The Heroic Legend of Arslan Manga Gets Anime
Big announcement was teased last month for Hiromu Arakawa's manga of Yoshiki Tanaka's Arslan Senki novels
Universal began streaming a video on Sunday that announces that an anime adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's manga of Yoshiki Tanaka's The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Arslan Senki) novel series has been green-lit:
Narrator: The country is burning. A prince born in a time of war, Arslan. The boy who had his kingdom destroyed in the invasion of another country follows a knight and embarks on a journey. The Heroic Legend of Arslan.
Text: The assault on an anime adaptation has begun!
Narrator: One boy. One knight. A journey to take everything back begins.
A website for the adaptation has also opened. Neither the website nor the video specify if the anime is a series or another kind of media.
The November issue of Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine teased early last month that an "earth-shaking important announcement" would be published on November 9. No other information was stated regarding the announcement in the magazine's next issue.
Central Park Media describes the story in the earlier 1991-93 original video anime adaptation:
As an unnaturally heavy mist descends on the battlefield, King Andragoras and his most valued officers confer among the bodies of dead and dying soldiers. When Daryoon, a young but highly skilled officer, voices his reluctance to send men into battle under these conditions, the king, unstable and enraged, banishes him.Now, Daryoon's new mission is to insure the safety of the King's only son, Prince Arislan. Daryoon and Prince Arislan set off on a quest of their own, but they can't succeed alone. They must convince both the Lord Narsus and his companion, the archer Elam, to join them in their quest to somehow help the soldiers win the war.Now a group of only six they must somehow overcome an enemy of 300,000 soldiers! These unlikely soldiers have fate on their side, so anything can happen!
Kodansha published the second volume in May, and Kodansha USA is publishing the manga in print in North America. Crunchyroll is also releasing the manga as it appears in Japan. Tanaka wrote Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Sohryuden - Legend of the Dragon Kings, and Tytania — all of which inspired anime.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Yo-kai Watch Gets 2nd Film Next Winter
1st film sells 721,422 advance tickets, an all-time record for TOHO
Level-5's Yo-kai Watch franchise is getting a second film next winter. The announcement comes as 721,422 advance tickets have been sold for the first film, Yo-kai Watch: Tanjō no Himitsu da Nyan! (Yo-kai Watch the Movie: It's the Secret of Birth, Meow!), as of October 26. This is the highest number of advance tickets sold in the entire 82-year history of the film's distributor TOHO.TOHO says it aims to make Yo-kai Watch a long-running hit series in the vein of such belovedfranchises as Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, Detective Conan, and Pokémon.
The first film will open December 20:
Narrator: The yo-kai watch — a wristwatch that allows the wearer to see yo-kai — has suddenly disappeared.
Villain: We've stolen the yokai watch.
Keita: The Kemamoto village where my grandmother lives has a legend... the clue should be here.
Fuyunyan: This is destiny. I want you to go back in time to 60 years ago to save my friends.
Keita: My... grandfather?
Yo-kai: Let's go!
Narrator: Chasing the Yo-kai Watch that has disappeared...to the world of the past.
Keita: No way... you are...?
Text: A destined encounter
Fuyunyan: Because Keizo stopped making the yo-kai watch, the yo-kai watch in a later time has disappeared.
Keizo: I'm not qualified to have friends.
Text: In order for the yo-kai watch to be restored
Villain: Such a nuisance!
Ubaune: Do away with them!
Text: Summon the courage
Keita: Jibanyan!
Text: Now is the time to stand up.
Master Nyaada: Now is the time to use the force.
Text: Guest voice actor: Ken Shimura
Ubaune: You're halfhearted!
Text: Guest voice actor: Ainosuke Kataoka
Yukippe: Don't hold it all in alone.
Text: Guest voice actress: Haruka Shimazaki
Text: Andー
Keizo: If your friends are important, save them yourself!
Text: Whatever happens
Jibanyan: Save me!
Keita: Jibanyan!
Text: Protect your friends.
