Netflix is releasing its own live-action One Piece adaptation.
This is confirmed by Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece himself.

Here are some of the initial thoughts from viewers all over the world.

Seems like they are all negative to the casting and even the idea of a live adaption of their favourite show.

As a one piece fan myself, I’m finding the casting slightly weird too, especially Luffy.
But who knows, maybe he can deliver a good job for the the live action film?

To be honest, my hope is one day that someone can fund a anime live adaptation like how Marvel is doing it.

Do you this will be an epic success or another Netflix failure?
Let me know in the comment below!

While we are waiting for the official trailer from Netflix, let’s enjoy the awesome One Piece Live Adaptation movie trailers created by fans!

#1: Romance Dawn – One Piece Live
This is created by Wai Kin

#2: One Piece Live Action – Fan Trailer 2021
Created by Sétimo o Antigo (Cristian Costa)

He’s one of the most formidable members of the Avengers around, able to adapt to any situation. It is at the crossroads of 20th century spy films and a medley of modern action films. Still dressed in her battle suit, she is also the second heroine of a Marvel movie. Instead of leading to a whole new narrative arc, it feels like it’s a big goodbye that the studio is sending to its heroine.

A long gestation
Black Widow hasn’t been the best-treated character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It had started rather well, when Scarlett Johansson had played for the first time the heroine created by the studio, passed from the camp of the Soviet spies to that of the New York superheroes that are the Avengers.

She had even held the face-to-face with the Hulk. She will self-qualify as a monster under the leadership of Joss Whedon before dying in Avengers Endgame, sacrificing herself because “her life is worth less than that of Hawkeye who has children”. On screen, only Tony Stark was entitled to a funeral worth the trip. In fact, Black Widow has been the least consistent member of the Avengers. The heroine has always been written in a different way from film to film, with Scarlett Johansson as the only guarantee of a certain consistency. Popular despite the decline in the production of derivative products (a phenomenon that does not affect the other characters), his solo film is only released now, after a very long gestation. We must believe that it was more complicated to make a film about her than soon three Ant-Man.

The story of the Black Widow movie takes place right after the events of Captain America: Civil War. The latter’s team, considered to be made up of criminals and renegades, is being chased by the US military. Natasha Romanoff, alias Black Widow, or Black Widow for those who appreciate the French version, continues a run which leads her to a mobile home in Norway where she kills time by watching James Bond period Roger Moore.

Only then, she lets herself embark on another adventure. Yelena, the one she once considered her sister when she was just a spy apprentice, resurfaces. She aims to dismantle the Red Chamber, a place where all Black Widows are formed. For Natasha, it is also about finding the people she considered to be members of her family, the time of an infiltration on American soil when she was only a child.

Marvel’s new animated series What If…? is based on a tantalizing premise: “What if” the great events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU, for insiders) had turned out differently?

What if, for example, Steve Rogers never became Captain America? What if T’Challa, instead of becoming the Black Panther, had become Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill? On paper, it’s a nice way to explore the multiple universes sketched by Loki and even Spider-Man: New Generation. However, in practice, the series is a glass that is half full – or perhaps half empty.

Mixed diversity
The two episodes perfectly sum up the two sides of this coin. The first: “What if … Captain Carter had become the first Avenger?” offers a universe where it is Peggy Carter, the lover of Steve Rogers, who receives the super-soldier serum in her place. The twists and turns that ensue are fun – seeing Peggy settle scores with a bunch of Nazis will bring tears to anyone who misses Agent Carter – but also rings oddly hollow. One of the plagues plaguing the Marvel Universe is its lack of female superheroes (only Captain Marvel and The Black Widow are female-centric) and watching Peggy take Captain America’s place only underscores how rare they are. to come to the fore. The temporary nature of Peggy’s captain status only makes this realization more bittersweet.

Fans also pointed out that although What If…? taking a tiny step toward portraying a superheroine in a hypothetical reality, putting a white woman in Steve Rogers’ place has an oddly regressive side in that in the original timeline, Captain America is now a black man .

Which doesn’t mean Cap would have to be one or the other – but rather that the Marvel Universe would have benefited from more inclusiveness up front, rather than forcing heroes not initially perceived as white men trying to sneak into the limelight once or twice.

