Princess Nine DVD review

Coming in 2008, Realbuzz Studios (a division of religious publisher Thomas Nelson) is slated to print a sports rarity amongst AmeriManga titles. A female softball team title w/faith based content called “Hits & Misses”. No, it’s not the faith based content that is rare (they’re doing it this September to surfing with Goofyfoot Gurl after all), it’s the whole Bball (or in this case Sball) slant of the title that is rare.

I don’t know about you but I can’t name even a half a dozen female driven Bball slash Sball (Baseball slash Softball) titles with a full female lead cast out there besides Princess Nine and 2008’s Hits & Misses. It’s just not coming to me, not at all.

This title in particular is a pre-”hiccup” (pre ADV’s reorganization some years ago) ADVFilms title, put out in the start of the 21st Century (2001 to be precise). 9 girls, 9 dreams, and a whole lot of barriers between them and their final dream to compete against male dominated teams in one particular “house” of the game. One special home of regional baseball that is the target “hit” of this slowly rising girl’s team.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Ryo is the daughter of a legendary baseball player, who is set to drop out after Junior High (Middle School + 9th Grade) to help her mom run the family restaurant. Faith, however, seems to have other plans for her as her skills with baseball are about to be scouted by a woman with a dream.

She runs an elite girl’s school, and heard about Ryo playing for her hometown’s small time baseball team (male) and giving the older gents a hand with their game. After watching her come in at the end of a game (on request by the coach) to help stave off a particularly powerful opponent, this powerful woman’s dream becomes set in her mind as she plans to go full steam ahead with establishing a female baseball team in her school with this girl as the pitching centerpiece of her dream.

This, of course, isn’t going to go well as the mindset stubborn board of male/female members seem hellbent on stopping her, which becomes a problem later in the series as her team forms up and the real battle for acceptance truly begins. But first, before she can send the invite (or approach the board with her dream) she has to put her future pitcher through a few tests (without her knowledge) to make sure she’s the one (which ends up with a screwball thrown into the mix because despite having rigged the event with fake “enemies“ and a fake “umpire“ (who becomes the girl‘s coach) she doesn‘t anticipate the arrival of a certain male who is the batting counterpart to Ryo, one who can hit as well as she can pitch).

Once she is certain of Ryo‘s qualifications (which happens by Episode 2) she’s ready to go to the carpet with her own board members (of which she is the leader of) and put forth her ambitions for a girls‘ bball team (setting herself up to be rivals with her school’s own Principal and lacky Vice Principal).

But having a girl’s baseball team in this girl’s school she will, and out goes the special invitations to school at her school to her prime prospects in exchange for each girl to join the baseball team in turn. Ryo, after much soul searching, talking to her mother, and a Field of Dreams moment with her dad’s spirit, jumps in and decides to take the school up on it’s offer by going over to the interview to join the school (and thus the school’s baseball team). This doesn’t go well as she ends up accosted by same male from the challenge who… well… you’ll see.

Of course since this isn’t Looney Tunes and Ryo can’t be the whole team (thus be the “Bugs”) it’ll look like our female leader needs to get more members of the team. This, if anything, is the major flaw with Princess Nine (and might keep you away from it). It’s a nice story, filled with the purity of the sport we really haven’t seen in such a long time, but it is also painfully slow. Gathering the nine isn’t quick, and it won’t be done this DVD. In fact by the time the 9 are gathered, and all obstacles are overcome enough so the girls can hit the field? Guess what! The series is well on it’s way to being over by the time all that is accomplished (and this series has a full season’s worth of episodes to be counted!)

It’s this slow but steady pace that might not appeal to you, especially if you’d like to get to the baseball action and see the team swinging and throwing hard against their male rivals.

Also, there’s a romance involved here, and a love triangle that suddenly happens when Ryo is accosted a lot by her male counterpart (a male youth with superior hitting skills to rival her pitching skills which I talked about above)… where was I… oh, right, he accosts her in front of his “girlfriend”, the daughter of the female with the dream to create her own baseball team, a tennis star who somehow ends up becoming the 2nd Princess of the nine before the end of the DVD (but not before totally throwing a fit and challenging Ryo to a baseball duel during her interview day at the school).

As the DVD rounds towards the end we have a coach, 2 players… maybe more before the end of the DVD (but you’ll have to watch) and the start of a dream. Just a start. Next DVD let’s see how much closer the dream comes as the search continues for more Princesses to join the ranks.

Otherwise the series is near flawless.
All around (animation, Japanese voice acting, musical scoring, storyline and plot) are all great.
The characters are lovable and I like how it all is put together.
However the story is slow, and once we get to the point that the 9 are all together and ready to roll the series seems to be practically over. That can’t be good.

If you don’t mind the slow pace of the story, and want to see a purity to baseball the MLB can’t deliver (no matter how hard they try) then Princess Nine may be the shot in the baseball arm you’ve been looking for.
However if you’re hot on girl vs. guy baseball and don’t want to wait the long time for the circumstances to finally align in just such a way for it to happen, and then be short as the series is on it’s way to being over once it’s done? Well then… Princess Nine might not be for you after all.
Either way if it’s still available you should be able to nab some DVDs from Right Stuf for a really really cheap price from their bargain bin… if they’re, you know, not completely sold out by now.

Otherwise Princess Nine DVD Volume 1 gets 4 fastball specials out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 14th Sep 07

source : animeboredom

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THE SUMMER OF SUPERMAN!

June, 2008, marks the 80th anniversary of the debut of Superman, created by two guys in the Glenville section of Cleveland. Isn’t it time Cleveland embraced its most famous son?

