We’re going to spend much of the next four days at the Javits center for the inaugural New York Anime Fest, kicking off today with Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga. This is a major event from Reed Exhibitions, which also puts on NY Comic-Con (and a sister company of PW, which hosts this blog.) Big anime events in New York have had a spotty track record in the last few years, but all of the big publishers and producers are in for this one, there are lots of guests, and a wide array of events, including the American leg of the World Cosplay Summit!

You can see the HUGE lineup of programming here. Guests are here.

To be candid, we’re not too well prepared for this show. All signs point to a big success, but since it’s a new show on the calendar, we didn’t prep for it much. We were all “Oh, it’s baby Max;s first birthday!” and “Oo, Elisa and George are having a holiday party!” and now it’s “Panel panel panel and then drinks with soanso and dinner with soanso!” But that’s okay. We will be bringing you extensive coverage from the floor. ANN, Brigid Alverson, Kai-Ming Cha and the other top manga journos will all be there as well, and we’ll link to their sure-to-be excellent coverage.

In lieu of a big preview, here are two links from Pop Culture Shock: Five things to do at New York Anime Fest and Erin Finnegan’s New Manga Map of NYC

USA Today via Superhero Hype

By the way, isn’t it “The Wachowskis”…not “The Wachowski Brothers”?

AFRO SAMURAI has made the rare reverse commute: the American-produced manag-adaptation anime in now popular in Japan:

Okazaki’s strange tale initially failed to attract attention in Japan, where mainstream cartoons feature cute wide-eyed heroines or fighting robots.

He sold just a trickle of his Afro Samurai comics in the 1990s, peddling his work to specialized bookstores in Tokyo.

“Okazaki’s work was too weird for most mainstream manga fans, who love cutsey characters,” said Atsushi Sugino of Japanese animation company GDH K.K., which is co-producing the TV series and movie.

It was only in 2001 - after an American executive at anime studio Gonzo, Eric Calderon, learned of Okazaki’s work - that Afro Samurai finally headed to the screen.

Samuel L Jackson as the voice also helped.

The New York Anime Festival is fast approaching (December 7-9) and the programming  schedule has just been posted.

Even if you’re not a manga or anime fan there’s lot of interest here, including Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga on the 6th, and panels on Gekiga and other types of manga during the show.

The New York Anime
Festival is sponsored by ADV Films, Anime Innovation Tokyo, Anime Insider, Anime Network, Anime News
Network, AnimeNEXT, BookExpo America, Diamond Book Distributors,
Entertainment Consumers Association, FUNimation Entertainment, ICv2,
ImaginAsian, Kinokuniya Bookstores, License! Global, Manga Video, New York
Comic Con, NEW YORK - TOKYO, Newtype
USA, Publishers Weekly, Starz
Media, THINK Corp, TOKYOPOP, Video
Business, VIZ Media, Wedge Holdings, Wizards of the Coast, and the World
Cosplay Summit.
 

The New York Anime
Festival’s Guests of Honor include Peter Fernandez, Corinne Orr, Kobun Shizuno,
and Aimee Major Steinberger.  The
New York Anime Festival’s musical guests include HAPPYFUNSMILE, UNICORN TABLE,
and Voltaire.

Disclaimer: NYAF is put on by the same folks as the New York Comic-Con and BEA, who we’ve worked with in the past and they are owned by the same parent company as PW.

Overnight Delivery Purchase Aristocort

Doses range from 50–400 mg daily, with up to 600 mg daily when given IV/IM.

A couple of announcements from the upcoming New York Anime Festival. First the announcement of a number of web guests, and also an ICv2 conference:

Pop culture publishing and consulting company ICv2 has announced its first ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: “Inside the Otaku Generation” at New York Anime Festival (NYAF), the new event being launched by the organizers of New York Comic Con.

NYAF will bring together more than 120 exhibitors, and will feature the latest in anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, as well as the best of anime-influenced comics, animation, and film from around the world. NYAF will be held on December 7-9, 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.

The ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: “Inside the Otaku Generation” will be held on Thursday afternoon, December 6, 2007 at the Javits Center, on the eve of NYAF.

(more…)

We want this.

We want this, too. Kuromi is our kind of Sanrio character.

* Birthday: October 31 (Halloween).
* Personality: Although she looks cruel, she is actually very girly. She loves handsome guys.
* Hobby: She enjoys writing in her diary. These days, she’s into romance stories.
* Favorite colour: Black
* Favorite food: Pickled leeks.

ANN is reporting a new round of layoffs at anime company ADV, which just recently started getting back into the manga publishing game:

An A.D. Vision (ADV) representative has informed ANN that the company has laid off 13 staff members from various departments of the company. “In October, ADV has laid off a number of positions, pretty much across the board. During the same period, we’ve also hired several new people. The changes in our staff levels and the allocation of staff across departments is a reflection of our priorities for the coming year.”

The move follows recent layoffs at both Funimation and Geneon. The anime business in America has been shaky for a while now, having matured quite some time ago, and facing increased competition from bootlegs, downloading and the other ills of the modern world. While these movies don’t mean it’s all over, it just means that adjustments will continue to be made.

Forget about the US Open, the World Series, or the Westminster Dog Show — New York is about to get a new competition which will knock the world on its Goth-Lolita clad ass: The World Cosplay Summit’s USa Preliminary round is coming to the NY Anime festival this December!

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced a major partnership with the World Cosplay Summit, the leading international cosplay event which takes place annually in Japan and attracts an audience of cosplay enthusiasts and professionals from many countries all over the globe. The World Cosplay Summit features the very best cosplayers in the world competing before famed anime and manga creators. Previous notable judges have included Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999) and Go Nagai (Cutie Honey). Countries which participated in the 2007 World Cosplay Summit included: Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, and Thailand.

“We are focused on making NYAF a broad cultural event which embraces the many aspects of anime and recognizes its influence around the world,” notes John McGeary, Show Manager for NYAF. “This partnership is perhaps one of our most significant steps on the road to doing that. The World Cosplay Summit is nothing less than the Super Bowl of all cosplay. We’re very proud to offer American cosplayers the chance to have their costumes and talent recognized on both a national and international stage.”

Festival organizers note that the partnership will provide NYAF with the opportunity to stage the World Cosplay Summit’s Official USA Preliminary Round. The winners of the convention’s Masquerade will receive a free trip to Japan to represent the USA in the World Cosplay Summit Finals in Summer 2008. The New York Anime Festival is the only American anime convention approved to be part of the World Cosplay Summit.

(more…)

NPR’s On The Media looks at the cultural impact of manga:

Manga is Japan’s ubiquitous art form; a kind of comic book equivalent that illustrates everything from tax preparation to hard-core fantasy. But it is its growing success outside Japan that’s highlighted its new utility, what Japanese politicians are calling ‘manga diplomacy.’ Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, explains why politicians are recognizing the form as a powerful cultural export.

[Thanks to Kevin for the link.]

Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, has thoughts on manga as a feminist issue, in comparing the number of “strong female characters” in anime and manga with real life gender roles:

Indeed, a foreign fan of manga and anime might be forgiven for assuming that Japan, creative nerve center for the artwork itself, is a global leader in gender equity.

Yet just last month, The New York Times ran a damning indictment of Japan’s actual treatment of women in the workplace, noting that in 2005, women held a mere 10.1 percent of all management jobs in Japanese companies and government. (The U.S. figure is 42.5 percent.) In the United Nations index of gender empowerment, a survey of 75 countries, Japan ranks 42nd, far below Asian neighbors such as Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. The article predicts dire consequences for a nation with an anemic birthrate and looming labor shortages.

cum movies freegroup movies free sexmovie japan pornmovies son momvomit movies pukeporno movie freemovies incest homeprivate movies porn Map

PR:

VIZ Media, one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has licensed the Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE anime series to Adult Swim for domestic broadcast beginning Saturday, October 20 at midnight (EST) on the network’s popular Adult Swim block of programming. New episodes will follow each week thereafter.

Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE is a suspenseful mystery, inspired by a 12-volume manga counterpart (published in North America by VIZ Media), and follows the adventures of Light Yagami, an ace student with great prospects but who is bored out of his mind. All of that changes when he finds the Death Note, a strange notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god named Ryuk. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals mysteriously begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal - or his life?

The unique storyline and complex characters, combined with visually stunning animation by Madhouse, made Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE one of the most popular anime series in Japan and anticipation for the North American release has built steadily since VIZ Media first began publishing the manga series. Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE also spawned two successful live-action films, set for domestic distribution this year by VIZ Pictures, and a plethora of related posters, toys and action figures. VIZ Media will further release Volume 1 of DEATH NOTE, containing 4-episodes, on DVD on November 20.

“The domestic broadcast debut of DEATH NOTE has been patiently awaited by fans across the country and we are pleased to team with Adult Swim to facilitate it,” states William Germain, Director, Animation Production, VIZ Media., “The mix of drama, mystery and action has already made the Shonen Jump DEATH NOTE manga a hit and the anime series takes the characters and plot to the next level with a captivating visual style. We look forward to fans tuning in each week for the latest adventures of L and Light as they struggle to outwit each other and demonstrate conflicting ideas about right and wrong.”

PR:

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced prominent online artists and performers Chris Hazelton, GeekNights, Juno Blair B, Lindsey Henninger, and Uncle Yo will be featured at its inaugural event, December 7-9, 2007 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The New York Anime Festival, organized by the creators of the New York Comic Con, is committed to being an event which spans the anime world, and NYAF’s newly announced guests — podcasters, webcomic authors, and online illustrators — further expand the convention’s boundaries. Existing guests, including Kobun Shizuno (Co-Director of Evangelion: 1:0 You Are (Not) Alone), David Kalat (author of J-Horror: The Definitive Guide), and Yoshi Amao (founder of performance group Samurai Sword Soul), come from both the pop culture to traditional culture realms.

“I’m very pleased to welcome NYAF’s new guests,” Show Manager John McGeary said. “Chris, GeekNights, Juno, Lindsey, and Uncle Yo are all talented fans of anime and manga, and they’ve each turned their love into something creative. We’re very happy to give them this opportunity to shine.”

(more…)

Anime News Networkreports that manga/anime sensation DEATH NOTE, will begin airing on Adult Swim beginning at midnight October 20th. The tale of a teen who fights evil with a death-dealing notebook has already been a worldwide hit in manga, anime, live action and novelized form.

[Via Blog@]

PR:

VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, has announced that it has licensed from Nippon Television (NTV) the North American theatrical and DVD distribution rights to the live-action feature film DEATH NOTE and its sequel, DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME, based on the DEATH NOTE anime and manga series which have gained massive followings in Japan and North America. VIZ Media is the exclusive North American publisher and distributor of the DEATH NOTE anime and manga series.

VIZ Pictures will open DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME in a series of special screenings at Austin’s Fantastic Fest 2007, September 20-27, and at the 2007 Vancouver Asian Film Festival, November 1-4. Theater information follows at the end of this release and future screenings will continue throughout 2008. VIZ Pictures also plans to release DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME on DVD in the summer of 2008.

(more…)

PR:

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) is anticipating a significant launch when it opens its doors to the public on December 7th, 2007. While show officials acknowledge that it is still too early to accurately estimate the number of people who will attend, the early enthusiasm and anticipation for a New York City based anime event is, according to John McGeary, the Con Manager, “Both significant, and very real!” He notes: “We have been getting some great feedback about NYAF and we’re excited about our show. One of the key things we want to do is expand beyond anime specifically to embrace many aspects of Japanese culture. This will make our show unique and it will certainly make it popular to a broad community. The audience for anime and manga is already huge. By featuring many different elements of Japanese culture while still focusing on anime and capitalizing on the enormity of our New York City fan base, I’m feeling optimistic that we’ll have a very busy and stimulating event.”

