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Japanese animation films from the 1980s
All 94
- 1
Grave of the Fireflies
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
- 2
Castle in the Sky
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
- 3
Akira
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath that only two teenagers and a group of psychics can stop.
- 4
Warriors of the Wind
After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.
- 5
Kiki's Delivery Service
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
- 6
Angel's Egg
In the ruins of a strange city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in her arms. She bonds with a boy who is searching for a bird he saw in a dream.
- 7
Saint Seiya: Legend of Crimson Youth
The Sun God Abel returns to life, bent on punishing the humans and cleansing Earth from their presence. When Athena joins him, leaving humans to their fate, the Bronze Saints must defend the world in their greatest battle yet.
- 8
Barefoot Gen
A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
- 9
Saint Seiya: The Heated Battle of the Gods
Hyoga is missing somewhere in Asgard... When Seiya and the others are looking for him, Athena is kidnapped and they have to rescue her from Dolvar and some mysterious warriors.
- 10
Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone
In order to wish for immortality and avenge his father, Garlic Jr. collects the dragon balls, kidnapping Goku's son Gohan in the process. Goku, Kami, Piccolo, and Krillin unite to rescue Gohan and save the world from being sucked into a dea
- 11
Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies
The great King Gurumes is searching for the Dragon Balls in order to put a stop to his endless hunger. A young girl named Pansy who lives in the nearby village has had enough of the treachery and decides to seek Muten Rōshi for assistance.
- 12
Macross: Do You Remember Love?
It is A.D. 2009 and the human race is caught in a war between giant humanoids, male Zentrans and female Meltrans. Returning from the edge of our solar system after making a space fold, the SDF-1 Macross makes the long journey back to Earth
- 13
Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer
As the perpetually lecherous Ataru and his friends prepare for a carnival at Tomobiki High School, they gradually realize the days are literally repeating themselves. Any effort to break the pattern dumps them back where they started.
- 14
Patlabor: The Movie
A mysterious suicide and a series of unmanned robot run-aways sparks off a Police investigation into the suspicious software on-board thousands of industrial robots around Tokyo.
- 15
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
A little boy whose dreams transcend reality is sucked into his own fantasy, which is everything he has dreamed of, until he unleashes an old secret that may not only destroy this perfect dream world but reality itself.
- 16
Night on the Galactic Railroad
Giovanni currently lives a dreary life of near non-stop work. At school, his peers ridicule him incessantly, and his employer at work is distant and cold. As his isolation from society becomes unbearable, he suddenly finds himself on a trai
- 17
Vampire Hunter D
In a far-future time ruled by the supernatural, a young girl requests the help of a vampire hunter to kill the vampire who has bitten her and thus prevent her from becoming a vampire herself.
- 18
Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honneamise
On a future Earth, war between the Kingdom of Honneamise and its rival, The Republic, is inevitable. As evolving technology creates new ways to wage war, a small group seeks to propel mankind into space in their world’s first spaceflight pr
- 19
Wicked City
A peace treaty between the Earth and the Black World, a parallel universe of demons, is coming to an end. Two cops, Taki, a human male, and Maki, a female demon, are assigned to protect a diplomat who will help secure another treaty. A radi
- 20
Fist of the North Star
After a nuclear holocaust tears the world apart, mankind is forced to the harshness of not only the oppression of others who are much more powerful, but the dead earth which seems to be getting worse with every passing moment. But a savior
- 21
Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space
Amuro Ray and the rest of the White Base crew, now denominated the 13th Autonomous Corps, return to outer space to support the rest of the Earth Federation forces for the decisive battle against the Principality of Zeon's forces.
