Last night and the night before, over 300 theaters 'cross the country rolled out the first live-action adaptation of some series no one's ever heard of, something about a notebook and some slob who makes sweet-kabobs. (At this point, I'm going to step right up and say that if you're not at least aware of Death Note by now, it's either by choice, or because you've never seen the Internet before. In that case, go buy and read the manga. We'll wait, I promise!)
Meanwhile, the rest of us can get down to details after the jump.
Everyone go crazy because Tite Kubo will be making his first appearance at an American convention this year at Comic Con in San Diego. Yes, I’m talking about the Tite Kubo; the man who created Bleach, the man who created Zombie Powder, the man who will not kill Renji no matter how many swords pierce his torso; yes, that guy.
He will make his first appearance Friday evening for opening remarks at a theatrical screening of Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody. However, his activities beyond this point are currently unknown, but I would suspect there would be a panel where fans can shower this man with questions and fan fiction scripts. But what I want to know is what will happen to Bleach when Tite is taking this vacation? Well it doesn’t matter, he needs it; all mangaka at some point do. (Except Hunter X Hunter’s mangaka)
Check out the press release after the jump. Remember Bleach day is the Saturday of the convention, so bankai it up in your best Chad cosplay!
Hold on to your butts folks, you're in for an ass kickingly wild ride!
What we have here is, simply put, the best AMV I've ever seen. It's not sophisticated or flashy. It's just a very good song and a very good show cut and mixed together in such a way as to highlight the greatness of each, and together produce something truly amazing.
OK, maybe I'm overselling it a bit. I must admit, Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody” holds a special place in my heart. I'll also admit that first time I heard the song was in Wayne's World, but hey, it was as brilliant then as it is now. Plus, Evangelion is easily one of my favorite anime series ever. This video, done by Shonen Productions and directed by ShonenDizzyCow in 2002, so perfectly brings out the spirit of the series that it seems like the two were always meant to be together. Chills I tell you. Chills!
There are a ton of funny sight gags (“easy come, easy go,” for instance) and the entire thing is built around Shinji. The lyrics are perfectly matched with the plot and Shinji's inner apathy toward the world and his inner turmoil, not to mention that of the other characters.
I could go on and on. Just watch it and be amazed.
Ah yes. Leave it to Fox to take an extremely simple one-off concept and squeeze its shiny, spandex-covered balls until the delicious money-juice comes flowing forth.
Last year, a series of "body" or "human" Tetris clips started popping up on the Intertubes. In them, variously sized people are challenged to contort their bodies into increasingly odd and impossible shapes. These shapes are carved out of a wall that slowly moves toward the player. If the player can't squeeze their body through the hole, they are dumped into a pool of water, with hilarious results. I posted something on this back then and then totally forgot about it. I mean, crazy Japanese TV shows are ten yes a dozen. Sure, it's funny, but even four minutes is pushing it.
Well, now Fox is turning the quick funny-fix into a 13 (as in a baker's dozen) hour (as in sixty minutes) long series. Thirteen hours! Apparently this might not be as totally fracking insane as it sounds on the surface. The original Japanese show has been exported to 16 countries by the same company that does that American Idol thing. What do they know?
You know how I feel. What about you? Could you watch a bunch of people in skin-tight suits get hit by a wall over and over and over and over again until your eyes fall out and mice make nests in your hollow sockets?
We've ranted about this one before, and as you can see here and here, we've been getting our collective panties in a twist over this issue for a while now. Pumping out movie version of our treasured memories is something we've all become resigned to over the years. Now that same vile crutch is being used to prop up yet another stumbling phenomenon, the mangization of our treasured memories.
Del Ray recently dropped a few more pics of their two forthcoming X-Men manga spin-offs. Albotas posted them a few days back, and it's taken me until now to come to terms with what I saw. ...the horror...
Then again, cutesy shojo pretty-boys have never been my thing. Which is why I read things like X-Men in the first place. Well. it looks like Del Ray wants to inject a whole lot of kawaii-love into the series with the X-Man: Misfits series. As you can see above, Beast is swapped out for a quick Totoro rip-off (seriously, copyright infringement anyone?) and Nightcrawler gets a metro-sexual makeover.
Things get suitably shonen with the Wolverine: Prodigal Son story. It looks like Wolvie's trademark Asimov-esque sideburns have been replaced with some super-emo haircut action, but he is younger in this one, so I guess that makes sense.
Overall, I don't think this is going to quiet the cries of outrage we've been hearing. I think if you can step back and look at these as totally separate works with no connection to anything you already know about the X-Men universe that maybe you...oh who am I kidding? Feel free to let your sweeping hyperbole flow in the comments!
Capcom's taking some big steps back into the ring as a major force in fighting games. It's been a while since they're made an impact, but they're looking ready and willing to strike hard again this year (see what I'm doing here, guys?). We all know about Street Fighter IV (which was looking mighty fine when I got a chance to try it a few months back), but the newest issue of Japan's Famitsu magazine reveals another surprise announcement from the Capcom camp - a new installment in Capcom's famed Vs. series. But unlike previous Vs. titles, Capcom isn't getting their crossover material from American comic books - instead, they're looking to their homeland for inspiration. What do we wind up with? Tatsunoko Vs Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes.
Tatsunoko, for those unfamiliar, is a major animation production studio in Japan. They've been around for ages, producing such all-time classics as Maya the Bee, Gatchaman, Speed Racer, and Samurai Pizza Cats, along with newer stuff like The Soultaker, Nurse Witch Komugi-chan, and most recently Yatterman (itself a remake of an older show). Details on the new game are scarace at this point - all we have are blurry magazine pics to go by - but it looks at initital glance like a traditional 2-D fighting game along the lines of the previous Vs. titles (rather than the 2.5D visual/gameplay mix of SF4).Only Ryu, Chun-Li, Casshern, and Ken (the Gatchaman Ken, not the ambiguously-gay-for-Ryu Ken) have been announced so far, but we're sure a full roster will be forthcoming. EDIT: Upon closer inspection, the magazine scans reveal that characters from the Tekkaman series, the Time Bokan universe (of which Yatterman is part of), Hurricane Polymar, and Hakushon Daimaou will also definitely be making appearances - though specific names have yet to be divulged.
All I want is to chop up Komugi as Strider Hiryu. Give me that, Capcom, and I'll be a very happy camper.
And as long as we're talking about the Versus series, I may as well link this. Man, that never stops being hilarious.
I gave in to both my X chromosomes here and just finished a solid 20-second "Awwww" at the story of one Yosuke Nakamura, an African grey parrot who was separated from his family for several days in a city near Tokyo. He ignored Shinjiro Uemura, a local police officer who tried chatting to him when they rescued him from a neighbor's roof, but the bird didn't say anything till he'd been moved to a vet's office.
After a couple of days, not only did he see fit to inform the vet that he was Mr. Yosuke Nakamura - note the sauciness of throwing an honorific into his own name! - but he rattled off the family's full address and sang songs to the hospital's staff. Lo and behold, there was an actual Nakamura family living where Yosuke said they were, and they were missing a bird they'd spent two years teaching his name and address. :D
Before we start cracking too wise about how much smarter the bird is than certain people, though, we should remember that African greys are really really really friggin' smart as a rule, and I hear they're less evil than my friend's old...some kind of pretty bird, who liked to dive-bomb us and fake-laugh in her cage like Satan. (No, I don't know what Satan sounds like when he laughs in a cage, but this bird was scarier.)