Keita: I won't lose!
Cast: Yo-kai Watch the Movie: It's the Secret of Birth, Meow!
Whisper: That was interesting wasn't it? Let's go to the movie theater. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.
The film will star Haruka Tomatsu as Keita Amano, Tomokazu Seki as Whisper, Etsuko Kozakura as Jibanyan, and Yuuki Kaji as Fuyunyan. Other cast members include Tohru Nara as Kuma, Aya Endoas fumika Kodama, and Chie Satou as Kanchi Imada. Guest stars include AKB48 member Haruka Shimazaki as Yukippe, kabuki actor Ainosuke Kataoka as Ubaune, and actor and comedian Ken Shimura as Master Nyaada. Yoichi Kato will provide the scripts for the film, while Ken'ichirō Saigōwill compose the soundtrack. Oriental Light and Magic is animating the film.
Game developer Level-5 announced the Yo-kai Watch franchise in 2011 with a game, manga, and anime already planned. The franchise's first game for the Nintendo 3DS debuted in Japan in July 2013, and two versions of the Yo-kai Watch 2 3DS game shipped in July. A third version titled Yo-kai Watch 2: Shinuchi (Yo-kai Watch 2: Headliner) will ship on December 13, and will tie in to the upcoming film. The anime premiered this past January. The manga has four volumes that have sold 1.5 million copies.
Dentsu Entertainment USA is offering the anime to broadcast and merchandising partners in the Americas. Other game franchises from LEVEL-5 Inc. — Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven — also inspired films.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Source: Nikkan Sports
Episode Riview : The Fruit of Grisaia Episode 5
The death of her cat in the last episode has sent Michiru into a deep depression. We knew that she was havingemotional problems previously, not only because she appears to harbor both a blue-eyed and a green-eyed personality, but also because we saw her taking medication. When this episode starts, she's tried to kill herself with that same medication – etizolam, it turns out, which is used for anxiety and panic attacks, along with insomnia. So either her doctors don't know about the other personality or she is refusing treatment for it; either way, all she manages to do is suppress her blue-eyed self, something only Yuuji appears aware of. That she's using an anti-anxiety medication to keep one of her personalities in check (and keep in mind that this is coming from an English teacher, not a doctor) seems symbolic of her seeing her anxious self as someone completely Other from Michiru – a being who must and can be repressed rather than a chemical imbalance in her brain. While panic attacks can cause you to feel like you're looking down on yourself from some other place, this seems a bit more extreme than that.
Speaking of extreme, Yuuji's reaction to the situation takes him from “concerned friend” to “totally creepy guy” very quickly. One minute he's exposing the exchange diary Michiru's two selves kept, the next he's pinning Green-Eyes onto the bed and forcing pills down her throat so that he can bury Blue-Eyes alive in a coffin. “I just wanted to see if you really wanted to live,” he essentially explains later. (I've paraphrased two minutes of dialogue.) Right. Good plan, Yuuji – bury the suicidal girl with a panic disorder alive in a coffin after she's suffered the death of someone she loves. That'll help.
Because this is anime and not real life, it works and Yuuji is not arrested. And when the episode isn't straining our credulity with Yuuji's tactics, it is actually quite touching. We learn about Michiru's troubled past, her health issues both physical and mental, and find out precisely who this other personality is. In some ways it's the same old story whose first part we hope never to hear again – bullied child commits suicide, sick child receives organ transplant. (When Michiru remembers the past, her friend appears to have bruises all over her face before she dies.) It's a short segment, really, but still relatively effective in terms of emotional content. It would have been better served by getting more longer to play out, but it is still easily one of the best parts of the episode.
