Huh, and you thought Halloween was over. Halloween is NEVER over for me, because I am a FREAK and I love Halloween.

Unfortunately, for all my Hallo-freakness, I can’t carve a damn pumpkin to save my life. # 1, I am no longer allowed to handle knives (not for any sinister reasons; I have mulptiple scars on my hands and my husband decided enough of that) and # 2, I can’t draw for shit either. So between me and the husband we are lucky if we can make the traditional three triangles and snaggle-teeth.

These people, however…THESE PEOPLE have mad pumpkin carving skillz:

Anime Pumpkins

My favorite, despite its relative simplicity, is the Haru from Moble Suit Gundam (fourth row down).  Since its a pumpkin, if it starts chirping “Amuro! Amuro!” you can just smash it.

Only ‘lite’ in the sense that he’s not violating the laws of physics, but otherwise pretty amazing.

I was remiss in not passing along the following press release from VIZ Media, announcing that fan-fave anime series’ Bleach and Death Note Uncut recently made their Xbox Live debut. With the new Xbox Live Experience hitting in just under a week, I’m curious to see how it integrates with their current downloadable video services.

Read on for the full press release…

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This is not exactly world-shaking news: the preciptious downturn in the U.S. economy claims yet another small business. But I suspect the business in question, a Japanese import outlet called ‘Made in Japan‘, is just one of many such closures in the otaku-friendly market in the near future.

“It’s a very tough time for small businesses in New York state,” said Wales, who owns the shop with her husband, Casey Wales. “Right now, there’s just not enough of an economical pull to stay in business.”

Made in Japan, on the Vestal Parkway for about two years, sells manga (Japanese comic books), anime (Japanese animation), Hello Kitty merchandise and other items. The business previously was located on Washington Avenue in Endicott for 2 1/2 years.

Staying open has been a struggle for the past nine months, Wales said. Made in Japan has no employees.

“People aren’t looking to spend money on hobbies right now when they’re having a hard time paying for everything else,” she said.

Lee Myung Bak, the President of South Korea, has called upon Japanese Emperor Akihito to atone for atrocities committed during World War II by his predecessor Emperor Hirohito, drawing a contrast with German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

“Willy Brandt touched a firm emotional chord with the whole of the Polish people, Europeans and indeed the world,” said Mr Lee.

“That was a turning point in the partnership between the countries of Europe. And the visit of the Emperor of Japan could be a similar occasion when relations between Korea and Japan can really look forward.”

Successive elected Japanese leaders have failed to make what their neighbours in Asia consider to be a genuine and heartfelt apology for the atrocities committed in the name of Emperor Hirohito, the present emperor’s father, in the early decades of the last century.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in Japan’s brutal conquest of China and Korea, as well as the islands of the Pacific and south-east Asia. Many were worked to death as forced labourers, women were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military while others died in the massacres of Nanking and elsewhere.

My father is from Lipa City, a town about 50 miles south of Manila in the Philippines. I could tell you some seriously hair-raising stories about the shit the Japanese did in Lipa during the war. Indeed, my father spent the first five years of his life living in a cave with the rest of his family to evade the Japanese, and suffers health problems to this day because of poor nutrition he endured as a youth. On his deathbed, my grandfather recounted how he took my father 30 miles on horseback to the nearest hospital - evading Japanese patrols the entire way - in order to seek medical assistance for my dad, who had come down with some sort of jungle illness.

If anyone could conceivably hold a grudge against the Japanese to this day, it would be my dad. Which brings me to wonder what conceivable purpose a statement of ‘atonement’ from the Japanese Emperor would serve. The whole thing strikes me as a patently facile notion. What happened, happened. An apology from Akihito would not undo the Rape of Nanking, any more than it would undo the occupation of my father’s homeland.

One more story - my family owned and operated a restaurant in Lipa before emigrating to the U.S. My mother recounted to me the time a group of Japanese tourists, visiting the Philippines to honor relatives who had died there during the war, stopped in for lunch at my grandmother’s restaurant. My dad, seeing that things could get ugly, ushered my mom out of there post-haste. The Japanese ordered lunch, ate in complete silence as everyone in the restaurant - my family included - watched them suspiciously, and then left. I think everyone there expected some sort of lynching, but in the end nothing happened. The Japanese went about their business, and so did Lipa.

Now that gas is hovering under $2 a gallon, think of all the things you can buy with your extra money. Like a gourmet chicken stuffed with truffles and foie gras. At a mere $850 a pop, it’s a steal…and you’ll finally be able to go to Christmas at mom’s and not have to listen to Aunt Harriet brag about her cheese log.

Takashimaya Co has started taking orders for 12 capons to be flown in from Landes, France in time for Christmas Eve and filled with black truffles, foie gras, white sausage and chestnuts.

“People may think it’s expensive, but it would be perfect for a party,” said a spokeswoman at Takashimaya.

“The meat is not heavy but juicy, and there will be truffles between the flesh and meat, making it very fragrant.”

Manga fans are in a furor over designer Chipp Kidd’s latest work, an examination of Bat-Man in Japanese comics called Bat-Manga! Jiro Kuwata, whose Batman manga work comprises a large portion of the book (though not the entirety) wasn’t properly credited, or so say the fans.

