Animated Imports: Anime Marathon

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IF YOU RUSHED TO THE TIDAL BASIN LAST WEEKEND for the first blush of blossoms, you may be wondering how to deal with the next two and a half weeks without tearing your hair out.

Easy: Get your jaded behind over to the Freer + Sackler Galleries for the 6th Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon. The lineup this year features two kids' films, a romance/drama and an action flick. Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, will introduce the films, which should help you get a handle on what these films are -- and what they're not.

"A lot of people who are unfamiliar with the Japanese art forms of anime and manga have, understandably, stereotypes about them," says Kelts. Such as? "The image of large-eyed, mini-skirted little girls with sometimes 'enhanced' body parts, fighting in outer space with massive mechanized robots." Not, perhaps, the most widely appealing image --so, luckily, there's nary a mini-skirt in sight in these movies.

First: "Jungle Emperor Leo," a tale of a lion cub who becomes king long before Simba was a mote in his mother's eye. (The original TV show and manga, or comic, were created in the 1950s by legend Osamu Tezuka -- this flick is a 1997 remake featuring the eponymous cub as a grown-up.) Leo's fight to preserve his jungle home from destructive humans will thrill kids and charm parents.

Another animal movie is up next, called "Atagoal: Cat's Magical Forest," the CGI tale of a selfish, always-hungry cat who first endangers, and then saves, the town of Atagoal.

Romance lovers may want to catch "5 Centimeters Per Second," a drama/coming-of-age tale set in present-day Japan. Be warned: This is not your standard "boy-meets-girl, boy-wins-girl" love story, and all but the most die-hard lovers of melodrama may find themselves frustrated by the main character's angst. (Actual line: "One day I realized my heart was withering, and in it was nothing but pain.")

If you can only catch only one film at the festival, make it "Appleseed: Ex Machina." It's "an interesting transcultural anime project," Kelts says. Though the film has a Japanese director (Shinji Aramaki), Appleseed was produced by John Woo. And though the heroine of the movie spends most of her time in combat gear, two of her outfits were designed by Miuccia Prada.

Set in a future where humans and cyborgs coexist in peace, "Ex Machina" follows elite fighter Deunan Knute and her partner/lover, the cyborg Briareos, as the utopian city of Olympus is attacked. The film was created with a combination of hand-drawn animation, CGI and motion-capture. The result? A film as eye-popping as anything coming out of Hollywood these days.

Whether you're an old anime fan or new to the genre, the marathon has something for everyone. Even if you go to learn why "so many intelligent kids are into it," you'll probably come away feeling the trans-Pacific love. "There's something about the Japanese approach to storytelling," Kelts says, "that really works in the 20th century."

» Freer Gallery of Art, Meyer Auditorium, Jefferson Drive & 12th Street SW; Sat., 11:30 a.m., free (two tickets per person distributed beginning at 10:30 a.m.), 202-633-4880. (Smithsonian)

Photos courtesy of the Freer Gallery