Whether or not the transplanted organ came from this deceased friend is never really stated, and the uncertain location of both the show and Michiru's past don't really help us to understand whether or not the organ came with the friend's spirit or whether Michiru somehow summoned her. That confusion is one of the major downsides to both the flashback and the ending of the episode, as it allows us to waste time trying to guess if they're in Japan or America instead of focusing on Michiru's more important emotional transformation. There's also a very rushed feeling to the whole thing, clearly indicating (at least to me) that a lot of game has been condensed into very little anime. It's a shame, because it feels like there's a lot more to Michiru's past than we're getting, all of which could have been very important to fully appreciating her need to hide behind a tsundere clown mask.
This episode is also remarkable for the slim number of panty shots (one, really, plus recaps of a couple from the opening episode) and school antics. We have one scene of a goofy chibi (which involves a chainsaw, so that's pretty great) and that's pretty much it.The Fruit of Grisaia really is at its best when it's being serious, so from that angle, this is one of the better episodes. It may not dig into Michiru as much as it could have, but this is still fairly compelling as it grapples with severe depression and anxiety.
Rating: B
The Fruit of Grisaia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Rebecca Silverman teaches writing and literature at the university level and writes ANN's manga review column, RTO.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Episode Riview : World Trigger Episode 4
It's been two weeks since the last World Trigger, and between this and Sailor Moon Crystal that seems to be the sweet spot for making me forget everything that happened previously in a show. To recap: mysterious invaders called Neighbors are invading Mikado City, and an organization called Border fights them off. Bordertrainetransfer student who claims to be a Neighbor and has some serious ass-kicking powers. They fight off a few Neighbors, and now Border's shown up and is getting suspicious.
This episode is about Ai Kitora, a neighbor-hunting prodigy and local celebrity who's jealous of Osamu's sudden rise to prominence. As both the youngest and one of the strongest Border agents, Kitora is used to being on top. She wants to seem above it all, but doesn't take competition lightly either. She's in favor of court-martialing Osamu for using his trigger - a border supplied supersuit - against regulations, even though it resulted in him saving dozens of civilian lives. However, the city is attacked on their way to the hearing, and they're forced to put aside their differences to try and stop the battle.
Production values continue to be this show's death knell. There hasn't yet been a moment as transcendently cheap as the first episode's opening slideshow, but its visuals are still unimpressive and unengaging. The animation is choppy even during simple talking heads sequences, and there are plenty of weird issues with the editing. At one point the show breaks the 30 degree rule, an editing principle stating that not moving the camera at least 30° when cutting creates a jarring, noticeable edit. (Lo and behold, this edit was both of those things.) This is such a fundamental principle that you usually don't see issues with it pop up.
It's a shame that World Trigger appears to have negative production values. The content's still not that bad. Unlike other monstrous invader shows (for example Attack on Titan and Neon Genesis Evangelion) it doesn't front-load the stakes with an explosive opening episode, but has let them grow steadily since the beginning. This show seems to be selling itself on taking place within a false sense of security rather than in the immediate aftermath of a breach, and while it's not the obvious choice for engaging an audience, this structure may have something going for it. The characters all have distinct personalities, relationships, and conflicts (although they seriously overuse the duck face on Yuma). Osamu in particular is a likable guy. I like how the main character's heroism is defined by wanting to save as many people as possible rather than taking down the big monster. Yuma's deal is that he's sort of amoral and doesn't know how to function in the real world, but he also sees right through social niceties to people's true intentions. He's a bit like an action version of L from Death Note, and an invaluable ally to the pushover Osamu, whose kindheartedness often forces him into a corner. Kitora is also nowhere near as irritating as she could've been in her role as "prom queen of murdering robotic axolotls."
The anime also drops hints toward things that weren't revealed in the manga yet, like Osamu's relationship with the black-haired girl in his class and the little creeping robots that appear before Neighbor attacks. There were a couple charming jokes, like Kitora's "accidental" posing while people were taking pictures without her consent. (This is the kind of show where jokes are "charming" rather than actually funny, but that's better than them being actively annoying, I guess.) World Trigger could be a competentintroduction to an intriguing story, but it's hard to recommend sticking around for that because it's just so ugly.
