Resource Spotlight: The Art of Osamu Tezuka
By Helen McCarthy
Forward by Katsuhiro Otomo
Released by Abrams ComicArts
As Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo writes in the introduction to The Art of Osamu Tezuka, Tezuka was not the originator of modern manga or of Japanese animation. He was however instrumental in popularizing and revolutionizing both. As Japanese society changed in the post war decades and the standing of anime and manga changed within that society, Tezuka's artistic, philosophical and business vision shepherded these dynamic media.
Anime and manga are as different from each other as any two other media. Both are largely pop, commercial endeavors and the driving economics of studio based anime productions yeild a set of concerns, constraints and motivations that are considerably distinct from those of anthologized manga. Yet, the two media are intertwined.
Frederik L. Schodt's The Astro Boy Essays quotes Tezuka in saying that the early 1950's marked a "manga renaissance" ushered in by a confluence of intellectual freedom and the establishment of manga as a mass medium. With audiences looking for something fresh, like a sci-fi story informed by western animation, raised by Tezuka's brilliant storytelling, Astro Boy took hold. A decade later, employing Astro Boy as the star of the first Japanese produced animated television series, Tezuka stamped a pattern into that industry by which manga became its IP engine. With Astro Boy's defining position in the history of anime and modern manga, Tezuka presents a powerful lynchpin holding the two media together.
The Art of Tezuka is the great coffee table book tribute to the "God of Manga." In terms of content and dimension, few English language books on anime or manga compare. If you want to put an exclamation point on Tezuka's significance to anime and manga, how about this red covered 12.2" x 9" x 1", four lb titan on your shelf? Even the exhibition hardcovers, such as Murakami's Little Boy or The Manga Anime Syndrome have size envy.
The 270 page, 300 illustration book starts by humanizing Tezuka. Especially given what English language fans have to work with, it's difficult to get a handle on a notion of Tezuka the person. Books like the Astro Boy Essays are invaluable resources, but the narrative is nearly incredible. It's not just that this licensed doctor created enduring characters like Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, or his role in defining anime and manga, it's that he produce far more work than one might expect a human being capable of. If he lived before the days in which a TV crew could document his labors (the Art of Osamu Tezuka is packaged with a 45 minute Secret of Creation documentary DVD), he might give rise to theories that "Osamu Tezuka" was a committee rather than a person a la William Shakespeare (there's an anecdote in the book that due to early reproduction quality control problems, some suspected that there were multiple "Osamu Tezukas"). Chapter one of the book is an account of Tezuka growing up, as a child, with a family, in the context of Japan leading up and going through World War II. With photographs of and drawings by Tezuka and family, the artist is fleshed out.
After a look at the characters that run through Tezuka's body of work, the Art of Osamu Tezuka proceeds to take a decade by decade survey of the output and evolution of Tezuka's work. Finally, The Art of Osamu Tezuka reads the ripples cast by its subject's work such as the critical response and what it inspired inspirations beyond the domains of anime and manga.
The primary achievement of The Art of Osamu Tezuka is its accessibility. It couches Tezuka in a way that relies on little foreknowledge of Tezuka, his work, anime or manga. There are more in-depth analyses of the impact of his work and more granular deconstructions of his manga and anime, but the Art of Osamu Tezuka effectively communicates the point in a way that is meaningful regardless of whether or not you approach the book with topical interest.
Tezuka grew up around theatre, specifically the female performers of the Takarazuka Revue. Fundamentally, his manga paid tribute to theatre, as seen in the pageantry projected onto works like Princess Knight, but, his works also rejected the stagey way in which manga framed its subjects. Looking to movies and animation, Tezuka dynamically positioned the view by which manga's action was captured in a manner that has been described as "cinematic." What it means to call manga "cinematic," how that quality effected the readers of Tezuka's manga, and the debate as to how cinematic Tezuka's early works really were are all topics that the book puts in comprehendible terms and illustrates with clear example from the manga in question.
Even enthusiastic followers of anime and manga have accused the classic Disney/Fleischer informed aesthetic of Tezuka's manga of "looking old." The Art of Osamu Tezuka demonstrates how this is less a function of being of a time as it is what Tezuka felt was an effective mode of conveying his intensions. As far back as 1951, Tezuka was mixing types of expression, as well as introducing meta elements to his manga. Experimental anthology Fossil Island featured sometime hero, sometime anti-hero, sometime villain Rock, along with a songwriter named Kodama and a cartoonist named Osamu Tezuka on a mysterious island, split between realistic appearing waking sequences and cartooned dream sequences. The art of Osamu Tezuka offers a welcome opportunity to see how Tezuka experimented with alternate avenues for stylizing his illustrations. A few years later, in 1953, Tezuka would adapt Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment into manga. The study in contrasts is amazing as a panicked Raskolnikov hurtles up and down a set of stairs - the zany, yet pained take on Russian tragedy is akin to Woody Allen doing Looney Tunes.
I'm not going to enter any Tezuka trivia bees any time soon, but, going into the Art of Osamu Tezuka, I had thought that I had mapped out a sketch of the artist's body of work in my head. Still, I found examples laid out by The Art of Osamu Tezuka to be fascinating and surprising. I'd been curious about 1970's Big Comic anthologized series I.L., but wasn't prepared for the psychedelic and grotesque images of women being mistreated that were captured in that collection of "fairy tales for grown-ups," I.L. Following that interest in Tezuka's mature audience works, again from Big Comic, if I'd heard of Barbara, his story of an alcoholic, hippy muse living on the streets of Shinjuku, I'd forgotten about it. Having seen a couple of panels and reading that Leiju Matsumoto (Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers) and Yasutaka Tsutsui (author of Paprika and the Girl Who Leapt Through Time) make cameos, it's not manga that I'll be forgetting any time soon.
Through 2008, the official "OsamuTezuka@World" site had a listing of every Tezuka work. It's publication details for manga and TV/movie release vitals for anime. It's major characters. An overview of its story. And, an explanation of its context and Tezuka's intensions. It also featured a details library of Tezuka's troupe of reusable characters, with their notable appearances and who they were inspired by. This was taken offline in favor of the more aesthetically modern TezukaOsamu.net, with has had "Under Construction" label on the English section since launch, and none of that trove of information.
Upon receiving the Art of Osamu Tezuka, I spot checked it for a few of the more obscure objects of my Tezuka fascination - Breman 4: Angels in Hell, the Musicians of Breman fable remixed with Tezuka's previously used story of aliens in animal guise sent to judge humanity, and "battle bikini fantasy" Prime Rose.
Looking over the book's chapter on the Tezuka Star System, I was instantly glad that I had something to thumb through when I wanted to find the name of the Lino Ventura modeled heavy Marukubi Boon, or the stalwart, Van Heflin-esque Chikara Aritake.
I quickly set myself up with the notion that having the Art of Osamu Tezuka would mean an end to using the Internet Archive to pull up OsamuTezuka@World pages for reference (leveraged heavily in this column's feature on the Astonishing Works of Tezuka Osamu). "Set myself up" probably being the operative phrase in that statement.
There's an immortalized image of Osamu Tezuka as his self-cartooned caricature - an abstracted form defined by a bulbish nose, thick glasses and beret. If an unfamiliar person were shown the image out of context and asked to identify the subject's profession, "cartoonist" would not be a surprising response - an abstract notion of Tezuka the manga creator that is stylized as the image itself. That obscures the complexity of Tezuka's role and history. As Helen McCarthy lays out in The Art of Osamu Tezuka, it wasn't a familiar artist's narrative of struggle, ascendance and maybe late battle with the success price. In particular, he went through a difficulty stretch in the 70's that included the bankruptcy of his anime studio Mushi Productions and the notion that he'd become a relic of manga's past.
The "God of Manga" is neither unimpeachable in his legacy nor easily characterized. Hayao Miyazaki's Starting Points includes Miyazaki's 1989 essay "I Parted Ways with Osamu Tezuka When I Saw the 'Hand of God' in Him: Tezuka-San was a rival against whom I struggled." In Japanamerica, Roland Kelts quotes animators in discussing "Tezuka's Curse," his low bid on Astro Boy's TV deal that set a template for under-budgeting anime production, forcing studio to bargain creative control for sponsorship funds. Frederik L. Schodt's discusses Tezuka's competitiveness and hard to pin down mix of pride and self-deprecation.
