Here at Scotland Loves Animation – we love any opportunity to bring you something cool and we’re very pleased to announce that Anime Limited is sponsoring a visit from Shinichiro Watanabe, creator of Cowboy Bebop to Edinburgh as part of his visit to the UK!

As we know it’s months off the next Scotland Loves Anime, we’ve put together a special close-knit screening event as a result with two different tickets available!  See below for details or click here for the sales link on Eventbrite!

WHERE & WHEN?

Tuesday, May 28th at the Scotsman Screening Room (inside the Scotsman Hotel and just out from Waverley station).

The address is: Scotsman Hotel, 20 North Bridge  Edinburgh EH1 1TR

WHAT’S GOING ON?

With Shinichiro Watanabe in the UK for London MCM Expo - with both the event’s blessing and Anime Limited’s sponsorship, we are pleased to be able to bring him to Edinburgh for one night only!   We have a pretty cool schedule planned:

19:00 - Doors open

19:10 - Introduction from Shinichiro Watanabe

19:15 - Screening of two of from Cowboy Bebop - picked by the director himself!

20:05 - Q+A session

20:40 - Signing session, 1 item per person.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST AND WHAT DO I GET?

£5.99: Entry to the event plus an exclusive A4 print – only available at this screening.  We’ll detail more on this very soon as we’re waiting on final approval from the licensor still!  These go on sale on Tuesday the 7th of May.

£19.99: Entry to the event + 2 x A4 prints AND a copy of Cowboy Bebop Collector’s Blu-Ray – Part 1 when it’s released at the end of July courtesy of Anime Limited and on sale now!

SALES LINK FOR TICKETS: http://bebop.eventbrite.com

MANY THANKS TO OUR MAIN SPONSOR FOR THIS EVENT!   

Anime Limited - www.alltheanime.com

OCTOBER 22ND, Glasgow, Scotland Loves Animation is proud to announce that the winner of the 2012 Judges Award at Scotland Loves Anime is Berserk – Egg of the King, directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka.

Berserk - Egg of the King beat off competition from Blood-C The Last Dark, Afterschool Midgnighters and Nerawareta Gakuen.

Judges in 2012 included:

Garry Marshall (Red Kite Animation, Super Umami)
Julia McLean (Chair, Scottish Animation Network)
Simon Hart (Festival Director, Puppet Animation Scotland)
Andrew Osmond (Freelance writer, critic)

Chaired by Jonathan Clements.

About Berserk

Set in a foreboding, medieval European-insired world, where a hundred year war rages on. Lone mercenary Guts travels the land, cutting down his opponents with unrivalled swordsmanship. His ferocity and strength attracts the attention of Griffith, leader of the mercenary group “The Band of the Hawk,” and Guts is recruited to the unit. Thanks to their continued victories on the battlefield, the bond between Guts and Griffith deepens – but despite all their success, Guts begins to question his reasons for fighting for Griffith’s dream. Unknown to Guts,this unyielding dream is about to bestow a horrible fate on them both.

It will be released on home video by KAZE via Manga UK on December 24th on DVD, Blu-Ray and Collectors Editions.

Scotland Loves Anime is pleased to announce the attendance of the Berserk – Golden Age Arc trilogy’s Chief Animation Director and Character Designer, Naoyuki Onda as well as the producer Fuko Noda from Studio 4C.

ABOUT NAOYUKI ONDA:

A character designer and animation director with a long and illustrious career, having designed characters for Ai no Kusabi, Batman: Gotham Knight, Ergo Proxy, Gantz, Resident Evil: Degeneration as well as the design for Shin Kamiya in Tekken Blood Vengeance.

His roles in animation have seen him involved as an assistant animation director in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and animation director/chief animation director in a multitude of works including Ah! My Goddess: The Movie, Ai no Kusabi, Demon City Shinjuku, Ergo Proxy, Gantz, Texhnolyze, Witch Hunter Robin and Wolf’s Rain.

He will be attending Scotland Loves Anime as both character designer and Chief Animation Director for the Berserk movie trilogy.

ABOUT FUKO NODA:

One of the producers for the Berserk Golden Age Arc trilogy and will be on hand to tell you more about the project along with Mr Onda at both films.

EVENTS:

They will be attending both screenings of Berserk and hosting a questions and answer session after each one – we will confirm nearer the time about a signing session or any other events too so watch this space!

TICKETS:

We’ve had a slight glitch in the system – but these will go live today via the Filmhouse site for booking – we’ll add a link here as soon as they go live!

Look forward to seeing you there!

It really feels like only a few days ago I was making a bet with Jonathan Clements before the screening of Colorful about the future.  What feels even stranger is to think that this is the third edition of the festival too and it never ceases to amaze me how much things have changed.

We have a new website, an even bigger programme than ever not to mention a print guide in the works which will hit the printers today all going well.  Thankfully not everything is change – we still have the same drive as ever to bringing you the best new and classic anime content out there , the same fantastic venue partners and the same ability to spend hours finding cute pictures of animals on the internet.

What do we have up our sleeves for 2012?  Well first off the bat we’re aiming to keep folks updated a lot more and this blog will be one way we plan to do so. Expect a weekly update until the festival kicks off – then who knows what will happen…?

So while we get the finishing touches sorted – take a look at the film line-up for 2012 for Edinburgh or Glasgow and we’ll be officially announcing our fantastic launch event in September as well as the guests for both weekends shortly!

Image is © AFTER SCHOOL MIDNIGHTERS PARTNERSHIP

(Incidentally, I won the bet with Jonathan and so dodged dressing up in a costume for the launch of Scotland Loves Anime 2012…)