It looks like that cluster of Studio Ghibli movies screening at Consolidated’s Kahala 8 complex — first noticed a few weeks ago while I was looking into Regal Cinema’s Studio Ghibli Fest — has, indeed, blossomed into A Thing.
Last Monday, Consolidated Theatres promoted Facebook events for two movies — Ponyo and Whisper of the Heart — branded with a “Studio Ghibli Summer Festival” logo. Events have since been created for all the movies screening through June. It isn’t related to the Studio Ghibli Fest, and it still isn’t as comprehensive as Consolidated’s all-theater-encompassing Studio Ghibli Festival last year, but the 11 movies being shown are key pieces of Ghibli lore … with, of course, Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro included. We’re probably at the point where you’re either really tired of seeing these same movies over and over again or just can’t get enough of seeing them on the big screen. For those of you who lean toward the latter, welcome back.
Your starting lineup:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: May 31 and June 1
Spirited Away: June 7-8
Ponyo: June 14-15
Whisper of the Heart: June 21-22
Princess Mononoke: June 28-29
The Cat Returns: July 5-6
Howl’s Moving Castle: July 12-13
The Wind Rises: July 19-20
My Neighbor Totoro: July 26-27
When Marnie Was There: Aug. 2-3
Kiki’s Delivery Service: Aug. 9-10
The English-subtitled versions of each movie will screen at 7 p.m. on the first day of their runs, followed by the English-dubbed versions at 2 p.m. on the second day. All of them are screening on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which makes it great for friendly neighborhood otaku bloggers who just happen to have those days off, perhaps not so much for people who have traditional weekday work shifts. Find out more and order tickets by visiting consolidatedtheatres.com/programs-and-events, clicking on a month and “Studio Ghibli Festival,” and proceeding from there.
A few final notes on the Regal Ghibli festival: You have until Wednesday to order Regal’s $60 series pass; the link changed since the last time I wrote about it, so you can find it here. Also, Hilo finally has confirmed screening dates! Yay!
It’s been an … interesting past few weeks since I last posted something here on the Otaku Ohana blog. The first half away was spent working on a profile of Hitbox Music Ensemble (here’s the link for you subscribers out there) in advance of Kawaii Kon. The second half has been spent a) taking time to recover the introvert life-hearts I drained socializing at Kawaii Kon (trust me, it takes a lot out of me), b) finally seeing Your Name with the Otaku Ohana Anonymous Director of Forced Social Interaction on Wednesday, and c) rigging up what I had intended to be a travel netbook computer as my primary computer after my former primary computer died a horrible, meltdown-y death … on the day before Kawaii Kon began. Fortunately, I’ve kept multiple backups of my archive of photos from events I’ve attended throughout my blogging career, so those are safe. But it’s probably going to be slow going for a while until I get things up to speed and pull enough pennies from my couch to get a new computer.
I’m finally back, though! And I come bearing news that there’s going to be another Studio Ghibli film festival rolling through our fair state. Here, have a trailer.
(By the way, is it just me, or does it sound like the voice-over guy says “Hi-yo Miyazaki?” Hi-yoooooooooo~~~! Ahem. Sorry. Pronunciation pet peeve.)
Granted, the lineup for the GKids Studio Ghibli Fest isn’t nearly as comprehensive as Consolidated’s screen-all-the-things Ghibli Film Festival last year, but it’s still a chance to catch six favorites from the studio’s vault on the big screen. My Neighbor Totoro leads off on June 25-26, followed by Kiki’s Delivery Service July 23-24, Castle in the Sky Aug. 27-28, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Sept. 24-25, Spirited Away Oct. 29-30, and Howl’s Moving Castle Nov. 26-27. Those are all Sunday-Monday date combos; the English-dubbed versions will be screening locally at 12:55 p.m. on the Sundays, with the English-subtitled versions screening at 7 p.m. on the Mondays.
Three Regal theaters will be hosting the festivities this time around: Dole Cannery Stadium 18 in Iwilei, Makalapua Stadium 10 in Kona, and the lusciously luxe Kapolei Commons 12, with its reclining plush seating, upscale food offerings and Eating House 1849, La Tour Cafe and Gyu-Kaku just outside. Yum.
(It should be noted that Regal’s theater list includes a fourth venue, the Prince Kuhio 9 in Hilo, but no tickets are listed for sale there on Fandango for any of the series films. It’s not listed in the GKids site listings, either. Curious.)
Tickets are $12.50 each, but if you really want to go all in and commit to seeing every movie, Regal’s offering a $60 series pass that comes with what they’re calling “an exclusive decommissioned Spirited Away 35mm film cell,” plus 6,000 bonus points for Regal Crown Club members. There is a shipping cost involved; the cheapest that I can see is $2.50 for USPS first-class shipping, which keeps the cost per ticket lower than buying each show individually.
