Pretty Packaging: MISS HOKUSAI Brings The Art

(Anime Limited goes crazy pimping, part I...)

It's not a secret that I'm a huge fan of Scottish distributor Anime Limited, one of several struggling UK companies trying to keep their heads above water in an increasingly hostile market, especially with the British currency crashing after the "Brexit" referendum. In the past, Anime Limited has specifically targeted a section of the market which was deemed to be non-existent by other companies: collectors. The company has a knack for picking up gems new and old, and making them shine enough to warrant a purchase. As a collector myself, I'm always on the lookout to see what they plan next, be it on Facebook, their own page, or Kickstarter campaigns.

Through 2016, three of their upcoming releases have been on my radar, and while these were planned to be spaced months apart, a series of delays has brought them a lot closer together, to the point that they all arrived on my doorstep within 48 hours of each other. The releases are the film Miss Hokusai, the famous nineties anime The Vision of Escaflowne, and the first Fullmetal Alchemist series.

Or, as they have been re-dubbed in my house, "great", "bonkers", and "OMG-WTF!!"

All three releases are fantastic. All three include great art-books. All three have been pimped beyond what was necessary. But there is a definite difference in scale, and I will cover all three in the order of big-bigger-ludicrous. Today we'll begin with the least big: Hara Keiichi's 2015 film Miss Hokusai, about the famous Japanese painter Hokusai and his daughter, who is suspected of having created several of his most famous works.

With history and the arts as its subject matter, this release lent itself to adding some beauty, and Anime Limited delivered. Here is a gallery of shots. Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or at the center of each to see a bigger version.

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