By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02). Justin has written about Japanese arts and entertainment for JETAA since 2005. For more of his articles, click here.
As the summer winds fade into fall colors, the weeks ahead are shaping up with these exciting events, ready to be enjoyed after Labor Day.
This month’s highlights include:
Sept. 3-10
Akira (4K restoration & IMAX)
Various theaters
Various prices
Iconic and game-changing, Akira is the definitive anime masterpiece! Katsuhiro Otomo’s landmark cyberpunk classic obliterated the boundaries of Japanese animation and forced the world to look into the future. Akira’s arrival shattered traditional thinking, creating space for future generations of ground-breaking movies. July, 1988—World War III breaks loose. Then, in 2019, in megalopolis Tokyo…As the leader of a group of young robust delinquents, Kaneda spent his nights tearing through the urban wastes, racing his motorbike against rival groups. One night while riding with his gang, his friend Tetsuo suddenly encounters a strange boy―the product of human experimentation—and is injured in the ensuing crash. Shortly thereafter, a military squadron appears on the scene to take the boy and Tetsuo away to an army research facility. Determined to free Tetsuo from capture, Kaneda sneaks into the army research lab. However, a regimen of extreme experimental procedures has awakened a new power in his friend, and now he is consumed by madness…
Sept. 3-10
cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood
Various theaters
Various prices
San and Mayu attend an all-girls school on a warm and tranquil island. When war reaches their shores, they are ordered to help nurse the wounded in a military hospital hidden away in a cave. Amidst escalating death and brutality, the friends struggle to find solace in their fragile lives. Based on the award-winning manga by Machiko Kyo, cocoon – One Summer of Girlhood is the debut feature from Yukimitsu Ina and animation studio SASAYURI, founded by former Studio Ghibli animator Hitomi Tateno. The project brings together legendary veteran animators like Akihiko Yamashita and Shinji Otsuka, known for their work on Princess Mononoke and The Boy and the Heron, with a new, young generation of animating talent. Featuring a stirring score from kensuke ushio (A Silent Voice, Chainsaw Man), cocoon is a devastating yet beautiful plea for peace.
Sept. 4-6. 7:30 p.m.
Theater 555, 555 West 42nd Street
$64.95 standard, $99.99 VIP
Teto Live Show is a fanmade hologram experience crafted by Vocamedley + Vocalverse that takes you through the evolution of Kasane Teto from her UTAU beginnings to the Synthesizer V era. Experience her music like never before, backed by a live band and featuring local virtual singer Mae.exe, an original virtual singer created by local Vocaloid producer Novva Skylar. Current friendship compatibility: 98.7% Remaining 1.3% is attributed to The Baguette Incident™.
Sept. 9 & 13
MST3K: The RiffTrax Experiments – Sting of Death
Various theaters
Various prices
We’ve got movie sign! Mike and The Bots are back aboard the Satellite of Love AND back in movie theaters this fall courtesy of Fathom Entertainment! The beloved crew from the original run of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax Live returns for The RiffTrax Experiments, and the premiere episode is debuting in theaters! Evil Pearl Forrester has once again captured Mike, Crow T. Robot, and Tom Servo and is forcing them to watch bad movies. This time they’ll be subjected to Sting of Death, a 1960s monster movie so cheesy it can be used to bait mouse traps. An evil jellyfish monster is killing women in the swamps of Florida. It has a garbage bag for a head and scuba fins for feet and is nowhere near the least dignified performance in the movie. There’s rubber monster suits, go-go dancing, and of course, hundreds of hilarious riffs. Join us for Mystery Science Theater 3000: The RiffTrax Experiments in the not-too-distant future! Or, to be more specific, on September 9 with an encore showing on September 13.
Friday, Sept. 11, 7:00 p.m.
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
$12-$16
New 4K Restoration! The debut of animation studio Gainax (Neon GenesisEvangelion) and a seminal work of cel animation, Hiroyuki Yamaga’s Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise launched a new generation of animators with itsconceptual, Promethean ambitions. Set on an alternate Earth in the kingdom of Honnêamise, where space travel has not yet been achieved, Bandai’s first foray into film production finds intrepid pilot Shirotsugh Lhadatt, a member of the country’s oft-ridiculed space program, making one last attempt to man a flight into space. Determined to reach the heavens despite corrupt political machinations and the looming shadow of war, Lhadatt struggles to reconcile his mission with the ramifications of mankind’s progression to the stars. Featuring the talents of Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Mahiro Maeda and Hiromasa Ogura, with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Royal Space Force was envisioned as an art film, with rich worldbuilding that countered the conventions of contemporaneous anime—an outsider work “to make anime fans reaffirm reality.”
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m.
The Paramount, 370 New York Avenue (Huntington)
From $45
Hailing from Rockford, Illinois, Cheap Trick has been rocking stages and winning over fans with their timeless sound for over five decades. Known for their electrifying live performances, catchy melodies, and innovative songwriting, Cheap Trick has become a staple in rock music history. With hits like “I Want You to Want Me”, “Dream Police”, “The Flame”, and “Surrender,” this legendary band continues to inspire and entertain audiences with their signature blend of hard rock and power-pop sensibilities. They achieved mainstream popularity in the US in 1979 after a legendary Japan tour celebrated with the triple-platinum live album At Budokan and a Top 10 single, a live recording of “I Want You to Want Me.” The band experienced another resurgence in 1988 when they topped U.S. charts with power ballad “The Flame.” Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, Cheap Trick maintain an almost constant touring schedule, and will return to the Paramount supporting their 21st studio album, All Washed Up.
