is a Japanese

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

series written by Sei Takekawa and illustrated by

Mutsumi Inomata was a Japanese illustrator and animator. Biography Mutsumi Inomata was born in Kanagawa Prefecture on December 23, 1960. An anime fan, Inomata began working for Ashi Productions, working as an animator, key animation director and character d ...

. ''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 () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

. The first installment of the series 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 a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (Film, motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole present ...

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

Media Blasters Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment company 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 mar ...

. During the novels' original run, several side stories were published. A short, sequel series also followed when the original series 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, Japanese role-playing games, role-playing games and collectible card games. Founded in 1972 and reorganized three times, it was at times an independent company and at ...

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. Headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Production I.G was founded on December 15, 1987, by producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and character designer Takayuki Goto as I.G Tatsunoko, a branch studio of the animation giant Ta ...

) 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 former 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 m ...

and features character designs by

Nobuteru Yūki is a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, animator and doujinshi artist. He has designed characters for manga, anime and video games, and has frequently collaborated with director Kazuki Akane, including on his most famous work, '' The Vision of ...

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 *, Japane ...

. The film made its way to

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in Japan via

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

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

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

network and the

Bandai Channel is a subscription video on-demand streaming service and anime distributor. It was established on March 1, 2002, by Bandai in coordination with Sunrise, Bandai Visual was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution company, estab ...

. 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. The studio is prolific in recording anime dubs, original anima ...

. 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 ki ...

on July 29, 2003. The film was aired on the

Starz Starz (stylized in all caps as STARZ; pronounced "stars") is an American pay television network owned by Starz Entertainment, and is the flagship property of Starz Inc. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of what is now Starz Encore, ...

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 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 Entertainment operates the RC ...

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 is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and lyricist for various anime theme songs and shows, including '' Record of Lodoss War'', ''Please Save My Earth'', ''Macross Plus'', ''Outlaw Star'', ''Kaze no Stigma'', ''Maoyu'', and ''Aria The Origination''. ...

. Three

art book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that engage with and transform the form of a book. Some are mass-produced with multiple editions, some are published in small editions, while others are produced as one-of-a-kind ob ...

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''.

Reception

Brian Hanson of ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...

'' summarized the anime 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 THEM Anime Reviews, otherwise known as THEM or T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, is an anime review website that writes about current and past anime in any form, including OVAs and ONAs. The website offers reviews, editorial content and hosts forums. ...

'' called 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 1990 fantasy novels 2010s fantasy novels 2010 Japanese novels 1992 fantasy films 1992 anime films 1992 films 1990s Japanese-language films Japanese fantasy novels Japanese adventure novels Japanese serial novels Light novels Fantasy adventure Adventure anime and manga Japanese animated fantasy films Japanese novels adapted into films Films based on Japanese novels Fantasy novels adapted into films Adventure novels adapted into films Fujimi Fantasia Bunko Kadokawa Corporation franchises Seinen manga Production I.G