A new, full length trailer for Molot Entertainment & Studio 4°C’s feature anime film First Squad has surfaced. The film will has its premiere screening today at the 2009 Fantastic Fest film festival in Austin, Texas. It opens in Russian theaters on October 15th.
I have to admit that while I’m still hoping to be blown away by this film, my awe of it has been decreasing with each new trailer released over the past four years. This is undeniably a groundbreaking collaboration, but I can’t avoid thinking that the footage in this latest trailer reveals some weakness in art design and animation quality that’s not quite as fluid as earlier pilot footage. Maybe it’s just a case of being faced with realistic circumstances after so many years of elevated expectations.
Japanese publisher Gentosha Comics has announced a 2010 release for an anime feature film based on Hidekaz Himaruya’s historical gag manga Hetalia ~ Axis Powers. The best selling 2008 and ongoing manga series has spawned a currently ongoing weekly web/cel phone anime adaptation.
I’m not surprised by this announcement since the franchise is so popular. But I do wonder how Hetalia can sustain a feature length movie when the narrative often struggles just to fill five minute weekly episodes.
Konami has scheduled the release of a 30 minute Tokimeki Memorial 4: Hajimari no Finder (The First Finder) OVA for December 3. The OVA will be available on DVD or BD as part of a collector’s edition release of the Tokimeki Memorial 4 PSP romance simulation game and as an individual DVD retailing at 5,000 yen & Blu-ray retailing at 6,000 yen.
Bandai Namco Games has announced that Bandai Visual will produce a CG anime companion to the upcoming .hack//Link PSP game. The new anime is described as “not a TV series,” suggesting that it may be a production similar to last year’s full CG .Hack//G.U. Trilogy which had limited theatrical screenings before being released on DVD. The .hack//Link game, supposedly the final installment in the .hack franchise that launched in 2002, will go on sale in Japan next February.
Honda’s experimental human mobility device allows movement in all directions, including side-to-side and diagonally, travels at up to 6km/h, weighs under 10kg, and can run for an hour on a full charge of its lithium ion battery. It’s still experimental because, as Cnet describes, “the U3-X is more about showing off an engineering breakthrough than selling an actual product.”
Question:
I was thinking since I know some anime have stopped production before or have been canceled do to financial problems. Would it be possible for a studio to, on their website as an example, open a fund for donations to continue development of an anime to completion or keep quality high? Do you think there would be a lot of fans willing to donate funds to do this? Also, if it is not possible, why not? Are there laws that prevent this from happening or would the amount donated be insignificant enough that it would be a waste of time?
Earlier this month Japanese publisher Shueisha revealed that Madhouse’s new anime television series Aoi Bungaku Series (Blue Literature Series) would consist of adaptations of four contemporary classic works of Japanese literature. Newtype Magazine has now revealed that the show will actually consist of 6 adaptations.
73 year old veteran manga creator Kazuo Umezu will teach the fundimentals of creating manga in an 8 episode instructional program titled “Chukonen mo Guwashi! Umezu Kazuo no 4-Koma Manga Nyumon” (Gwashi Even When You’re Middle-Aged! Kazuo Umezu’s Four-Panel Manga Primer) airing as part of the NHK Educational network’s ongoing instructional series Shumi Yuyu (Leisurely Hobbies). Umezu’s mini-series will premiere on November 5.
Celebrity manga creator Kazuo Umezu is best known for manga series including Drifting Classroom, Makoto-chan, Cat Eyed Boy, and his prolific output of short horror stories.
James Young, Ford Oelman and Mark Costa of Animus Films and NHO Entertainment have filed suit against World Event Productions (WEP), claiming that Animus and NHO were guaranteed an exclusive opportunity to begin developing a feature film based on WEP’s Voltron: Defender of the Universe property, but during that exclusive period, WEP secretly negotiated film development with other production companies. The plaintiffs are suing for breach of contract, fraud and interference with contractual relations, and are seeking various forms of damages. WEP, which now has a Voltron movie development deal in place with Atlas Entertainment, has responded, “This lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously… Fortunately, these baseless claims do not in any way encumber the film or any other Voltron project, and we are excited to proceed on the long-awaited Voltron feature film with our partner Atlas.” Animus Films CEO James Young has stated, “We want the movie to get made. We just want to make sure we’re involved in some way and are compensated.”