Grade: C+
Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Episode Riview : Log Horizon 2 Episode 5
It's Christmas Eve, and the streets of Akihabara ring with the sounds of murder. This week kept the focus on last week's characters, but the tempo couldn't have been more different. The ominous stranger who's been lurking in the corners of the last couple episodes took center stage this week, as a string of murders in Akihabara put the entire cast on edge. We checked in with the round table and Lenessia, followed Souji's attempts to clean up the streets, and barreled through a climactic fight between Souji, Akatsuki, and the Christmas killer.
I couldn't run out of good things to say about this episode. It was easily, far and away the best of season two - the pacing, character development, and dramatic setpieces on display here offered Log Horizon 2's first big reminder of how fun the first season could be. The base concept of this episode is itself strange and interesting - what is the significance of a murderer in a world where everyone comes back to life? The round table seem to see this as an issue of assumed security, and decide the best solution is to evacuate Akihabara's children. Nyanta, on the other hand, sees something more significant in the very acceptance of death - he seems to believe that accepting death as temporary means losing touch with a portion of your own humanity. And ultimately, the greatest significance of this killer might be his political consequences - as a Person of the Land murdering Adventurers in the guise of their old protectors, he may very well unbalance the peace Lenessia is working to protect.
That scene where Lenessia learned of the killer's actual nature was one of the better ones this week, as it was the first that really paid off the work the show has been doing in pairing off Lenessia and Akatsuki. Though Akatsuki remains determined to prove her own value through physical strength (you could see the eagerness with which she took to hunting the serial killer early on), this scene offered a strong demonstration of her value as an emotional support. Akatsuki and Lenessia have struggled to connect in the past, and using this shared burden to bring them together was a smart and poignant choice. Neither of them are particularly good at emotional honesty, but red bean buns and a shared crisis can bring even the least likely of people together. In the wake of this scene together, I'm very much looking forward to seeing their friendship grow across this season.
This episode also was the first to really imply any complexity in Souji's character. He's generally been more of a gag friend than a narrative force himself, but his violent reactions to his guild being threatened helped lend some real urgency to the resolution of this conflict. Between his lack of emotional balance, Lenessia's desire to see Crusty again, and Akatsuki's frequent thoughts of Shirou, the show is very successfully building a feeling of constant tension, that in the absence of its core heroes, Akahibara is starting to come apart at the seams. And all the implied tension of this episode was expressed brilliantly in that final fight, which was easily one of the most visually impressive of the show to date. Log Horizon isn't generally a show I'd laud for its artful direction or flair for action scenes, but this entire episode was full of shots that used the Christmas lighting, snowfall, and darkness to evoke suspicion and danger, and that last fight was full of great single shots and dynamic exchanges. And that last shot, Akatsuki in the snow as she wonders once more what Shiroe could be doing now…
Yeah. This was a good one.
Rating: A
Log Horizon 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Episode Riview : Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Episode 4
Shirou Emiya is not good at grail wars. He doesn't try to hide his command seal, presumes that his scary weirdo teacher is innocent, and calls Saber by her title in public. It's frankly a miracle that he's even made it this far. It's appropriate that this episode begins with a discussion of pity, drawing a contrast between Ilya's lack of it and Rin's dangerous abundance of it for useless Shirou. The assumption that ruthlessness wins grail wars led to Fate/Zero's tragedy, so it'll be interesting to see how Rin and Ilya's respective approaches to Shirou pay off.
Otherwise, this episode was bound to be a step down from the last four. It's a lull before the storm, consisting mostly of emotional closure and foreshadowing for things to come. As pure character and plot development, it's fine for what it is though. Saber continues to get along pretty well with Shirou. She appreciates his considerate and trusting nature, but still chooses to withhold her identity. There's more explanation of magic mechanics to get the newbies up to speed; this time it's all about the class system and the risks involved in casting magic above your level. Unlike previous exposition scenes, this one doesn't have much of an interpersonal conflict brewing beneath the surface, although the episode as a whole dwells on the difference between Shirou and Kiritsugu as masters. Saber follows Shirou to school to get a feel for the place where he insists on going every day, and there they have a number of curious run-ins with students and faculty. Saber thinks there's something odd about Mr. Kuzuki, Shirou's placid history teacher, and given how some of his shots are framed, I'd say it's a good bet that he's involved in the grail war somehow. Meanwhile, Sakura seems even more flustered by everything than usual, and Shirou's classmate Mitsuzuri expresses her concern for him and his unhealthy levels of self-denial. During their conversation, he flashes back to Fuyuki City's destruction ten years ago, linking his martyr complex to the carnage his witnessed there.
