Fist of the North Star manga artist to revisit samurai friend of Maeda Keiji

This year’s 46th issue of Shinchosha’s Weekly Comic Bunch magazine has announced on Friday that Fist of the North Star artist Tetsuo Hara is launching a spinoff to his Hana no Keiji -Kumo no Kanata ni- manga about the historical samurai figure Maeda Keiji. The new Gifū Dōdō Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Tsuki-Gatari- series will begin in the magazine on November 7. According to Hara’s comments in the current Weekly Comic Bunch issue, he feels that he didn’t delve far enough into the life of Maeda’s close friend, the samurai Naoe Kanetsugu, when he drew Keiji from 1990 to 1993. A four-installment Keiji short story that focuses on Maeda and Naoe’s first meeting is already running in the magazine.

Hara and his writer Mio Aso loosely based their samurai stories on a novel written by Keiichiro Ryu. The defunct North American manga publisher Gutsoon! Entertainment published portions of the original Keiji manga in its Monthly Raijin Comics magazine.

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The "Post-War Japanese Shōnen and Shōjo Magazine Database" has launched on the Internet on Monday with Japanese listings for 1,221 magazines. The database is split into two parts: "The Era of Post-War Shōnen and Shōjo Magazines and Monthly Magazines" covers 24,841 volumes of 619 magazines with about 200,000 works from 1945 to 1962, while "The Era of Shōnen and Seinen Magazines and Weekly Magazines" covers 5,488 volumes of 602 magazines with about 173,452 issues from 1955 to 2007. For example, the first section lists 1908-1955’s Shōjo no Tomo text and manga magazine. The second section lists last year’s defunct Comic Charge magazine and 1,200 manga titles and features that have appeared in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. (The 1,200 listings only represent part of Shonen Jump’s manga and features — more are being added to the database.)

The Contemporary Manga Library, Kawasaki City Museum、and the Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics oversaw the development of this database. There are different levels of access to the data, ranging from no-charge browsing to an annual 6,000-yen (about US$60) "Course C" fee for individual subscribers and an annual 380,000 yen (about US$3,800) "Course A" fee from complete access. (Academic institutions and public libraries have discounted fees.) Browsers can look up a magazine’s company, publishing dates, volume count, manga titles, and authors in the database’s second half without charge. Paid subscribers can access information about individual issues, editorial staff, price, and details about color inserts. Paid subscribers can also search by keyword.

source: animeanime.jp

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You may recall that I very briefly mention yesterday, that a live action version of the hit Japanese anime movie, Akira, has been announced.  This film is going to be broken up into two parts, however, currently they have only announced the first installment.

Whilst much is not known as of yet, I can confim that the film is to be directed by the little known director Ruairi Robinson.  Thankfully, the story is being written by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, who created the manga, and Gary Whitta, who is writing the screen play of the movie.

Currently, there are no confirmed actors, however there are rumours…rumours which I hope and play stay that way, mainly because, they have ‘rumoured’ to cast Leonardo Di Caprio (WHAT!!!?),, most famous for his destruction of a classic Shakespearean play, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who most people will know as "that kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun".

To be honest, Di Caprio is a terrible actor at the best of times, and the only role I believe he has actually been good at, was in the Aviator, and that was probably because of the interesting story, and not his portrayl of the character.

But there you have it, the inside scoop about the Akira Live Action Movie…lets wait and see what hideous things Hollywood wants to include in this popular anime movie.

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On Friday the 9th May, the latest Wachowski "Matrix trilogy" brothers action movie ,Speed Racer, which is based on the 1960s anime series Speed Racer (aka Mach GoGoGo) opened in theaters worldwide.  However, the film has so far failed to achieve the kind of box-office sales required to be the big-budget Hollywood summer blockbuster that is had been expected it to be. The film only took $20.2 million, which is far below the already scaled-down estimation of $30 million.

With this in mind, I once again question the financial viability of the other big-budget live action anime adaptations currently in-production; including the recently finished filming Dragonball, which has been highly anticipated for many years, as well as the recently announced Akira and Ghost in the Shell.  Let’s hope next time they leave it up to the Japanese…im sure we would see an immediate improvement.

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Well, I honestly didn’t think I would be writing about this again so soon, however, I have got in my possession more images from the upcoming Live Action Dragonball Movie, starring Justin Chatwin as Goku, and James Marsters as Piccolo.

The photos provided, were leaked from the set whilst filming in Mexico, and whilst there are actually a few photos now, the ones I share with you today are what I would call the ‘pick of the litter’ and are the best quality phots available.

These images are provided by HoyCinema.  This first image depicts Goku in his strangely different and extremely orange Gi.  Now, whilst I am at least  happy to see that the Gi has remained, I am dubious as to why they decided orange was a better choice in colour, however, this is merely a minor detail.

 The second image that I wish to share with you today is this cool fight scene.  Now, at this point in Goku’s life, you must remember, he was not known to be a Saiyan, and certainly did not have the powers that he had by the end of Dragonball.  I bring this up as I have noticed on a lot of forums, people are saying Justin is too scrawny to depict Goku.  However, throughout most of Dragonball, Goku is actually a little pudgey, and is certainly not musce bound at all, thats why his appearance was always deceiving.

Anyway, so this scene shows them fighting…possibly training, and I must be honest, this image fills me with hope that this film is not going to be the worst film ever…its unlikely that it will be good, of course you realise, however, I have wanted this made for years and would so love it to be good. lets all hope and pray for our dreams to be answered!!!!