A cooler black panther
“What if… T’Challa had become a Star-Lord?” better meets the challenge of its initial premise, because its basic hypothesis, more eccentric, gives it more the appearance of a comic among others than of a throwaway episode. The second episode takes the kind of pace that should be taken when you can afford to do whatever you want with these beloved characters, without having any consequences to bear. For example, this episode turns Thanos into some kind of cranky good guy, who is persuaded by T’Challa to give up his Infinity War project.

It’s also a more interesting exploration of T’Challa’s character. As Charles Pulliam-Moore of the io9 site points out, in the comics and, to a certain extent, in the MCU, the opposition between the responsibility of the character of T’Challa induced by his status as leader of the kingdom of Wakanda and his envy exploring the rest of the world creates an inner conflict in him. Here it manifests in a different way as T’Challa is only just beginning to take into account his past and his legacy.

Fasten your belt, it will shake. In the big game of the worst blockbuster of the year, the second Venom film takes a head start, goes strong and risks winning with a good head start.Venom is a surprisingly complicated character for a simple supervillain. whose purpose is to symbolize the anti-Spider-Man. And Spider-Man isn’t even in it, for big money. This makes for a slightly crazy film that dares everything without ever really getting there.

For those who disembark, it’s the story of an alien organism that merges with a man. The two entities must therefore coexist. E.T only dreams of eating people while his human host, Eddie Brock, tries to channel him. They talk, yell at each other, argue and reconcile. A real couple, but in the same body. Together they are Venom. The first film is a real supercharged nanar where only Tom Hardy gave the feeling of playing, but in the manner of Michaël Youn in Uncontrollable. It was a textbook case in the category of films so bad they become awesome.

“Because”
Seeing Tom Hardy go to so much trouble when no one seems to realize he’s playing a crap has become a bit of a signature to the first film. In the second opus, rest assured, everyone has spread the word: they know now. First, Woody Harrelson, who has changed his wig since the previous episode where we saw him. He therefore trades his Ronald McDonald hair for a sort of reddish square that reminds us how this actor is not afraid of any hair daring.

This hairpiece is probably the only one who plays right during this hour and a half. And yet there is Michelle Williams, who is hardly given anything to do. Putting yourself in his place, we say to ourselves that a phone call to our agent is in order. We don’t understand why the characters act, what their motivations are, they just go from one point to another “because”. Woody Harrelson aka Cletus Kasady aka Carnage is also the childhood lover / friend of Frances aka Shriek played by Naomi Harris. Same, we are supposed to believe it … “because”.

As in the first Venom, there is little chemistry and logic in all of this. From the height of the English Shakespearean accent finished in the cognac he gives himself, it is Tom Hardy who holds everything, does everything and tires everyone a little. Besides, he co-wrote the film. We think a lot about Johnny Depp, at the end of his reign, who continued to make films intended for children when no one asked him to.

Lack of taste
In truth, we kind of hoped that Venom 2 would reproduce what its predecessor did, a chick that we watch with alcohol and pizzas with friends, a bad movie but funny enough to be laughed at. This sequel stinks of competitive cynicism, with, as a climax, a parody scene of coming out in rave party completely slammed to the ground. It’s an obvious rule anyway: if you feel that your film sucks, don’t try to make a nightclub metaphor.

By his own admission, Andy Serkis’ ambition was “a little” to make a couple’s film. To make Venom a gay comedy, a quirky buddy movie. Of the three proposals, none really succeeds. While Venom and Eddie do have moments as a couple, the film hangs in a bit of awkward superficiality.

The Blu-ray / DVD market may well be much less important than before in recent years (with the emergence of platforms), it still happens that some publishers give us the good surprise of bringing animes that are not, to to date, available by no means other than physical media. This is the case of the animated film that interests us here: Happy-Go-Lucky Days. Released at Kazé at the end of September in a DVD / Blu-ray combo edition at the retail price of € 24.99, this 54-minute work (credits included) is not actually accessible on any French platform to date. And if this is a release that gives us particular pleasure here, it is above all because this film adapts Dônika Naru Hibi, a superb manga unfortunately still unpublished in France and which we owe to an excellent author who was for too long shunned in our country, Takako Shimura.

