277 - Manga in Motion 41 - Mary and the Witch’s Flower

On this episode dakazu checks out more volumes of Maiden Railways, Darfox experiences his first Kazuo Umezu manga with The Drifting Classroom, and Morgana wasn’t expecting the dark turns in BEASTARS. Then we compare Studio Ponoc’s debut movie, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, to Ghibli films for Manga in Motion!!!

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Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 - Intro Song: “Rain” by SEKAI NO OWARI from Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Opening, Introductions, Social Media, Website updates, New host avatars
• 00:03:17 - Whatchu Been Reading: Transition Song: Dragon Ball Z OST “Prologue”, dakazu checks out some recommendations from Morgana with Nicola Traveling around the Demons’ World and The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms
• 00:08:26 - dakazu was surprised to see the exotic pets represented in human forms in Pet Shop of Horrors
• 00:09:48 - dakazu is disappointed to learn that the further volumes of Maiden Railways aren’t anthologies
• 00:15:06 - Kekkon madeno Ayumi wo Rirei Manga ni shitemimashita is a fun dual perspective story by husband and wife manga artists Ryoichi Yokoyama and Mayumi Katou
• 00:18:21 - dakazu continues to love the mix of manga industry gripes, dramatic versions of real life manga artists, and intense battles of Semai Sekai no Identity
• 00:25:18 - darfox finds out Kazuo Umezu doesn’t pull any punches for the fate of children in The Drifting Classroom
• 00:33:01 - Breaking news about the whereabouts of Seamus
• 00:37:22 - Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! seems perfect for Masaaki Yuasa’s eclectic animation style
• 00:39:20 - Morgana is confused why Dark Horse is republishing What’s Michael? but she isn’t complaining
• 00:47:34 - *SPOILERS* Volume 5 of BEASTARS takes Morgana to some dark places she wasn’t expecting
• 00:54:17 - News: Japanese Jump+ Editor-in-Chief shares meetings about ad revenue for manga artists from Manga PLUS
• 00:55:34 - Digital Manga, Inc issues updates about delays to their Psyche Delico and Kodomo no Jikan Kickstarters
• 01:06:09 - Anime adaptation announced for To Your Eternity and Dragon Quest: The Adventures of Dai
• 01:07:35 - Hiroya Oku is starting a historical spin-off of his Gantz series called Gantz:E
• 01:10:32 - Next Episode Preview and Rundown: Retrospective Redux BLAME!, we’ll be revisiting one of our old retrospective series to share our thoughts about rereading Tsutomu Nihei’s BLAME!
• 01:12:15 - Main Segment Manga in Motion: Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Transition Song: “Mary's Theme (Piano Ver.)” from Mary and the Witch’s Flower, we review the 2017 anime film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and produced by Studio Ponoc
• 01:13:38 - Darfox questions if Studio Ponoc is cashing in on Ghibli with their identical looking movie
• 01:19:02 - Morgana questions Mary’s decision at the end to turn her back on magic
• 01:22:49 - We share our favorite characters and moments from the movie
• 01:26:25 - Morgana and dakazu both thought the sequence at the end of the movie were reminiscent of Castle in the Sky 
• 01:27:15 - We all agree that Mary and the Witch’s Flower is feel like a Ghibli film and wonder what Studio Ponoc’s goals for the future are
• 01:29:31 - Morgana wishes Ghibli films weren’t automatically associated with Hayao Miyazaki’s works
• 01:33:18 - We ponder why Spirited Away resonated so well with Western audiences despite it’s heavy themes of Japanese folklore and mythology
• 01:34:50 - Darfox praises the depiction of magic in this movie
• 01:36:12 - dakazu loved the magical robots but was creeped out by the flying duck creatures
• 01:38:02 - We wonder why Goro Miyazaki chose to follow in his father’s footsteps
• 01:40:40 - Darfox and Morgana praise the accurate depiction of cats and their behaviors
• 01:41:25 - We give our final thoughts on the film
• 01:42:23 - We comment on the cast performances and talk about celebrity voice-overs for Ghibli films
• 01:46:04 - Breaking news about a possible future meetup between Seamus and Darfox
• 01:46:42 - Next Week’s Topic: BLAME!, Social Media Rundown, Sign Off Song: “wish men” by sunbrain from Beet the Vandel Buster