European Theatrical, Broadcast and Publication News
Having long since completed its theatrical run on screens across North America, Mononoke Hime is only now starting to hit theaters across Belgium. Having started showing last Wednesday, this limited run won't likely last too long and is being shown almost exclusively in small art house theaters. The versions being screened are the French subbed and dubbed versions, depending on the theater and show time. This translation had previously been shown in France, the first screening having taken place back on January 12th of this year. The following list, posted by Fuu-chan to fr.rec.anime, gives a rundown of confirmed theaters showing Mononoke Hime:
Cine Centre (1330 Rixensart)
Cinéma Paradiso (6000 Charleroi)
Le Parc (4020 Liège)
Vendôme (1050 Bruxelles-Brussel)
Wellington (1410 Waterloo)
Show times for these theaters can be viewed at Cinebel. For a direct link to the Mononoke Hime page, simply click here, the show times for each theater being accessible at the bottom of the page.
On the broadcast news front, the Ghibli film Hotaru no Haka, known as Grave of the Fireflies in English and Le Tombeau des Lucioles in French, will be airing again on the French channel Arte. Having been shown on the same station as recently as the 12th of this month, two new air times are currently scheduled. While the last broadcast featured the movie dubbed in French, these next two showings will feature the subbed version, also in French. It may already be too late to catch the first broadcast, having started at 1:20 AM this morning, but there should be no trouble catching the next showing, airing on June 30th at 1:05 AM.
As reported earlier, Gunbuster has been airing on Game One for the past two Wednesdays, yet the details of future broadcast dates was still in question. The upcoming broadcast of episode 3 does a great deal to clarify this and tends to support the assumption of a one episode per week schedule. This episode is set to air this coming Wednesday at 7:05 PM, with the next 3 episodes almost certainly following on a weekly basis.
Moving on to some European print news, French publisher Tonkam has finally launched their official site, which was delayed a number of times previously. Having just recently opened up to the public, the site is likely still in a state of evolution, but the content is certainly interesting, so head on over and take a peek here. Tonkam started out as a retailer, simply selling titles along the same lines as those they now publish, and shifted focus back in 1995. During their 5 years in the publishing business, Tonkam has translated quite a lot of manga for French speakers, their releases including X, RG Veda, Tezuka's Buddha and Adolf ni Tsugu, the majority of Katsura's work, including Video Girl Ai & Len and DNA2, as well as many others. While the publisher has often come under fire for issues of both translation and printing quality, their releases do tend to stay true to their Japanese counterparts in a visual sense at least.
Wrapping up the day with a bit of quirky news, unofficial sources have reported that a boy recently born in Robert Debré, a Parisian hospital, was named Pikachu by his parents. French legislation on the subject is relatively strict, usually refusing names from comics or if they simply sound ridiculous, but local authorities apparently signed off on the name Pikachu. Now I've heard a few bizarre names in my time, but if you asked me, those parents need to lay off the Poké-acid =P
Thanks go out to Feena for keeping us abreast of news from across the pond.
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