Tagged: Japan

Transformer Title Fight: Devastator!

  • News
  • June 19, 2009


Transformers… more than meets the eye. This, we know. But what happens when the mighty all-spark malfunctions and sends the Michael Bay Monstrosities to wage war against the Autobots and Decepticons of our shared youth? We’ve got a few battles in our back pocket ComicMixers… let’s let ’em duke it out, shall we?

Round Three: Green and Purple Devastation Vs. The Rainbow Bright Beast

Face it… if it’s a robot, or even robot-like, and from Japan? It can combine with any other robot-like device, if it wills it. Case in point? The mighty Decepticon combiner Devastator! In the cartoon and comics, 6 construction vehicles (after a long day building stuff and whistling at a passing Arcee) formed a mighty bot of devastation. The only issue? Despite being of normal bot intellect in their own robot-modes… the combining somehow stupified Devastator into a veritable Green Hulk. But why? Because my fellow fans… the early combiner technology didn’t have the capability of decision making! All six parts of Devastator had to agree on an action before doing it. So, even with robo-brains… the cartoon version of this mighty bot could beat you up at recess, but would probably need to cheat off of you during class.

Little is known thus far about the Bay-birthed-behemoth. But what we do know is this: the new Devastator is a veritable giant, standing ten stories tall! Coincidently this robotic hulk also wears purple around his midsection. Interesting, no? In explosions-over-exposition land (the Bay of Robots if you will)… Devastator is made (we question this, but wikipedia is helping today…) of 6-10 possible construction bots, all found in the Egyptian desert. When combined, this new bot forms a more “Gorilla-esque” tower of power. Who apparently has a thing for sucking up sand… and Autobots into it’s giant craw. Past this, we can only assume that this combiner will be loyal to Megatron, and do a ton of damage. It will be nice to see Michael Bay actually blow stuff up. He tends to do quiet films, and this fan for one thinks he would do better to let some shrapnel fly in a cloud of fire and ash.

So folks, who wins? Will the first Generation Green Meanie pound the Sand-Sucking Sycophant into submission? Only you, the cosmically-conscious Comic Mix commenters can conclude! Now cast your votes!

… And don’t forget to vote in the previous rounds, for the Buzz-worthy Bumblebee, and then for your favorite Vocoder-voiced-villain, Soundwave!

The 2009 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees

  • News
  • April 8, 2009

The nominations for the best of the year are finalized. Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers. A downloadable pdf of the ballot will also be available online, and a special website has been set up for online voting. The results in all categories will be announced in a gala awards ceremony on the evening of Friday, July 24 at Comic-Con International. More information about the Eisner Awards can be found by clicking here.

Congratulations to Simone & Ajax creator Andrew Pepoy on his nominations for Best Short Story and Best Continuing Series, and to all the other nominees!

Here’s the full list of nominees… (more…)

Has the world hit ‘Peak Anime’?

  • News
  • January 30, 2009

anime-shock-8634149Disturbing if true: ICV2 has an article entitled, simply, Worldwide Anime Market Shrinking. In a lecture by TV Tokyo’s Keisuke Iwata, he noted that due to market saturation, illegal downloading, the worldwide recession, and the rising yen, “It is easy to imagine the global marketplace shrinking from 2010 onward." According to Iwata there may be little or no growth potential for anime sales outside of Japan and that the industry “may have to go back to the way it was in the past — back to selling Japanese animation only to the Japanese marketplace."

And with a market already glutted and the massive lead time and resources required to create anime, we should expect to see big crashes. Imagi Studios already had to get bridge financing to complete production of Astro Boy.

Anime News Network has reported that the total revenue of the Japanese anime industry rose rapidly from 2003 when it was estimated at 167.4 billion yen (about $1.9 billion), peaked in 2006 at $258.8 billion yen (about $2.9 billion) and then fell to 236.9 billion yen in 2007.  Figures for 2008 aren’t available yet, but given the financial distress of many anime producers, another decline is a foregone conclusion.

Also note that Iwata’s market factors of market saturation, illegal downloading, and the worldwide recession apply equally to comics.

Manga Friday: The Dregs

  • News
  • January 16, 2009

Manga Friday took a little holiday for the last couple of weeks, and it may take more holidays in the weeks to come. Looking back on my recent columns, I’ve said an awful lot of “and here’s the next volume in a series I’ve reviewed four times” and “this week’s books have nothing in common” – and neither of those are quite what I’d hoped. I think I’m reviewing too many of the same manga, too often, so I expect to cut back on Manga Friday substantially in 2009, unless I start seeing more different things.

