Archive for 'Movie' Category

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.

“TRICK Last Stage” will come in Jan.2014

“TRICK Last Stage”, the final work of the popular TV drama series will come out on Jan.11th 2014 as a movie. http://yamada-ueda.com/movie/

This is a TV drama series with some movies versions of  stories  of  a magician  who solves mystery cases using magicians’ knowledge and skills. this started in 2012 and the “Last Stage” will be the work to conclude the 14-year- long drama series.

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.

Sadako threw the first ball

“Sadako”, the evil ghost  character of a popular horror series of “Ring” threw the first ball at the opening ceremony of the baseball game of Seibu Lions vs Fukuoka Softbank Hawks at Seibu Dome on Aug. 24th.  This was a part of  promotion of  “Sadako 3D 2”,the newest movie of the “Ring” series which was to be released on Aug. 30.    Sadako appeared and threw a ball with some “petty Sadako”.  Her ball speed was 103 km/h and Sadako was taken away on a strecher as planned.

 

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.

Shun Oguri, Haruma Miura Costar in Captain Harlock Film

Actors Shun Oguri (小栗旬) and Haruma Miura (三浦春馬) will star in Toei’s Captain Harlock computer-graphics film.

Oguri will play Captain Harlock and Miura, in his first voice acting role, will play a new character created for the film named Yama. Yama is a young man who infiltrates the Arcadia in an attempt to assassinate Captain Harlock.

Writer Harutoshi Fukui (Mobile Suit Gundam UC novels, live-action Bōkoku no Aegis) reconstructed the story to reflect the themes of modern society, and Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) is directing with the latest filmmaking technology in the style of a Hollywood production. This film has Toei Animation’s highest production budget ever at the equivalent of over 30 million U.S. dollars.

Toei Animation has also released a new trailer to announce the release date in Japan of September 7. The first 30 seconds of the below video are new.

“Evangelion Q”, the newest episode of “Eva” released at movie theaters

“Evangelion Q” ,  the newest episode of  “Evangelion”, one of the most popular anime work series of  Japanese sci-fi anime was released at movie theaters on Nov.17th. http://www.evangelion.co.jp/news.html

 

 

“Manga Tottori Kingdom” – series of manga events

A series of manga related events are being held in Tottori Pref., which is the home area of  Shigeru Mizuki, one of the oldest working manga artist who is the creator of  Japanese monster manga works such as “Ge ge ge no Kitaro”.  http://manga-tottori.jp/?id=158

The series of  the Kingdom’s events will have been held  2012. April- 2013 March.

No.1 song of the best 30 songs of JASRAC-“The One and Only Flower in the World”

JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights Authors,Composers and publishers ) announced the best selling 30 songs 1982-2011  on Nov.6th, in token of commemorating the 30th anniversary of  JASRAC Award. http://www.jasrac.or.jp/ejhp/index.htm

The No.1 song is “The One and Only Flower of the World”(/世界に１つだけの花）, made by  Noriyuki Makihara and  sung by SMAP.

The song has won some awards as well . And in its lyrics, it sings “You don’t have to become No.1, you are inherently  one and only..”, but the song is quite popular nationwide or even internationally, and actually has “become No.1” song.

Some of other 30 songs are Enka, some are Anime songs, such as “Evngelion” BGM, “Gundam BGM” and others.

 

“TOKUSATSU-Special Effects Museum” of Hideaki Anno

Hideaki Anno(http://www.khara.co.jp/hideakianno/), a popular film director as well as an animator was  in charge of management of  a temporary art museum of “TOKUSATSU- Special Effects Museum”  wihich is a special exhibition at  Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in Koto-ward Tokyo Jul.10-Oct.8.   (http://www.ntv.co.jp/tokusatsu/english.html)

The venue has displays of a lot of and various items, data, and movies. Diorama of houses ,towns and other scenes used in Sci-fi movies, models of spaceships, robots, masks and figure dolls and other items of monsters, super heroes etc… were all around there which attracted  visitors some of whom were adults , some of  whom were children. As you walk by you could learn a lot of details about famour or popular  sci-fi , fantasy, or action types of TV shows  ,movies animation as well as a long history and general flows of that industry’s  developments for decades.  In addition, audio recording  guilding service was available. i myself visted there and it was so intresting that it took more than three hours to finish it.