Finally, Rin continues to display emotional flab toward Shirou. She's absent from school today in order to investigate some mysterious gas leak incidents, which are not really gas leaks or all that mysterious, of course. She's in favor of hunting down Caster, a servant with unknown capabilities who's wreaking havoc on the city, and allowing Shirou to live, since he's a vulnerable master. This is in contrast to her espoused principles, which are becoming more and more apparent as a persona she tries to maintain rather than her true self. The cracks are also beginning to show in her working relationship with Archer, who constantly reproaches her. They're sort of an inverse to the Kiritsugu/Saber relationship from Fate/Zero, where Saber was the idealist and Kiritsugu the pragmatist.
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works still looks great, although it's difficult to follow the last episode's balls-to-the-wall action. Last time was all acrobatic pirouettes by Saber and bursts of magic between Rin and Ilya. Now all that energy is turned inward, giving the characters an expressive dimension to whether they use or conserve that energy, and how. There was some awkward CG in the form of Caster's skeletal minions, but they're taken care of quickly. Otherwise this show's integration of CG is excellent and should serve as a standard for other anime. All in all, it's an understated episode of one of the season's standout shows, functional and entertaining but reaching towards something beyond itself.
(Also, please no naked Ilya in the future. I know that it wasn't that explicit and the scene was otherwise good, but I would not like to dwell on unclothed children in my anime. Yes, I know that she's really like twenty or whatever but let's be real that's not an acceptable excuse. This wasn't in the visual novel either, so bad call. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works doesn't have to be a show you can't watch in public.)
Grade: B+
Gabriella Ekens studies film and literature at a US university. Follow her on twitter.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Winter Comiket Catalog Posted Online, with Kantai Collection At the Top Spot
Kantai Collection dominant
The catalog for this winter's Comiket 87 has been posted online. It can be accessed here(an account is required for log-in). A search of its contents reveals that Kantai Collectionrules the roost, with 2,456 total results. Touhou Project also continues to attractdoujinshi attention, amassing 1,995 results.
Here's a list of the catalog's top franchises, ranked by number of search results:
- Kantai Collection: 2,456 (KanColle: 1,847; Kantai Collection: 609)
- Touhou Project: 1,995 (Touhou: 1,442; Touhou Project: 553)
- Kuroko's Basketball: 677 (Kuroko-no Baske: 435; Kurobas: 242)
- IDOLM@STER: 666 (Idolmaster: 435; Imas: 231)
- Love Live!: 614
- Yowamushi Pedal: 423 (Yowamushi Pedal: 362; Yowapeda: 61)
- Haikyu!!: 415
- Attack on Titan: 390
- Vocaloid: 375 (Vocaloid: 172; Vocalo: 109; Hatsune Miku: 94)
- Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club: 357
- Tiger & Bunny: 318 (Tiger & Bunny: 203; TiBunny: 115)
- Pretty Cure: 240
- Sengoku Basara: 233
- Fate: 221
- Uta no Prince Sama: 203 (Utapri: 144; Uta no Prince Sama: 59)
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: 202
- Hetalia: 201
- The Prince of Tennis: 149 (The Prince of Tennis: 117; TenniPri: 32)
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: 142
- Gintama: 134
Comiket 87 will convene at Tokyo Big Sight from December 28 to 30.
