Masaaki Yuasa

The Yamadas are a typical middle class Japanese family in urban Tokyo and this film shows us a variety of episodes of their lives. With tales that range from the humorous to the heartbreaking, we see this family cope with life's little conflicts, problems, and joys in their own way.

Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in love.

A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and inseparable friends as their larger-than-life concerts propel them to stardom in 14th century Japan.

As a group of university students go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as "The Girl with Black Hair" experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife – all the while unaware of the romantic longings of "Senpai", a senior student who has been creating increasingly fantastic and contrived reasons to run into her in an effort to win her heart.

The Noharas go on an Action Mask-themed cruise, where all the grown-ups get kidnapped by a gang of monkeys. It's up to the kids to rescue them!

Nishi is a loser who has a crush on his childhood girlfriend. After an encounter with the Japanese mafia, he journeys to heaven and back, and ends up trapped in an even more unlikely place.

Everyone's favorite TV superhero Action Mask shows up in Kasukabe, and he's trying to get something from Shin-chan -- but what could it be?

There's only one way to stop a filthy evil scientist from destroying the world, and it's with a powerful hot spring located under Shin-chan's house!

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

A diabolical plot to empower pushover dads causes Shin-chan's father to return home as a robot. The Nohara family bond is about to be put to the test!

The Noharas get caught between two rival clans when Himawari swallows a pretty bead that turns out to be a mysterious ball with hidden powers.

In a small fishing village, a gloomy middle school student named Kai meets a mermaid named Lu.

The Futaba Kindergarten kids are so excited for their trip to the Henderland amusement park, but Shin-chan soon learns there are evil forces at play!

A time traveler claims that bad guys are trying to change the past! Shin-chan is on the case, going back in time to defeat the evil Lord Unkokusai.

Nobita and his friends get transported to an animal planet after a mysterious pink fog appears inside his house. They work together with the natives to find the origin of the fog.

It all begins when a secret agent hiding in the ship where dinner Futaba school students. The Pig Hoof follow and take the boat with her, Shin Chan and his friends on board. From there, Shin Chan, Masao, Nene, Kazama and Boo Chan van with Agent everywhere as their hostages.

Five children save the life of a dog-like alien while at a self-run summer camp. He attempts to reward them by taking them to an alien colony on the Moon. Events take a turn for the worse when his report on that attack that injured him causes passage from the Moon to the Earth to be banned, and children are stranded in space. The children need to find a way back home before camp ends and their parents discover that they are missing. They also have to avoid the poachers that injured their alien friend, and now seem to be stalking them all.

The surreal black comedy follows Nyatta, an anthropomorphic kitten, on his travel to the land of the dead and back in an effort to save his sister's soul.

Momoko's teacher asks the third grade to draw a picture based on their favorite song, to enter in a contest. She picks a song she's recently become fond of during music class, and is anxious to make a good drawing based on it. On her way to meet relatives in Shizuoka, Momoko meets Shoko Kimura, a university student who occasionally draws portraits and plans to participate in an art contest. Momoko and Shoko become close friends, and end up inspiring each other both in their own ways.

Chibi Maruko chan is the nickname of a sweetly obnoxious 9-year-old girl. She tricks her grandfather, ponders for hours over how to spend her allowance, and hates sitting next to ugly boys. She talks, feels and lives just as real kids do. As the second term commences, Maruko and her classmates return to their small groups. Maruko’s group includes two naughty boys and Maruko is forced to be one of their subordinates. She seems to face a lot of pressure at school.

A love story between two people that each have a secret to hide. One a pro-wrestler, the other a Nun. Losing never felt so good.

It is August 12th. After the remote control to his boarding house's only air conditioning unit is inadvertently destroyed by spilled cola, "I" devises a plan to return to yesterday in a time machine to recover the remote before it breaks. However, his prankster friend Ozu cannot resist playing with past events, even if it means bringing the universe to the brink of destruction. Now "I" finds himself racing through time to avoid disaster.

When a rogue science experiment starts filling the world with crystallized Noise, a group of rebels strike back to reunite the world with its Music.