In all the world, only one city can brag that it is the home of Superman, yet Cleveland is strangely silent. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the character in Glenville where they lived, but there are precious few reminders left today. Even more rare are the city's recognition of the feat.

What would it take to get some kind of celebration going in Cleveland? We have had celebrations with statues of pigs, dogs and guitars all over the place, how about a summer where area artists are invited to create an homage to the Man of Steel in whatever media they like?

Imagine paintings, statues, pictures, films, flags, songs and things my feeble imagination can’t come up with, on display around the city? There could be special exhibits of Superman-related items, an IMAX movie at the Great Lakes Science Center, maybe even a comic book convention like they have in many big cities.

We could have lectures on the importance of Superman to literature and the arts. There could be a Superman tour of Cleveland that would include a drive past Siegel’s old home on Kimberly Avenue. Fans would come from all over to take a moment and look at the house where two young boys created a story about a baby boy who came from far, far away. And consider how that idea has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry.

source : newsarama.com
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$169 Rock Band on November 23

Shortly after Rock Band was first announced for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, retailers posted product pages for the game's various instruments and an all-in-one bundle. However, Harmonix and MTV Games remained stubbornly mum on the subject of pricing and package options for the music game.

That changed today when a Harmonix rep confirmed for GameSpot that Amazon.com's latest changes to the game's price and release date are accurate. The online retailer is currently listing the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bundles of the game for $169.99, with a November 23 release date.

In addition to that news, the representative also confirmed the PlayStation 2 version's price and release date. Last-generation gamers will have to wait a little longer to shred, but the price of admission won't be quite so steep, because the PS2 bundle will sell for $159.99 when it arrives December 10. The game and instruments will also be available separately.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bundles will include the game, a wired drum kit, and a microphone. The 360 bundle will also come with a wired Fender Stratocaster guitar controller and USB hub, whereas the PS3 bundle will come with a wireless version of the Stratocaster controller and no USB hub. The PS3 edition's instruments can also be used with the PS2 edition of the game.

In May, results that were leaked from a focus group revealed that MTV Games was asking potential customers about three price points: $150, $175, and $200. Shortly thereafter, GameStop began listing the entire bundle for $199, which indicated that Harmonix, MTV Games, and distributor Electronic Arts had opted for the highest price point possible.

source : gamespot.com
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Arakawa's Hero Tales Television Commercial Posted

The official website for the Jyūshin Enbu - Hero Tales mythological anime television series is hosting a program announcement commercial. The series premieres on October 7 in Japan with the character designs of Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa and a story loosely inspired by Chinese folklore. The site previously posted the latest promotional footage on August 31.

source : animenewsnetwork.com
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Halo 3 rides hype into US retailers

Midnight release of the massively promoted 360 shooter in San Francisco draws crowds of media, spectators, police, and gamers from various backgrounds. a lot of people make long queue in front of game store just to take off into another halo excitement.
One person lucky enough not to be sprayed was Daniel Krug. The 18-year-old was the first person in line, having shown up around 5pm that afternoon with two friends there for moral support. In the same sentence, Krug claimed to be a student at the San Francisco Art Institute but then said he was currently taking no classes. "I am gonna play this thing all night and I don't want anything stopping me," proclaimed the gamer, strutting in an army jacket covered in silk-screened Red Hot Chili Peppers logos.

source : gamespot.com
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Pyū to Fuku! Jaguar Live-Action Movie Casting Announced

weekly shonen jump and kodansha manga magazine has just announced the casting of real live action movie of pyu to fuku! jaguar , The main character, Jaguar, will be played by Jun Kaname, who made his major acting debut as Kamen Rider G3 in the sci-fi robot series Kamen Rider Agito. The director of the film, Makkoi Saitō, said that he selected Kaname because he is a "very interesting human being." Other cast selected for roles in the movie include variety show regulars Hirosaki Ogi and Kenichi Nagira.

source : animenewsnetwork.com

New Batman comic series - Gotham underground

October will mark the beginning of Gotham Underground from DC, a (now) nine issue miniseries that tracks the latest development of Countdown in Gotham City – that is, villains are disappearing, and leaving holes in the criminal underground. Nature may abhor a vacuum, but for Batman, the feeling is stronger, because he knows that new faces and power players are bound to make a grab at being on top of the stack.

source : newsarama.com
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3 kingdom hearts title land on psp,nds,mobile phone

squareenix announced that there will be 3 new original KH games
the first title is Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, which is a full-3D game, features both single-player and multiplayer missions for release on Nintendo DS.

second title is Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, is a single-player RPG for PSP liken to previous PS2

and the third title will be downgraded to cell phone, the title will be Kingdom Hearts: Coded

I don't know when but, i think it will be around 2008 summer

source : gamepro

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Oshii's Female Tachigui Sequel's Trailer

The sponsor DEIZ and the promotion company Orca Vision have posted the trailer for Mamoru Oshii's latest live-action film collaboration, Shin-Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden (True Female Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters), in small and large resolutions online. The film anthology about seven women from different walks of life opens in Japan from November 10 to November 30, with a September 3 preview showing and a screening at October's 20th Tokyo International Film Festival.

source :

animenewsnetwork
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Sabrina the Teenage Witch animerimanga review

Sabrina the Teenage Witch #86

By David Rasmussen
14th Sep 07

This week we’re focusing a batch of reviews on the people over at Archie Comics. Americana with a twang of AmeriManga here and there.

For the past few years, Archie Comics has been slowly but surely reinventing itself from the ground up in several interesting ways. Manga style Sabrina, a new 21st look for Betty & Veronica, a 2nd Sonic title. Still not quite enough innovation (more is always welcome) but a good start of things if I do say so myself.
These are the reviews for a new month of titles.

