Miss Hokusai

Starring the voices of Anne Watanabe, Yutaka Matsushige. Directed by Keiichi Hara. 90 minutes. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 89 minutes. PG Adapted from a historical manga series, Miss Hokusai is a pleasing blend of traditional setting and unconventional storytelling.

Set in 1814, in Edo (now Tokyo), this well-executed anime offers a different perspective on the life of one of Japan’s most famed artists, Katsushika Hokusai, a.k.a. Tetsuzo, through the eyes of his daughter (and student of sorts), O-Ei.

O-Ei is not the demure, servile daughterly type one would expect in such a male-dominated culture and her relationship with her father, a man of artistic temperament and mystical wisdom, is casual and offbeat in a refreshing way.

Her interactions with the eligible men in her world are similarly idiosyncratic. A scene in a brothel is sure to provoke a double-take.

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.