- 22
Gauche the Cellist
Gauche is a diligent but mediocre cellist who plays for a small town orchestra and the local cinema in the early 20th century. He struggles during rehearsals and is often berated by his conductor during preparations for an upcoming performa
- 23
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack
In UC 0093, the Federation has recovered from its defeat and has created a new anti-colonial special forces unit to deal with rebel forces: Londo Bell. Elsewhere in space, Char Aznable reappears out of self-imposed hiding with a declaration
- 24
Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow
After surviving attacks by Zeon's Char Aznable and Garma Zabi, the crew of Federation warship White Base and its mobile suits must battle Zeon forces through Asia, Europe, and the Atlantic Ocean if they are to reach Earth Federation's headq
- 25
Mobile Suit Gundam I
In the year Universal Century 0079, humans have colonized the area of space lying in between the Earth and the moon. However, the ambitious Zabi family, rulers of the Duchy of Zeon, the grouping of colonies furthest from the earth, has spar
- 26
Dirty Pair: Project Eden
Agerna is a planet rich in Vizorium, the one mineral necessary to space travel. When a series of mysterious attacks on mining operations has world leaders pointing fingers and pinning blame, 3WA naturally send in their top agents to investi
- 27
Space Runaway Ideon: Be Invoked
The epic conclusion to the Ideon saga, featuring what was meant to be the final 5 episodes of the TV series. The Solo Ship and its crew continue their intense battle with the Buff Clan leading to a final battle that will determine the fate
- 28
Tomorrow's Joe 2: The Movie
It has been six months since the tragic accident in Joe and Rikiishi's fight. Joe believes he has overcome Rikiishi's death and decides to make a comeback. Joe does make a successful comeback by scoring 5 KO's by body blows. Joe is then giv
- 29
Space Adventure Cobra
Cobra, a notorious space pirate, is enlisted by bounty hunter Jane to rescue her sister from the strange being known as Crystal Bowie, but then finds himself drawn into a complex struggle over the fate of a mysterious wandering planet.
- 30
Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur
When Suneo does not show Nobita the fossil of a dinosaur claw, he takes up a challenge to find a dinosaur. He digs up a hillside and finds an egg, which later hatches and becomes a dinosaur.
- 31
Venus Wars
The new frontier of Venus has degenerated into a dystopia ravaged by the civil war between Ishtar and Aphrodia. Bubbly reporter Susan Sommers arrives in the capitol of Aphrodia just before it's captured by Ishtar. She falls in with a bunch
- 32
Chie the Brat
Chie Takemoto is a dependable girl who struggles to help her troublesome father run a small tavern in Osaka. Unbeknown to her dad, she occasionally visits her mother who left him not too long ago. She plans on trying to reunite them, but not until her father gets a job.
- 33
Robot Carnival
An anthology of various tales told in various styles with robots being the one common element among them.
- 34
The Fantastic Adventures of Unico
When Unico, a young unicorn, is banished from his family by a pantheon of manipulative gods, his powers of joy and happiness are tested as he explores the lands with his friends Beezle and Katy.
- 35
Riki-Oh: The Wall of Hell
In the late 1990s, society is descending into ecological collapse and totalitarianism. Saiga Riki-Oh, a mysterious man with a six-pointed star on his fist, finds himself at the privately-owned Tokyo State Prison. Serving a term of three yea
- 36
Project A-Ko
Earth. The not too distant future. A city is miraculously reborn just sixteen years after being completely destroyed by a giant meteor. At the prestigious Graviton High School for Girls, two new students are introduced. A-ko and her ditzy sidekick, C-ko.
- 37
Be Forever Yamato
The Black Nebula Empire attacks Earth and threatens to blow up the planet with a bomb they placed on Earth if counter attacked. Earths hopes rest on the Yamato crew as they go to the Black Nebula Planet and try to find a way to difuse the b
- 38
Dragon's Heaven
A thousand years after the war that stopped the robot uprising, a human-allied mech awakens to find the battle rages on in Brazil. In the new world, he and his fresh-faced human operator launch a plan to confront his old archnemesis and bri
- 39
TO-Y
GASP is a popular alternative band. Conflict arises when the lead singer To-Y is offered a pop idol contract that stipulates he leave the rest of the band behind.
- 40
Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops
Doraemon and Nobita decide to build a perfect toy robot. However, their creation turns out to be a little more uncanny than an object of appreciation and wonder.
- 41
Bobby's Girl
Bobby is an underachieving high school kid with a deep love for motorcycles. His most recent achievement seems to have been getting photos of himself on a road trip printed in a motorcyclist hobby magazine. When he gets a letter from a girl his age, he decides to write her back.
