Posted 2/24/12 10:14 am EST by MTV Geek in Animation, Anime, Movies, News
After all of the fits and starts that have gone along with Warner Brothers' attempts to bring a live-action Akira to the big screen, the studio has set their sites on another manga/anime property with a huge following: Tite Kubo's Bleach (read more about the Bleach movie at MTV Splashpage!). The studio has partnered with the series' English-language publisher, VIZ, to bring the movie to theaters. More details about the upcoming feature after the jump.
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Posted 2/22/12 1:00 pm EST by MTV Geek in Animation, Anime, Movies, Trailers
I feel like I've been thinking a lot lately about formative anime titles—those gateway shows and movies that got me and a generation of current fans hooked on the form back in the early and mid-80's. The U.S. version of Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato wasn't especially one of those titles for me (although I was vaguely aware of it as a kid), but as I got older, I came across more people for whom this was the show that got them into anime.
Well, the series got a reboot of, of sorts, for the big screen, making its debut in April as Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and it's got a trailer. More details after the jump.
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Posted 2/16/12 6:47 pm EST by MTV Geek in Anime
by Brandon Freeberg and Charles Goetz
Around midnight yesterday we were all up on some Squad Deathmatch in Battlefield 3 (the Gulf of Oman is lovely this time of year) when our boss sent us an urgent email.
Apparently the Twitter-verse was ablaze by some kid claiming that Super Saiyans, the legendary blonde haired, blue eyed (not going to make a comment, not going to make a comment…) warriors from Dragon Ball Z were real. After watching the video, it’s pretty hard to refute that statement:
Posted 2/13/12 11:30 am EST by Alex Zalben in Animation, Anime, Movies
The most surprising thing about Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie, The Secret World of Arrietty, is how small it is. Possibly not, given the subject matter - it’s about little people who live under the floorboards at a house in the country - but still, this is the guy that introduced new worlds with Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away among others.
That said, maybe this is the direction the Director is moving in? With last year’s Ponyo, Miyazaki adapted The Little Mermaid, adding his own wit and wisdom... That movie too had a relatively limited scope, essentially taking place in two or three locations, and focusing on the relationship between the title character and her one true love. Here, we’re even more limited: there are set pieces, but again, Miyazaki gives us an adaptation (this time of the classic children’s novel “The Borrowers”), and an even more limited space to play in, essentially one house and its backyard. Read More...
Posted 2/8/12 11:30 am EST by Charles Webb in Animation, Anime, Movies
The Walt Disney Company, who are releasing the Studio Ghibli feature The Secret World of Arrietty here in the U.S. later this month has sent along a few clips to give you a preview of the film. We've got more information about the movie as well as those new clips after the break.
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Posted 2/6/12 2:23 pm EST by Charles Webb in Animation, Anime, Comic Books, Daily Geek, Interviews, Movies
Todd Loren was either a visionary or a real piece of work—depending on who you ask, that is, based on director Ilko Davidov's documentary, Unauthorized: The Story of Rock N Roll Comics, about the founder of Revolutionary Comics (and occasional writer for the line), and even if his life didn't end in a still-unexplained murder that might be linked to high-profile serial killer Andrew Cunanan, his early 90's tangles with record company executives over his unauthorized comics about popular rock and pop acts from the day would still be compelling film. Todd is painted as everything from a penny pincher, carnival barker, bane of record executives, and outlaw hero by the many talking heads who populate the doc, including fellow publisher Denis Kitchen of Kitchen Sink Press, rocker Alice Cooper, writers and artists for the line, and even his own father.
For a little background on the documentary and Todd himself, we spoke by e-mail to Davidov as well as a couple of people who worked with Loren, Jay Allen Sanford and Robert Conte, about what they thought made Todd tick, and why he was so willing to tick off the record companies with his comics. Unauthorized will be released by Wild Eye Releasing in April.
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Posted 2/2/12 2:27 pm EST by Brigid Alverson in Anime, Manga
The Secret World of Arrietty, the new film from Studio Ghibli, will open later this month; we posted a trailer a while ago, and Disney just released a new trailer two weeks ago. But if you can't wait for the movie, here's good news: Viz Media has just released three new books (one a two-volume set) that showcase the gorgeous art and charming story of Arrietty.
First, a bit of background: The movie, which was released in Japan last year, is written by Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary creator of My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away, and Keiko Niwa, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and produced by Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. The story is based on Mary Norton's children's series The Borrowers, about tiny people who live beneath the floorboards of houses and "borrow" small items to live on. Read More...
Posted 1/24/12 11:30 am EST by Charles Webb in Animation, Anime, Movies, News, TV
The Young Adult and Ratatouille star will head the February 4th event celebrating the best in animation from the last year.
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Posted 1/4/12 11:30 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Anime, Manga
A terse e-mail landed in the boxes of many manga and anime bloggers yesterday from Robert Napton, the marketing director of Bandai Entertainment. Briefly, it said that Bandai will stop releasing new manga and anime as of next month. "The company will continue to sell catalog titles and shift its operation to licensing which will include digital distribution, broadcast and merchandising," the press release continued.
