It appears that the popularity of Death Note continues to grow in the mainstream media. As of the time of this post, the Death Note anime has been airing on Cartoon Network now here in America and has already come out with two full length movies. In those movies, music has been used by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and now for the upcoming spin-off movie, "L change the WorLd," Kravitz's "I'll Be Waiting" single will be the theme song. L's own spin off movie comes out in Japan in Febuary.
Starting December 2 and going all the way to December 14th in the Tokyo Anime Center in the otaku district of Akihabara, doll creator Paper Moon will be hosting an anime figure party. They will have on display 30 1/1 figures ranging from characters like Rei and Asuka from Evangelion, Saber from Fate/stay night, Sakura from Sakura Wars, and Al from Demonbane. They will even have some for sale at 200,000 to 480,000 (about $1,800 to $4,500). More reasons why I want a house in Japan.
For a while now these figures have been in Japan but I'm glad to say that these are both are finally coming to the states. If this is the first time you've heard of these figures then here's what makes them rather different than most other figures: Made by FREEing these detailed beauties of Haruhi Suzumiya & Mikuru Asahina from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are 1/4th scale figures. That means they are rather large at about 12-14 inches in height. Also, their fishnet stockings are indeed real (and very delicate) stockings. Chances are they are going to sell fast but not for this x-mas season unfortunately (unless you want them shipped from overseas) . They are set for a late March, early April release. Harhui can be pre-ordered here. Mikaru here. Chances are I'll keep one of each for myself ^ ^;
Due to some requests I brought back the AMV Danielle made a few years ago that featured XTM's amazing "Fly On The Wings of Love" song. It's a great Euro-Techno song and it fits well with the clips. Check it out in our amv section, too if the video isn't viewable below.
The Manga and anime industry is really on the grow in the past few years. In this month's issue of Wired Magazine you see from the cover and the full story on how manga has taken the graphic novel industry by storm. 6 years ago the graphic novel industry which included comic books from major dealers like Marvel and DC only amounted to $75 Million dollars world wide.
As of today the graphic novel industry has grown to roughly $330 million with 2/3rds ($218 million) coming from manga! Hollywood has in recent years been creating top notch and high grossing movies all based on American comics and its first attempt at a big budget anime film, Transformers, has become a big success. Now there is a DBZ movie in the works and most likely others on the way. The only issue facing this kind of movement is if Hollywood is able to create a story as deep and compelling as many anime titles tend to be. Anime stories tend to have multiple layers to them in terms of character development that both American comics usually stray from and movies simply don't have the time to display.
Either way, as an anime fan I excited to see this industry grow... lets just hope that things stay Japanese and don't get too watered down or americanized as the mainstream accepts anime and manga. Discuss more in the anime forum.
This is a simply amazing cosplay of Samus from everyone's favorite Nintendo game, Metroid. She put loads of detail in this with all the battle damage and she actually looks like Samus! Complements of Dannychoo.com
After playing the Wii yesterday, I had to put up another Wii post. Looks like it sells for $30. Not bad if it actually lights up. Just hope this doesn't become another scapegoat to sue for angry parents with crazy sword-throwing kids. Complements of engadget
Just got two more great AMVs added to the AMV section on the site. Thanks to Robin (AKA: Megaflamer) for these two awesome Bleach videos. Yes, there is a Bleach section in the works for my site along with other new and old anime titles. The coming of black Friday and Cyber Monday has me all engulfed with my anime store but you'll see new stuff soon. Click here to view the amv section and scroll to the "Fan Submitted" ones.
A few years back there was a whole bunch of hype about a Dragon Ball Z Live Action Movie. 20th Century Fox was in the plans to make a big budget movie about everyone's favorite Manga and Anime, Dragon Ball Z, but then the project got scraped.
As of recent news, the project is back in the works with roughly a 100 Million dollar budget and already some roles being cast. This news comes from both Variety magazine and from one of my product dealers from my anime store, Diamond Comics. Here's what they had to say:
"As reported by Variety, Justin Chatwin, the actor best known for his role in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, has been cast as protagonist Goku, the powerful Saiyan warrior dedicated to protecting Earth from alien threats and evil tyrants. The actor that formerly portrayed Spike on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, James Marsters has signed on as Piccolo, the villainous green fighter with hopes of world domination and one bold enough to take on Goku. The film will be directed by James Wong, produced by filmmaker Stephen Chow and has been assigned the tentative worldwide release date of August 15, 2008."
This is obviously big news if you are a DBZ fan. Diamond comics and I are excited about this since a few new cast figures will be coming out next year now. Personally I feel that a CG film would do better but I'm excited either way. Hey, maybe they'll find my New Faces Comp cards and I'll get the role as Trunks ^_^... well, I can dream.. but stay tuned as I get more info on this.
After a bunch of emails begging for it back, I re uploaded my "Night of Fire" AMV. I feel its not as good as my other videos and it also looks like YouTube butchered the quality of it but I hope fans of this video I made back in 2004 enjoy. The main theme was fan-service of anime girls ^_^;
The Revoltech figures are something else. This figure is that of Rei Ayanami who is of course from the hit series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Like other Revoltech figures from Kaiyodo, they have multiple points or articulation, but this one has the new E.L.F. concept giving it a more lively look and feel compared to most other jointed figures. Since Rei is wearing her body suit, this aids in covering the ball joints. It just has that lively look like many of the static figures have. This is a Volume 1 figure so expect some more from this line. She doesn't come state side until mid Feb 08 but you can pre-order her here. Check the Kaiyodo site too as the come up with more from the E.L.F line.
Just came across this cool gadget for the Wii. If you want to play Wii games the old fashioned way or say some of your Game Cube titles, this would be pretty good. I can't believe they named it like this but for $39.99 you can chose a black, white or pink one.
Just reminding everyone about the Hare Hare Yukai Dance Contest I'm doing. The goal is to mimic the dance done at the end of the episodes The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. As you can easily see on Youtube, people copying this dance has been a craze for a number of months in Japan. Whether you are from Japan or wherever, submit your video's youtube link of you doing this dance and the best ones will be voted on in January (sorry, I had to extend the time). The winner will get to pick one Haruhi Suzumiya figure of their choice from the anime store. I'll probably give some cool stuff for the runners up too. I have one entry already so have fun. Here's the dance below.
Hey everyone! As you see, there is a new navigation bar at the top of the anime blog. These are all the categories that I'll be putting up here on the blog for you to go through. As of this posting only the Site Updates and Figures section is active but you will see more in the coming days. If there are any cool topics you find and you'd like them here on the blog, let me know at I'll post them. Email me here and send me a link, picture, whatever you feel could go in a post.
Another great Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya figure. This one is a swimsuit version of Yuki Nagato made by Alter. Saw it first on Dannychoo.com yesterday and as of last night I was able to pre-order a bunch through my dealer for the store. As you can see it looks simply amazing in detail and I'm expecting this to be sold out both in Japan and in America very fast. Yuki figures sell out very fast compared to the other figures. Personally, I prefer Mikuru and Haruhi over Yuki but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't keeping one of the figures when I get them. They are not in until mid-late April here in states, which is usually the case but we can wait (sorta).
You can pre-order her here but don't be surprised if they get sold out before arriving.
