Filed under: -Anime Reviews | Tags: aliens, Anime, argento soma, frank, guinievere green, harriet, hattie, ryu soma, sue harris, takuto kaneshiro
Reviewed by Alicia Glass
Directors: Kazuyoshi Katayama & Kristi Reed
After an accident with an alien costs him the love of his life Maki and disfigurement, Takuto Kaneshiro joins an elite military force, becoming Ryu Soma, to exact his revenge.
This is a really fantastic anime series, despite being drawn in a rather old-fashioned style and starting off a bit slow. Believe me, the first episode may seem to drag, but it is establishing mood and reasoning. And right after the first episode, things go from somewhat boring to nonstop action with the elite military versus the constantly-coming aliens. Human emotions are a great factor in this anime, as we watch Ryu struggle to overcome his rage at the loss of his woman and understand that it was truly an accident, especially when the alien Frank (the unwilling culprit) begins to talk. The aliens keep appearing, and they’re all heading for Pilgrims Point, and none of the military can figure out why, not that they ever really bother to just flat out ask. And when they find the huge alien they dub Frank (after the scientist who first named him) in the company of an extra special young girl called Hattie, everyone’s immediate reaction is to bring them both in for study. Frank ends up fighting his own kind for awhile, before further plotlines are revealed, and most of the main characters get upset at his treatment by others. There is one odd character who seems to pop up in key positions every now and then, his presence is never fully explained, but I think he was some kind of manifestation of Divinity, to help nudge Ryu along a particular path.
All in all, if you are a fan of anime that has both lots of combat and a great humanitarian (or is it alien-atarian?) storyline, then Argento Soma is for you!
Check out a trailer!
By Von Jared Omo
A few months back I wrote a review on Funimation’s Double Feature of Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray. I wrote in that review that I did not enjoy the anime the way I was expecting, but nonetheless, it was still a good experience. Since then, I’ve been on a mission to watch old school and new school anime on blu-ray. To much success, I was able to watch Blood: The Last Vampire and Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone.
To my surprise, I was quite fascinated with the quality of these animes on blu-ray. They were remastered, redone, and cleaned up which makes it so much better to watch on a HDTV. The sound is awesome, the animation looks so much smoother, and it feels good to see what the hell is actually going on in some scenes where it seems too dark. However, there were some downsides to watching some anime on blu-ray and I’ll talk about that in my next reviews.
This is just a preview of things to come. Be on the look out for my reviews on Blood: The Last Vampire and Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11 on blu-ray in the weeks to come! Plus, I’ll be writing about my 5 top animes to watch and/or get for your friends and/or family this holiday season!
Peace
Filed under: -Uncategorized
On Monday, the English website for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has posted the Naruto and Toriko original anime shorts that were screened exclusively at the Jump Super Anime Tour events in Japan this past fall. (The videos require the website’s proprietary browser software for the Microsoft Windows platform.) Weekly Shonen Jump’s Japanese website also posted special footage that the Jump Super Anime Tour screened from next month’s One Piece Film Strong World. The Japanese website promises to offer special footage from the 3D 10th Anniversary Yu-Gi-Oh! film, Gekijō-ban Yu-Gi-Oh! ~Chō-Yūgō! Jikū o Koeta Kizuna~, in the near future.
The Naruto: The Cross Roads short tells an original story set when the fan-favorite character Sasuke was with Kakashi’s ninja squad. The Toriko anime short was the first anime adaptation of Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro’s manga. In Toriko’s story, “Bishokuya” (gourmet food providers) travel the world to hunt down the animals and plants needed for the finest cuisine dishes. Viz Media is releasing both manga series as well as the Naruto anime in North America.
One Piece Film Strong World will open in Japan on December 12; for the first time, creator Eiichiro Oda is personally overseeing the production of a One Piece anime film based on his pirate manga. The Yu-Gi-Oh! film will mark the 10th anniversary of TV Tokyo’s anime franchise by bringing together the main heroes of all three TV Tokyo anime series. Viz Media is releasing the manga versions of One Piece and Yu-Gi-Oh! in North America. Funimation handles the One Piece anime, while 4Kids handles the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.
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The Japanese publisher Hakusensha has begun posting all 18 manga titles from the first issue of the new Le Paradis (Rakuen) manga anthology magazine online for free on Tuesday. (In the linked page, select the “「楽園」web増刊” link on the top.) One manga will be posted every day from December 1 to December 18; the first to be released is Nomino (“know me now”) from Yumi Unita (Bunny Drop).
