GKIDS has announced out of their panel at Anime NYC that it is bringing Perfect Blue, the legendary first film from the late auteur director Satoshi Kon to cinemas nationwide in a gorgeous new 4K restoration. Perfect Blue comes to cinemas nationwide starting October 3, 2025.
Perfect Blue is the debut feature from the legendary director Satoshi Kon. The groundbreaking feature is singular in its impact throughout the film world at large, and its influence can still be felt today. Perfect Blue has been hailed as one of the best animated features of all time and is only one of a handful of projects the late Satoshi Kon directed before his passing in 2010. The shocking debut feature remains relevant to this day, with a prescient vision of shattered identities formed by living in the public eye in an online world. Kon’s bold view on how technology and media can mold and distort our own perceptions of ourselves has only grown more haunting with time.
“Who are…you?”
Mima Kirigoe, a former pop idol, makes a bold transition into acting, taking on a role in a drama that includes a disturbing assault scene, and even releasing a provocative nude photo book. Her dramatic reinvention grabs public attention, but also provokes unease among her fans, her manager, and even herself as she struggles with the rapid shift from her days as a pop idol. As a stalker begins to shadow her, a screenwriter and a photographer are murdered one after another. “Did I kill them?” Mima begins to wonder if a split personality is gradually taking over, just like the character that she plays in the drama. Then “the other Mima” the pop idol who was supposed to have “graduated,” appears in front of her…
Perfect Blue marks the directorial debut of Satoshi Kon, who fascinated audiences around the world with Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers. Hailed as the first animated film to feature an authentic psychological suspense story, this film was acclaimed at international film festivals and was released in theaters in Japan in 1998. Blending a play within a play, the story unfolds as fiction and reality, dreams and delusions, and cyberspace intertwine—like an optical illusion.
AsDan Da Dan soars into its second half, a new teaser has been revealed, featuring the debut of the much beloved gentleman Kinta Sakata. During the hit series’ panel at Anime NYC, Bryce Papenbrook (Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer) was additionally revealed as the English-language voice of Kinta Sakata. This comes on the heels of the original Japanese language teaser, and new key visual released this past Thursday, which revealed Daichi Fujiwara as the original Japanese language voice.
As the season moves to it second half, fans can look forward to a buck-wild final few episodes, centering on the chaotic oncoming kaiju battle, as well as introductions to many colorful new additions, and subsequent romantic tensions, to Momo and Okarun’s circle. Following last week’s power metal spectacular, this week’s episode heel-turned to a thrilling classical music battle for Okarun and Aira, of which the production was detailed in full during the show’s panel at Anime NYC.
Dan Da Dan is a television adaptation of author Yukinobu Tatsu’s manga of the same name, which is currently serialized in the wildly popular “Shonen Jump Plus” by SHUEISHA, under the globally beloved Shonen Jump imprint. With production from the acclaimed animation studio Science SARU (DEVILMAN crybaby, INU-OH, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off), Dan Da Dan’s second season is co-directed by Fuga Yamashiro, director of the first season, and longtime Science SARU veteran Abel Gongora, who directed the highly acclaimed opening theme animation of the series’ first season. Composer kensuke ushio (Chainsaw Man, DEVILMAN crybaby) returns to the production for the score. The opening theme song, titled “On The Way,” is performed by the hit J-Pop artist AiNA THE END, and the ending theme song, titled “Doukashiteru,” is performed by popular J-Rock artist WurtS. Original creator Yukinobu Tatsu previously worked as an assistant to acclaimed author Tatsuki Fujimoto on his global hit series “Chainsaw Man” and “Fire Punch,” and Yuji Kaku on “Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku.” The original manga series recently crossed 10 million in sales, more than doubling its circulation following the global success of animated series.
GKIDS has announced it will bring the highly anticipated fourth and final installment of the new theatrical “Rebuild” editions of the Evangelion franchise, to theaters nationwide. GKIDS, in partnership with Fathom Events, will hold event screenings of the highly anticipated finale on December 6th, 8th and 11th only.
Evangelion:3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time was released in Japanese theaters in 2021, where it was a critical and box office success becoming the highest-grossing film of the year with ¥10.28 billion (~$85 million) in local box office. The release marks the first time the film will be available in theaters in North America since its domestic release in Japan.
Created by Hideaki Anno,the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise is considered one of the most influential animated sagas of all time. Since the 1995 premiere of the original television series, the story of teenager Shinji Ikari has remained one of the most iconic titles in animation history, and a global pop culture phenomenon.
Following the conclusion of the beloved 1995 television show, the legendary project received new life as the Evangelion movie series. The theatrical film series began with EVANGELION:1.11 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE (2007), followed by EVANGELION:2.22 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE (2009), EVANGELION:3.33 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO (2012), and culminating in the finale Evangelion:3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time.
