“The moon was formed from fragments of Earth after a collision with a giant asteroid relatively late in our planet’s formation, new tests of moon rocks show. The finding upends many of the prior theories for how the moon came to be, researchers say.
Scientists have long believed that the moon was formed by a collision between our planet and a Mars-size object. Computer models have shown that in this scenario 80 percent of the moon’s material should have come from the asteroid, with only 20 percent from Earth. But the new study of moon rocks collected three decades ago by Apollo astronauts, however, found that Earth and the rocks were too similar for that to be the case.”
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 24, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Romeo x Juliet (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Unlicensed
You may think that since you read Romeo and Juliet in high school, you don’t need to read this description, but I guarantee that you do. Gonzo’s Romeo x Juliet is like no version you’ve ever seen before. Set on the floating island of Neo-Verona, home to many pegasi, RxJ is a fantasy take on the tale.
While the series is unlicensed, Gonzo has made noise against fansubs of the series via FUNimation, which has not announced the series as being licensed- leading fans to speculation on Gonzo’s release plans. In any case, the series features a rather strong, sword-fighting Juliet as the only remaining member of the house of Capulet, which was destroyed by the leader of the Montague house years before. Montague is now the Duke of Neo-Verona, while the Capulets lay in the dust.
Juliet, who frequently defends the townspeople using the name The Red Wind, is given the task of restoring the family honor by defeating Montague, but not until after she’s already met and fallen for Romeo. The decisions that she makes will alter the lives of those around her irreparably- and in more ways than any of them imagine.
Below: The opening titles for Romeo x Juliet.
Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 24, 2007 in Comic Books
I was perusing the latest batch of Marvel comics that will be released this week and I can across this nice cover Marko Djurdjevic for X-Men: First Class #7. What I love about the cover is that it has a very romantic quality to it that you just never see associated with the superhero genre.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 24, 2007 in Comic Books
Our Top Indie Cartoonists to Watch For in 2008: Keeping true to our “Anti-Superheroes in Tights” mood at fanboy, we took a look back at the comic books and graphic novels that caught our eye:
Autobio is a tricky thing. It’s easy to become bland or self-important. And even an interesting life can suffer these fates in the hands of an inept storyteller. Or a once-entertaining autobio comic can degenerate into nothing but panel after panel of masterbation, both figuratively and literally. But take heart autobio readers, because there are also books like “Escape From Special” to take us out of the doldrums.
Miss’s protagonist “Melissa”, has an atypical childhood of counselors, special classes, and self-provoked angst as she questions her reality and the presumptions of all those around her,. She’s a sharp kid, and parents, teachers, and peers alike are not sure what to make of her. And neither will anyone looking for a trite, sentimental portrayal of childhood—this stuff is a real story about a real kid. I could relate to the somewhat progressive-yet in other ways conventional parents and the latter half of the book especially, where Melissa in her preteen years begins to question more her place with her peers, the needs to fit in and the burning question of whether she even wants to fit in with the typically lame suburban girls that plague her adolescence..And it’s all rendered in Miss’s unique and stunning grey marker style. This girl gets a range of depth out of a set of Pantones that few can match.
“Escape From Special” is available through Fantagraphics and a sequel is slated for sometime in 2008, possibly 2009. And if I haven’t convinced you to give it a try, check out the samples on her Comicspace page.
Jenny Gonzalez is a New York City cartoonist and punk rock singer. You can see her stuff at jennydevildoll.com.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 23, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Ouran High School Host Club (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Unlicensed
For reasons unbeknownst to anyone, FUNimation sat on this license for quite some time before announcing it; it actually aired in Japan in 2006. Nonetheless, the shoujo reverse harem series (reverse in that it’s one girl surrounded by many good-looking guys) is a big hit with both the ladies and the gentlemen for both its zany humor and it’s relatively subtle drama.
Haruhi Fujioka is the lone impoverished scholarship student at Ouran High School, a school for kids so rich that a group of boys started a Host Club to entertain their female schoolmates in. One day Haruhi stumbles upon the Host Club while seeking a quiet place to study and instead accidentally breaks an expensive vase- and becomes the club’s newest toy to pay for it. At first a mere gopher, Haruhi eventually is given a makeover and becomes a host…then, and only then, do the guys realize that Haruhi is actually a girl.