To this day, matters relating to Tezuka are difficult to distill.
With Imagi's Astro Boy fading out of the box office top 10, it's fair to say that the CG adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's best known creation is not going be buoyed by a late, word of mouth fueled surge of popularity. The movie garnered some moving praise and some harsh criticism, but the general reaction seemed to tend towards indifference.
As is often repeated, the Astro Boy character is so embraced in Japan that he's been granted national citizenship. Views on technology and robotics in particular were shaped by this character. Yet, the Imagi movie was quickly knocked off its Japanese box office perch by the live action adaptation of the manga Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji.
The movie found some success in China, but most analysis has suggested that this is due to the adoption of the Hong Kong based animation as a Chinese production. The question raised in that case was when will an animated hit be generated pairing Chinese IP and Chinese animators.
On one hand, there's little evidence that thee discouraging box office returns were a repudiation of Osamu Tezuka or his work. On the other, it is a black mark on the creator's legacy. Tezuka devotees seemed poised to spread the gospel in the wake of the movie. Leading up, the collection of his experimental short animation, the Astonishing Works of Tezuka Osamu, was finally released in North America. Dark Horse began re-collecting the Astro Boy manga. Right Stuf re-issued the original 1964 anime, as well as Kimba the White Lion. In this respect, Imagi Astro Boy's failure to serve as a vanguard for the character and his creator was subtraction by lack of addition.
One take away from Imagi Astro Boy is that any notion of simplicity in these matter is deceptive. Tezuka and his creative progeny can be tricky to handle.
For four decades, Osamu Tezuka was a major creator. In 1947, Tezuka was creating works like boy's adventure New Treasure Island, a success story in the swelling wave of post war manga, that may also have been an early statement regarding Tezuka's cinematically minded re-thinking of how to tell stories through manga (he rewrote the story for its Complete Works reprint, partially due to lost or shoddily reproduced material and partially due to the editorial control exerted on the initial publication. As laid out in The Art of Osamu Tezuka, there's some question as to how distinctive the original work was versus the credit it receives due to the later reworks and retroactive acknowledgement of Tezuka's talent and approach.)
In 1987, he was at work on manga like the never complete Gringo, an adult story from the Big Comic, concerning the fortunes of a corporate exile sent to a South American country in the middle of political upheaval. This is an artist credited with creating at least 80,000 pages of manga across 400 volumes.
After completing a read-through of the Art of Osamu Tezuka, I didn't delete any bookmarks and didn't demote any books from my reference shelf. That said, there's an open sewer grate waiting to be stepped into with "I wish the Art of Osamu Tezuka had more..." Given the scope of Osamu Tezuka's work, it's impact and the complexities of Tezuka himself, it's probably impossible to offer a survey of the type presented by "The Art of Osamu Tezuka" without in some way provoking disappointment or disagreement from Tezuka enthusiasts. Going through the book, I did keep a mental calculations of where I would have liked to have seen a particular work addressed wore thoroughly or more covers, or more interiors or different types of dissenting voices.
Ultimately, I believe it is not worth articulating the particulars of these criticisms. The Art of Osamu Tezuka was not going to be some platonic ideal, or a print version of OsamuTezuka@World. It is closer to the full Hitcher's Guide entry than it is "mostly harmless." Yet, I do think legitimately criticisms could be substantiated against gaps in the book that aren't merely a matter of preferred subjects not receiving elaboration. And, I do think that the impression that the coverage was thin in some areas is telling. Many of a Tezuka-philes gripes against the Art of Osamu Tezuka are going to be due to holding it up against an impossible standard, but there is room for debate.
As someone who owns copies of all the Tezuka manga published in English, except the bilingual edition of Crime and Punishment and either the bilingual edition of Princess Knight or its Shojo Beat exception, I'm certainly glad to have the Art of Osamu Tezuka as an addition to my resource shelf, but is an addition, and not a supplanting new favorite.
Manga Spotlight: Black Jack
Volumes 7 and 8
Released by Vertical Inc
Recently, this column featured an examination of Studio 4C's anime anthology Genius Party, housing the work of notable innovators within the field of animation and beyond. The operating principle of that collection was "seiyaku zero" - zero restrictions. The more I read of and about Osamu Tezuka's medical adventure parable Black Jack, the more I think that the manga was a one man, eight year long Genius Party.
In God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post World War II Manga, Natsu Onoda Power writes
In 1973, Akita Shoten, the publisher of a leading weekly boy's comic magazine Shonen Champion, gave Tezuka a five-week commission to write "anything he wished." Later interviews imply that the editor, who felt sorry for Tezuka for his declining popularity, offered the commission as Tezuka's "last work" before retirement. This work, Black Jack, turned out to be a surprise hit; it earned Tezuka not only regained popularity but also an extended commission that last eight for years.
1973 was in the year in which the home of the 1964 Astro Boy anime that revolutionized the medium's television presence, Mushi Production, went bankrupt. COM, an experimental anthology launched by Tezuka as a response to Sanpei Shirato's alt anthology Garo in 1967, that housed his life's work, Phoenix folded in 1971. As the Art of Osamu Tezuka reports, the 70's found Tezuka the "old man of manga" to the artists who grew up after the age of post war censorship
In Black Jack, Tezuka created an avatar that inspired him. When Black Jack made his animated debut in 1979's Marine Express, as one creation in a repurposed medley, Tezuka insisted on animating the character himself. And, the character caught on with readers. It's said that while Astro Boy is Tezuka's most popular character, Black Jack is his most successful manga.
Here's a black clad, uber-capable doctor, tragedy and tenacity scarred across his body, whose adherence to his own ethic further branded him outlaw/outcast. Tezuka's embrace of what Black Jack afforded him is evident. On a weekly basis, he had 20-odd pages to probe the subjects and concepts that inspired him, and open them up with the perfect vehicle for his humanist dialectic between compassion for humanity and outrage over the species sins.
The Art of Osamu Tezuka features a DVD of NHK's Osamu Tezuka: Secrets of Creation documentary. During the feature, Tezuka is shown working in front of a television. That might not seem like a great idea, but Tezuka's mind apparently constituted something of a universal solvent into which that stimuli was consumed. Chuck Klosterman's claim in the 85% true Killing Yourself to Live that he writes as fast as he reads comes to mind while reading the result of Tezuka's repurposing of the myriad inspiration that struck him while writing Black Jack.
As story like Astro Boy's self-sacrifice to protect a village from American bombers in "Angel of Vietnam" demonstrates, Tezuka was never one to write down to an audience. At the same time, he was aware of who he was writing for.
Black Jack never abandons the frame of being a adventure for boy readers. It's never without some danger or active feet of daring. Even when the story is location based largely and stayed, there is some grand, physical gesture. "A Cat and Shozo" and "The Two Pinokos" are both largely unextraordinary, location based stories reliant on emotion rather than physicality but the former opens with a cataclysmic avalanche and the latter turns violent as it provokes an anti-corporate crusade.
While Tezuka is not ignoring his audience, he isn't writing to their expectations or to the expectations that one might have in regards to material suitable for that audiences. "A Visit From a Killer" is the quintessential Black Jack story. A facially deformed assassin barges into Black Jack's seaside cottage, points a submachine gun at him and declares he'll crimple the doctor in order to prevent him from performing a contracted operation on the president of the Republic of Kwan (according to the footnote, based on South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee). Simple enough, and in terms of plot, Tezuka does little to turn expectations. However, "A Visit From a Killer" proves to be a great demonstration of Tezuka's rule breaking oscillations in tone. Manga, and Tezuka in particular are far from monotonous, but this is a boundary ignoring extreme case. The man with the gun walks through the door and establishes a dire situation, with its threat of maiming, perhaps slightly darker than might be expected from a work for Black Jack's audience. Then, Tezuka makes overtures towards upsetting that situation with a goofy switch , that again, perhaps might be more extreme than expected from Black Jack. However, that cartoonish cavalcade turns tragic, but even in its most nail biting moment, bubbles of looniness rise up and pop.
