Tagged: Japan

Swipe file: Musical furries

Swipe file: Musical furries

Above: Zoorasian Brass, from Yokohama, Japan, with musicians in animal suits.

Now compare to the right: Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle’s Whodunnit? comic, with Noah Zark, a rock band on the cover– musicians in animal suits. Came out in 1986 from Eclipse.

Dear heavens– that’s so long ago I think this means Mark Evanier invented furries. Burn him at the stake for this figurative and literal crime against humanity.

Transformer Title Fight: Devastator!

Transformer Title Fight: Devastator!

Transformers… more than meets the eye. This, we know. But what happens when the mighty all-spark malfunctions and sends the Michael Bay Monstrosities to wage war against the Autobots and Decepticons of our shared youth? We’ve got a few battles in our back pocket ComicMixers… let’s let ’em duke it out, shall we?

Round Three: Green and Purple Devastation Vs. The Rainbow Bright Beast

Face it… if it’s a robot, or even robot-like, and from Japan? It can combine with any other robot-like device, if it wills it. Case in point? The mighty Decepticon combiner Devastator! In the cartoon and comics, 6 construction vehicles (after a long day building stuff and whistling at a passing Arcee) formed a mighty bot of devastation. The only issue? Despite being of normal bot intellect in their own robot-modes… the combining somehow stupified Devastator into a veritable Green Hulk. But why? Because my fellow fans… the early combiner technology didn’t have the capability of decision making! All six parts of Devastator had to agree on an action before doing it. So, even with robo-brains… the cartoon version of this mighty bot could beat you up at recess, but would probably need to cheat off of you during class.

Little is known thus far about the Bay-birthed-behemoth. But what we do know is this: the new Devastator is a veritable giant, standing ten stories tall! Coincidently this robotic hulk also wears purple around his midsection. Interesting, no? In explosions-over-exposition land (the Bay of Robots if you will)… Devastator is made (we question this, but wikipedia is helping today…) of 6-10 possible construction bots, all found in the Egyptian desert. When combined, this new bot forms a more “Gorilla-esque” tower of power. Who apparently has a thing for sucking up sand… and Autobots into it’s giant craw. Past this, we can only assume that this combiner will be loyal to Megatron, and do a ton of damage. It will be nice to see Michael Bay actually blow stuff up. He tends to do quiet films, and this fan for one thinks he would do better to let some shrapnel fly in a cloud of fire and ash.

So folks, who wins? Will the first Generation Green Meanie pound the Sand-Sucking Sycophant into submission? Only you, the cosmically-conscious Comic Mix commenters can conclude! Now cast your votes!

… And don’t forget to vote in the previous rounds, for the Buzz-worthy Bumblebee, and then for your favorite Vocoder-voiced-villain, Soundwave!

The 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees

The 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees

The nominations for the best of the year are finalized. Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. A downloadable pdf of the ballot will also be available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting. The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 24 at Comic-Con International. More information about the Eisner Awards can be found by clicking here.

Congratulations to Simone & Ajax creator Andrew Pepoy on his nominations for Best Short Story and Best Continuing Series, and to all the other nominees!

Here’s the full list of nominees…

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Has the world hit ‘Peak Anime’?

Has the world hit ‘Peak Anime’?

Disturbing if true: ICV2 has an article entitled, simply, Worldwide Anime Market Shrinking. In a lecture by TV Tokyo’s Keisuke Iwata, he noted that due to market saturation, illegal downloading, the worldwide recession, and the rising yen, “It is easy to imagine the global marketplace shrinking from 2010 onward." According to Iwata there may be little or no growth potential for anime sales outside of Japan and that the industry “may have to go back to the way it was in the past — back to selling Japanese animation only to the Japanese marketplace."

And with a market already glutted and the massive lead time and resources required to create anime, we should expect to see big crashes. Imagi Studios already had to get bridge financing to complete production of Astro Boy.