Hakusensha shipped the first issue of Le Paradis on October 29, and more issues will follow three times a year in February, June, and October. The magazine focuses on one-shot love stories from various artists. The first issue features 14 artists, including cover artist Kaya Shigisawa, Mika Hisaka, Asumiko Nakamura, Unita, Kowo Kazuma, Hikau Hinomiya, Rendō Kurosaki, Jun Takemiya, Kiko Urino, Uko Nishi, Suruga Kiryu, Chu Takeda, and Niritz. Yen Press announced at Comic-Con International in July that it had licensed Unita’s Bunny Drop (Usagi Drop) manga for North America.
Source: Comic Natalie
Filed under: -News
The Yahoo website began streaming a 45-second trailer for Tae-Gyun Kim’s live-action film adaptation of Kōji Matsumoto’s Higanjima supernatural horror manga last week. The manga is named after a fictional island where the brother (Dai Watanabe) of the main character Akira Miyamoto (Hideo Ishiguro) went missing two years ago. Miyamoto leads a search party of friends to the island and discovers that there are vampires and other creatures lurking on it. Tetsuya Oishi, the screenwriter for the live-action Death Note films, is scripting this new film for the director of Volcano High. The film has been delayed in Japan until January 9, although it premiered at the Pusan International Film Festival on October 9.
The North American anime distributor Funimation posted a one-minute trailer for its English dubbed release of the RIN ~Daughters of Mnemosyne~ video anime series last week. Director Shigeru Ueda (Elemental Gelade, Tales of Symphonia), screenwriter Hiroshi Ohnogi (Noein, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Aquarion), and the animators at Xebec (Martian Successor Nadesico, Fafner, Heroic Age) created this graphic, “hard-boiled science-fiction action” series. The story follows a seemingly ordinary office lady named Rin who is secretly a private investigator — and nearly indestructible due to supernatural powers. Funimation also posted a new 71-second English-dubbed trailer for the Soul Eater anime series on the YouTube website on Monday. The previous English-dubbed trailer is still available.
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Did you see the Debut of the Animated psychological suspense
thriller NAOKI URASAWA’S MONSTER? Well if not you can each Monday night on Manga Entertainment’s SyFy Ani-Mondays block
MONSTER is based on the critically acclaimed manga series by Naoki Urasawa (published in North America by VIZ Media.) New episodes of Naoki Urasawa’s MONSTER, will air each Monday night on the Syfy Ani-Monday block and will be re-broadcast on SyFy’s sister channel, Chiller the week thereafter. Chiller airs a variety of horror and suspense-themed programs. Check local listings for specific airtimes.
What would you do if a child you saved grew up to be a monster? An ice-cold
killer is on the loose, and Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the only one who can stop
him! Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon with a promising future, risks his
career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy named Johan. When the boy, now a coldhearted and charismatic young man, reappears nine years later in the midst of a string of unusual serial murders, Tenma must go on the run from the police who suspect him to be the killer to find Johan and stop the monster he set loose upon the world. Conspiracies, serial murders, and secret government experiments set against the grim backdrop of the formerly communist Eastern Europe are masterfully woven together in this compelling work of suspense.
VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, delights fans of shojo manga with the announcement of the upcoming release of BOYS OVER FLOWERS: JEWELRY BOX on October 13th. The new volume is rated ‘T’ for Teens and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.
BOYS OVER FLOWERS: JEWELRY BOX is a collection of two new short stories by Yoko Kamio, the creator of the acclaimed BOYS OVER FLOWERS series. The new epilogue takes place one year after the end of the original BOYS OVER FLOWERS story, which concluded with Volume 36. It also contains a section with some of the important events in the series that show the characters maturing, plus a special bonus strip!
“Yoko Kamio, one of the most beloved shojo manga creators of all time, just couldn’t stay away from some of her favorite characters and we’re proud to announce the publication of BOYS OVER FLOWERS: JEWELRY BOX,” says Candice Uyloan, Product Marketing Director, VIZ Media “This volume serves as a fitting conclusion to a series that helped to establish the shojo manga genre in the U.S. and fans won’t want to miss this chance to get reacquainted with main character Tsukushi.”
