Anime News/Reviews & Stuff

2003-04-29T00:03:00.000-04:00

2003 Cannes Film Festival:

Rumors are circulating that Leiji Matsumoto, director of such Anime classics as Harlock Saga(very good site), Star Blazers, and Galaxy Express has once again teamed up with the French Techno duo Daft Punk to create a film that will be airing at this years Cannes Film Festival.

The last time that Matsumoto worked with Daft Punk, they created the 4 famous Anime music videos from Daft Punks Discovery Album. Originally Matsumoto was rumored to be animating a video story for the whole album but after the release of the first 4 videos in 2001 no more were created. "One More Time", "Aerodynamic", "Digital Love", and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" told the story of an alien rock band that was abducted by humans and brought to the planet earth to perform for the masses, the videos were hugely popular and innovative.

I for one am hoping that this collaboration is indeed Matsumoto and Daft Punk teaming up to finally complete what they started 2 years ago and finish creating the videos for the Discovery Album. I have yet to encounter anyone who did not enjoy the previous videos, and i'm sure Anime and Daft Punk fans alike would enjoy having the story completed.

Source: Anime News Network

:::All links are provided merely for further information purposes, many of these sites are not the official sites of the series/companies I have mentioned and are merely sites that I thought were informative or could prove useful to others. Hope you enjoy:::

2003-04-22T01:21:00.000-04:00

Inu Yasha:

I just realized that Viz has released DVD #7 of Inu Yasha and it will be officially for sale on Thursday for a suggested $25. This in mind I figured I would mention the series a bit and my impression of it from the English language version currently airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim: Monday-Thursday 12:30-1:00am. I have only been watching the English language version so far because it has been convenient, and because the size of the series makes it difficult to download a full set of good fan subs or buy the series on DVD (not all released on DVD yet).

Briefly: Inu Yasha is about a girl named Kagome who falls into a well at her family's temple shrine. The well is a portal 400 years into the past, during Japan's Sengoku Jigai Era. This world is full of demons, magic, myth and legend. Good and evil battle for ultimate power in the form of a sacred jewel known as the "Shikon Jewel". Our main hero is a half demon known as Inu Yasha who is after the jewel to become a full fledged demon. Zanny adventures ensue...

I've seen the first trip around for Inu Yasha's run on Adult Swim, and so far I have been impressed. It has a variety of elements that make it an interesting show and this most likely facilitates its popularity in Japan even with it's long run. My personal favorite is the comedic element that they play upon once in a while; such as the plethora of diseases Kagome's grandfather says she has, ranging from scurvy to herpes. The pacing is good, battles are not overly drawn out and there usually is a 2 show max for a single battle, but this only occurs when the battle starts in the middle of the episode. The story progresses nicely, the side stories are interesting and help further the main plot or character development. I haven't seen the full series so I can't say how Inu Yasha will continue with pacing and a general sense of entertainment but I have high hopes. I only pray it does not turn into a Dragon Ball-esque series extention towards the end though.

Source: Animeondvd & the thinks I think.

2003-04-17T01:52:00.000-04:00

Read or Die:

Manga Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing "Read or Die" May 27^th on DVD. The original announcement was made a few weeks ago but in their most recent statement Manga announced that the DVD will feature Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for both English and Japanese audio tracks, the original Read or Die trailer, the obligatory interviews with the series director and cast and a surprising extra… a free poster!

Read or Die is a three episode OVA (Original Video Animation) that I saw a few months back. I considered rewatching the series quickly before writing this post to familiarize myself with the characters and plot again, but I opted to just wing it. Our main heroine (Yomiko Readman) is the proverbial bookworm, she spends her every waking moment delving into the world of the written word. Aside from her almost lustful appreciation of literature, Yomiko has the uncanny ability to manipulate and transform paper to her will. We encounter Yomiko in the first episode spending her entire pay check as a teacher to buy a new bundle of books, though bundle really doesn't properly describe the amount of books she buys. Upon buying her last book she is promptly attacked, we get our first glimpse of her amazing powers and are introduced to the world of the British Library Force. Without giving away too much of the series I will just say that Read or Die is a unique Anime series to say the least and is the only one in recent memory where the main character uses their power over paper to save the world from someone using music ( ;