That would be the end of the story if not for an anomaly I stumbled upon while I was poking around to see what was up with the Prince Kuhio listing: Tickets seem to be available for another Ghibli fest, this one at the Consolidated Kahala 8 theaters. Screenings of the English-subtitled movies begin May 31 and run most Wednesdays after that through Aug. 9 at 7 p.m., and include:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, May 31
Spirited Away, June 7
Ponyo, June 14
Howl’s Moving Castle, July 12 (with the dubbed version screening July 13 at 11 a.m.)
The Wind Rises, July 19
My Neighbor Totoro, July 26
When Marnie Was There, Aug. 2
Kiki’s Delivery Service, Aug. 9
The inclusion of Ponyo thrills me, because now I can stick this picture into the post. Call it a tradition of sorts around here.
For tickets, visit ow.ly/utmN30bh0hR. Open the “pre-sale tickets” column on the right for the full listing of movies.
Keep an eye on that page and Consolidated’s social media in general, too … call it a hunch, but you’ve got to think some kind of formal acknowledgment of this is coming down the line. More theaters, perhaps? Are these the first shards we’re seeing of Consolidated Ghibli Film Festival 2017? And why is there almost a one-month gap between Ponyo and Howl’s Moving Castle? I can’t wait to find out …
Sosuke and Ponyo prepare for their magical boat ride. (Photo courtesy Nibariki-GNDHDDT)
Remember all those times I’ve said in the past few years that [INSERT MONTH/YEAR HERE] is going to be the best month ever for theatrical anime being screened locally? First of all, congratulations, you have a very good memory. Second, you may now forget I ever said that before, because April 2016 is claiming that title of best month ever now and forever.
The reason: Starting Saturday and running through May 5, for every day except Fridays (gotta make that new-release box office bank, after all!), Consolidated’s theaters across Oahu and their Kaahumanu complex in Kahului will be home to the Studio Ghibli Festival, screening every major Studio Ghibli film ever made. That’s everything from 1984’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyazaki’s pre-Ghibli feature that led to the creation of the studio, through 2014’s When Marnie Was There, plus the live-action Kingdom of Dreams and Madness documentary for good measure. That’s 22 good-to-great movies and Tales From Earthsea — which was kind of a disappointment for me — over roughly a month.
… yeah, I’ll just leave this meme here.
Most of the films will be screened two or three times each over the month, with English-dubbed and English-subtitled versions available. The more popular films — Howl’s Moving Castle, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away — will be shown four times each.
But the real rarity in the group is Ocean Waves (Umi ga Kikoeru), the 1993 made-for-TV movie that is the only major Ghibli project never to see wide release in the U.S. now that GKids finally picked up Only Yesterday. The film’s rights belong to Disney, which kinda has biggerfishtopromote, so we probably won’t be seeing that in wide release any time soon, either. Ocean Waves will be shown exactly once — mark your calendars for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 14, and set your GPSes for the Koolau 10 complex, across from the Valley of the Temples cemetery in Windward Oahu.
Breaking down the numbers further, the big winner in terms of number of screenings is the Kapolei 16 complex, which will be showing 15 out of the 23 movies available, all of them subtitled. The Koolau, Mililani 14 and Pearlridge 16 theaters come in tied for second with 10 apiece, in both subbed and dubbed flavors at the first two and all subbed at Pearlridge.
Here’s the full screening schedule organized by theater, with GhibliWiki links in case you’d like to learn more about each movie. (Trust me, if I had to write 23 synopses and attach 23 trailers like I usually do with these previews, this post would have been posted sometime in February 2022.) Prefer to see what’s on deck chronologically? Here’s Consolidated’s “coming soon” list. Tickets, at $10 each, are available now on Fandango (except for the April 30 Kahala screening of The Wind Rises for some weird reason). Sorry, no passes are being accepted.
Kahala 8
All films dubbed; screenings at 11 a.m. Saturdays.
My Neighbor Totoro: April 2, 11 a.m., April 7, 7 p.m.
Kiki’s Delivery Service: April 9, 11 a.m., April 14, 7 p.m.
Princess Mononoke: April 16, 11 a.m., April 21, 7 p.m.
Spirited Away: April 23, 11 a.m., April 28, 7 p.m.
Howl’s Moving Castle: April 30, 11 a.m., May 5, 7 p.m.
