What makes it different from others?

The greatest movie ever made..!

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Here is an anime film I hadn't seen or heard of, until I had watched it online on YouTube. This colorful film retells the Shintō myth of the storm god Susanoo's battle with the eight-headed dragon, Yamata no Orochi.But in this film, Susanoo is a young boy of a god who (despite his father's words) went on a quest to be with his beloved mother the goddess Izanami. He had misinterpreted that she had died and gone to Heaven. So with Akahana the rabbit and Bō a strong man from the Land of Fire, Susanoo sets out. After facing trials and getting into a "little" bit of trouble, Susanoo and his friends came across a young girl Princess Kushinada, who is in need of saving from the fearsome Yamata no Orochi who had killed her many sisters. Susanoo of course became infatuated with Kushinada, decides to help her. That is all I could tell you. You'll just have to watch and see the movie for yourself. You know, I thought Susanoo & Kushinada are a very cute child couple.I really love the artistry that was put into this film! to me, it almost has the style of Disney personnel Mary Blair; also the musical soundtrack is beautifully done. Well overall, I love this film and thought it another classic from Toei Animation.

Having seen this at an animation/sci-fi group in New York over 20 years ago, mymemory may not be the best. One of the now rarely seen Japanese feature animations from the pre-anime era, Wanpaku (Little Prince) is a very enjoyable children's adventure film. The plot escapes me completely except that Little Prince ends up in an extended battle with the eight headed dragon (hence the U.S. release title). The drawing is done in that simple geometric shape style that we never see any more. Sort of a Japanified UPA style. That's not to say that the film doesn't look good. The 16mm print I saw must not have been projected much because the colors were rich and showed the artwork off well. The animation is better then other Japanese features of the same time and the film has a brisk pace.What really made this film different from other animations coming out of Japan at the time was the incredible classical inspired score. The print I saw had no credits at the beginning and the first clue as to who composed the score came at the very end when the orchestra suddenly breaks out in a rendition of the battle music from "The Mysterians". It's likely that this film will never see the light of day again here in the U.S. but the score by Akira Ikufube can be found in import shops and on the web occasionally. He clearly spent more time on this film then he did on any of the Godzilla or other sci-fi films he scored.