If you remember Sabrina from prior to Issue #58 then you probably would never have thought of ever picking up the title. Why? Probably because way back then, if memory serves, it was a spin-off visually of the Animated Sabrina series (for a time). Sure, previously (if you remember Sabrina from Archie titles Double Digests, you know Sabrina had it’s own look… it’s just that once the Animated Series came out the comic version eventually followed suit to take on that look. And, well, if you had any past experience with animated series turn comics then you know for the most part they are not very exciting (or interesting).

But that was way back when, this is now.
As part of the ever (yet slow) “evolution” of Archie Comics, Sabrina received a complete overhaul as of Issue #58 with a new “manga” inspired look. However just widening the eyes of the characters into a Shojo manga style look isn’t a manga evolution make. Maybe a boost of story blood might do better.
Flashforward about 3 or so years from the launch of “manga” Sabrina and we find the world of Sabrina is slowly tethering towards a possible generational civil war between the young and older generation.
Word is the mana tree is dying, and the Queen of the magical world is blamed for this as she seems to be covering up the tree’s death. So it seems a group of young wizards and witches (Sabrina included) have taken it upon themselves to possibly overthrow the queen (without the magical council or other adults loyal to the queen learning about it). Sure signs of a mystical civil war on the horizon.

Of course if this alone wasn’t enough of a problem for Sabrina it turns out her relationship with Harvey (from which a so-so term spin-off Archie Comics imprint comic company came from) is sinking fast after she told him about her magic powers. So maybe a trip to Harvey’s grandparents will be the surefire cure for their relationship woes… unless it’s a good chance for Harvey’s evil stepmom to totally throw a large crowbar into the slowly devolving relationship to break it up utterly Stephanine Forrester style (the (bleep))!

So as the issue ends Sabrina is already bummed… won’t help any that Sabrina is trying again to gather proof positive of the “death” of the Mana Tree next issue, which may or may not end her life (which might be a mercy now that she’s in such a downer over breaking up with Harvey by force).

Sabrina’s manga-fication, apparently, wasn’t just visual. With a new breath into the storyline (making it stronger, ongoing, and interesting) it looks like Sabrina will be another good title for your pick-up list from the Archie Comics line. 4 magical visitations from Dr. Phil (for Sabrina) out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 14th Sep 07
source : animeboredom
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chocobo dungeon's next series land on Wii

Chocobo’s Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu for the Wii will be the next series from cthis chocobo saga.The gameplay is still the same, action rpg with nice graphic. the story will take place in Ville, the City of Forgotten Time.
Japanese gamers will be able to start stomping through dungeons for lost memories and items on December 13, but there’s been no word about a version for US/UK audiences at this time.

Still, considering that Chocobo no Fushigina Dungeon 2 made its way to Western audiences less than a year later as Chocobo’s Dungeon 2, we’re expecting to see the new Wii title localized by the end of 2008. In the meantime, hit the Images tab above for the latest screenshots from the Japanese version.

source : gamesradar.com
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BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo anime review

BoBoBo-Bo BoBo-Bo Volume 1

By David Rasmussen

Slightly maniac depressive? Don’t mind something over the top parody wise that actually makes Excel Saga seem normal and well adjusted in comparison? Want a good laugh? Bobbobobobo… whatever… might do just that. How can you tell what this title is if I am not entirely sure that I spelled it right?

Here’s a hint. It’s another Shonen Jump related title, and there’s a big frigging guy who looks like the illegitimate offspring of Johnny Bravo and a bad Japanese stereotype of a large beefy guy with a bad seventy’s hairstyle as the star (we’ll call him Bo for short).

It’s the 30th Century and the world is enslaved by bald people who seem to have bought most of their uniforms from a Toriyama DBZ armor sale. The main guy who leads these chromedomes wants to make the world bald, but as long as people like the big beefy (maybe a distant relation of Osaka and that guy from Fist of the North Star) star of this title, Bo, is around… parody laced hillarity will ensue.

As the series starts young Beauty (the only main female star of the series at this point) has just saw an entire spare DBZ backdrop village lose it’s hair, and she would have been next if Bo didn’t intervene and beat them with his magic nose hair… yes, I just said magic nose hair. After a confusing theatrical presentation of his origins (this is one of the many gags that must make at least one appearance in each episode including “What does Bo have hidden in his hair” gag, the “nobody translated the Japanese text so everyone can mock the fact that everything is written in Japanese” gag, and at least a dozen anime/manga/pop culture parodies per episode) including how a young Bo learned that… shh… he can talk to hair folicles… and how Bo’s hairball dad sold him out to the bad guys, Bo walks off into the dust to fight another major fortress boss of the bald people… which leads to a long parody filled fight.

At the end of the episode Beauty joins forces with Bo, and pickle is kicked to the curb.

Who is pickle? Why is it a talking pickle? Why did Bo hate him so? I don’t know, and I don’t care.

After that Bo and Beauty run into trouble as they run afoul of a weird group of mini Poke’mon slash Digimon slash Monster Rancher reject creatures (one creature cloned ad nauseum), another fashion victim from another Anime and… oh… the talking sun thing that sways between insanity, inappropriate affections and madness named Don Pardo… I think. I wasn’t paying too much to it because it’s half disturbing.

After a long struggle, a duel themed to the topic of tales told to a Christmas theme (including the ills of churro promotion gone wrong… EAT THE DAMN CHURRO… and whatever Bo did), the kidnapping of Beauty (she’s saved in the end by someone who isn’t Bo), and a battle which leads to the produce-ification of Bo and a blind date from hell… the episode ends (Episode 2).