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Episode Review : Sword Art Online II Episode 17
Sword Art Online's light adventure came to an end this week, as Kirito and the gang challenged the king of the giants for the sake of all Alfheim and also a really cool sword. Giants were slain, swords were tossed away and then picked back up again, and Klein discovered and immediately lost yet another love of his life. This was a fluffy, upbeat adventure episode, and that's perfectly okay.
We started off this week with the actual boss fight, as Kirito and his friends battled the king of the giants in a vaguely defined race against time. We sadly didn't get another animation buffet to match last week's, but this fight was still reasonably engaging on its own terms. There were a whole lot of “now it's my turn!” attack rotations, which come across as total nonsense to anyone who's played an MMO, but are basically just an accepted part of the SAO package at this point. Yui calling timings on the bosses' various attacks did help give it a somewhat more game-like feel, and attacks like his freeze breath-into-shatter also helped evoke a true boss battle mood. It didn't match last week, but it was still a vast improvement over the majority of the first season's fight scenes.
Following that, the NPC Freyja informed Kirito that in order to win, they'd have to recover her family's golden hammer. This led into one of the most Kirito of Kirito moments, where Kirito's response to Sugu asking him to use a lightning attack is to leap in the air, do an absurd backflip, and then kneel down and perform his attack. Moments like that are exactly the kind of thing that make Sword Art Online impossible to take seriously, but they're also honestly a part of its charm - this show is silly and in love withits protagonist, and if you accept that, you can actually feel in on the overall joke.
Recovering the hammer led to sudden heartbreak for Klein, as Freyja transformed back into the giant Thor. With Thor's help, the party swiftly dispose of the giant king, and Klein ended up receiving a hammer consolation prize for his efforts. And then it was down to Excaliber's chamber, where everyone got to watch Kirito pull the sword from the stone. With the quest finally complete, the world of Alfheim finally began to right itself, and we got treated to a lengthy sequence of watching color return to the underworld.
The second half of this episode really made clear what this whole arc's been about - just hanging out with characters the audience is already fond of. There were silly jokes at Klein's expense, silly harem gags at everyone's expense, and the whole gang got to laugh and make merry and have a party at the bar. Your mileage here is pretty much entirely reflective of how much you enjoy watching these characters spend time together, so it's not really something that lends itself to easy critique. It's light and fluffy - a moment to catch your breath between larger adventures. And outside of that first slog of an episode two weeks back, I'd say this filler adventure was a perfectly reasonable time.
Rating: B
Sword Art Online II is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Giovanni's Island to Play in LA County for Oscar Qualification
Laemmle Town Center 5 theater will screen the film on November 7 in Encino, California
Production I.G will screen the Giovanni's Island animefilm at the the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino, California on November 7 to qualify for the 2014 Academy Awards.
The film will also screen at the 31st Chicago International Children's Film Festival on November 2, and then at the Discovery Film Festival: Scotland's International Film Festival for Young Audiences onNovember 9. Production I.G recently screened the film at the London Film Festival, the 5th Scotland Loves Animation Festival, the 24th Films from the South Festival in Oslo, in Belgium on October 29, and at the 47th SITGES International Film Festival of Catalonia in Spain.
Production I.G's Annecy-winning hand-animated Giovanni's Island film tells the story of two brothers living on the island of Shikotan. Their family and the people of the island hear of Japan's loss in the war and are told not to worry. However, their island gets caught in the middle of the continuing conflict in the west and is invaded by Russian soldiers. The boys meet a western girl on the island named Tanya and the older of the brothers, despite their language barriers, cultural differences, and warnings from friends, starts to fall in love with her. The boys' father gets lured out by the army is and is captured and taken to Siberia. The brothers embark on a journey to see their father again.
Giovanni's Island received the Satoshi Kon Prize for Excellence in Animation and tied for the Audience Award at the 18th annual Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal this September. The film also won the Jury Special Mention at the Nueva Mirada Film Festival in Buenos Aires.
Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip
[Via Animation Scoop]
_____________________________
Source: Animenewsnetwork
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment