April 15th is National Anime Day, when we celebrate the unique Japanese animation style of TV and film! If you’re seeking new anime content to watch or want to revisit old favorites, plan your National Anime Day viewing by checking out our anime offerings on Kanopy, where you can stream for free with your library card. Remember to check out Kanopy’s full anime collection, too. Curated by Samantha Matherne.
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Movies
Tatsumi
(TV-MA)
TATSUMI celebrates the life and work of Japanese artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi—a manga pioneer who elevated the genre to a new level of creative expression and adult realism. A comics-crazed teenager, Tatsumi began to get published and was able to support his poor family in postwar occupied Japan. He finds even greater inspiration after meeting his idol, the famous Disney-esque animator Osamu Tezuka. But despite his success, Tatsumi became dissatisfied with making whimsical children’s comics.
In the late 1950s, Tatsumi coined the term gekiga (dramatic pictures) and redefined the manga landscape with an alternative genre for adults. A tribute to an artist who made comics cinematic, filmmaker Eric Khoo’s (Be With Me) inventive animated drama brings Tatsumi’s memoir A Drifting Life and five of his classic stories to life.
Mizore Yoroizuka and Nozomi Kasaki are a pair of best friends in their final year of high school. They’re both obsessed with the school’s brass band club. With Mizore on the oboe and Nozomi on the flute, they spend their days in happiness, until the club begins to practice songs inspired by the fairy tale Liz und ein Blauer Vogel – “LIZ AND THE BLUE BIRD”. Immersed in this story, Mizore and Nozomi begin to realize that there may be no such thing as being together forever.
One day, Koichi Uehara, a fourth grader living in the suburbs of Tokyo, picks up a fossil that looks like a large stone while on his way home from school. To his surprise, he has picked up a baby Kappa (a Japanese mythical water creature), who has been asleep underground for the past 300 years. Koichi names this baby creature “Coo” and brings him to live with his family, and soon the two are inseparable friends. However, trouble abounds as Coo struggles to adjust to life in suburban Tokyo, and begins to miss his family, leading Koichi and Coo to embark on a summer road trip adventure in search of other Kappa.
From Production I.G, the studio behind Ghost in the Shell and Miss Hokusai, and director Mizuho Nishikubo comes the award-winning historical drama, GIOVANNI’S ISLAND.
Junpei and Kanta live in Shikotan, a rural fishing village that has been isolated from turmoil during World War II. The brothers are named after Giovanni and Campanella from their father’s favorite book, Night on the Galactic Railroad, which becomes a source of solace in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat. When Soviet forces arrive with their families to settle in the local town, Junpei meets Tanya, the daughter of the commander. Despite their language barrier and growing tension, the children soon form an unlikely friendship.
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms
(TV-14)
In the land of Iolph, all the people stop aging in their mid-teens and can live for hundreds of years. One resident, Maquia, feels lonely despite the peaceful and idyllic land she lives in. But one day, the Mesarte army invades Iolph, seeking the people’s blood for their immortality. Maquia manages to escape the destruction and chaos of war, but with no home or people, she becomes a wanderer in a dark forest. She comes across Erial, an infant mortal boy who has lost his parents, and becomes his guardian. The story follows the relationship that evolves between the two as Erial grows up while Maquia does not.
TV Shows
Beyond the Boundary
(TV-14)
Unknown to humans, an invisible battle is waged between supernatural beings known as youmu, and mystical fighters known as Spirit World Warriors. Half-youmu, half-human Akihito Kanbara belongs to both worlds and yet neither, and goes through the motions of a normal daily life by attending high school. But when Akihito encounters a mysterious girl from a cursed clan, the bespectacled beauty will change his life forever.
Kids on the Slope
(TV-14)
In the summer of 1966 high school freshman Kaoru struggles to adjust to the latest move. It’s not easy fitting in, but this time is different. This time he makes friends and discovers a passion that rocks his soul. It’s called jazz, and with bad boy Sentaro and music store girl Ritsuko, they follow their muse wherever their music takes them! Travel to a time when dreams and musical instruments changed the world! Be blown away by a tale of life, love and all that jazz in The Kids on the Slope!
Reincarnated as a Sword
(TV-14)
Some isekai protagonists are reincarnated as powerful warriors or skilled wizards, but our protagonist was reborn as a sentient sword! He’s taken up by Fran, a desperate girl fleeing evil-doers intent on selling her into slavery. With her new weapon’s help and guidance, she’s able to strike down her captors and secure her freedom. Together, the unconventional master-student duo embarks on an epic journey to liberate those in need and exact justice on the cruel of heart.
Vinland Saga
(TV-MA)
Young Thorfinn dreams of leaving behind the cold climate of Iceland and venturing into the great unknown. But when Viking sails appear on the horizon, the young boy is conscripted into a life of violence and brutality at the hands of merciless Viking Askalaad. With nothing left to him save revenge, Thorfinn swears vengeance against the man who slew his family, plunging headlong into a sprawling, blood-soaked, coming-of-age epic that marches to the drums of war.
Dororo
(TV-MA)
During the Warring States period, the young thief Dororo encounters Hyakkimaru, a strange, sightless boy who wields fearsome prosthetics in place of his missing limbs. Parts of Hyakkimaru’s body were traded to a group of 12 demons by his father in exchange for power, but thanks to a kindly medicine man, Hyakkimaru survived his horrifying ordeal. Now he roams the land in search of his missing body, and together he and Dororo will fight to survive in an unforgiving, demon-plagued world.
Shelf Analysis 