I'm glad to see this is being sold as 1 dvd, though the $30.oo price is a bit steap. I was discussing with a friend recently (the crazy Sabrina Lloyd fan) that a typical American television series such as Sports Night can be purchased for about $1 - $2 an episode. If you can get an Anime series at $4 an episode you feel like your making out with the bargain of the century, most series are usually 3-5 eps to a DVD and $18-30 a DVD. Aside from my cheapness complaint this is a DVD I will be buying. Read or Die was a nice short series, full of rich character/plot development, visual designs and a pleasant musical score. If your looking for something with action, plot, fully developed and unique characters that wont take 6 months to finish watching, I recommend giving this series a try.

Source: Anime News Network

2003-04-12T20:30:00.000-04:00

Kite:

How fast the mighty have fallen, Rob Cohen what are you doing? Director of such classics as Miami Vice and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, to recent powerhouses of "film" The Fast and the Furious and XXX. It appears rock bottom isn’t low enough for Mr. Cohen.

It appears Cohen will be making a live-action version of the 1998 Anime "Kite". Kite was not my cup of tea, to me the film seemed to be made for pedophiles and men with the whole "innocent school girl" fantasy. There was too much rape, though just writing that seems wrong… at what point is there just the right amount of rape? Aside from my many objections to the film it did have some nice action sequence, interesting character designs, and an intriguing plot that probably could have been presented in a better manner.

Essentially Kite is about a young girl whose parents were brutally murdered and then adopted by a corrupt detective. The detective then goes on to physically abuse the girl for years, and force her into the role of his personal killing machine. Much violence and a number of "sex" flashbacks ensue leading up to an ending that to me, made no sense. Though I refused to watch the movie again to see if I missed any vital plot information.

It seems Cohen will be cutting the whole pedophile aspect out of the live-action version, and lessening some of the gore. Which begs the question, how is this a live-action version of Kite? Cohen seems to be stripping everything that made Kite… Kite and turning it into another XXX style movie with bad action sequences, poor acting, sub-standard plot and lots of media hype. By taking out all of these elements we are left with a movie about a female assassin, congratulations Cohen you are making Nakita.

I personally think that Cohen is just using the Kite name in order to generate hype about his movie, what could be more controversial than remaking an Anime film about a youth killing people with no remorse and then getting raped by a crooked cop (not in that order). I say just watch the directors cut of Kite and skip Cohen’s movie, or better yet skip them both and take a nap instead.

Source: ScreenDaily

2003-04-11T15:35:00.000-04:00

Updates:

Ya there haven't been many of these lately, i've been heavily innundated with work lately but my goal is to have 1 update up everynight of this weekend. Perhaps I will only put one item in posts so there is less of a delay between them. Anywho… here is a conversation I recently had with a friend about Lucky Charms.

Maahony2002: when did they start putting giant ass yellow marshmellows in there
too, i felt like i was eating a bowl of sugar

GulagArchipelago: hahaha

GulagArchipelago: weren't lucky charms always like that?

Maahony2002: well ya but before they hid it by putting some cereal in there, now
its just marshmellows

GulagArchipelago: ah

GulagArchipelago: looks like they're trying to breed a new race of super ADHD
kid soldiers

GulagArchipelago: with juvenile diabetes

Source: Lucky Charms my crazy friend and the thinks I think

2003-03-26T23:22:00.000-05:00

Well that was a shock:

It appears as though I have entered an alternate dimension… However I don’t recall sliding thru a wormhole with Jerry O’Connell or Sabrina Lloyd *shrug* shows what I know. This Sunday, Hayao Miyazaki’s film "Spirited Away" won the academy award for best-animated feature film, beating out such powerhouses of cinematography as "Lilo & Stitch" and "Ice Age". Miyazaki was not at the ceremony however, choosing to work on his latest project "Howl’s Moving Castle" (2004 release date projected) instead. "Spirited Away" is the first anime to ever win an academy award.

