'We Love Anime' Festival Tours The UK This November and December
Scotland Loves Anime is the UK's longest-running anime film festival. Since 2010, the event has brought a selection of new and classic Japanese animated features to the big screen in Edinburgh and Glasgow (and latterly Dundee and Aberdeen as well). Although anime fans do travel from across the UK (and further afield) to attend, not everyone can afford to. So what about anime fans outside of Scotland?
This is where We Love Anime comes in. The organisers of SLA are taking a selection of films from the festival on tour to locations around the UK.
The biggest SLA event to take place outside of Scotland is Sheffield Loves Anime, which will take place at Sheffield's Showroom Cinema between Friday 19 and Sunday 21 November. The selection will include some of this year's newest films including Pompo The Cinephile and The Deer King, as well as a selection of recent and classic festival favourites.
The full line up is below.
POMPO THE CINEPHILE (12A)
Pompo is a talented and gutsy producer in “Nyallywood,” the movie-making capital of the world. Although she’s known for B-movies, one day Pompo tells her movie-loving but apprehensive assistant Gene that he will direct her next script: a delicate drama about an aging and tormented creative genius, starring the legendary and Brando-esque actor Martin Braddock, and a young actress seeking her first break. But when the production heads towards chaos, can Gene rise to Pompo’s challenge, and succeed as a first-time director?
An enthusiastic love letter to the art of the cinema and the dreams that make it happen.
LOOKING FOR MAGICAL DOREMI (PG)
A college student losing confidence in her dream of teaching, a company employee struggling to reintegrate after working abroad, and a part-time worker trying to save for college while being tied down by a good-for-nothing boyfriend. Sora, Mire and Reika couldn’t be more different, but these three women are brought together by one thing: their love of Magical Doremi! Travelling across Japan to visit the places from the show they loved as children, the trio laugh, cry, and support one another as they realise that the messages of Doremi and friends are still with them, and can help them each take a new step forward.
A heartfelt tribute to fandom celebrating the 20th anniversary of Japan’s iconic children’s TV show.
OVER THE SKY (12A)
Mio has feelings for her childhood friend Arata, but can't convey her feelings. One day, as they continue their delicate relationship, the two fight over something trivial. After letting tensions settle, Mio goes to make up with him in the pouring rain. While on her way, she gets into a traffic accident. When she regains consciousness, a mysterious and unfamiliar world appears before her eyes.
Includes a pre-recorded Q&A with director Yoshinobu Sena.
SUMMER GHOST + Q&A (CERT TBC)
Tomoya, Aoi, and Ryō are high school students who met online. Tomoya cannot live the life he envisioned for himself, Aoi cannot find her place in the world, and Ryō has his once shining future suddenly pulled away. Each has their own reason for needing to meet 'the summer ghost' – an urban legend of a spirit girl who appears when fireworks are set off – and one summer night, when life and death cross paths, they find her.
Includes a 32 minute pre-recorded Q&A with director Ioundraw.
The Sheffield Loves Anime line-up will also include a selection of new and classic anime:
• The Deer King (15): An epic fantasy tale of an ex-soldier and a young girl in a world divided by a pandemic. From anime industry legend Masashi Ando, animation director on Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, and more. Includes a special pre-recorded Introduction and Q&A.
• A Silent Voice (12A): A stunning modern classic about disability and redemption from the world-renowned Kyoto Animation (Violet Evergarden the Movie)
• Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (15): A touching tapestry of motherhood in a fantasy world that marked the directorial debut of Mari Okada (Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day).
• Cyber City Oedo 808 (18): In a cybernetic metropolis, the only ones keeping the vice and villainy in check, are the hardened criminals hoping for a reduced sentence. A gritty taste of the ‘90s packed with extreme violence and profanity.
All films will screen in Japanese with English subtitles.
Additionally, We Love Anime will hold events at select Picturehouse and Showcase cinemas on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 December.
The films will screen at the following locations:
- Brighton Duke of York's Picturehouse
- Brighton Komedia
- Cambridge
- Central
- Finsbury
- Greenwich
- Hackney
- Liverpool
- Norwich
- York