Takako Shimura is a great lady of the feminine manga who officiates since 1997, and who, still a year and a half ago, was only known in France for the excellent series Fleurs Bleues, released by Asuka / Kazé Manga between 2009 and 2015, and which in 2009 experienced an animated adaptation which took a long time to arrive in France since it has been available with us since only August 2021 via the DNA platform. Since 2020, Akata editions have undertaken to finally make the work of this important artist better known in France, first of all with If we were adults …, one of her latest series (still in progress). currently) which was first launched as a digital preview in spring 2020, while volume 1 paper will be released in November. Since then, Akata has launched in France another manga by the author this year: Comme un adieu. Among Shimura’s well-known works, we can also mention, among others, Hôrô Musuko, the longest series of his career, whose 15 volumes were published in Japan between 2002 and 2013, and which in 2011 had an animated series. Unfortunately, despite its reputation, Hôrô Musuko is still unseen in France to this day, both in manga and in anime.

Dônika Naru Hibi, on the other hand, is a short work in 2 volumes, actually consisting of several short stories sometimes gently erotic and mainly exploring human relationships and sexuality. Dating from the first years of the mangaka’s career, this manga was pre-published in Japan in 2002-2003 in the magazine Manga Erotics F of the publisher Ohta Shuppan, a very good magazine which also hosted, among others, Fleurs Bleues, La fille de the beach of Inio Asano, or Snegurochka of Hiroaki Samura.

As for the animated adaptation that interests us here, it is much more recent since it was released in Japan on October 23, 2020, after a postponement due to the health situation since its release was initially scheduled for May 8, 2020. For its staff principal, we find the studio Liden Films Kyoto Studio, the Kyoto branch of the studio Liden Films (which got noticed this year for the animes Tokyo Revengers and Farewell My Dear Cramer, among others), to the production of the animation . The realization was entrusted to Takuya Satô (Steins; Gate, Wixoss, Kase-san …), the musics to the Japanese group CreepHyp, the character design to Haruka Sagawa (mainly active in other positions, but that the we will soon find the character design of Child of Kamiari Month), and the artistic direction of Yukihiro Saitô (Farewell My Dear Cramer, Juliet at the boarding school, Magical Sempai …). In the end, in terms of the scenario of each of the 4 parts, Takuya Satô took care of part 1 himself, while part 2 was entrusted to Yoriko Tomita (several episodes of Hi Score Girl, Fire Force , or more recently Build Divide – # 00000 (Code Black) -), and parts 3 and 4 to Yasunori Ide (best known as a storyboarder, or as the director of a few animes like Please Twins).

Happy-Go-Lucky Days is therefore composed of 4 parts of a dozen minutes each, and the last two of which are more intimately connected.
The first part invites us to follow the emerging relationship between two women who, in the past, were both in love with the same girl at different times. Touched by attending the wedding of this old love that she has never forgotten, they will move closer to each other, as if to try to fill their common wound together.
The second part invites us to discover a serious teacher, and indeed so serious that at his age he still has no one in his life. Will the sudden declaration of love from one of his students change something, or not at all?
In the third part, a teasing and rather focused student, disowned by her family after filming in adult videos, finds refuge with the family of her young cousin who is just entering puberty. Obviously, at his age when we are experiencing his first romantic and sexual emotions, the young boy is very disturbed by the presence of this rather cash cousin. but just as much is the case with her closest friend and potential lover, a classmate who, upon discovering one of the young woman’s adult videos, begins to take a little more interest in the thing.
Finally, the fourth and last part brings us back to the two children of part 3, a few years later. Between the two of them, how has (or hasn’t) changed over time, now that they’re in high school?

You may have already understood it in these few lines: Takako Shimura is a mangaka who, for a long time, and in a fairly innovative way at certain times of her career, has never hesitated to approach romantic relationships and sexuality in all their diversity. Just concerning its only three manga released in France to date, Fleurs Bleues stages the first love emotions of young teenage girls in a high school for girls, If we were adults … offers a complex love between two women who are looking for each other, and Comme un adieu tells the story of the relationship between two men damaged by the sudden return to childhood (physically) of one of them. The artist often strives to break taboos to move the lines, sometimes even if it means deliberately confusing his reader in the face of complex situations to apprehend (for example, in Comme un adieu, the hero fallen back into childhood keeps his spirit of adult, and all the desires that go with it), or to play on a touch of eroticism as is the case in the original manga of Happy-Go-Lucky-Days. In this anime, we thus find all the content of what can make a manga of Shimura: relationships more or less seen as taboo (the student making a statement to his teacher, the young boy feeling the attraction for his cousin , her closest friend trying to retaliate by wanting to be more “adult” than she is after watching the adult video …), for a result that is never free, because very often, these emotions and desires (sometimes first emotions) do not materialize, remain realistic. Simply, Shimura puts on all this an especially very tender, benevolent and bittersweet look, where she judges no one and presents small very human depths that can be part of life.