The real genius of Host Club, though, isn’t the switcheroo it plays on classic gender roles. The true brilliance is that while the comedy stems from poking fun at traditional shoujo romance archetypes, the drama comes almost entirely from watching the characters grow up and learn who they are, a refreshing change of pace from the usual soap opera anime.
Below: Opening titles for Ouran High School Host Club.
Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.
The third version of the classic Richard Matheson novel, I Am Legend tells the tale of a world wiped out by a plague that kills 90% of the human race and turns the rest into monsters. The first movie was the 1964 classic The Last Man on Earth and starred Vincent Price in the lead role as Dr. Robert Morgan. The second treatment was the classic The Omega Man with Charlton Heston taking the role of Dr. Robert Neville in 1971.
The current movie, after spending close to a decade in limbo features Will Smith (Independence Day, I, Robot, Men in Black) picking of the mantle of Dr. Neville in a Manhattan sealed off from the rest of the world. What starts out as being a miracle cure for cancer spins wildly out of control and becomes the ultimate super plague. In an effort to contain the virus a decision is made to seal off Manhattan and prevent the infected from leaving and therefore saving the rest of the world.
Three years later the world is a wasteland and Neville and his dog Sam are the only survivors in the city. They spend the day foraging for food and searching for other survivors via an AM radio broadcast. It’s during the night that they’re forced to go into hiding from the vampire like creatures that the virus didn’t kill but rather mutated into savage monsters.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 22, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Darker Than Black (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Licensed by FUNimation
Talk about a pedigree: Darker than Black was animated by BONES, the studio which produced, among other things, Fullmetal Alchemist, Wolf’s Rain, and Blood+. It was directed by Tensai Okamura, who directed the Cowboy Bebop movie and also worked on its TV series, as well as directing the Wolf’s Rain OVA. And perhaps greater than all of these is the music, created by none other than Yoko Kanno, the master who composed music for Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, various Macross series, and a dozen or so others. This collection of anime superstars pulled together a captivating series that is visually and musically stunning.
This week Rob Zombie unleashes his story of Michael Myers, when Halloween comes to DVD. When word of this ambitious project first came out there were three very different opinions on this film being made. One side was the basic ‘oh great another remake’ and expected yet another watered down and lame attempt from a Hollywood that seemed to be out of original ideas. The second was the purists who wanted nothing to do with the new Halloween because nothing could ever top the John Carpenter original. The third group (and the one I firmly belonged in) was They’re redoing Halloween… and they got Rob Zombie to do it? Holy cow this is going to rock!
“NASA has given University of Maryland scientists the green light to fly the Deep Impact probe to Comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft will pass Earth on New Year’s Eve at the beginning of a more than two-and-a-half-year journey to Hartley 2. During the first six months of the journey to Hartley 2, they will use the larger of the two telescopes on Deep Impact to search for Earth-sized planets around five stars selected as likely candidates for such planets. Upon arriving at the comet, Deep Impact will conduct an extended flyby of Hartley 2 using all three of the spacecraft’s instruments — two telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer.”
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 21, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (anime) Status: Partially aired; Licensed by Bandai Entertainment
The studio that creates the Gundam franchise, Sunrise, developed this political soap opera in the guise of a mech show. It features character designs by the world-famous manga group CLAMP, stellar animation, excellent voice acting, and tons of drama. And best of all, it’s also getting a second season, currently undated.
Is Maywa Denki a company making electrical products? Are they a band? Sculpture? Performance art? Multimedia? Well probably all of the above.
Maywa Denki was a company run by Sakaichi Tosa making electrical components for a decade starting in 1969. About a decade later changes in the economy likely due to the energy crisis at the time bankrupt the company. In 1993 his by then adult sons Nobumichi and Masamichi revived the company introducing some peculiar, whimsical and sometimes even somewhat disturbing inventions:
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 20, 2007 in Comic Books
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Gakuen Alice (manga) Status: Still running in Japan; Licensed by TOKYOPOP
Okay, technically TOKYOPOP is releasing the first volume of Gakuen Alice on December 26th, 2007, but that should be close enough, right? Since their hit shoujo (girls’) series Fruits Basket– which peaked at #15 on USA Today’s booklist, an amazing feat for a manga -has now ended, the company has been seeking a replacement. Given that they’re advertising it as the hottest shoujo “Since Fruits Basket,” it seems like they’ve nominated the super-cute Gakuen Alice to take that top spot.
