Patlabor II. © Manga Entertainment.

The company is planning more theatrical co-productions like Ghost, including two or three features or an existing TV series. They may also produce CD-ROMs, though these won't necessarily be based on their own productions. Other films that are very cutting edge but not animation also interest them.

Manga has no intention of competing with Disney. Their eventual aim is to combine Western style scripts with Japanese graphics, to reach the Independence Day-Terminator-Blade Runner audience. Preece sees lots of potential in westernizing this Asian export, breaking it out into the mainstream. "These are still productions aimed at the domestic Japanese audience. They are action-packed, but the storytelling is very Japanese--you've got 17 words where an American script would have 3. Action breaks off for philosophical discussions." He worries that the specter of Hiroshima hovers over an inordinate number of stories. "I think we could give it a more Western style without detracting from the Japanese feel--it wouldn't look like a Hollywood film, but it would move in that way, storywise.

Hollywood movies have worldwide appeal, so why not anime? Manga keeps looking for that breakthrough, experimenting to find the key to Western mass-market appeal for this Eastern import. They have made a good start with titles that should appeal to teenage boys. Can they keep expanding that audience? Preece is confident they can.

"What you see in Ghost in the Shell is almost there. Rest assured that in the next two or three years we're going to team up with even bigger partners than we worked with on Ghost --and a fully Japanese-produced feature film, aimed at world audiences, is going to hit, with parts voiced by big name stars."

Mark Segall has won awards for labor journalism and public service copywriting. He co-authored How To Make Love To Your Money (Delacorte,1982) with his wife, Margaret Tobin. This fall, he will become Editor of ASIFA-East's aNYmator newsletter, which he currently designs and is a regular contributor.