Wednesday. September 16, 8:00 p.m.
Harumi Hosono: The Yours Sincerely Tour
Radio City Music Hall, 1260 Sixth Avenue
From $65.59
One of Japanese music’s most influential figures makes a rare New York appearance this fall when Haruomi Hosono brings The Yours Sincerely Tour to Radio City Music Hall, joined by special guest Toro y Moi. A founding member of the pioneering electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra, Hosono has spent more than five decades moving effortlessly through rock, electronic music, ambient, exotica and the sounds that would later become synonymous with city pop, influencing generations of artists in Japan and abroad. The Radio City performance arrives just five days after the September 11 release of Yours Sincerely, Hosono’s 23rd solo album and his first since 2019’s Hochono House. Adding another generational connection is Toro y Moi, the shape-shifting project of Chaz Bear, whose blend of chillwave, funk, pop and electronic experimentation makes him a particularly fitting partner for an artist whose influence can be heard throughout contemporary alternative music. With only two U.S. dates announced for the tour, New York’s Radio City engagement offers an unusually intimate stateside encounter with a Japanese music legend who, at 79, remains as interested in exploring where music can go next as celebrating the extraordinary catalog that brought him here.
Sept. 17-Oct. 1
The Transformers: The Movie: The Apology Tour 40th Anniversary Screenings
Various theaters
Various prices
Hasbro and Fathom Entertainment would like to formally invite you back to the scene of the crime. Forty years after The Transformers: The Movie did what it did to Optimus Prime, The Apology Tour 40th Anniversary Screening brings the film back to theaters…with four decades of hindsight and one very overdue “our bad.” Relive the moment in the place where your world was changed forever. Not changing history. Just finally celebrating it. Because forty years later, it still hits like a truck.
Friday, Sept. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Rooted: Akiko Yano – Japanese and American Folk With Hiromitsu Agatsuma and Sam Amidon
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
Sold out ($48 & $63 waitlist ticket opportunity at box office one hour before performance time, one ticket per person)
Part of Japan Society’s TWO SOILS series! Pianist, singer-songwriter and musical icon Akiko Yano returns to Japan Society to dig into the folk roots of her two homes in Japan and the United States, performing arrangements of min’yo (Japanese folk song) and American folk alongside two extraordinary collaborators. Yano reunites with Tsugaru-shamisen virtuoso Hiromitsu Agatsuma, rekindling the celebrated duo “Yano et Agatsuma” in the very theater where their electrifying min’yo project first ignited over a decade ago. And in a first-ever pairing, Yano welcomes fringe American folk luminary Sam Amidon–a fellow traveler in musical reinvention–to breathe new life into the Appalachian and American songbook. Followed by a Season Opening Reception with Artists.
Available Sept. 22
Angel’s Egg 4K UHD Collector’s Edition
$49.99 MSRP
In an underwater city, a young girl takes care of a large egg she holds carefully in her arms. A boy with a gun arrives in search of a bird he saw in his dream. At first, it seems as if feelings of sympathy are developing between the two. Forty years after the film’s original release, GKIDS is proud to present an all-new 4K restoration of the film, supervised by director Mamoru Oshii. The film is a creative collaboration between acclaimed director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), who wrote and directed the feature, and revered artist Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D). The film beautifully intertwines Oshii’s thematic reflections on philosophy and theology with Amano’s distinctive ink painting style, culminating in an arrestingly beautiful hand-drawn allegorical fantasy. Bonus features include: Interview with Yoshitaka Amano;
interview with Mamoru Oshii and Yoshitaka Amano; Japan Society Talk with Yoshitaka Amano; official U.S. trailer; booklet featuring a new essay by Danielle Burgos! Includes audio in Japanese and English, and subtitles in English, English SDH, French, and Spanish.
Saturday, Sept. 26, TBD
Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway
GA tickets on sale Tuesday, Sept. 15 at noon
World premiere as part of the 64th New York Film Festival! An experience that demands the big screen, director Takashi Yamazaki’s follow-up to his triumphant, Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One is a supremely satisfying sequel with even more astounding effects choreography than its predecessor. After Godzilla Minus One’s triumphant reimagination of the timeless Godzilla franchise in 2023, with its ingenious, Oscar-winning visual effects and emotionally gripping back-to-basics storytelling approach, director Takashi Yamazaki returns with a supremely satisfying sequel. Godzilla Minus Zero picks up in 1949, two years after the tumultuous events of Godzilla Minus One, and continues the story of the Shikishima family as they face an all-new calamity. An experience that demands the big screen, featuring even more astounding effects choreography than its predecessor, Godzilla Minus Zero cranks up the terror while always keeping its post-WWII Japan narrative at human eye level. A GKIDS release.
Sept. 26-30
Various theaters
Various prices
4K remaster as part of Fathom Entertainment’s Studio Ghibli Fest! From the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away, and Academy Award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki comes an epic masterpiece that has dazzled audiences worldwide with its breathtaking imagination, exhilarating battles, and deep humanity. Inflicted with a deadly curse, the young warrior Ashitaka heads west in search of a cure. There, he stumbles into a bitter conflict between Lady Eboshi, the proud people of Iron Town, and the enigmatic Princess Mononoke, a young girl raised by wolves, who will stop at nothing to prevent the humans from destroying her home and the forest spirits and animal gods who live there. The English-language version features the voice talents of Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Billy Bob Thornton.
For more JQ articles, click here.
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