This is a good month to be a fan of old anime. March 6 saw a 4K cinematic rerelease of ¡°Jin-roh: The Wolf Brigade,¡± a 25-year-old political thriller directed by Hiroyuki Okiura (¡±A Letter to Momo¡°) and penned by Mamoru Oshii (¡±Ghost in the Shell¡°), and on March 20, theaters will screen a 4K remaster of ¡°Macross Plus: Movie Edition,¡± a lauded 1995 continuation of the mecha action ¡°Macross¡± franchise that served as the directorial debut of Shinichiro Watanabe of ¡°Cowboy Bebop¡± fame.
In fact, the past few years have been very good to anime fans of a certain vintage. Last year alone saw so-called revival screenings of films including ¡°Princess Mononoke¡± (1997), ¡°Angel¡¯s Egg¡± (1985), ¡°Memories¡± (1995), ¡°Patlabor: The Movie¡± (1989) and its sequel (1993), ¡°Ghost in the Shell¡± (1995) and no less than six films in Hideaki Anno¡¯s ¡°Neon Genesis Evangelion¡± franchise. Screenings of classic movies have always been a fixture of the movie-going scene, but are traditionally the purview of specialty theaters or midnight showings. But lately, older titles have played for weeks at multiplexes around Japan.
¡°In recent years, the number of Japanese films, both live-action and anime, has increased significantly, but their hit-or-miss nature makes them a high-risk endeavor,¡± says Tadashi Sudo, founder of industry news site animationbusiness.info and artistic director for the Aichi Nagoya International Animation Film Festival. ¡°While remastering in 4K has certain costs, it is far less expensive than producing new titles, and older films have a built-in fanbase, so they present a lower risk from a business perspective.¡±
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