After that Bo and Beauty go to a festival and Bo goes crazy, making everyone in the festival hate him. It doesn’t help that later Beauty runs into a beefy near naked crazy dude with a duck undies on his head… which turns out to be a living duck that is the product of the insane mating between a duck and female panties… isn’t that illegal in all 50 states and the sooner or later 51st State of Mexico? I think so.

The DVD ends with Bo crashing Don Pardo’s graduation from some high school and once again hilarity ensues… as does much parodying.

Basically what you see is what you get.

If you don’t mind over the top acting, over the top writing, and over the top visual puns that (thanks to this uncut version) might actually be more disturbing than even Excel Saga then this is for you.

If you are too serious and hardcore about the “perfection” of Anime then you won’t want this, it’s for those who don’t mind a good laugh (or just a laugh period if you begin to realize the same puns spun in different ways keep popping up over and over again) then this might be for you.

Oh, it’s OK for the most part. Animation is nice and well done, the story is downright weird and (yes especially in light of the uncut version) makes what I saw in Excel Saga seem rather well adjusted and normal in comparison. Oh, and for some reason the episodes just seem to drag on forever… must be because of the added-back in uncut content.

So if you want a good laugh, or just to laugh period, Bo may indeed know you well.

Bobobobob… WHATEVER!! BoBoBo-Bo… or was it Bo-BoBoBo… BoBo-Bo?

It gets 4... (spacey expression, hands up) wig out…wig out…wig out… wig out… out of 5... Wig out… wig out… wig out… wig out… wig out… (zzzzzz….)

-- David Rasmussen 29th Jul 07

source : animeboredom

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Venus Versus Virus manga review

Venus Versus Virus Volume 1

By David Rasmussen
14th Sep 07
David Rasmussen avatar

Not since that weird (bleep) kid who did that movie with Bruce Willis where he said “I see dead people.” (which inspired the oh god it’ll never end endless car ad series where the even creepier kid whispers “Zoom Zoom”) has seeing dead people been as creepy as when Sumire Takahana saw dead people… I mean “Viruses”. Not the same “Viruses” as the one in that manga with the alien virus that became… wasn’t it a movie with Jamie Lee Curtis or something?

Well, forget that (I wish I could). This virus is ghosts.
However a chance discovery of a locket (which turns out to be the property of the gothic gal coming up in the next sentence) that cuts Sumire suddenly gives her the ability to see hostile (yet strangely stereotypical in appearance) ghosts (Viruses). This leads to her being saved by a rather flamboyant (and money grubbing) “Gothic Lolita-clad” (which means it’s kinda sorta maybe kinky but only after the costume has been modified… yeah, that way) monster hunting gal named Lucia Nahashia.
She saves Sumire, then promptly bills her and threatens to curse her is she doesn’t show up and pay the bill.
Sounds like a good relationship is about to begin… right?

Now that Sumire can see these hostile “viruses” she’s going to be asked to join forces with Lucia to help with the quest to stop evil viruses… and threatening her with a over half million yen bill kinda serves as good “incentive” to get Sumire to jump onto the monster hunting bandwagon.

Doesn’t help any that the first job (which puts Sumire’s friends in danger) nearly gets Sumire “killed” (as she is shot by Lucia’s normally harmless against normal humans “toy” gun) only for that shot to bring about a “change” in Sumire which sparks an “changed” personality in her which “helps” her get rid of the Virus rather easily (bloodily). Looks like the job of “virus” hunting, like the mafia, is one that (once it got it’s grip on Sumire) grabs tight and refuses to let go. Maybe the next mission will get her swinging on the whole virus hunting thing full throttle… but only you can find that out yourself.

Strangely satisfactory (despite the fact it is abit formulatic in the set up and follow through to keep Sumire in the mix), with a nice artistic style and I liked the overall feel (even if it’s yet another monster hunter slam bang title). The writing, character development (Sumire and Lucia especially as an “Odd Couple“ team), and the second mission really pull this one through for me and makes me like it more than worry about my few dislikes about the read. It is abit offkilter for being abit formulatic, and I think we’ve seen this before but it still reads nicely overall (and I hope next volume continues to be as well received as this one).
Venus Versus Virus struggles against the encroaching darkness, and gets 4 “Zoom Zoom”s out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 14th Sep 07

source : animeboredom

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Dante Devil may cry 4 Smoke trailer ps3

what a great trailer for devil may cry 4, you guys definitely should take a look at this one, have a cigar !

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Death Note Confirmed to Air on Adult Swim October 20

Death note premiere in Adult Swim network united states will be on october 20 12:00 am. The network had previously posted a television schedule with that timeslot's program title blacked out, but also broadly hinted that it would be Death Note. Adult Swim sub-licensed the series from Viz Media, which also releases the original manga series. The Viz Pictures live-action film affiliate will Release the two live-action films.

source : animenewsnetwork
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A Day with the DROOL

Hii guys, we create one page manga,well enjoy, basically it's more like our activity, so we will put it in two category,our activities and comic. enjoy. the title is a day with the drool

The Man Behind the Greatest Modern Anime

Personally, I consider the two Dragon Ball series (Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball Z) to be the greatest anime series ever produced. Many people, including modern anime fans, would disagree but we can all agree that the success and popularity of these two anime series has got to be at the top. The man behind this pheonomenal success is a manga artist and animator named Akira Toriyama. He's very popular to anime fans especially his fellow manga artists and some of them are influenced by his works. He was born on April 5, 1955 in Kiyosu, Nishikasugai District, Aichi, Japan. He is also the founder of Bird Studios, the production company that was involved in the production of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z.

