Jason Thompson, the author of the (really, really fun-to-read) Manga: The Complete Guide, has revealed on his blog that he’s getting a cameo in Hiro Mashima’s current manga Fairy Tail. Mashima, the creator of Rave Master, apparently took a shine to Thompson after an interview the San Diego Comic-Con.

See it!

How much do I envy Thompson? Well, he wrote a popular manga guide, got to go to the San Diego Comic-Con, interviewed a real like mangaka, AND gets to be in a manga. Also, he gets punched in the face by the main character.

Lucky bastard.

I have stated my opnion on this site (several times) that America needs more yuri manga up in here. I’m glad to see that the LGBT magazine The Advocate agrees with me:

Read This Article!

It’s a very interesting, in-depth article about yuri in Japan and its slow journey to America. It also explains better than I ever could the attractions of yuri to a female audience!

As a straight female who likes love stories of all kinds, I say: more girl-on-girl action , please publishers!

Normally I’m not too thrilled with live-action versions of anime (while Death Note wasn’t too bad, Tokyo Babylon 1999 was pretty wretched…still haven’t watched my live-action Dororo but I’ll get around to it soon). But I’m a huge fan of Mushishi, and I’m curious to see the live-action version (also, it’s directed by Katsuhiro Otomo!) and how it compares to the manga and anime. Luckily, our friends at Funimation have made it that much easier for me to see it!

Here!

Funimation did a fantastic job with releasing the anime, so I expect the live-action film will get a lot of attention from them as well. 2009 is going to be an interesting year!

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So a few years ago I saw a film called Uzumaki. It was a Japanese horror film, one of the creepier, more bizarre movies I’d ever seen. The movie was about a town obsessed with spirals; that odd, repeating pattern that occurs often in nature and human art. The movie featured a variety of weirdness, including a boy who turned into a snail, spiral-patterned cremation smoke and a girl whose hair curled and took on a life of its own. I slept with my head under the covers that night.

I picked up the original Uzumaki manga by Junji Ito because I liked the movie and was curious to see how it differed from the original three-volume story. It differs quite a bit. The plot is mostly the same, though cut quite a bit shorter in the film. The main difference is that the manga is far, far, far more disturbing than the movie.

Read the rest of this entry »

The good news: Akira Kurosawa’s final script, a film based on Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” but set in Russia, will be getting the anime treatment in 2010. Kurosawa was working on getting the script produced when he died in 1998, but it was shelved after he passed away.

The bad news: Hollywood is planning a remake of Rashomon. What the fuck? How do you remake perfection?

To wrap it up: Kurosawa goes anime, Hollywood screws up a great story AGAIN. Seriously, are you even surprised anymore?

Link

OK, this is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in a while (and I am on the Internet almost every day, so I have seen some weird shit).

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fist of the North Star, the creators of the New FotNS film held a wedding for Kenshiro and Yuria (she’s the girlfriend he supposedly spent 100 + episodes looking for…not like anyone read it for the plot. Exploding heads, baby!).

Anime News Network has posted several links to pictures from the ‘wedding’. Guests included fans, the original creators Buronson and Tetsuo Hara, and people involved with the new movie.

The happy couple was represented by…statues of Kenshiro and Yuria. At least Yuria dressed for the occasion.

I don’t know if I am more disturbed by this or by the revelation that there is apparently a Fist of the North Star stage musical.

ANN\’s Report

Wedding Photo Album

Remember howafew months ago I reviewed the first live-action Death Note film, which was shown in U.S. theaters for two nights (and how I bitched about the fangirls?)?

Well, it’s happening again (and I’ll probably be seeing it again, and bitchng about the fangirls some more), only this time the movie is the second Death Note film- Death Note: The Last Name.

The nights are October 15th and 16th-appropriately close to Halloween- and here is a link to a list of participating theaters:

http://www.deathnotefilms.com/home.php

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The fact that there are lesbians in Kannazuki no Miko shouldn’t be a big deal. This is the 21^st century after all, and I live in America, a >cough< enlightened country. And if sales of yaoi manga are any indication, anime fans are especially enlightened concerning homosexuality.

Unfortunately, the girl-on-girl love in Kannazuki no Miko is a big deal- but only because the unusual love triangle is the only thing the show has going for it.

The series opens in one of those fantastic, elite prep schools that doesn’t actually exist outside of anime. Himeko, one of a vast legion of orphaned anime characters, stays in the school dorms. She is the sort of girl we’re supposed to love: quiet, kind, timid, unbearably sweet. Except to a jaded old lady like me, it’s all too easy to see why her classmates feel contempt for her; she simply won’t stand up for herself. One of Himeko’s classmates doesn’t participate in tormenting her, however. Chikane is beautiful, kind abd good at everything, from archery to playing the piano. She’s the object of every girl-crush in the school, and is expected to marry Ohgami, her equally perfect male counterpart. But Ohgami actually likes Himeko…and so does Chikane.

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According to the New York Times, American comic company Marvel is teaming up with Japanese animation studio Madhouse (creators of Ninja Scroll and Highlander: The Search for Vengeance) to create 4 anime series featuring Marvel superheroes. The characters will be anime-ized in Madhouse’s unique style. The only character specifically mentioned in the article is Iron Man. Who do you guys think the other 3 will be?

Link!

Oh noes!!! A father is shocked, shocked, that his son checked out dirty manga from the library (the titles aren’t mentioned, but from the picture of the book’s rear cover I can deduce it was Battle Club).

Link

Seriously dude, your son is 12. Of course he wants to read porn. And sometimes you just can’t do anything about it. Probably the librarian just scanned the back when he checked it out and didn’t look at the cover, probably the kid hid it in a backpack so his parents wouldn’t see it, etc. etc. Shit like that happens; hell, what 12-year-old boy hasn’t surreptitiously read his dad’s tittie mags? I bet Mr. Rezabek did himself.

I don’t know anything about Battle Club, but maybe there is rape and bondage in it- which I wouldn’t want a kid to get the wrong idea about, but chalk it up to a lesson learned. Talk to him about it. Explain why rape and abuse is wrong (though I’d hope he already knows this). Keep a tighter rein on what he’s checking out for a while.

Or, I don’t know, you could threaten to get a lawyer. Though I don’t know what lawyer would be stupid enough to go up against the 1st Amendment and the library system. >sigh<

So has anyone actually read Battle Club? How bad is it, anyway?