Manga & Anime THREAD

[eddievalient]

Holy cow pie! I've been waiting years to get Unico on dvd (as all I've had until now was a very poor quality vhs tape). I tried to get my niece to watch it, but she got scared partway through and left the room to do something else. It does get kinda creepy towards the end (for an animated film anyway). George, if you go for the cute stuff, I'd say Unico would be right up your alley (though it may in fact be too cute for its own good). The interesting thing, though, is that the film has a practically unrelenting sense of melancholy about it and it makes you wonder how Japanese kids could possibly be well balanced if this is the kind of stuff they're watching. Still, as one of the later works of manga master Osamu Tezuka, it is definately worth checking out. Could I write a more confusing review? Ah well. Look! I found an avatar to celebrate!

[Ben]

There were two Unico pictures and I have 'em both on VHS. They're pretty good even if the second one's story is NUTS.

The first one was my sister's favorite film for many years (when she was young) and she used to have some unrelated unicorn figure thing that I used to drag away from her like when Uni is drowning in the ocean from the first flick. She'd yell out like in the movie.

Ahh, fun days!

I'd love to be able to surprise her with this!

[gaastra]

I was just about to post this.

This was on the disney channel in the 80s!

[Meg]

The first one was my sister's favorite film for many years (when she was young) and she used to have some unrelated unicorn figure thing that I used to drag away from her like when Uni is drowning in the ocean from the first flick. She'd yell out like in the movie.

Aww, that's so cute! Gotta love nostalgia.

[EricJ]

ToonZone has an interesting tidbit about a new anime R1 licensing company, New Galaxy Anime.

http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=19525

To paraphrase the article, NGA is interested in licensing anime for all ages with a particular emphasis on shoujo anime.

I wish them luck. Unless they luck onto properties that have high nostalgia value or instantly click with people, they're entering a rough field at this time.

Think we should pull back a little from the press copy, as I don't think we're looking at The Next ADV, for "new anime companies", unquote--

But between this, Discotek's "Animal Treasure Island" and "Taro the Dragon Boy", and Hen's Tooth's "Jack & the Beanstalk", it's impressive how good-looking some of the smaller mom-and-pop companies have been rescuing the "ancient" 70's/80's proto-anime dubs with real print quality and bilingual soundtracks...
That certainly wasn't the intention way back when they came out in theaters.

[GeorgeC]

Looks like it's gonna be a good time for Tezuka fans...

I might even get the original Astro Boy and Kimba for Christmas.

[Daniel]

Look! I found an avatar to celebrate!

I never thought I would see the day... Looks good on you, eddie!

[cmoon]

Don't forget the new anime of Tezuka's Phoenix series just came out on DVD in the US.

As a Tezuka fan I admit that I was rather turned off by the Unico designs (I've never seen it), but I've heard about this series on several forums now and I'm starting to get intrigued.

[Inkan1969]

Can we expect a Bathing-Shizuka doll anytime soon?

[GeorgeC]

AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST...



Widely reported on most anime newssites (AnimeOnDVD.com, AnimeNewsNetwork.com, etc.) is the fact that the Anime Network has discontinued its 24/7 service.

Right now, AN programming is only available as Video-On-Demand or streaming Internet play supported by ads at the Anime Network website.\

This leaves the Funimation Channel as the only 24/7 anime cable network available in the United States.

[Ben]

Unfortunately, they were always running a niche service itself within a niche!

[GeorgeC]

While there has been gloomy news about the state of North America's domestic anime licensing industry and speculation about the fate of ADV Films since the Anime Network ceased 24/7 service, Newtype Magazine USA's revamp into PiQ, and ADV's website seems to be having issues, there IS a bit of interesting news for early anime-fan adopters...

ADV is going Blu-Ray in the near future for new releases.

More information at http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/12015.html about this latest news tidbit.

[GeorgeC]

All the more reason that fans should snap up their favorite shows while they can, especially since many of the best ones can now be had complete for $50 or less. The loss of Geneon is a shame though. I never did get Tenchi Muyo and now it appears I'll have to wait for someone to rerelease it or else pay far too much on ebay for a "rare" copy. Bandai and Funimation make up the bulk of my small collection and there are still plenty of their shows I'd like to get, so I sincerely hope they stick around awhile.

You can still get the re-releases of the Tenchi Muyo OVA series for fairly cheap. The Right Stuf has a very nice sale on some Tenchi Muyo DVD single releases. Many of the Tenchi Muyo series were re-released in brick collections in the last year and these are still available but the supplies are dwindling...

[Foxtale]

I heard about this awhile ago (forgot where). I think I read it in wired (maybe?) but that there is a downward spiral because there is an over saturation of titles out there that the market isn't that great. I'm tired of all the different animes, and when I find ones I really like the dvds are just too expensive to purchase therefore I can't watch them. (Like School Rumble). Some titles were finally going down in price, like Princess Tutu the complete series was only 30 dollars. Which is really cheap. It makes me sad because somethings haven't been released (last season of sailor moon *coughs*) and some things were never released in manageable prices like Revolutionary Girl Utena which dvds go for hundreds of dollars and there not even complete seasons. Something needs to be done to help the anime industry.

Either they need to figure out how to sell items cheaper or limit their licenses or something. (not very helpful ^.^; )

[eddievalient]

Let the speculation begin! I've only read the first book (of six) in the series, so I don't know all that much about the manga, but I have always been a huge fan of the original film since I first saw it [back then it was the near-incomprehensible Streamline dub, not the much better (but still kind of confusing) Pioneer dub]. When I first heard a couple of years ago that Warner wanted to go live-action with it, I wasn't sure what to think but now that we have slightly more information, here are my thoughts:

1. Although to some fans this will seem blasphemous, I don't have a problem with them shifting the location from Tokyo to New York. Tokyo works in the original because that's the major city in the country the film was made. If they're going to try and adapt it for an American audience, it makes sense that they would use the most major American city.

2. As for casting, I personally could see Sam Elliot as The Colonel. He has played similar roles in the past and I think he would give the character the proper sense of authority and onscreen presence. Laugh if you will, but I could definately see Shia Lebouf for Tetsuo (or whatever they rename him). Up to now he's done a lot of lightweight stuff, but I think he has it in him to do something really meaty and dramatic, plus I think he has (or could portray very well) the same sense of naivete that Tetsuo had in the original. I'm not sure who I would want for Kaneda, but I will say that if he were five or six years younger, Decaprio himself would be perfect.

3. I don't know who they're going to get to do the music, but it's my opinion that even if the rest of the score is all new, they really need to retain (or do a reasonable facimile of) the main theme of the original film because to me, it just wouldn't seem the same without it.

Finally, I am glad that they want to split it up into two films because, as brilliant as the original was, it simply tried to cram too much story into too short a runtime and I always felt that it would have been better to give the narrative more room to breathe. All in all, I think this project has enormous potential and I sincerely hope they can get it right.