His first release was entitled "Wonder Island" which was published by Shuiesha in their popular weekly magazine, Shonen Jump. The manga wasn't a huge success but his next work, "Dr. Slump" became successful and made Akira Toriyama popular in the manga industry. It was published in the same magazine between 1980 to 1984. Also in 1984, Mr. Toriyama released his record-breaking best seller, the "Dragon Ball". Two years after it's release, in February 1986, Dragon Ball was animated and became a hit not only in Japan but accross the globe. It became so popular that when it ended in 1989, a sequel had to happen. Dragon Ball Z is the anime series following Dragon Ball. It became a huge success as well and probably became even more popular than the first anime series.

The following series, "Dragon Ball GT" wasn't as successful as the first two. Akira Toriyama did limited work on that one and it was rumored that he wanted to end the series after Dragon Ball Z.

Aside from being a manga artist and animator, Akira Toriyama also contributed in the development various video games. He did character designs for "Dragon Quest", an RPG (Role-Playing Game) that came out in 1986, the popular "Chrono Trigger" in 1995, and the fighting games Tobal no. 1 and Tobal 2 that were both released in 1997.

Darren Pangan is the webmaster of Anime2Manga.com, a blog that contains reviews and articles about anime and manga. The website also has an image gallery and other stuff related to Japanese animation, arts and entertainment.

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Darren_Pangan

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About French And Belgian Comics

by: Anthony Benjamin


Comics And Comic Books - France and Belgium are two countries with a long history of comics and comic books. They are called Bande Dessinée in French. Belgian comic books on the other hand were first printed in Dutch are greatly influenced by Francophone comics, but still have their very unique style.

La bande dessinée comes from the sentence: art form as drawn strips which is literally translated as the drawn strip. It's English equivalent, the word "bande" can be both film and comics. It's not insignificant the French term comic contains no indication of subject matter, unlike the American term "comic," which implies a form of art not to be taken seriously.

For more information on comics visit:
http://www.mysecretsites.info

Relative to the size of their populations, the innumerable authors that are in France and Belgium publish a vary high number of Franco-Belgian comics. In North America, the Franco-Belgian comics are a lot more serious and are often seen to be graphic novels.

In France, comics are mostly published at the behest of the author, working in a self-appointed time frame. It's not uncommon for readers to wait as long as six months or two years between installments. In those countries comic books are first published as with hard covers, and typically with 48 or 64 pages.

Personally I would not want to wait that long for a comic book to see how the story will end. As a typical American I want it now, even my laughs.

~Anthony Benjamin~ http://www.mysecretsites.info

clip about one of french popular comic,and movie : spirou fantasio

Silent Hill 5 gameplay clip freakin

Oh my god SILENT HILL 5 gameplay Clip has already come out, there is an interseting things here, the player will be able to experience the alter changing environtment in real time just like silent hill movie, oh my god !!! that's pretty creepy,

check the clip fellas :


source : gamesradar.com

Salia and Psychic Lover perform on the Akiba Fest J-Pop Halloween Concert Ball

The Unicorn tables's lead singer Salia and Psychic lover will perform in the Akiba Fest J-Pop Halloween Concert Ball at Jaxx Nightclub in Springfield, Virginia on October 27, 2007. As you know that Salia is one of greates solo singer who sangs cutey honey theme song and vandread in her solo carrer and sangs the opening song for Jinki:Extend with the group unicorn table. The J-Pop duo Psychic Lover performed the Japanese theme songs for the Witchblade and Transformers: Armada anime. Like Salia, Psychic Lover has also sung theme songs for Toei's Super Sentai live-action projects

source : animenewsnetwork.com

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Salia :

Psychic lover :

Cute wallpaper

Hii guys, michiru has a cute wallpaper to share to you all, have a nice look. enjoy

EA and Namcom bandai has announced pre order of Hellgate : London

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced three special pre-order promotions for the highly anticipated action RPG Hellgate™: London in North America. Gamers who pre-order either the regular or Collector’s Edition of Hellgate: London will receive:

* A key to an exclusive Beta starting next week and ending October 7, 2007.
* One of four exclusive dye-kits1 that will give your hero’s gear a cool color theme right off the bat when Hellgate: London officially opens on Halloween.
* Eligibility to take advantage of the Hellgate: London Founders Offer, giving hardcore players a chance to purchase a lifetime subscription2 to Hellgate’s premium service for $149.99.

“We’re excited to get our most passionate players into the early Beta test, and to reward them with a special look once the game goes live on Halloween,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “The Founder’s offer is designed for those die-hard fans that will have had time to really get to know the game during the Beta phase and plan on spending a lot of time with us online.”

From the core team behind the global blockbuster action RPG Diablo®, Hellgate: London represents the next leap in the evolution of the genre, combining the depth and addictive gameplay of traditional RPGs with the visceral action of first-person shooters. Featuring a deep, story-driven campaign with over 40 hours of gameplay, Hellgate: London can be played alone offline or online through the entire campaign experience for free in a safe, client-server environment. For those players who want to extend their Hellgate: London experience, Flagship is offering an optional subscription service which will give players access to huge amounts of content on an ongoing basis in the form of quests, character classes, demons, items, etc.