- 42
GoShogun: The Time Étranger
Forty years after the events of the TV series, Remy Shimada, ex-pilot of the GoShogun, suffers a terrible accident while on her way to a meeting with her former robot-piloting comrades. While they rush to the hospital, Remy floats between l
- 43
Crusher Joe
Enter the tale of the Crusher Council, a group of rugged individuals known for assignments ranging from transportation to terraforming and everything in between. In the early days of space exploration the Crushers took on the job of destroying asteroids and defining space lanes. Because of their work, they were nicknamed "Crushers" which eventually became their business moniker. Despite the rough and ready nature of the Crushers' work, they subscribe to a few steadfast rules. Unethical and illegal assignments are taboo, and any Crusher accepting one is barred from the Union. Of course, this presents problems for shady clients who try to trick the Crushers into accepting misleading assignments. They know that once the Union accepts a case the Crushers are honor-bound to follow it through. Among the various worlds, the Crusher Council has a stunning reputation, and among the Crushers, the
- 44
Queen Millennia
The planet LaMetal is on a collision (and conquering) course with the Earth, and the only one who can stop the forthcoming catastrophe is Queen Millennia, a former princess of LaMetal who has made Earth her home.
- 45
Windaria
In a land filled with magic and mystery, two rival kingdoms are readying for war: Isa, the beautiful water-laden city, and Paro, the industrialized wasteland. Windaria follows the tale of two sets of lovers: Marin and Izu, a young pair of f
- 46
Final Yamato
The Galman Empire is destroyed but the planet Galmania is not, by a chance collision of galaxies. The Bolar Federation worlds including Planet Bolar are destroyed. The Yamato, back under the command of Captain Okita, encounters the planet Denguil too late to save its humanoid civilization from being flooded by the water planet Aquarius. The surviving Denguil, a warrior race who believe only the strong should survive, plan to use Aquarius to flood Earth and destroy humanity, in order to create a new home for their race.
- 47
Aesop's Fables
Aesop is a trouble-making young boy who finds himself in another world filled with creatures he never believed to exist, such as fairies and talking donkeys. He sets off to find a way back to the normal world. On his journey he befriends many classical creatures from well-known fables and encounters many trials, each teaching him a valuable lesson.
- 48
Lupin the Third: Bye Bye, Lady Liberty
Foiled repeatedly by the predictions of Interpol's supercomputer, Lupin has settled down. His partner Jigen asks him to pull one last heist: recover the Super Egg, a massive diamond hidden somewhere inside the Statue of Liberty.
- 49
The Five Star Stories
Among the 5 star systems known as the Joker Systems, there are many kingdoms. There are knights within the kingdoms and these knights who control giant robots, Mortar Heads, are called Headliners. Bound to the knights are fatimas. Human in
- 50
Locke the Superman
When the villainous Lady Kahn starts building an army of super-powerful espers, Colonel Ryu Yamaki is dispatched to recruit the most powerful superhuman in the known universe to help oppose her. Unfortunately, the esper known only as Locke
- 51
Cybernetics Guardian
A freak accident unleashes a demonic spirit within researcher John Stalker - transforming him into Saldo, a mythical cyber-beast fueled by hate and evil.
- 52
Techno Police 21C
The year is 2001 and the criminals have taken over Centinel City. The Police have lost control. The citizens are terrified... and no one can stop the madness. Even the Techno Police, a special anti-crime squad, find the situation hopeless until a wise cracking cop with an uncanny knack for out-guessing the criminals joins the force. When a powerful experiment tank is hijacked, the Techno Police and their newest recruit go to work. Equipped with an ultra-sonic car and crime-fighting Technoids, the rookie cop sets out on a death defying high-speed chase through the streets... trying to capture the crooks and trying to stay alive. But no one is aware of the awesome powers about to be unleashed.
- 53
Toward the Terra
A young boy learns he is part of a powerful race of psionic humans who must fight the normal humans determined to keep them from Earth.
- 54
Dr. Slump: Hoyoyo! Space Adventure
When local teacher Midori Yamabuki receives an emergency summons to her home planet it turns out to be a trap devised by galactic warlord Dr. Mashirito, and it's up to Dr. Senbei Norimaki and a group of students (including his robot daughter Arale) to venture into space to save her.
