Anime and Manga Forum

Stop-motion animated classics Coraline, Boxtrolls, ParaNorman, Kubo & The Two-Strings available to pre-order now!

London, UK, 17th October  2024  – This holiday season, treat the family or the film collector in your life to the critically acclaimed films of LAIKA, who set a new benchmark for stop-motion animation. Anime Limited, in association with LAIKA, are excited to reveal the brand-new 4K UHD & Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbooks for these cult classic films, which are available to pre-order now from all good retailers.

Directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) and widely considered one of the best animated films of all time, the dark fantasy Coraline celebrates its 15th anniversary by leading the line-up alongside the fantasy comedy The Boxtrolls on 2nd December 2024, with the family horror ParaNorman and action fantasy Kubo and the Two Strings following on 16th December. The films all received Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Film in their respective release years, with Kubo and the Two Strings also winning the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Films. Returning these celebrated films to the wider market just in time for the holidays marks Anime Limited’s continued commitment to celebrated animated film and physical media, even beyond Japanese animation.

Each title will be available on both 4K UHD & Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook (limited to 2,000 copies each across all retailers), as well as Standard Edition Blu-ray. Pre-orders are open now in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France, and will also be available in Italy, Germany, Benelux, Spain, and Portugal through PLAION PICTURES.

Synopsis:

From Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James And The Giant Peach, comes a visually stunning stop-motion feature!

Coraline Jones is bored in her new home until she finds a secret door that leads into a world that’s just like her own … but better! But when this fantastical adventure turns dangerous and her “other” mother tries to keep her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness and bravery to get home.

The 4K UHD and Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook includes the film on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, while the Standard Edition Blu-ray includes the film on one Blu-ray disc.

Bonus Features (included on the Blu-ray disc) include Making Of featurettes, an audio commentary with director Henry Selick and composer Bruno Coulais, concept art, deleted scenes, and more.

Audio: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Runtime: 101 minutes

Synopsis:

From the creators of Coraline and ParaNorman comes a magical family adventure about heroes of all shapes and sizes: The Boxtrolls. Quirky, mischievous and goodhearted, these box-wearing creatures have lovingly raised a human boy named “Eggs” in a charming cavern below the bustling streets of Cheesebridge. But when evil Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) decides to capture the lovable misfits, it’s up to Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and his feisty young friend, Winnie (Elle Fanning), to save the Boxtrolls. Also featuring the voice talents of Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Toni Collette and Tracy Morgan.

The 4K UHD and Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook includes the film on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, while the Standard Edition Blu-ray includes the film on one Blu-ray disc.

Bonus Features (included on the Blu-ray disc) include Making Of featurettes, an audio commentary with directors Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, concept art, and more.

Audio: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Runtime: 96 minutes

Synopsis:

From the makers of Coraline comes the story of Norman, a boy who must use his ability to see and speak with the dead to save his town from a centuries-old curse. In addition to spooky zombies, he’ll also have to take on mysterious ghosts, wily witches, and, worst of all, clueless grown-ups. But this young ghoul whisperer will soon find his paranormal abilities pushed to their otherworldly limits.

Featuring the voice talents of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin and John Goodman, it’s a frightfully funny and magically thrilling adventure for the whole family in eye-popping stop-motion.

The 4K UHD and Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook includes the film on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, while the Standard Edition Blu-ray includes the film on one Blu-ray disc.

Bonus Features (included on the Blu-ray disc) include Making Of featurettes, an audio commentary with writer/director Chris Butler and Co-Director Sam Fell, concept art, and more.

Audio: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Runtime: 92 minutes

Synopsis:

From the acclaimed animation studio LAIKA (Coraline) comes an epic original action adventure featuring the voice talents of Academy Award® winners* Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey. Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weaponry, as well as discover his own magical powers.

*Charlize Theron: 2003: Best Actress In A Leading Role, Monster, Matthew McConaughey: 2013: Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role, Dallas Buyer’s Club

The 4K UHD and Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook includes the film on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, while the Standard Edition Blu-ray includes the film on one Blu-ray disc.

Bonus Features (included on the Blu-ray disc) include Making Of featurettes, an audio commentary with director/producer Travis Knight, concept art, an audio descriptive track, and more.