For all that, the original manga is really beautiful … but is having a really good base material enough to make a great anime? Obviously no. And on that side, this animated film has a lot of qualities, but also some flaws.
The most obvious of the qualities is the respect that the team wanted to bring towards the original manga: concretely, we really find everything that makes the style of Shimura in the themes and in the atmosphere, the whole being all the better. rendered by an animation that is never over the top (it remains very calm, with a certain economy of technical means), by a narration highlighting the characters, and by simple and sometimes quite touching music (in particular the pieces of violin) sticking well to the bittersweet side. Also, in order to make the film a little more accessible than the manga, the few notes of eroticism have been largely obscured, preferring to imply rather than show, which means that there is no nudity, and that a few hugs or caresses may be enough to identify a link.
But Happy-Go-Lucky Days still suffers from its brevity: four stories in 54 minutes (even less by removing the credits), it is inevitably little. In about a dozen minutes each, the stories demand that we get involved very quickly, that we let ourselves be carried away without waiting for major in-depth studies. One can have the impression of moments of life remaining too smooth on certain points. Regarding the technical rendering, if we will not come back to the fairly minimalist animation quality that sticks very well to the stories and the desired atmosphere, it will be possible to find the design of the characters, round and simple, a little too much Sanitized compared to Shimura’s initial styling, although it exudes a lot of smoothness. Finally, it should be noted that this film is only a “long extract” of the original manga: adapting the two volumes of the manga in 54 minutes would have been impossible, and choices were therefore made in the stories.

So, without being excellent (we would especially have liked the film to last longer), Happy-Go-Lucky Days remains a film that will undoubtedly touch a niche, seduce with its atmosphere, move in its brief portraits of life, while seeking to remain very faithful to the sometimes taboo themes and the soft atmospheres of which Takako Shimura is capable.

Now let’s talk about the Kazé edition … well, which is a bit cheap compared to the price. At € 24.99 for 54 minutes in vostf, we could have expected some bonuses, but nothing at all except a teaser of the film. If the soundtrack in 5.1 is very fluid, we will regret a not impeccable image quality which is more for such a recent film, with some traces of colorbanding during a few more “lively” moments. It’s not really shocking, but experienced eyes will be able to notice it quite easily. As for the packaging, it remains very simple: a transparent digistack, composed of two trays each containing a disc (the DVD and the Blu-ray), and protected by a flexible cardboard case but still quite thick. Even if the outside face of the digistack still allows two pretty illustrations to be displayed, we would have hoped for a set a little less cheap for such a price (if only a digipack which would have allowed more illustrations). But hey, let’s not complain too much; nowadays, having such an intimate film on a physical medium, so reserved for a niche, is in itself something appreciable.

DanMachi is a popular license, and Wakanim knows it well. Thus, after having proposed in simulcast season 2 of the series during the summer of 2019, the platform was able to offer, a few months later, its OAV. Released in Japan at the start of the year, on January 29, this bonus episode arrived the same day in France. And like the OAV of season 1, it offers new content, light and nicely fan-service, this time taking our heroes to the beach.

Conceived by the same staff as season 2, the OAV is called in French “What’s wrong with collecting medicinal herbs on a desert island?”, And takes place quite logically after the events of the second season , as evidenced by the presence of Haruhime in the group, or the fact that Daphne and Cassandra no longer belong to the Familia of Apollo.

At Miach’s request, members of the Familia d’Hestia as well as Ryû are sent in search of a very rare medicinal herb that only grows on a desert island, strangely named Friendship Island. Once there, it seems much less time to search for the famous plant than to relax in this paradisiacal setting! But quickly, the group is likely to run into improbable problems, starting with the discovery of an Aiz wandering on the island and whose personality has completely changed …

Concretely, the episode follows a pattern that could not be more classic, with precisely a first half connected to fan-service and a second half offering a little offbeat plot.

