Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anime. Show all posts

Monday, November 28, 2016

Discovery: five new anime to watch

In This Corner of the World


While watching the news on NHK World earlier today, I saw a report on a new anime movie that sounds quite interesting. Based on a manga by Fumiyo Kōno, this historical animated drama tells the daily life of young newly wed Suzu in the Japanese countryside of Kure during the years leading to WWII.

In This Corner of the World (この世界の片隅に / Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni): Japan, 2016, 130 min.; Dir./Scr.: Sunao Katabuchi; Anim. Dir.: Hidenori Matsubara; Char. Des.: Hidenori Matsubara; Mus.: Kotringo; Prod.: Masao Maruyama (MAPPA), Taro Maki (GENCO); Voice cast: Rena Nōnen (Suzu), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Shūsaku), Natsuki Inaba (Harumi), Minori Omi (Keiko), Daisuke Ono (Tetsu), Megumi Han (Sumi), Shigeru Ushiyama (Entaro), Mayumi Shintani (San), Nanase Iwai (Rin).

ANN / IMdB / Japan Times / Official website / Wikipedia / Youtube


Four more anime titles have caught our attention in the last few months:

Monday, October 17, 2016

Weekly notable news (W42)

Not much happened this week. Same old, same old, as we say. Some aberrations at work keep exasperating me (but there's only 552 more weeks to endure). On the way back from a doctor's appointment, my wife and I walked through the mountain to admire the colours of fall. It was superb and I wonder why we don't do this kind of walk more often. We've also spent time watching more of the American presidential insanities, two excellent animated features (Miss Hokusai and Osamu Tezuka's Buddha Movie 1: The Red Desert! It's Beautiful) as well as a new episode of Poldark. For my part, I've also started a promising new series (Westworld) and watched the season finale of Halt and Catch Fire. And I probably did a zillion other things (like updating my anime & manga bibliography) that I can't even remember. But, does it really matter?

However, I do remember that I managed to find some time to stay acquainted with the affairs of the world. I therefore share with you a few notable news & links that I came across lately (in no particular order):

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Otaku & other popular (sub)culture phenomenons

Many elements of the Japanese teens subculture are generated, influenced or more often simply expressed by anime & manga: otaku, enjo kōsai (teenage prostitution), hikikomori, karōshi (overwork death), idols, cosplay (as well as various fashion styles like gothic lolita, kogal or ganguro), hentai (including yaoi [“Boys' Love”, i.e. manga showing romantic relationships between male characters], yuri [“Girls' love”], lolicon [underage love], panchira [panties shots] and burusera [stores for panties & school uniforms fetishists]), manga café, kawaii, moe — just to name the few that quickly come to mind. Also, Japanese (pop)culture is having (as it often had in the past, i.e. “japonisme”) a great influence on our western culture (and particularly, lately, on the teen pop-culture, with the so-called Japanification).

Therefore, this is a subject particular enough to deserve a separate entry in my “Anime & Manga Bibliography”.

Index


The essentials
More anime & manga references
Otaku & other popular (sub)culture phenomenons
Japanese culture
Japanese drama & cinema
Japanese economy, geography & history
Japanese language
Japanese literature
Various others

[ Traduire ]

Otaku & other popular (sub)culture phenomenons


Friday, October 07, 2016

More Anime & Manga References

We continue our “Anime & Manga Bibliography” — started with the “Essential References” — with more useful anime & manga references.

The books we own are on a yellow background. We have added pertinent links for those who want further details about the listed references.

Index


The essentials
More anime & manga references
      general
      anime
      manga
      anime & manga-related merchandizing
Otaku & other popular (sub)culture phenomenons
Japanese culture
Japanese drama & cinema
Japanese economy, geography & history
Japanese language
Japanese literature
Various others

[ Traduire ]

More Anime & Manga References

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Weekly notable news [week 31]

Here are a few notable news & links that I came across this week:


Funnies

Non Sequitur: Monday, March 21, 2016 (The two-party detour)

Dilbert: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 (The Elbonian Religion)

[ Traduire ]

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Animeland #209

AnimeLand est le 1er magazine français sur l'animation japonaise et internationale, les mangas et tout l'univers otaku en France. News, chroniques, interviews, articles et dossiers vous attendent dans les magazines AnimeLand et AnimeLand X-tra et sur le site AnimeLand.com !”