- 55
A Time Slip of 10,000 Years: Prime Rose
A powerful entity known as Death Mask hurls Kujukuri City, Japan, and Dallas, Texas 10,000 years into the future, reshaping them into a ruthless battleground where only the strongest survive. Determined to shatter this tyrant's hold on time itself, Gai Tanbara ventures into the dystopian future. Along the way, he meets Emiya, a fierce warrior fighting to reclaim her city from the darkness. Together, they confront the horrors of a shattered world and the sinister forces threatening the fate of humanity!
- 56
Twilight of the Cockroaches
The cockroaches of Saito's apartment live in peace with their human host, who gives them lots of space to breed and plenty of leftovers to munch on. In the midst of these high living times, Naomi and Ichiro plan to get married and start a family. But when a hard-bitten stranger roach named Hans appears with news of war with the humans across the lawn, it foretells disruption-not only of Naomi and Ichiro's relationship, but of the hive's entire way of life.
- 57
Crystal Triangle: The Forbidden Revelation
In times of olde, God gave mankind the ten commandments, and a message that has been lost to the centuries. In the present, Koichiro Kamishiro is a modern day Indiana Jones who scours (and often destroys) ruins for hints of the past, until one day he runs across a box filled with two crystal triangles. Having inadvertently run across the key to God's lost message, Kamishiro suddenly has a lot to deal with including assassination attempts by the KGB and the CIA, aliens hell-bent on destroying the Earth and the love of several women!
- 58
Attack of the Super Monsters
In the near future it's discovered that the dinosaurs did not die off, but instead live on near the center of the Earth. The evil lord Tyrannus uses the mutated dinosaurs descendents to attack Earth in his effort to rule the world. Can Gemini Force, a group of four superpowered teens who've pledged to protect the Earth, stop his plans? Written by Mike Konczewski 70 millions years ago, the creatures known as dinosaurs mysteriously disappeared from planet Earth. Until now, it was assumed they were extinct. In reality, they had burrowed deep into the Earth and evolved into supermonsters. In the year 2000, the people from planet Earth were amazed and terrified by the greatest catastrophe ever known to mankind: the re-appearance of the dinosaurs. Under the direction of their emperor, Tyrannus, the creatures now seek to destroy mankind.
- 59
Future War 198X
An American scientist constructs a laser satellite with hopes of preventing any nuclear conflicts from occurring. However, after a fatal error from both the US and the USSR governments, war breaks out and humanity faces a new bloodshed.
- 60
Sea Prince and the Fire Child
The God of Water and the Goddess of Fire, who once lived in harmony, were torn apart by the Lord of the Winds. Their children, Sirius, heir to the Water Kingdom, and Malta, heir to the Fire Kingdom, become aware of the existence of their ot
- 61
Arion
The story follows Arion, a young man kidnapped by Hades as a child and raised to believe that his mother was blinded by Zeus and that killing the ruler of Mount Olympus will cure her.
- 62
Project A-Ko 4: Final
A-ko and B-ko are fighting as usual, as C-ko watches from the sidelines feeling neglected by both. Ayumi-sensei has been behaving strangely lately. She's wearing a heart-shaped crystal with a hexagram inside, and is chanting mysterious prayers in private. At the ruins of an ancient civilization, an archaeologist spies a hexagram among the hieroglyphics. Deep in outer space, an alien fleet is on a course for Earth, and its flagship bears the same hexagram shape.
- 63
Cosmos Pink Shock
Micchi thrusts though space on her spacecraft Pink Shock, hoping to be reunited with her long lost lover.
- 64
Project A-Ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group
Three weeks have gone by since the alien spaceship crash landed on the Graviton City spire, and since then the aliens have been hard at work converting their ship to a pleasure district, hoping to make friends with the humans!… Not. Perpet
- 65
Urusei Yatsura: The Final Chapter
It seems that Lum's grandfather made an agreement that should he have a daughter, she would be married to a traveling merchant that he met. Now, the merchant has come to collect due. Ataru is tricked into thinking that Lum wants to leave, a
- 66
Legend of Lemnear
After her village is destroyed and all its residents slaughtered by the evil wizard Gardein and his master The Dark Lord, a warrior known as Lemnear, The Silver Champion, vows to find and kill them both to avenge the massacre.