I expect to keep reviewing stuff here on Fridays, but there may be somewhat less of the specifically Japanese/Korean stuff for a while. (Or possibly not – whenever I try to predict something like this, I’m usually wrong.) But I’ll save the name “Manga Friday” for when I’m looking at books that would be called manga by that legal construct, the “reasonable man.”

So, for this week, I have three books, arranged in ascending order of volume number:

The Manzai Comics
Story by Atsuko Asano; Art by Hizuru Imai
Aurora, January 2009, $10.95

This opens with an odd hint of yaoi, as large, athletic, energetic, popular student Takashi Akimoto begs small, weak, timid (generic manga hero Type 1) Ayumu Seta to “please go out with me” and “do it with me.” Takashi actually wants to form a manzai comedy team with Ayumu, but he’s either too dim or too focused on himself to actually say that for several pages.

(Apparently – I have no personal knowledge of this, but several references agree – the dominant form of comedy in Japan is manzai, two-person acts, rather than sketch comedy or stand-up or improv. Think Abbot & Costello or Crosby & Hope.)

Ayumu is not just an ordinary shy boy – well, he’s a manga hero, so you know there’s got to be some horribly dramatic thing in his past – he considers himself responsible for the car-crash death of his father and older sister because he was clinically depressed (and completely untreated as well). So he has the standard “I just want to be normal” complex of the dweeby manga hero in spades. (more…)

Viz Reveals 4th Quarter 2008 Releases

  • News
  • November 30, 2008

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), has announced several eagerly awaited new manga series scheduled for release throughout the Fourth Quarter of 2008.

Seven new series are set to debut, beginning this month, and feature a variety of captivating stories designed to appeal to Teen and Older Teen readers. The new series include BLANK SLATE, NORA: THE LAST CHRONICLE OF DEVILDOM, SOLANIN, CAPTIVE HEARTS, GABA KAWA, WE WERE THERE and ST. ♥ DRAGON GIRL.

“We are looking forward to bringing a diverse range of titles in Q4 which will range from slice-of-life stories to romance and more!” says Evelyn Dubocq, Sr. Director of Public Relations, VIZ Media. “As the 2008 holiday season approaches, manga fans will have multiple strong VIZ Media releases to choose from in every genre.” (more…)

Miyazaki’s ‘Ponyo’ Likely Here in April

  • News
  • November 25, 2008

Surfing Amazon’s listing can make one feel like an archaeologist as people pour through the advance listings to see what trade collections are coming from the various publishers. ICv2 did some spelunking and came up with a number of books based on Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea, which outperformed The Dark Knight in Japan this summer.

Viz Media’s The Art of Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea is listed for release on March 3 while AAA Anime has picked an April release for the first volume of the comic based on the film. As a result, the presumption is the film will be in release during the Easter season when schools take a break and kids need something do. IMDB has no listing for a domestic release but it does open throughout Europe in April.

Ponyo is the name of a princess goldfish who desires to be human.  When washed up on the shore, Ponyo befriends a 5-year-old boy and all seems swell until the fish’s father summons the sea to help find his missing child.

Marvel Lets Japan Recreate Its Heroes

  • News
  • August 25, 2008







circle-01-3037080Marvel Comics announced a deal with Japan’s Madhouse that will have their core super-heroes reimagined for Japanese audiences.  Originally designed as animated fare, the long-range plans call for the Marvel Japanese Universe to be found on mobile devices and comic books.

Essentially, the heroes will experience new origins taking into account Japanese culture and society.  Their problems, foibles ands villains will all reflect the country of origin, using “something that is part of the fabric of society” according to Jungo Maruta, the president and chief executive of Madhouse. He told the New York Times, “Marvel gives creators freedom to fly.”

The first characters to undergo transformation will be Iron Man and Wolverine in thirty-minute anime intended for Japanese television in 2010. “Although they say, ‘I want Japanese anime,’ it’s not what they actually want. They want a hybrid between Japanese and Western animation,” Alex Yeh, the chief operating officer of the studio, told the Times.