Comme je l'ai déjà mentionné dans un article précédent (sur l'acquisition du magazine par Anime News Network), j'ai toujours grandement admiré ce magazine fondé par Yvan West Laurence et Cédrik Littardi en avril 1991 (que j'avais d'ailleurs rencontré à San Jose, Californie, lors de la toute première convention nord-américaine entièrement consacrée à l'anime, AnimeCon, à la fin de l'été 1991). AnimeLand est rapidement devenu le meilleurs magazine sur l'anime et le manga hors-Japon et pas seulement en langue française. À tout les deux mois le magazine offre une centaines de pages, toutes en couleurs, pleine à craquer d'information essentielle sur l'anime et le manga. Un must pour le fan averti.

AnimeLand #209 est un numéro un peu spécial car, en plus d'être un peu plus volumineux, il célèbre le vingt-cinquième anniversaire du magazine.

Lire la suite après le saut de page >>

Friday, July 22, 2016

A few more notable news

Here are a few notable news & links (mostly anime & manga related) that I came across recently:


[ Traduire ]

Friday, July 08, 2016

Japanese movies at Fantasia 2016


This week the programmation for the 20th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival was announced. Twenty years, that’s worth celebrating! It will be held in Montreal from July 14 to August 3 and screenings will take place mostly at Concordia's Theatre Hall and Salle J.A. de Sève. For more programming details you can check the festival's web page at www.fantasiafestival.com, this year’s program [PDF] and screening schedule [PDF].

This year the festival offers 60 movies from Asia: 5 from China, 26 from Japan, 20 from Korea, 6 from Hong Kong, 1 from Taiwan, and 2 from Thailand.

As usual, we will concentrate our interest on the Japanese program that includes 4 anime (in total you can also find 33 other animated features — 29 shorts and 8 movies — from various countries). Besides Momotaro, Sacred Sailors, which is probably one of the first anime ever produced in Japan, there’s nothing out of the ordinary among those titles — although we’ve noticed that there’s lots of manga adaptations. Here's a list of all the Japanese titles (with links to full description):

Sunday, July 03, 2016

A few notable news

Here are a few notable news & links (mostly anime & manga related) that I came across recently:


[ Traduire ]

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Explosion of live-action adaptations

It seems that lately there is an explosion of announcements for live-action adaptations of anime or manga. Some were rumored for a long time and some come to a complete surprise. Here's a few links to more detailed news stories:


I can't wait to watch those movies…

[ Traduire ]

Monday, March 07, 2016

Ten notable news

Here are ten anime & manga notable news that I came across in the last month or so (in no particular order):


[ Traduire ]

Friday, January 29, 2016

Animeland change de propriétaire

Voici la preuve que je ne suit plus vraiment l'actualité dans le domaine de l'anime et du manga (à part lire les gros titres du fil de nouvelles de ANN et Animeland — que vous retrouvez dans la colonne de droite de mon blog). Je suis passé à côté d'une grosse nouvelle: Animeland a changé de propriétaire… l'an dernier!

AnimeLand est le 1er magazine français sur l'animation japonaise et internationale, les mangas et tout l'univers otaku en France”. À tout les deux mois il offre une centaines de pages pleine à craquer de news, chroniques, interviews, articles et dossiers. J'ai toujours grandement admiré ce magazine fondé par Yvan West Laurence et Cédrik Littardi en avril 1991 (même si j'ai souvent eut l'impression que parfois ils “s'inspiraient” de Protoculture Addicts — quoiqu'il faudrait sans doute dire que l'inspiration était mutuelle). C'est rapidement devenu le meilleurs magazine sur l'anime et le manga hors-Japon et pas seulement en langue française.

Il y a quelques semaines, voulant justement me mettre un peu à jour dans les dernières tendances de la pop-culture japonaise, j'ai emprunté le plus récent numéro à la bibliothèque (#207, Décembre 2015 / Janvier 2016). Quelle ne fut pas ma surprise de découvrir que l'éditorial était signé par… Christopher Macdonald, l'éditeur de Anime News Network (et mon partenaire dans la dernière incarnation de Protoculture Addicts)! J'ai également noté que le magazine n'était plus publié par Anime Manga Presse mais plutôt par le mystérieux AMN (et cela depuis le numéro 202, en février/mars 2015). Qu'est-ce que tout cela voulait dire?

J'ai trouvé la réponse dans le fil de nouvelle du site d'Animeland: “Anime News Network reprend AnimeLand” (daté du 21 décembre 2014) [MàJ: ANN en a aussi parlé en janvier 2015]. ANN s'était donc bel et bien porté acquéreur du magazine français! Wow!
“Anime News Network, site internet leader mondial des news sur le manga et l’animation japonaise, est heureux d’annoncer la reprise d’AnimeLand, le premier magazine français de l’animation et du manga. (…) Une nouvelle société, AM Media Network, filiale de la société québécoise Anime News Network, reprend dès maintenant la publication de tous les magazines d’Anime Manga Presse qui, suite à des troubles financiers importants, a récemment traversé une procédure judiciaire.”

