Animerama: 1001 Nights/ Cleopatra (DVD) Limited Edition slipcase edition

Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy) originally conceived, and initiated the production on, Animerama (アニメラマ), a series of thematically-related adult anime feature films.

The first, A Thousand & One Nights, was the first erotic animated feature film and, at 130 minutes, remains one of the longest ever animated films.

This double-film set includes also Cleopatra.

Made at Tezuka's Mushi Production animation studio from the late 1960s to early 1970s, these were perhaps intended as animated counterparts to the then-emergent pink films (a direct connection being Shigemi Satoyoshi as the scenarist for Cleopatra).

As well as the erotic themes, they are also defined by mixing more typical traditional animation with sequences of UPA and Yōji Kuri–influenced experimental use of modern design, limited animation, and still paintings akin to Tezuka’s experimental short films and like those largely were all directed, sometimes sharing the billing with Tezuka, by Eiichi Yamamoto.

The first two are also notable for having scores by famed composer and electronic rearranger Isao Tomita.

• A Thousand and One Nights (千夜一夜物語 Senya Ichiya Monogatari) (1969)
• Cleopatra (クレオパトラ Kureopatora) (1970)

Directors: Eiichi Yamamoto, Osamu Tezuka

Cast: (1001 Nights): Yukio Aoshima, Kyouko Kishida, Hiroshi Akutagawa, Noboru Mitani

Cast: (Cleopatra): Chinatsu Nakayama, Hajime Hana, Osami Nabe

Genre: Erotic, Animation

Language: Japanese (with English subtitles)

Country: Japan

Year: 1969/ 1970

Runtime: 128 minutes/ 112 minutes

Special Features:

• 1,000 only limited edition package featuring slipcase and reversible sleeves plus liner notes by film critic Simon Abrams
• New 2K digital restoration
• Audio commentaries for both films by Helen Mccarthy, author of The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga
  
• New interview with director Eiichi Yamamoto