is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama. ...

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a '' wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English langua ...

series written by Sei Takekawa and illustrated by

Mutsumi Inomata is a Japanese illustrator and animator. Biography An anime fan, Inomata began working for Ashi Productions, working as an animator, key animation director and character designer on several anime television series. In 1982, she left the staff ...

. ''The Weathering Continent'' centers on three travelers – the delicately beautiful sorcerer Tieh, the burly and reticent warrior Bois, and the spritely young Lakshi – as they trek through the shattered wastelands of the ancient continent of

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...

. The first installment of ''The Weathering Continent'' was published in '' Monthly Dragon Magazine'' in April 1988, with a total of 28 collected novels released from November 1990 to April 2006. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening o ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

based on the novels was also released theatrically in Japan on July 18, 1992. It is available in the United States courtesy of

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...

. During the novels' original run, several side stories were published. A short, sequel series also followed when the original ''The Weathering Continent'' ended.

Media

Novels

''The Weathering Continent'', serial novels written by Sei Takekawa and illustrated by

, was first serialized in the

Fujimi Shobo , formerly , was a Japanese publisher that specialized in light novels, manga, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at times an imprint of Kadokawa ...

seinen is an editorial category of Japanese comics marketed toward young adult men. In Japanese, the word ''seinen'' literally means "youth", but the term "''seinen'' manga" is also used to describe the target audience of magazines like ''Weekly Ma ...

'' publication '' Monthly Dragon Magazine'' in the April 1990 issue. The series totals 28 collected volumes. The first was released on November 11, 1988 and the last was released on April 20, 2006. The entire ''The Weathering Continent'' series was also collected into five larger volumes and published on September 28, 2007. During the publication of ''The Weathering Continent'', several related stories were issued: The three volume ; the three volume ; and the single volume . A sequel

series, , has been published in two volumes by Kadokawa Haruki Corporation from November 2010 to March 2011.

Anime film

The ''Weathering Continent''

film was produced by I.G. Tatsunoko (later

Production I.G is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise, founded on December 15, 1987, by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. The letters I and G derive from the names of the company founders: producer Mitsuhisa Ish ...

) and released theatrically in Japan on July 18, 1992 as part of a triple bill with ''The Heroic Legend of Arislan II'' and ''Silent Möbius: The Motion Picture 2''. It was written and directed by

Kōichi Mashimo (born June 21, 1952) is a Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in a large number of the studio's works, for example, as a member ...

and features character designs by Nobuteru Yūki and music by

Michiru Oshima Michiru (満, みちる, ミチル) is a Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, 1970s J-Pop artist *, Japanese composer *, Japanese pop singer and songwriter *, Japanese voice actor *, Japanese anime scriptwriter *, Japan ...

. The film made its way to VHS in Japan via

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine ...

on December 16, 1992. It has aired on both the

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestria ...

network and the

Bandai Channel is a distributor and broadcaster of anime by broadband access. It was established on March 1, 2002, by Bandai in coordination with Sunrise, Bandai Visual was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Ba ...

. The film was localized in the United States by

with English voice recordings by

NYAV Post NYAV Post is an American recording studio located in New York City. It was founded by Michael Sinterniklaas in 2000, with a West Coast branch located in Los Angeles, California California is a state in the Western United States, locat ...

. It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on July 29, 2003. The film was aired on the Starz network channels throughout 2006.

CDs and artbooks

A number of audio CDs relating to ''The Weathering Continent'' have been published in Japan. An original soundtrack to the anime film, consisting of a total of 25 background and vocal tracks, was released in two volumes by

Victor Entertainment , also known as in Japan, is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Ente ...

on July 18, 1991 and January 21, 1993. The company also released CD singles for the anime's vocal songs by Yui Nishiwaki and Arai Akino. Three

art book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

s based on ''The Weathering Continent'' have also been issued: ''Mutsumi Inomata Paintings Collection The Weathering Continent: Un Ballo en Maschera'', ''Dragon Magazine Collection The Weathering Continent The Approach of Atlantis'', and ''Fujimi Fantasia Comics: The Weathering Continent''.

Reviews from Outside of Japan

Brian Hanson of the Anime News Network had high expectations for the anime, but was ultimately bored by it. He summarized the film as "a group of mopey kids on a dying mid-Atlantic continent from long, long ago comment on their bleak lives and their bleak world and how bleak everything is". Raphael See of THEM Anime Reviews made similar comments, calling the pace of the plot "a little faster than the diffusion of molasses through a granite wall" and that the key characters constantly reflect on past events.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weathering Continent, The 1988 manga 1990 Japanese novels 1992 anime films 2010 Japanese novels Adventure anime and manga Fujimi Fantasia Bunko Kadokawa Dwango franchises Japanese serial novels Light novels Production I.G Seinen manga Japanese fantasy novels 1990 fantasy novels 2010s fantasy novels 1990s Japanese-language films Japanese animated fantasy films Films based on Japanese novels Japanese novels adapted into films 1992 fantasy films