Animehouse

As promised in the review for The Star of Cottonland, this post is dedicated to all the interesting bits of history for this surprisingly influential movie. From its production, impact, and delivery, all the way to how it made its way into English for potential viewers- over a near twenty year span so far! It won’t be all that long of a post (hopefully), but it’s all very interesting information that I think is worth sharing for the series. So, I think the easiest thing to do is start from the top… or bottom (?) in this case.

The Star of Cottonland was originally released in 1984, which I established in the review. What I didn’t establish is that there was a pilot film used as advertisement for its distribution. Though it’s really just a compilation of scenes from the movie itself, it’s still an interesting piece of the history for the film- one that was missing until its DVD release in March 2004. Additionally, for the longest time the DVD was the only way to watch The Star of Cottonland. In October 2023 however, the movie was added to Amazon Prime Video in Japan, allowing for free viewing according to this tweet. The…. we’ll call it disappointing, part about this release is that it’s a 1080p upscale of the DVD release with quite a few filters over top of it that you should never watch.

Thankfully, the “main” ways of watching The Star of Cottonland in English stick resolutely to a perfectly normal DVD release. Now, the DVD is out of print, which means you’d have to purchase through third parties and import it and then mux the subs from a given source…. or, I can turn a somewhat blind eye to the procurement of the video for a film that’s 40 years old and only legally purchasable with a vendor that offers a subpar upscaled video. Either way, we’re here now and that’s all that matters. But what is here? Three different releases from three different teams. The (2nd) original release from Honobono Log in 2007, a release from KinoClub in March of this year, and a release from Inka-Subs in July of this year.

In reality, this is a battle between Honobono and Inka, as KinoClub borrows the translation from Honobono whereas Inka provides edits atop the original translation. It’s far more of a back and forth than you might expect. Honobono’s video isn’t as well encoded as Inka’s, the color grading is better- but then Honobono’s video is less grainy, for example. It’s a solid competition, but Inka squeaks out a worthwhile victory over the near twenty year old release of the movie, largely thanks to its willingness to stay true to the grainy DVD release rather than over process and muddy or remove detail. It’s not necessarily the end of the world or anything, but it’s a rather noticeable difference that appears when experiencing the film. Honobono’s smoothing (and slightly larger resolution) is just too much compared to Inka’s lack of touch ups. In regards to translation and lettering… Honobono just can’t stand up to the era. It feels and looks old next to the updated work on Inka’s release, so there’s really no reason to choose it as the release to watch. The only real win that Honobono’s release can claim is the better audio. Though it has more grain and background noise, the clarity of the VHS’ stereo audio compared to the DVD’s much more muddy mono track is night and day. If you’re looking for the absolute best of both worlds, muxing Honobono’s audio with the video release from Inka will provide you with the best experience.

Ahem, moving forward, we’ll get to the actual production itself. One of the first things I came across that was incredibly interesting, was seeing a very not Japanese name on the production. Though their role was rather small, Richard Clayderman did appear on The Star of Cottonland to provide a musical theme. It’s a rare and curious appearance as well, being the only time (we know about) where Richard Clayderman (the katakana in the below image) has appeared on an anime production. The surprise is twofold: Clayderman is credited with being “the most successful pianist in the world” by the Guiness Book of World Records, and they also have an impressively vocal and passionate fanbase across Asia. Putting the two together, it’s very surprising to see Clayderman present here, but also equally surprising that we’d not seen them since (to my knowledge).

Reaching out to even crazier connections, does the name Yasuomi Umezu ring any bells? Oh, isn’t that the name for the director of Kite, which was just licensed by Discotek? Why yes, you’d be correct. Umezu appeared as an assistant animation director on The Star of Cottonland. Other animation directors include names like Noboru Furuse- the director for the first episode of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA in 2000 (among other things). It’s certainly not some “star studded” cast of staff on the series, but there’s more than a few names that made something of themselves outside of the film.

Now, to the actual interesting content from The Star of Cottonland– the series itself. Yes, I did save the best for last, sue me. Regardless, there’s a few interesting pieces in the work that remain in your mind after watching. Primarily, like Sevakis mentions in their review, the idea of Chibi-Neko only being figuratively anthropomorphic is interesting. It’s a very far cry from how we view the kemonomimi trait in the modern era, but it’s a very clear beginning for it- especially when you contrast it with its contemporaries. Mentioned a Reddit user, Osamu Tezuka’s Bagi released in the same year as The Star of Cottonland and also features a character that looks like both animal and human. The difference being that 1) it is explicitly a genetic hybrid rather than the more figurative application that skirts explanation, and 2) the character leans far more into animal than human- a very big “no” for kemonomimi as we know it. For something that speaks more to how we view the style these days, and is possibly responsible for the shift from moe to erotic, another Reddit user points to Dominion: Tank Police as being a likely pivot point.

Sticking on the topic of cats, one of the most interesting points given in the movie that is entirely tangential is how Shamisen were traditionally made. Coming from an era where it was still practice, it completely makes sense to hear mention of it… but I was still surprised to hear that shamisen used to be made with cat skin as a material. Other animal skins were also used, but apparently cat skin was the primary one. Of course, over the years thanks to ethical concerns and declining quality, false skins or plastic came to replace the use of animal skin on shamisen, so it’s no longer an issue.

Moving towards a conclusion, I do need to touch upon the manga a little bit here. While The Star of Cottonland does find a definitive conclusion within its film, in the context of the manga it’s hardly but a stepping stone- a single night in the manga that was turned into a grand adventure. I had my complaints about how it was handled as an original piece, but mangaka Yumiko Ooshima did have a role in the writing of it. Being one of two script writers on the film, their involvement dispels concerns about incorrect or disparate work to the manga. Continuing to focus in on the manga though, while the anime is the real star (of Cottonland), it was equally as massive during its irregular publication. Winning the 3rd Kodansha Manga Award for shoujo series in 1979, and in the same year it was voted the most popular series running in LaLa magazine. The series is very much a shining star in its era, despite how little of that impact has made it to the global stage.

Overall, there’s a lot of interesting pieces hidden within The Star of Cottonland. You could take out a whole article on the use of anthropomorphism and how its implicit acceptance shaped how kemonomimi integrated with the medium… or I could leave it at just that sentence. Its sphere of influence is truly interesting, and equally so is how much of an expired world exists within the contexts and comments that come from this film. Once again, I can’t help but feel the need to recommend it. The Star of Cottonland is really just that interesting and unique as an experience in the modern day.