I’m not sure what this means to the anime community, countless other anime films have been overlooked by the academy in the past or unjustly lost to other films. I don’t think that Spirited Away’s success will foster in a new era of anime films getting the proper respect from Hollywood awards committees like the academy awards. At best I think this award will open a few more venues to theatrical anime film releases in the US and perhaps a few close-minded people whom don’t see anime as a worthwhile genre. I don’t approve of the film being lumped into the animated film category either, currently that category seems to be dominated by Disney garb or similar films.

Until Hollywood realizes that all animated films aren’t a "cartoon", deviant, or aimed at children; films like "Spirited Away" are always going to be grouped in with "family-friendly" garbage in the animated film category. Movies need to be judged on their merit to convey a story, idea, or emotion, not the medium in which they were created. I think the animated film category should be removed from this and similar awards shows, or add in the action, drama, comedy… etc categories; no reason all movies shouldn’t be clumped together with no regard for quality in these shows apparently.

But I could be wrong; what the hell do I know? This is just my opinion.

Source: The thinks I think… and a crazy Sabrina Lloyd fan ( ;

2003-03-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

Richard Hayworth:

Well it’s been a very slow week for news updates but some relatively important events have occurred that I opted to let develop before I mentioned here. Cartoon Network started airing Kenshin on Monday at 6:30pm.

Kenshin follows the story of a master swordsman of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu style, named Kenshin (Shinta) Himura. Kenshin sided with a group of revolutionary imperialists during the Tokugawa era and became their most feared assassin, being dubbed "Hitokiri Battousai" (The Man Slayer). After years of endless bloodshed Kenshin decided to leave his old life behind and atone for his sins by living out a peaceful life as a wanderer, becoming a champion for the weak; he adopts a Sakabatou (reverse bladed sword) over the more common katana. Kenshin eventually takes up residence at the home/school of Kaoru Kamiya and thus the story of Kenshin begins… for the TV series at least.

I've only seen the first 18 or 19 episodes of Kenshin and that was a LONG time ago but with Cartoon Network’s announcement that Kenshin would have a new home in it’s Toonami line-up I was quite happy. Unfortunately this was a short-lived feeling, the English voice acting is on par with the worst I have ever experienced. Watching the English version of Kenshin reminds me of watching Record of Lodoss War, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any of the Gundam series dubs… perhaps with the exclusion of Gundam Wing.

I was surprised to learn that Richard Hayworth was the man responsible for this craptacular voice. Hayworth has voiced other characters that in no way were this bad, Vicious from Cowboy Bebop and Inu Yasha from Inu Yasha spring to mind. So I can assume 1 of 4 things:

Richard Hayworth has no clue of what the Kenshin character is about or should sound like.
The voice director is an absolute moron and is killing Hayworth’ talent
The producers are just trying to pump out as many episodes as cheaply as possible with no regard for quality.
I’m too picky and should just stick with the original Japanese audio, subtitles and keep my opinions to myself.

Source: Having to sit thru 5 episodes of Hayworth’s crappy rendition of Kenshin

2003-03-15T15:19:00.000-05:00

Love Hina:

Bandai will be releasing the Love Hina Spring Movie on the 18^th of this month on DVD. The list price for the DVD is $29.98 for the 60 minute "movie".

Love Hina was the second anime series I ever watched, the first being Neon Genesis Evangelion (Eva). So it holds a high place in my pantheon of person anime favorites, however I do not recognize anything past the Christmas special as part of the Love Hina universe. The spring special was absolute garbage and all it did was provide "Fan Service" and more money for the company’s producing it. In the spring special they rehash the same plot of Keitaro having some disastrous mistake while taking his entrance exam for Tokyo University, in this case falling asleep. He then runs off to an island paradise and the Hinata gang tracks him down.

The character designs were very similar to the original series and the Christmas special with one small exception, apparently all of the female characters decided to get breast implants. Including the 12 year olds, whooo!!!! Who needs story development when you have busty jailbait running around in bikinis? I can imagine the pitch for this special; "So what we want to do is just get all the girls on a beach somehow in skimpy bikini’s, give them a little more "maturity (that’s code for boobies)" and have them run around and bend over a lot for 60 minutes… so what do ya think?"

