Megumi

[Sapphire]

The Japanese government's Headquarters for the Abduction Issue is producing an anime version of Souichi Moto's Megumi documentary manga about Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl who was abdupted by North Korea in 1977 when she was 13 years old. The government plans to not only release the 30-minute anime on DVD soon, but also on the Internet in a free download. It will be presented in several languages including Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. The government already distributes Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story, a 2006 American documentary film, for free to Japanese classrooms.

North Korea kidnapped at least 13 Japanese residents during the 1970s and 1980s, purportedly to train operatives on how to act Japanese. While five have returned to Japan, North Korea claims that most of the others died in North Korea. North Korea returned what it claimed were Yokota's remains in 2002, but the Japanese government determined in 2004 that the remains belonged to two other individuals.

Yokota's father and mother created the original concept and oversaw the manga that Moto drew in Manga Action magazine from December of 2004 to July of 2005. Megumi is the second manga that Moto drew about an abductee. His first was Dakkan (Return), a manga about abductee Kaoru Hasuike.

This sounds awesome and perhaps possibly Grave of the Fireflies level controversial and profound. I totally want to watch!

[NeoBear]

this sounds like something i would have a hard time watching anime is anime to me, but reality can be harsh and i dont relly dig cruilty. i can watch elfen lied and not bat an eyelash but thats only cause its fantasy and i understand that. i dont think ill be able to watch this especialy if its about a young female. still though this is something that i find intersting about japan they fire away when in comes to content that would raise all kinds of flags here in the states, even more so the fact that they will be showing this perhaps in schools ? here in the states we say free speach but you will never see anything like this for free in a American classroom i would think

[Sapphire]

This appears to be the link for the anime. I'm downloading it now. I hope I enjoy it!

Megumi

[Munsu]

My understanding is that this is only a web episode and that's all there's to it?

[Sapphire]

I believe there's a 25 minute web released version, and a nine episode version somewhere (or something like that).