Posts for 'Anime Movies' Category

The Oh My Goddess! (or Ah My Goddess in some circles) universe is quite large and somewhat tricky to piece together. It consists of the original 40 volume (at the time of this review) ongoing manga , 2 sets of OVAs, 2 different TV series, and finally 1 movie. The title is literally “Ah My Goddess” and some localization teams feel it is better that way. The author himself has stated however, that his original intent was something closer to “Oh”. This review is actually for the OVA produced in the early nineties and distributed here in America by AnimeEigo. This particular OVA is actually the first animated adaptation of Kosuke Fujishima’s popular manga series of the same title. As with many OVA’s, it offers up a small number of high quality episodes but ends all too quickly.

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Anime  Videos: Gundam 00 Movie Set To Premiere This October In NY Fest: Its going to be great news as Gundam 00 Made its announcement on having its Film set to premiere over at the NY fest this coming october. it was clearly announced by Japense Anime Studio Sunrise that they Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A wakening of the Trailblazer will be over at North America for a premiere over at the New York Anime Festival this coming October 10 at 2:00pm. The premiere will not come in english but will be under English Subtitles only.

This two hour film of Gundam will be the sequel for the two season Mobile Suit Gundam 00 television anime. The director of the Movie is Seiji Mizushima. The film will be opening in Japan this Coming September 18, 2010. Check out the trailer here as we wait on for Gundam 00 Movie to premiere to the world.

Greetings, Rama readers! Your friendly neighborhood David Pepose here, coming to you with some advanced reviews from the post-SDCC craziness, including books from Dynamite, Top Cow, Oni Press, Aspen Entertainment -- and even a sneak peek at Marvel's Iron Man Anime. Looking for more? Have no fear, you can check out more reviews at the Best Shots Topic Page! And now, let's let Lan kick off the column with a look at Top Cow's years-in-the-making new event, Artifacts...ne of the thirteen. Listen to me. You must know this. Separately each artifact is an immense power. All have bearers, chose by fate to carry those burdens." -- the Curator

This is it.

For months now, Top Cow has been giving us hints, teasers, and even a #0 issue that came out on Free Comic Book Day this year, and it's all lead to Artifacts #1, and by George, it is glorious.

Much like with most things he does with Top Cow, Ron Marz has made it accessible to new readers without them worrying about who's who and what's what. It's right there, in black in white. Well, not exactly black and white, but you get the gist. There is a character dossier, a two-page origin of the Witchblade (written by Marz and drawn by Marc Silvestri), and so much more. With all of that, you would never feel lost even in the slightest.

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I could tell after one look at the Premium Edition of Persona: Trinity Soul that this series was not going to fit in among my shelf of anime DVDs. Literally.

The Premium Edition of Persona: Trinity Soul throws in a hardcover artbook filled with episode summaries, character references, background art, mini-comics, and some Q&A with the creative staff. Flip the book over and it becomes an illustrated picture book referenced in the show. The artbook is visually impressive and helps make sense of the anime.

The hiccup about the Premium Edition is that with the keepsake box housing the first 13 episodes of Persona: Trinity Soul in two DVD thin cases side by side with the artbook underneath, the result is an anime series that awkwardly sticks out from my DVD shelf. It would have been more practical for NIS America to use conventional DVD packaging for the anime series and include the artbook as a separate case for the Premium Edition so I could at least incorporate the book into my bookshelf of anime artbooks. At least both would fit into their respective shelves.

While the packaging is different and a bit awkward, Persona: Trinity Soul as a show is familiar territory. A trio of brothers reunite in a city. While the oldest is investigating mysterious deaths as the police superintendent, the younger two adjust to their new schools, befriend quirky classmates, and get pulled into a rather dangerous school fad. Eventually the older brother's investigation intersects with the extracurricular activities of the younger brothers as the body count rises and the antagonists responsible for events gradually reveal themselves and their plans.

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Anchor Bay Entertainment has picked U.S. home distribution rights to the award-winning animated thriller “First Squad: The Moment of Truth” from L.A.-based XYZ Films. Created and written by Misha Shprits and Aljosha Klimov and directed by Yoshiharu Ashino (”Pokemon: Jirachi-Wish Maker,” “Piglet's Big Movie”), the movie is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front and features a group of Soviet teens with extraordinary abilities.

The teens form a special unit to fight the invading German army, specifically an SS officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th century. No release date was given, but Anchor Bay hopes to release it on Blu-ray and DVD later this summer.  The film was produced by Molot Films and Studio 4C, the company that was behind Warner Bros.’ “Animatrix” a few years back.  - Borys Kit

The editors of Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine have confirmed on Saturday that the anime plans for the Alive - Saishū Shinka teki Shōnen (Alive - The Final Evolution)  manga have been halted, despite the best efforts of those involved to revive the project.

