Archive for 'Anime' Category

Hayao Miyazaki wins an Honorary Academy Award

Hayao Miyazaki, the top anime film maker and producer received an Honorary Academy Award, announced by Academy of Motion Picture  Arts and Sciences(http://www.interactive.org/) on the 28th.

Miyazaki is a representative of  Studio GHIBLI, the leading anime company and retired from  long-anime film business just after the release of  “The Wind Rises” in 2013.   After all the great works of Japanese animation culture, now he says he wants to bededicated to the business of  running GHIBLI Museum, Mitaka (http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/).

Miyazaki is the second Japanese in history to receive the award after late Akira Kurosawa, one of the most famous Japanese film director’s winning in 1990.  The award is given to a film world person who has made a huge contributions through efforts for long years to the film world or its culture, such as Kurosawa,Walt Disney,and other remarkable personages of the industry. Miyazaki’s long- year feats have been recognized thsi time.  The reception ceremony will be held on the coming Nov.8th in Hollywood.

“World Cosplay Summit 2014” in Nagoya

“World Cosplay Summit 2014” is  hosted by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other bodies Jul.26-Aug.3 in Nagoya. (http://www.worldcosplaysummit.jp/en/)

This WCS is the 12nd and this time representatives join the event from  22 countries or regions. The  event includes several programs such as a coaplay parade, cosplay championship, visitations of the representatives to city offices and MFA, anime-song festival, and so forth. Six representatves of the event from China, Mexico, and Finland officially visited Seiji Kihara, the vice-minister at MOFA in Tokyo giving presentations over attaractions of cosplay. Kihawa made a speech saying, pop culture has power to bind countries together and expect the representatives to support strengthening rapport with Japan. The Chinese representative said cosplay had a role to enhance cultural exchange.

 

Osamu Tezuka’s imcomplete posthumous items found

Osamu Tezuka’s posthumous drawings, manuscripts, and some personal items such as half-eaten sweets were found from a long locked drawers of his desk in his office by  his daughter, Rumiko Tezuka on March 27th.

 

Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) was one of the top manga artist and thought to have been the greatest pioneer to develop and promote the manga culture not only in Japan but worldwide.  A lot of his works,such as “Atom Astro Boy”,”Jungle Emperor Leo”  have been dramatized, made to be anime, or other measures ,all of which have been loved by people all over the world for long years. His activities and works have influenced innumerable cartoonists, anime staffers, film makers, and other artists.

The desk drawers that had been locked for about 25 years because the key had been long lost after Tezuka’s passing was finally unlocked by his daughter  who said finally she had successfully made a copy of the key. A manuscript written about comments of Katsuhiro Otomo who is the creater of  a popular manga and movie works of “AKIRA” was one of the found items.  Some hand drawings of his are quite arousing which might be a bit different from general images of  his manga works. These newly found works may give us new impressions about Tezuka’s works and his art world.

“LUPIN THE IIIRD Jigen Daisuke’s Grave Marker”

“LUPIN THE IIIRD Jigen Daisuke’s Grave Marker”,” a spin-off  anime work of a popular  anime and manga series of “LUPIN THE IIIRD” is reportedly going  to be released in this coming summer at Shunjuku Wald 9, a huge cinema complex in Tokyo.

Daisuke Jigen in one of the group members of Lupin the 3rd, a grandson of  Arsene Lupin in the manga story created by Monky Punch.  In this latest work of the series, Jigen’s young days and how he came to become Lupin the  3rd’s friend will be described. This new work is the second spin-off of the series following the first one of “LUPIN THE 3RD- A Woman called  Fujiko Mine” released in April 2012, which had been released as one of the works of the series for the first time in 27 years.

AAA “PR Ambassador” of “One Piece”

AAA, a popular music artist group of  young males and females has become a “PR Ambassador” of “One Piece”, the worldwide popular Japanese comic and anime work describing pirates, reported on 14th.  The group is in charge of  the thme music of the anime work  and such a promotion campaign has started commemorating teh 15th anniversary of the great subculture work.

“The 8th Youkai-kentei”(Monster tests) of Ge-ge-ge

“Youkai-kentei”(Monster tests) were held in Sakaiminato city in Tottori pref. and Chofu city in Tokyo on Oct,27th.

These were the 8th tests which started in 2006 by The chamber of commerce and industry of Sakaiminato. The test is for prevailing knowledge of Japanese traditional monsters created by Shigeru Mizuki, a popular cartoonist who is known for the comic series of  “Ge-ge-ge no Kitarou” and other monster -related works . He is from Sakaiminato and lives now in Chofu, so the cities were chosen as the venues of the tests.

Mizuki’s biography written by his wife was dramatized by NHK TV station and that “Ge-ge-ge No Noubo”(Gegege’s wife) also made his works very popular as well.    This time the three levels of the tests,namely, the biginner level, the intermediate level, and the advanced level were taken totaly by about 400 test takers. The successful takers will be given a title of “Youkai hakase”(Doctor of Youkai or  monster master) by the host.  2220 people have received the title since 2006 so far.