Hellgate: London has been rated ‘M’ for Mature by the ESRB and has been rated ‘18+’ by PEGI. Visit www.esrb.org or www.pegionline.eu for more ratings information. For more information about the game, log onto http://info.ea.com or the game’s official website at www.hellgatelondon.com.

source : videogamenews.com

Ozamu Tezuka's Manga will get colorized

There is an interesting news going on around japan nowadays, Tezuka Productions, the multimedia company founded by manga godfather Osamu Tezuka, is currently working to colorize all of his manga. All of his old manga works will get colorized. Well, as long as I know, manga is rarely get colorized, but we will see about it,because they say they will do the best that they can, approximately about 150000 pages of his manga will get colorized,,,,...wowo!! that's a big number

Just wait.

source : manganews.net and animenewsnetwork
clip :

Paprika and Tekkon Kinkreet DVD ReleasesTrailer

24 September will be the release schedule for Paprika and Tekkon, which already announced by Sony picture

Paprika is the latest animated movie from the Satoshi Kon. might be masterpiece of him i think, Paprika looks as disturbing and mind-bending as Paranoia Agent and Perfect Blue, and as emotional and outright beautiful as Millennium Actress.
check trailer :





Tekkonkinkreet is the newest movie animated by Studio 4C, arguably the most exciting - and certainly the most experimental - animation studio working in Japan today. The story is based on a manga from the masterful Taiyou "Ping Pong" Matsumoto and is said to combine the unique visual style of Studio 4C with the cathartic character drama of Matsumoto's manga.
check trailer :


source : animeuknews.net

Tokyo Pop will hold promotional event of StarTrek Manga

StarTrek.com has just announce that Tokyopop will hold a series of promotional events from September 13 to October 6 in Southern California to promote its new Star Trek The Manga: "Kakan ni Shinkou". the promotion includes discussion about the manga and giveaway sign copies of the manga.

source : comipress.com and animenewsnetwork

clip : THE CONVENTIONEERS - Anime North

XBox 360 Live has a new phishing case

Fraudulent activity called phishing is happening in Xbox360 live, from xbox forum this week, it seems that Xbox Live users were being targeted in a security scam by phishers, criminals who attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information from individuals such as usernames, passwords and credit card details. Microsoft has to do something about this to help protect their user privacy.




source : topix.net/videogames and bink.nu/news
clip : xbox360 live

Interview with Chevalier Episode Director by Production IG

Production IG's English-language website has interview Hideyo Yamamoto who so far has directed four of the episodes of I.G's Le Chevalier D'Eon. In this interview, he explained about his duties as a director, it includes on how to make the anime looks more realistic rather than just a plain cartoon!

source : animenewsnetwork.com

clip: Le Chevalier trailer

Rule of rose just a pic

Rule of rose was definitely one of ps2 best adventure semi thriller game. we never thought that such kids and a teenager might come up with such a dramatically behaviour and sexual orientation. you should play this one if you haven't.

Cute persona 3 chibi

Take a look at this chibi, it's from persona3, We really dying to play persona3, almost everyday for now. Michiru drew it so take a look

Veronika's wallpaper 3

Yet another veronika's, this time she looks very quiet, she's been thinking about something, I called this Silent Veronika. hope guys you like it though

Veronika's wallpaper 2

hey guys, i post another one of veronika's wallpaper, here. you can see that veronika is able to summon ball of fire through her hands. she is cute also. enjoy

X-men newest comic disassembled teaser image

Marvel has just show some of Teaser image from their newest infamous X-men Disassemble. the comic itself said to be somewhere september 2007. check the teaser.

source : newsrama.com

Tony hawk newest game Proving ground launched demo for xbox360 and PS3

For all of tony hawks fans out there, you can check the demo game at Playstationstore, a lot of various new trick and control in this new installment.

source : gamesradar.com

Sky digital has been launched by UK animecentral

UK anime central channel has just launched their Sky digital sattelite television Channel 199 on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. Its 9:00 p.m–6:00 a.m. daily programming block will air The Vision of Escaflowne, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Planetes, and Transformers: The Headmasters with several repeats

Pet Edge - Distant Pet chapter II released

From top to bottom page1-6
Here it is The 2nd Chapter of Pet Edge Distant Pet original manga by AW.
Akao met Nobu for the first time in this chapter and we introduced to a new character in this chapter Zere.
Wait for the next chapter while you enjoy this one.
IF you like Pet edge Distant Pet, share this blog to your Friends

BALTIMORE '07: STAR WARS: VECTOR, HELLBOY HC COMING FROM DHC

Dark Horse has announce two items that they’ll be announcing at the Diamond Retailer Summit currently being held in Baltimore. in 2008 first is Starwars Vector,the crossover starwars comic that tell story about a character that will travel into all of 4 starwars comic, second is Hellboy. all will be release next year


source : newsrama.com

Neogeo infamous title will land on usa wii

in this eralier year, nintendo japan has given a signal that they intended to land the classic neogeo into wii their nextgen console.However, there was no word on whether or not such offerings would be made available internationally until now. the game will be playable through WII virtual console downloadable. SNK Playmore today announced that it would indeed be bringing NeoGeo games to the North American Virtual Console, beginning with a trio of the system's earliest fighting games. Fatal Fury is the first installment in the brawling Bogard brothers' saga, which has recently seen a rash of rereleases with Fatal Fury Battle Archives on the PlayStation 2 and Fatal Fury Special on the Xbox 360's Live Arcade. Tokyo-based D4Enterprise will manage the release of the games onto the Virtual Console, but SNK Playmore said more titles will definitely follow "in the coming months." An SNK Playmore representative told GameSpot the first titles will appear by the end of the year, and they are expected to sell for 900 Wii points ($9) each.

Conan The Barbarian XBOX 360 and PC release according schedule

The infamous barbarian will no longer be a dream, "Looks like I will see you in hell sooner than planned!" quote from gamespot.com, will be releases September 28 in the US and the UK. remember, do not confuse this with Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures developed by Funcom, which is due out for the PC and Xbox 360 next year. just be patient fellas

source : gamespot.com

Ikigami manga go to real life

Young Sunday has just announce that they will adapt the Motaro Mase's manga Ikigami into a movie somewhere in 2008, we will see about that.

