Archive for April, 2006

Site Update: Merry Christmas!

Friday, April 28th, 2006

Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s  Christmas in Spring! Celebrate with a review of Ken Akamatsu’s Itsudatte My Santa.

Itsudatte My Santa

Friday, April 28th, 2006

Synopsis
When do children stop believing in Santa Claus? When they’re four? Five? Kids begin to take a closer look at reality during elementary school. But for one individual his version of reality was different. He has never celebrated Christmas with anyone. Presents were always mailed to him. In his loneliness, the boy decided that there was no Santa and that he didn’t need him.   
  
But this Christmas, perhaps his streak of unhappiness might end. A girl appears out from nowhere and asks him, ‘Would you like to spend the night with me?’      

Review
Itsudatte My Santa is a 2 episode OVA holiday series released last year on December 12th by none other than Ken Akamatsu whose most famous works include Love Hina and Maho Sensei Negima/Magister Negi Magi. Modern day Christmas shopping where department stores hold sales date back to the 1930s coinciding with the end of the year bonuses. Christmas Day is not a national holiday although it is common for people to exchange gifts, have parties, and eat cake on Christmas Eve.       
  
The official Japanese website for Itsudatte My Santa can be found at http://www.threefatsamurai.com/mysanta/. On the right hand side in pink are four options: story, characters, DVDs and CDs, and special trading cards.                    

Likes: Maimai’s appetite

Dislikes: In less than a few frames of animation in episode 2, time skips from winter, to summer, to fall, and back to winter again.        

The Breakdown
Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!          

  

Cartoon Network and VIZ Media Announce Broadband Joint Venture, Toonami Jetstream

Tuesday, April 25th, 2006

Cartoon Network and VIZ Media announced a joint venture called Toonami Jetstream, a new broadband service that will provide on-demand, full-length streaming episodes of a number of hit animĆ© and action series, including acclaimed hit series Naruto and Samurai Jack. In addition, users will also be able to watch full-length episodes of series like Hikaru No Go, MĆ„R and The Prince of Tennis that are not currently offered on U.S. broadcast or basic cable television. In this joint venture, Cartoon Network and VIZ Media will jointly manage and administer acquisitions and programming. (more…)

Site Update: Review Posted!

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006

Howdy! As promised, a review of Karas: The Prophecy will be posted within the week… it seems like it was more like the next day. Hehe. Anyways, there will be more coming as I watch two soon to be released titles from ADV Films and Central Park Media. Have a nice day.

Karas: The Prophecy

Tuesday, April 18th, 2006

Synopsis
The worlds of humans and demons have overlapped since time immemorial, and a young woman named Yurine and her servant, the Karas, have long maintained order and balance between the worlds. But humans have finally lost their fears of the denizens of darkness.

Disgusted by human arrogance, the Karas turns his back on the laws he helped uphold for so long, taking the name Eko and leading a group of mechanized demons in an attack against the human race.

Meanwhile, a detective named Kure who works at the police division in charge of demon-related incidents opens a case involving a series of bizarre murders that look like the work of a water demon. Elsewhere, the demon Nue, who came to town to fight Eko, spots a water demon disguised as a famous warrior… and then Yuri shows up with another Karas.

This new guardian of the city is determined to stop Eko’s evil ambitions, but he has a fierce fight ahead of him.

Review
After reading the package that I have received along with watching the DVD sampler, I can say that what I have seen so far from Karas is too good, way too freaken good. The blending of 2D and 3D animation is amazing. The action makes it even sweeter as it is quick and hard hitting. This show has some sort of magic to it that attracts the viewer. I was mesmerized by the details and the way the show flows so seamlessly together (animation-wise) at times. But I am sure you have heard enough about the animation and how good it is. Let us go into what Karas is really about.

We commence with an exciting chase scene that will get anybody’s heart racing. During the sequence, there are some things that one could pick up about the show, such as, characters that will have a significant role later on, the transforming ability of Karas, and the sometimes confusing flow of the feature. Why would I say that it is confusing? Well, Karas feels like it just pieces together scenes one after another, whether they connect or not, it is up to whether you have the ability to think fast and connect it yourself. I actually watched the first twenty some odd minutes of the show three times to finally realize why this part happened and why that part occurred. Maybe it is because it is only six episodes long and things might have to be skipped over to fit all there is to fit. It certainly does not make it fun to feel like you are always catching up and just when you do make sense of what is happening, the show blazes away again. It is a marathon, so stay strong people!

