Now and Then, Here and There DVD

On his way home from kendo practice, Shu spots a girl with strange silver-blue eyes sitting alone at the top of an industrial smokestack, watching the sunset. He climbs up to talk to her — because that's the kind of person Shu is. Her name is Lala-Ru, and before either of them can speak more than a few words, a massive mechanical serpent tears through the sky, snatches her, and Shu is dragged into a temporal warp chasing after her. He lands in a dying future Earth — a barren desert world with a sun swelling toward the end of its life, every drop of water a priceless resource, and a towering fortress-city called Hellywood ruled by King Hamdo: a paranoid, childlike, terrifyingly unstable tyrant who commands an army built from kidnapped and conscripted children. Hamdo wants Lala-Ru because she carries a pendant that can generate water. Shu, who has no special powers and no particular strategic value, refuses to stop trying to protect her. He will be beaten, starved, forced into service, and confronted with the absolute worst of what human beings do to each other under the pressure of war. He does not stop believing that good can come from all situations. The world does not make it easy for him to hold that belief.

Now and Then, Here and There is one of the most uncompromising and emotionally devastating anime series ever made — a 13-episode war drama that refuses every easy escape the genre typically allows and forces its audience to sit with consequences that feel genuinely, hauntingly real. Directed by Akitaro Daichi (Fruits Basket, Jubei-chan) and written by Hideyuki Kurata, the series drew immediate comparisons to Grave of the Fireflies upon its 1999 broadcast. It does not flinch from depicting child soldiers, sexual violence, genocide, and the psychological cost of atrocity — yet it frames all of this through the eyes of a protagonist whose fundamental decency becomes, by the end, the most radical thing in the story.

Anime News Network critic Theron Martin called it one of the best-written and most emotionally powerful anime series ever made.

Originally released in North America by Central Park Media under the US Manga Corps label; the Collector's Series DVD Boxset includes a fourth bonus disc with storyboards, audition tapes, cast interviews, and production materials never released elsewhere. 

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Akitaro Daichi (Fruits Basket 2001, Jubei-chan, Animation Runner Kuromi)
Screenplay: Hideyuki Kurata (Read or Die, Battle Athletes, Dual!)
Studio: AIC (Anime International Company)
Music: Toshiyuki Watanabe

Cast:
- Akemi Okamura as Shu Matsutani (One Piece, Battle Athletes)
- Kaori Nazuka as Lala-Ru
- Koji Ishii as King Hamdo
- Reiko Yasuhara as Abelia
- Yuka Imai as Nabuca (Burn Up W, Nadesico)
- Hiroko Konishi as Boo
- Rica Matsumoto as Sis (Pokémon, Sol Bianca: The Legacy)
- Azusa Nakao as Sara Ringwalt
- Akio Suyama as Tabool

DVD Features (Collector's Series Boxset)

- Bonus Fourth Disc with Never-Before-Released Materials
- Storyboard Comparison: Final Episode Animation vs. Storyboards
- Cast Audition Tapes
- Cast & Production Interviews ("From Then to Now")
- Art Gallery & Character, Mechanical, and Background Sketches
- Textless Closing Animation
- Original Japanese Opening Animation
- DVD-ROM: Scripts, Art Gallery, Sketch Gallery, Cast & Production Credits
- Central Park Media / US Manga Corps Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: 今、そこにいる僕 (Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku)
Runtime: ~325 Minutes (Complete Series, 13 Episodes)
Director: Akitaro Daichi
DVD Release Year: 2002 (U.S. Release, Collector's Series Boxset)
Original Release Date (Japan): October 14, 1999 – January 20, 2000
Publisher: Central Park Media (US Manga Corps)
Rating: 16+
Region: Region 1 (U.S. / Canada)
Genre: War Drama, Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Themes: Child Soldiers, Tyranny & Resistance, Survival, Hope Under Atrocity, Dying Earth Future

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.