Rintaro, ‘Metropolis,’ And ‘Angel’s Egg’ Lead Busan’s New Anime Spotlight

The Busan International Film Festival has announced a new strand for its 31st edition, a curated spotlight featuring 12 anime films and one influential European animated film.

Titled Japanese Animation Special: Masterpieces of Madness, Exhilarating Prospects 12+1, the program will, according to the festival, “bring together masterpieces that defined pivotal moments in the 100-year history of Japanese animation, highly anticipated new films drawing global attention on the festival circuit, and one European classic that inspired leading Japanese animators.”

The films were chosen for more than their own creative merits. Taiji Yabushita’s The White Snake Enchantress, for example, is credited with inspiring Hayao Miyazaki, as is the section’s sole European film, French director Paul Grimault’s The King and the Mockingbird. The inclusion of a film by Osamu Tezuka, often called the “godfather of manga” and a figure of unparalleled influence on the anime industry, speaks for itself.

Tezuka’s work is also represented by Metropolis, Rintaro’s adaptation of his manga. Rintaro, who is working on a new Galaxy Express 999 feature, will make a rare festival appearance in Busan.

The rest of the selection, heavily focused on works from the 1980s and 2000s, leans toward the strange and esoteric. It includes the anthology film Memories, Mamoru Oshii’s recently restored Angel’s Egg, and the avant-garde Mind Game. Several of the films have found new life through repertory screenings across the U.K. and U.S., though the festival says many have rarely screened theatrically in Korea.

The strand is not merely a history lesson in Japanese animation. It also spotlights exciting contemporary talents, including Shingo Natsume’s ghost – end of night. Natsume is best known for directing the first season of One-Punch Man and, more recently, the original anime series Sonny Boy. Other new films include Annecy selections We Are Aliens, a rotoscoped coming-of-age story, and A New Dawn, a drama set in a fireworks factory. Another standout is Shiranui, a short by self-taught newcomer Ryo Katanosaka, who personally drew two-thirds of the film’s rough animation cuts.

The strand is not the festival’s only animation offering. Features including Jim Queen, Iron Boy, Viva Carmen, and In Waves will also screen in the World Cinema section.

Japanese Animation Special: Masterpieces of Madness, Exhilarating Prospects 12+1

• The White Snake Enchantress (1958), Taiji Yabushita
• Belladonna of Sadness (1973), Eiichi Yamamoto
• Phoenix 2772 (Space Firebird) (1980), Osamu Tezuka
• Angel’s Egg (1985), Mamoru Oshii
• MEMORIES (1995), Katsuhiro Otomo, Koji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura
• Metropolis (2001), Rintaro
• MIND GAME (2004), Masaaki Yuasa
• Kakurenbo (2004), Shuhei Morita
• ghost – end of night (2026), Shingo Natsume
• Shiranui (2026), Ryo Katanosaka
• We Are Aliens (2026), Kohei Kadowaki
• A New Dawn (2026), Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
• The King and the Mockingbird (1952, 1980), Paul Grimault