Okay, what is Karas about? The story goes something like this. The previous Karas dies in battle fighting Eko (the ex-Karas). With Eko and his crew of blood consuming mechanical demon monsters running around Tokyo, a new Karas has to arise, and that leads us to, Otoha. There is not much detail about how or why he was chosen, but his side job is a demon doctor and of course, his main job is to be the protector of Tokyo, the Karas (it translates into crow, by the way). Anyways that is pretty much how the show starts out. It builds up from there. We follow Nue (a mechanical demon), who left Eko’s Mikura group in order to follow his own path. What that path is, is still to be determined, but he does help Karas. But then we also follow other characters of the show as well; Kure, Sagisaka and even Hinaru (the girl who seems to be everywhere). When you go further, other characters will appear, such as, a female Karas and a Yurine twin. But just when things begin to reach a high point and get extremely exciting, the first DVD ends :(.

The music score of Karas drags you into the show. The main theme is beautifully composed and is sweet to the ears. Every time it came on, I could not resist from sitting up straight and direct all my attention to the show. The dub was not bad either, having three big names in the project: Jay Hernandez, Matthew Lillard, and Piper Perabo (Because of this, you know Manga Entertainment was serious about this release). The voices of the characters were pretty sweet. I liked how Karas sounded in both English dialogue and Japanese dialogue. Of course, I am more on the subtitles side though :).

The Breakdown
Certainly, Karas has the looks and sounds of a killer hit, that is something we cannot deny. From the get-go you get your monies worth of action, animation and audio. Although, the way the plot flowed, has gotten me a little skeptical about whether some of the audience would like it. As I have stated above. At times, the anime, would seems like scenes are just being pieced together without any sort of transition or development. But other than that complaint, from the time you play the feature initially to the time the run time has fully elapsed. In the end, when the smoke clears, Karas is entertaining. Manga Entertainment deserves a lot of props for delivering this top notch OAV to the fans of the States. You must see it to realize what I am talking about!

Site Update: New Watcher!

Monday, April 17th, 2006

Yes, we got a new Watcher. Behold, Edition 17: Karas, the big release from Manga Entertainment coming to a store near you on April 25th, 2006. Look forward to it, because it will certainly grab your attention. I will have a review of Karas along with some other anime titles within the week. Please check back! :). On another note, I have added a vote poll that will determine how dedicated to anime you really are, “What would you give up for anime?” and a free banner for Samurai 7 on IFC to help promote the awesome series on TV. I’m showing my support, you should too ^_^.

Edition 17: Karas

Monday, April 17th, 2006


The worlds of humans and demons have overlapped since time immemorial, and a young woman named Yurine and her servant, Karas, have long maintained order and balance between the worlds. But humans have finally lost their fears of the denizens of darkness. Disgusted by human arrogance, Karas turns his back on the laws he helped uphold for so long, taking the name Eko and leading a group of mechanized demons in an attack against the human race.

Meanwhile, a detective named Kure who works at the police division in charge of demon-related incidents opens a case involving a series of bizarre murders that look like the work of a water demon. Elsewhere, the demon Nue, who came to town to fight Eko, spots a water demon disguised as a famous warrior and then Yurine shows up with a new Karas. This new guardian of the city is determined to stop Eko’s evil ambitions, but he has a fierce fight ahead of him.

http://karas-movie.com/ - U.S. Official Site
http://www.thekaras.net/ - Japanese Official Site

Licensed by Manga Entertainment

DVD release date April 25, 2006

Staff
Director: Keiichi Satou
Script:
Masaya Honda
Shin Yoshida
Storyboard: Kenji Nakamura
Music: Yoshihiro Ike (Composer)
Original Concept: Keiichi Satou
Character Design: Kenji Hayama
Art director: Hajime Satou
Animation director: Kenji Hayama
Mechanical design: Kenji Andou (Monster & Mecha)
Chief Writer: Shin Yoshida
Editing: Hirofumi Okuda
Executive producer: Keiichi Satou
Monster Design: Kenji Andou
Planning: Keiichi Satou
Sound director: Jin Aketagawa
Sound Effects: Yasuyuki Konno

Credit to ANN for the staff list.

