Arrietty Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi Left Studio Ghibli

At a talk show event earlier this week, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, director of Studio Ghibli films The Secret World Of Arrietty and When Marnie Was There, told the press that he left the Studio at the end of last year and is no longer affiliated with it. He also said that he still wants to make films and may try making a film that is the complete opposite of Marnie.

Sensei Tatsumi Has Passed Away

Yoshihiro Tatsumi, the father of ‘gekiga’, the darker, less traditional and more dramatic form of Japanese manga, passed away on March 7. He was 79.

The sad news came via an email from Singapore filmmaker Eric Khoo, who directed the award-winning Tatsumi animated film. “Sensei passed away today,” Khoo wrote in his email to journalist Paul Gravett last Saturday.

Stand By Me Doraemon Continues Its Winning Streak!

Stand By Me Doraemon, the 36th feature film in the iconic robot cat franchise, is simply unstoppable.

Upon its release in Japan in August last year, it topped the box office charts for 5 consecutive weeks and went on to become the highest grossing local film at the Japanese box office in 2014. Since then, it has enjoyed strong overseas performance in markets including Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia and South Korea.