… only people liked the Dodo.

On topic - yes it is and can be found here: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/awards

It only goes back a certain way and I have combed it for what was entered up until 2008 (2009 ones will pop up later no doubt) for everyone so they don’t have to trawl for the relevant ones to fans/industry in the animation + relevant live action. Obviously anyone wondering if GitS or Akira got this has to keep in mind at the time they launched the lottery was in its infancy in the UK. This meant that by 2000 when funding was accrued and the UK Film Council was founded - it was too late for those films to receive support.

It’s really suspicious of me to comment on Zatoichi, because I was into the original TV series which actually aired back home. The series was famous for popularizing the blind swordsman concept, which is taken for granted now.

Every element of the original series was there, the sad back story of a few character, revenge, yakuzas ruling over simple people. The only changes was the revelation about Zatoichi in the end of the movie and the tap dancing + taiko in the credits, which was simply amazing.

I also like Takeshi’s yakuza movies, with a mention to Brother.

But I digress.

The idea of this funding is great and I hope it’s used to bring more good movies to the UK. Is the list of movies fully accessible to the public?

I’ve clarified in the main post my point regarding that was it just wasn’t that good a film in the opinion of a few people I was discussing the whole thing with. That being said - there is a question over if those films would have been as successful otherwise. For example the PA fund is actually for publicity full stop, it allows for the hiring of real publicity agents to push a film to its maximum potential. So even if a big-name studio like Universal has the rights to a film - if they can’t guarantee breaking even with the film then they will just throw it out as a standard DVD release and it would only reach fans of Eastern cinema to begin with.

So arguably these films actually did benefit just the same as anime did from them. Cinema releases nowadays for niche cinema that do not include exploding starships, stomping robots, brides battling for the one wedding cake left in a shop (or a mix of all three) etc made in Hollywood are very difficult now.

Hope this clarifies the comment - in general too I figured these numbers would be useful for fans too as it gives you an idea how much was added to whatever budgets the films had and helped give titles like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle such a successful time in the UK. So glad you liked it :).

Also, I don’t get your comment about Zatoichi. Movies like Curse of the Golden Flower, Lust Caution & House of Flying Daggers would have done well despite the help of the fund.

Couldn’t agree more on the idea of cons working together and breaking the wall of old vs new down. I think events like Fuyu, Auchinawa and Kitacon may do a good job of working towards that goal too - the rest is as said above to be honest and is far more healthy if it happens than trying to reinvent a wheel that is already there as well as working!

Good to know you knew about CLAMP too - I knew there’d be a portion of fans who knew - sadly a majority don’t and are majorly blinkered to any non-English 1st language cons…

PS It’s a crying shame you guys are on the same weekend as October Expo as well! I’ll have to try and sort something out WRT!

Keiichi:

Re: Defeating “The Crunch” - I suspect it should involve spending a lot of money on the industry to keep it afloat. Not that it’s what the whole thing is about though so it doesn’t help a bit…

Rob:

That is what sent warning flags up in my head too really - though I think that is at least suggested by highlighting how the goals are cobbled together akin to clutching at straws desperately trying to find reasons to set the whole thing up too…

Couldn’t agree anymore about how any kind of work in this area should be too - which is one criteria that the whole “Alliance” fails to really seem to grasp…maybe we can replace the corrupt MPs in Westminster with them? Then we can see how expenses claims go…:P.

Karen:

This sounds pretty on-par with what I have heard regarding the logo choice across the board really - which is pretty unfortunate as there were some obvious choices both UK-related and those related solely to Japan as you say. In fact giving leeway for it being a well-intentioned suggestion on grounds of easy copyright etc, it’s still a terrible marketing idea to stick to a mascot after having it rejected by any potential groups you’d like to join within your own community.

So much more I could say about that really. Do feel free if at London Expo or Ayacon to swing by and have a chat about it as I’ll save space here for now!

the mascot they are using is the FLAGSHIP character from Dimensional Entertainment. This is obviously completely idiotic in an organisation that claims to be impartial, as it would force members to provide free advertising for Dimensional, but in simple practical terms it is a bad idea for the following reasons.

1) It’s a panda. Like, from CHINA. Not from Japan. Even if it was an original character devised for the alliance and not a seedy attempt at marketing, it’s a PANDA. I can come up with half a dozen stereotypically Japanese/manga-ish mascots just off the top of my head; a 9 tailed fox, a tanuki, that crazy monster that looks like a one legged umbrella, a giant robot, some sushi with a face, a salaryman. There you are, 6 characters which say “Japan” to people more than a panda. The panda on the logo is also utterly generic.

2) no one has heard of “Pwandas” past the poor souls who are jumped at expos and hand stamped. It is not popular, it is not a household name. And if it was that would be a reason NOT to use it, because people would confuse your impartial, charitable organisation that just wants to help fandom with a commercial producer of manga.

3) Dimensional Manga’s comic books are bad. Very bad. The art is OK (mostly) but the writing is mind bogglingly poor, even the blurbs on the back of the book are barely coherent, and what’s inside is worse. When a preview appeared in Neo, a forum thread cropped up where the overwhelming opinion was that Neo should stop doing previews ALTOGETHER if that was what they would be like. Even if the people behind the alliance like the books themselves, they have seen the general opinion, and that opinion is not good. If that happens, you just have to suck it up and accept that using a mascot from those books will not improve the standing of your organisation.