(more…)

PR:

Today ADV Films and Geneon Entertainment (USA) announced a new distribution agreement. From October 1st on, ADV Films will be Geneon Entertainment USA’s sole distributor. ADV Films will handle all sales and distribution duties for the combined catalogue as well as certain marketing functions.

Geneon Entertainment (USA) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based advertising giant Dentsu, Inc. Geneon is a pioneer of anime in America, having helped to launch Pokemon, Appleseed, and Akira on home video. More recent hits include some of the best-selling franchises in anime today, including Hellsing, Ergo Proxy, and the new hit series Black Lagoon.

“This is a great alliance,” said Geneon President and CEO Eiji Orii. “The efficiencies we’ll achieve ultimately will mean more anime for the fans to enjoy.”

(more…)

Anime Expo was this weekend, with some 35,000 fans converging on Long Beach — down from last year but still a lot of cosplay. We don’t have time to read all the news and so on, but here’s a BUNCH of links — let’s meet back here tomorrow and catch up, okay?

§ ComiPress has ALL THE LINKS. Get a cup of coffee, sit down and GO!

§ Manganews has links and some headlines for a digest version:

§ Brigid runs down the major manga news here and here. Didn’t look to be anything heart stopping to this non-otaku’s eyes, although CMX is launching actual a new format for its latest M-rated titles, starting with PRESENTS by Kanoko Inuko and VARIANTE by Iquara Sugimoto. Many other new books from DrMaster, Go Comi, etc etc.

Picture above ganked from Japanator, randomly chosen out of what are probably scores of cosplay picture galleries going up as we speak.

According to one survey, almost 1 in 4 Japanese men between 30-34 is a virgin:

“There are 11 percent of people who gave an invalid answer to the survey and I bet you the vast majority of them would be virgins. And though there is also 65 percent who said they have had sex, that also includes the guys whose only experience is a single session at the brothel and nothing since, so there are a lot of virtual virgins in amongst them, too,” Watanabe says.

The Japan Cherry Boy Association currently boasts of 517 members whose ages range from their teens to their 40s. Many join the association in the hopes that women will visit its website and try to pick them up. Some members, albeit only a few, actually succeed in “graduating” from the club by successfully experiencing sex.

Some have found comfort in works of fiction:

Conservative virgins argue that they’ve had enough of real women and would prefer two-dimensional types such as those found in manga and anime, who are also not going to lead them to the pain of rejection.

We’ve been poking around lately trying to figure out if things like NYMPHET are normal fun for the whole family or outlets for more dysfunctional aspects of Japanese society; answering such a question is far beyond the scope of one little blog. However we have heard repeated mentions of a Japanese “sex crisis” as in many young women and men not having any. We also are reminded that lots of shojo(girls) comics are actually read by young men. (And girls read shonen.) Anyway, we dont’ have any answers…just throwing that out there.

[Found via Simon at Icarus]

Tickets for the 2007 New York AsianFilm Festival are on sale now, and as always it’s a mind boggling array of films. There are quite a few manga/comics tie-ins, and Grady Hendrix was kind enough to give us the low-down:

DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME - the big, fwapping manga turned into live action movies that are like Agatha Christie meets Edgar Allan Poe. And director Shusuke Kaneko will be here, too.

BIG BANG LOVE, JUVENILE A - the best gay men in prison movie ever made. And it’s based on a manga (ELEGY FOR BOY by Masaki Ato). Plus it has a rocket in it. Sort of LOVE AND ROCKETS for gay men.

DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS - based on a Korean webcomic. It’s a muscial about teenagers at Dasepo (Useless) High School who spend their days getting perverted. Totally fun, and sex-positive. The kind of movie where you leave wanting to lynch right wingers!

FREESIA: BULLETS OVER TEARS - yet another manga adaptation. This flick is pretty amazing but has a very low profile. The mange it’s based on is FREESIA by Jiro Matsumoto.

And then, not adapted from manga, there’s ZEBRAMAN which is all about superhero fandom:

And, of course, the terrifically racist, sexist, offensive, joyous AACHI & SSIPAK - one of the most amazing animated movies ever made.

Click on links for tix.

Compete looks at what people are searching for in Wikipedia, and the results may surprise you:

Anime (26%)
There is a tremendous amount of interest in learning about Pokemon and Naruto. Perhaps these are parents who want to know what their kids are going crazy over. My Mom didn’t know what “He-Man” was until I was a grown man reflecting on how silly Castle Grayskull was. My mom could have used Wikipedia in the 80’s.

Sex (16%)
What’s interesting about the top sex related terms on Wikipedia is that they do not appear to have gratuitous intent. The top terms include very straightforward inquiries on human reproductive ‘parts’ and basic concepts of what sex is and how it is performed. It appears many people are learning about what sex is and how to have it by referencing Wikipedia.

A Toronto Gay lifetysle website runs an interesting preview of the Anime North convention by looking at yaoi fans through a gay perspective:

But Kat Williams, a Toronto-based anime artist and author who organized queer panels at the convention for several years beginning in 2000, says she’s dismayed by the lack of queer content created specifically for queers at recent Anime North gatherings.

“[Last year’s Yaoi North] was pretty much straight girls squealing about their favourite [gay anime] couples,” says Williams.

Lai makes no bones about the genre’s objectification of queer men. “But yaoi men are as ridiculous as gay porn men,” she says.

Nor is she worried about the lack of gay activism at the conference. “We don’t discourage people being proud and out or talking about issues like that… [but] this is a hobby, an interest. Our purview is discussing cartoons. We’re not saving lives.”

Schwartz is all for straight anime lovers’ queer obsessions. “These people are our straight allies. They’re the ones who are with us at gay pride marches, and if they relate to gay media, then that makes me happy bringing them into the gay community.”

Did you ever want to be a Japanese schoolgirl? Well now you can in a new RPG called Panty Explosion!

In Atarashi Games’ Panty Explosion ($20) players take on the roles of psychic Japanese schoolgirls and battle nightmarish demons, ghosts, government agents and even each other. Like the typical “magical girl” manga or anime, Panty Explosion mixes the mundane and the macabre, the petty trials and tribulations of high school life and the life or death struggle against supernatural monsters. The rules encourage teamwork and creativity while focusing on friendship and storytelling. Anime and manga fans with an interest in immersive role-playing will be able to bring the experiences they have gained watching and reading their favorite magical girl sagas to this game.

Atarashi’s second gave is called Classroom Death Match, and ICv2 reports they also have a yaoi RPG in the works. You can go here and download a DEMO of Panty Explosion, which seemingly contains magic and monsters instead of crying in the bathroom, worries over monthly bloat, and shopping for knee high white socks.

You can also sing “Let’s play Panty Explosion” to the tune of “Master and Servant” by DMode!

ComicMix reports on a Broadcasting & Cable magazine report that the Sci-Fi Channel will soon begin airing a 2 hour anime block on Mondays, starting on June 11.

The schedule has yet to be set in stone, but they’ll be kicking off with Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society, and airing Noein, Tokko, and Macross Plus for at least the following two weeks.

[TEKKON KINKREET made news both as the adaptation of a respected manga, AND the first Japanese anime film to be written and directed by Americans. It’s currently on a very limited release in the US. Guest reviewer IVAN BRANDON (NYC Mech, 24seven) sent us this review.]