WEP is also currently still engaged in legal mediation with Toei Animation related to WEP’s lawsuit against Toei, arguing that Toei had interfered with WEP’s attempts to negotiate a production deal for an American live action Voltron movie. Toei insists that WEP has full control of the animation franchise but does not have exclusive rights to produce a live action adaptation of the concept and characters that Toei created.
Independent game developer Elecorn LLC is bringing a brand new style of game delivery to the App Store with Caster, a high speed free roaming fantasy themed third-person shooter. Unlike traditional games that deliver story lines in large sequels or expansion packs, Elecorn is leveraging the power of the App Store to use an incremental publishing style that resembles Japanese manga and anime.
Caster is an episodic game that presents an intense third-person action shooter experience with pulse pounding music. In the game, the player dashes across scenic locations destroying bug like creatures called the Flanx using six unique attacks that include massive terrain deformation and high speed barrages of energy blasts. All new episodes are released periodically for free. Caster is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and iPhone.
All of the text above is quoted verbatim from Elecorn’s press announcement. I’m not saying anything.
California based William Winckler Productions (WWP) has confirmed that it will collaborate with Japanese companies Toei Animation & Rioloco Productions on the production and distribution of English dubbed compilation movies culled from classic and contemporary Toei Animation titles. WWP has already completed work on 23 feature length films including three films each for Gaiking, Danguard Ace, and Starzinger, two films each for Captain Harlock, Adventures of Nadja (adapted from Ashita no Nadja), Lun Lun the Flower Girl (adapted from Hana no Ko Lun Lun), Kitaro’s Graveyard Gang (adapted from Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro), and six films culled from the Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken) television series. Additional productions are planned for the future.
According to WWP, “distribution, including DVD, broadband, and television, will be announced in the coming months.” WWP’s William Winckler is credited as writer, producer, and director of these new dubbed movie edits. He previously worked on the 1984 English dub of the 1975 Space Knight Tekkaman TV anime.
I’m not one to criticize or discourage any company entering the anime distribution industry, but this does seem like a massive step backwards to the days of FHE, Best Video, DIC, Sandy Frank, and Harmony Gold productions.
Video hosting website Crackle.com has added 94 episodes of the notorious Samurai X English dub produced by Sony and broadcast in the early 1990s in Europe, the Philippines and India. This particular English dub of the Rurouni Kenshin television series has never previously been officially distributed in North America.
Question:
Even though the Soul Eater anime was extremely faithful to the manga in it’s beginnings, it abruptly changed and ended rather uneventfully. The latest chapter release has made me wonder if perhaps Soul Eater could take a cue from the Full Metal Alchemist series and begin again where it shifted from the manga. How likely do you think this is?
The body of 51 year old Crayon Shin-chan creator Yoshito Usui, who was reported missing on September 12, was discovered on the 19th. Usui was discovered 120 meters below the Arafune mountain’s Tomoiwa cliff in the mountains of Gunma prefecture where he’d gone for a personal hiking trip. Usui appears to have accidentally fallen to his death, although police reports state that the established trail is too far from the cliffside for someone to fall. The last photo found on Usui’s digital camera is a shot from the top of the cliff looking down, leading investigators to believe that Usui accidentally fell while taking pictures. Police have confirmed that Usui passed away in the afternoon of September 11th.
Futabasha’s Manga Town magazine will publish the final two completed chapters of Usui’s Crayon Shin-chan manga in its November and December issues. The Crayon Shin-chan anime TV series is presently on a scheduled hiatus until October 16th. Television network TV Asahi has announced that it will not make any decisions about the future of the anime franchise until first holding discussions with relevant individuals, presumably including Usui’s family and the Shinei Douga animation studio that animates Crayon Shin-chan. The anime may continue, as similar popular family shows including Sazae-san and Doraemon have continued after their creator’s deaths.
Futabasha said it was “going through great shock, now that the worst outcome has come to past. There are no words to express the anguish of the surviving family, but we just pray for his happiness in the next world.”