Top 3 Best and Worst Anime Theater Experiences

By Mark McPherson
24th May 04

In the past six years, I have been out to see many anime movies at my local theaters. Anime has been popping up in all kinds of theaters from dinner theaters, to art theaters to local big-name theaters. The following is an overview of my favorite and least-favorite anime theater outings.

Top 3 Best

1. Spirited Away: October 2002 at the Landmark Theater.

Having heard of this film awhile back, I decided it would be nice to another Miyazaki masterpiece. It was released on Friday, but I decided to go to the Sunday showing to avoid big crowds. This was not the case as the line for the Sunday showing reached around the entire building. I thought this was due to the fact the Landmark was the only theater showing Spirited Away, but when I spotted people in line wearing Tottoro and Kiki's Deilvery Service shirts, I knew it was a massive gathering of fans. The huge one-screen theater was packed with people. Not only did the audiance engage a reaction to almost every moment of the film, but at the end of the show, everyone in the theater clapped. And this was on it's second day! This is one cinematic experience I will never forget.

2. Cowboy Bebop The Movie: Spring 2003 at the Lagoon Theater.

The line for the Cowboy Bebop movie was just as long and the theater was exactly as packed as Spirited Away was. I don't think there was one person in the entire audiance who didn't get a kick out of this. Even my parents were surprised at the turnout of how many people came to see this show and they soon found out why. Although most of the people there never actually watched the show, they quickly identified with Spike, Jet, Faye and Edward.

3. Spriggan: Spring 2001 at the Suburban Dinner Theater.

This was actually my first outing to a dinner theater and it was a pleasent one at that. The fries and drinks were excellent as well as the overall structure of the theater, but I digress. I had seen Spriggan previously, but I felt like I was missing something. Spriggan, much like Metropolis, is a film that can only be truly experienced on the big screen. Why exactly? Only on the big screen can you spot that Little Boy's tiny pupils are actually orange.

Top 3 Worst

1. Princess Mononoke: Fall 1999 at the Megastar Cinema.

This was my first, and most terrible, theatrical anime experience. Don't get me wrong, I loved Mononoke in every way, but the experience was awful. This was the first animation to ever recieve a rating over PG and be shown in local theaters. This, of course, attracted unaware mothers with winey children. Just dealing with a few 7-year-olds isn't much of a problem, but this one lady had the nerve to bring a baby into the theater. I kid you not, this woman dragged in a child no more than a few months old only to find out she'd be scarring her tiny tots for life. There is a pleasent side to all of this. The mother was infuriated and said that this was an awful movie and that all of us should be ashamed of watching it. There wasn't a person in the theater who did not giggle at this woman's outrage. As a follow up to this event, I went to go see the film again at a different theater and THIS time there was unsupervised 8-year-olds sitting in the row in front of me whispering "I don't like this movie, it's too scary". Such foolish parents.

2. Patlabor The Movie 2: Spring 2001 at the Suburban Dinner Theater.

Returning once again to the Suburban to view an animation classic, I was a bit dissapointed. The film they used for showing Patlabor 2 was an extremely old 8mm copy from way back. About 5 minutes into the film, the projector goes dead for about 6 minutes until someone actually fixed it. Even worse, people started walking out because they thought the film was too boring and pointless when in fact it was a very political and intelligent plot. All everyone else thought was the movie is just a long and boring way of saying America is bad.

3. Patlabor WXIII: Winter 2003 at the Marcus Cinema.

A one-night showing of the third Patlabor movie. Geez, was I excited. There were ads on television for it and there was even a large poster for the film by the theater. All the hype was there for you to bask in. Then when I actually got to the theater...there were only 9 people in there. You'd expect more to come in after awhile, but it only totalled out to be about 16 people. Everyone in the theater was glued to the screen and enjoyed the film very much, but it really pissed me off how there was all this hype over the film and such a small turn-out. Maybe Patlabor has yet to appeal to American audiances. At the time I saw it, the TV series was still being released on DVD. So maybe, with time, WXIII will make a return to the big screen with a larger fan-base.

In addition to these films I have also been out to see:

Jin-Roh
Metropolis
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
AKIRA
Perfect Blue
X

-- Mark McPherson 24th May 04