Japanese popcorn

The first edition of Anime Cine Festival inu00a0Delhi will celebrate the Anime pop culture of Japan

Ever heard of Anime? Or Manga? For the uninitiated, Anime is another word for animation and Manga refers to a famous comic book series in Japan. And both are examples of the flourishing pop-culture in Japan. And this is exactly what the Anime Cine Festival will be bringing to Delhi this year.



Impressive line up
The three-day festival gathers its weight from the enqueud animation films. The festival will also feature workshops, lectures on Japanese animation, short-film competitions, video games and photography exhibitions. Those interested can also pick up copies of the comic series Manga.

Animation is old gold
Animation movies have quite a history in Japan and date back to 1917 when a small two-minute clip. It portrays a Samurai who tries to test a new sword on his enemy but ends up defeated. Soon after, Japanese filmmakers began experimenting with the genre and animation soon became an alternative format of storytelling and quite a different source of entertainment. Anime today is all about modern Japan and the film festival has attempted to portray a glimpse of the attitude, concerns and lifestyle of the people there.u00a0

"India doesn't have a pop culture and we believe in creating an environment for such a thing to grow in the country. It is necessary for the youth here to be exposed to more of the world and know of it. Japanese films and comics are one such thing that are to be explored over a period of time. So this is what we have intended to bring through the festival," says Nitesh Rohit, curator of Anime Cine Festival.u00a0

Isme romance hai, suspense hai
To be showcased are some of the great contemporary Anime works like The Girl Who Leapt through time. It is a romance drama which talks about a teenage girl who discovers that she has the power to leap through time and tries to use it to her advantage. But soon she finds out that tampering with time can bring about devastating consequences.

Voices Of a Distant Star, directed by Makoto Shinkai, is a romanticscience fiction, which deals with a blossoming high school romance which turns sour when one of the lovers joins the UN space army to fight aliens. Also, his two other works The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters Per Second will be among the six films to be screened.u00a0

"The six animation flicks talk about love, romance, pain and communication between individuals. I'm a fan of Japanese animation films and want the youth in Delhi to come and throng the event. I know this is an experiment, but I think it will work," says the confident curator.