One of my favorite "Tezuka did this in Shonen Champion?!" inspiring stories is "Gray Mansion." The chapter opens with an example of Tezuka's joyful exercising of the medium. A full page/panel shows Black Jack tip toeing past assistant Pinoko. The facing page is a frameless sequence, along the lines of Norman Rockwell's gossip painting, showing Black Jack brushing his teeth, using the toilet, dressing, then looking for his medic's bag, only to find Pinoko holding it for him by his car. It's a bit of sublimely amusing physical humor, beautifully rendered. The collections of Black Jack that Vertical are publishing aren't in the original order in which the manga appeared in Shonen Champion. Instead, this is the manga as it was organized in later collections. It isn't entirely obvious, but I'd argue that the collections have loose unifying themes. Volume eight focuses on mistaken assumptions or clouded beliefs. I'd say that volume seven is about family, and of the families depicted, "Gray Mansion" features the most disturbing. The pathology of this subject goes absolutely gothic. Once the full blow torch/deformity scope of the situation is revealed, it is further cast into the territory of the sort of 70's horror fair that you might hear about from a Quentin Tarantino or Eli Roth. What happens is as much a "yikes!" provocation as the knowledge that it was spawned by Osamu Tezuka in Shonen Champion and not someone like Kazuo Umezu.
Stories within this two volume sample both revive previously used ideas and look forward to future works. The previously mentioned "A Cat and Shozo" is a Satoshi Kon-ish projection of mental misalignment onto reality (or, to be more literary, and use the reference that Tezuka evokes, Quixotic). In this case, a widower seems his deceased wife and children in a trio of stray cats. Cue the cat-woman. Tezuka had done animal people before, going at least as far back as Wonder Three/Amazing Three, featuring a trio of aliens who take the shapes of a rabbit, a duck and a horse. Similarly, the Resurrection chapter of Phoenix (1970-1971) featured a young man revived after an automotive accident (shades of Astro Boy) only to find that he saw humans as artificial constructs and robots as flesh and blood beings. This particular sad relationship between the man and the anthropomorphic cat is creepy and at the same time touching. What the disconcerting humanoid cat most calls to mind is 1984's made for TV animated feature Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature, - Tezuka's slinky cat girl denouncement of genetic engineering.
Tezuka was apparently aware of but undaunted and unencumbered by the baggage of what he was invoking. I haven't read Vampires (1966-67 and 1968-69), but it's my understanding that it is both a significant work in Tezuka's evolution towards writing mature stories for a mature audience, prefiguring works like Mw and Ode to Kirihito, and that it was met with a mixed reception at the time. Power quotes a number of vehement objections sent to Tezuka by his readers.
It turns into a Macbeth tragedy concerning frequently used dark soul Rock, but it opens with an animator by the name of Osamu Tezuka hiring country boy Toppei, who happens to be a vampire that transforms into a wolf.
"What Lurks the Mountain" is not a Vampires retelling, but it does feature a character with Toppei's distinctive hair and directly broaches the subject of lycanthropy. Those are the basic mechanics of Tezuka's Star system, a tool that Tezuka works with heavily in Black Jack as the manga sees women like Melmo (Marvelous Melmo) and Sapphire (Princess Knight) and men like Shunsuke Ban (Astro Boy, Metropolis, plenty of others) throughout. Here, Tezuka is taking that non-often reused character and having Black Jack stick his head into the lion's mouth. Standalone, the story is an extraordinary exercise in Black Jack's brand of compassionate hardass-ness. As a thread within Tezuka's body of work, it's akin to the relationship between Uma Thurmans in Tarantino movies - where her Kill Bill roll has more than a passing resemblance to the role that her Pulp Fiction character played in a TV pilot. Back to the Genius Party comparison, the anthology shares its name with Atsuko Fukushima's opening short, featuring a bird creature plucking an idea out of a skull/egg/brain and proceeding to ignite a landscape of neurons. Within his body of work, Tezuka had a legacy of creations that may have been laying dormant. These characters and themes were waiting to be reactivated and in Black Jack, Tezuka is quick to ignite the old stores. Rather than a crutch, Tezuka's reuse of characters and elements from previous works are spun into the configuration of wheels within wheels.
Tezuka's emphatic commitment to every inspiration hits more often than it misses, but there are some spectacular strikes. Tezuka gets accused of writing multidimensional, complex female characters with less frequency than males. I'd argue against accusations of misogyny, but when they are leveled, I can see where their coming from. I don't want to speculate about what squabble inspired "Fits", but something put Tezuka in a mood to pen a story that will fuel those criticism.
Black Jack's assistant/adopted daughter/"wife" is Pinoko, whose age is zero, about five, or eighteen depending on your reckoning. She was a "teratogenous cystoma" parasitic twin that Black Jack removed and gave an independent, childish body. In Fits, Pinoko is acting like an excited, naive newly wed as she orders furniture from cheap, fly by night outlets to decorate Black Jack's spartan cottage.
I credit the Shonen Champion reader with getting the joke. Yet, I'm suspect concerning the extent to which they appreciated it.
Never one to allow himself to be confused with a person with a heart, Black Jack orders Pinoko to send the furniture back. Softie that he is, Black Jack allows Pinoko to find him a mercenary medical contract so that he can pay for the piano with which she has become attached. The patient in question is a young woman complaining of abdominal pains, attended by a formal lady of the house, whose head swivels at sharp angles. Black Jack proceeds to diagnose the patient, then slaps her, rips off her bed gown and grabs her by the throat. When she tries to stop him from cutting her open, he declares the malady "hysteria ostentatious stomach pains".
Tezuka does not shy away from nudity in Black Jack. Often, female nakedness is handled with clinical medical verite or in undetailed dignity. Here, Tezuka's stand in, Black Jack, is looking to embarrass the woman.
While the story was doubtless not intended to be titillating, it does seem relevant that this story was probably serialized during the reign of terror of Go nagai's Kekko Kamen. In that manga, a nunchku weighting masked heroine who only wore the mask, gloves and boots rescued school girls AFTER they're stripped and rigged up in bondage scenarios. This took place in Monthly Shonen Jump, home to kids' classics like Ishinomori's Cyborg 009 and Keiji Nakazawa's (Barefoot Gen) I Saw It. I'm not sure that the intension of Fits was any more feminist.
On the flip side, there is "Unexploded Bomb," which encompasses all that's right about Tezuka's approach to Black Jack. It's a dark venture that will put your jaw on a swivel. I'm not sure that I haven't seen lighter revenge stories from Park Chan-wook. Tezuka's outrage over the human cost of military action, private profiteering and government indifference finds a voice here in the black side of his dialectic between compassionate regard for humanities tenacity and rage over its self destructively selfish impulses. The complexities of what he brings to the story complement each other, creating a powerful parable of modern morality
apropos of little…
Manga Spotlight: Jormungand
Volume 1
by Keitaro Takahashi
Released by VIZ Media
My initial impressions of Jormungand rapidly shifted going into the manga. First, I was cautiously optimistic about the prospects of an older audience action title from Viz's strong Signature label. Then, I caught the hints of an irksome, self serious story of a child-assassin.
Having read the first volume, I ultimately found Jormungand to be neither what I hoped for, nor what I feared. While I'm not ready to adopt it as a new favorite in a manga genre to which I'm inclined to cling, I did enjoy it more than I thought I might. I developed a genuine affection for some of its sloppiness and spirit, especially in retrospect. However, every refreshing or daring move made by Keitaro Takashi is offset by a move back into familiar territory or undercut by differences in tone or intention that fail to complement each other.
Jormungand originates from the anthology Sunday GX, home to a few other gun blazing works, most notably Black Lagoon. Like Black Lagoon, this is an adventure concerning colorful people with firearms operating in a lawless zone. The difference is that while Black Lagoon declares itself a blustering Commando/Rambo: First Blood Part 2 80's action movie, with a modern subtext concerning the pathology of its participants slid in underneath, Jormungand is a 00's action flick with its social conscience a super-text rather than a subtext.
The first thing spotted when opening Jormungand is the author's note "my first story is about arms dealers. It's a rather serious topic, but while I draw I'm always smiling and having a lot of fun." Keitaro Takahashi is true to those words. The manga pins itself to the gravity of real issues, then ignores that poignancy in a manner that is more unrestrained than it is irreverent. Humorous digressions are more whim than knowing subversion. Nor is there an apparent awareness of the contradiction between the hang-wringing about armed conflict's human cost, then indulging in military porn, with loving martial expertise, knowing detail on guns, terminology, procedures and so on.