Last year, GKIDS released the original twenty-six episode television series, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, as well as the films EVANGELION:DEATH (TRUE)2 and THE END OF EVANGELION on Blu-ray and digital download-to-own for the first time in North America. GKIDS also handles North American distribution for creator Hideaki Anno’s prior series, NADIA: The Secret of Blue Water.
From legendary director Hideaki Anno, EVANGELION:3.0+1.01 THRICE UPON A TIME is the fourth and final installment of the REBUILD OF EVANGELION films, bringing an epic conclusion to the story of Shinji and his fellow Eva pilots, with the stunning visuals and thought-provoking storytelling that has made EVANGELION a global pop culture phenomenon.
Misato and her anti-NERV group Wille arrive at Paris, a city now red from core-ization. Crew from the flagship Wunder land on a containment tower. They only have 720 seconds to restore the city. When a horde of NERV Evas appear, Mari’s improved Eva Unit 8 must intercept. Meanwhile, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei (Provisional Name) wander about Japan.
In modern-day Tokyo, three homeless people’s lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl at a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. As the New Year fast approaches, these three forgotten members of society band together to solve the mystery of the abandoned child and the fate of her parents. Along the way, encounters with seemingly unrelated events and people force them to confront their own haunted pasts, as they learn to face their future, together.
Tokyo Godfathers, the acclaimed holiday classic from master director Satoshi Kon, will return to theaters in a brand new restoration, with an all new English language dub this March. Co-written by Keiko Nobumoto and featuring a whimsical score by Keiichi Suzuki, Tokyo Godfathers is a masterpiece by turns heartfelt, hilarious and highly original, a tale of hope and redemption in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
The film comes to theaters for a special event on Monday, March 9 at 7:00 p.m. (local time, English-language subtitled) and Wednesday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. (local time, English-language dubbed).
Tickets are available now at Fathom Events and the Tokyo Godfathers move site. A complete list of theater locations is available on the Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).
In 2020, the Los Angeles-based Secret Movie Club is hosting screenings of some of the most beloved anime of all time, as part of their Anime Buffet programming slate, which will run from January through April 2020. The Anime Buffet slate is scheduled to include such films as Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Paprika, Millennium Actress, Metropolis (2001), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Vampire Hunter D, Grave of the Fireflies, and Tokyo Godfathers. Screenings will alternate between two different locations: the Vista Theater in Los Feliz, the historic single screen theater built in 1922, and the Club, Secret Movie Club’s new downtown location.
Attendees can purchase limited edition SECRET MOVIE CLUB posters for every screening at all events, which feature new art by contemporary illustrators. Each film is preceded by a brief talk from Secret Movie Club founder Craig Hammill and a trivia question for the audience.
COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE
(2001, Sony, dir by Shinichiro Watanabe, 35mm, 115mns)
Friday, January 10, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista
In 2071, earth has been ravaged by catastrophe. Humans have colonized other planets and the universe is a new Wild West. A group of Bounty Hunters travel on the spaceship BeBop in search of quarry and rewards. When a contagion gets released in a truck disaster on Mars, our heroes-Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein (a dog with human-grade smarts due to artificial enhancement) go off in search of the culprit and the reward that goes with it.
“One of the great things with Japanese anime, as with all cinema and art, is how each set of creators imbue the genre with their own personal style and stamp,” said Craig Hammill. “Cowboy Be Bop, as its title itself implies, is a mashup of sci-fi, westerns, Hong Kong action movies, and an improvisatory iconoclastic jazz rhythm that make the viewing experience a total blast and totally singular.”
VAMPIRE HUNTER D
(1985, Sentai Filmworks, dir by Toyoo Ashida, 80mns)
Friday, January 17, 2020 @ 7:30p, The Club, 1917 Bay Street, 2nd Floor, LA, CA 90021
The movie centers on Doris Lang, the daughter of a werewolf hunter, who gets bitten by 10,000 year old Count Magnus Lee one night. She then meets a strange vampire hunter, who only goes by the name D, and employs him to take on the long-lost vampire lord and try to help her from becoming a vampire herself.
“Vampire Hunter D is one of the earliest examples of Japanese anime that was made explicitly with teenagers and adults more in mind than children,” said Hammill. “Made for the then emerging direct to video market, Vampire Hunter D had a smaller budget than its feature film peers. But in a strange way, this freed up director Toyoo Ashida to make a more exciting, violent, sensual animation. Ashida has gone on the record as saying his intent with the movie was to make something thrilling that tired students could enjoy during study breaks rather than make an anime that further exhausted them. Full of genre mash-ups, amazing art and design, and storytelling, Vampire Hunter D definitely serves as a prototype and torch in the darkness for future directors like Satoshi Kon, who will take anime into ever more complex, adult, shadowy realms.”