OVA 2 from series Sosei No Aquarion releases

Media Factory has just announced that OVA 2 Sosei No Aquon will be released22 November in japan, this will be the second and final of the series.






source : animenewsservice.com

2 Hentai Anime Labels Fight illegal download

The adult anime labels Critical Mass Video and Adult Source Media announced that they have been joining forces to fight unauthorized net distribution of their licensed properties. According to the announcement, that includes streaming, direct "rips" of their DVDs, and illegal sales. as an allies we all fans should join them to fight this illegal activities !

source : animenewsnetwork.com

Gaia Online First Short Animation

Gaia Online, one of the "world's most active online community," has posted the first animated short based on the game plot. "MMVII Part One: White Eclipse" continues the story that the site's artists, many of whom were part of Studio XD (Udon's Street Fighter, X-Men: Evolution, Robotech comics), have been drawing in webcomic format. just wait for the next news

During this week Genenon laid off a few sales staff

due transition to ADV Films handling its sales and marketing, last Friday, Geneon Entertainment USA already laid off a few starff about five employees from its sales team, and about to laid off several more this week from marketing. Genenon formerly consist of 39 employess but by the end of the week Geneon will have laid off more than 20% of its staff.

edit : animenewsnetwork.com

Dragon ball goes real 1

Here's a little exciting news for Dragonball Z fans: apparently, the live action movie is now back on. According to a story in the Montreal Gazette, 20th Century Fox plans to begin shooting in the near future and have everything finished by July of 2008. Fox will be shooting DBZ along with two other films - the sequel to Ben Stiller's "A Night at the Museum" and a remake of the 1966 classic "Fantastic Voyage".

Batgirl is turning into japanese Action Figures !

action figures world will soon welcome the new DC Comic action figures heroes such as Batgirl. any other character will coming soon.
batgirl, she's cooler than ever! Standing 9 inches tall, this hand-painted PVC figure is a limited edition and comes with a base for display

source : anime.about.com

Glass Fleet - Coming Soon from FUNimation

Revolution. Corruption. And an age-old prophecy. This is the ingredients for Glass Fleet, one of the many exciting new animes coming soon from FUNimation.
Rising up against a Holy Emperor who's anything but "holy", the People's Army marches ahead, determined to incite a revolution and bring lasting freedom to all, a little bit political maccross look like.

source : anime.about

Full Metal Alchemist Review

Plot synopsis:

When they were little, Edward and Alphonse Elric lived happily with their mother, but one day, quite suddenly, she died. Using alchemy, a magical-like science based on the law of equivalent exchange ("To receive, you must give something of equal value"), the two attempt to bring her back to life--with disastrous results. They accidentally open a door to the spirit world that tries to pull them both in. Ed loses an arm and a leg (later getting them replaced with a sort of magical robot limb called automail), and Al nearly dies, but Ed is just able to bind his spirit to a suit of armor so that he can survive, using the armor in place of a body. Astonished by their potential, state alchemist Roy Mustang decides to take them in and helps Ed get a position with the state alchemists, where the two hear about a mythical Philosopher's Stone that allows you to do alchemy without obeying the law of equivalent exchange--meaning they could use it to repair their bodies.

Review :

Full Metal Alchemist is way too complicated to stuff into one little synopsis. If you've somehow never heard of this show, you probably have no idea what I was going on about up there. That s okay--I never stop giving away details about the show in my reviews, and this is one time where it ll be a good thing.

To begin with, the science of alchemy in the show is based on the real-life alchemy done from the 15th to 18th centuries. Its main purpose was to use nature's law of equivalent exchange to find a way to transform other metals into gold by adding to them some of the essence of something as superior to gold as gold was to the other metals (gold was thought to be the perfect metal). This "more perfect than perfect" substance eventually became known as the Philosopher's Stone (and if you re wondering, it is the same thing that was in the first Harry Potter, which was changed to "Sorcerer s Stone" in the US because they thought American kids were too stupid to pronounce "philosopher"). Full Metal Alchemist takes place in essentially what late-19th century Europe would have been like if alchemy had been a real science, with everything from technology to environments to architecture to characters' names fitting within this setting.

Any show that gets that involved with its subject matter must have had a lot of work done on it, but none of that would mean crap if the rest of it was worthless--which it's not. What allows this show to get so complicated is the fact that its main storyline is so simple; essentially, it's just a quest for the Philosopher's Stone, but with more stops along the way than any bus could reach. Along the way, villains, tenuous friends, sticky situations, and socio-political issues with relevance much closer than such a fantastic setting would indicate are thrown in front of our two heroes. The only ones Ed and Al can really trust are each other (and maybe Winry, but I don't know--she had an evil look in her eyes when she handed over that tool).

The themes are what really drive this show, but there are two ways to present themes: the boring way, where you just kind of throw them out there in boring, pointless conversations and monologues, or the good way, where each character expresses a different theme through their pasts and personalities. Full Metal Alchemist chooses the good way by using characters to show different mistakes people make or problems they encounter. Heading up the cast is Ed, a completely atypical main character for a shounen anime. Unlike other shounen heroes who are either angsty, easily shaken bleeding hearts or straight-out evil themselves, Ed is confident, intelligent, and knows himself and what he values down to the last drop. When villains attempt to compare themselves and their goals to his, Ed doesn't look down at his hand with wide eyes and go, "No....could it be true? Am I really....like them?" He's immediately ready with a valid, logical reason that sets them apart. And when confronted with the option of continuing life limbless or joining the state alchemists, Ed isn't deterred by the fact that state alchemists have to carry out the government's orders because he knows that he is strong enough not to go against his values and become their machine. Al is Ed's calmer half, who helps him out a lot; but you can easily see that neither can function without the other, unlike other shows where the hotheaded main character is useless without his more cool-headed friends. Al, you see, has no initiative and less will than Ed; so without Ed, Al would never get anything done, but Al is around to see that Ed does things right. Al is also Ed's main motivation to keep going; Ed doesn't mind having automail so much, but he is determined to return Al to a real body--despite being told by a number of characters that Al is really better off living as armor.

