Hi, y’all.

It’s about time we visited Japan, home to some of the world’s finest animation, in this feature. I’m not a huge fan of anime, but I appreciate the form a great deal and especially some of its finest directors like Hayao Miyazaki and the late Satoshi Kon.

This week’s piece is called The Running Man by director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It’s actually one of the first pieces of anime I ever saw, though back then I didn’t have a name for it other than haunting. Though it originates in a Japanese anthology film called Neo-Tokyo (1987), most American audiences (myself included) saw it on the great late-night cartoon showcase, MTV’s Liquid Television. It’s from an era when Japan produced a lot of wonderful cyberpunk animation, taking the dark future noir of Blade Runner and mixing it with their homegrown culture.

Update: Make sure you click the CC button to turn on English subtitles, unless you know Japanese!

What are your favorite cartoons on the Internet? If we can, we’ll feature one in a future installment of this series.

Come chat with us in the comments! This is the latest MyFDL open thread.