Japan Society Hosts Shinichiro Watanabe and LeSean Thomas for Anime Conversations in November
Japan Society has announced Foreign Exchange 2025: Cross-Cultural Conversations with Anime Visionaries, a film and discussion series taking place at its New York City location from November 17 to 22.
Director LeSean Thomas, known for Yasuke and Cannon Busters, and producer Justin Leach, who has worked on Star Wars: Visions and the Leviathan anime, will visit classrooms from November 17 through 19 for conversations about animation and film. Director Shinichirō Watanabe joins them from November 20 through 22. The events with Watanabe will include discussions, public screenings of Lazarus and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, an art display at Japan Society featuring production art from Lazarus, and an autograph signing at Rough Trade Records in New York City on November 22.
Watanabe directed Lazarus, a new original anime spanning 13 episodes that premiered on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block on April 5. The show’s opening theme “Vortex” by Kamasi Washington earned a nomination at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. His previous directing credits include Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, Carole and Tuesday, Terror in Resonance, and the Blade Runner: Black Out 2022 anime short.
Thomas is the creator behind the Cannon Busters animated series, which premiered on Netflix in August 2019, and the anime Yasuke, which debuted on Netflix in April 2021. Leach is one of the few American animators to have worked inside the Japanese anime industry through his time at Production I.G. His credits include Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, the animated sequences in Kill Bill, Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 on Disney+, and the Leviathan anime on Netflix.
My take: Having Watanabe, Thomas, and Leach in the same room for a public conversation sounds genuinely wonderful. These are people with rare and very different perspectives on how Japanese animation and American storytelling intersect, and the classroom visits add something meaningful to the whole event.
