Synch-Point producer Shizuki Yamashita has an amusing look at the new FLCL Ultimate Edition booklet, noting such nuggets as the Japanese book’s failure to correctly credit the show’s animation director.
A trailer for Katsuhiro Otomo’s live action film adaptation of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi manga is now online. (Click the blue box in the bottom right corner.) Source: Animenation
Softgarage has put up an official English language website for the upcoming Giant Robo 40th Anniversary anime here. The site has information about the history of Giant Robo, a brief history of robot fiction in general, character and robot profiles, and more. According to the promotion plan, the anime is expected to premiere in December. There are also two manga tie-ins, one currently being serialised in Champion Red, and the other starting in Comic Gum in November
Goro Miyazaki’s Gedo Senki (Tales of Earthsea) may not see a US release until at least 2009, according to Earthsea author Ursula K. Le Guin. “Mr. Miyazaki’s movie won’t be shown as long as the Sci-Fi Channel people sit on their rights, which they have until ’09, unless they decide to stop being a dog in the manger,” she tells the New York Times.
The Sci Fi Channel aired a live action Tales of Earthsea series in 2004. According to the article, representatives from the Sci-Fi Channel did not respond to calls seeking a comment.
Gedo Senki was Japan’s highest grossing film this summer, bringing in more than $60 million in the box office.
ICv2 has published another list of the ten most popular people in a market segment, this time it’s the North American manga industry. Numerous experts from throughout the industry were asked for their own top ten list, and the results were tabulated into ICv2’s list.
ICv2’s top 10 can be seen on their website here, while their full article, with explanations of all the top 10, is available in ICv2’s Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga #16.
The three most powerful people in the North American manga market, according to ICv2, are:
Kurt Hassler, Graphic Novel Buyer, Borders Group;
Hidemi Fukuhara, Chief Executive Officer, Viz Media; and
Stuart Levy, Founder, CEO, Chief Creative Officer Tokyopop.
Snoop Dog’s Hood of Horror, which includes numerous sequences animated by Madhouse, will premiere tonight at Screamfest 2006. The movie will be released to theaters on November 17.
According to their fall catalog AnimEigo will include the first 40 episodes of Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl in the first box set, due out in “early 2007″. The Yawara! TV series runs 124 episodes total. AnimEigo has also stated that they will hold a diminishing price pre-order for Yawara!, where the price of pre-ordering the set will diminish as the number of pre-orders increases. Source: Anime on DVD [
For the 10th anniversary of the Japan Media Arts Festival, Japanese fans were asked to vote on the top 10 anime and manga of all time. Over 80,000 votes were received in the anime category, and just under 79,000 in the manga category (people were allowed to vote for up to 10 titles).
The top ten manga are:
1. Slam Dunk (Manga)
2. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Manga)
3. Dragon Ball (Manga)
4. Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)
5. Doraemon (Manga)
6. Phoenix (Manga)
7. Black Jack (Manga)
8. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Manga)
9. Mushishi (Manga)
10. Death Note (Manga)
The top 10 anime are:
1. Neon Genesis Evangelion (TV)
2. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Movie)
3. Laputa - Castle in the Sky (Movie)
4. Mobile Suit Gundam (TV)
5. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (movie)
6. Mushishi (TV)
7. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (TV)
8. My Neighbor Totoro (Movie)
9. Full Metal Alchemist (TV)
10. Ghost in the Shell (Movie)
As you see many of yours and my favorites are not listed, but that happens all the time on these lists.
The Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema (WFAC) has announced the first ten films for the 2006 festival. Among the 10 movies are Origin ~Spirits of the Past~, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles and Shisha no Sho (Book of the Dead). All of the films will be presented in their original languages with Japanese subtitles. WFAC runs November 16-19 in Waterloo, Ontario.
The Hachette Book Group (formerly Warner Books), publisher of the Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Little Brown) imprint, is considering the addition of a graphic novel imprint under Little Brown.
Last week, Hachette hired Rich Johnson, former v-p of trade book sales at D.C. Comics. According to Megan Tingley, v-p and publisher of Little Brown, Johnson was hired to “explore the possibility of launching a graphic novel imprint.”
Little Brown is considering the launch of a broad line of graphic novels that would include, but not be limited to manga and OEL manga as well as webcomics and original American comics.
According to Publishers Weekly (PW), Little, Brown is “emphatic” that they are only “considering” the graphic novel imprint. PW adds that Hachette is the only major New York publisher to not have a comic book program of some sort.