AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Anime Expo is now seeking volunteer maids and hosts to staff its first AniMaid Café. Requirements are:

• Must be at least 18 years of age or older
• Must have a great personality and work well with others
• Must be in good health (in order to participate in live events)
• Must be willing the make/buy his/her own Maid/Host outfits (subject to approval by the AniMaid Café management staff and must be in line with the Anime Expo dress code)
• Must be able to make meetings for trainings (Most trainings will be conducted in the Southern California region consisting of Los Angeles and/or Orange County areas)

Interested individuals/parties should send an email correspondence to
animaidcafe@yahoo.com with basic information about themselves and a picture. Further information will be provided upon receipt of initial application.

This year’s Anime Expo convention will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on July 2-5.

60 year old manga creator, essayist, and poet Murasaki Yamada (birth name Mitsuko Shiratori) passed away in a Kyoto hospital on Tuesday at 4:16 a.m. Yamada’s first published work appeared in Mushi Production’s alternative manga magazine COM in 1969. She continued to create manga titles including Showaru-Neko, Ai no Katachi, and Shinkirari. Yamada was working as a professor in Kyoto Seika University Faculty of Manga when she passed away.

Source: Anime News Network

The Hunger Pains Magazine blog has secured the amazing first trailer for director Isaac Florentine’s upcoming action film Ninja. The movie stars Scott Adkins, the stuntman actor most recognized for playing Deadpool in the climax of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Please note the trailer contains graphic violence and strong language.

Frank Marshall, producer for Disney’s English language adaptation of director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, reports that the first American trailer for “Ponyo” will be released during the July 4th weekend.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

Despite the June 30 DVD and Blu-ray release of the Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li movie being a special edition 2 disc DVD release and 3 disc Blu-ray, Twentieth Century Fox details for both releases appear to confirm that the anime bonus feature film double-billed with the Japanese theatrical screenings will not be included in the American home video release. In its place, apparently, will be Eagle One Media & Udon Entertainment’s “Street Fighter: Round One – Fight!” animated comic.

The Legend of Chun-Li movie was screened in Japanese theaters as a double feature with a short original anime film from Studio 4°C starring schoolgirl fighter Sakura Kasugano.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

ADV Films has apparently picked up domestic distribution rights to four anime series previously distributed by now defunct Central Park Media. Now and Then Here and There, World of Narue, Grave of the Fireflies, and MD Geist will be re-released in July. Central Park Media officially ceased operations last week after ending practical distribution operations in 2006.

Article provided by ADV Nation

Anime studio Mushi Production, in association with Crunchyroll, has launched a translating competition with the aim of securing a skilled translator to subtitle the 1986 TV anime Wonder Beat Scramble and possibly other Mushi Pro works. Contest entrants are requested to submit a translated and timed subtitle script for a 9 minute long Wonder Beat S TV special now streaming on Crunchyroll, and available for free download. (Crunchyroll is also now streaming the series’ first two episodes with subtitles provided by Mushi Productions.) Mushi Pro will award vintage Mushi Productions memorabilia as prizes to four contest runner-up winners. A grand prize winner will be offered the opportunity to continue translating the 26 episode series and, upon completion of the work, a collection of rare, vintage Mushi Productions memorabilia. Mushi Pro cannot provide financial compensation to a translator for Wonder Beat S, but work on this project may lead to future opportunities to translate other Mushi Pro titles including Princess Knight, Ashita no Joe, and Dororo.

Subtitle script submissions should be in .ass (preferred) or .srt format with only simple formating commands and sent to scramble@crunchyroll.com. Additional rules and stipulations may be found here.

Source: Anime News Network

A new 2 minute long trailer for Kamikaze Douga’s full CG short anime film Amanatsu is now available on Japanese video hosting site eyeVio. The new trailer features the song “River’s Edge,” performed by pop duo Nichika. The full film is now available for purchase from the Japanese iTunes store.

Source: Anime News Network

Continuing its “Kadokawa Tuesdays” series, Crunchyroll has announced streaming of the Mail and Onmyoji films, and all three volumes of Kadokawa Mystery & Horror Tales. All three titles have previously been released on American DVD. All three titles are now available for free online to viewers located in the U.S., Canada, American Samoa, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

Gametrailers now hosts the trailer for the upcoming Wii survival horror game Kyofu Taikan: Ju-on (Experience Fear: The Grudge). The game features the involvement of Ju-on film franchise creator Takashi Shimizu. The game is scheduled for Japanese release on July 30.

Source: Syumi wa Muryo Game

Screen Daily reports that director Shinya Tsukamoto has finished principle photography on his third “Tetsuo” film after a year of shooting not a peep of this production leaking to the media. Tsukamoto’s celebrated original cyberpunk “body horror” film Tetsuo the Iron Man premiered in 1989, and was followed by Tetsuo II: Body Hammer in 1992. Reportedly Quentin Tarantino asked Tsukamoto to write a new English-language version of Tetsuo, a story about a man mutating into a metallic killing machine. The project never developed because Tsukamoto wasn’t sure the concept would translate to America. But the idea evidently evolved into a new, third film starring Tsukamoto and American actor Eric Bossick. Tsukamoto plans to offer the distribution rights to the tentatively titled “Tetsuo Project” film for sale at this month’s Cannes Film Festival.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

Question:
What’s your personal opinion of Hetalia? Do you think it’s too controversial to be published in the US (either the manga or anime)? Do you think the controversy is justified?

(more…)

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) has opened public voting for the nominees in the 2009 SPJA Industry Awards. Winners will be announced during the Anime Expo 2009 Industry Reception held on July 2 in Los Angeles, California.

The Asahi newspaper reports that Yasuo Yamaguchi, managing director of The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), recently described Japan’s anime industry as a “bubble that burst several years ago. The marketplace is on a falling curve due to declining birth rates and the recession.” The AJA reports that the number of annual new television anime productions rose from 124 in 2000 to a record high 306 in 2006 before declining to 288 in 2008. A record setting 60 new TV anime premiered in April 2006 while April 2008 saw only 36 new TV series premieres.

According to Japan Video Software Association (JVA) statistics, anime home video sales within Japan that totaled 97.1 billion yen in 2005 declined to 77.9 billion yen in 2008. The declines are blamed on a variety of factors including video piracy and redundancy in the content of contemporary anime that has served to reduce viewer interest in new productions.

Source: Anime News Network

The Japanese government has established plans to launch a “Contents Overseas Development Fund” to invest money in the international promotion of Japanese pop culture – particularly anime and film. The monetary fund will tentatively begin encouraging and expanding international licensing of Japanese media and artists, and investing in overseas production companies this fall.

Overseas revenue generated only 1.9% of the Japanese media industry’s grosses in 2004 compared to the 17% figure for American media. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry wants to boost the exposure and revenue gains of Japanese creative media to a level rivaling America’s.

The fund is part of a larger governmental strategy to promote Japan’s “brand.” Prime Minister Aso Taro promised last month to create 4 million jobs in in Japan by 2020, with 500,000 involved in the country’s “soft power” in anime, manga, and similar areas of popular creative culture.

Source: Anime News Network