Posts Tagged ‘movies’
Viz Cinema, a 143-seat theater in Japantown, San Francisco, will host the US premiere of “Kara no Kyoukai: the Garden of Sinners” on Saturday, February 5. Starting at 1:30 PM, movies 1, 2, and 7 will be screened, and there will be a discussion panel with members of the production staff afterwards. The Blu-Ray box set of all seven movies will be released by Aniplex of America on February 8, less than a week after the Japanese release.
The Garden of Sinners hits the US in 2011.
Also, on February 19 there will be a screening of the subtitled version of GANTZ, the live-action movie of the popular manga and animated series. The English-dubbed version premiered last month. Read the rest of this entry »
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These two announcements could not be more different, and I’m lumping them together for just that reason. The above video is the cutesy, fluffy announcement of a K-On! movie from Kyoto Animation, which is sure to cause paroxysms of joy in the hearts of its many devoted fans. Me, I’ve never bought into it. But given its massive popularity within the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre, it’s certainly going to find a large and willing audience once it comes out.
Meanwhile, the 35th volume of Miura Kentarou’s epic fantasy manga Berserk has given word that a new anime project is finally in place. The last time there was a Berserk anime was all the way back in 1998, so this announcement has been a very long time coming. The bloody, gritty, and often uncomfortably dark Berserk manga has been running for 20 years with only 25 episodes of Guts being awesome to show for it, so this new anime should be awesome.
Which project are you most excited for?
Edit: updated with the trailer for the new Berserk.
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Edit: Satoshi Kon’s birthday is October 12, so technically he died at age 46. The Japanese sources said he was alive for 47 years, which isn’t quite the same.
An otherwise sleepy night in Japan has been interrupted by the rippling news that Satoshi Kon (technically, Kon Satoshi, but I’ve known him as Satoshi Kon for so long that it’s hard to go back to Japanese name order) passed away suddenly at the age of 46. In spite of the early hour – it’s 2 AM on the 25th in Japan right now – anime fans on social networking site Mixi and industry luminaries like Takeda Yasuhiro have expressed their sorrow at the loss of such a well-respected creator. More and more confirmations are coming in, with the head of Madhouse (via Jim Vowles of Otakon) stating that his company has lost a very important director. No cause of death has been given.
Satoshi Kon burst onto the scene with his psychological thriller Perfect Blue in 1998, and made a reputation for surreal and beautiful movies, with Millenium Actress and Paranoia Agent making strong impressions on international audiences. He was working on The Dream Machine (Yume Miru Kikai) at the time of his death, and no word has yet come on what will happen to the movie’s slated 2011 release.
RIP, good sir. I should go watch the Magnetic Rose segment of Memories again, to remind myself of just how much talent the anime world has just lost.
Macross fans who’ve been waiting for a year to hear about the second Macross Frontier movie now have a title and release date to hang their hat on. At last weekend’s Gira Summer Carnival fan event in Yokohama, Japan, the fans learned that Sayonara no Tsubasa (“Wings of Farewell”) will see a February 26th, 2011 release.
In the meantime, just like the release of the Universal Bunny album preceded the first movie, there will be a music video collection (a la Gurren Lagann Parallel Works) released on December 15 of this year. The DVD will collect footage from the TV series, add in some movie footage, and sprinkle in some original animation to create a new set of audio-visual feasts for fans to drool on.
Go to DMC! Go to DMC!
Well, it’s about time. Viz Pictures has announced that a release plan for the 2008 Detroit Metal City movie. DMC is the live action adaptation of Wakasugi Kiminori’s comedy manga about a simple country boy named Negishi Soichi, who fronts a death metal band as the demonic Johannes Krauser II (pictured above). Their current schedule is not yet solid, but a DVD release is coming this fall, which will most likely be accompanied by a limited theater release, a la 20th Century Boys and Death Note.
I saw the movie while I was in Japan back in August 2008, and it was hilarious. I’ve fallen out of love with the manga in recent years because it got too crazy and aggressive over time, turning the main character into an unlikeable font of schizophrenic rage; as a 100-minute movie, it felt just right as a cheesy, funny look at a man struggling between what he likes and what he’s good at. Matsuyama Ken’ichi’s (L from Death Note) portrayal of Negishi mixes comedic buffoonery with just enough tragedy to keep you sympathetic. Plus, you can’t hate a movie that gives you the pleasure of hearing Gene Simmons say “Kill him, Metal Buffalo!” It’s just not possible.
Hit the jump for the official movie trailer and a bonus music video from the original promotional campaign.
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Whee, more vague details.
Hey look, some answers about the mostly mysterious Fafner project! The new details are that the new Soukyuu no Fafner: Heaven and Earth will open at Cinema Sunshine Ikebukuro on Christmas of this year. Beyond that? No real details. Could we see some actual trailers please, guys?
Or better yet, some music?
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I’ve spent a lot of today trying to figure out the right angle to Aniplex of America’s decision to take the wonderfully over-the-top Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann movies to market themselves. On one hand, it’s good that fans will be able to get their hands on the movie after a whole lot of silence on the part of anime companies about the compilations. On the other hand, their release plan is pretty weak: Bandai’s online store and a couple of conventions are as far as they are going, which doesn’t even match the reach of Gundam Unicorn‘s Amazon-only release.
I’ve decided that I’m just going to hold my nose at the scattershot business plan and just get the movies because they’re fun. If you think like me, you’ll be glad to know that the wait isn’t very long. Both DVDs are going to be released in July, you can pre-order them now, in both an economy $25 version and a deluxe $40 special edition.
But really – does anyone think that this kind of limited business model has any kind of future? This kind of news drives anime further and further into a tiny, tiny niche.
The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi Attacks American Shores on Three Fronts
Posted on: April 15, 2010
Because there hasn't been a sad girl in snow on the front page in a while.
Bandai emerged from its winter hibernation today and dropped some big news: not only do they have the license for the well-received The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie, but they’ll be testing the waters with small theater releases starting in May. Viz’s New People theater here in San Francisco will screen the film adaptation of the fourth Haruhi novel on May 21st, and Bandai says that the movie will have a small run in Hawaiian theaters starting in June.
I’ve been itching to see this movie for a year, so this is great news for me, and about a hundred other San Francisco anime fans. Who’s going to be there with me watching the Haruhi universe turn upside-down on May 21st?
Over on the Trigun official movie site, they’re now streaming one last trailer before the movie makes its international debut at Seattle’s SakuraCon and then hits theaters in April. The trailer shows a bit of the story of the movie, which stars several new characters who apparently ran into Vash the Stampede when they were young and hold some kind of grudge against him – probably related to the Humanoid Typhoon coming through and ruining their hometown when they were young, but that’s just an educated guess on my part.
After reading Kekkai Sensen last week, I’m all psyched about Yasuhiro Nightow’s work again, and this makes me feel even more envious of those Seattle convention attendees who will be getting an advance screening. Argh!
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FUNimation is doing everything it can to get you excited about a release that’s not only a remake of a 15-year-old anime, but a cleaned-up release of a DVD they released just last year.
If you’re still interested in Evangelion 1.11 in spite of the fact that there are only 3 minutes of truly new footage (the rest of it is a video transfer fix from some issues with Evangelion 1.01), you should check out some of the many, many trailers FUNimation has put up in anticipation of the March 9th release of the high-definition release of the Evangelion remake. FUNi has even been kind enough to put everything in a single Evangelion 1.11 YouTube playlist so you can see what you’re in for.
Convincing people to buy the same product twice is always a tough sell, and I see FUNimation facing a bit of an uphill battle with so much Eva out there already – are any of you going to buy this one? If so, why?
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