This Saturday, April 2nd, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. will be doing the Ninth Annual National Cherry Blossom Festival Anime Marathon. As usual Otakorp (the folks who bring you Otakon each year) are co-sponsors for the event, and the D.C. Anime Club will be helping to host it, also as usual. This year’s presentation includes a special remembrance of Satoshi Kon and his amazing body of work, which include Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Perfect Blue, and they will be showing his award-winning Paprika on the big screen. If you have only seen this on a TV before, now is your chance to see it the way it was meant to be viewed. The day starts out with the Hayao Miyazaki classic masterpiece Kiki’s Delivery Service for children of all ages. They will also be running a few titles from Makoto Shinkai, his excellent The Place Promised in Our Early Days and a preview of his new work, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo or Children who Chase Lost Voices. The theater is very nice and the price is free, but you want to get there early before the tickets are all gone. I can also recommend the non-film portions, like the Cosplay Competition and the reading and book signing with Roland Kelts, who will also be doing the presentation about Satoshi Kon. Hope to see you there!
