Father Geek here with Scott for another round of our popular weekly Manga & Anime news column.

I was lucky enough to be present at a rare screening of Miyazaki's phantastic aviation anime adventure Porco Rosso at Austin's Grand Olde Dame of a theatre (built in 1915), The Paramont the other night. I've had a Japanese language print on video for years and its one of my favorite animes. I even am lucky enough to have a handful of original animation cels, and some production drawings from this masterpiece in the family's Animation Art Collection. Well, I wasn't disappointed with what I saw that night, its a strikingly beautiful print with great sound that was a sight to behold on the giant screen of this 1400 seat onetime opera house in the shadow of the Texas Capitol building on Congress Ave.

My only disappointment was the word, from the people who helped bring this version of the classic anime into existence who were there, that Disney has NO intention of releasing this film to theaters around the country. So, while it was great to see the film in all its glory. The way Miyazaki and Ghibli originally intended it to be seen. I was sad at the thought that fans everywhere else will be forced to see it only on the "little" screen. Bummer!!!

Now on to our regular weekly report...

AnimAICN...

by Scott Green

Anime Spotlight: Android Kikaider: The Animation Volume 2: Conflicting Hearts

Released by Bandai Entertainment

Android Kikaider: The Animation takes pieces of the 70's wild imagination and Osamu Tezuka/Go Nagai stylized design, spices it up the modern animation capabilities and takes it down the road of post Evangelion introspection.

Jiro is a guitar strumming loner who is unable to connect to the human or android world. He's the center of the familiar "what makes us human?" tract. He doesn't fit in with the android agents of the villain Doctor Gill because of a Gemini Chip which gives him a conscience to question orders, but he doesn't fit in with the humans because he is still subject to the destructive impulses of his programming.

The metaphysics takes a bit of back seat to melodrama in this volume. The first of the second volume's three episodes is an extraordinarily familiar story about a the last good deed of a crook, livened up by an nice Mayan jaguar looking robot. The rest of the DVD deals the daughter of Jiro's creator's kidnapping at the hands of vampire robot, and the revelations of her family's history. The history of Jiro's creator, and his dark financer is slowly being unveiled in a very satisfyingly dark manner. Even the characters have begun to describe the knot of relationships Shakespearian, and its echoes malice, misguided ambition and sorrow that give the series bite missing when it was focused on one conflicted robot.

Kikaider plays excesses of the subgenre, especially as it has in the 70's (a flock of bio-engineer, electric shocking bats was a nice touch). There mix of very familiar characters and situations, with a bit of a new edge.

Anime Spotlight: Cat Soup

Released by Software Sculptors

It is rare treat to see a work like Cat Soup outside a festival. It is short, 34 minute work that features the strange mix of cute, commercial looking characters, and outlandish design seen in Takashi Murakami's Super Flat work (see an interesting article about his work in the latest Wired magazine), or Hitoshi Tomizawa's Alien Nine.

Cat Soup is a journey of the whimsical macabre that may be dying visions of a cute cat creature. Nyatta begins playing with his toy car in the bath water, and he slips in. When he pulls his head out of the water he sees a spirit taking his sick sister Nyaako away. After a tug of war he is able to recapture half of his sister's soul. As he flees home with his sister's soul, the death spirit speaks a pictogram of a flower. Nyatta takes his sister on a household errand, but ends up on a quest for the flower.

Cat Soup is a collection of stream of conscious images and visions. As the ideas flow, inspired by memory, association, and bursts of imagination the world builds from impressionistic landscapes, and a child's wonder and thoughts world shaping to a sophisticated universal clockwork. The director maintains an ambiguity as to whether the story is a magical journey, or Nyatta's last thoughts.

Often the images are cute, and attractive, but they keep returning to overpowering floods, and destruction from small child's disruptions, like disturbing tadpole eggs to God performing an amazingly gruesome carnival actor of sawing a woman into pieces.

Cat Soup is a one of kind experience that fans of the animated medium need to see. It has the brilliant inspiration of Fantasia or classic Looney Toons.

This Week's Releases

Anime

• Banner Of The Stars Ii - Prey
• Baoh
• Infinite Ryvius - Lost In Space
• Power Dolls: Complete Collection
• Rahxephon - Aria (Vol. 6)
• Saint Seiya - Power Of The Cosmos Lies (Vol.1)
• Steam Detectives:Volume 1
• Super Dimensional Cavalry - Southern Cross (Complete Series)
• Those Who Hunt Elves 2 Vol. #2
• Urusei Yatsura - Tv Series 2
• Urusei Yatsura Movie 1: Only You

Manga

• Alien Nine Ultimate Dvd & Gn Collection
• Bastard Vol 1 Tp 2Nd Ed
• Berserk Vol 1 The Black Swordsman Tp
• City Hunter Vol 3 Tp
• Di Gi Charat Vol 1 Gn
• First President Of Japan Vol 3 Tp
• Five Star Stories Eng Lang Manga #13
• Five Star Stories Eng Lang Manga #14
• Please Save My Earth Vol 1 Tp
• Slam Dunk Vol 3 Tp
• Slayers Special Book 4 Spellbound Gn
• Yuyu Hakusho Vol 1 Tp Goodbye Material World

