Forest of Nice

Do you know who this dude is? Find out tomorrow when The Funky Forest: The First Contact is finally released on DVD by Viz for the U.S. market. The 2004 omnibus movie directed by Katsuhito Ishii (The Taste of Tea, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl) along with his buddies Shunichiro Miki and ANIKI is an arty and weird mix of sci-fi, slapstick, nonsense, and dance. It's not for everyone, but I'm a big fan. I'm excited that I can replace the expensive Japanese Region-2 release I bought (signed by Ishii and Miki at HIFF) and I lent out but never got back.


Yes, those are GR favorites Asano Tadanobu and Susumu Terajima flanking the chubby white kid on the box. It doesn't matter who this dude below is. What you're supposed to be looking at is the Funky Forest ringer T with the metallic but soft shield design that says "Forest of Nice" on it. Nice, indeed. (Did I mention that Ichii, Miki, and ANIKI have all been interviewed in the pages of GR mag?)


What have the three directors been up to since then? He has a feature called Yama No Anata, which opens in Japan on May 24. And then there's his "art movie as the interior" project called U-Bee coming out in June. Meanwhile, Miki's second Puchi EVA-Evangelion@School short is available online. There's also a how-to link that goes with it, as well as an interview. What ANIKI does is secret.


There's more coming up, too: Takeshi Koike's Red Line anime featuring characters by Ishii as well as original web animation from the crew at Nice Rainbow. (Thanks to Kensuke at NR for the updates--and the goods.)