The Mutou family leads a peaceful life: Kouichirou works at a construction site and his wife Mari is returning from an overseas trip. Their daughter Ayumu has just finished her track practice while their son Gou is playing video games at home. However, life as they know it is flipped upside down when a calamitous earthquake strikes the entire Japanese archipelago—obliterating the face of the country in an instant. With society crumbling around them and their nation gradually sinking into the ocean, the Mutou family must band together to survive the catastrophe. Treading the near-apocalyptic setting, they struggle not only to stay alive, but also to learn the difficulty of coping with loss.

Young Finn and his shape-shifting dog buddy, Jake, go on a series of surreal adventures as they journey through the postapocalyptic Land of Ooo.

Akira Fudo learns from his best friend Ryo Asuka that demons will revive and reclaim the world from humans. With humans hopeless against this threat, Ryo suggests combining with a demon. With this, Akira becomes Devilman, a being with the power of demon but with a human heart.

First-year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that "concept is everything" in animation. While she spends her time doodling endless ideas and settings in her sketchbook, she hasn't taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she can't do it alone. After Asakusa's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori notices her genius and drive – and when it becomes clear that their classmate and charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki wants to be an animator – the energetic trio start an animation club. Together, the three aim to realize the "ultimate world" that exists in their minds, as they come to see the power that fiction and imagination have on their lives and the world around them.

Space Dandy is a dandy in space! This dreamy adventurer with a to-die-for pompadour travels across the galaxy in search of aliens no one has ever laid eyes on. Each new species he discovers earns him a hefty reward, but this dandy has to be quick on his feet because it’s first come – first served! Accompanied by his sidekicks, a rundown robot named QT and Meow the cat-looking space alien, Dandy bravely explores unknown worlds inhabited by a variety aliens. Join the best dressed alien hunter in all of space and time as he embarks on an adventure that ends at the edge of the universe!

During the war-torn feudal wars of Japan, the Awa clan faced certain extinction from a rival clan backed by demonic forces. However, a careless promise by their lord leads to both salvation and disgrace when their family dog brings back the head of the enemy warlord and insists upon marrying the lord's daughter! Their unnatural union bears fruit, but when they are both killed, the eight unborn pups are reincarnated as the eight Dog Warriors - the Hakkenden. Slowly they find each other and come together as a group. These eight warriors, who represent the eight separate aspects of the Bushido, engage in bloody battles with demonic entitles and evil samurai in the final attempt to redeem their clan!

The adventures of Iyami, a con artist who's always looking for a quick buck, and Chibita, his short-statured kid partner-in-crime, as they make trouble for their town and constantly cause friction with the Matsuno sextuplets, a clan of rowdy identical 10-year-old brothers led by the eldest, Osomatsu.

The Nohara family dog Shiro becomes a superhero and protects the legendary bone "Bobobobobone" from the evil inventor dog Dekapoo and his ambitions of world domination.

Makoto 'Smile' Tsukimoto and his friend Yutaka 'Peco' Hoshino have been playing table tennis together since they were kids, but as they enter high school, they find that the game, and how they see it, has changed. Peco, brimming with confidence and energy, wants to be the best in the world, but the reserved Smile has little fighting spirit and doesn't want to sacrifice others' happiness just to win, despite his innate talent. As the two grow, and experience the ups and downs of the sport – and life – they try to figure out exactly who they really are and what drives them to play.

It is August 12th. After the remote control to his boarding house's only air conditioning unit is inadvertently destroyed by spilled cola, "I" devises a plan to return to yesterday in a time machine to recover the remote before it breaks. However, his prankster friend Ozu cannot resist playing with past events, even if it means bringing the universe to the brink of destruction. Now "I" finds himself racing through time to avoid disaster.

Aika Sumeragi works as a salvager for hire, but gets caught up in a plot for world domination.

