Less than a week after octogenarian Hayao Miyazaki scored his second Academy Award, another 80-something anime legend, ¡°Gundam¡± creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, greeted a packed auditorium at the second annual Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF). Striding onstage in a funky black-and-white jacket, billowing slacks and a baseball cap, Tomino urged the artists in the audience to surpass his longtime rival, who he said had raised the artistic bar for the medium ¡ª ¡°Let¡¯s beat Miyazaki!¡±
Tomino¡¯s rousing ebullience kicked off this year¡¯s six-day NIAFF in Niigata, a mid-sized city two hours north of Tokyo by train. Despite brisk winds and spurts of snow, the city¡¯s welcome felt even warmer this year, with local restaurants offering specials highlighted in the program guide and a cosplay parade snaking through the central shopping district.
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