According to Associated Press, the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth movie in J.K. Rowling’s series, had its world premier in Tokyo Thursday. The movie doesn’t play in the United States till July 11 and in Britain the next day.

Otaku were out in full force for the opening, many dressed up in witch costumes and holding magic wands. The hero, Daniel Radcliffe, remarked in simple language that “Japanese fans are the best!” No doubt.

And there is a new love interest in this one too since Harry Potter has his first kiss in it with fellow student Cho Chang (Katie Leung). You can barely make her out in the background of the poster… I think the swine is just toying with her affections…

But the fans must have been pleased with the whole thing, since the film opens as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is undergoing a gradual takeover by the bureaucratic Ministry of Magic and its emissary, Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge. Pretty mysterious stuff…

But there is no word in English yet about how well the film was received by the Japanese audience and whether it was dubbed or subtitled or something like that. Maybe somebody knows?

But, in that connection, I have a friend in Saitama who is originally Chinese but has lived there for 15 years. Taking the opportunity to babble on about the many Japanese movies I can obtain from weird and wonderful sources, she only remarks:

“Oh, I never watch Japanese movies usually–I pay for the Movie Channel and they’re almost all in English.” Can this be true?