Trivia that matter
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Astropia was picked up by an American distributer earlier this year. My copy arrived a few days ago, and the story of a minor Icelandic celebrity who is assimilated into RPG culture was as enjoyable as I remembered. Now, would a region 1 distributer please license Faintheart, which is only available as a region 2 PAL disc?
Another recent arrival is Loituma’s Things of Beauty, which includes the “Ievan Polka.” It might sound vaguely familiar.
From the Icelandic film Astropia, here is a brief apologia for anime. Flóki is a clerk at the titular comics/DVD/RPG shop and Hildur is the innocent new employee.
Flóki: Here we have Japanese Anime.
Hildur: Why aren’t they in the Asian section?
Flóki: Because I say so. They’re special cartoons. Some people like anime, but never watch Asian cinema. And vice-versa. Here we have some great titles, like My Neighbor Totoro, Akira, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ghost in the Shell.
Hildur: And grown-ups watch this?
Flóki: — Oh yeah. You’re just thinking of the Disneyfication of animation. Anime has much more to offer.They’re not all family films, but they respect their audience. They’re open-ended and multi-layered.
Disney has bought and hidden away many of the jewels of Anime to keep them from western audiences. To make a buck off The Lion Kingdom of the Mouse House.
Astropia is available for the reasonable price of $18.10. Unfortunately, shipping from Iceland is $32.99, so I hope that the film soon finds an American distributer.
Bonus link: My familiar is a purple snow leopard. The election as a RPG campaign. (Via Naked Villainy.)