Heat Guy J on MTV

Geneon/Pioneer has announced on their site that sci-fi cop show Heat Guy J will be appearing on MTV in late 2003 or early 2004. A review of the first volume of Heat Guy J can be see here

Live Action Cutey Honey News

From Natsume Maya the character designers on the Cutey Honey live action movie will be Terada Katsuya (Blood: the Last Vampire), Izubuchi Yutaka (director of RahXephon), Sugimura Shinichi and Anno Moyoko (mangaka, wife of Anno Hideaki, who's directing this movie).

Anime Crash Announces Second Acquisition

Anime Crash has announced that they have licensed Korean anime series Geisters: Fractions of the Earth

Tokyopop Announces Rising Stars of Manga II Winners

TOKYOPOP has announced the winners of their second Rising Stars of Manga talent competition.

Grand prize winner Lindsay Cibos will receive $2,500 prize and the opportunity to pitch a full-length manga series. First prize winner Nicholas Liaw will receive $1,000. Eight other winners will receive $500.

An anthology of the winning entries will be released December 9th.

Final Fantasy Unlimited Site

ADV has opened a site for their upcoming release of the Final Fantasy: Unlimited anime series at www.ffudvd.com

Mizuki Sakakibara Resurfaces at Marvel

Mizuki Sakakibara, the manga artist who was to illustrate Namor, the flagship of Marvel Comic's Tsunami line has recently her first work released by the company. Mizuki Sakakibara served filled in for the regular penciller in last week's release of Exile #36.

The Tsumani, which was focused on comics that could be reprinted as trade paperback collection for bookstores hit a stumbling block which its champion Marvl president Bill Jemas was removed from power leading up to his contract's expiration in Jaunary solitations for the first round of Tsumani trade paperback releases have been canceled.

According to X-Fan, Quest, the collaboration between Andi Watson and manga artist Yuji Iwahara is gone. "No plans to exhume Quest, not with any involvement from me anyway," said Watson. "Although with the changes at Marvel of late {editor} C.B. {Cebulski} might want to revisit it."

TOKYOPOP & Valusoft Talk Initial D Racing Game

TOKYOPOP and Valusoft has announced an upcoming PC game based on street racing anime/manga series Initial D, slated for release in early 2004. From the press release:

"We are truly excited about the engaging interactive component ValuSoft will add to the Initial D experience," said Stuart Levy, TOKYOPOP Founder and CEO. "By creating this PC-based game, we're bringing fans even closer to Initial D's intense drifting action by letting them take their own virtual drive through Mount Akina's hairpin curves."

With a slew of gripping racing games already under its belt-including the top-selling Midnight Outlaw Street Racing series-ValuSoft has established itself as one of America's preeminent software publishers. The company has already begun work on the action-packed Initial D PC game.

GXP Release Date

FUNimation has announced that first volume of sci-fi comedy Tenchi Muyo spin-off GXP (Galaxy Police) will be released on March 9th.

Synch-Point cuts FLCL booklets

Anime News Networkhas learned that the large information booklets that Synch-Point has been packaging with the release of FLCL be discontinued. Increased demand meant that the company could not keep up with production. The full, original release notes will be available as PDF files on Synch-Point's website.

Coastal Carolina reborn

According to Anime News Network AN Entertainment has announced that Scott Houke's Phoenix Post Sound will be used for the English language dub of the upcoming Miami Guns. Scott Houle was in charge of the recently close Coastal Carolina Sound Studios, regarded by many fans as the source of some of the best anime English dubbing.

Fan Fav Voice Actresses News

From Natsume Maya: Anime voice actress, and theme song singer Sakamoto Maaya (Escaflowne's Hitomi, music vocals for Escaflowne, Card Captor Sakura, Lodoss War TV) will be performing the role of Eponine in the Japanese production of the musical Les Miserables.

Megumi Hayashibara (Lina Inverse of Slayers, Rei of Evangelion, Anna of Shaman King, just about everything in the mid 90's) will be releasing new album will be released on 7 January 2004, price 3,150 yen (including tax).

Tezuka Game to be Released in US

Playstation 2 game Dororo will be released in the US under the title Blood Will Tell. The game is based on a samurai manga (comic) by Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka (though the games does not use his character design or style). The Magic Box has more information and screenshots here.

FUNimation Announces I-Guide Initiative

FUNimation (Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh) has announced that they will be working with g-Net Publishing to release video game strategy guides on DVD.

The iGuide will feature

• - video-based instruction on controls and game-play
• - video-based character, enemy, weapons, items, and maps galleries
• - video-based walkthroughs
• - web-based updates and content
• - print and search functionality
• - exclusive animated/video Bonus Content

4Kids to Adapt Magical Doremi

4Kids, who adpated the Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh anime series for American TV will working on the cute anime series Magical Doremi for the Fox Box programming block.