Anime News Network has reported that the total revenue of the Japanese anime industry rose rapidly from 2003 when it was estimated at 167.4 billion yen (about $1.9 billion), peaked in 2006 at $258.8 billion yen (about $2.9 billion) and then fell to 236.9 billion yen in 2007.  Figures for 2008 aren’t available yet, but given the financial distress of many anime producers, another decline is a foregone conclusion.

Also note that Iwata’s market factors of market saturation, illegal downloading, and the worldwide recession apply equally to comics.

Manga Friday: The Dregs

Manga Friday: The Dregs

Manga Friday took a little holiday for the last couple of weeks, and it may take more holidays in the weeks to come. Looking back on my recent columns, I’ve said an awful lot of “and here’s the next volume in a series I’ve reviewed four times” and “this week’s books have nothing in common” – and neither of those are quite what I’d hoped. I think I’m reviewing too many of the same manga, too often, so I expect to cut back on Manga Friday substantially in 2009, unless I start seeing more different things.

I expect to keep reviewing stuff here on Fridays, but there may be somewhat less of the specifically Japanese/Korean stuff for a while. (Or possibly not – whenever I try to predict something like this, I’m usually wrong.) But I’ll save the name “Manga Friday” for when I’m looking at books that would be called manga by that legal construct, the “reasonable man.”

So, for this week, I have three books, arranged in ascending order of volume number:

The Manzai Comics
Story by Atsuko Asano; Art by Hizuru Imai
Aurora, January 2009, $10.95

This opens with an odd hint of yaoi, as large, athletic, energetic, popular student Takashi Akimoto begs small, weak, timid (generic manga hero Type 1) Ayumu Seta to “please go out with me” and “do it with me.” Takashi actually wants to form a manzai comedy team with Ayumu, but he’s either too dim or too focused on himself to actually say that for several pages.

(Apparently – I have no personal knowledge of this, but several references agree – the dominant form of comedy in Japan is manzai, two-person acts, rather than sketch comedy or stand-up or improv. Think Abbot & Costello or Crosby & Hope.)

Ayumu is not just an ordinary shy boy – well, he’s a manga hero, so you know there’s got to be some horribly dramatic thing in his past – he considers himself responsible for the car-crash death of his father and older sister because he was clinically depressed (and completely untreated as well). So he has the standard “I just want to be normal” complex of the dweeby manga hero in spades.

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ComicMix QuickPicks – January 6, 2009

ComicMix QuickPicks – January 6, 2009

Today’s installment of comic-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest…

* Producers Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Pixar’s John Lasseter are working to guarantee a huge success for this summer’s release of Hayao Miyazaki’s new animated movie, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, according to Variety.  Their aim is to increase the number of movie screens where Ponyo will open here, and thus the box office receipts, from Studio Ghibli’s previous US record for Spirited Away, which earned $10.1 million on 714 screens according to Box Office Mojo.  The English voiceover cast for Ponyo will feature Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Betty White, Lily Tomlin and Cloris Leachman.  Ponyo was Japan’s biggest movie of 2008, grossing $165 million.

* Kyle Baker reviews The Spirit.

* Dan Goldman is telling the story of the 2008 election, and has a twenty page preview available as a PDF. I won’t spoil the ending for you.

* Happy Public Domain Day for the rest of the world. We won’t have any new entries here for a few years.

* I nominate this as the top anime fansub of 2008. Do I have a second to the motion?

Anything else? Consider this an open thread.

Funimation Entertainment Grabs ‘Ikki Tousen’ Rights

Funimation Entertainment Grabs ‘Ikki Tousen’ Rights

Funimation Entertainment announced this week that it has acquired broadcast, digital, and home entertainment rights to the 13-episode Ikki Tousen anime series, which was produced by J.C. Staff and broadcast in Japan in 2003.  The Ikki Tousen anime was previously released in the domestically by Geneon, but Funimation’s announcement clearly stated it had licensed the series directly from Enoki Films.