Most of the other characters are Ed's colleagues in the state alchemists: Colonel Mustang, Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, Lieutenant Hawkeye, and Major Armstrong. Only Mustang and Armstrong are actually alchemists; Hughes and Hawkeye (I m pretty sure) are just normal people. Hughes becomes quite important to the plot towards the end of Season One, but even I won't ruin that. In contrast, Armstrong and Hawkeye never really become important; Hawkeye is Mustang's stalwart vassal and Armstrong is basically the comic relief, although he's actually one of the strongest alchemists and does have a few fights. (It sometimes seemed like Armstrong was in the manga and they had to have him for the fans, but there wasn't really a place for him within the plot of the anime). Armstrong's power, aside from his giant muscles and the spiked knuckles he wears, is to launch big rocks and stuff at people. I never found out what sort of alchemy that's supposed to be, though.

My favorite character in the show is Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist. Mustang is arrogant; he wants to become the Fuhrer (the ruler of the country where the show takes place) and isn't shy about saying so. He's also eminently informed on Ed and Al's doings while they search for the Philosopher's Stone and makes this known at every opportunity. For both these reasons and more, Ed doesn't like him, and he's presented like a villain in the early episodes. But about halfway through Season One, it turns out Mustang has some emotional baggage connected with things he did during a controversial war about ten years ago, and this later connects with his reasons for wanting to become Fuhrer and even with Winry.

Winry is Ed's automail mechanic and the boys' childhood friend. After their mother died, the two lived with her and her grandmother. Winry isn't a character with much depth, but she does have a few moments. The other important characters are Sciesca (pronounced 'Sheska'), a bookworm with a photographic memory who reproduces some documents for Ed and Al and later becomes involved with Hughes; Izumi, Ed and Al's alchemy instructor; Dante, a mysterious old lady; and the seven Homunculi, each named after one of the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride. Each of the seven have different powers (except Pride, as far as I can see), but all share the feature of working towards some unknown purpose and being impossible to kill.

Compared with the incredible story and characterization, the technical aspects aren't much to speak of. The animation is clean and generic-looking, but the budget was big enough for them to squeeze a few truly awesome fight scenes out of it (like the battle between Ed and Greed in Season Two) and the character designs are original and mostly good-looking (although watchers of the subtitled version might confuse Ed for a girl--he's short, not very muscular, has a blonde braid, and in the Japanese version is played by a woman). The background music wasn't really my favorite. A lot of sites have complimented the music, and they're all done by well-known j-pop bands (although I've never heard of them), but most of the openings and endings weren't really that good. The first opening, Ready Steady Go, is only okay, and all the endings except the first are pretty mediocre too. My favorite song was definitely the first ending, Kesenai Tsumi, and I did also like the second opening, Rewrite.

The dub voices are all excellent. It's one of those dubs that makes you forget about the difference between dubbed and subbed. The dub was done by FUNimation, but only a couple voices were recycled from their other dubs: for example, Lust was played by Laura Bailey, who also did Keiko in Yu Yu Hakusho and Tohru in Fruits Basket, and Armstrong was played by the same guy who did the voice of Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z. I don't really like it when they use voices from Dragon Ball Z in other shows, but other than that it was a pretty good voice.

Full Metal Alchemist is a huge show, and with good reason. It combines all the elements a good anime should have--an original plot and powers, great fights, excellent characters, drama and comedy, and some (but not too much) social commentary. The last show I enjoyed this much was Rurouni Kenshin, and Full Metal Alchemist is even better.

source : animeworld.com

Cowboy Beebop Review

Plot synopsis :

In the not-too-distant future of 2071, Earth is a bit of a mess as a result of an accident testing a new transportation system, and now nobody is left on it but folks to poor to get away. But, humanity has colonized and terraformed the rest of the solar system, so things are going just fine. Taking advantage of the frontier spirit of the day, there is a new breed of bounty hunters, known as Cowboys, living a loose life, traveling between worlds, and hunting down the most wanted criminals for enough money to keep doing it. Two of the best (if unluckiest) of these folks are the owners of the good ship Bebop, Spike and Jet, both leaving behind pasts they'd rather forget. When they get joined by a couple of unwelcome companions--Fay, a gambler with a huge debt, no past, a penchant for cheating, even worse luck than Spike and Jet, and a lot of people after her, and Ed, a rather odd young hacker (plus the genetically engineered dog Ein)--we get the unusual tale that is Cowboy Bebop.

Quick review :

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2003-08-25

Cowboy Bebop is a whole collection of classic genres, all mixed into one series and all done right, to the point that it breathes new life into a very stale genre. In one episode it may be dark, stylized, and serious, and in another light and filled with offbeat humor and antagonistic banter, but in every case it's done right. Back that up with a great cast and writing (in both the dub and original Japanese, no less), fine visuals, cool retro-high-technology, and some of the most varied and well written music I've ever heard in a series--Yoko Kanno's score covering everything from heavy metal to worldbeat--and you've got good anime. Cowboy Bebop isn't deep, but it has style and little bits of creativity everywhere to make up for what it lacks in substance, and from start to finish it's a marvelously well-built production.

Massively popular with good reason, Cowboy Bebop is worth at least a chance from almost any anime fan, and is almost guaranteed to be loved by fans of stylish action and sci-fi, as well those into not-too-serious space shows.

source : animeworld.com