GHOST IN THE SHELL
(1995, Lionsgate, dir by Mamoru Oshii, 85mns)
Saturday, January 18, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista:
Often the cyberpunk genre, which would come to full flourish here in the United States with the Wachowski’s The Matrix, can be traced most directly to two Japanese anime parents: 1988’s Akira and 1995’s Ghost in the Shell. Often considered one of the greatest Japanese anime movies of all time, Ghost in the Shell, dives head first into the darker, deeper waters of more adult sci-fi.
It’s 2029 and the human body can be augmented with “smart” prosthetic cybernetics. The most recent innovation, and the most terrifying, is a cyberbrain, which allows humans to now go online/get hooked into the internet, straight through their neural pathways. Our hero, Motoko Kusanagi, is part of an elite squad that fights crime in “New Port City” in Japan. Currently, they are kept busy by an arch criminal known as “The Puppet Master” who appears to have the ability to hack into these “cyberbrains” and get folks to assassinate, kill, commit crimes. As Motoko further explores what’s going on with both the Puppet Master and the innovations in cybernetics, she stumbles across a revelation that goes to the very heart of our philosophical understanding of what makes us unique individuals: what constitutes our “soul”.
PAPRIKA
(2006, Sony Pictures Classics, dir by Satoshi Kon, 35mm, 90mns)
Friday, January 31, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista:
If Hayao Miyazaki is synonymous with a kind of all-ages wildly imaginative Japanese anime, then director Satoshi Kon is synonymous with a Japanese anime that dares to go to the very limits of what any kind of cinema can explore in terms of human psychology, fear, desire, imagination. And he does it in the most creative and miraculous of artistic ways.
Paprika is one of his wildest mind-bending creations of all. In the near-future, there is a device called the “DC Mini” which allows Dr. Atsuko Chiba to enter the dreams of her patients (using her alter-ego “Paprika”) to help try to discover the root of their fears, anxieties, and hang ups. But the problem is that the “DC Mini” is still in prototype mode with no restrictions or safety barriers whatsoever. And if it gets into the wrong hands (which of course it does), it allows the thieves to enter dreams for more sinister and nefarious reasons.
METROPOLIS
(2001, Sony, dir by Rintaro, 113mns total, 35mm, Japanese with English subtitles)
Saturday, February 1, 2020 @ 10:45p, The Club
Written by Katsohiro Otomo (writer/director of the classic anime Akira), Metropolis shares much of its DNA with that seminal anime classic including a central character who is rocked to their psychological core by the realization of their “super human” abilities and an impending apocalypse that threatens the entire foundations of a huge city.
MILLENNIUM ACTRESS
(2002, 11 Arts, dir by Satoshi Kon, 82mns, Japanese with English subtitles)
Wednesday, February 12, 2020 @ 8p, The Club
Millennium Actress tells the emotional story (in a decidedly surreal and modernist way) of famous actor Chiyoko Fujiwara, who tells her life story to documentarians and explains she only ever became an actress in the hopes of being recognized by an artist/political rebel she fell in love with as a teenager and never saw again. As Chiyoko tells her story, it becomes hard to tell what’s her real life, what are movie scenes she starred in, and where fiction/reality meet and diverge.
Special Note: There will be three originally written 3-4 minute monologues performed by three actresses ahead of the screening running a total of 10-12 minutes.
PERFECT BLUE
(1997, GKIDS, dir by Satoshi Kon, 35mm, 81mns)
Friday, February 21, 2020 @ 11:59p, The Vista
Kon fully commits to an anime that is as rich, dark, and complex as any Scorsese, Kubrick, Lynch, or Bergman movie. But with the added benefit of being able to cinematically represent psychological states of mind in a way that is often impossible in live-action cinema.
“If you want to see anime that absolutely succeeds in expanding the playing field of what cinema can do, come join us for Perfect Blue,” said Hammill.
THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME
(2006, Funimation, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, 98mns; English dubbed version)
Saturday, March 14, 2020 @ 10:30a, the Vista
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time tells the story of young teenager Makoto Konno who discovers a magical object in her high school that allows her to leap through time and prevent situations that caused her great embarrassment. This premise, as with all good premises fully explored, deepens into a meditation on wish fulfillment versus reality. Makoto, first using the device for frivolous things, comes to realize that the device has its price. And that she is not the only one using it. . .
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES
(1988, GKids, directed by Isao Takahata, 90mns; Japanese with English subtitles)
Saturday, April 4, 2020 @ 10:30a, the Vista
One of the absolute greatest animes ever made, Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata, deals with siblings Seita and Satsuko, who have to rely on each other to survive after they’re separated from their parents during the American fire-bombing of Tokyo in the late stages of World War II.
Secret Movie Club is a group project among the founders and the audience. Audience suggestions are taken and often used. Secret Movie Club aims to celebrate the wonderful experience that comes from watching the world’s greatest movies in great movie theaters with great audiences.