Kidd actively defended himself thusly:

But I would put forth the analogy: when Ken Burns made his documentary on the Civil War, the subsequent book had his name, and his writer Geoffrey Ward, on the front. It did not have the names General Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, or Abraham Lincoln, or any contemporary historians that Burns interviewed. That may sound like a stretch, but it’s the same situation. We took it upon ourselves to put this project together because of our love for this material. We spent far more of our own money amassing everything then we’ll ever see out of sales of the book; and without going into details, any money we did get as an advance went right back to Mr. Kuwata, who was thrilled to get it. As he is thrilled with the book—I’ve heard nothing but compliments and thanks from him.

In the absence of commentary by Mr. Kuwata himself, I’m inclined to side with Mr. Kidd.

According to Variety Asia Online, Japanese film distributor Kadokawa will import Imagi films CGI adapation of Osamu Tezuka’s beloved Astro Boy, for release in October 2009. Though I’ve seen precious little of Imagi’s output other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film that came out a couple of years back, I’m optimistic. The TMNT flick wasn’t half bad, and they’ve shown that they know cool when they see it by nabbing both Astro Boy and Tatsunoko’s Gatchaman.

…so says the ‘Art and Entertainment Editor’ of The Daily Beacon, a student publication from the University of Tenessee Knoxville. Normally I’d pass on giving nonsense like this crediblilty through commentary, but I feel the need to call bullshit when I see it.

The problem this created was not only about money; it affected creativity. That’s because the only people that really bothered to buy the DVDs anymore were the hardcore fans, and hardcore fans have different interests than the regular, everyday fan. Hardcore, maniac fans tend to like their series peppered with the geeky stereotypes of anime: over-the-top violence, excessive use of Japanese cultural references, weird characters and big-busted, scantily-clad animated women (or even worse, overly cute, underage-looking animated girls). So, the animators began adding more of these things into their series to satisfy the only fans that were bringing them real business. While it saves their companies from going under, it kills the final product. Shows became stupid and lost the things that attracted fans in the first place; mostly, all of the heart was gone.

We’ve written about this many times in the recent past, and the true consensus among anime industry types is that anime as a genre still enjoys a wide degree of popularity. It’s the business model that’s tanking. This is an important distinction, and one that I believe Ms. Heriges is missing. In many ways, the internet piracy that many have been decrying as anime’s death-knell is paving the way forward for new business models which will harness the power of information technology in ways DVD-centered business can’t touch. It’s no fluke that FUNimation announced last week that they were throwing a whole mess of content up on Hulu.com, one of the internet’s best resources for properly-licensed video. YouTube has also seen a dramatic shift in licensed properites from anime companies, with some studios generating entire YouTube feeds specificially tailored for their product. 

I suspect that I’m a good deal older than Ms. Heriges, who comments on watching Gundam Wing in the 8th grade. She probably doesn’t remember a time when anime fandom was a chore - when it amounted to signing up via snail-mail to videotape clubs which would trade badly fansubbed 10th generation copies of every grade-z anime series we could get our hands on. You know what was available on television when I was in 8th grade?

Voltron.

Yes, Voltron - the bastardized offspring of two relatively crap series forced into an arranged marriage and foisted on the American public as ‘anime’. I’d have killed for the anime the kids have access to today.

Rest easy, Katherine - anime will be just fine.

Rating:  

Out of my current crop of review titles, the biggest and most pleasant surprise has been Funimation’s release of the first half of Ghost Hunt.  As you can infer from the title, the series is about the adventures of a Japanese ghost-hunting team.  Half the team’s members are, predictably, teenagers, but Shibuya Psychic Research is no after-school club.  It’s a fully equipped paranormal research organization, and presents a pretty accurate portrayal of modern ghost hunting techniques.

Mai Taniyama is a regular high school girl.  She likes staying after school to swap ghost stories with her friends, especially ones about the old abandoned schoolhouse down the street.   One afternoon, on her way home, she stops to peer into the building’s windows and is surprised to see a video camera in the empty foyer.  She goes in to investigate, unwittingly causing an accident that injures a man hiding in the shadows.  His name is Lin, and he’s the assistant to the head of Shibuya Psychic Research-SPR for short.  His boss is Kazuya Shibuya, the 17 year old owner and CEO of SPR.  Since Lin is out of commission for a while and the camera is destroyed, Shibuya informs Mai that she’ll be taking Lin’s place until he can work again.  Mai agrees, partly because she feels guilty and partly because she thinks Shibuya is hot.  After only a few days of working for him, though, Mai comes to learn he’s almost unbearably cold and arrogant.  She nicknames him ‘Naru’-an abbreviation of narcissist.  The name catches on, and soon even loyal Lin is calling him Naru.

Their first client is the principal of Mai’s school, who wants them to investigate reports of a deadly curse on the abandoned schoolhouse.  They find he’s hired four other people to get rid of any evil spirits haunting the building.  Ayako, a self-styled Shinto shrine maiden; Masako, a famous medium; a former Buddhist monk, simply called Monk; and an Australian priest named John Brown.  The group reluctantly agrees to work together to exorcise the school, but even as they perform their various rites Naru insists that the poltergeist-like incidents have a natural cause, and Masako agrees with him.  Mai doesn’t know what to think, until a mysterious dream offers her insight to the case.  The resolution is unusual, even for a ghost story.

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