Toute mes félicitations à mon ami Christopher! Je lui souhaite, ainsi qu'à Animeland, le plus grand des succès. Je vais très certainement essayer de les suivre de plus près.

[ Translate ]

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Kawamori interview on Forbes!

While browsing on the internet, I just discovered this long and fascinating interview of Shoji Kawamori on the Forbes magazine!

The creator of Macross talks about the genesis of the series, about how important it is for him to create realistic mocha, about writing and directing, about how his work seems to have inspired many other creators (without ever being credited), and so many other things! It's really an interesting article.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Akiyuki Nosaka passes away

Earlier this month, I read on Anime News Network that Akiyuki Nosaka, the novelist who wrote the famous japanese story Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓 / Hotaru no Haka), passed away on December 9 at the age of 85. Written in 1967, the story was semi-autobiographical as it was inspired by his war-time experience as a kid, particularly the firebombing of Kobe in 1945.

In 1988, the novel was adapted into a beautiful animated movie by Studio Ghibli under the direction of Isao Takahata.

Friday, November 06, 2015

A new Macross TV series

I have recently learned (via Anime News Network) that a new Macross TV series is in production. Titled Macross Delta (no doubt because of the unique delta wing design of the new Valkyries), it is the story of the "Tactical Sound Unit" Walküre, a group of five singers who battles the Var Syndrome which is consuming the galaxy, alongside the mysterious Aerial Knights Valkyrie fighter team of the Kingdom of Wind. 18-year-old Minori Suzuki will play Freyja Wion, one of the singers.

All the details on the show (staff, characters, cast, designs, and teaser video) were revealed at the end of October in a streaming special event. Shoji Kawamori (Studio Nue) is the overall director as well as the Valkyrie designer. The director is Kenji Yasuda (Satelight), with scripts by Toshiba Nemoto, mechanical designs by Stanislas Brunet, character designs and animation direction are by Majiro and Yuu Shindou (adapting the original designs by Chisato Mita).

A special preview will air on New Year's Eve. In the meantime you can check the official website and this Youtube teaser video:


[ Traduire ]

Friday, July 17, 2015

Rose of Versailles manga and other notable news

At Comic-Con, Udon Entertainment has announced that they will release the first english version of Riyoko Ikeda's classic shojo manga Rose of Versailles. The series will be released as two omnibus volumes in the second quarter of 2016.

The french version has been around for a while (published in 2002), so I am surprised it took so long to get it translated in english. Of course, the French had a special interest in this story (it's about the french revolution) but it's a superb story, drawn in a classic shojo style, so it should interest everybody. I've complained about this several time, but I really cannot understand why there are so few shojo manga from the 70s and 80s being translated in either english or french. There's a real goldmine of great shojo titles from that era that is left totally unexploited (mostly from the so-called Year 24 Group). Of course, I can understand publishers not willing to take the risk to release series that a often rather long (Riyoko Ikeda's Jotei Ecatherina is 5 volumes, Orpheus no Mado 18 volumes, Eikou no Napoleon – Eroica 14 volumes, and Suzue Miuchi's Glass no kamen is 50+ volumes !!) and in a style that might seem dated (but oh so beautiful!)…

Now, the question is: will Udon includes in this edition the more recent Rose of Versailles “Episodes” ? Or will it be in an eventual third omnibus volume? I hope they thought of acquiring the rights for those stories as well…

Strangely, Udon Entertainment is mainly known for their Street Fighter and video game related manga but they seems lately to venture into more traditional manga titles (and shojo, mind you). Now their catalog even includes a collection of manga classics (Jane Austen's Emma, Dicken's Great Expectations, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter) !