Anno has joined prohects such as “Nausica of Vally of winds”, “Gundam”,”Evangelion” and other worldwide popular anime and works.His great career directly reflected to the exhibited items. In addition, His newest work which Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki joined was released and shown for the first time to the visitors. It is a 10-minute long special effects movie called “Kyoshinnhei Tokyo ni arawaru”(/ Giant soldiers of artificial creatures showed up in Tokyo )  and the colossal robot soldiers destroy Tokyo which was a description of The seven Days of Fire depicted a bit in Nausica, an anime of Miyazaki 28 years ago.   I visited there and saw the movie and found them qute good and interesting.

Though the temporary museum was already closed, as the event was so popular that now Anno and his staf are considering  of  hosting the same event in many venues nationwide as a moving art museum, which may attract even more people from now on.

The 25 TIFF held Oct.20-28

The 25th TIFF(Tokyo International Film Festival) was held this Oct.20-28 at Roppongo Hills and other movie theaters in Tokyo. (http://2012.tiff-jp.net/en/)

15 film works contested in the event and invited actors, directors, and other related people walked on the “Green Carpet”, which is the symbol of the selected top level movies of the world today, to the venue.

The Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix (the top award) went to a French movie ,”The Other Son” and the Award for Best Director was given to its director, Lorraine Levy.  This French work describing  conflicts and serious human relationships and emotions of Israeli and Palestinian is the very first one that is created by a female director in TIFF’s history.

Atsuko Maeda, a young female actor who graduated from AKB48 in this August, served as a special ambassador for this film festival.

“TAF 2012 AUTUMN” is to be held in this October

“Tokyo International Anime Fair 2012 Autumn” (TAF2012 Autumn) will be collaborately held by Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry (Meti) (http://www.meti.go.jp/english/index.html) and The Association of Japanese Animations(AJA)(http://www.aja.gr.jp/)  this Oct.23-25 at  Grand Pacific LE ODAIBA(http://www.grandpacific.jp/eng/) in Odaiba bay area Tokyo.

TAF this time is the third one, whose series  has been held every year these three years, but the previous two events were both held in Akihabara, the mecca of subculture. However, this time the event is going to be held in Odaiba-out of Akihabara for the first time. Odaiba,which has long been popular as a beautiful and refined bay area even among foreign visitors, is becoming famous and popular as well as a new center of Japanese subculture, such as with Gundam models and hotel rooms featuring those anime- related concepts.   The Japanese government and relating hosts expect Odaiba to gather more people who love Japanese anime works.

“TGS 2012” marked its record high of the number of visitors

“Tokyo Game Show 2012″(TGS 2012) was held Sep.20-23 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City.http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/index.html

This time the show marked its record high of the number of visitors with 223,753. This year the event was the 22nd and gradually it has received increasing number of visitors every time. Every time  new  video games are introduced or demonstrated at TGS and this time, new popular game soft wares such as,”Monster Hunter4″,   “Ark Sphere” and others. The number of the companies joining the event was also a record high with 209 and the number of the games was a record high with 1043. 

70% of the game titles introduced at TDS 2012 were so-called “social games”,which implies a game played by multi players through their mutual communications via such as smartphones or tablet computers.  There were also some stage performances of such as cos-play.  young female staff clad in colorful attires of video-game- world- like manner served the visitors.

Animate liner bus services “Ani-ten Special Express 2012”

Animate, one of the biggest store chains of anime and manga related items, will temporarily provide special services of  liner buses between its stores and the venue of  Comic Market, the big manga event. This service is called “Ani-ten Tokkyuu 2012″(/アニ店特急2012, anime store special express ).    http://www.animate.tv/news/details.php?id=1341304868

The service started in 2007 and has been provided periodically since then. The tickets were available through a lottery for those who buy specific items. And passengers will receive special presents, services such as  radio broadcasting on the bus related to some works.

The routes and schedules are as followes;

Shinjuku line, Ikebukuro line : Aug.10-12 , Shibuya line:Aug.11-12