- 67
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01
Ace female test pilot Kusomoto Elle humiliates macho tank driver Lt. Kilgore in the first demonstration of the advanced personal battle tank, the MADOX. Kilgore vows revenge, and gets his chance when the army rather carelessly loses the pro
- 68
Body Jack: Sublime Separation
A high schooler fulfills a lifelong fantasy after a high-tech device lets him slip into the body of his childhood crush's best friend.
- 69
Urusei Yatsura: Lum the Forever
While performing in a student film, Ataru cuts down Tarozakura, a large, ancient cherry tree. Strange things begin to happen all across Tomobiki: a mountain appears out of nowhere, spring changes to winter, and Lum loses her powers, while t
- 70
Urusei Yatsura: Only You
Six-year-old Ataru steps on Elle's shadow during an impromptu game of shadow-tag; in Elle's culture, this is viewed as a marriage proposal. Eleven years later, Elle returns to Earth in order to marry Ataru — by which time not only had he forgotten the events of his childhood, but he was also going out with Lum. The rest of the plot focuses on Lum's attempts to prevent the marriage.
- 71
Grey: Digital Target
Grey is a laconic trooper in a rough, futuristic military system which rewards success in battle with high pay and promotions, but only three precent of troopers live long enough for the final goal - citizenship, and the chance for a life above the misery of most of the populace. Grey has managed to keep coming back alive, even earning the nickname Grey Death, but is the society he's fought for worth it
- 72
Dallos
In a near future, mankind has moved from a drained Earth to the Moon. Rebel acts of terrorism lead to conflicts with the Earth Federal Government. A mysterious entity called Dallos appears to restore hope.
- 73
Love City
In a dystopic and futuristic Tokyo, humanity’s genetic code has gone awry. At the forefront of the technology is Fraud, an organization conducting experiments on people such as Kei and Ai – two escaped “headmeters” with hefty psychokinetic
- 74
The Dagger of Kamui
A young boy named Jiro finds his mother and sister murdered in his home. Falsely accused of the crime, he flees from his village and meets a priest named Tenkai, who has him kill a rogue ninja named Tarouza. After fulfilling that task, Jiro undergoes training to become a master assassin. Many years later, Jiro finds out that he was an orphan and his real father was Tarouza, who had worked for Tenkai until he aborted his mission when he fell in love with an Ainu woman. The young ninja discovers that the Shogunate was to retrieve the lost treasure of Captain Kidd and use it to once again isolate Japan from the rest of the world. Using the clues that Tarouza had kept secret, Jiro - along with the female ninja Oyuki and a slave named Sam - travels to Russia and America to search for the treasure in hopes of using it to extract revenge from Tenkai.
- 75
Odin: Starlight Mutiny
Odin centers around the novice crew of the laser sailing space schooner Starlight as they embark on an historic interstellar test flight. They are intercepted by what seems to be a wrecked spaceship only to find that it contains a lone surv
- 76
Roots Search
When a research crew in deep space discovers the desolate ship "Green Planet" that warps into their area, they encounter Buzz, the commander and sole surivor of the ship. Being too incapacitated to make them aware of the situation of his sh
- 77
Super Mario Brothers: Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach
When Princess Peach is kidnapped by the monster King Koopa, Mario and his brother Luigi journey to the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue her.
- 78
Urusei Yatsura: Remember My Love
The third film finds Ataru transformed into a pink hippopotamus, which sends Lum chasing after the wicked magician responsible, with catastrophic results. With Lum gone, her friends decide that there is no reason to remain, and so Tomobiki slowly returns to normal. The highlight of the film is a high speed chase scene with an angry Lum flying after the mysterious Ruu through the city at night and into a hall of mirrors (and illusion ). Ataru's true feelings for Lum are probably more obvious in this film than any of the others.
- 79
Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma
A terrible war has ravaged the land, and now, fuelled by the blood of numerous fallen warriors the Yoma, demons from hell, emerge once more. A skilled ninja seeks to end the bloodshed these demons inflict upon humanity, but to do this he must fight against his undead former best friend and fellow ninja who was killed in battle and has been resurrected to serve the Yoma.
