<html><head></head><body><div style="font-family: Verdana;font-size: 12.0px;"><div>Hello All,</div>
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<div>just in case some don't know about this, Hibana, the first TV series produced by Netflix Japan is now available for viewing in all Netflix territories.</div>
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<div>The series is based on the bestseller by Matayoshi Naoki, and was supervised by Hiroki Ryuichi – who also directed three of the ten episodes. </div>
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<div>At Nippon Connection (where Hibana also screened) I moderated a talk event with the two main actors and director Kuma Shinji, and they talked a bit about how the series was designed around Hiroki's vision- and indeed it has a strong "Hiroki" feel to it. The series is pretty incomparable to conventional Japanese TV dorama on many levels, and feels a lot more cinematic than most film from Japan does at the moment. I found it a very promising start for Netflix Japan's production activities, and the distribution route creates all kind of possibilities. It can be a bit slow at times but it's definitely worth watching to the end (some very unexpected things happen). </div>
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<div>Googling one of the other directors I just notices that the Japan Times had an artice on it yesterday:</div>
<div>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/06/09/tv/can-netflixs-hibana-spark-revolution-japanese-tv/#.V1qjbceHpEc</div>
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<div>Best!</div>
<div>Alex</div></div></body></html>