Upcoming English Ghibli Movie Transaltions

According to Anime News Network At theatrical showing of Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli's aviation adventure Porco Rosso, in Austin, Texas it was announced that Disney will be releasing the feature on DVD some time around April.

Working is currently underway on the ecological epic Nausicaa, which features voice work from Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, and Natalie Portman. The movie was previously edited and dubbed under the title Warriors of the Wind.

Whispers of the Heart has been translated, but there are problems with a song. (This could possibly be Country Road, which features into the movie's story). Hayao Miyazaki produced, scripted and storyboarded the movie, but he did not direct it. The movie is a high school romance between a girl discovering that she would like to work to be a writer, and an aspiring musician. The movie is mostly reality based, with one eye popping fantasy sequence.

The next movie after Nausicaa will be Pom Poko, a story of Japan's raccoon-dog tanukis, their mythical shape shifting power, and a fight against human encroachment. The movie was directed by Isao Takahata (Grave of Fireflies). It will be interesting to see how Disney adapts the movie. Like many tanuki stories, it deals with the size of the tanuki's testicles, but their agreement with Ghibli prevents them from the movies without Ghibli's approval.

Anime Law

IcV2 reports Wizard of the Coast has sued Nintendo of American for breach of contract and patent infringement, alleging that WotC employees Richard Arons and Rene Flores, who were hired by Nintendo, revealed WotC trade secrets to their new employer. WotC says Nitendo did not allow them to release their final Gold/Silver eidtion expension and hat Nintendo's Ruby/Sapphire game infringes on WotC's patent on "trading card games."

According to Natsume Maya Futabasha, publisher of the Crayon Shin-chan manga, state that copyright contraventions regarding the Crayon Shin-chan character in China, including piracy of the manga, VCDs of the anime, toys and unauthorised use of images on mobile telephones, clothing etcare estimated to translate into damages of up to 100 million yuan (approximately 1.4 thousand million yen). Sale of licensed goods commenced in January 2002 as a countermeasure, with the authorised edition of the manga selling for 8.8 yuan (approximately 120 yen), close to the price of pirate editions Crayon Shincah is a comic strip about a rambunctious kindergartener.

Recently, much attention has been given to the issue of stolen manga scripts being put on the market. Following the bankruptcy of manga publisher Sakura Shuppan's last December, over a thousand original drafts by manga artist Yayoi Watanabe were discovered on sale at a Mandarake anime/manga store earlier this year. A further eight thousand original drafts were found at the store from twenty other manga artists, including Hirokane Kenshi, Ide Chikae, , and others. The number of sheets taken from each person ranged from ten-some to around six hundred.

To battle this problem, the Committee for the Protection of Manga Scripts was set up to spread public awareness of the issue. Chaired by Hirokane Kenshi, the Committee held a press conference on September 8 at Koujimachi Square in Tokyo. The core members of the group are comprised of manga artists and other supporters that are dedicated to finding a solution to this problem. Amongst their goals is trying to help avoid and deal with similar situations in the future.

The committee plans to discuss with publishers how to control original manga drafts in the future. With the support of over 160 people, including manga artists Tetsuya Chiba and Michiko Satonaka, they will file a lawsuit against the parties at fault. Both Chiba and Satonaka are directors of the prestigious Japan Cartoonist's Association, an affiliation that could prove to be influential in the months to come. With strong manga advocates like Satonaka and Chiba helming the movement, this issue is unlikely to settle down for quite some time.

Anime Business News

Nintendo has announced plays to buy over one million shares of Bandai after being approached by the company. Both parties have stated that there are no plans for Nintendo to buyout Bandai.

Icv2 Reportsr Bandai America is having a hard time meeting demand for its SD (super deformed) Gundam figures. Bandai America's Senior VP of Sales and Marketing Bill Beebe has been taken aback by the effect these squashed-down robots have had on the market: "We're absolutely blown away by the response. We were confident they'd find a devoted audience, but they've far surpassed our expectations. We're making them as fast as we can to meet demand."

Viz Bonus

Viz has announced limited edition foil cover prints of the first volumes of Yu-Gi-Oh and Naruta. In addition to the special cover, each copy will feature an imprinted serial number on the cover so that collectors can experience the thrill of owning one of only 5000 printed editions.

According to Anime News Network, Viz's 2nd edition releases of Battle Angel Alita will feature a smaller size than the first edition, a less expensive price, and foreign releases but not in Viz's previous release.

Volumes 1 through 8 will include background pages pertaining to the respective volume, usually a diagram with a short bio on a particular character and/or venue, and sometimes a little strip cartoon too.

Volume 9 will include an afterword by Yukito Kishiro.

In addition, Viz informs us that they will also be running the series in the same episodic order as the original Shueisha Japanese version.

Volume 1 will be released December 10th, volume 2 is set to be available in March, with volume 3 following