- 80
Outlanders
In the midst of a violent invasion of Earth by unknown alien forces, photo-journalist Wakatsuki Tetsuya comes across a scantily-clad alien woman, cutting a swath of death through the Terran ranks with her sword. After a chaotic struggle, Te
- 81
Battle Royale High School
When the school Karate club's star fighter quits and decides to go pro, he unwittingly fulfills an ancient interdimensional prophecy and becomes demon king of his dimension. Soon his high school becomes a battleground for demon slaying samu
- 82
M.D. Geist
Geist (the main character) is MD-02, a Most Dangerous Soldier, genetically engineered to function as a killing machine, but every one of the MDS units went homicidally insane. As a result Geist was placed in suspended animation in a stasis pod orbiting the planet Jerra until it crashed several years later, awakening him and bringing him into another war on the planet.
- 83
Lily C.A.T.
The crew of an interplanetary starship fights for survival after an alien force takes control of their craft.
- 84
Demon City Shinjuku
Ten Years ago, Genichiro Izayoi died trying to stop the sorcerer Rebi Ra, and as a result Shinjuku became a playground for demons. And now, the day approaches when Rebi Ra will complete his decade-long ritual to plunge the rest of the world
- 85
Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend
Legend has it that the human race is not the only dominant civilization living on Earth. Two other races exist in this world: the Makai (a demon race) and the Jujinkai (a half-man, half-beast race). Once every 3,000 years, a supreme being k
- 86
Gegege no Kitaro
Kitarō, the last surviving member of the Ghost Tribe, stands up to a group of mischievous demons who want to turn humanity into their own personal goblin army.
- 87
All That Gundam
Animated video created just for a 1989 event that featured all the major mobile suit robots from the first 10 years of the Gundam anime franchise.
- 88
God Bless Dancougar
After destroying the Zorbados Empire, the Jyusenki-tai/Cyber Beast Force has expanded and are training new recruits. But after failing to stop a monster that seems to be a remnant of the Zorbados Empire from destroying a city, the CBF is thrown in jail. Now the CBF have to escape from jail and find out what was behind the monster they fought.
- 89
Megazone 23 III - Part 2 - Day of Liberation
"Megazone 23 III" The Day of Liberation, a 1989 anime OVA, focuses on Eiji and Eve as they confront Bishop Won Dai and his "Project Heaven," a plan to reinhabit Earth. Eiji, a B-Level hacker, and Eve, a legendary figure, become entangled in a network war and the plot to re-inhabit Earth. The story centers on their efforts to stop Bishop Won Dai and Project Heaven.
- 90
Heavenly Bodies' Score
Using the constellation as a motif, the heavens and the earth, metamorphose all the creatures.
- 91
How to Enjoy Watching Baseball 10 Times More
One of Japan's most renowned baseball pros, Takenori Emoto of the Hanshin Tigers, relates humorous anecdotes from his own career and the game in general. Based on his novel of the same name and its sequel.
- 92
Pelican Road Club Culture
Kenichi Watanabe, a high school student nuts about his MBX50. He and his friends set up a bike club called Culture, and this story chronicles their adventures on the journey towards adult life.
- 93
Wind. 1′40″
Impressionistic silent short film (also known as ‘Kaze. Ippun yonjûbyô’) created by 17-year-old high school student Shinozuka Tsutomu. The animation, which won the Debut Prize at the inaugural Hiroshima International Animation Festival in 1985, shows a group of samurai racing at breathtaking speed across golden meadows. The film stands out for its visceral sense of motion and extraordinary dynamism, as has been confirmed by jury member Kawamoto Kihachirō, who noted that you can almost feel the force of the wind. The focus on ‘wind’, speed and warriors elegantly evokes a famous military maxim by Sun Tzu: ‘Your swiftness shall resemble the wind’. It is the first of four tenets of Fūrinkazan (風林火山, lit. ‘Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain’), a legendary Japanese battle standard drawn from Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’. Warriors should also be ‘as calm and orderly as forests, as fierce as fire, and a
- 94
The Complete Thunderbirds
Hideaki Anno's first major professional work in which he served as lead editor on a highlights compilation that combined several Thunderbirds episodes into one movie.