Bandai has distributed some pretty well known anime, including Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Eureka Seven, and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Most of their manga are anime tie-ins, and they include Lucky Star, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens. The good news is that titles that are currently in print will continue to be available for some time, until their licenses expire, and the company will print new books and discs if needed; the bad news is that no new titles are on the way, and several that were previously announced have been cancelled. Here's the cancellation list:
Anime
Manga
The rights to these series will revert to the licensors, which means it is possible that some other publisher or distributor will pick them up. The final releases of Star Driver, Tales of the Abyss, The Girl Who Leapt Through Space, and Mobile Suit Gundam will just make the cut, so fans of those series will achieve closure. The Bandai Entertainment Store has closed down, but they still have an Amazon storefront that's open for business.
In an interview with Anime News Network, Bandai Entertainment President and CEO Ken Iyadomi said that the decision to shift tactics was made back in October, and not by him but by the Strategic Business Unit of Bandai Entertainment's Japanese parent company, Namco Bandai. Iyadomi lays the blame squarely on the parent company, blaming them for keeping prices higher than U.S. customers would tolerate:
"The pricing range for our products kept dropping in Western countries, and people tended only to buy sets with very reasonable prices, which we understand is what fans want, but it lead us to a different strategy than what Japanese licensors wanted," he remarked. "So we always had a problem [with licensors wanting something different than what consumers wanted]."
Of course, no one can know for sure—the anime market in the U.S. has been slumping for years, but with the number of streaming and bootleg alternatives available, high prices don't seem to be the answer to any company's woes.
Related Posts:
A Very Viz Week: New Manga for the Week of January 4
2011: The Year Manga Went Digital
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Posted 12/20/11 10:00 am EST by Charles Webb in Anime, News, Trailers
Over the weekend, Twitch debuted the first teaser trailer for the big screen adaptation of the popular manga and anime Rurouni Kenshin (aka Samurai X), whose production is wrapping up now in advance of an August release in Japan. Directed by Keishi Ohtomo, the film stars Takeru Sato as the guilt-ridden wandering samurai looking to atone for his past. Read More...
Posted 12/19/11 10:00 am EST by MTV Geek in Anime, Comic Books, Geek Gifts, Manga, Tech, Toys, TV
Tasked with geek-themed last-minute holiday shopping? Stumped as to what comic book to buy your family or friends? Take a look through our many gift guides designed to make your shopping this season as painless (and fun!) as possible:
Comic Books
Best Comic Book Gifts For New Readers:
Let’s say you have a friend or family member who’s shown some interest in comic books, but are daunted by years of continuity, and hundreds of trades… Where to start them off on the right foot? Lucky you, we’ve broken down the best starter trades for new readers of all ages, by specific character, interest, and comics.
Batman Graphic Novel Gift Guide:
Posted 12/15/11 11:10 am EST by Charles Webb in Animation, Anime, Announcements
The first of several Ghibli-inspired posters surfaces in advance of the 25-year Ghibli retrospective at New York's IFC Theater.
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Posted 12/12/11 5:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in Animation, Anime, Hasbro, TV
Excellent! But let me be the first to say that Optimus without Cullen and Megatron without Welker is just strange.
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Posted 12/6/11 5:00 pm EST by Charles Webb in Animation, Anime, Interviews, PS3, TV, Video Games, Xbox 360
…and then there was the time I got to chat with the Voltron Force. Well, not all of the voice cast of the legendary 80’s series, but a nice chunk of it including Neil Ross (Commander Keith, the Black Lion), BJ Ward (Princess Allura, Blue Lion), and Michael Bell (Lance, the Red Lion, Sven the Blue Lion, Pidge, the Green Lion), who were on hand with Team Unicorn to talk about the gateway drug for many of you into the world of anime near the release of the downloadable game from THQ, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. The game represents a reunion, of sorts, for the trio, bringing back classic scenes from the 1984 series and inserting them as pre- and post-mission cutscenes as they fend off the forces of the villainous King Zarkon.
Between the three of them, these voice actors represent a solid chunk of animation history, handling roles in any and everything from G.I. Joe, to Harvey Birdman, to Darkwing Duck, to Samurai Jack. In our pretty expansive (and lengthy) chat, we covered the legacy of Voltron, the unorthodox manner in which the cast had to handle their dialog, getting banned from working alongside Peter Cullen due to pranksterism, and the changing landcape for VO talent in an increasingly CG animation industry.
What follows is an edited transcript of an interview conducted last week. Enjoy some of the best bits of our conversation after the jump.
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Posted 12/5/11 3:30 pm EST by MTV Geek in Anime
Aniplex releases pricing and specs for this 13-episode HD release, perhaps overestimates value-to-cost ratio for an animated series.
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