[ Sources: ANN, Udon ]

Ten Other notable news


  • At the same occasion, Udon announced the release of Moyoco Anno's Sugar Sugar Rune also for the 2nd Quarter 2016 [ ANN ]
  • Studio Ghibli's latest film, When Marnie Was There, earned over $500K in U.S. Theaters [ ANN ]
  • Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Passes Away [ ANN ]
  • Shigeru Mizuki's manga Showa: A History of Japan (1939-1944 and 1944-1953) won the 2015 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material from Asia [ ANN ]
  • Mamoru Nagano's manga Five Star Stories will receive its first new volume in nine years this august [ ANN, Forbes ]
  • Sunrise Announced at Anime Expo that it is working on a new Gundam TV series [ ANN ]
  • Tokyopop has announced at Anime Expo that it is planning to begin publishing manga again in 2016 [ ANN ]
  • Vertical announced at Anime Expo that it has licensed the publishing rights for, amongst others, the Attack on Titan: Lost Girls novel spinoff [ ANN ]
  • The live-action adaptation of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell, starring Scarlett Johansson, is set to be released in march 2017 [ ICv2 ]
  • Luc Besson has announced that his next movie as producer and director will be Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the comics by Pierre Christin & Jean-Claude Mézières, which should see a release in 2017 [ ICv2, themarysue.com]

[ Traduire ]

Thursday, July 09, 2015

Japanese movies at Fantasia 2015


This week the programmation for the 19th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival was announced. It will be held in Montreal from July 14 to August 4 and screenings will take place mostly at Concordia's Theatre Hall and Salle J.A. de Sève. This year the festival is offering a lineup of about 400 movies from 36 countries, including about 135 feature-length movies and 104 premieres! For more programming details you can check the festival's web page at www.fantasiafestival.com and the screening schedule [ PDF ].

Here our main interest is the Japanese programming (25 features and one short) but there are twenty-seven movies from at least five other asian countries (four from China, thirteen from South Korea, six from Hong Kong, one from Indonesia, two from Taiwan and one from Thailand). The programming includes also over an hundred animated features and shorts from many countries. As usual, it's a rich, strong and diversified selection bound to please anyone.

This year, it's a slim pick anime-wise but to compensate the festival will open with the Japanese animated feature Miss Hokusai, which will be introduced by director Keiichi Hara and screenplay writer Miho Maruho. To the utter pleasure of the fans, the festival will also close with the canadian premiere of the greatly anticipated live-action Attack on Titan directed by Shinji Higuchi and based on the popular manga by Hajime Isamaya. The other anime and manga-related movies of interest are the Lupin the Third live-action, the latest Mamoru Oshii (Nowhere Girl) and the latest Takeshi Kitano (Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen).

(Sources: Animation world network, Bible urbaine, Cult Mtl, Film school rejects and Métro)

Here's a list of all the Japanese titles (with links to full description):

Sunday, January 04, 2015

The year in media entertainment

As I stated several time lately: I really watch too much TV and here is the proof.

This list of the movies and TV series that I've watched in 2014 is far from exhaustive as I am sure I forgot many of them (particularly movies or series that I don't recall because I've watch them on TV without taking any notes and therefore they left no trace). The movies were watched mostly on Dvds. This time I'll also try to rate them according to this system: [0] Bad, [1] Meh, [2] Average / Really I don't remember, [3] Good, [4] Great and [5] Excellent. I've also indicated when the TV series are British [UK], because it is usually a sign of better production quality (certainly in the writing). I'll start with a Top 10 for which I'll try to give a few comments [to be added a little later, sorry] and complete with a simple list of the rest (but I will add a link to at least provide a few production details). The top 10 of the movies was hard because I could't find enough titles that I really liked. The top 10 of the TV series was even harder because there was so many good ones. Here we go… after the jump:

Monday, December 29, 2014

Original location of SDF-1 identified !

We all remember the scene in the very first episode of Robotech (or Macross) where the SDF-1 (or Macross Super-Dimentional-Fortress) automatically shoot its main gun and blasts part of the island where it is located. Ever wondered where this island was located in reality ?

You won't believe it! Click here to see where it is located >>

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Fantasia 2014


The 18th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival will be held in Montreal from July 17 to August 5, 2014. Screenings will take place mostly at the freshly renovated Concordia Hall Cinema. This year the festival is offering a lineup of over 160 features films and about 300 shorts. For more programming details check the festival's web page at www.fantasiafestival.com.

Here our main interest is the asian programming (over sixty movies from seven countries: 22 from Japan, 17 from South Korea, 7 from Hong Kong, 2 from Indonesia, one each from China, Malaysia and Philippines) and particularly the animation (twelve movies from four countries: 8 from Japan, 2 from China, as well as one each from South Korea and Indonesia — there's also one anime-related animation from Québec).

Update: For comments on the Japanese movies presented at Fantasia, I highly recommend reading Claude R. Blouin's article [in french], “Montréal, Fantasia 2014 : le Japon des exclus” on Shomingeki web magazine.

A recap list of the Asian programming titles follows (with links to full description).