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NY Int'l Children's Film Fest Hosts 3 Anime's U.S. Premieres

The New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) will host the American premieres of three anime features and several shorts, including the Summer Wars family anime film from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time director Mamoru Hosoda. The light-hearted "action entertainment" story of Summer Wars revolves around a modern-day family on a midsummer adventure. The project reunites many of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's staffers, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera (Angel, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Miyori no Mori) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, FLCL). The Summer Wars film opened in Japan on August 1, 2009.

Summer Wars will open the month-long festival with a one-night-only showing on February 26, followed by an opening night gala party.

NYICFF will also host the U.S. premiere of Madhouse's Mai Mai Miracle anime film. Sunao Katabuchi (Black Lagoon) directed this adaptation of Nobuko Takagi's Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Mahō) novel. The story is set in 1955 in a town in southwestern Japan, where a nine-year-old girl named Shinko has an ancient family connection to a thousand-year-old province known as Suō. Shinko joins Kiiko, a new transfer student from her school, on a magical adventure. The film opened in Japan on November 21.

Mai Mai Miracle will premiere on February 27 with a repeat showing on March 6.

NYICFF will host the U.S. premiere of Production I.G's Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (Hottarake no Shima - Haruka to Mahō no Kagami) fantasy film. The computer-animated feature follows a girl named Haruka as she discovers where all of our childhood keepsakes and memorabilia go. Creatures from a different dimension gather these trinkets and forgotten treasures as their owners grow up. With their booty, the creatures have built their own city called Oblivion Island. The film opened in Japan on August 22.

Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror will also premiere on February 27 with a repeat showing on March 6.

On February 27 and March 13, NYICFF will show the U.S. theatrical premiere of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan) net anime series. The festival will show one 15-minute episode of the series, and it will compete with other short films in the "Flicker Lounge: For Teens & Adults Only" category. Yoshiura and Studio Rikka — the creators of the Mizu no Kotoba and Pale Cocoon anime — developed this "non-hard science-fiction" story about everyday life in a future Japan populated by robots and life-like androids.

Also competing in two other categories are two other short films by Japanese artists. In the "Heebie Jeebies: Spooky, Freaky and Bizarre" category, Iwaisawa Kenji's 5-minute short "Man in the Tunnel Alley" is nominated, and in the "Shorts for Tots" category, the world premiere of Motohiro Shirakawa's 3-minute short "Mr. Shape" is nominated.

Source: NYICFF via animealmanac's Twitter (link 2)

Image: © 2009 Summer Wars Film Partners
© 2009 Fuji Television Network/Production I.G/Dentsu
© 2009 Nobuko Takagi, Magazine House/Mai Mai Shinko Production Committee
© Yasuhiro Yoshiura/Directions, Inc.