This Week in Anime

HBO to the Max

Steve
HBO Max (formerly HBO Max) is indeed extending its reach into the big, messy bag of tricks we call anime, and it's pulling out more than a few gems in this go. However, it's not exactly "new" territory for the streaming service. It's been the go-to app for Ghibli films for quite some time, and, for better or worse, it's where you can find all of those highly well-received Toonami exclusives like Uzumaki and Lazarus.

They can't even decide on their name. I don't expect much consistency or logic out of HBO Max. But to your point, it's not a service I mentally associate with anime, despite the history and strength of the Toonami branding. Having the Ghibli library is nice, sure, but I already own most of those. And I don't foresee myself rewatching Suicide Squad ISEKAI anytime soon.

In other words, it's about time they got some new stuff on there.

I missed both of those theatrical runs, so I'm stoked to finally catch them! Love & Pop especially. I don't think anybody had that being licensed on their 2025 bingo card.

And I mean, all credit to GKIDS for putting in the work licensing and distributing weirder and more obscure titles like these. I'm glad the TOHO acquisition hasn't slowed them down or affected their output, to my outside observation.

And speaking of Anno, I just got out of my fourth (or so) rewatch of Shin Godzilla, this time during its current 4K theatrical run, and I will gladly watch that again when HBO Max feeds it to me.

This time, I bumped it up from a 4.5 to a 5 on Letterboxd. It's earned it.

I took my mom along this time, since she enjoyed Godzilla Minus One, and I heard her utter an audible "whoa" when the atomic breath scene kicked in. That's the power of cinema right there. ALSO, they did indeed restore all of the stylized titles that the old Funimation release had scrubbed out and replaced with generic subtitles. I can't stress enough how much that does for the whole film's vibe.

Which is to say, I hope its inclusion on HBO Max means more people stumble on it and have their minds blown by the sharpest political satire of the past decade. Starring the bestest boy.

Indeed. And if you want even more of my thoughts on Anno's various Shin projects, Chris and I did a whole TWIA about it two years ago. Looking at the other offerings on HBO Max's docket, I think it's cool they're platforming some of Makoto Shinkai's earlier works, from before your name. propelled him to international acclaim.

My memories of The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Children Who Chase Lost Voices aren't especially fond, but they're probably worth a revisit with the added context of his newer films.

The old joke was that Shinkai was the "tfw no gf" director. And I'll admit, watching 5 Centimeters Per Second after a breakup goes pretty hard when you're still in your teens. But he does have his predilections, and I can't say they've changed much over the years.

Still, I think he refined and expanded his palette—I'm a shooter for Weathering With You (which is already on HBO Max)—and in general I prefer his later works. But it'll be neat to look back.

I remain stunned that Angel's Egg has gone from a perennial licensing holy grail to, in very short order, a theatrical run, a Blu-ray, and a streaming deal. I thought I'd never see the day.

A few years back, a local indie theater did a showing of Angel's Egg, but it was clearly not above board and had poorly formatted subtitles that ran off the screen half the time. And I still had a near-spiritual experience watching it on the silver screen. I can't wait for how good this legitimate remaster will look.

Not in the US. We didn't even get a non-HD official release. For a time, the best we could hope for was Tokyopop uploading a bootleg copy to YouTube.

Hosoda is also hit-or-miss for me. Summer Wars is probably my favorite film of his, but I wouldn't consider it one of my overall favorites. And his newest film simply does not look good. At all. He might be washed. But considering HBO Max already has BELLE, it makes sense for them to grab the rest from GKIDS.

Never say never! He needs to try making something weird and scary and outside his current comfort zone.

Meanwhile, one director I have zero qualms about is also joining the HBO fray, and that's my goat Naoko Yamada.

Very excited for more audiences to watch Liz and the Blue Bird and witness some of the most densely concentrated expressions of sapphic pining ever committed to celluloid.

The Colors Within was a sleeper hit, but I'm going to give it a strong universal recommendation for when it hits streaming. It's a very lovely and unassuming film about youth, with a deceptively mature perspective.

Overall, it's also probably instructive to take in this HBO Max news in concert with other headlines about the "mainstreaming" of anime. The Criterion Channel, for instance, just added a handful of films to its repertoire. As the go-to service for dedicated cinephiles, that symbolically means quite a lot.

You can make very good arguments that Redline is simply the coolest movie ever. I have yet to show it to someone who didn't walk away loving it.

I know a lot of people (including myself) have wished for Criterion to dip its toes into the anime world. They do their catalogue right when it comes to bonus material and insightful commentary, and I make it a habit to pick up a few Blu-rays or DVDs when they have a sale. But I imagine anime licensing is a tricky environment to navigate if you're not already familiar with it, and Criterion may not want to deal with all that for an indeterminate return on investment.

Also, speaking personally, a big motivating factor for those thoughts for a long time was Angel's Egg's licensing limbo. I thought that could be a perfect title for Criterion to enter the fray with. But GKIDS took care of it, and I'm certainly not going to complain about that!

So what you're saying is that soon, there will be no escape from anime. You may be right. Even the skies aren't safe anymore.

Can't wait for an air marshal to throw me off the plane mid-flight for watching Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid.

To each their own. If you ever want an education in true culture, you know where to find me.