The story begins when Berry, an average girl from an average home, meets Hack, a girl who looks like a boy. Charmed by Hack, Berry meets up with the team Hack leads, the Ghost Detectives Club. Members of this club are “socially dead,” working invisibly within the digitally controlled society of Tom Sawyer. As she works with the group, Berry learns about Zero, a mysterious figure who lurks within Tom Sawyer’s underground. She and Hack decide to chase down this figure, and in time, the truth behind the city is revealed...

When a college dropout stops for a late night bite at a mysterious ramen stand, he crosses paths with a self-proclaimed deity of matrimony. This bizarre meeting sends the young man hurtling through a horrifying flashback to his not-so-glorious college days when the influence of a cruel new friend turned him from a hopeless romantic into a mischievous “black cupid.”

Six months ago, Lord Hugh Disward (Huey), lost his eccentric grandfather, Wes. To inherit Wes's estate, Huey must take guardianship over the 'Mystic Archives of Dantalian' that contains forbidden knowledge and a mysterious girl called Dalian. Dalian and Huey begin an unlikely partnership as they solve mysteries caused by Phantom Books.

Creatures known as Shokujinki have been secretly living alongside humans for hundreds of years. Though they may look like humans, Shokujinki are able to transform into uncontrollable beasts with gigantic claws and consume humans to survive. The equally secretive Kifuuken dojo specializes in killing Shokujinki by cutting off their arms, and is the only force preventing unchecked Shokujinki domination. Toshihiko Momota, the son of the leader of the Kifuuken, is instantly charmed by a mysterious woman named Yuka Kamitsuki. Their relationship is complicated, however, because unbeknownst to them both, Yuka is a Shokujinki and Toshihiko is sworn to kill her. Meanwhile, the Kifuuken is having a crisis of confidence as Toshihiko's brother Kazuma pushes against tradition and tries to modernize the Kifuuken. As emotions are strained and the secrets of both the past and present are revealed, who will live, and who will be eaten?

In a world where memories can be stored like computer data, a young man named Kaiba searches for his lost memories and discovers a connection with a mysterious girl.

The spinoff is set in a parallel world known as Shin Jigen (Shin Dimension). The titular Shin-men team is composed of five heroes with supernatural powers symbolized by fire (Gou), water (Sui), wind (Hyuu), greenery (Nyoki), and iron (Kan). Together, they fight against their enemy, the evil pigs of Ton-Men.

After catastrophic earthquakes devastate Japan, one family's resolve is tested on a journey of survival through the sinking archipelago.

During Kazuya Maeda's first year of high school he felt like a nobody, just another forgotten face shuffling through the crowded hallways. Even his best friend from childhood, Nimi, seemed somehow more difficult to approach, since she had matured a little quicker in the unsettling way that girls have a habit of doing. However, this year, things will be different for Kazuya, and part of that change may just be because of the big new chick magnet hanging in front of him: The used digital SLR he just received from his dad! But will just having a camera be enough to make talking to girls a snap? Well, if he stays focused and proves to be good enough at making them look good, it might just be! And since it's digital, there are no negatives or having to wait for things to develop! Will Kazyuya's new stock-in-trade click with the most beautiful girls in school, or will his career as a lensman be just a flash in the pan?

High-school student Yota Moteuchi is so unpopular that his classmates have given him the nickname "Dateless." So it's no surprise when the love of his life, Moemi, is not interested in Yota but instead is in love with Yota's best friend, Takashi. Yota turns to a video rental shop for comfort, but little did he suspect that the shop was magical and that the cute girl on his rented tape would pop out of the television and try to fix his ruined love life!

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

Five stories, five maestros, five styles and one common denominator: maximum creativity. Studio 4°C, the coolest label on the planet, invites us for the second time to an exclusive reunion of a talents with a group film, full of freedom and ingenuity, that goes from Mahiro Maeda’s classic anime, to Kazuto Nakazawa’s intricate urban sketches, Shinya Ohira’s bedlam of color and Tatsuyuki Tanaka’s animated cyberpunk. And as if that wasn’t enough, Koji Morimoto, the studio big boss, is charge of putting the icing on the cake with fantafabulous piece of abstract poetry that would make a VJ die of ecstasy. The party of the year.