Takahashi is in good company in this regard. Hideo Kojima arguably falls victim in his Metal Gear games - similarly Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor, Jin-Roh) both decries militarism and is evidently fascinated by the trappings of military organization. He's just a bit more haphazard in his evocation of "serious topics."
The manga commences with the background of Jonah, a boy orphaned by a "prototype fighter jet and a new type of bomb," employed in a West Asian war. The child soldier turned mercenary embarks on a career of vengeance against the "ones who designed, build and sold the weapons, and the ones who used them." In that pursuit, he signs on with eccentric arms dealer Koko Hekmatya - a rich girl surrounded by exotic mercs, travelling into war zones to make a buck.
Jonah slabs in the "serious topic" note of the manga with an unmoving thud. This is a now standard anime/manga character type: sullen kid who has seen and done too much. As in works like Leone/The Profession, this works when it is a difficult concept. The anime series Now and Then, Here and There could be pointed to as an illustration of how soul crushing the notion of a child soldier can be, but if it is just presented rather than developed, familiarity has robbed the idea in and of itself of power.
In contrast to Jonah, the Evangelion's Misato meets the Joker chief of the arms dealing enterprise points to what is more distinctive and successful in Jormungand . Koko is an arms dealer looking to solve the death dealing problem from within. Maybe not the best idea, but one Jormungand makes interesting to watch. While "maverick" might have come out of the last American election with some divisive connotations, this exercise demonstrates some of the magnetism to the personality type.
Jormungand gets there by both trading in and distinctively twisting manga tropes. Koko evokes the "genki" energetic charter model. She might as well have one of those cute little fangs jutting over a lip. She flails, skips, hollers and otherwise acts like a child who has consumed too much sugar. When the character is not barking, growling, or casting a feral eye over underlings and adversaries alike, she's hamming it up - traipsing around in fuzzy slippers or reacting to a shallow scalp wound by wrapping herself in bandages and stalking around like a mummy. Yet, despite her appearance and behavior, Koko is notably older than many of the manga characters in this sort of action story. While her morality is being questioned, its asked "didn't they teach you ethics in your fancy private college?" Her response... "College? ha! I was too busy working the Balkans!"
The manga commenced in 2006. Assuming it takes place around that time and assuming that Koko was involved in the tail end of the Yugoslav Wars, she'd probably be in her mid-late 20's at the youngest, which would make her the "old woman" in plenty of manga.
Regardless of whether or not her mission to reform the arms trade from within is a quixotic task, she proves to be canny, with method to her madness. More than the childish adult supervision in the venture, she proves to be a woman with expertise, authority and purpose. And, with Jonah providing some of the muscle, at least for now, Koko's arms deals and plots are driving the manga.
Jormungand has its own look and feel. In terms of the narrative, the arms deal based stories place the manga into particular territory. They match Koko's personality; planned, and farsighted, but also audacious, and dynamic in their reactions to adversarial counter-moves. I can't say if the manga's going to transition into more long form stories. I wouldn't be surprised if it did. And, maybe it's a function of lack of faith, but I'd prefer it to say with these tight, quick ventures.
In terms of the manga's aesthetic, Takashi gives the manga a rushed look that emanates creative energy. Ferociously jagged lines are more suggestions shaped definitions. The carpet bombed zip tone patterns extend in halos beyond the inked borders. Facial features are shaded over or omitted. Takahashi does not have extemporary judgment in balancing the tones of the manga; that its contrasting elements often weaken each other. The judgment for breaking the rules of manga illustration does seem to be better. The purposefully flawed approach lends a Jormungand a quick and rough spirit that is elaborated upon by the impression of fast cut editing. The manga is mostly compressed of large panels that transition from one angle to the next. While most of Jormungand is aspect to aspect, direction to direction cuts, step by step sequences are reservedly used in action scenes like the knife fight in the volume's finale.
I'm not entirely sure that I should accuse Jormungand of being in love with the short hand of manga and its sibling medium, anime, but it certainly does seem to gravitate towards it. Whether it is scenes, such as a group around a dinner table keeling over as result of bad cooking, or designs, such as the post-Evangelion girl with eye patch, familiar touch points are leaned up to establish and develop characters.
Upcoming in North America
Evangelion 1.01 Movie -The First 8 Minutes
*
Not anime, but noteworthy...
GKIDS, a distributor of independent films for family and art-house audiences, and the European sales agent Celluloid Dreams announced that GKIDS has acquired US distribution rights to THE SECRET OF KELLS, the highly anticipated new animated film from Irish director Tomm Moore.
THE SECRET OF KELLS is a France/Belgium/Ireland co-production of Les Armateurs, Viva Film, Cartoon Saloon and France 2 Cinema and features the voices of Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter, In Bruges), Evan McGuire and Christen Mooney. The deal for THE SECRET OF KELLS was negotiated by Eric Beckman for GKIDS and Hengameh Panahi for Celluloid Dreams.
An Academy qualifying run is set for Dec 4-10 at the AMC Burbank 8 in Los Angeles. Showtimes are 7 PM on weekdays and 2 PM on weekends. The film will be released theatrically in the US in March 2010.
SYNOPSIS:
Magic, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes, in this sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. Young Brendan lives in the Abbey of Kells, a remote medieval outpost, where he works to fortify the abbey walls against barbarian raids. One day a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him beyond the abbey's walls and into the enchanted forest, where mythical creatures hide. It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. But with the barbarians closing in, will Brendan's determination and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil?
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The animated tie in to the upcoming Dante's Inferno game
AnimEigo Wildgrounds notes, according to Amazon and several other online retailers, Gosha’s samurai movie Onimasa is now announced on DVD for January 12, and Imai’s Bushido for February 9 (~$18 each)
Bandai Entertainment
Bandai Entertainment's February 2010 releases include
Eureka Seven ~ Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers ~ Movie DVD
Eureka Seven ~ Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers ~ Movie DVD (BLURAY)
Kurokami The Animation Part #1 DVD (Eps #1-6)
Kurokami The Animation Part #1 DVD (BLURAY) (Eps #1-4)
a previously solicited and cancel Kurokami (the anime adaptation of series released as Black God by Yen Press) Blu-ray was to feature 8 episodes
By all reports, Kurokami has not done well in Japan due to various political/social issues with South Korea that came about at the time of the shows airing. From what has been talked about in forums regarding sales of the series, it's done so poorly in Japan that they're either selling below 500 copies or below 300 copies of each volume. And what's really interesting is that those volumes do contain the English dub, the Japanese dub and the Korean dub, but no English subtitles.
Delayed Bandai releases include
Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 DVD Bundle #3 - 12/1/09 - 1/19/10
Hayate the Combat Butler DVD Bundle #3 11/17 - 12/1
Hayate the Combat Butler DVD Bundle #41 1/5/10 - 2/9/09
Bandai Entertainment Inc. announced today Lucky Star Manga Vol. 2 will be arriving in stores November 16 with Vol. 3 to follow one month later in December
Created by Mangaka Kagami Yoshimizu, the popular manga has already been adapted as a 24-episode anime series and OVA which are currently available on DVD from Bandai Entertainment and Kadokawa.
Lucky Star’s main character is Konata Izumi, a high school girl who isn’t interested in much besides anime and video games.
Dark Horse
DEVIL #1 (of 4)
Torajiro Kishi (W/A) and Madhouse Studios (W/A)
On sale Feb Feb 3
FC, 24 pages
$2.99
Miniseries
Manga artist Torajiro Kishi (Maka-Maka) and blockbuster anime studio Madhouse (Trigun, Paprika, Ninja Scroll) love comics. So much so that they’ve decided to publish an original, Western-style comic exclusively with Dark Horse! Enter Devil, a thrilling, sci-fi take on the vampire genre.
A virus is raging across the planet, turning people into bloodsucking superhumans referred to as “Devils.” Most victims die within days, sometimes months, but there’s a new strain, a new class of Devil that threatens to overtake mankind with power and bloodthirst. This new class of Devils derive from an experiment to clone a virus victim, and it looks like science has created a true monster this time. Can Takimoto and the Devil Investigation Section of the Tokyo police force stop this societal scourge? We’ll just have to see.
