Toho has announced the long-awaited Blu-ray disc of Mamoru Oshii's 1984 anime film Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer will be finally released in Japan on January 21, 2015. The news was once announced for a March 2009 release in the end of 2008, but it was mysteriously cancelled (not postponed) due to "various reasons." The hardcore Oshii fans are hoping that it will not happen again.
Beautiful Dreamer, written/directed by Oshii, was released in Japan on February 11, 1984, as the second anime feature film based on Rumiko Takahashi's best-selling comedy manga series. It was Oshii's third film following the original feature edition of The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (co-directed with Masami Annou in 1982, but never had a theatrical release) and Urusei Yatsura: Only You in 1983.
While making a decent box office success, the film was highly critically acclaimed by many critics who
had not been interested in anime films before, as well as Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the
Wind released in the same year. On the other hand, the original manga creator Rumiko Takahashi, who
loved the first film, received Beautiful Dreamer negatively, because it was too different from her original
world and Oshii added his own philosophical taste too much. Still, it is considered as one of Oshii's best
anime films.
Blu-ray package
via: AV Watch
© Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan
* the thumbnail image is the EP record jacket of the theme song "Ai wa Boomerang" sung by Yuko Matsutani.
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