For this Saturday Anime Night, first up is Magic Boy (1959), the third anime feature film ever, and the first based on Japanese mythology, and the first released overseas, and the only one from the 1950s that we have yet to watch. A boy lives in the woods with friendly animals until a demon kills one of them. He starts training in the magic arts for revenge. Pretty good reviews for this, so let’s check it out. It shares a director (Taiji Yabushita) with Tale of the White Serpent (1958), which we previously saw. After that is Giovanni’s Island (2014), about two boys who befriend each other on the soon-to-be-Soviet island of Sakhalin at the end of WW2. I wonder if this has happy ending? I guess we’ll find out. Great reviews for this one. This is, so far, the best-known and best-regarded film of director Mizuho Nishikubo, who also did the 1987 Megami Tensei OVA, of all things.

We’ll start at 9PM EST on Hextube, right here: https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Magic Boy: https://letterboxd.com/film/magic-boy/
• Giovanni’s Island: https://letterboxd.com/film/giovannis-island/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Magic Boy: Sorry, not listed on DTDD or IMDB.
• Giovanni’s Island: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3178174/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg

CWs for Magic Boy:

• Cartoon violence.
• Deaths of animals.

CWs for Giovanni’s Island:

• Poop.
• Explosions.
• Gun violence.
• Someone is punched.
• Someone is slapped.
• Dead baby.
• Corpse.
• Alcohol abuse.
• Coughing of blood.
• Sad ending.

Links to movies:

• Magic Boy: https://vimeo.com/855895214
• Giovanni’s Island: https://vimeo.com/856027768