Image: Your Name. (Kimi no Na wa) official Japanese website
A recently released list of invitees to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) include Japanese composer Yoko Kanno, Makoto Shinkai and five other anime directors.
The list, which can be viewed on the Oscars website, includes Makoto Shinkai (“Your Name.,” “5 Centimeters per Second,” “Garden of Words”), Mamoru Hosoda (“Summer Wars,” “Wolf Children,” “The Boy and the Beast,” upcoming “Mirai of the Future”), Sunao Katabuchi (“In This Corner of the World”) and composer Yoko Kanno (“Cowboy Bebop,” “Macross Plus,” “The Vision of Escaflowne”).
Other individuals invited who were involved in creating Japanese content include director Ru Kuwahata (“Negative Space,” “Something Left, Something Taken”), director Atsuko Hirayanagi (“Oh Lucy!”), director Sion Sono (“Tokyo Vampire Hotel,” “The Whispering Star,” “Suicide Club,” “Tokyo Tribe”), actors Takeshi Kaneshiro (“Red Cliff,” “House of Flying Daggers”) and Issei Ogata (“Silence,” “Yi Yi”) and designer Keiko Mitsumatsu (“Our Little Sister/Umimachi Diary,” “Nobody Knows”).
With only Studio Ghibli works being able to penetrate the Oscar Awards, the invitation of these big names in modern anime could signal winds of change.
Then again, Hayao Miyazaki, producer Toshio Suzuki and recently deceased “Grave of the Fireflies” director Isao Takahata all declined when they were previously invited. Despite that, “Spirited Away” went on to become the only anime film to win an Oscar award so far, reports Anime News Network.
With the steady rise in popularity of anime in the international stage, the next Oscar Awards could finally recognize more contemporary anime works. Alfred Bayle /ra
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