Category: Festival News

  • Free Animation Workshops

    Free Animation Workshops

    Anime Education Workshop

    Photo of Ryota Fufitsu - Workshop discussing Spirited Away

    Anime critic Ryota Fujitsu hosts a discussion about Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning film ‘Spirited Away’, with live translation by Kaori Onoda. Please make sure you have watched ‘Spirited Away’ before attending this event.

    Online via Microsoft Teams
    9 April 2022
    11am – 12:30pm
    Suitable Age: 13+

    Email us at info@kotatsufestival.com or you can also register your booking via the Eventbrite website.

    5-Day Animation Workshop

    Facilitated by Cardiff Met School of Art and Design

    Please attend all 5 days to get the most out of this animation workshop. Note: Lunch not provided

    Cardiff Central Library
    25-29 April 2022
    10am – 4pm
    Suitable Age: 8+

    Email us at info@kotatsufestival.com or you can also register your booking via the Eventbrite website.

    Bookings

    Please contact us at info@kotatsufestival.com, or register via the Eventbrite links above.

  • Cardiff Animation Festival – April Collaboration

    Cardiff Animation Festival – April Collaboration

    We are so thrilled to announce, in collaboration with Cardiff Animation Festival, that we will screen two Anime films at Chapter in April. The first is Ongaku which won last year’s Kotatsu Festival Audience Award 2021. Then on Sunday, April 10, we will screen Summer Ghost, only released in Japan in November 2021, and directed by Loundraw.  This is his directorial debut. Previously he was in charge of concept design for Josse, The Tiger and the Fish and undertook the illustration for I Want to Eat Your Pancreas.

    Both films will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with the director.

    Ongaku

    Ongaku Tickets

    Fri 8 Apr 11:30AM

    Sat 9 Apr 11:00AM

    Summer Ghost

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqgZf5493k
    Summer Ghost Tickets

    Sun 10 Apr 5:15PM

    Cardiff Animation Festival screens excellent, diverse programmes, so please check out their line up!

  • Koji Yamamura: In The Studio Where Japan’s Leading Animation is Born

    Koji Yamamura: In The Studio Where Japan’s Leading Animation is Born

    Koji Yamamura: In the studio where Japan’s leading animation is born.

    Kotatsu Festival teams up with our partner The Japan Foundation (London) again this year, to offer the opportunity to virtually meet Koji Yamamura, leading creator of Japanese animation such as the Oscar-nominated Mt.Head (2002) and a regular contributor to the UK animation scene, including the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival. Koji returns this year to discuss his stellar career spanning over three decades.

    In conversation with film critic, film-maker, and visual artist, Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, this online event will be an unmissable opportunity for animation-lovers and aspiring makers of animated work to gain a first-hand practical insight into the workings of a successful animation studio.

    Tickets are free but booking is required.

    To attend the event you will be required to use Zoom, so please download and install the Zoom client prior to the date of the event. Once your registration is accepted, we will send you an access code on the day of the event.

    Saturday 15th October from 13:00 (BST)

    Booking Available Here

    Suitable for all ages

  • WOW Festival Collaboration

    WOW Festival Collaboration

    Celebrate International Women’s Day

    Nekoze Kansatsuki – Hikari Yamashita

    To celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, WOW Women’s Film Club invited our festival director Eiko Meredith to hand-pick a selection of animated shorts crafted by up-and-coming female animators working in Japan, and to organise an online Creative Workshop by Japanese animator and illustrator Chie Arai.

    The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Choose To Challenge‘, so the Kotatsu Festival team have brought together a number of works by up-and-coming female film-makers, all of which are family-friendly and are rated U or PG.

    Date: 13th March 2021
    Watch online for FREE using the WOW Film Festival platform via:

    WOW 2021 on Eventive

    More details in the full article below.

    (more…)
  • Kotatsu Festival Launch 2017 Programme

    Kotatsu Festival Launch 2017 Programme

    The Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival starts on September 29th at Chapter Arts in Cardiff with the opening ceremony where festival director Eiko Meredith will introduce Wales to a selection of some of the best animated films to come from Japan over the course of the last year.

    (more…)
  • Kotatsu Festival 2017

    Kotatsu Festival 2017

    We are happy to announce the dates for Kotatsu 2017! The Cardiff event will be held from 29th September to 1st October at Chapter. The date for Aberystwyth will be announced soon.

    (more…)
  • Kotatsu Festival 2016

    Kotatsu Festival 2016

    We are happy to announce the dates for Kotatsu 2016! The events will be held on 24th  and 25th September at Chapter and 29th October at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

    The festival will be screening lots of Welsh Premiere films. Also our market place will be open to the public for 2 days, with our favourite stalls offering a taste of Japan including manga, toys and authentic food Bento box.

    Please note the marketplace will be held only at Chapter.

    Festival Raffle will be held again at the end of the event with lots of exciting prizes on offer. From this year raffle will be taken place at both venues. Tickets will be made available nearer the festival.

    We hope everyone will come and enjoy the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival 2016.

  • Welsh Premiere Screenings of Short Peace, A Letter to Momo and Tiger & Bunny: The Rising

    Welsh Premiere Screenings of Short Peace, A Letter to Momo and Tiger & Bunny: The Rising

    The Kotatsu Japanese Animation Film Festival will be held on 26th September at the Chapter in Cardiff, and on 10th October at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Again this year the Festival will screen a number of impressive films including Short Peace, A Letter to Momo, Tiger & Bunny: The Rising, Perfect Blue and Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise. Here are some details about the films we will screen at the event.

    Short Peace

    Short Peace is a compilation film featuring four anime shorts directed and written by four people including Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of cyberpunk classic Akira and Shuhei Morita, director of the TV anime Tokyo Ghoul. Tsukumo, under the title Possessions, and was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014.

    Synopsis

    The central theme of this film is Japan and there are four stories about Japan at different points in the nation’s history:

    Possessions, Shuhei Morita’s award-winning tale of a lone traveller deep in the mountains who disturbs spirits in an abandoned shrine.

    Combustible is a story of love, honour and firefighting in Edo directed by Katsuhiro Otomo.

    Gambo directed by Hiroaki Ando is about a legendary battle takes place between a mysterious white bear defending the royal family from a monstrous red demon.

    A Farewell to Weapons shows a group of soldiers battle robotic tanks in an apocalyptic Tokyo.

    A Letter To Momo

    Seven years in the making, this is the latest award-winning film from Hiroyuki Okiura and Production I.G a partnership that brought the world the critically acclaimed sci-fi epic Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.

    “A Letter to Momo”

    Synopsis

    Following the death of her father, a young girl comes into contact with three yokai (goblins) who help her overcome the sadness of her loss.

    Tiger & Bunny: The Rising

    “Tiger & Bunny the Rising”

    See what happens right after the events of the successful TV anime Tiger and Bunny in a new and exciting adventure. People new to the series need know nothing about what has happened previously.

    Synopsis

    Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr have their partnership severed by the new owner of Apollon media. Barnaby must work with his newly assigned partner Golden Ryan but the threat facing Sternbild City is so serious that Wild Tiger will be called upon to help.

    Perfect Blue

    “Perfect Blue”

    Watch the debut film of Satoshi Kon, a man who would push the boundaries of anime with ark psychological stories such as Millennium Actress (2001), Paranoia Agent (2004) and Paprika (2006).

    Synopsis

    A former pop-idol turned actress finds her sense of reality falling apart when a stalker enters her life and the ghost of her former career haunts her.

    Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise

    “Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise”

    The Wings of Honneamise was the first commercial project created by legendary anime studio Gainax that has become what many anime fans regard as a classic.

    Synopsis

    Aimless astronaut candidate Shirotsugh Lhadatt finds himself inspired to reach for the stars after a chance meeting with a young woman but with his nation on the verge of war he finds himself in a race against time to leave the earth.

    More details coming soon, so please keep checking our blog and Facebook, and Twitter.

    For ticket and booking, please contact Chapter Box office and Aberystwyth Arts Centre Box office.

    Chapter

    Tel: +44(0)29 2030 4400

    Aberystwyth Arts Centre

    Tel: +44(0)1970 62 32 32

  • Kotatsu Festival 2015

    Kotatsu Festival 2015

    We are happy to announce the dates for Kotatsu 2015! The events will be held on 26th September at Chapter and 10th October at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

    The festival will be screening lots of Welsh Premiere films. Also our market place will be open to the public with our favourite stalls offering a taste of Japan including manga, toys and authentic food Bento box.

    Festival raffle will be held again at the end of the event with lots of exciting prizes on offer. Raffle tickets will be made available nearer the festival.

    Please note the marketplace and raffle will be held only at Chapter.

    We hope everyone will come and enjoy the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival 2015.

  • Special message from Yasuhiro Yoshiura

    Special message from Yasuhiro Yoshiura

    Photo of Yasuhiro Yoshiura

    We have a special message from Yasuhiro Yoshiura, the director of “Patema Inverted“. “Patema Inverted (Sakasama no Patema)” appeals to people globally, whatever their language and culture, whether they are devout fans of animation or not.

    I very much hope that everyone who visits Kotatsu Japanese Animation Film Festival 2014 thoroughly enjoys the first Welsh showing of this film.

    今作『サカサマのパテマ』は、国を問わず、そしてアニメファンであるか否かを問わず、より多くの方々に楽しんで頂けるようなアニメーションを目指して制作されました。こたつ日本アニメーション映画祭にご来場の皆様、どうか本作をめいっぱい楽しんで下さい！

    吉浦康裕　Yasuhiro Yoshiura

    Message translated by Midori Matsui

    We are very much looking forward to a screening of “Patema Inverted“.