About:

Bamboo Blade is a Japanese manga series written by Masahiro Totsuka, and illustrated by Aguri Igarashi. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Young Gangan starting December 3, 2004. The manga has been licensed for distribution in North America by Yen Press. An Anime adaptation by AIC A.S.T.A was broadcast in Japan between October 2, 2007 and April 2, 2008 on TV Tokyo.

Story:

Toraji Ishida is a high school kendo teacher. His friend and fellow kendo teacher makes him a bet: if Ishida can assemble a girls’ kendo team that can defeat his girls’ team in a practice match, he’ll treat Ishida to free meals at his father’s sushi restaurant for a whole year. Now Ishida must find five girls to join the team.

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I am really starting to enjoy RD Senno Chosashitsu after watching the first 4 episodes that has currently aired in Japan so far, I am now totally hooked on it and I cant wait for the next episode to air. The show has picked up some serious momentum and pace since episode one and I am hoping that it keeps it that way for the rest of the show.

Episode 4 we see Haru and Minamo take on there first mission as EISF members, the mission to save someones consciousness from the virtual reality world know as “The Metal”. I wont go into the details to much as it contains potential spoilers for the rest of the series.

This episode also dished out one of the best “LOL” moments in the show so far:

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Talented designer Takashi Murakami, who is possibly best know as the current fabo creative-head for Louis Vuitton’s ultra popular handbags, is quite the Pop Art/Anime artist. Perhaps one of his most eye-popping pieces might have to be entitled, “My Lonesome Cowboy,” which features a very manga-ish looking character squirting, well, having quite an…uh…explosion of joy.  

Despite its pretty erotic nature, or maybe because of it, this Lonesome Cowboy is for sale at famed Sotheby’s Auction House, with a current asking price being a mere 4 million dollars. So run out and pick it up today!

Check out an image of the happy fella (beware, so not NSFW) here:

http://www.artificialgallery.co.uk/artwork.php?form_load_id=3466759468

 And bid on the piece (and see some other goodies by Murakami) here: 

http://browse.sothebys.com/?q=%20Takashi%20Murakami 

Bōnen no Xamdou is the new upcoming Anime show by Studio BONES. (Famous for shows like Eureka 7, Fullmetal Alchemist and RahXephon.) I tried digging around to find more information about the actual plot behind the Anime but it seems like BONES is keeping a really tight lid on this one, and the trailer posted on youtube doesn’t give much away either. But only serves to peak my interests and make me even more curious .

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About:

RD Senno Chosashitsu is an Anime TV series, created by Production I.G and Masamune Shirow. Real Drive is produced in collaboration with Japan’s largest commercial broadcaster Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), and premiered in Japan on NTV on the 8th of April 2008.

Story:

2061 AD. Fifty years have passed since mankind developed the Network society. It was anticipated that this new infrastructure would realize a utopia where people connected with each other at the level of consciousness. However, new social problems such as personal data leaks and proliferation of manipulated information began to surface. Nevertheless, people still relied on the Network to exchange information, and proved unable to opt to abandon it. In due course, a new Network realm with more effective security measures was developed. This was called Meta Real Network, usually abbreviated as “the Metal.”

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Synopsis:

Operating in modern-day London, the Hellsing Organization is dedicated to ridding England of the scourge of vampires. However, the principle weapon of this organization just happens to be a vampire himself Alucard, who serves the organization’s young leader, the iron willed woman Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing, as well as Alucard’s new apprentice, a young vampire woman named Seras Victoria. Lately, a rash of artificially created vampires has taken the organization by surprise. As it turns out, a Neo Nazi society known as the “Millennium Order” is responsible for creating these vampires. Their sole purpose… to achieve what Nazi Germany couldn’t do over 60 years ago with human soldiers… the total conquest of the world!

Hellsing Ultimate OVA 4 starts off as Hellsing and the Vatican hold a meeting with Her Majesty the Queen of England, their conference is interrupted by a message from The Major and his associates citing their intentions to wage war on England. Meanwhile, a VTOL aircraft carrier called the Eagle gets hijacked by Millennium. Integra decides to send Alucard to deal with the perpetrators and their leader, Rip Van Winkle.

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Before I start with my conspiracy theory surrounding Geneon closing down let me first bring you up to speed on what happened. To some of you this might be old news and to some of you it might be the first time you heard of this, so bear with me.

On 24^th August 2007 a notice was sent to all Anime DVD retailers across the globe that ADV films will be handling the distribution of Geneon titles across the board with immediate effect. Although Geneon will still be licensing and producing anime for North America, the way those titles reach the market will now be handled by ADV Films. When asked to comment about this ADV could not be reached for comment but Geneon stated this as true.

