The art here is rawer and more idiosyncratic than some other anime, and there is a pleasing matter-of-factness about fleshy matters - drinking, sex, sickness - even as the more abstract question of art's practice and power is under consideration.

Visually gorgeous but doesn't adequately capture a compelling figure.

The animation is superb, with fine attention to period detail, and director Keiichi Hara's use of modern music - some of it rock-infused - is apt accompaniment to a story of a young woman who lives life boldly by refusing to bend to cultural norms.

Miss Hokusai fascinates in the way it presents daily life in Japan in the 1810s and the emergence of Hokusai’s artistic masterpieces.