HELLSING VOLUME 10
Kohta Hirano (W/A)
On sale Apr 28
b&w, 192 pages
$13.99
TPB, 5" x 7"
Final volume
OH MY GODDESS! VOLUME 35
Kosuke Fujishima (W/A)
On sale Apr 28
b&w, 160 pages
$10.99
TPB, 5 1/8" x 7 1/4"
VAMPIRE HUNTER D READER’S GUIDE
Hideyuki Kikuchi (W) and Yoshitaka Amano (A)
On sale Apr 21
b&w, 240 pages
$13.99
TPB, 5 7/8" x 8 1/4"
An international sensation for more than two decades, the now-legendary monster killer known only as “D” has conquered the worlds of movies and comics, and, since the publication of the first novel in English in 2004, is becoming just as popular in America and the English-speaking world as he has been in Japan for more than a dozen novels. Now, for the first time, go behind the scenes of the phenomenon. With rare artwork from Yoshitaka Amano and interviews that shed light on the inspirations for the memorable stories, you’ll have a front-row seat at the creation of the two animated adventures of Vampire Hunter D and learn new secrets about the novels through detailed summaries.
FUNimation
The Robert's Anime Corner Store blog notes that the price for FUNimation's January 19th release of Gonzo mecha anime Linebarrels of Iron Collection #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12) has been reduced from $59.98 to $49.98.
The English language dub cast will be
KOUICHI - Josh Grelle
EMI - Alexis Tipton
DR. KIZAKI - John Swasey
FURUYA - Anthony Bowling
HISATAKA - Todd Haberkorn
KUNIO - Barry Yandell
MIU - Monica Rial
OGAWA - Tiffany Grant
REIJI - J. Michael Tatum
RISAKO - Carrie Savage
SATORU - Mary Morgan
SAWATARI - Bryan Massey
YAJIMA - Joel McDonald
CAPTAIN IGARASHI - Christopher A. Sabat
Staff
ADR DIRECTOR - Caitlin Glass
Asst. ADR DIRECTOR - Mike McFarland
FUNimation Entertainment will release the first 13 episodes of the soul-hunting action series Soul Eater on February 9, 2010. This will be the first of four half-season sets.
Extras will include an episode commentary, a Soul Eater manga preview presented by Yen Press, and textless songs.
IDW
IDW willl be launching a third Transformers series, Last Stand of the WRECKERS featuring following the AUTOBOTS special operations crew on a mission to space to confront a new foe. in January.
Writer and artist Nick Roche helms this five-issue series, which spins out of IDW's new ongoing TRANSFORMERS series.
Last Gasp
If you pre-order your comics and graphic novels, note the Diamon listing of the hard cover edition of Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms
The series features direction by Norihiko Sudo (Comic Party, To Heart 2), character designs by Kosuke Fujishima (creator, Oh My Goddess! and You’re Under Arrest) and art direction by Junichi Higashi (Midori Days, Super GALS!).
Section23 Films
Section23 Films has released anime Special A Collection 1 and the live-action horror movie Nu-Meri ~ Book Of The New Spawn
Special A Collection 1 assembles the first 12 episodes of the hit TV series, also known as “S.A.,” in a single two-DVD set.
SYNOPSIS: At age six, Hikari Hanazono was the best at everything, so when she challenged Kei Takishima to a wrestling match, she naturally assumed she would win. Unfortunately, she lost; he won; and the natural order was disrupted. Ever since, Hikari’s entire life has been structured around beating Kei at SOMETHING. Unfortunately, try as she might, Hikari always comes up just short. Now he’s the top student and athlete at their very exclusive high school and she’s right beneath him at number two, (a position that is still, of course, completely unacceptable.) And, just to complicate matters further, even as Hikari dedicates her life to somehow one-upping Kei, she’s completely oblivious to the fact that Kei is actually in love with her! Get ready for whole new level of ridiculously dysfunctional relationships as Boy Meets Girl inevitably turns into Boy Beats Girl in Special A – Collection 1!
Running Time: 300 min.
Age Rating: TV PG
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
Published by: Sentai Filmworks
Distributed by: Section23 Films
SRP: $39.98
Nu-Meri ~ Book Of The New Spawn is the latest addition to Swithcblade Pictures’ ever-expanding library of live-action Japanese horror films.
SYNOPSIS: There’s something wrong at the Pacific Institute… something wrong and evil. For young Mari, whose family has worked in the fishing industry for generations, her studies in advanced genetics and marine bio-engineering represent not just her own the future, but that of her entire family. But when her friend Nanako is mysteriously discovered dead, Mari’s dreams turn into her worst nightmares! Because not only was Nanako’s body covered with fishbites, she was also growing scales! Now, as a new wave of deaths and tragedies engulf the Pacific team, it becomes all too clear that someone… something… has a new future in mind for all human kind. For centuries man has taken from the ocean, never dreaming what might lurk beneath the waves; now the revelation has begun… and this time, we’re the sushi!
Running Time: 76 min.
Age Rating: Unrated - V
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
Published by: Switchblade Pictures
SRP: $19.98
Returning to UDON as a cover artist is fan favorite Alvin Lee, who provides 3 connecting covers to the series featuring the entire Darkstalkers cast. Every issue will also feature a variant cover by Emily Warren, The series itself will be written by Ken Siu-Chong, and feature the artwork of UDON’s Joe Vriens and Eric Vedder.
City of Refuge
by: Kenzo Kitakata
ISBN: 978-1-934287-12-5
Price: $14.95
Viz Media
VIZ Media has announced the upcoming release of Taiyo Matsumoto’s celebrated manga GOGO MONSTER on November 17th. GOGO MONSTER will be published by the company’s VIZ Signature imprint, rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $27.99 U.S. / $36.00 CAN.
Third grader Yuki Tachibana lives in two worlds. In one world, he is a loner ridiculed by his classmates and reprimanded by his teachers for telling stories of supernatural beings that only he can see. In the other world, the supernatural beings vie for power with malevolent spirits who bring chaos into the school, the students' lives, and even nature itself.
VIZ Pictures will release the science fiction feature 20th CENTURY BOYS 1: BEGINNING OF THE END on DVD on December 15th for $24.92 US / $35.99 CAN.
The 20th CENTURY BOYS saga was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi (who also directed the live-action film, HAPPILY EVER AFTER which is also available from VIZ Pictures) and is based on a popular manga series by Naoki Urasawa. It all begins in 1969 when a young boy named Kenji and his friends write "The Book of Prophecy" in which they write about a future where they fight against an evil organization trying to takeover the world and bring about doomsday. Years later in 1997, a mysterious cult being lead by a man only known as "Friend" emerges and begins to gain strong influence over society. A series of catastrophic events begin to occur mirroring the prophecies made up by the young Kenji and the greatest fear is the climax of "The Book" becoming a reality; December 31st, 2000, a terrifying giant virus-spreading robot will attack the entire city of Tokyo leading to the end of mankind. The only people who know about "The Book" are Kenji and his childhood friends. Who is "Friend"? Will Kenji and his friends be able to save mankind and live to see the 21st Century?
Children of the sea, Vol. 1 (available now) and Vol. 2 (available December 15) • Rated ‘T+’ For Older Teens • MSRP: $14.99 U.S. each / $17.50 CAN each
When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. Ruka’s dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans’ fish. CHILDREN OF THE SEA is a surreal and riveting aquatic adventure from Daisuke Igarashi. Igarashi was given the Award of Excellence by the Japan Cartoonists Association in 2009.
GOGO Monster • Rated ‘T’ For Teens • MSRP: $27.99 U.S. / $36.00 CAN
Third grader Yuki Tachibana lives in two worlds. In one world, he is a loner ridiculed by his classmates and reprimanded by his teachers for telling stories of supernatural beings that only he can see. In the other world, the supernatural beings vie for power with malevolent spirits who bring chaos into the school, the students' lives, and even nature itself. This story continues to show creator Taiyo Matsumoto’s fascination with youth as he seamlessly blends themes of alienation with the paranormal as a boy in first grade contends with events in both the physical world and the spirit realm. Taiyo Matsumoto’s other works, such as BLUE SPRING, NO. 5, and TEKKONKINKREET: BLACK & WHITE (all published in North America by VIZ Media), have won tremendous international acclaim. TEKKONKINKREET won a prestigious Will Eisner Award in 2008, and was also adapted for an animated feature film.
