Tezuka Osamu World Kyoto Theater

[Ash]

Went to Kyoto two weeks ago and visited the Tezuka Osamu World and it's theater. I only forgot to take down what movies were available in the theater, does anyone has a list and summaries?

These were the movies I saw:

Astro Boy - Final Day of Earth
- Remake in the style of Astro 2003 of the story of the manga. Ochanomizu and Astro find the robot Bem in space, which turns out to be a bomb. Still, Astro convinces Bem to become a hero and they even get rewarded for helping people. In the end... err I forgot what happened exactly, at least, Bem had to use his bomb to save the Earth (from a robotic meteor or something), but managed to be saved by Astro.

Ribbon no Kishi

Short retelling of the story. In the beginning Sapphire fights Nylon and his minions. Later the backstory of Sapphire is told, while she's dressing for the prom. She dreams how she's dancing with Franz, but get's found out and gets thrown in prison. After escaping, she helps the represssed citizens of Silverland as the Ribbon no Kishi. Then she suddenly wakes up als Tink walks in her room, asking her whether she really is going to the prom. Sapphire takes off her wig and saws she loves Silverland and decides not to.

Mushashibo Benkei vs. Yoshitsune

Important for Kyoto history, of course. It tells the story of how Benkei fights on the Gojobashi, collecting swords. Then he gets defeated by Yoshitsune and joins him as Yoshitsune's retainer. And of course Benkei's death, the famous standing death (he died standing, presumably due to excessive use of muscles and therefore hardening of them at the moment of death).

Unico/Mankind's dissappearence

Unico is sent down to Earth. There, nothing is left 'cept for a tree-like creature. His name is Tsubasa and is actually human, who for some reason looks like a tree (he doesn't know why). They go together to find the last of the humans. In the desert, they come across a Sphinx, who doesn't let them go unless they solve her riddle (the famous riddle of who walks with four legs in the morning...). They do and their wish gets granted, to go back to the time when humans where still around (thanks to a Astro Boy like time-master)

When they arrive there, they see hordes of humans mass-consuming goods, while all walking towards doom (and the extinction of mankind). Some people get products and throw them away immediately. At the same time, trees are being cut for these products. The Sphinx, the Astro, Tsubasa and Unico try to stop the people from going the wrong way, but a giant heap of rubble fights them. They all get beat, until Unico transforms and finally wins. Humans are starting to go towards a better goal now, though some are still heading towards doom. The Sphinx decides to sit on the pathway towards doom, to prevent humankind of more error. But because the time-master was only allowed so much time to be in history, all the timetravellers turn into stone. Only Unico is saved in the end by a godlike creature (the one who sent Unico down in the first place).

[Jiminy]

Thanks for the info! That Unico movie sounds like quite an experience. Do all these movies play year-round or did you just luck on to what was playing right now?

[Ash]

I don't actually know how the schedule runs. There are about 8~10 longer movies (the Unico and the Astro Boy ones for me) and about the same amount of shorter movies (Ribbon and Benkei). You get to see two. It could be either daily changes, weekly changes or even changes within a day (it runs for half an hour, about 15 times a day).

You just gotta get lucky if you wanna see a particular movie. I was lucky, I was dying to see the Princess Knight one after seeing a small preview on the official Tezuka site =D

[Jiminy]