Granted the Love Hina television show and Christmas special had fan service, I realize this; but it also had a good plot behind it and the Christmas special ended the story very nicely. The Spring special seems to just ignore what happened in the Christmas special (story-wise) and just power forward on skimpy outfits alone. Of course after the Spring special came Love Hina Again, which I’m not going to even bother discussing...I have yet to find someone who could sit thru all 3 episodes of that trash.

Final thoughts: buy Love Hina the television series, buy the Christmas special, ignore the rest of the Love Hina DVD’s and enjoy a fun series with a full rounded story that comes to a nice conclusion.

Source: Anime Nation

Academy Awards:

Hayao Miyazaki’s "Spirited Away" has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature Film category. This is Miyazaki’s first nomination and let us hope justice is served and he easily wins over such amazing films as "Lilo & Stitch", and "Ice Age".

Source: Academy Awards Nomination List

2003-03-14T16:11:00.000-05:00

Big O:

Sunrise recently announced that the 1^st Big O dvd boxed set would be released April 25^th in Japan. The box set will contain the whole of season 1, all 13 episodes. Season 2 of Big O will also debut on Toonami on the 25^th as well. The 1^st dvd’s of season 2 can be expected out in May.

I’m glad to see season 2 of Big O will finally be shown here in the states, I was never really fond of Big O but conclusions are always a good thing when you have seen half of a show. Big O reminded me in some ways of the animated Batman show in its animation. Though Big O appeared to use CGI in places it retained the same type of atmosphere and character design that I think made the Batman series so popular. It was dark and dirty in appearance; nothing seemed overly clean or happy. I’m a huge fan of the dank, ominous atmosphere in shows/movies; it sets the mood for a show and just seems to draw me in quicker.

The first season of Big O wasn't all that great in my opinion, it had an interesting plot idea but I didn’t think the story was implemented very well. How this society came to be was never explained, probably due in part to the fact that we were unable to see season 2 in the US. The show was slow, the main plot was unveiled at a painful pace, and character development was minimal. If you’re going to try and reveal the main plot of a show very late in the series, I demand that the first half of the series is INCREDIBLE. Big O didn’t deliver that; it gave me a nice visual atmosphere, a sluggish story line, 1 dimensional characters, and a typical mecha-anime battle theme.

If you have money to blow, and are an anal collector like me; buy this dvd box set. If you are looking for an interesting Anime, which is well written with a strong story line, in-depth character development, and a fast pace… keep looking.

Source: Anime News Network

2003-03-12T00:40:00.000-05:00

John McGuirk

Coach McGuirk: "Anyway, don't make the same mistakes i made, or my father- or ur father."
Brendon: "Like what?"
Coach McGuirk: "Well like this morning, I poured orange juice in my cereal. I wasn't thinking. I just grabbed it...poured it. I was half asleep. Then, I realized I love it- I think it's a great mix. Then, I realized it's the coporations and the advertisers who prevent us from doing stuff like this. They program us to think one way- milk/cereal...then u realize orange juice/cereal is fine- it all goes in the same place, you know the old saying."

Nothing that I feel was important happened in the world of Anime today and I just dont have the motivation to seriously write out a good review of a movie or series. So enjoy this quote taken from Home Movies, a show that aires every Monday thru Thursday at 11:30pm on Cartoon Network. One of the funniest shows I have seen in a long time, do yourself a favor and give it a chance; once I did I became addicted

Source: Home Movies

2003-03-11T01:05:00.000-05:00

Knocking On Heavens Door:

Rumors are circulating that Suncoast has acquired the Cowboy Bebop movie and are planning to release it sometime in late June.

Source: Animeondvd

Why Anime has a bad name:

Miramax has recently announced that the 5^th movie installment of the Pokemon series, titled "Heroes", will be released sometime in May. You can view a synopsis of the movie here

But why bother going to the site and reading their description, having no real information on this movie I’ll give you the run down and guarantee 99% accuracy. Our main characters Ash, Brock, and Misty stumble upon an adventure or mystery involving some legendary Pokemon that were only fabled to exist. While investigating this, two 20 something rejects follow our young threesome around all the while cleverly planning to steal our "Heroes" Pokemon for themselves. There will be some final conflict where the legendary Pokemon are revealed, Ash will undoubtedly win because his foes are bungling and then we will get another game/card/toy etc marketed to us for the new Pokemon they discover. The End.

