Watchcast Poll for September: Pick Your Anime Movie!

Hey everyone! Alex here. Now that we've wrapped our watch-through of Serial Experiments Lain, it's time to announce our plans for the month of September. As we are planning on taking one week off in the second week of September, there will be no show that week. The last two weeks of the month will be occupied by a pair of Hong Kong action films which will be announced when the full schedule goes live. Brad had expressed interest in doing some more of those, so what better time than now?

As for the first week of September, that's where you, the viewer, come in! We've each selected a stand-alone anime film that we're interested in checking out. And you can decide which one we go with! Here's what we've selected.

Vinny's Pick: Paprika (2006)

Somehow, without intending to, we ended up with half of Satoshi Kon's film catalog on this poll, but that's A-OK by me. I have actually seen only a little of Kon's work, and this isn't one of the ones I've seen, despite intending to for ages. According to wikipedia: "The story is about a battle between a dream terrorist who steals a  device that allows others to share their dreams and causes nightmares  for people, and a research psychologist who enters the dream world and  changes into Paprika, a dream detective, to investigate the cases." Got all that? Sounds good to me, and Vinny of course, who picked this seemingly without knowing much about it. This looks like it's currently available on Tubi for streaming in the US, and can be rented a whole bunch of places.

Brad's Pick: Perfect Blue (1998)

Here's our other Kon pick. This is one I'm pretty sure I have seen, albeit long enough ago that I most certainly could use a refresh. A psychosexual thriller about an idol-turned-actress who begins to lose her grip on reality as strange events occur, this one maybe fits most nicely in a chain alongside Lain, given the themes. It's also a pretty dark film, from what I recall, so just something to keep in mind when voting. This can be streamed if you have AMC+, DirecTV, or Shudder subscriptions, and also is available for rental on most digital storefronts.

Alex's Pick: Porco Rosso (1992)

Hell yeah Porco Rosso. It has admittedly been a number of years since I watched this one, but my memory of it is strong enough that I still count it among my favorite Ghibli works. This delightful pig man hunts air pirates and hates fascists. I feel no compulsion to explain anything else about what's going on, except to say that it rules. The movie rules. If we don't watch it this month, I guarantee we will at some point. But if you pick it this month, you might have the added bonus of rekindling the debate about whether Ghibli stuff technically counts as anime or not, so that could be a fun nightmare. Right now Porco Rosso is streaming on MAX and also available for rental on most digital storefronts.

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Those are your choices! You have until Wednesday morning to make your selection, so have at it!