Audio: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Runtime: 96 minutes

About LAIKA

LAIKA was founded in 2005 in Oregon by President & CEO Travis Knight. The studio’s five films Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) and Missing Link (2019) have all been nominated for the Academy Award® for Outstanding Animated Feature. Kubo and the Two Strings won the BAFTA® Award for Best Animated Film and received an additional Oscar® nomination for Visual Effects. Missing Link was awarded the Golden Globe® for Best Animated Film. LAIKA was awarded a Scientific and Technology Oscar® in 2016 for its innovation in 3D printing. LAIKA is currently in production on its next animated film Wildwood. The studio is developing the animated feature films The Night Gardener, from an original idea by Bill Dubuque, creator of the hit series Ozark, and Piranesi, based on the NYT bestselling novel by Susanna Clarke. LAIKA has launched a Live Action subsidiary with a range of projects in development including feature films based on the action thriller novel Seventeen by screenwriter John Brownlow and an original script Crumble, written and directed by Brian Duffield with Phil Lord and Chris Miller producing. Oscar®-nominated screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Dune) will write and make his directorial debut on another original live action film project. www.laika.com

About Anime Ltd

Founded in 2012, Glasgow-based Anime Limited is a subsidiary of PLAION PICTURES and represents Japanese animation interests in the UK, France, and beyond. With a thoughtfully curated lineup of films, series, and soundtracks, Anime Limited has earned its title of Europe’s favourite anime distributor. Whether through fan-centric cinema runs, beautifully packaged collector’s editions, or sharing the best of anime music on vinyl, We offer bespoke experiences for all fans for titles such as Attack on Titan, BELLE, Cowboy Bebop, JUJUTSU KAISEN, Neon Genesis Evangelion, One Piece Film: RED, Spy x Family CODE: White, Your Name, and Weathering with You.

About Plaion Pictures

PLAION PICTURES is one of Europe’s leading independent film labels with headquarters just at the gates of Munich. We offer tailor-made marketing solutions for films and series on all channels, from cinema to TV and home entertainment to innovative digital offers.

Our goal is to entertain people with exciting, moving or humorous content – anytime and anywhere. Our unique and wide-ranging portfolio also includes a large number of renowned art house productions, numerous successful and award-winning theatrical releases and a library of over 1,600 titles. Moreover, movie fans also appreciate our high-quality special editions, which turn classics into new film experiences.

Plaion is headquartered in Planegg near Munich and has branches in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States, Japan and Hong Kong. For more information, visit www.plaion.com .

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re going to be embarking on a new journey, as we explore the first segment of six-episode OVA series Sol Bianca: The Legacy. I’ll admit, I know basically nothing about either this series or the original two-episode OVA that preceded it; I’ve frankly never heard of either, but that’s little surprise, as the OVA boom was flush with productions that didn’t necessarily make an international splash.

The original Sol Bianca was actually cut short at two installments due to low sales, and only followed up a decade later by this quasi-sequel. The two share the titular all-female pirate ship, as well as animation director/character designer Naoyuki Onda, who’s enjoyed a fruitful AD career on projects ranging from Record of Lodoss War to Rage of Bahamut. The Legacy’s director Hiroyuki Ochi has also mostly worked in animation direction and key animation, so if nothing else, I’m expecting some luxurious cuts and character art ahead of us. Let’s check it out!

Episode 1

“After the Lord led Abram to Canaan… ‘Lift up your eyes from where you came, and look north and south, east and west. All that land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever,’ said the Lord unto Abram.” Whew, opening with God’s command that Abraham journey to Canaan (modern-day Palestine) is quite a choice! We’ll have to see how this echoes our characters’ journey, but regardless, the expectation is immediately set that they are conducting some sort of holy pilgrimage, being led by powers beyond their control or understanding

A chugging electric guitar melody carries us into a pan over planets and asteroids. “Rock and roll space pirates” seems like it was a hot anime aesthetic around the turn of the century, exemplified by series like Cowboy Bebop, Legend of Black Heaven, and Outlaw Star

“There was once a happy time called the Space Frontier Age. Humans raced out to space, and expanded their territory. And now, 400 years later… where did their passion go?” So it seems that opening quote is actually intended to evoke a “pioneer spirit” that has somehow been lost in the time since the frontier age

The costuming and character art are unsurprisingly ornate and gorgeous. Love the curves of this distinctive space suit

The character art is quite realistic, making no concessions to the increasingly rounded designs of the post-OVA era. Little surprise that our animation director worked on both Rage of Bahamut and Psycho-Pass, two of the only recent productions embracing similarly realistic character designs

These characters feel distinct even from that aesthetic, though; they fall somewhere between Jin-Roh and Yasuomi Umetsu’s distinctive character art, with bone structures and shading like Jin-Roh, but eyes more like Umetsu’s somewhat embellished forms with their prominent eyelashes

Efficient flashbacks inform us this woman’s aunt took her in, and bequeathed her that ornate pistol before dying

“That was when I heard the story about the Ship of the Sun.” The ship she approaches is rendered as appropriately blinding, with a star directly behind it. The Sol Bianca

We cut to a young girl speaking to a stuffed bear, asking “do you remember your mother and father?” Giving an isolated character like this either a toy or a pet to communicate with is an effective way of justifying them essentially offering exposition to an empty room, and thereby communicating what the the viewer needs to know in a believable way

The character animation remains outrageously fluid, impressing all the more so given these detailed designs

The girl’s name is apparently “Mayo,” unfortunately for her

“No, Katie, don’t. You shouldn’t cry.” As with many children, she assigns her embarrassing emotions to her stuffed animal