YU-GO-OH! r, Vol. 1 (available now) and Vol. 2 (available December 1) • Rated ‘T’ for Teens • MSRP: $9.99 US / $12.99 CAN
YU-GI-OH! R is the shocking sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist and the prequel to Yu-Gi-Oh!: Millennium World. When the follower of an old enemy returns to take revenge, Yugi Mutou must duel to save a friend's life. But can he overcome the power of the three "Jashin," the terrifying Evil God Cards? Creator Kazuki Takahashi built an action-packed adventure based on themes of friendship and fighting, and combined lots of weird and imaginative monsters to make YU-GI-OH! The international smash hit that spawned a real-world card game, multiple video games, and three anime series. Bonus trading card in the first print run.
Shojo
BEAST MASTER Vol. 1 • Rated ‘T+’ For Older Teens •
MSRP: $9.99 US / $12.99 CAN • Available November 3rd
Leo Aoi looks like a crazy animal with wild eyes – and no one at his new high school will go near him! He does seem to have a special connection with animals, which intrigues overzealous animal lover, Yuiko Kubozuka. In reality, Leo isn’t nearly as frightening as he appears, but Yuiko finds out that he goes berserk whenever he sees blood! Will Yuiko be able to get through to Leo during one of these violent fits? Or will his ferocious side eventually devour her? The debut volume also includes a special bonus short story called FLY.
THE ART OF GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE † • MSRP: $19.99 US / $27.00 CAN • Available November 17th
Renowned manga artist Arina Tanemura exemplifies the shojo style with this collection of highly stylized artwork presented with a swirl of billowing ribbons, romance and heartbreak. The glossy illustrated edition features designs for all the major characters from THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE † and includes exclusive art for the North American edition and a full color double-sided, fold-out poster. Tanemura is a prolific manga artist and the creator of several popular shojo series such as I-O-N, TIME STRANGER KYOKO and FULL MOON (all of which are published in North America by VIZ Media).
HOT GIMMICK VIZBIG Edition, Vol. 3 • Rated ‘T+’ For Older Teens •
MSRP: $17.99 US / $24.00 CAN • Available December 15th
FUSHIGI YUGI VIZBIG Edition, Vol. 4 • Rated ‘T+’ For Older Teens •
MSRP: $17.99 US / $24.00 CAN • Available December 15th
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (new live action) teaser
Anime
Madhouse's 12 episode Iron Man and Wolverine anime will hit Japan in mid-2010, with Iron Man on Animax in the second quarter and Wolverine in the third quarter. A US release is planned for 2011.
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The DVD release of CLAMP's Kobato will feature an original Flash animated short
Manga Kodansha has confirmed that it will launch two new manga based on the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex television anime series in December.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Tachikoma na Hibi, will launch in the January issue of Kodansha's Monthly Young Magazine on December 9. The Masayuki Yamamoto work is based on the comedy shorts starring Stand Alone Complex's Tachikoma AI tanks.
Yu Kinutani's (the creator of the Amon and Shion manga and the artist of the Steamboy, Leviathan, and Pairon) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex manga, will launch in the 2009.02 issue of Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine on December 14.
Minami Fujii announced that Suppli, a josie manga about a woman working at an ad agency, will end in Feel Young's February issue on January 8, 2010. The manga is published in North America by Tokyopop
Anime Vice spoke to Cowboy Bebop producer Joshua Long, who announced that he is heading the newly rename company 1212 Entertainment, which will focus primarily on adapting popular anime, manga, and game titles from Japan, as well as some prominent French comics. While Cowboy Bebop will remain a production under 3 Arts Entertainment, Long tells me we'll be hearing some news in the near future: "we'll have a lot to announce soon,"
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The NY Post spoke to Kevin Williamson about Scream 4.
Subjects to be spoofed
"I've [included] manga comics, Asian ghost girl movies, there's some PG-13 horror movies in there, vampire movies, M. Night Shyamalan movies and torture porn movies, even though they've come and gone."...
Jeremy, news dropped a few months ago that new producers came onboard for the live-action adaptation. Can you tell us about that?
Yeah. We are thrilled to be working with Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Steve Alexander, Jake Kurily and the rest of the new Voltron Force at Atlas Entertainment and, of course, our old friend Jason Netter at Kickstart Entertainment to bring Voltron to the screen. If you were to put together a dream producing team for a project as big and with so much franchise potential as Voltron, this is it. From 12 Monkeys to The Dark Knight and Jason's work on Wanted, I mean c'mon, these guys set the standard for genre cinema then blow it apart with the next release. Voltron is going to be a challenge, but should really push boundaries both in special FX and more importantly in the story department.
Does this mean that the project is being completely rebooted?
Things are early right now, but it is safe to say we have heard and read some really fresh approaches to the material. So yeah, we have pressed the reset switch on the front of the old NES.
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According to the Latino Review, the Steven Spielberg and Will Smith adaptation of the Old Boy manga is no longer happening. "Mandate and DreamWorks didn’t see eye to eye therefore DreamWorks has apparently walked away."
Are the declining fortunes of the Japanese comic industry threatening its once legendary diversity? That's what this article from Japanese economics website Tokyokeizai Online seems to suggest. In 1995, Weekly Jump, that cornerstone of otaku dreams, sold some six million copies every week. That number is down to 2.8 million today. And they aren't an exception: Jump is just one of many manga magazines struggling with slumping circulations and revenues.
The manga industry is structured such that weekly comic magazines are the "proving ground" for new content that are eventually collected into pocket-sized tankobon volumes. That's where the real money is made, especially when a series is turned into an animated show or film. Or at least it was. Nowadays, the hits sell like wildfire and the non-hits don't move at all, forcing editors to become far choosier about the content they select for publication.
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Anime News Network reports 4Kids Entertainment announced third quarter revenues of $7.3 million, compared to US$17.8 million in third quarter 2008. The company recorded a $5 million loss during the quarter.
To stem losses, the company will be "implementing additional personnel cuts and expense cuts over the next few months to further reduce" its expenses.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Kahn attributed the net loss to a decrease in its Chaotic franchise's trading card revenue, and the “different accounting treatment applicable to [the] agreement with The CW Network as compared to [the] Fox agreement.”
Kahn said that the company is now broadcasting the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series over-the-air instead of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's sequel, because the original series was the "original impetus for the kids getting attached to Yu-Gi-Oh!," and that "there are new kids coming into the market ... [who] wouldn't necessarily have experienced the original."
At the end of the conference call, Kahn said, “This has been the most challenging period in my life. We have to reset 4Kids, go back to where we have made our money, which has been the licensing side, make sure that the television network is profitable, and then continue to get back to growing our revenues — but more importantly getting profits back into this company.”
Following their cancellation of the Japanese DVD releases of volumes seven and later of Shangri-la, Gonzo has announced that they will cease all telephone customer support for their DVD releases starting from December 2009.
MGM has announced that the classics black and white anime series Prince Planet is now available to be seen online at YouTube and Hulu
“Prince Planet” is the English name given to one of the earliest Japanese TV anime series (Planet Boy Popi) when it was first televised in America in the mid-1960’s. It tells the story of a member of the Universal Peace Corps from the Planet Radion coming to Earth on a mission to determine if this world meets standards for membership in the Galactic Union of Worlds and assist its inhabitants during his stay.
“Prince Planet” was originally produced in Japan by TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan) for Dentsu advertising in conjunction with K. Fujita Associates and aired on the Fuji Television network in 1965. This show was one of the first heavily merchandised shows in Japan, with simple things like shoes offered for sale with the Planet Boy Popi logo. An English-dubbed version was released by American International Television Productions in 1965 and produced by James Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff and was last seen on American television in 1979.
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The anime adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Metropilis is now on Crackle and Katsuhiro Otomo's Steam Boy
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FUNimation is now streaming the first four English dubbed episodes of Soul Eater
Unapologetically surreal and action-packed, Soul Eater is the tale of living weapons who team with human masters to hunt evil souls. Only after these dark forces are consumed can these partners hope to join the ranks of the famed Death Scythes.
Maka and her weapon, Soul, are among the new students at a university run by Death himself. As they learn the ways of collecting souls, this fresh class of reapers must work together to keep witches, werewolves, and zombies from unleashing evil upon the world.
