VIZ Media significantly expands the global English audience for WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP as it debuts the innovative digital manga (graphic novel) magazine in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa starting on July 4th. WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP is VIZ Media’s weekly digital serial anthology that features the latest chapters from a variety of popular manga (graphic novel) series on the same day they appear in the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. (more…)
VIZ Media has expanded the interoperability of its Neon Alley anime channel to give members seamless online web access from Mac and PC devices beginning July 5th. Mac and PC users can now enjoy 24/7 anime content with the same functionality and features that have been available to Neon Alley members on the Xbox 360® and Xbox LIVE® and the PlayStation®3 (PS3â„¢) gaming system and the PlayStation®Network. (more…)
Anime producer and distributor Right Stuf, Inc. made several announcements during its July 5th panel at Anime Expo 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Right Stuf President and CEO Shawne Kleckner revealed new anime licenses for both Nozomi and Lucky Penny Entertainment. CAT’S EYE was the newest title announced to receive the special Nozomi Entertainment limited-edition treatment. Nozomi also provided new details about its current video and print projects, including the upcoming limited-edition releases of PRINCESS KNIGHT and SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA. The Lucky Penny Entertainment label announced licenses for PRINCESS NINE, SENGOKU COLLECTION (PARALLEL UNIVERSE SAMURAI) and BLESSINGS OF THE CAMPANELLA. Right Stuf, Inc. also announced the production of HETALIA graphic novels 4 & 5 and discussed the upcoming releases for MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM UC. (more…)
I’m in LA for Anime Expo and already have a bunch to write about but it would be remiss of me to not get the word out about a couple of things, especially since both have events are happening now! Kylee held her first club gig in Oakland and Ghost in the Shell: ARISE is heating things up. I’ve put words to screen with lots of information about both. If you’re in France, take a trip to Japan Expo, and if you’re in Los Angeles, Anime Expo is calling your name.
Ghost in the Shell: ARISE, the newest installment of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell franchise, began airing the first of its films in theaters just a few days ago. Set as a prequel to the stories fans already know, Arise will be four fifty-minute episodes. The first of the episodes, titled “Ghost Pain,” will be released on July 26 on Blu-ray. Long time series partner Production I.G. handles animation duties. When I noticed that ARISE was on the Anime Expo premier list I had to get this up before then. Production I.G.’s Kazuchika Kise and Mitsuhisa ishikawa is also on tap for attendees. There’s even a panel where you can ask questions on Saturday.
Ghost in the Shell was one of the first exposures to manga I ever had (and also one of the first things I ever had confiscated, but that’s another story) so it holds a lot of memories for me. Through it I purchased quite a number of Masamune Shirow art books and did all I could to track down as much of his art as possible (and back in those days it wasn’t very easy). The franchise is one of my favorites of all time and it’s one of those things I just can’t get enough of. When I heard early this year that Arise was coming I was immediately pumped.
So what we have is familiar yet unfamiliar for existing fans. You have Batou, you have Motoko, you have Aramaki, but they’re different. They’re veterans and yet they are not so much as we know them for. Motoko has an all-new design with a haircut very unlike the one we’re used to. Her voice, along with many of the others, is different. Maaya Sakamoto gives life to Motoko, taking over for Atsuko Tanaka. This actually isn’t Maaya’s first time as Motoko; in the first and second films she voiced the Major in her days as a child. For that matter, this younger brand of Motoko is a lot less the seasoned warrior as shown from her words and interactions with others. She’s still as much a bad-ass as we remember in terms of combat abilities.
Ghost Pain opens with a standoff between the current personnel of Public Security Section 9 led by Aramaki with Major Motoko Kusanagi of Unit 501. S9 is in the process of exhuming the body of 501’s Lieutenant Colonel Giichi, Motoko’s superior officer, who naturally takes offense to that and the corruption charges against him. It devolves into a cybernetic melee when a third party jumps into the fray. We then follow Motoko as she attempts to track down what happened the night Giichi died and whether or not he truly was corrupt. Along the line We run into a frustrated Togusa while he is still working for the metropolitan police and Paz from his undercover days. Batou even joins the fun and spars a little with Motoko (and handily gets his butt kicked).
Arise is set in 2027, a few years after World War IV. Full-body cyborg soldiers that were designed for the war are still learning to reintegrate with a peacetime world. Motoko, as one of these full-body cyborgs, has much to deal with including the fact that the military outright owns her body and the technology contained within. They are walking weapons and tabs must be kept on them. This, along with other things, stood out for me as implications for the future of warfare. If soldiers do become full cyborgs, what happens to them if they want to exit the service? Do they have to pay back the costs of the body? Do they have to buy a separate, “civilian” body for transfer (and how much will that cost)?
The walking bombs are another point of contention. Suicide bombers are frowned upon today. Once science advances to the point that robots have small self-contained power sources and high-speed non-wheeled mobility systems will robot bombs become more prevalent? Right now the technology is far behind (see DARPA’s “Big Dog” which clatters along and requires a gas-powered engine) but that can’t hold forever. In Arise, both of these are non-issues. Imagine a wave of robots whose sole purpose is to run at you and explode. Nothing quite as horrifying as that. They can infiltrate at will into crowds without fear or need of extraction. Oh, did I mention they can run like spiders and leap trenches? At least the controversial UAVs today watch more than they destroy things…
No Ghost in the Shell would be complete without a walking, talking, robot tank, and today they are the Logikoma or “Logistics Conveyer Machine.” Being in the past these are nowhere near as advanced as the Fuchikoma or Tachikoma we know and love but all the same they have that happy-go-lucky -koma flare. When given the order to disappear it takes it quite literally and turns on its optical camouflage with childlike glee instead of the implied “go somewhere else.”
