Tag Archives: Scotland Loves Anime

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Talk of the Toons: Scotland Loves Anime 2019 preview

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An annual celebration of Japanese animation that takes place at Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, the Scotland Loves Anime festival reaches a milestone 10th edition in October 2019. “It always feels like we’re younger still,” festival director Andrew Partridge tells us. “My, how time flies when you’re stressing about running a festival!”

Regularly showcasing the best new animation from Japan, alongside restorations of established classics and the occasional live-action adaptation of an anime or video game, the festival has gone from strength to strength in terms of audience, reach, influence and programming coups. What was once just a relatively modest attempt to get more Scottish cinema showings for anime – that aren’t just from Studio Ghibli – has become one of the key European animation events on the calendar…

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Scotland Loves Anime 2018

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Bar the occasional big screen outing for kids’ brands like the Teen Titans and My Little Pony, Hollywood has largely given up on releasing 2D feature animation in cinemas. And with the exception of recent European efforts like Ethel & Ernest, the best place for more traditional animation styles to thrive remains in the East, particularly in Japan. Anime on the big screen in Britain has become a big business thanks to successful limited runs via distributors Anime Limited and Manga UK, especially with 2016’s worldwide smash Your Name. The Scotland Loves Anime festival, returning for its ninth instalment at Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, is the best place for the unfamiliar and hardcore enthusiasts alike to get their biggest and most diverse dose of the medium…

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Scotland Loves Anime 2017: Preview

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Each year, Scotland Loves Anime gives animation fans a chance to see an eclectic selection of Japanese fare on the big screen. This year marks the eighth instalment of the festival at Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, with tours across additional locations in Scotland to follow.

Though anime on the big screen in the UK is becoming more and more common thanks to the work of distributors like Anime Limited and National Amusements (both were behind box office hit Your Name, amongst others of late), many a notable feature slips through the gaps. As such, this year’s Scotland Loves Anime line-up is an appealing mix of wide-ranging titles for both hardcore enthusiasts and the anime novice; from European or UK premieres of new franchise entries to influential classics worth seeing big…

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Scotland Loves Anime 2015: Preview

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Now in its sixth year, October’s Scotland Loves Anime festival is not just the region’s leading exhibitor of Japanese animation on the big screen (where so much of it begs to be seen, but infrequently is in the UK), but is also now a key time on the film calendar for more offbeat Asian fare of the live-action variety, sandwiched as it is between the big Edinburgh and Glasgow film festivals of June and February. To name one highlight of the last few years, SLA offered the only UK cinema showings of madman maverick Takashi Miike’s Ace Attorney, a bonkers live-action adaptation of the popular Phoenix Wright video games. Appropriately enough, given the festival’s widening scope and growing reputation, the 2015 instalment will see it expand beyond its usual homes at Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh Filmhouse, with Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse getting its own taste of the animated action…

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Scotland Loves Anime 2014

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With any hopes of Disney making a 2D feature animation again looking increasingly unlikely, and even SpongeBob SquarePants venturing into CGI territory for a forthcoming movie sequel, it’s primarily left to the East nowadays for more traditional animation to thrive. Returning to Edinburgh and Glasgow this October for a fifth year, the Scotland Loves Anime festival showcases some of the best of contemporary and classic Japanese animation, mostly of the hand-drawn variety, on the big screen where so much of it belongs but is rarely seen by Western audiences (unless it’s another Miyazaki masterpiece picked up by a big distributor).

The festival features many UK or Scottish premieres, and the most high-profile of these is Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, the first theatrically released spin-off in years for one of anime’s most well-known and commercially successful properties worldwide. Any twenty-something who came of age during the anime on UK TV boom of the early 2000s (thanks, Cartoon Network) will want to get themselves to either GFT or Filmhouse to catch the gloriously daft super-powered fights, slapstick and general shoutiness through cinema speakers…

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Scotland Loves Anime 2013: The Fourth Impact

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The Scotland Loves Anime festival returns to Glasgow and Edinburgh in October for a fourth year of screenings and talks, and that rare opportunity to watch Japanese animation on the big screen – the place where so much of it begs to be seen. Over two consecutive weekends, Glasgow Film Theatre (11-13 Oct) and Edinburgh Filmhouse (18-20 Oct) will showcase some of the best of contemporary and classic anime for both the well-versed and those completely new to the medium…

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Robot Rock: Kenji Kamiyama on ‘009 Re: Cyborg’

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Since 2009, October’s Scotland Loves Anime festival has been a yearly highlight for the country’s animation fans, hosting various UK and European premières, Q&A events with filmmakers, and that all important and often rare opportunity to see anime in a cinema environment. Andrew Partridge, the driving force behind the festival, has now launched Anime Limited, a new distribution company based out of Glasgow. Its mantra is to provide chances to see high quality anime films on the big screen, as well as through other media. As such, Anime Limited’s first release, 009 Re: Cyborg, will receive a multi-platform release, heading to both select cinemas and digital platform Distrify. ..

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Scotland Loves Anime 2012: Animation Looks East

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Following a very successful run in 2011, animation festival Scotland Loves Anime returns to Glasgow and Edinburgh in October for a third year, with even more international and UK premieres than before. Though the festival’s film selection is centred around Japanese animation and culture specifically, its charity organisers Scotland Loves Animation seek to promote animation of all origins as art. As such, the festival plays host to interview sessions with people involved with films in the line-up, as well as an education day for students of animation at Edinburgh College of Art (19 Oct), with input from industry professionals…

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