I have watched this show, I gave it a chance, and I realize I'm not the target demographic for this show (I’m a 20something college student). This being said, Pokemon is complete garbage. It is a tool for corporations to market to children and bungle up their minds with incomprehensible babble and nonsense. I’ll admit the show does have some positive messages, try hard, work hard, be honest… but all this show does is flash lights, and turn children into drooling simpletons. For anyone who tries to call this trash a children’s show, I refer you to Fred Rodgers who recently past away from stomach cancer. Mr. Rodgers show was a children’s show, he encouraged children to feel good about themselves, learn about the world, NOT just the abc's but the WORLD, and to know that they always had a special TV friend waiting for them. It makes me sad to see how few children know who Mr. Rodgers is but are all too happy to list every Pokemon you never heard of.

Aside from that, this is what many uninformed people think of when they hear Anime, this and high school girls being raped by tentacle armed aliens/monsters. This series has done nothing to promote an understanding of what this medium truly has to offer. Though I do recognize that its popularity has helped entice some companies to take chances and bring real Anime over to the mainstream stateside.

Source: Anime News Service

2003-03-08T20:24:00.000-05:00

Ninja Scroll:

Urban Vision has announced that coming this April in Japan will be the release of the Ninja Scroll television series. The show will follow a 13 episode format and is expected to continue where the movie left off. Yoshiaki Kawajiri the creator of the original movie has been signed on for the television series project as well (Kawajiri is also involved with the Animatrix project). The show will air in Japan this April then will be available in the US on DVD in the fall, odd because it will not be available in Japan till next winter.

The original Ninja Scroll movie is one of the first Anime movies that I ever saw. It was aired on Showtime at 2am on a Saturday night many moons ago and was my first true introduction to the genre. The movies plot was a little lacking and some of the sexual scenes didn't seem to serve any purpose other than to spice up the content and visualizations a bit. Overall though I highly enjoyed the movie and still do enjoy watching it from time to time.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Kawajiri has to offer us in his continuation of the Jubei adventure, though i'm not expecting too much. Ninja scroll was not really an Anime with a plot, it was a visually pleasing romp thru a land of blood, violence, demons, and sexual deviancy. A television rehashing of this type of material will lessen most of these aspects and leave us with some nice character designs and backgrounds. I hope Kawajiri puts depth to his characters, I hope he inserts some needed story line, and I hope he continues the visual displays he presented us in the movie. However, I am not expecting much from this television version and as such I will either be pleasently surprised or get just what I expected, "blah blah blah AND NOW I CUT YOU WITH MY SWORD".

Source: Anime News Network

TOKYOPOP:

TOKYOPOP recently announced a list of new releases that will be hitting the market in the coming months. Of interest in the announcement, TOKYOPOP has picked up Battle Royale the manga created by the author/artist team of Koushun Takami and Masayuki Taguchi.

The book inspired the 2000 movie, Battle Royale directed by Kinji Fukasaku. In the movie 42 Jr. High School students are abducted and taken to a secret remote island and informed that they will be this years choosen class to compete in the Battle Royale. All members of the class will be given provision for 3 days and an assortment of weapons to kill each other with. At the end of the 3 days if more than 1 person is alive collars strapped to the childrens necks will explode killing off any remaining people at the 3 day mark. I highly recommend this movie if you haven't seen it yet, its well worth the effort it will take to obtain a copy.

You can view a list of TOKYOPOP’s coming May releases here
For more information on the Manga Battle Royale click here
And for more detailed on each Manga volume click here

Source: TOKYOPOP and Anime News Network

2003-03-07T16:22:00.000-05:00

Animatrix:

Part 2 of this online "anime" series has been released, though not technically anime; this project showcases the exceptional talents of a group of CGI creators and storywriters. This project is truly an interesting idea and I would suggest that you check the site frequently for their installment updates.

