Miss Hokusai

Nineteenth-century artist Katsushika Hokusai is renowned for his views of Mount Fuji and one of the most iconic images in all Japanese art, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. But the focus of this animated adaptation of Hinako Sugiura's episodic manga Sarusuberi, falls on his 23-year-old daughter, O-Ei, who was not only his trusted assistant but also a fine painter in her own right. Set in Edo (now Tokyo) in 1814, the action flits between instances of O-Ei helping her father - the painting involving a dragon being tamed from the sky is majestic - and experiments with erotic art inspired by their visits to the local geisha house. O-Ei is also keen to improve her callous father's relationship with her blind sister, O-Nao, and to understand her feelings for his eager student, Hatsugoro. More impressionistic and contemplative than dramatic and analytical, this is an intriguing memoir of a significant female artist. But, despite the precision of the character design and the elegance of the computer-generated backdrops, Keiichi Hara's portrait never quite captures the imagination.