When you've got wolf kids, romances traversing life and death, and knights with big swords and bigger white hair: you've got anime.

Presented by Madman, a startling Japanimation showcase called Reel Anime will take place over the next two weeks (September 13-26) in cinemas across Australia, providing an opportunity to view four of the best films from the past year.

No non-American animation studio has connected with Australian audiences as resolutely as Studio Ghibli, so it's exciting that their latest nugget of hand-drawn beauty, From Up On Poppy Hill, is playing.

Wolf Children, by the creators of anime-classic The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, looks so playfully sweet you'll resent not being born Japanese. Unless you were, in which case: thank you for your country's goddamn wonderful cultural output.

For more info and tickets to Reel Anime sessions click 'screening details' (top right) here.