Two brand-new Japanese anime movies have been chosen for the Axis Section (Competition Section for Animated Films) at the 27th Fantasia International Film Festival, joining the previously announced Takehiko Inoue's The First Slum Dank and Shigeyoshi Tsukahara's Kurayukaba. The festival's 2023 run in Montreal, Canada, will take place from July 20 through August 9.
Let's take a look at the two new titles!
First up is Yoshimi Itazu's fantasy manga The Concierge (The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store), which is an anime film adaptation by Tsuchika Nishimura. In the fall of 2023, the movie is scheduled to premiere in Japan. Chiyo Morita, a director and character designer/animator, is expected to attend the festival.
The festival's official website describes The Concierge film below:
“The word ‘no’ doesn’t exist in a concierge’s dictionary.” That’s just one of the demanding rules that Akino must abide by in her new job as a saleswoman at the elegant and expansive Arctic Department Store. It’s a very special store — the customers are all animals, and the most valued among them are of extinct species. Sea minks, laughing owls, Japanese wolves, even an enormous mammoth — that’s Mr. Woolly, the celebrated sculptor whose works are showcased at the store. It’s still a luxury retail space, though, and anxious Akino finds her hands full with the customers’ challenging requests. These range from hard-to-find merchandise to more complicated matters of the heart. Can the inexperienced Akino fulfill their whims and meet their expectations? If she wants to keep her job, she’ll have to succeed while under constant observation by the fussy floor manager Mr. Todo, a creepy consultant eager to downsize the staff, and the store’s enigmatic president (who is not a penguin, by the way!).
Next up is Toshihisa Yokoshima's anime film adaptation of SAND LAND, a manga series by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The movie is scheduled to premiere on August 18 in Japan.
The festival's official website describes the SAND LAND film below:
In a mysterious world where humans and demons coexist, it has been a lifetime since humans ruined the environment and fell into a state of constant war. A parched desert now covers the globe, and water is the most precious resource. The Royal Army, serving under the King, controls the only known source of water. Those transporting the vital fluid through the dry wastelands find themselves beset by demons (who get thirsty too, you know). Among them is Beelzebub, the demon prince, son of Satan himself — and you know Beelzebub is a bad one because he doesn’t respect bedtime, and often doesn’t brush his teeth. When the stern, no-nonsense Sheriff Rao visits the demons’ village, and asks for their help in locating a fabled oasis (thus bypassing the tyrannical king’s control of all remaining water), it’s Beelzebub and the grizzled old demon Thief who join him on this desperate, dangerous quest. They’re not long out of town when their troubles really begin!
Already a fan of these upcoming films? Not familiar with them at all? Let us know in the comments your thoughts and if you will be tuning in to their premieres later this year!