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With the recent release of the new live action Speed Racer movie…which by the way looks awful, and as though it should have remained either an anime or computer animated, I have decided to write about the old and classically brilliant (and hillarious) Speed Racer.

Speed Racer is the title of an English adaptation of the Japanese anime Mach GoGoGo which centered on automobile racing.  Mach GoGoGo was first created, and designed, by Tatsuo Yoshida (1932–1977) as a manga series in the 1960s and successfully made the jump to TV as an anime series in 1967.

Speed Racer was quite a westernised anime, and this was due to the creator, Tatsuo Yoshida’s affinity for the United States through portrayals of American life in numerous films.

Despite their Westernization, the series stil falls into the familiar manga-anime storyline.  Speed Racer definitely resembles typical manga characterization of a teenage boy with superior skills, this this case, his amazing racing and driving skills, facing unreal adversity through a multitude of villains, something that is more common in Mech anime’s such as Neon Genesis Evangelion.

If you are contemplating going and watching the new Speed Racer movie…don’t, simply go out and buy the who series of the cartoon (or one of the two series available) as I am almost certain you will be much more entertained.  However, if your curiosity does in fact get the better of you, and you do end up watching this appaling adaptation of an anime movie, then please feel free to inform me of exactly what this movie is like.

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As you may be aware, Hentai plays a large part in the world of anime, and has done since it was introduced many years ago.

The actual translation of the word Hentai is Pervert…and random fact for you there.  Hentai was originally created to prevent Japanese women from exposing themselves to the porn industry.  They believed that by replacing real women with those of anime characters, less women would have work within the porn industry, and therefore would be respected within the Japanese community.

It was thought that if women were used for pornographic material, they would be seen as objects of desire and lust, and not those of affection.  However, the Japanese porn industry did continue to make movies (as many of you will be aware of) as did the anime industry.

The reason I believe that hentai maintained its status within culture, alongside the porn industry, is because it was able to offer something that the porn industry couldnt.  Due to the use of anime characters within hentai movies and series’, these characters can participate in the most surreal ‘activites’, and of course, for every fantasy a man…and for that matter, a woman, can have, can come true through the use of anime.

What is strange about hentai is, even though most women have an issue with their boyfriends/partners/husbands watching porn, should they be caught watching hentai, it seems more often than not, the women simply do not care as they deem it as a cartoon.  Im not entirely sure if this is the case within Japan (being that Hentai began its life there) but it is defintely the case in the UK, and I can only guess throughout the US,

I personally dont really mind hentai, more often than not its comical, and has an actual story to it (like ‘Adventure Duo’) and I think that most anime fans have at least once watched a hentai, though its defintely not something to watch whilst your gran is in the room.

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By now, most of you who read this must know of the Live-Action Dragonball movie that is to released around July 2009.  Well, it appears that we are in for another shock on the live action band wagon, as we are informed that there i now going to be a live action Evangelion movie with a release date of 2009.

Unlike with the Dragonball movie, the evangelion movie is actually going to be written by the Hideaki Anno, the writer from the original anime, so lets hope that they dont mess this one up, as America is so prone to do so.

ADV films announced the production of the live action movie at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003, however, since then, there has been no work on the film.  However, the film is now in post-production phase, so even though its not 100% definite that the movie is to be made, its definitely looking likely, and with the release of the Transformers movie last year, and the upcoming Dragonball movie, it seems likely that the Evangelion movie will go ahead.

Sadly, as of yet, there are no confirmed actors, producers or synopsis which I can share with you, however, as soon as information is made available to me, I will be writing an update.

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More recently, animes have become more appealing to the male gender.  This is from the semi-recent introduction of Lolita’s within anime series’ and movies.

One of the most famous Lolita characters is Chii from Chobits, with her flowing dresses and sometimes gothic attire.  The question I want to ask is what gave the japanese the idea of creating such characters.

The first adult (Hentai) anime to come out came out in 1984, the english title being "Lolita Anime".  It is believe that the reason Lolita’s are used in more anime’s is because a high quantity of anime fans, more or less usually male, seem to have developed a Lolita complex.  This means that they are attracted to adults, with either a child like personality, or a very young appearance…so someone who is 24, but looks about 16ish.

Unlike Lolicon, I dont really see any problem with Lolita’s…in actual fact, its no different from people dressing up in school uniforms in order to seduce their partner.

Here is a list of some anime’s that may appeal to you, if you yourself have a lolita complex, though I think it necessary to tell you most of them are hentai.

Lolita/cute factor

Angel Core

Lolita Anime

Maids in heaven SuperS

Maids in Dream

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I recently purchased the popular and ground breaking anime Paprika.  For those of you who don’t know about this anime, it was recently (semi) released into the UK after its long awaited release.

The animation style is ground-breaking, and once you have watch Paprika, you can fully understand why it was so awaited.  It’s just brilliant and beautiful, it really is, so much so, that can’t even really begin to tell you about it, so here is the synopsis:

The visually striking thriller is set in the not-too-distant future, where doctors are developing a groundbreaking new psychotherapy treatment called PT. This coincides with the invention of a device called the ‘DC Mini,’ which enables researchers to enter the dreams of a subject and explore matters of the unconscious mind. But one day, a ‘DC Mini’ prototype goes missing, and the doctors are thrown into a world of confusion. They realize how dangerous a turn of events this could be, and to ensure that things don’t spiral out of control, they embark on a mad quest to track down the missing prototype.

So anyway, any anime fan must see this film, it’s one of those few films that more or less everyone loves and appreciates!

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