One of the most highly anticipated premieres of the summer is "Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade," a film that was actually completed way back in 1998 and has toured the world's film festivals ever since. The film, set in a post-WWII alternate past, is about the political struggle between a 1984-style government and an underground resistance movement. Released by Bandai Entertainment, the film has a "Ghost in the Shell" flavor to it, little wonder as many of the "Ghost" crew from Production I.G also worked on "Jin-Roh." The film will have its long awaited US premiere today at the 2nd Annual Japanese Animation Festival in Long Beach, CA, screening alongside "Escaflowne: The Movie," which isn't due for a US release until next year. This event will be well worth checking out as the special opening night guests include "Jin-Roh" director Hiroyuki Okiura and author Mamoru Oshii, who were "Ghost's" character designer and director respectively, and the suit power of Production I.G, president Mitsushisa Ishikawa.

Another summer film release that has anime fans on the edge of their seats is Madhouse Production's "Metropolis," based on mangaka Osamu Tezuka's 1949 manga, which itself is based on Fritz Lang's 1926 science fiction opus. Through the concerted efforts of Katsuhiro Otomo (director of Akira), Rintaro (television anime director extraordinaire), animation director Yashuhiro Nakura and composer Toshiyuki Honda, this film will finally see the light of day�or at least the inside of theatres. It will make its Japanese theatrical debut this June and is being distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures shortly thereafter. Five years in the making and a production costs rumored to have exceeded $10 million, this highly anticipated film could be the one to generate a serious cross-over audience in the US.

For CGI enthusiasts, the movie of the summer will be "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." This $137 million (again, rumors suggest a larger budget) flick from Columbia Pictures is the first ever to replace human actors with their computer generated counterparts. And if the trailers at www.finalfantasy.com are any indication of what the movie will look like, the effect is uncanny. Facial expressions are amazingly realistic, almost eerily so. "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" might very well revolutionize the way sci-fi, fantasy and animated films are made. The movie will hit US theatres on July 11th . With the video games-translated-to-live action films "Tomb Raider" and "Parasite Eve" on the way, it's definitely a summer for the game junkies.

Another digital wonder is "Blood: The Last Vampire," which Manga Entertainment is releasing on DVD and VHS on August 28th and may get into theaters sometime earlier. It's a full-digital film, one of the firsts in Japan; all the ink and paint, along with the filming, was completed on computers. The prolific Mamoru Oshii had a hand in this film as well (he created the original concept) and Hiroyuki Kitakubo, director of "Rojin Z," also directed "Blood." The story takes place in a vampire infested U.S. military base in Japan; so much of the dialogue is in English.

"Ah! Megami Sama: The Movie," a.k.a "Oh! My Goddess," comes out on DVD in Japan on June 20th. There are two versions available, the normal version and the deluxe, the latter of which comes with all sorts of extra goodies including several interviews. The rental version is going to include a bonus video called "Bonus Video for Maniacs" that's apparently not going to be available anywhere else. Animeigo is working on the authoring process for release in the US but is being mysterious as to the exact date. So what's it about? Director Hiroaki Gouda says it deals with why the goddesses come to Earth to meet Keiichi and will include appearances from the goddess Peorth and the mortal Chihiro, among others. He also insists that the movie will have good character development and lots of action, things he felt the OAV lacked.

Urban Vision has been expending a lot of effort to get "Vampire Hunter D (2000)" a decent theatrical release, as opposed to the round of limited art house runs that most major studios at first suggested. And that effort has finally paid off. The movie, soon to be renamed along the lines of "Vampire Hunter D - Eternal Thirst," will have its theatrical release in September across the US. The movie is loosely based on the third book of Hideyuki's Kikuchi "Vampire Hunter D" series of novels, and is set 10,000 years in the future. Most of the production crew from the first "Vampire Hunter D" (released in 1985) took part in the new film's creation, including director Yoshiaki Kawajiri, the action minded force behind "Ninja Scroll," and character designer Yoshitaka Amano, best known in the US for his work on Neil Gaiman's "Sandman: Dream Hunters." With that in mind, this movie is guaranteed to be a bloodbath of the best kind.