FUNimation Entertainment will release the series in four half-season sets beginning in early 2010.
Shueisha and Microsoft will be working together offer manga on phones via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile store in the United States this December. The initial offering will be free, but a plan to charge will be rolled out by March. It will offer 20 to 30 titles, such as Dragon Ball, in Japanese and English.
The first batch of comics includes strips written by Dan Abnett (Legion, Nova, The Authority) and Simon Furman (Transformers, Terminator 2 comic). Initially there are four comic stories to download including: ‘The W-Files’, ‘Parts & Labour’, ‘Big in Japan’ and ‘Where there’s Muck there’s Brass’ all for just £0.59 ($0.99) each.
The 20 film submitted for the Animated Feature Oscar include
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Astro Boy
Battle for Terra
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Mary and Max
The Missing Lynx
Monsters vs. Aliens
9
Planet 51
Ponyo
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
A Town Called Panic
Up
The list has not been narrowed down for eligability.
The list of five nominees will be announced February 5th.
ASIFA-Holly's McCay Award recipients for 2009 Tim Burton (Corpse Bride director, Nightmare Before Christmas producer), Jeffrey Katzenberg ( CEO of Dreamworks Animation) and Bruce Timm (Superman, Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited)
The awards will be presented at the 37th Annual Annie Awards scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2010 at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California.
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Emmy-winning writer Stan Berkowitz is set to receive the Writers Guild of America, West Animation Writers Caucus’ twelfth annual Animation Writing Award, recognizing his prolific career and creative contributions to the craft of film and television animation writing, as well as his efforts to organize animation on behalf of the Writers Guild.
“While Stan has built an acclaimed writing career bringing superheroes to the screen, he's a real-life superhero to the animation writing community – not only helping to raise the profile of animation writers through his many creative gifts, but also by playing a lead role in the Guild’s ongoing efforts to organize animation writing,” said WGAW President John Wells.
A two-time Daytime Emmy winner (shared for Batman Beyond in 2001 and The New Batman/Superman Adventures in 1998, Outstanding Special Class Animated Program), seven-time Daytime Emmy nominee, and one-time Primetime Emmy nominee, Berkowitz has most recently served as Story Editor for the upcoming animated superhero series, The 99, which was written under a Writers Guild contract.
Manga was shut down at the women-in-comics Lulu awards
manga related nominees included
Madeline Rosca, OEL Hollow Fields for Kim Yale Award for Best New Talent
CLAMP and Natsuki Takaya (Fruits Basket) for The Female Cartoonists And Comic Book Writer’s Hall Of Fame
Anime x Games
From of a Bandai Namco published Sgt Frog RPG for the Tales series have been confirmed. Keroro RPG Kishi to Musha to Densetsu no Kaizoku(lit. Sgt. Frog RPG: Knight and Brave and Legendary Pirate) is scheduled for 2010
For can be read here
11/17 (Tuesday) @ 12:30 - 2:00pm, MIT, Room 4-364
talk and discussion (with free lunch)
"Hip Hop and Tokusatsu (Special Effects Films) Robots: Expanding the Language of the Body in the Japanese Avant-garde Dance Butoh"
Prof. Bruce Baird (U Mass, Amherst)
TOPIC: The avant-garde dance form butoh has both fascinated and bewildered audiences who have been struck by its power, but quite unable to understand it. What could this esoteric dance form have to do with popular culture?
BIO: Bruce Baird received his Ph.D from the university of Pennsylvania in 2005 and now teaches Japanese theater, cinema, philosophy and manga and anime at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is currently working on a book on the Japanese avant-garde dance butoh.
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San Francisco's VIZ Cinema will be screening special back-to-back theatrical presentation of Gurren Lagann: The Movie 1: Childhood’s End and Gurren Lagann: The Movie 2: The Lights In The Sky Are Stars for two-nights only on Tuesday, November 17th and Wednesday, November 18th. The films (subtitled) will be presented as part of the theatre’s Weeknight Anime People program.
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Japanese art center announced the TOKYO CREATORS MARKET, an extensive exhibit of work by several celebrated visual artists from Japan. Junko Mizuno, ON ZA LINE, and Kim Songhe are among the featured artists and will attend the show’s opening.
The TOKYO CREATORS MARKET opens Saturday, November 21st and runs through the beginning of the next year inside NEW PEOPLE’s SUPERFROG Gallery.
The exhibit is free and additional information is available at http://www.superfroggallery.com. Preceding the opening, a special sneak preview party is held on Friday, November 20th at 6pm to 8pm by invitation only, with appearances by Junko Mizuno, ON ZA LINE, and Kim Songhe flying from Tokyo.
To complement show’s opening and entice those with early holiday shopping in mind, NEW PEOPLE and Bazaar Bizarre S.F. present the NEW PEOPLE ARTIST VILLAGE Vol.1. Ten vendors in kiosks stationed throughout the building will offer works from a mix of Asian and Western artists influenced by Japanese pop culture. The special all-day, all-floor vertical art village takes place – for one-day-only – on Saturday, November 21st from 10:00am to 8:00pm. NEW PEOPLE ARTIST VILLAGE will also have the sneak preview on November 20th at 6:00-8:00pm by invitation only.
Artists To Be Featured At The TOKYO CREATORS MARKET Include:
JUNKO MIZUNO
Junko Mizuno has a huge following in the United States and is widely known for her provocative and strong feminine imagery. She has published numerous manga comics and will present several 3D wall pieces for the exhibit as another expression of her original style.
KAZMO
Kazmo, screen printer extraordinaire, entertains visitors with kitschy playfulness and dark nostalgia and reminds audiences of childhood, when the world was a blank coloring book ready to be doodled on. Part of the NEW PEOPLE ART Detour, Kazmo is back with a new line of expressive prints.
KIM SONGHE
Kim Songhe, a Korean national born in Tokyo, is known for sculptures made of natural materials and reusable wastes. Currently, she designs shop window displays and creates original made-to-order chandeliers. She says that she wants to bring new life to objects that were almost dying.
MIKITO OZEKI
Mikito Ozeki describes his work as “an ambiguous something with no answer.” The BODY series is commonly depicted as "figures like robots.” By presenting an ambiguous “something” with the distinct clear lines and forms of a paper cutout, Ozeki stimulates the wavering of human values.
NORITAKE
Noritake uses simple lines and combines motifs that have nothing in common. He picks out and draws a portion of an image he finds in his own photos, old magazines, and picture books, as well as adds new elements. Viewers can make their own discoveries while glancing at his images.
ON ZA LINE
The ON ZA LINE design team starts with no specific definition for the end result. They enjoy people's reactions to their work that are handmade through a lengthy process. Each item is instilled with what ON ZA LINE sees as the true essences of life - sentiments, passion, atmosphere and time.
YUICHI YOKOYAMA
Yuichi Yokoyama delivers his art in the form of comic illustrations often consisting of numerous nameless characters in transit or in action. With a global following that stems from his publications, this is a rare chance to encounter his work on display here in the U.S.
MARINE EXPRESS
Sunday, November 15, 2 pm
In Person: Frederik Schodt, Helen McCarthy
Set in the near future of 2002, this tale of skullduggery and smuggling on an undersea train is set against a backdrop of environmental degradation and destruction of indigenous cultures and is interwoven with a time-travel fantasy. Directed by Dezaki Tetsu, it features appearances by nearly all of Tezuka's most famous characters, including Astro Boy, Black Jack, and Don Dracula.
Japan / 1979 / 91 min. / video / Japanese with English subtitles
PRIME ROSE
Friday, November 20, 7 pm
A Japanese city and an American city are thrown into conflict by demonic intervention. Prime Rose is one of the warriors, but she has a personal motive. Time Patrol member Gai is trying to reverse the timeslip and defeat the demon. Aired before the manga of the same title was completed, this film by Tetsu Dezaki is allegedly closer to Tezuka's original idea. Japan / 1983 / 90 min. / video / Japanese with English subtitles
TEZUKA'S SHORT FILMS
Sunday, November 22, 2 pm
This remarkable showcase of shorts made between 1962 and 1987 reveals Tezuka's energy, originality, and clarity of vision as he employs music and imagery to render dialogue unnecessary. These films show Tezuka the art house animator at his inventive best.