In June of 2008, the magazine announced that Tadashi Kawashima and Adachitoka's Alive - Saishū Shinka teki Shōnen science-fiction adventure manga would be animated for television. The manga follows the life of a Tokyo high school boy named Taisuke Kanō, after a mysterious force causes mass suicides across the world. However, Kanō and his friends not only survive the calamity, but have evolved, as a species, into something darker.

According to the Monthly Shonen Magazine editors, production on the anime project was suspended last year due to the delisting of the Gonzo anime studio from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Gonzo was co-producing the anime with another studio, AIC. The people involved did their best to revive the project after Gonzo's delisting, but to no avail.

The manga began its serialization in the magazine in 2003, and the manga ended in Japan this past February. Del Rey published the eighth of 21 volumes of the manga in North America last November.

Warner Bros. Animation is rebooting Rankin/Bass’ goofy ’80s toon ThunderCats  with the help of a Japanese anime studio. But can the pedigreed effort rehabilitate Snarf, one of the most annoying cartoon characters of all time?

“ThunderCats marks our most ambitious foray yet into fantasy,” said Sam Register, Warner Bros. Animation’s executive vice president, in a press release Wednesday. “The realism and dynamic visual style we’ve achieved are sure to thrill viewers, and the cool weapons, vehicles and technology should help the show appeal to a diverse audience.”But what will all those animated power players do with Snarf, a character that shares the ignominious dishonor of being one of the worst carton characters in history (along with Super Friends‘ blue monkey Gleek)? Check out YouTube user darrin282’s highlight reel above for a taste of the grating whines Snarf visited upon children of the ’80s.

You can probably be sure you won’t witness anything like that in Warner Bros. Animation and Studio4°C’s much-needed upgrade. But what exactly will you see? Let us know your visions for the reboot in the comments section below.

Earlier this month, the city of Kobe began streaming a four-minute promotional tourism anime short that was created by independent animator Junichi Yamamoto. The "Kobe to Watashi" ("Kobe and I"/"Kobe and Ai") short is streaming with English subtitles on the Kobe City Channel on the YouTube  website, as well as on the city's own site. The anime will also be shown on the giant Space Theater Harborvision screen in the Kobe Harborland shopping district and at Japan's pavilion at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China event.

The short follows a college student named Ai-chan as she wanders aimlessly around Kobe. An unusual figure appears to help guide her around the city. Yamamoto directed, wrote, and animated the short himself, and famed veteran voice actor Akira Kamiya makes a special guest appearance. Yamato won the highest award in the 14th Animation Kobe Digital Creators' Contest last year. Yamamoto had created a "memory" short that was nominated for 2009's YouTube Video Awards.

The first episode of MADHOUSE's Iron Man anime series will have its world premiere at Comic-Con International, which will run in San Diego from July 22 to July 25. The Animax  anime television channel has also announced  that the anime will then hold its television premiere on Animax in Japan on Friday, October 1 at 10:00 p.m. Marvel Entertainment had previously stated  that the 12-episode series would premiere during the second quarter (April-June) of the year. Marvel Anime: Iron Man and Marvel Anime: Wolverine  were slated to air in the United States next year.

Marvel Entertainment had revealed in August of 2008 that it was working with MADHOUSE on four series with Marvel's stable of comic book characters. (The other two projects will center on Blade and X-Men.) Masao Maruyama, the co-founder of MADHOUSE, offered a video preview of its Iron Man and Wolverine work at Comic-Con International last July.

The English website for the Japanese anime studio Production I.G has posted the first part of a 2008 interview with director Mamoru Oshii about his recent film The Sky Crawlers. In the first part of the interview, Oshii discussed the similarities between our world and the world of The Sky Crawlers, and his opinion on the man and machine interface today.

The Akibanana website has also posted an interview with Oshii, regarding Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai, which Oshii wrote the screenplay for. In the interview, Oshii discussed why he decided to write about Musashi Miyamoto, his manuscript for the movie, and his working process with the director for the film, Mizuho Nishikubo. Erica Friedman, president of Yuricon and ALC Publishing, has posted an interview on her blog with yuri  manga artist Miyabi Fujieda (Iono-sama Fanatics, Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to, Di Gi Charat contributor). In the interview, Fujieda discusses how he became a manga artist, his influences, his motivation to start creating yuri manga, and his drawing process.

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