AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Kewpie, the classic cherubic character created by artist Rose O’Neill in 1909, will celebrate its 100th anniversary this December with an anime TV series of 26 five minute episodes titled “Rose O’Neill Kewpie.” Masatsugu Arakawa (Vampiyan Kids) will direct the anime with Kazuo Kitagawa, head of the Japanese Kewpie Club, supervising. The animation will emulate the soft, warm hand-drawn visual style of O’Neill’s original artwork. Fashion models Anne and Nozomi Sasaki will narrate the series.

Kewpie became a household name in Japan thanks to the Q.P. Corporation’s use of the character on its mayonnaise squeeze bottles.

Source: Anime News Network

The November issue of V Jump magazine, which hits Japanese news stands this weekend, will formally announce a 2010 Yu-Gi-Oh! anime film commemorating the anime franchise’s 10th anniversary. The Gekijouban Yu-Gi-Oh! ~Cho-Yugo! Jiku o Koeta Kizuna~ motion picture will be a 3D anime that pits Yuugi Mutou, Judai Yuki, and Yusei Fudo – the protagonists of the three Yu-Gi-Oh! anime television series – against the new, original antagonist Paradox.

Yuugi, Judai, and Yusei will first team up in the short Yu-Gi-Oh! 10th Special anime movie that will screen this fall as part of this year’s Jump Super Anime Tour.

Technically the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime franchise is now over 11 years old, but the formal commemoration is based on the April 18, 2000 premiere of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters television series, the franchise’s second TV anime series.

Source: Anime News Network

The DC Anime Club will participate in the FYE retail store’s Animania event at the Ballston Mall in Arlington, Virginia on the 27th. The promotional event will include anime trivia contests, cosplay, and anime screenings from 11am to 4pm. FYE stores nationwide host their own Animania day events periodically.

The rice farmers of Inakadate, Japan have taken to expressing their artistic creativity, and creating a tremendous tourist attraction, by selectively planting different varieties of rice in patterns that create giant images. This is just neat! The The Daily Mail hosts more photos and further explanation.

Last weekend’s premiere broadcast of the new Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins live action & CGI movie has officially become the Cartoon Network’s most watched broadcast ever. The screening pulled in 6.1 million viewers. And you wonder why the network is scaling back anime broadcasts?

Source: ICv2

The Yomiuri & Mainichi Newspapers report that 51 year old Crayon Shin-chan manga creator Yoshito Usui went on a routine day hike in Gunma Prefecture last Friday, September 11th, and has not been heard from since. Usui’s wife reported him missing to police on Saturday the 12th. Saitama prefecture police that have jurisdiction over Usui’s home town of Kasukabe have requested police in neighboring districts to assist in the search. Reportedly Usui’s family nor his publisher, Futabasha, have been able to contact him.

Yoshito Usui launched his Crayon Shin-chan manga in August 1990. The ongoing series has become one of Japan’s most popular franchises, spinning off a top-rated anime television series and 17 theatrical features so far.

Source: Anime News Network

My Neighbor Totoro creator Hayao Miyazaki has designed a public park that will be constructed on the ground where the house known as “Totoro’s Home” once stood. The 60+ year old Kondo family home in Asagaya, Tokyo was profiled in Miyazaki’s 1991 book Totoro no Sumu Ie (The Homes that Totoro Lives in). In the book, Miyazaki described the house as the type of “home that Totoro would have enjoyed living in dearly.” The book made the home a beloved local landmark and the local Suginami area government formally purchased the house after its 85 year old owner moved, planning to turn the house into a tourist attraction. However, the house mysteriously burned down in February 2009 in a suspected case of arson.

The Suginami district government still plans to develop the location into a public park, now with Hayao Miyazaki’s creative involvement. Miyazaki has previous architectural & landscape design experience. He designed the buildings and grounds of the Mitaka, Tokyo Ghibli Museum.

