 In
1998, president Masao Maruyama of the Madhouse animation studio brought
two series to Anime Expo, Trigun and Card Captor Sakura. those series turned
out to be television and home video successes in North America. In 2001,
Maruyama brought more series to show to Otakon fans; samples of the new
Vampire Hunter D film, the Metropolis animated movie made from the designs
of Osamu Tezuka, and the animated introduction for Party Seven, a live-action
film. While Vampire Hunter and Metropolis are dark melodramas, the Party
Seven film was an energetic short that was made in the spirit of Trigun.
This writer was left wishing there was more to the Party Seven animation
than the five minutes shown at the Otakon panel. |
 Maruyama
told fans at his Otakon panel discussion that Japanese viewers and North
American viewers enjoy the same spirit of entertainment. "With each title
it varies," he said. "With Vampire Hunter D, it's a lot of hard action
and pure romance. With Card Captor Sakura and works with cute characters,
it's stories about friendship. Madhouse believes that anime should be created
for fun, even with Vampire Hunter D. So we select a director who can handle
a particular style and organize a staff around him." And part of the similarity
between Asian and American fans is the number who show their enjoyment
of a show through costuming as that show's characters. "I'm very pleased.
Outside I saw many cute Sakuras and many Vash the Stampedes, even more
cool then the anime version." |
 What's
next from Madhouse? Maruyama said the director of Perfect Blue is making
a film to be titled Millennium Actress; some DiGi Charat episodes may come
to the U.S.; Madhouse is working with Clamp on another new work; and an
X short OVA will be released in August, to be followed by a TV series in
October. "The original OVA is complete and I was going to bring a sample,
but I forgot," he admitted. Will there be more Trigun? "It's a difficult
question...we're planning on making a new Trigun work but there are many
issues to resolve. "Gundrive will be the name of the new work." |