Elsewhere around town
Aiea Library Polar Bear Cafe & Friends Anime Club: Every month, I joke with young adult librarian Diane Masaki that she ought to change the name of the Anime Club to the Polar Bear Cafe & Friends Club, seeing as how the screening schedule for the past few months has consistently been two episodes of the 2012-2013 anime followed by two more episodes of something else. (April’s “friends” are the ship-gals of KanColle.) The response this time around: Crisis! Diane’s approaching the end of the Polar Bear run! And there aren’t very many KanColle episodes left, either! What will the club screen next? And what will be the next running gag for this item?!? At the library, 99-374 Pohai Place, where, yes, there’s still plenty of parking. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or email aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com. 3 p.m. Saturday.
Sanrio Ala Moana Anniversary Party: Head out to Ala Moana Center and take pictures (or selfies, if you’re alone) with a giant Hello Kitty mascot character and also enjoy: Special product promotions! Free face painting and Hello Kitty hat with any purchase! And a special gift with any $75 purchase! 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
Comic Jam Hawaii: This group of collaborative cartoon artists meets every first and third Sunday of the month at Pearlridge Center; check their Facebook page for where in the mall they’ll be meeting. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/ComicJamHawaii(Facebook login required). Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Last week in Otaku Ohana: Your friendly neighborhood anime/manga/cartooning blogger jots down every known detail of every upcoming event he knows about. “Yay! That’s done!” he says. “Now I can finally start working on those HawaiiCon and Amazing Comic Con wrap-up reports!”
This week in Otaku Ohana: The Honolulu Museum of Art, in conjunction with Kawaii Kon, announces its lineup for “Japanese Cinema Spotlight,” a month’s worth of Japanese film screenings at the Doris Duke Theatre — including many popular anime and anime-related films screened in Honolulu this year — as a way of leading up to a major exhibit on Japanese street fashion opening at the museum next month. Blogger weeps openly.
Indeed, local otaku, your busy October — which, as you may recall from previous posts, includes an Anime Day, an Anime Ohana, Ingress First Saturday, a Gamer Expo, Boruto and live-action Attack on Titans, and of course National Cosplay Recognition Day Halloween, has just gotten even busier.
Thirteen films will be shown as part of the Spotlight throughout the month; the five relevant to our Otaku Ohana interests here are:
Attack on Titan:Live-action humans taking on CGI Titans? Sure, the movieshavebeengettingskeweredbyawfulreviews, but you know what? We’ve been waiting for this day! (Hopefully with fixed subtitles. Sorry for your misfortune, San Francisco, but thanks for something that will be endlessly meme-able for a 24-hour cycle.) Part 1, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday; Part 2, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20, 22 and 27.
When Marnie Was There:Studio Ghibli’s last film for the foreseeable future had a short run at the Hawaii International Film Festival’s Spring Showcase in April, then a wider theatrical release in June. It’s actually out on home video on Tuesday, but hey, the theater experience is always better, right? Based on the novel by Joan G. Robinson, the story follows Anna, a foster child and a bit of a loner who finds a mysterious new friend, Marnie, during a summer stay in Hokkaido. 1 p.m. Sunday, Tuesday and Oct. 10.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness:A documentary profiling Ushiko, the Studio Ghibli cat. Oh yeah, and you also get a behind-the-scenes look at Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki and directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata around the time they were working on The Wind Rises and The Tale of Princess Kaguya, respectively. My priorities may be reversed here. Because caaaaaaaaaaaat. 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 1 p.m. Thursday and 4 p.m. Oct. 10.
Love Live: The School Idol Movie: Back in 2013, we first met second-year student Honoka Kosaka and her efforts to save her school from shutting down by forming a nine-member idol group, µ’s. Now we’ve reached the point where the senior members are about to graduate and µ’s is ready to dissolve … until they receive news of a special event. Is this their last hurrah? Could this be a springboard moment for the rest of their lives? 4 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Oct. 15 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28.
“Japanese Mythology in Film”: Japanese mythology is at the core of a new book by Yoshiko Okuyama, an associate professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The book, Japanese Mythology in Film: A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime, takes a scholarly approach of analyzing films with such themes, including anime like Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, and the live-action Onmyoji, Onmyoji 2,Dororo, Mushi-shiand Departures. Join her for a talk on these topics — and maybe more! — at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Moore Hall room 258, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Friday. The talk is free and open to the public.
Ingress First Saturday: Ever wanted to learn how to play Niantic Labs’ massively multiplayer augmented reality smartphone game? Feel like honing your skills and learning playing tips from high-level agents? Want to meet The Face of Hawaii Ingress ™in person? Care to see what Niantic is capable of producing before their new likely-to-be-a-megahit collaboration with Nintendo, Pokemon Go, goes live and turns what we’ve known for several years as the Hawaiian Netmender Fountain portal into Jigglypuff? Come to Kapiolani Park for a day of cross-factional rivalry, fellowship, and … triangles!Lots! And lots! Of TRIANGLES~!