Here, therefore, exit Orario and the Dungeon, and make way for a small deserted island seemingly paradisiacal, the kind of setting that we are not necessarily used to seeing in DanMachi. And of course, who says beach means everyone in swimsuits, and on that side the staff was rather happy since, starting from a new quarrel between romantic rivals, he manages to end up with a small swimsuit contest at the end of which Bell is supposed to choose her favorite.

Obviously, it does not fly high, but beyond the many moments where this first part of OAV flatters the eye a little, we easily retain the part of humor, whether thanks to the character of the characters (in particular Hestia , Lili and Haruhime who happily fantasize about their relationship with our hero), to the reactions of Bell who is a little overwhelmed and embarrassed by the situation, and to this dear Welf who improvises as a commentator.

However, where, like the OAV of season 1, one would have expected this new bonus episode to play all along on this light and funny fanserv, the staff ends up trying to surprise a little bit at the end of the swimsuit contest thanks to the sudden appearance of a metamorphosed Aiz, partially amnesic and, above all, completely carefree and jovial … and this is only the beginning of trouble!

The story then rushes into a little mystery which, of course, does not seek far either, but which is conducive to a good little delirium where, from Aiz to Ryû passing by the others (but hey, the cases of these last two is more striking, as their character is usually serious), we discover the characters as we had never seen them before, in a humor that is gently absurd, stupid and a bit hysterical. For those who love comedy a bit silly, certain moments have their effect, in particular the scenes of the sea cucumber and the barbecue.

It doesn’t really make sense … and it has the merit of being accepted as such until the end, in view of the final which has no real logic and which leaves us voluntarily on a part of the blur. This conclusion can clearly divide: some will join the trip, while others will remain hungry. But whatever the case, the idea of ​​harnessing Cassandra’s premonitory dream gift is an interesting one, at least on paper.

At the end of the day, it’s best to turn your brain off to take advantage of this 27-minute OAV. From there, there is enough to spend a pretty nice moment on a first half doing in pure humorous fan-service, then on a second half developing a little trip that is not unpleasant if we accept its lack of logical end. A small light supplement, allowing to find our heroes in a new context, while waiting for the resumption of serious things in the future third season.

After the Flander’s Company phenomenon, the NO Life channel brought us another original series produced by amateurs full of goodwill and good ideas. It is therefore logical that Kaze in turn offers it to us.

This series plunges us right into the world of MMORPGs (online role-playing games, it’s clear!) And shares with us the galleys of a noob guild (pejorative term designating newcomers who are cruelly lacking in experience) …

Clearly this is a series made for geeks who will find their way around and miss no reference, and yet god knows there are plenty of them. But you don’t have to be a geek to enjoy this series, thing, you don’t even have to have any knowledge of the MMORPG world, everything is sufficiently explicit, and anyway there is a quirky side that will speak to everyone.

In all honesty, we remain a little skeptical in front of the first episodes: certainly the references and the vocabulary are there, the universe is reproduced, it is credible, and despite the amateur side which emerges from it, we quickly observe a will and a realization which turns out to be of quality… except that it is not funny! We follow the first episodes without really knowing where the creators of the series want to take us … other than the references, we are not really having fun. But very stupid the one who does not go further! We end up getting caught up in the game, and the more we advance the more humor is present (or the more it hits the mark), the stories are more elaborate, longer, more worked … in short, we let ourselves be carried away in this imagined world intelligently.

One of the big assets of the series is its coherence… all the episodes follow one another and form a whole. The universe is growing, we discover game masters, a hacker, cheaters, merchants, insurmountable quests, bosses, level up … everything that makes the MMORPG!

We have been talking about references from the start, but what are they? They are many and varied, the extremely open universe of this world allows us to insert things that are a priori anachronistic. In addition to the different classes, references to RPGs, we also find Lord of the Rings (necessarily), Pirates of the Caribbean, and even Predator!

The music itself is references, it is taken from anime, games … Secret of Mana, Suikoden … enough to satisfy the most geek of us.

Despite the obvious amateur side of this series, we feel a lot of work and the particular care that is given to it. The actors, who are not at the origin, are overall convincing, and above all it really gives the impression of having fun, in fact we excuse the positing side, the excess and the over-playing of some.

