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Animerama: 1001 Nights / Cleopatra

Director(s): ,

Animerama (アニメラマ) is a series of thematically-related adult anime feature films originally conceived and initiated by Osamu Tezuka and made at his Mushi Production animation studio from the late 1960s to early 1970s, perhaps intended as animated counterparts to the then-emergent pink films (a direct connection being Shigemi Satoyoshi as the scenarist for Cleopatra).

As well as the erotic themes, they are also defined by mixing more typical traditional animation with sequences of UPA and Yōji Kuri–influenced experimental use of modern design, limited animation, and still paintings akin to Tezuka’s experimental short films and like those largely were all directed, sometimes sharing the billing with Tezuka, by Eiichi Yamamoto. The first, A Thousand & One Nights, was the first erotic animated feature film and, at 130 minutes, remains one of the longest ever animated films. The first two are also notable for having scores by famed composer and electronic rearranger Isao Tomita.

  • A Thousand and One Nights (千夜一夜物語 Senya Ichiya Monogatari) (1969)
  • Cleopatra (クレオパトラ Kureopatora) (1970)

Blu-ray

TWFBD038 | OUT OF PRINT | Released: June 18 2018

2000 limited edition package featuring slipcase and reversible sleeves plus liner notes by film critic Simon Abrams
Audio commentaries for both films by Helen Mccarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga
New interview with director Eiichi Yamamoto

DVD

TWF069 | OUT OF PRINT | Released: June 18 2018

1000 limited edition package featuring slipcase and reversible sleeves plus liner notes by film critic Simon Abrams
Audio commentaries for both films by Helen Mccarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga
New interview with director Eiichi Yamamoto