Forget my recent post where I gave an overview of the Studio Ghibli movies I've been watching lately- it represents the narrow view of an anime neophyte; what you really want to read is Benjamin Ettinger's amazingly comprehensive overview of one of the founding Studios of Anime in Japan, Toei Doga, on his always educational AniPages Daily Journal.

You might be thinking to yourself (as I did): "What is Toei Doge?"

When I speak of "Toei Doga films" I mean the films made between roughly 1958 and 1972, which is the period when these movies were good, being that during which Mori, Takahata, Miyazaki, Otsuka, Kotabe et al. were working at the studio.

Hence it seems a little odd, Studio Ghibli being the king of the hill among western fans and all, that the Toei Doga films should remain so utterly unknown. Aside from a few fansubs -- and how many people see those?? a drop in the bucket, that's how many -- consciousness of the films remains about as low as it was when I saw my first Toei Doga film almost a decade ago. It took that long for ME to see one, so I can't really blame others. The narrowness of American anime interest obliterates the chances of anything appearing on the market that doesn't fit within the confines of accepted taste.

Benjamin's post begins here with 1958's Panda and the Magic Serpent and covers all the films made up until 1963's Little Prince and the 8-Headed Dragon and continues here with 1963's Doggie March all the way up to 1979's Taro The Dragon Boy.

Benjamin also very nicely put together this list of his Anime Top Ten for me.

6:22 AM

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