Image from Totoro no Sumu Ie

Source: Anime News Network

Director Zebediah de Soto and Simon West Productions are prepping a 3D CG animated Night of the Living Dead: Origins prequel to George Romero’s seminal 1968 horror film. Co-screenwriter and first time feature director de Soto describes the planned prequel as, “an American-style anime.”

Let’s momentarily set aside the fact that this is a planned “Dead” movie made without Romero’s involvement and produced because the director and producers realized that the rights to the original film are now public domain. If the precise meaning of the word “anime” hasn’t been corrupted to the point of irrelevancy yet, applying it to an American motion capture CG zombie movie might be the final nail.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Question:
With a movie like Transformers, which has giant robots, do you think they will ever do a feature film on Gundam?

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Keiji Nakazawa, the acclaimed creator of the semi-autobiographical manga story Barefoot Gen about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath, has announced that his worsening eyesight will prevent him from continuing work on his Barefoot Gen sequel. Nakazawa, who has a cataract in his right eye and a damaged retina in his left eye, underwent surgery in January. But the operation has reportedly not improved his eyesight. Nakazawa states, “Now I can’t draw fine lines.” Two chapters of the Barefoot Gen sequel have already been completed. Despite being unable to continue drawing, Nakazawa will continue his public efforts to oppose nuclear proliferation.

Nakazawa began drawing his Barefoot Gen manga story in 1973, completing the ten volume series in 1985. The manga has been translated into numerous languages and been adapted into two anime films and a live-action TV drama. The manga is currently distributed in English by Last Gasp.

Source: Anime News Network

The Anima’t section of the 42nd annual Sitges International Film Festival, held in Catalonia, Spain, on October 1-12, will host the world premiere of director Kazuyoshi Katayama and Sunrise studio’s anime film King of Thorn. The formal announcement is on the film’s MySpace page. The movie will open internationally next year. The highly anticipated sci-fi survival action film is an adaptation of Yuji Iwahara’s six volume manga from 2003 that tells the story of a terminally ill teen girl who wakes from cryogenic sleep to discover that the world has crumbled and been over run by flesh eating monsters.

Source: Anime News Network

The Kyoto International Manga Museum will formally unveil an original statue of manga creator Osamu Tezuka’s character Phoenix on September 22. The 15 foot tall, 36 foot wide statue was carved from red pine by famed Buddhist sculptor Mitsuaki Suto.

A three meter tall statue of Tezuka’s character Atom (Astro Boy) will be displayed at the Mighty Atom Exhibition in Lagunasia held at the Aichi prefecture’s Laguna Gamori marine complex from September 19 through November 30. The exhibition celebrates the 80th anniversary of Tezuka’s birth. Osamu Tezuka passed away in 1989.

That bird has man hands!

Source: Anime News Network

Konami has revealed that Tokimeki Memorial 4 is now in development as a PSP game. The veteran TokiMemo franchise premiered with the original PC Engine dating simulation game released on May 27, 1994. The popular franchise has spawned more than 35 different games and ports, a live action movie, a two-episode OVA series and a 25 episode anime TV series. However, in over 15 years the game franchise has had only 3 formally numbered installments so far.

Source: Canned Dogs

Viz Media’s NEW PEOPLE complex in San Francisco will host exclusive screenings of director Daihachi Yoshida’s 2007 “dramedy” Funuke: Show Some Love, You Losers! and director Nice Rainbow’s (Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, Yuuuka Ooosumi) 2008 comedy Sorasoi beginning this Friday.

Funuke: Show Some Love, You Losers! will have screenings on September 18 & 19 and 21-23.

Sorasoi will screen on September 25, 26, and 28. Director Katsuhito Ishii & select actors will personally attend the screenings on the 25th.

Variety reports that Hancock director Peter Berg will helm a feature film adaptation of the Hasbro board game “Battleship” for Universal. “‘Battleship’ is a big opportunity,” say Universal Pictures chairmen Marc Shmuger and David Linde. Berg called the pic, “A contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle.” The movie will open on July 1, 2011.

First thought: Huh? Second thought: Oh, it’s got nothing to do with the game besides the title.