Shigesato Itoi

My Neighbor Totoro

Tatsuo Kusakabe (voice)

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

Norwegian Wood

Professor

Toru recalls his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, and another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori.

Guys Who Never Learn

Comedy based on a book by Joji Abe, about a man in prison for the 12th time.

My Soul Is Slashed

Inohara

A hospital accidentally gives a man Count Dracula's blood while trying to save his life. A year later, he's back from the dead, trying to right the wrongs of his life while trying to resist the urge to become a vampire.

Ishoku Manga-shi 33-nen no Kiseki ~ Garo no Jidai o Yomu

Self

A documentary exploring the history and influence of the alternative manga magazine, Garo, with various artist and director interviews.

Sinking into the Moon

Minamo is a patient at a mental institute who keeps having the same dream. In the dream, there’s a small lake with a big bright moon shinning over it. Minamo sees herself in a boat on the lake. Her eyes are filled with tears of blood, and the boat is sinking slowly into the lake. The moon becomes red and she hears a voice calling her, Kagari… Kagari…

Earthbound, USA

Self

American teenagers connect on the early internet to crusade for their favorite videogame of all time, pitting their fan site against a corporate goliath and their own looming adulthoods.

Super Folk Song: Piano ga Aishita Onna

A documentary capturing the recording process of singer Yano Akiko's 1992 cover album, Super Folk Song.

Kids Konference

Narrator

Hilarious but profound documentary, filmed at a nursery school where children enjoy "conferences" throughout a year. "Why were you born?" "How can we avoid fighting?" "Who made the universe?" "The booger tastes like kinako." The strange ideas and straightforward words that the children unfold make us laugh and sometimes surprise. Their discussion may give us full of hints for thinking about "how we live in the world without answers." Now, the world's weirdest and most important "Kids konference" by little wise men is about to begin.

The Tokugawa Treasure: Final Excavation

Himself

Between 1990 and 1993, Japan's TBS network spent ¥350 million digging into the side of Mount Akagi, searching for the legendary shogunate gold that vanished during the Meiji Restoration. This 1994 TV movie compiles the four-year excavation into a single 95-minute documentary: copywriter Shigesato Itoi as the unlikely captain, the Mizuno family's three-generation obsession, American psychics consulted in earnest, and contractor Mochizuki running heavy machinery deeper into the mountain than anyone had gone before.

Fujio Akatsuka's Video Number One - Inaugural Issue

The master of Shimo-Ochiai has some love with cute gals and beautiful gay men. Gag Guerrillas transform into Gal Guerrillas and do whatever they want. This is aerobics for men.