Category: Anime

Today, March 30th 2013, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods – ドラゴンボールZ 神と神 is released in Japanese movie theatres. It’s been 17 years since the release of the last movie based on the Dragon Ball universe!

And what is more, it is NOT a spin-off from the main timeline of the manga like the previous 17 Dragon Ball movies. This new movie, Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, is considered to be an official part of the main plot of the series which is set during the ten year time skip between chapters 517 and 518 of the original manga. It is also the Dragon Ball-related production with the highest implication by Akira Toriyama since he finished drawing the manga more than 15 years ago.

The expectations are very high and the marketing campaign has been all around Tokyo during the last few weeks. For example KFC fast food restaurants have offers in which you can get cool things like Dragon Ball radars or bottles with Dragon Ball-shaped lids.

In the convenience stores Lawson and Ministop you can also find several articles related to the new Dragon Ball movie, like for example Son Goku hairstyle french fries.

On the next July 20th we will have a new movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki in Japanese cinemas. Since Ponyo (2008), Hayao Miyazaki hadn’t directed a Ghibli movie all by himself.

The title of the movie, The Wind Is Rising – 風立ちぬ, is the same as a novel by Tatsuo Hori, but it seems like the plot will be significantly different to the original novel. The movie is based on the manga with the same title written and drawn by Hayao Miyazaki himself.

The manga tells us the story of Jiro Horikoshi, an aeronautical engineer that designed the fighters that were used to attack Pearl Harbor (The Mitsubishi Zero). Jiro Horikoshi is the main character in the movie, but I wonder who is the girl in the poster:

Official website of the movie

Other posts about Ghibli:

• Inverview with Hayao Miyazaki
• Kokurikozaka Kara (コクリコ坂から) – A movie by Goro and Hayao Miyazaki
• The Borrower Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ)
• Ghibli Museum
• Nekobus
• Totoro waiting for the Nekobus
• Level 5 and Studio Ghibli RPG
• Ghibli Car