In the bonus department, we are served and rather largely! The second DVD is full of them. We find cross overs with the team of Flander’s Company, the first episodes of the series having preceded Noob (in a totally different register … it seems clear that humor passes much more easily than seriousness, in particular with means amateurs), and a number of interviews with the various protagonists of the series, who are still surprised at the (deserved) success they are having.

In short, a premium supplement that goes perfectly with the series and which extends the adventure a little more.

A really nice series that will appeal to everyone and whose growing success it is enjoying reflects its quality well!

To the delight of its fans, the Gundam saga seems immortal. After having existed primarily through its alternate universes in the 2000s (which brought effective entry points such as Gundam SEED and Gundam 00), the series returned to its main schedule with the 2010s, via globally acclaimed projects. like Gundam Unicorn, Gundam Thunderbolt, and Gundam: The Origin. In April 2018, the Sunrise studio presented the UC Next 100 project, aiming to evolve the timeline of the Universal Century, which began with the film Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative which received a rather mixed reception.

The next project in this key universe is the production of the Mobile Suit Gundam: Senkô no Hathaway trilogy, known simply as Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway internationally, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Shine of Hathaway at home. Going out in our regions is also a dense subject to which we will come back later.

Originally, Hathaway is a three light novel series written in the late 1980s by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of Gundam, on the illustrations and covers of Haruhiko Mikimoto. A short series of novels with a definite stake: Narrating the events following the film Tank counter-attack, a real decisive point of the Universal Century in more than one respect. Today, this status is to be qualified because stories like Unicorn have emerged, and have allowed us to discover the world after the famous rebellion of Char Aznable.
Regarding the light novel, it should be noted that a reissue has emerged to resonate with the animated adaptation, Mikimoto having signed the new covers.

Thus, these novels are the basis of the ambitious new anime project attached to the Universal Century. Planned as a trilogy, this saga within the saga is directed by Shukô Murase, a wide-ranging animator that fans first got to see in the animation direction of Gundam F91 as well as the character design of Gundam Wing. These two examples clearly show the versatility of the director who has managed to achieve a fascinating result, on which we will express ourselves after this phase of presentation. In the scenario, it is Yasuyuki Muto that we find, a logical choice since the author also adapted the plot of the Gundam Unicorn novels for the OVAs. He is therefore particularly experienced in the work of adapting a literary work for medium and feature film formats. Among the main roles, we note the adaptation of the character-design of Haruhiko Mikimoto by Pablo Uchida, another undeniable strength of this first film. Hiroyuki Sawano, after doing wonders on Unicorn and Narrative, returns to the soundtrack. An arduous task for this composer, some of whom criticize the lack of capacity to renew himself, knowing that the history of L’Éclat de Hathaway is dense enough to highlight registers with which Sawano is perhaps less used to composing.

The son of the prodigy, the bearer of a terrorist revolt

In the year 0105 of the Universal Century, twelve years have passed since the rebellion of Char Aznable which did not result in the massive spatial migration of humanity that the leader of Neo Zeon so hoped for. The Federation retains its hegemony over the Earth and its colonies, but that’s without counting the birth of a new group of opponents: Mafty. This terrorist army acts for purposes similar to those of the late Char Aznable, while pointing the finger at the federal regime, supported by a handful of powerful, which must change.

The 34th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), set to run from Oct. 30 through Nov. 8, will feature a section dedicated to Japanese animation for the third year in a row.

The creation of the section in 2019 was the festival’s overdue nod to Japan’s biggest cultural export, the worldwide market for which has grown steadily for the past decade (OK, there was a small dip in 2020, for obvious reasons).

Like the previous two editions, this year’s section is made up of three segments: a retrospective, recent and upcoming films, and a look at a live-action tokusatsu special effects franchise.

For my money, this year’s most interesting piece is the retrospective, which focuses on legendary animator Yasuo Otsuka. Otsuka, who died this year at age 89, isn’t a household name in the same way as Hayao Miyazaki, but he should be. About a decade older than the “Spirited Away” director, Otsuka had both worked with and influenced Miyazaki and fellow Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, as well as generations of other animators.

Otsuka was a part of Japan’s postwar animation industry from the beginning, working as an animator at Toei Animation on “Hakujaden” (“The White Snake Enchantress” 1958), Japan’s first color animated film. Toei was where Otsuka met and mentored Miyazaki and Takahata, championing both young creators. The trio later left Toei, but kept working together on classics such as “Lupin III” and “Future Boy Conan.”