Bits and pieces from this week's AICN Anime, including a couple of shout-outs to yours truly (thank you, Mr. Green).
Somerset, New Jersey's AnimeNext will host Kenji Kamiyama, director of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex and the to be released by FUNimation Eden of the East ... Black Lagoon creator Rei Hiroe (also known as doujinshi artist Tex-Mex) will be at Anime Expo for the premiere of the new anime OVA Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail.
See the trailer for the latter here. Kamiyama is also responsible for the excellent TV adaptation of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.
Catsuka reports Studio 4°C has developed a short adaptation of Masamune Shirow's battle of religions, Orion to be shown at the Short Shorts Film Festival in Tokyo this June. Batman: Gotham Knight's Yasuhiro Aoki directed the 3D work.
Orion (see the link above for a review) was not one of my favorite of Shirow's works, but it at the very least stands out by dint of being so impossible to follow and insanely over-designed that you can't help but marvel at it.
Kinji Fukasaku's son, and director of Battle Royale II will be supervising a 3D converted re-release of original Battle Royale movie.
... get that man away from the camera now.
A UK DVD of live action Sleeping Bride has been released Synopsis: From Osamu Tezuka, godfather of manga, and Hideo Nakata, godfather of J-horror, comes this quirky romance between a boy and the comatose girl with whom he falls in love.
Tezuka + Nakata = sold. Any chance of a US release?
DC Comics has announced that it will be shutting down its CMX manga division
Part of me wants to tag that #andnothingofvaluewaslost, but I know better. CMX had some good titles in the middle of a great deal of dross, although I hope with them out of the picture the more dedicated players like Dark Horse and Del Rey will step up that much more.
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CMX's shutdown was a huge shock to me. Yep, I'm aware of the TENJO TENGE mess, but since I refuse to follow the single issue mentality way of thinking, I gave them a chance. They did have some excellent titles--they put out MADARA, for one, and I loved KIKAIDER: CODE ZERO TWO. I was also following BROKEN BLADE, which is one of the best fantasy/mecha works I've seen since ESCAFLOWNE (and for that matter, DUNBINE). They also carried many shojo titles...it's damned shame, and hopefully those books will get picked up.
ORION did confuse the heck out of me, but I gave it a chance since it's Shirow, and the man's work is top-notch. Also, Studio 4C (couldn't put the degree mark in there, sorry!) is one of the best anime studios around. They have always done spectacular work, and their animated shorts are top-notch (see AMAZING NUTS! for instance).
Interesting note about Kinji Fukasaku...he directed BATTLE ROYALE when he was around seventy, and the result was an film that put most younger directors to shame. And his 1980 film VIRUS (FUKKATSU NO HI) has got to be one of the bleakest, most downbeat end of the world films I've ever seen--the original version, that is, not the hacked-up version seen in the US, even though that was pretty bleak too.
...Hard to believe he also directed THE GREEN SLIME!
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Fukasaku was large, he contained multitudes. For another facet of his personality, check out the amazingly angry "Under the Flag of the Rising Sun", a film I was amazed got made at all in 1972 and would be impossible to make today, I suspect. It's one of the best embodiments of how cultural criticism in Japanese movies has been heavily marginalized, since this wasn't some Art Theatre Guild indie production but a major big-budget "entertainment" filmmaker tackling one of Japan's touchiest issues, wartime complicity. I need to rewatch it and write a proper review of it, as the first time around I was too intimidated to say anything coherent.
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Agreed. He tackled films of various genres--not just SF or action, but there was also his Yakuza films of the late 60's and 70's.
I have not seen "Under the Flag of the Rising Sun", but it's now on my list of films to see. It is a good thing that some of Fukasaku's films can be seen over here; he certainly was not just one of Japan's great directors, but one of THE great directors, regardless of nationality, period.
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