Tokyopop is publishing Yuji Shiozaki’s original Ikki Tousen manga series under the English title Battle Vixens.  The 14th and final volume in the series is due for release here on February 10.  Shiozaki’s seinen manga followed the martial arts adventures of a number of well-endowed high school girls who are possessed by the spirits of warriors from the bloody Three Kingdoms period in China (roughly184 AD-280 AD). 

A second anime series, Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny, aired in Japan in early 2007.  In 2007 Media Blasters announced that it has acquired the rights to the 12-episode Dragon Destiny, but has not released any DVDs from the series.  A third Ikki Tousen series aired in Japan from June to August last summer according to ICv2.

Funimation also announced the test launch of its new streaming video service (funimation.com/video), which will offer hundreds of high quality, full length episodes, including many full series.  Episodes of Aquarion, Black Blood Brothers, Darker Than Black, Guyver, Gunslinger Girl II, Negima 2, Ouran High School Host Club, Romeo x Juliet, Sigurui: Death Frenzy, and STRAIN: Strategic Armored Infantry are currently available and new episodes will be rolled out each week including examples of series currently airing in Japan.  The videos can be streamed for free or downloaded for a fee.

The new site features a higher-quality video player, both subtitled and English-dubbed episodes, Flash video streaming, same-screen video playback (without a pop-up window), an expandable video player, and a lower lights feature.

DelRey Adds Ninja Girls in 2009

DelRey Adds Ninja Girls in 2009

Del Rey Manga has announced the acquisition of Hosana Tanaka’s Rappi Rangai, which it will arrive in bookstores under the name Ninja Girls.  Produced in Japan by Kodansha, the ongoing series has five volumes to date out in Japan. 
 
ICv2 describes it as “A young man in Japan’s distant past has an encounter with a beautiful female ninja that helps him discover that he’s the last living descendant of a feudal lord family; a group of beautiful ninjas that will help him regain his throne.”

This will mark Tanaka’s domestic debut.

“Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestoria’ Coming in Spring

“Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestoria’ Coming in Spring

On the heels of a movie announced, TMS Entertainment has said their sequel series Bakugan Battle Brawlers: New Vestoria will also be coming in 2009.  The 26-episode anime will begin airing in the spring, according to Animenation.

Bakugan Battle Brawlers
was originally a 52-episode series that debuted in Japan in April 2007 and on the Cartoon Network in February.

Spin Master Toys and Nelvana are co-producing the new series as they did the original and it will also have ties to the internationally popular game, which combines elements of collectible card games and traditional games like marbles. It has grown quickly leading to a wide array of licensed merchandise including fumetti-like books from Del Rey. 

As a result, Universal quickly snapped up the film rights earlier this week.
 

Keanu Reeves Talks ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Film

Keanu Reeves Talks ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Film

Keanu Reeves told MTV that the live-action adaptation of the popular Cowboy Bebop will take “Asteroid Blues”, the first episode and expand it into a feature. “We’ve got the rights, we’ve got a writer,” Reeves said. “He’s putting together a scene outline.”

Reeves and producer Eric Stoff acquired the rights via 20th-Century Fox in a deal announced over the summer.

The series was one of the early anime hits in the 1990s and gained a cult following for the 26 episodes, created by Shinichiro Watanabe and Keiko Nobumoto, which were produced and aired on Cartoon Network. Bandai Entertainment released the entire series and anime film Bones on DVD. It has made frequent appearances on top anime lists both here and in Japan.

“It’s got a Western quality, a Western film noir aspect to it,” Reeves said. “It’s got so much style to it, and that’s part of its appeal. That kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect.

“I think that would be a production designer’s dream. I think you just need a good production designer.”

The series, set aboard the spacecraft Bebop, is heavily influenced by American jazz music and cowboy themes.  It debuted in 1998 and reached America in 2001.