Tales of the Street Corner
Drawing apparently unrelated elements towards a single tragic climax, Tales of the Street Corner is profoundly anti-war and is the first film from Tezuka's Mushi Productions. Japan / 1962 / 38 min.
Mermaid
Troubled by increasing conformity imposed by Japanese society, Tezuka examines the power of dreams and the consequences of betraying them. Japan / 1964 / 9 min. / video
Drop
In this highly personal film, even the simple backgrounds are drawn by Tezuka. A thirsty man on a raft tries desperately (and fruitlessly) to get a precious drop of water. Japan / 1965 / 4 min. / video
Pictures at an Exhibition
Opening with a literal, live-action walk into a gallery, Mussorgsky's music becomes a jumping-off point for a series of ten visually distinct and stylish segments. Japan / 1966 / 39 min. / video
Jumping
One of the most technically dazzling achievements of its day, Jumping was shot in a single cut with 4,000 images showing a skipping boy gradually striding higher and higher until he leaps across war-torn countries, looking down on human activity like a god. Japan / 1984 / 6 min.
Broken Down Film
A heroic cowboy fights not only a conventional villain but also a film so old that it breaks down. Tezuka's affection for the conventions of silent film fills every frame. Japan / 1985 / 6 min.
Push
In a world where every necessity can be had from vending machines, a man goes to see his creator and demands to be shown where to buy a brand new Earth. Japan / 1987 / 4 min. / video
Muramasa
A magic sword is found stuck into a straw figure. The samurai who finds it keeps cutting at more straw figures to test its sharpness; but every time he slashes one apart, it turns into a human being. Japan / 1987 / 9 min. / video
Legend of the Forest
Tezuka planned to review the history of animation in four episodes, though only two segments were completed. Set to Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, animals and fantasy creatures warn humans about the danger of destroying natural habitats, while Tezuka warns of cheap, limited TV animation decimating the art's rich heritage (co-directed by Kouji Ui). Japan / 1987 / 29 min.
THE FANTASTIC ADVENTURES OF UNICO
Saturday, December 5, 3:45 pm
Based on a manga Tezuka created for Sanrio's Ririka magazine, this is the story of a little unicorn who is born with the power to make anyone he meets happy. Jealous gods condemn him to wander endlessly, with no home and no memories, but Unico's cheerfulness and kindness provide lessons in living in the moment in this heartrending but uplifting fable. (Adapted from notes by H. McCarthy for Osamu Tezuka: Movies into Manga, Barbican Centre, 2008.) Directed by Toshio Hirata / 1981 / 90 min. / video / Japanese dubbed in English
TEZUKA ON TELEVISION
Sunday, December 6, 1 pm
Enjoy episodes from four of Tezuka's eclectic television series. Each episode is in Japanese with English subtitles.
Princess Knight
Possessing the courage and daring of a boy in a gentle female heart, Sapphire was a hugely popular character and the first in a long line of anime heroines who can easily beat the boys—but still want to join them. Directed by Osamu Tezuka and Sadao Tsukioka / 1967 / 23 min. / video
Vampire
Although he passes for human well enough to get work at Tezuka's studio, Toppei is actually one of a tribe of shapeshifters that is facing discrimination and hardship. Directed by Ken Yamada and Kikuchi / 1968 / 22 min. / video
Marvelous Melmo
Melmo and her two little brothers lose their mother in a road accident. The mother's spirit returns, determined to help her children grow up in a harsh world. Directed by Osamu Tezuka / 1971 / 23 min. / video
The Three-Eyed One
This charming romance was the first work based on Tezuka's manga to be planned and produced after his death in 1989. Directed by Hideki Hiroshima / 1990 / 25 min. / video
1001 NIGHTS
Friday, December 11, 7 pm
In person: Yoshihiro Shimizu, General Manager, Tezuka Productions
Animal transformations, confused relationships, and sheer rapacious sexuality merge with a heady eroticism in this cartoon for grown-ups. Tezuka's story keeps faith with the mood of the original liteary legends, while director Eiichi Yamamoto mixes styles like a DJ. Intended for mature audiences. Directed by Eiichi Yamamoto / 1969 / 128 min. / video / Japanese with English subtitles
TEZUKA AND THE HISTORY OF ANIME
Sunday, December 13, 2 pm
In person: Yoshihiro Shimizu, General Manager, Tezuka Productions Join Yoshihiro Shimizu in a journey through the history of Japanese anime, with a special emphasis on Tezuka's influence. Shimizu speaks from experience: a creative consultant for the new Astro Boy movie, he has been working for Tezuka Productions since the 1960s.
Kamishibai Performances by Yassan
All performances and workshops are in Japanese with simultaneous English translation.
PERFORMANCES
Friday, December 4, 12 & 2 pm
Saturday, December 5, 11 am & 1 pm
Sunday, December 6, 11 am & 3 pm
Sackler sublevel 2
See Yassan perform "The Golden Bat," an Astro Boy story, and a tale inspired by an incident from Osamu Tezuka's childhood. Performances last approximately 40 minutes. Space is limited. Admission is first-come, first-served.
WORSKHOPS
Friday, December 4, 1 pm
Saturday, December 5, 2 pm
Sunday, December 6, 4 pm
Sackler sublevel 2
NYCIFF will be POM POKO
Japan, Isao Takahata, 1994, 119 min
In English - Recommended ages 7 to adult
Sat & Sun, Dec 12 & 13, 11:00am at IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue (at West Third)
NYICFF is very excited to present this rarely screened gem from Japan's famed Studio Ghibli (Ponyo, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro) by Ghibli co-head and master animator Isao Takahata. The forests are filled with groups of magical tanuki, mischievous raccoon-like animals from Japanese folklore that are capable of shape-shifting from their standard raccoon form to practically any object. They spend their idle days playing in the hillsides and squabbling over food, until the construction of a huge new Tokyo suburb clears the nearby forest and threatens to destroy their way of life. In an effort to defend their home, the tanuki learn to transform into humans and start playing tricks to make the workers think the construction site is haunted - ending in a spectacular night-time spirit parade, with thousands of ghosts, dragons and spirit creatures descending on the city.
Audiences will revel in Ghibli's trademark brilliant animation, with its humorous and wondrously inventive characters and sumptuous hand-painted backgrounds given loving attention to detail. But what makes Pom Poko special is the depth of emotional expression - a joyous, playful comedy containing a heartfelt plea to stop human destruction lest the Earth's animals, spirits, and magic become things of the past.
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"She Draws Comics" exhibition opening talk - "The 1970s as a turning point in Japanese women's manga and American women's comics" will be given by Keiko Takemiya (manga artist, Dean of the faculty of manga at Kyoto Seika University), Trina Robbins (comic artist, women's comics researcher) and Fusami Ogi (Associate professor in the department of literature of Chikushi Jogakuen University, women's comics researcher) (Chair) at the Kyoto International Manga Museum,
Date and Time: Thu, Dec. 17, 2009, 3:30 to 5:50pm
The exhibition curator Trina Robbins will discuss the topic above with TAKEMIYA Keiko, artist of such revolutionary 70s women's manga as Kaze to ki no uta (Poem of Wind and Trees) and Dean of the Kyoto Seika University Manga Department.
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Hikaru Utada US concert dates include
January 15 - Honolulu, HI
January 21 - Seattle, WA
January 24 - San Francisco, CA
January 30 - Las Vegas, NV
February 2 - Chicago, IL
February 5 - Boston, MA
February 8 - New York, NY
February 12 - London, UK
The power differential is crucial to most sorts of moé character. Creating moé appeal is surprisingly straightforward — for easy results, try adorable flaws like a complete inability to cook despite domestic aspirations, a crippling fear brought about by past trauma, or hell, just put the character in a wheelchair. Even the supposedly self-sufficient and strong characters must be eventually emotionally undermined, leaving them in the perfect position for a bigger, stronger, and more masculine entity to support them.
Thought Ballooinsts on Deep Focus, the cinematography of Osamu Tezuka's manga
Midnight Eye looks anime books (Schoolgirl Milky Crisis, Mechademia 3, Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams,Ga-Netchu! The Manga Anime Syndrome) - also Nobuhiko Obayashi (Hausu, 1977, The Girl who Leapt Through Time, 1983)
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