Creator Yoko Kamio made her manga debut in 1986 with WAITING UNTIL 20 and her other notable manga series includes I REALLY REALLY LIKE YOU and MARY’S LAMB. Her seminal title BOYS OVER FLOWERS (published in the US by VIZ Media), followed the romantic and social dramas of a girl in high school, broke sales records selling over 35 million copies and went on to become the best-selling shojo manga in Japan. The series went on to win the 1996 Shogakukan Comic Award in the shojo category. BOYS OVER FLOWERS was also adapted into a successful animated series and live action film.
VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, expands its notable VIZ Signature manga imprint with the publication of Inio Asano’s WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD! on October 20th. The 2-volume series (each sold separately but launch simultaneously) is rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens and will carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN.
A poignant collection of intersecting vignettes depicting twenty-something angst, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD! explores the various ways that modern life can be at once ridiculous and sublime, terrible and precious, wasted and celebrated. In Volume 1, what begins with a college dropout bored of her mediocre routine soon becomes a fantastic series of stories about the unexpected ways that different lives intersect. Filled with magical realism in the face of the cold reality of daily modern life, at their core these stories are about young people discovering something precious amidst the chaos of existence. Volume 2 explores similar themes including the cruelty of childhood, the delusion of adulthood, the permanence of death, and how people find a way to remain resolute and laugh in the face of reality.
“Inio Asano masterfully captures the essence of youth, and WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD! depicts both the exhilaration and frustration felt by a diverse group of twenty-somethings trying to find their place amidst the impersonal urban sprawl of Tokyo,” says Candice Uyloan, Director, Brand Management for VIZ Media. “Fans of everything from Catcher in the Rye to Reality Bites will find this series an impressive and heartfelt read. Asano’s realistic story is ultimately a commentary on how modern life and the choices one makes impact the struggle to grow up and fit in and we look forward to readers discovering this thought-provoking new title.”
Creator Inio Asano drew initial attention for his short story HELLO FROM OUTER SPACE, which won the 1st Sunday GX rookie prize in 2001. WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD also appeared in the pages of Sunday GX. Asano’s other works include CITY OF LIGHT, OYASUMI PUN PUN and the acclaimed SOLANIN (which is published in North America by VIZ Media and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award).
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Crunchyroll and Marvelous Entertainment announces today the addition of SHIN KOIHIME MUSO to Crunchyroll’s Fall 2009 Anime Lineup. Adapted from BaseSon’s Japanese visual novel game with a nearly all-female interpretation of the Chinese literary classic ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, SHIN KOIHIME MUSO is animated by Dogakobo and features returning cast members Emi Motoi, Erika Narumi, Hiroka Nishizawa, Maki Kobayashi, and Nami Kurokawa in lead voice-acting roles. More information can be found at http://www.crunchyroll.com/shinkoihimemuso.
“SHIN KOIHIME MUSO exemplifies everything which hardcore anime fans are looking for in anime today,” said Vince Shortino, President of Crunchyroll’s Japan office. “Its ornate visuals, character relationships and fan service all create the ideal core show for the Fall.”
SHIN KOIHIME MUSO will be available worldwide outside of Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and French-speaking Europe in standard definition free of charge to all visitors of Crunchyroll’s website and across the Crunchyroll network one week after airing in Japan. Crunchyroll’s Anime Members will receive early access to the program.
All fans can enjoy all content on the site for free, but Crunchyroll Anime
Members benefits include higher quality streams of all shows (in some cases
at 720p High Definition Video) with no advertisement and early access to all
simulcast shows as early as one (1) hour after its Japan Broadcast. Crunchyroll Anime Membership costs as little as $5 a month and goes directly towards supporting Japan Animation companies. More information, including a two week free trial membership can be found at
http://www.crunchyroll.com/freetrial.
SHIN KOIHIME MUSO
Towards the end of the Han Dynasty, the world is in the throes of chaos and
disorder. In a time when strength is needed, a hero is secretly sharpening her skills as a warrior of justice: her name is Kan’u Unch?. Kan’u will put her life on the line, test her strength and power, fighting to protect those in need.
Together with Chhi Ekitoku, they make a vow as sisters to forge down this
path of justice, awaiting whatever fate has in store for them…
Now in SHIN KOIHIME MUSO, Kan’u and Chhi explode into battle as they must again stand up and fight for peace during these turbulent times. Together they set out to assemble their team of warriors, eyes to the horizon and the many battles and adventures that awaits for them up ahead!
