The Japan Culture + Hyperculture festival at the Kennedy Center is the place to be in Washington D.C. this weekend for exciting anime. We've been falling all over ourselves because of Genius Party anthology for a while, and its North American premiere and the world premiere of Genius Party Beyond will be screening at the festival on Friday and Saturday. The other three anime screenings on Sunday are equally notable: it just depends on the type of animation you like to seek out. The east coast premieres of Appleseed: Ex Machina and The Piano Forest are firsts, but Five Centimeters Per Second, despite being listed as an east coast premiere, screened last November at WFAC.

Thanks to a head's up from Amid at Cartoon Brew.

Previously on fps
Genius Party
Masaaki Yuasa interview
Eiko Tanaka interview

Labels: anime, features, festivals, Genius Party, Japan, Studio 4C, Washington DC

Interview by Kenji Ishimaru

Studio 4°C has been leading the world of high quality animation in Japan. We interviewed Eiko Tanaka, CEO of Studio 4°C, about their highly anticipated but very secret latest product, called Genius Party.

Read the interview

Labels: anime, Genius Party, interviews, Studio 4C

We've been eagerly awaiting the appearance of Genius Party since Mind Game director Masaaki Yuasa dropped some hints about it in our 2005 interview. Those of us who attended the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema last November were treated to an early trailer of the anime anthology, but in recent weeks Studio 4°C has dropped a few more on their website. Check them out to kill some time while we finish editing our interview with Studio 4°C chief Eiko Tanaka.

Trailer 001
Trailer 002
Trailer 003
Trailer 004

Labels: anime, Genius Party, Studio 4C