A partnership with Microsoft to help promote the Surface tablet was revealed a few months back and I was curious to see just how they’d be using it. The first bit of product placement happens less than a minute into the film (just a small flash on a digital billboard showing the Surface logo). The tablet itself is used by Motoko as a data terminal. It’s actually not that blatant a product placement; if I didn’t know that there was a partnership I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.
In the meantime you can catch a manga version of Arise titled “Sleepless Eye (Nemuranai Me no Otoko)” written by Junichi Fujisaku (screenplay veteran of the two Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex seasons, Appleseed XIII, and Real Drive, all Shirow created works) in monthly Young Magazine. It too depicts the early days of the people who would eventually come to be known as Section 9 including the first encounter of then-Ranger Batou with Motoko Kusanagi.
The next episode of Arise is titled “Ghost Whispers.” A release date has not been announced.
Make sure you watch through the end of the credits!
As mentioned earlier, Anime Expo is going to show it this Saturday, July 6. If you’re in Los Angeles and have a badge you might want to check it out.
Japanese-American artist Kylee held her first standalone concert at Yoshi’s Oakland on June 21. This marks her third live performance in the San Francisco Bay Area in the course of about a year. Born to an American father and Japanese mother, Kylee hails from Arizona and currently resides in Stanford, CA.   Speaking of Stanford, she has just finished her first year of classes at its namesake university. Congratulations are in order.
Last year I covered May’n’s concert at Yoshi’s San Francisco. The two venues are under the same umbrella but are very different. They both have restaurants that guests can grab a bite to eat before watching a show and full bar service available before, during, and after. One big difference is the size; the San Francisco venue is two stories with both eating space and venue occupying parts of both. The Oakland Yoshi’s location is in the heart of the popular Jack London Square area.
 The interior of Yoshi’s Oakland
The concert started a little past 10PM. Kylee looked like a natural onstage and she should as she’s been seen on both coasts of the United States, various places in Japan, and soon enough, France. With stints at Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival, the FIFA Club World Cup, and even singing for President Barack Obama, she’s definitely got high-end experience.
The set list officially consisted of 13 songs (with one additional) and primarily English ones. A possible reason for the selection is to appeal to her stateside attendees. Most are English speakers and while they do enjoy listening to Japanese music can’t exactly understand it. With that said it was good to hear songs that were not at some of her other recent appearances. Kylee’s album “17″ has made up the bulk of previous performances and this time there was only a few songs from it. As noted in the pre-concert article, one of my favorites is the song “Just Go” and I was glad to see it live. Being from the missing/IT’S YOU single it’s probably something a lot of people out here haven’t heard before.
Kylee supplemented her own songs with the covers “Clarity” (originally sung by Zedd) and Just Give Me a Reason (originally sung by Pink featuring fun.’s Nate Ruess). Both songs are also Sam Tsui covers and “Just Give Me a Reason” is actually a duet with Sam (with keyboardist Troy filling in for Sam on vocals this night). “Just Give Me a Reason” also happens to be the first YouTube video she’s been involved with with more than two million views. She sang a third cover, Katy Perry’s “Fireworks,” as a sort of celebration of her where she is now.
She didn’t completely forget her Japanese songs; she sang “Kimi ga Iru Kara” and “Crazy For You” (her most popular in Japan and used for the Nissen Clothing Fall 2011 TV commercial). An English version of “Crazy For You” is slated for release on July 1st (today!). It might have been nice to hear one or two others like “Everlasting” which was used for Gundam Unicorn. At the end of the day she is still a Japanese singer and what most of us probably learned of her initially.
Her next appearance in the U.S. will be late in July at the J-POP Summit Festival in San Francisco on both the 27th and 28th. On the 28th (Sunday) she will appear alongside Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Daichi, and Una in a breakout show. It’ll be a first for the J-Pop Summit to expand outside of the Japan Town area and this show will be held in the popular tourist destination that is Union Square. Make sure to check it out from 2-4PM.
If you happen to be in Paris she’ll be at Japan Expo which is happening July 4th through the 7th! For a couple of days she’ll be vacationing in England.
For more information about the J-Pop Summit event please visit http://www.j-pop.com/2013/union-square-live.
Kylee’s itunes page is located here. New additions as of July 1st are the album “17,” the song “Vacancy,” the English version of “Crazy For You,” and her cover of “Sanbun no ichi no Junjouna Kanjou,” originally sung by Siam Shade and used for Samurai X.
She also has a twitter and Facebook page.
Thanks to Sony and Yoshi’s for making this possible (you know who you are!), and of course, Kylee. We’ll see you again soon.
Kylee’s band for the night consisted of:
Guitar: Chris Vazquez
Bass: Bana Haffar
Drums: e-man
Keyboard: Troy Laureta
Track list is as follows:
Intro
Missing (17)
Just Go (missing/IT’S YOU)
Clarity (Zedd) (Sam Tsui/Kurt Schneider)
IT’S YOU (17)
You Get Me (Love Kicks)
UNNOTICED (17)
Fireworks (Katy Perry)
Kimi ga Iru Kara (Kimi ga Iru Kara)
VACANCY (Kylee meets Xam’d: Lost Memories)
Just Breathe (Kylee meets Xam’d: Lost Memories)
Over U (Kylee meets Xam’d: Lost Memories)
Just Give Me a Reason (PINK) (Kylee/Sam Tsui/Kurt Schneider)
Crazy for You (17)
Not For You (Love Kicks) (I don’t know where this one is positioned, just that I heard it)
Track count:
