[Orphan] Aoi Kioku (DVD)

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[Orphan] Aoi Kioku (DVD)

Orphan is proud to present the first English-subtitled version of the 1993 anime movie Aoi Kioku: Manmou Kaitaku to Shounen-tachi (Blue Memories: Boys, Colonizing Manchuria and Mongolia). The movie focuses on four close-knit boys - Kyoko, Yusuke, Junpeo, and Kenji - from an impoverished mountain village in Nagano. The first three, imbued by constant propaganda about the “Co-Prosperity Sphere,” volunteer to become pioneers in the “paradise” of Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Kenji, whose brother has come back from the war in China minus a leg, refuses to go. The young colonists find that Manchuria is no paradise and that the Co-Prosperity Sphere is a a hollow slogan disguising raw oppression. Then the Soviet armies invade, and the boys’ dream of prosperity overseas becomes a nightmare fight for survival. This is a really good movie. Viewers will need to be a bit patient, because it seems to start out as an apology for Japanese imperialism in China, with the invading Russians playing the bad guys. But it gradually shows its true colors, demonstrating that the real villains were the Japanese government and military, who lied to the boys and used them as pawns. I must mention that the DVD source is just terrible, with unsolvable interlacing and frame blending issues, visible on every horizontal pan. See this blog entry for more details. The blog also contains extensive references for further historical research, if the viewer is interested. This release, and all Orphan releases, are available for direct download from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.