Meet at the Diamond Head Landmark portal (www.ingress.com/intel?ll=21.265395,-157.82058&z=17&pll=21.265395,-157.82058 for those of you with scanners; about halfway between the Waikiki Aquarium and the Natatorium on the park side of Kalakaua Avenue for those who don’t). To the Enlightened, may the odds be forever in your favor. To the Resistance, umm … enjoy the cross-factional potluck afterward? Yeah. That’s it. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday.
Anime Day at Windward Mall: Everything you loved about Kawaii Kon’s past Anime Days will be back for another round, including the Cosplay Runway, games, art activities (including the giant art wall!), discounted three-day passes for Kawaii Kon 2016, a selection of Artist Alley vendors (including artists Jon J. Murakami and Roy Chang, and the Star-Advertiser’s own Erika Engle and her handcrafted jewelry!) and a mall-wide stamp rally for the chance to win a fabulous prize. All of this happens from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the mall, 46-056 Kamehameha Highway. And, of course, admission is free!
Gamer Expo 2015: Remember when I said last week that the second annual edition of what’s been called the state’s largest video game event would be happening Saturday at the Modern Honolulu? Hit the giant virtual reset button on those plans, because now the event is taking place a full 25 hours later, from noon to 10 p.m.Sunday at the Ala Moana Hotel. Aside from that very-important-albeit-coming-at-short-notice change, everything else remains the same: tournaments for pretty much all the hot games out there (Super Smash Bros.! Hearthstone! Halo! Street Fighter! League of Legends! More!), a retro gaming section, and pretty much all the pew-pew-hack-slash-kick-punch-it’s-all-in-the-mind action you could possibly want. Special guests include Super Smash Bros. pro players Corey “False” Shin, Larry “Larry Lurr” Holland, William “Dkwill” Walsh, Max “Max Ketchum” Krchmar and Michael “MikeKirby” Alvare, and noted Hearthstone streamer Hafu. Professional cosplayers Leah Rose and Uncanny Megan will also be there! Presented by eSports HI; $25 general admission, $43 VIP pass.
Comic Jam Hawaii: This group of collaborative cartoon artists meets every first and third Sunday of the month at Pearlridge Center; locations within the mall may vary. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/ComicJamHawaii(Facebook login required). Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Keiki Courtyard Cinema presents My Neighbor Totoro: Twenty-seven years(!) after it was first released in Japan, the Hayao Miyazaki-directed tale of two girls and oh-so-huggable furry creatures of all sizes remains one of anime’s most beloved showcases. For proof, let’s go back to this year’s Kawaii Kon Art Auction.
This is “Flower Crown Totoro,” a canvas print by Amanda Coronado. It sold for $270.
This is “Green Totoro,” a watercolor canvas print by Cari Corene. It sold for $300.
This is “Totoro Trio Happy Days,” a stack of plushies by I’m Sew Stuffed. It sold for $300.
… you get the idea. Popular. Eminently bankable. And it’ll be screening for free at the Ward Village Courtyard — the revamped area by the IBM Building — as part of Ward’s ongoing Courtyard Cinema series. A food truck will be there, free popcorn will be available, fun and educational activities will be going on … sounds like a great time for the young and young-at-heart. Sure, it’s the English dubbed version, but it’s free Totoro.Come on. You have to love that. While the screening’s free, tickets are required and can be obtained via the Hawaii International Film Festival ticket site, hiff.tix.com/schedule.aspx?OrgNum=2034&VenueCode=14757. Gates open at 6 p.m. Wednesday; film starts at sundown.
Anime Ohana: This convention, started by Kawaii Kon founder Stan Dahlin and Sentai Filmworks producer David Williams, will feature voice actors Jessica Calvello (Hange Zoe, Attack on Titan; Yuri, Dirty Pair), Monica Rial (Kaede Kayano, Assassination Classroom) and David Matranga (the title role in Orphen) and all the usual accouterments we’ve come to know and love from the other four conventions so far this year. Oct. 9-11, Pagoda Hotel, 1525 Rycroft St. For the latest news, visit the event page at facebook.com/events/742706302513876/; for passes (available in 1-3 day varieties for both children and adults), visit animeohana.com.