Thoughts:

Stikz: I can see why Karas is one of this years most anticipated titles. Manga Entertainment presents, Tatsunoko Productions (The creators of Speed Racer) 40th anniversary feature animation. Having viewed the promo DVD containing only a sneak peek of the feature, I can tell you this, the production and presentation are stellar! I’ve seen 2D and CG together but there was almost always a sense that the two never meshed together completely seamless. That’s where Karas comes in. It looks amazing!

I think the reason it succeeds while others don’t is because the 3D scenes are still animated by hand. Motion capture was not used. So since the same style of movement is used, you’re never taken out of the film. The fights are a kinetically energized spectacle! With the epic soundtrack and the comic book superhero feel, comparisons to ‘Batman’ and ‘The Crow’ aren’t far off at all. From what I’ve seen, Karas deserves all the hype it’s been getting.

I do hope that in the full length feature, they kick up the character development. If that comes to be then this will be in every anime fans top five this year. April 25th is when Karas: The Prophecy hits the stores. I’ll be right there picking up my copy. The second feature, Karas: The Revelation hits this fall on DVD. (A fun side note: Tatsunoko Productions also made the anime ‘Zillion’. That was the first anime that I bought and it’s what got me hooked. Thanks guys!)

Kefkasou: From my experience with opinions regarding Karas, I’ve discovered that some people see it as an Anime revolutionize by its spectacular CG animation overshadowing all over aspects to what makes an Anime, Anime. With that said, there are others who harshly criticize it as having a dull plot and generic characters so horribly constructed that no CG graphics on earth can save this. So what is there to check out about Karas you ask? Well, regardless to what anyone says, every Anime excels in some area and indulges in a certain spotlight. In Karas case, we are talking about the animation. If certain people think characters are too dull and undeveloped, why is Azumanga Daioh liked so much? If Karas excels in CG animation, then watch it for the CG animation if that is what interests you. Who knows, maybe Karas could set up an example of what certain animation should evolve into? Anyways, I would definitely check out Karas for an experience. I don’t see why the negatives should negate the good qualities (whatever these “negatives” may be). Look forward to this piece of work. Who knows, maybe you will see the qualities of Karas that others can’t.

Dark Wind: Let’s get the formalities out of the way. Karas is a 6-episode OVA, a 40th anniversary title by the famous Tatsunoko Productions. Anniversary titles, if nothing else, have immense animation budgets and a lot of time to make and create. Last Exile, a 10th anniversary Gonzo title, is an example of this. So hearing it’s an anniversary title is promising. For the US, the release is being handled by the almost inconsequential Manga Entertainment, who have released almost nothing in the last few years and somehow still manage to screw up their DVD’s. In this case, they are releasing Karas over 2 DVD’s, 3 episode’s on each. Hopefully they won’t muck up the menus or anything this time around, as they have in the past. As for the actual show…well, it certainly looks nice. The two trailers I’ve seen indicate the animation, quality and fluidity alike, look really really nice. The story seems simple, which is perfect considering the length of the OVA, and the action looks to get the heart-pumping, just as it should. It should be a real blast to watch, I think. Let’s hope so.

Alpha:
I knew there was something about Karas that is different from the other shows that have been coming out lately. Its awesome action sequences can make any mouth water. Just watching the sneak peek DVD was enough to make me sweat profusely in the palms of my hands and when the full feature DVD came to my front door, you cannot imagine my reaction after watching the whole first volume. The blending of 2D and 3D animation is jaw dropping and when you take that and combine it with the sword fights, and other sequences you get a show that is going to be the next big feature. A super hero for Japan huh? It is certainly looking as bright as the moon shots in the show. Look forward to the release! Both manga and anime!

Karas Screen Caps:


Rightstuf: Hunt for Savings

Thursday, April 13th, 2006

Know what’s better than an Easter basket full of candy? How about one full of anime! Don’t worry, no hunting involved - we’re having an In-Stock Clearance sale! (more…)

Huge Holiday ANIME Sale TODAY! Spring Into Action!

Thursday, April 13th, 2006

The people at ADV are at it again! 75% off select anime from the company ^_^. Sale ends on April 18th, 2006, so hurry up, or you’ll miss out. Here is the link to the sale.

Submit Your Princess Ai Fanart to Tokyopop

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

Calling all Princess Ai fans!

TOKYOPOP’s got a super-secret Princess Ai project in the works and we are inviting you to participate by submitting your:
-fan art
-poetry
-fan fiction
-song lyrics
-cosplay photos
(more…)