TOKYO GAME SHOW 2013 held

TOKYO GAME SHOW 2013 (TGS2013) was held Sep.19-22 in Makuhari Messe in Chiba. (http://expo.nikkeibp.co.jp/tgs/2013/en/)

This time 352 organizations from 33 countries or regions,which is the highest number in the history of this event joined the show. A lot of  new video games, mobile phone games, PCgames and new game hardware. SCE(Sony Computer Entertainment )  released information and demonstrated  PS4 which is planned to be pre-released in US this November.

 

Exhibition of “The Life of Jiro Horikoshi”

A special exhibition of “The Life of Jiro Horikoshi” is being held at the Tokorozawa Aviation Museum ,which I wrote about in my last post here, Jun.22-Sep.1. (http://tam-web.jsf.or.jp/spevent/horikoshi.html)

Jiro Horikoshi(堀越二郎) was the designer of  the Zero Fighters, which I introduced a related event in my last post here.  Horikoshi was also the model of the main character of  “The Wind is Rising”(/風立ちぬ, Kazetachinu), the newest animation work of Studio Ghibli that is currently run at movie theaters,which I introduced in my previous post here.

Ghibli’s latest anime “The Wind is Rising” amazing record

Studio Ghibli’s  latest anime work “The Wind is Rising”(/風立ちぬ, Kazetachinu) made a remarkable record within the first nine days of its release on Jul.20.

The movie made a record of  2,200,000 visitirs to the theatrers along with mora than 2.8 billion yen revenue just in the first nine days., according to study on 29th. That has made the work win two continuous weeks’ No.1 movie in the weeks in Japan.

Wolf Children Mother’s Day Cards

Funimation is now offering three printable and three digital Mother’s Day cards featuring the characters from Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children anime film. The movie follows the story of a single mother, Hana, and her two children, who are part wolf. The cards celebrate “fierce, protective, and loving” mothers like Hana.

Funimation licensed the film last October and is currently screening it in the United States with plans to also release it on home video this year. The film originally opened in Japan last July.

Mother’s Day in the United States is this Sunday, May 12.

EVA T PARTY~♪

The official Eva T-shirts vary in approximately 700 styles and are available at the official online store “EVA T STORE.”

In commemoration of the release of the Blu-ray Disc/DVD of “EVANGELION: 3.0 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO,” the online store specially hosts the offline “EVA T PARTY”, which will circulate Japan from Apr. 23rd. 33 brands are selected for the event and anime, fashion and art fused T-shirts introducing the world of Evangelion will be on display and sale. 3 new designs are added to the collection in line with the event.

The first event will be held from Apr. 23rd to May 15th at Loft Market/Mina Kyoto on the 1st floor of Loft Kyoto. In addition to EVA T-shirts, “EVANGELION: 3.0 YOU CAN (NOT) REDO” goods will also be in store. Exhibits relating to the movie and the latest promotional visuals will be displayed at the event space. iPhone cases designed with the same prints as the EVA T-shirts will be sold limitedly at the event.

“Kazu Tachinu” Studio Ghibli’s newest anime~♪

Studio Ghibli’s “Kazu Tachinu” (The Wind is Rising), will be released in cinemas from July 20 this year.

The story is believed to be loosely based on one of Miyazaki’s own manga series, which in turn derived from a work by Japanese author Tatsuo Hori.

“Kaze Tachinu” was originally intended to be joined by slightly darker tale “Kaguya Hime no Monogatari” for a simultaneous release, but that feature has sadly slipped back until autumn this year.

Wolf Children Wins Audience Award at NY

The New York International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF) announced on Tuesday that Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children film won an Audience Award at the festival’s awards ceremony on Sunday. Wolf Children was one of two winners of the Audience Award, with the other winner being the Taiwanese film Starry Starry Night. The Grand Prize this year went to the French-animated film Ernest & Celestine.

Wolf Children was screened at the NYICFF with English subtitles. The festival also screened English dubbed versions of Koji Masunari’s Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW and Studio Ghibli’s From Up On Poppy Hill. Director Hosoda attended the festival for Q&A sessions.

The film previously won the animation category at the 36th Annual Japan Academy Prizes earlier this month, and also won the Animation Film Award at the 67th Annual Mainichi Film Awards last month.

Ghost in the Shell Arise~♪

The official Facebook page for the Ghost in the Shell Arise project posted four preview images for the manga adaptation of the upcoming anime on Wednesday.

The adaptation, Ghost in the Shell Arise ~Nemuranai Me no Otoko: Sleepless Eye~, debuted in the April issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Young Magazine on Wednesday. Newcomer Takumi Ōyama is drawing the series, and Jun’ichi Fujisaku is writing the story.

The Ghost in the Shell Arise anime, which consists of four 50-minute parts, will premiere in Japanese theaters on June 22, and will then be available on Blu-ray Disc and DVD at retail on July 26.

Cosplay event in Egypt~♪

A cosplay show featuring a group of Egyptian youths dressed in the costumes of characters in Japanese anime and manga series was held in Cairo on Friday, attracting several hundred visitors.

The show sponsored by the Cairo office of the Japan Foundation was part of an anime song concert and is believed to have been the first major anime-themed event in Egypt.

About 15 men and women participated in the show, which also offered aspiring Egyptian manga artists the opportunity to demonstrate their drawing skills. Japanese anime works have become popular in Egypt via the Internet and other outlets.