movie. But we shall not speak of that... he was young and reckless at the time - forgive him for he knew not what he was doing 
Yes, they are animes, but they have the look and feel of movies deserving of a big screen presentation.
While some compare his films to the Ghibli movies, or call his works imitations thereof; I believe that these works stand out on their own and should be treated as such. They combine heartwarming - even quite dark - 'slice of life' stories with well developed believable characters (most of the characters look normal, they are not 'perfect', every inch the typical people types you pass in the street without noticing) and background illustrations that would make Disney blush or even green with envy. Seriously, the attention to such tiny details as ornate glass patterns down to the simplest pebbles on the ground and dirt marks on objects is remarkable.
17 Jan 2014, 4:47 am
Summer wars was awesome. Thanks Toonami overlordship...
_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos
17 Jan 2014, 4:59 pm
Works include:
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Summer Wars
Wolf Children
...and the first Digimon movie. But we shall not speak of that... he was young and reckless at the time - forgive him for he knew not what he was doing
Yes, they are animes, but they have the look and feel of movies deserving of a big screen presentation.
While some compare his films to the Ghibli movies, or call his works imitations thereof; I believe that these works stand out on their own and should be treated as such. They combine heartwarming - even quite dark - 'slice of life' stories with well developed believable characters (most of the characters look normal, they are not 'perfect', every inch the typical people types you pass in the street without noticing) and background illustrations that would make Disney blush or even green with envy. Seriously, the attention to such tiny details as ornate glass patterns down to the simplest pebbles on the ground and dirt marks on objects is remarkable.
I'd hate to correct you but to be fair to Mamoru Hosada, Digimon The Movie in English was basically three Japanese TV specials stitched together by Saban and FOX Kids -- TOEI, at that time, did not have any Digimon movies in mind at all.
In fact, Hosada himself actually did not direct the third special (the final part of the dub movie set in Digimon Adventure 2 continuity, ie. grown-up TK and Kari) in the final part; that was Shigeyasu Yamauchi (Xenosaga: The Animation, Saint Seiya TV series and spin-off movies circa 2006...)
Anyway, getting back on point, Mamoru Hosada is definitely a bright star in modern Japanese animation --- I didn't enjoy Summer Wars (Hanafuda was an awkward plot point; when I was in Japan, it was considered an old fashioned game so it'd be the equivalent of American-style checkers or Old Maid or something; players would be fine but newcomers would be completely alienated) but loved The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (thank you Bandai Visual for dubbing it before you went bust! Got it on DVD) and Wolf Children (thank you Funimation for dubbing something not aimed exclusively at straight men!)
Indeed, whilst Hosada has a more contemporary style of storytelling than Ghibli's mostly fairy-tale rhetoric (barring exceptions like Grave of Fireflies and the upcoming The Wind Rises), he does have a broad easily translatable approach (mostly) that really deserves more recognition. I support him fully as an artist and director and I really look forward to his future works.
17 Jan 2014, 9:21 pm
The more you know 
