This is a good month to be a fan of old anime. March 6 saw a 4K cinematic rerelease of "Jin-roh: The Wolf Brigade," a 25-year-old political thriller directed by Hiroyuki Okiura ("A Letter to Momo") and penned by Mamoru Oshii ("Ghost in the Shell"), and on March 20, theaters will screen a 4K remaster of "Macross Plus: Movie Edition," a lauded 1995 continuation of the mecha action "Macross" franchise that served as the directorial debut of Shinichiro Watanabe of “Cowboy Bebop” fame.
In fact, the past few years have been very good to anime fans of a certain vintage. Last year alone saw so-called revival screenings of films including "Princess Mononoke" (1997), "Angel's Egg" (1985), "Memories" (1995), "Patlabor: The Movie" (1989) and its sequel (1993), "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) and no less than six films in Hideaki Anno's "Neon Genesis Evangelion" franchise. Screenings of classic movies have always been a fixture of the movie-going scene, but are traditionally the purview of specialty theaters or midnight showings. But lately, older titles have played for weeks at multiplexes around Japan.
"In recent years, the number of Japanese films, both live-action and anime, has increased significantly, but their hit-or-miss nature makes them a high-risk endeavor," says Tadashi Sudo, founder of industry news site animationbusiness.info and artistic director for the Aichi Nagoya International Animation Film Festival. "While remastering in 4K has certain costs, it is far less expensive than producing new titles, and older films have a built-in fanbase, so they present a lower risk from a business perspective."
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