While millions of college students across the country spend their Saturdays drinking brews and watching college football there are other alternatives and watching Anime is one of the best.
The University of Michigan Japanese Animation Film Society, also know as Animania, will be holding its monthly screening this Saturday in Auditorium 3 of the Modern Languages Building. During the event, four Anime films will be shown, starting at 5 p.m. and running until 11:30.
The highlight of the lineup is Hayao Miyazaki's "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)," the latest film from the director of "Princess Mononoke." "Spirited Away" will be released later this year in the U.S. by Disney with new voices provided by American actors so this is a rare chance to see it in it's original state, but with English subtitles. The film was the biggest blockbuster ever in Japan, earning more than $230 million and removing "Titanic" as the highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history. Also earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival, it became the first animated feature to win the prestigious Golden Bear Award for top honors.
Animania is a non-profit student organization dedicated to expanding awareness of the language and culture of Japan through anime; the screening of "Spirited Away," about a girl who becomes trapped in a dark world of the spirits after her parents are turned into pigs by a magical food, is sure to at least raise Animania's campus awareness.
The screening also includes episodes of the comedy "Pita Ten"; the futuristic drama "Rahxephon"; and the supernatural detective story "Yami No Matsuei (Descendants of Darkness)."
All titles are in original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles. Admission is free.