I’ve always said that there are artists out there whose work should probably never be adapted. In most of Vonnegut’s work, for example, the joy of the experience depends largely on his voice.

In the comic book world, if you asked me to make a list of works I’d think were inadaptable in that sense, I’d put Taiyo Matsumoto’s TEKKON KINKURITO (Black and White, in the American printing) high up in the rankings. The world Matsumoto creates in TK is so specific and odd… the subtlety and nuance of his characters is unlike the work of any other creator I’ve read in comics or film. (To me, it’s the holy grail of kid characterization, murderous violence aside.)

That said, the preview footage I’d seen was intriguing, and the other night I went to see the US debut of Japanese STUDIO 4°C’s hand-animated adaptation, called TEKKON KINKREET, and written and directed by first time American film-makers Michael Arias and Anthony Weintraub, respectively.

And to whatever degree the task might be difficult, they take a hell of a crack at it.

The art style is its own animal, but as faithful a recreation of Matsumoto’s art as I think one could want, beyond him drawing every piece himself. Like the book, the visual POV is all over the place, capturing the scope and depth of an enormous and intricate environment from ground and air. The characters retain Matsumoto’s unique visual flair, completely unlike the preconceptions I’ve heard of what manga or anime “look like”, blending European and American influences into something completely new.

The real test, though, for any fan of the source work, is how the characters express themselves beyond their visual construction. This is the area I was most dubious about, and the area in which I was most surprised. There’s no telling what Matsumoto’s characters sound like in his own head… and as in any adaptation, no film’s interpretation will match the version a reader builds while reading it. But 10 minutes in, watching TEKKON KINKREET, I was stunned by how close it was getting to mine.

The movie’s arc is different than the comic version as the demands on Matsumoto in a weekly serial are completely unlike the demands of a 2-hour film. Where the book moves quickly throughout, there are spots the movie drags ever so, although visually there’s never a dull moment. And while the film hold a lot of the comic’s strengths, so too does it hold it’s weaknesses, and while both are enormously entertaining, neither’s a flawless creation.

But all in all the experience of watching the film is spectacular… the world is both bombastic and intimate, the characters nearly as strange and amazing as the first time I encountered them.

I’ve always said that there are artists out there whose work should probably never be adapted. Sometimes I’m happily wrong.

A couple of stories that illuminate this sometimes confounding activity. In Hawaii, the deck sums it up:

Passive fun isn’t for hard-core anime fans who toil to dress the part

and the story digs in:

About an hour and a half later, Sasaki says in her gentle voice, “So, anyone want to start on buckles?” The eight group members clear away dinner, head for the soda boxes and bring out … costume pieces. Half contain Styrofoam pieces that will become shoulder pads. The other half are full of vinyl pieces cut into arrow shapes that will become buckles for jackets — the main reason for tonight’s get-together.

MEANWHILE, Japan Times focuses on some new establishments in the Shibuya os Tokyo where you can pretend you’re in prison, complete with giant needles. Whee!

Each version of Alcatraz incorporated some variation on the basic theme, and the Shibuya E.R. seems to strike the right balance with its unique blend of (im)pure cosplay. In short, it is both a maximum-security prison and an emergency medical room where it’s Halloween every night and ghoulish jailers and macabre medics take charge. Talk about a spanking.

Fortunately, it is all just play. As soon as you step out of the elevator onto the second floor, you are in a holding cell. The doors are controlled from the inside, so you must wait until they are ready to admit you. Once inside, your induction will be “processed” by the resident on duty. The night nurse will be summoned to assist. It is her job to see that any potentially dangerous inmate in each fresh intake is securely handcuffed. Remember: good behavior will be rewarded, so be on your best or it might be you — or at your worst if you want it to be you.

After that, disinfection procedures begin. There are simply no words to describe the size of that needle, except for maybe “ouch!” Well, not really. It is big, but I don’t want to spoil the gag by revealing exactly what they do with it. You’ll have to go and find out for yourself.