It’s never a good time to get sick, but for your friendly neighborhood anime/manga/cartooning blogger in particular, getting sick last week came at a really inopportune time. I’m still shaking the last remnants of what was diagnosed as a viral infection (the formal medical term for “yup, you’re coughing and congested; here, have some codeine and get some rest”) I missed the Mini Comic Con at Aiea Library, which saddened me. At one point, between swigs of codeine, I even considered tweeting, “Otaku community newsmakers, please hold off on breaking any juicy news until I have a chance to get better.”
Naturally, otaku community newsmakers broke a lot of juicy news while I was sick.
So now I have quite a few announcements to catch up on — movie screenings! Special events! New convention guests! — and I’ll be starting in on it with this series of posts, “The Summer of Stuff.” Because let’s face it: If you can’t find anything that you’re interested in doing in the next few months from everything I’ve been told about, you’re doing the summer wrong.
Take this summer’s lineup of movie screenings for Japanese cultural aficionados, for instance. A lot of it is being generated by GKids, working overtime with a weeks-long presentation of animated films from around the world (that is, if your definition of “around the world” is 75 percent Japan, 25 percent France/Italy) and the wide release of When Marnie Was There. There’s also a pair of free screenings at Aiea Library in coming weeks.
Let’s go to the calendar for some dates, synopses and trailers …
This year’s Kawaii Kon was huge. An announced 10,450 people passed through the tightened-security halls of the convention center. I Instagrammed and tweeted whatever I felt like Instagramming and tweeting, took all three days to track down friends in Artist Alley (a task that used to take just a handful of hours to do on the first day), even helped the Otaku Ohana Anonymous Director of Forced Social Interaction deal with a thing or two. When it was all over and I filed my annual Kawaii Kon memorable moments post for Honolulu Pulse, I resolved to take some time off to recharge some seriously drained blogger batteries.
I just didn’t think it would take a good chunk of two weeks for me to feel like those batteries had finally reached “ready to write again!” status. Heck, an entire wave of Nintendo’s Amiibos was announced, then promptly sold out, in less time than that. (I’m sad, too. I really wanted Ness.) Which means that a backlog of blog posts that I have yet to write, including interviews with manga artists Erica Sakurazawa and Moyoco Anno, has grown even larger in the meantime. Apologies for that.
So I’ll start off a little small and work my way up to the bigger posts I had in mind. Our starting point: the upcoming Hawaii International Film Festival Spring Showcase at the Regal Dole Cannery Stadium theaters. It kicks off Friday and runs through April 19, and Anderson Le, festival programming director, emailed me during my recharging period to give me a heads-up about two movies that might be of interest to you, dear Otaku Ohana readers.
The must-see film that lit up pretty much everyone’s radars locally when it was announced is, of course, When Marnie Was There, notable for being not only the last Studio Ghibli firm for director Hiromasa Yonebayashi (who also directed the studio’s Secret World of Arrietty; he left the studio at the end of 2014) but also the last film for Studio Ghibli for the foreseeable future. It’s based on a novel by Joan G. Robinson; here’s the synopsis HIFF provided:
Sent from her foster home in the city one summer to a sleepy town by the sea in Hokkaido, Anna dreams her days away among the marshes. She believes she’s outside the invisible magic circle to which most people belong – and shuts herself off from everyone around her, wearing her “ordinary face.” Anna never expected to meet a friend like Marnie, who does not judge her for being just what she is. But no sooner has Anna learned the loveliness of friendship than she begins to wonder about her new found friend.
When Marnie Was There screens April 18 at 6 p.m. and April 19 at 4:45 p.m.
Anderson also highlighted another movie that may be of interest to those of you who love seeing the costumed stunt acrobatics in shows like Power Rangers, Kikaida and Kamen Rider: Unsung Hero. The synopsis:
Forty-eight-year-old Wataru Honjo is a big fan of Bruce Lee and works as a suit actor (costume wearing stunt performer). He is also president of “Shimoachiai Hero Action Club.” Even though he doesn’t have the typical body for his profession, he has worked in the business for 25 years. When Ryo Ichinose, a cocky rookie actor appears on the scene, they don’t get along at all. However, when Ryo cast in a Hollywood movie and then suddenly quits because its too dangerous, the producers approach Wataru to fill the role…Will he go for it?
Unsung Hero screens Saturday at 1:15 p.m. and Sunday at 3:15 p.m.
If you still need tickets for either of those films’ screenings, you’ll definitely want to use the discount code SPRING17 at checkout when you buy your tickets online; that will allow you to take $4 off the cost of what’s usually a $12 general admission ticket. Quite the deal! For more information or to check out the other films at the Spring Showcase (33 films from 12 countries!), visit hiff.org.
Granted, the lineup for the GKids Studio Ghibli Fest isn’t nearly as comprehensive as Consolidated’s 
Otaku Ohana 