You can view Animatrix’s webpage: here

Source: Anime News Network

Vanilla Series – Dark:

Critical Mass has announced that "Dark" the latest installment in the Vanilla Series line is slated for release on the 27^th of May. Vanilla Series follows in line with such Hentai classics as Cool Devices, Mail Order Maiden, and a plethora of other fine erotic anime titles (please note sarcasm). "Dark" is your typical young girls getting raped and in every conceivable way objectified and abused. The "story" follows a young man who stumbles upon the seedy underworld of voyeurism, S&M and rape that seemingly runs rampant at his current school. He is then sucked into this world and finds himself unable to pull himself from its grasp. In steps our main characters (Shinji) childhood friend, Miku. A young and attractive women who also attends the same school, basically it becomes a conflict of will Shinji continue in his ways and presumably rape Miku or will he leave this life behind.

First… I am not a fan of Hentai in general, yes there may very well be some well made ones with enthralling stories and the pornographic nature of the show is in some respects necessary to further the plot development. However, this show appears to be like the hundreds of others being pumped out currently that features nothing more than the animated acts of rape and general perversion of young, almost childesque representations of women.

This being said, from what I saw of the current information the character designs look clean and interesting, something that is always very important to me… I cant think of anything else positive. If your looking for just hardcore Hentai, buy this DVD; if your looking for something of an adult nature with a good story but that is definitely not for the next door neighbors kids, pick up Perfect Blue and watch something a little more interesting.

View the Critical Mass press release here.

Source: Right Stuff

Pioneer:

Pioneer has launched its official English language version website for "Sugar, A little snow fairy" series. The show is obviously a shoujo anime (targeted to a female audience), and I would liken the character designs vaguely to Di Gi Charat or Card Captor Sakura. The series appears to be about the adventures of an 11-year-old girl named "Saga". Saga is your typical all around nice character in anime; she is responsible, caring and well liked because of her kindness. One day she stumbles upon a season fairy in training (kinda like a sprite) and the show then seems to be about the adventures she and Sugar (the sprite she met) have meeting other fairies and helping Sugar with her training.

Character designs look interesting and I rather like them, which is odd because I’m usually not a fan of this type of design but the creators have done a nice job and not over done the "cutesy" appearance too much.

You can view Sugar's homepage here

Source: Right Stuff

Central Park Media releases:

CPM has announced a list of its upcoming releases, including Tokyo Babylon, Big Wars, DNA2, and a few Manga titles (think, Anime in comic book form). All titles are expected to be available April 8th.
You can view the full list here.

The second DVD in the DNA2 series will be released as well, DNA2 was one of the first anime series I was exposed too and still one of my favorites. DNA2 follows the adventures of Junta a somewhat dorky teenage boy whose unique genetic makeup allows him to transfer into the "Mega-Playboy" an irresistible womanizing superman. Without going into too much detail and giving away the story, Junta’s "Mega-Playboy" form has cause tremendous problems in the futures population growth and as such the people of the future have sent an officer back in time to take care of Junta before he causes any trouble… comedy ensues. I highly recommend this title if you’re looking for a meaningless but comical anime to watch on one of those dreary days.

Source: Anime Tourist

Cartoon Network:

Perhaps the biggest news this week was the Cartoon Network news release regarding their new acquisitions and their new line-ups for Toonami (afternoon) and Adult Swim (late-night).

CN has ordered 26 new episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, 13 new episodes of Sealab 2021, and thankfully 13 new episodes of Home Movies; all original programming that CN brought up to its original Sunday night line up of mature themed shows last year.

CN has also acquired 52 more episodes of Dragon Ball, 26 episodes of yet another Gundam series, the whole of .hack/SIGN, Trigun and amazingly Rorouni Kenshin. I’m glad to see CN is continually expanding the anime base they are showing, they started off very rocky in the beginning with what they were censoring on shows and the manner in which they aired them, recently however they have fixed these errors. True dubbed voice acting leaves something to be desired and sometimes translations do not stick to the original intent of what the creators wanted but exposing a new audience to anime is always good in my opinion. It will be nice when more people realize that these shows (for the most part) are not cartoons but should be considered like any other show, they just happen to be animated. And as for dubbed voice acting and translations :::LUPIN III::: need I say any more?

View the full Cartoon Network press release here.

Source: Anime Tourist and Right Stuff