In preparation for the transition, Geneon USA laid off the majority of its sales division, including all of its sales people. Customers of Geneon USA complained that they have been unable to obtain any information from Geneon USA about the current procedure for returns and obtaining newly released titles.

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Ten years ago, an inscrutable and abnormal territory known as Hell’s Gate appeared in Tokyo and altered the sky and decimated the landscape. The heavenly bodies disappeared, replaced by false stars. At the same time, people who possess various special abilities emerged. Kept secret from the knowledge of the masses, these individuals, known as Contractors, are able to murder in cold blood. Various nations around the world use Contractors as spies and agents, often resulting in violent battles for information. Each fake star has a corresponding contractor, and they vibrate when their contractor’s power is being used. As such, contractors are usually identified by their star’s Messier catalogue number. However, their abilities are gained at the edge of their humanity.

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So 2007 was arguably one of the best years for Anime in a long time with lots of highly rated shows with high production values, great stories and top notch animation. Shows like:

• Claymore
• Code Geass
• Bamboo Blade
• Darker Than Black
• Dennou Coil
• Ghost Hound
• Kekkaishi
• Lucky Star
• Mobile Gundam 00
• Nana
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
• Seirei no Moribito
• Skygirls
• Sola
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

There are just too many shows to mention them all in one post (don’t flame me if I missed some of your favorite shows;  these are the ones that were most memorable for me). So in 2007 we were pretty much spoiled for choice when it came to the amount of good Anime shows. To put it into perspective, at the same time last year I had around 17 titles that I was actively watching and downloading.

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It was in the mid 90’s when Anime was just coming into it’s own across the world, that MTV’s Liquid Television ran video clips from a then very obscure Anime titled called “Ninja Scroll.” MTV used these clips as the intro and outro to their animation shows, which were ridiculously popular back in the day. It lead to bootlegged copies of Ninja Scroll being sold in the millions, then to an official release which sold millions of copies world wide making it one of the most popular movies next to Akira and Ghost In The Shell.

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Back in August I reported on the demise of Geneon USA and there subsequent bankruptcy, this event shocked many Anime fans around the world as Geneon had been around since the beginning. (They were known as Pioneer back in those days.) They were praised and well known for their high quality VHS & DVD releases, there subsequent bankruptcy left many titles unfinished and left fans are wondering if they will be picked up by other companies.

Well it looks like something similar is happening to ADV films now. In early 2000 when Anime hit it’s peak ADV was licensing every title they could get there hands on. Some of these titles paid off and some of them did not, this method of licensing Anime got them into financial trouble and were forced reconsolidated there losses. But they managed to pull it out of the fire and saved them selfs from the same fate as Geneon. But now some interesting has been happening recently and you don’t need a degree in financial management to see what is happening.

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The Hollywood Reporter and Variety entertainment reported that Warner Brothers and Appian Way. (The production company of actor Leonardo DiCaprio who produced movies like: Titanic and The Aviator.) Will adapt Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira manga into two live action films. The first of which is being slated for release in summer of 2009. Legendary will help finance the production with Warner Brother Studio’s. Each film will cover three volumes of the Akira Manga.

Ruairi Robinson will be making his directorial debut with Akira, while Gary Whitta is writing a script for the movie. Warner Brothers originally had the rights to the Akira movie, but they had to re acquire them from Kodansha after the bidding from the movie rights reached the 7 digit numbers. My math ain’t that great but isn’t 6 number already in the millions. Andrew Lazar, DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson will produce. No announcement has been made regarding the cast for the Akira movie.

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After 19 years since it’s release in 1989 someone has finally decided to secure the rights to produce a movie based of the original movie and manga. DreamWorks has finally secured the rights to adapt the Japanese manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell into a 3D live-action feature film. But it seems they weren’t the only ones who were chasing after the rights to produce a film based off the animated movie. Both Universal and Sony were also in discussions to secure the rights, till Steven Spielberg stepped in personally and took matters into his own hands.

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The  April issue of Kadokawa Shoten’s Newtype magazine has officially announced that an Eureka Seven movie has been approved for production by Studio Bones. Kenichi Yoshida (Overman King Gainer), and special effects director Yasushi Muraki (Ah! My Goddess: The Movie, The Skull Man) will reportedly return to animate the new movie with new mecha and character design. And reportedly a new form of story telling for the plot/story of the Eureka 7 movie. Although the creators are promising a new Eureka Seven story it will still feature Renton and Eureka from the original tv series.

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Click the Newsarama banner for direct access to complete and continuous coverage of the New York Comic Con! We’ll try to post some links to top stories over the weekend, and perhaps offer some “Con Job” analysis. Newsarama already has video interviews with Dan Didio covering James Robinson on Justice League, Legion of 3 Worlds, Final Crisis, Batman: R.I.P., and more.