The Sol Bianca appears to have touched down upon a Mediterranean island, complete with a local colosseum where matadors are currently plying their trade

Impressive shading across these characters as our presumed leader scolds her two subordinates regarding them treating this like a vacation

Lush color design for the backgrounds as well – the scenery looks incredibly inviting as we touch in with Jun, the apparent last of our shipmates, as the sun sets behind her

Both our director and animation director also did animation work for The Hakkenden, and I can definitely see that production’s mixture of realism and fluidity in this show’s movements

The character designs are so realistic it actually takes a little getting used to the character acting; I’m accustomed to a certain degree of aesthetic exaggeration, but everyone here is obeying human rules of bones and musculature

In a shadowed room, a round table of suited gentleman admire an old-fashioned pistol, which is presumably the item our crew is seeking

They plot to jack up the pistol’s auction price. “This is an artifact from earth, after all,” they say, implying earth has at this point been abandoned

“They say the flintlock is going to be in a shady auction.” Efficient explanations catch our crew up to speed immediately, and we’re off to the auction. I appreciate the confidence and efficiency of this storytelling – we don’t need copious explanation to understand the dynamics or intentions of this crew, just following them as they conduct their operations is enough

Love this hover-hot rod they drive to the venue, continuing the mixture of science fiction and Americana

The girls approach bearing instrument cases, presumably housing their weapons. Feels like part of this show’s reason for existence is to combine these extravagantly designed characters with all sorts of fancy costumes, and I am here for it

Both our protagonist and the organizers are worried by the absence of the gun’s intended purchaser

Then a “Terra Force” spacecraft arrives, seemingly housing the man of the hour

You can sort of see the director’s animation-based origins in the boarding of action here; layouts are designed to accommodate shifts in character blocking, the movement dictating the staging, rather than the other way around

As a result, the show has a fairly propulsive energy in spite of a lack of overt action, as each cut is always moving towards some new result, rather than capturing a static image

The Terra Force crew storm into the auction, declaring that the items on block are stolen fragments of earth’s legacy

“We are Earthlings.” “That can’t be! Earth is…”

Our lead announces that the item is her gun, and the shooting begins

More of a focus on iconic posing than action choreography so far; the Terra Force soldiers put up no fight, and our team is soon fleeing to the Sol Bianca

The vast CG Terra Force ship looms above the delicately painted city, a contrast reminiscent of Simoun

I continue to enjoy how confidently we’re dropped into the life of this crew mid-adventure; their world feels larger because there is so much implied beyond what we are seeing, so many jobs they’ve presumably taken before the show began. I feel like far too much of modern storytelling is caught up in explaining origins, too afraid of leaving the audience behind to actually start a story in the middle of the action

The Sol Bianca’s control system is actually in Spanish, continuing the general Spanish theming of this environment

As Mayo is caught up in its energy, her bear is left behind, a clear demonstration of her separating from her past life

God these backgrounds and colors are lovely!

Fun interpretation of a ship coming out of warp drive, framing the air itself as a body of water that the vessel is rising from. A cute way of maintaining the “space as an ocean” metaphor that adds some age of exploration-era grandeur to so many scifi narratives, while also leaning into this show’s more specific pioneer ambitions as implied by its opening quotation

The Sol Bianca emerges into normal space, prompting a shockwave across the land

Meanwhile, the Terra Force vessel is pursued by the entire goddamn island, which is apparently a spacecraft in its own right

Ooh, I like this colorful conceptualization of digital space as one of the crew works to link their ships. The actual internet is boring, I’m always up for some fanciful Tron-world alternative

Beautiful transformation for the Sol Bianca as its “masts” rotate outwards, and a digital sail appears between them. Also quite like the portraits incorporated in the ship’s digital readouts, which seem reminiscent of Mucha’s Seasons

Their commands summon a giant holographic archer, with the Sol Bianca framed as the point of the arrow

As our heroes escape, their pursuer turns over a sun tarot card, adding yet another prophetic art tradition to this production’s stew of influences

After the battle, the crew discover their stowaway

“I can see them if I get on a spaceship. I can see Mom and Dad.” Our pilgrimage introduced at last

Her parents are on a planet called Earth, which is at this point such a distant memory that our captain’s subordinates haven’t even heard of it

And Done

Thus the Sol Bianca sets off on its grand journey, tracing a path back to the cradle of mankind. A classic tale to be sure, but here richly furnished with this production’s distinctive character art and beautiful backgrounds. It’s always a pleasure seeing this sort of ambitious realism in animation, and I’m furthermore happy to see such confidence in the show’s narrative, which wastes no time with preamble and trusts in its audience to understand the trajectory we’re charting. If the following episodes continue with these luxurious backgrounds and beautiful, personality-rich flourishes of character acting, we’re in for a satisfying scifi adventure.

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