“Marvel has continuously looked to push the boundaries with the Marvel Universe and seek new mediums for our characters. Madhouse is helping us expand the Marvel brand with a truly global vision tailored to themes and artistic styles popular in Japan, creating a uniquely localized and cross-cultural adaptation of the Marvel Universe,” said Simon Philips, President, International & Worldwide Head of Animation, Wireless & Gaming for Marvel Entertainment in a release.

Marvel previously attempted this concept with an India-inspired Spider-Man which was a commercial and critical flop from Gotham Entertainment Group in 2004.

Madhouse was founded in 1972 and is seen as a creative powerhouse in Asia, perhaps best known for its Vampire Hunter D.

 

Stan Lee and Hioryuki Takei’s “ULTIMO” Manga

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

Attention, true believers! Next month’s issue of manga magazine Shonen Jump will feature the premiere of Stan Lee and Hioryuki Takei’s Ultimo, which was announced back in April during New York Comic Con.

While the series is old news for readers in Japan (the issue has already been out for a few months over there), North American readers will get their chance to pick up a copy of the debut story in September.

Here’s what to expect from the series, according to the press release (which is posted after the jump):

High above Farmless City, citizens are stunned by the sudden appearance of two floating figures. Are they human boys, monolithic robots, or something much more strange? As the battle ensues between them, destruction and devastation falls on the hapless city. One figure is Vice, and seems to be as evil as his name implies. The other is Ultimo, intent on trying to stop Vice from wreaking more havoc. But who are Vice and Ultimo really? Where did they come from? A new mystery begins with the fate of the world possibly hanging in the balance!

My favorite part of the PR? The quote from Stan Lee about the project that is so very, well… Stan Lee. Check it out:

“Wow! This is just what I’ve been waiting for!” says an excited Stan Lee. “For the very first time I’m able to create superheroes in the fantastic Japanese manga style thanks to my lucky partnership with the great Hiroyuki Takei. What a kick it’ll be to join Hiroyuki-san in offering brand new, action packed stories to an army of readers in both the Eastern and Western worlds!”

Can’t you just hear him saying it in your head? Keep an eye out for the September 2008 issue of Shonen Jump for the first chapter of Ultimo. (more…)

‘Heroes’ Hopes for Rebound Season

After a pretty unambiguously down second season, the NBC show Heroes is looking to get the magic back from its debut season that marked it as the network’s most important show.

In an interview with the New York Times, Heroes creator Tim Kring gave some insights into what’s to come, as well as reflecting back on what went wrong last year.

The scale tipped toward disappointment at the start of last season, as Mr. Kring acknowledged in an interview way back in November, just after production was abruptly cut off by the writers’ strike that shut down Hollywood. At that time he cited a list of early missteps, including introducing too many new characters, dabbling too much in romance and depositing one of the fans’ favorite characters, Hiro, in feudal Japan for too long. …

The new volume, which will run in 13 episodes, is called “Villains” and will focus on a single big story line, Mr. Kring said, relying almost totally on its core of main characters, and will return the show to exploring what he called “the primal questions” from Season 1: “Who am I? What is my purpose?”

The third season (volume, whatever) begins on Sept. 22.

Viz Looking for New Properties

  • News
  • July 15, 2008

12901vizmedia_logo-lg-1795549Manga publisher Viz Media will be looking to take on new projects, and even possibly some non-Manga content, according to ICv2.

In a Q&A with Marc Weidenbaum and Eric Searleman, editor in chief and vice president respectively, ICv2 finds out more detail about these changes, and how they tie into Viz’s announced talent search at the San Diego Comic-Con.

Are you looking for manga-style properties?

If by "manga" you mean what is generally considered manga in the United States (fantasy and romance aimed at teenagers), then no. If by "manga" you mean what is meant by manga in Japan (a broad range of comics that emphasize serial storytelling, cliffhangers, reader feedback, a supportive editorial process, and a rich creator voice), then yes we are.

The story also addresses the difficulty in selling any non-Japanese content in the Japanese comics market:

Japan remains the toughest market for material from other countries to crack. But even that may be changing, as the U.S. subsidiary of the two largest manga companies in Japan begins its search for original comics. Viz Media’s Marc Weidenbaum, VP Original Publishing, and Eric Searleman, Senior Editor, the execs handling the search for original content answered in the affirmative when we asked whether there is American material that would sell well in Japan. “Certainly,” they said. “Both countries have their own rich, indigenous graphic-storytelling cultures. There are bridges yet to be built.”

(via Blog@)

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