Anime Schedule
All anime takes place in Carlton.
Friday
7pm Sword of the Stranger
Bandai; PG-13 for violence
A young boy is on the run from Ming Dynasty assassins, who want to use him as part of an experiment to gain immortality. His only company: his dog and a nameless ronin. Inspired by the epics of Kurasowa and Leone, this film is filled with amazing action from the animators of Fullmetal Alchemist.
8:45 Redline
Manga Entertainment; PG-13 for violence, language, nudity
In the far future, Sweet JP has been chosen to compete in the Redline,
an illegal underground car race where he will compete with robots,
cyborgs, magical girls, and gorilla aliens. Director Takeshi Koike
of Animatrix
fame spent seven years making this visual spectacle. And you thought Speed Racer got crazy...
10:30 Hetalia: Paint It, White
FUNimation; R for language, ethnic humor
The anthropomorphic-personifications-of-countries series was a hit at last year's Boskone, so this year we will be showing the movie. Decidedly less historically themed than the TV series, the film's official promotional tagline is "Alien invaders. A world united. Weird goo. LOL, WUT?" That probably says it all.
Midnight Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl
FUNimation; R for sexual content, incredibly unrealistic violence,
horrific racial stereotypes
And now, for something completely different. Welcome to a world where sunlight affects vampires like gravity affects Wile E. Coyote (AKA only when they notice it), sexy nurses dance around in puddles of gore without getting any blood on their clothes, and schools somehow are OK with wrist-slitting and blackface clubs. Oh, Japan...
Saturday
6pm Avatar: The Last Airbender
Nickelodeon; TV-Y7 for mild violence
Repeat after me: there was no M. Night Shyamalan movie. OK, good. Now we can go back to enjoying this great all-ages epic fantasy series. With Nation Book Award nominee Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel sequel on shelves and a new series coming soon, now's a good time to get (re)acquainted with Aang and the gang.
7:30 Princess Tutu
Section23 Films; TV-14 for mature themes (probably could pass for a
PG)
A duck turns into a girl turns into a ballet-powered superhero-therapist-person. Somehow this fazes no one. In a world where fairy tale happenings are regular occurrences, how much power can a dead author have? If Walt Disney and Kurt Vonnegut made an anime together, it would look something like this.
8:45 Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Aniplex USA; TV-14 for violence
OK, how to avoid spoilers for this summary? Madoka is an 8th grader who is given the chance to become a magical girl if she makes a deal with a weird animal thing named Kyubey. As a magical girl, she will have to fight witches in exceedingly trippy alternate dimensions. Oh, and despite its cute exterior, it is not for the faint of heart.
10 FLCL
FUNimation; TV-14 for sexual content, wacky violence
To finish off our video programming for the weekend, we're running all six episodes of GAINAX's legendary rocking coming-of-age-with-robots-and-aliens classic. If you've seen this one-of-a-kind series before on Adult Swim, maybe this time it might make more sense (warning: it probably won't). If not, prepare to have your mind blown.