| The Japanese animation production studio Madhouse made a big splash
at the 1998 Anime Expo with their presentation of the "Alexander" series.
Madhouse returned to Anime Expo in 1999 with (left to right) animators
Morosawa, Hisashi Abe and Hiroshi Hamasaki. |
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| The latest product from Madhouse has a title that sounds mad in English,
"Pet Shop of Horrors." It's a cross between the old Twilight Zone TV series,
the Little Shop of Horrors comedy-drama films and an O. Henry story. People
in emotional turmoil go to the pet shop and purchase pets that satisfy
their needs...in unusual ways. |
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| There's a connection of sorts between that Madhouse show and Anime
Expo. Hamasaki noted that the pet shop is set not in Japan, but in the
Chinatown section of Los Angeles. However, none of the people who worked
on the show had ever been to L.A. before their trip to Anime Expo, Hamasaki
said. |
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| Pets can cure grief in real life, and the same thing happens in the
anime, but the stories are a little more intense. Abe spoke about one story
where a husband and wife lose a daughter and go to the pet shop looking
for an animal to give them some solace. Instead they find another daughter
of sorts, named "Usagi" or rabbit (familiar to Sailor Moon fans, but in
a while different context in this case). |
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| Madhouse has created an amazing variety of anime, from the future retro
comedy Western Trigun to the ultra-cute Card Captor Sakura. "We don't have
a policy that we do a certain theme, Morasawa said. "It's based on whether
we like it or not." Added Abe, "We believe the quality [of our productions]
stays high and we try to keep that standard." |
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