Many bands and their graphic designer friends dream of doing something special when designing the packaging their new album release only to be told “no” by their labels that the cost would be too prohibitive. A popular win-win style strategy in Japan is to press up just one run of special, more deluxe packaging to coincide with an album’s release and then revert to standard packaging for the rest of the album’s run. This is usually referred to as “Limited Initial Packaging”. Sometimes it can mean a larger picture booklet, different case or maybe a DVD single. Sometimes it’s something more unusual like Cornelius including a pair of album cover color matching ear buds with the first copies of his “Fantasma” album.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 19, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Gundam 00 (anime) Status: Currently airing in Japan; Unlicensed
Okay, it’s got Gundam in the name, so I hardly need to tell you that the show looks amazing and involves both mechs and politics. But if the sheer volume of Gundam Universal Century shows scares you, don’t worry: Gundam 00 is, like predecessor Gundam Wing, a completely independent series from the rest of the franchise. Its first season is currently airing in Japan, with a second season scheduled for October of 2008.
“For the first time ever, the characters from Quentin Tarantino”s Pulp Fiction come to life as 3-D collectibles! This series features four unique figure sets, each packaged in window boxes. The figures stand approximately 3″ tall, come with their own movie accessories, and feature many points of articulation. This set includes Butch, The Gimp, Zed, and Marsellus.”
“After publicly feuding for more than a year, “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement to make J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a planned two-film prequel to the blockbuster trilogy.
Jackson, who directed “Rings,” will serve as executive producer for two “Hobbit” pictures. They will tell the story of how the young hobbit Bilbo Baggins originally came to possess the nefarious One Ring that Frodo, his adopted heir, needed three films to dispose of.
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 18, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2 (anime) Status: Not yet aired
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya– which was released in North America by Bandai Entertainment throughout the second half of 2007 is getting a sequel! Seeing as the first 14-episode series covered only a fraction of the so-far-10-volume novel series, it’s unsurprising that a season 2 was announced. Given the international buzz the first season received, it seems likely you’ll hear about the new season, so here’s a quick rundown.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2007 in Animation
Shown above is Usavich which is a animated series created by Kanaban Graphics for MTV Japan. The series started out in 2006 and so far 23 episodes have been produced which feature a couple of rabbits who are trapped in an Russian prison. Looking at this I wish MTV in the United States was doing animation again…
“A powerful jet of particles from a “supermassive” black hole has been seen blasting a nearby galaxy, according to findings from the US space agency. Galaxies have been seen colliding before, but it is the first time this form of galactic violence has been witnessed by astronomers. This could have a profound effect on any planets in the jet’s path and could also trigger a burst of star formation.”
Posted by Guest Author on Dec 17, 2007 in Animation
Our Top Ten Anime and Manga Series to Watch For in 2008: It’s easy to find out about a Bleach or a Naruto once it’s being aired on Cartoon Network, but it can take years for an anime to be licensed, dubbed, and put on TV. So here’s our sneak peek at one of the ten manga or anime series that we feel are likely to hit it big in America in 2008:
Lucky Star (anime) Status: Aired in Japan; Licensed by Bandai Entertainment
While it may at first appear to be geared exclusively towards hardcore anime fans, Lucky Star can be hilarious to anyone who’s ever been or known a high school-age female. Mixing a random sense of humor reminiscent of the popular slice-of-life Azumanga Daioh with a lot of otaku in-jokes, Kyoto Animation- the studio responsible for the hit series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya -has made a hit that fans and non-fans alike have been enjoying.
Konata is your average short, blue-haired, uber-anime geek high school female. She plays hentai games, collects figures, and reads manga instead of doing her homework. In stark contrast, Kagami is a somewhat bossy, hard-working all-A student. Throw in Kagami’s slightly ditzy twin Tsukasa and the walking encyclopedia Miyuki and you get some of the funniest conversations ever aired on TV, such as a lengthy discussion of how to eat various pastries. No, really.
These four are later joined by a younger set, including Konata’s sweet younger cousin Yutaka, the quiet Minami, and even an American exchange student (and anime fan) named Patty. Oh, and did I mention the “Lucky Channel” yet? The meta segment ostensibly exists to discuss the making of the series, but is actually a vehicle for two other characters: “newbie” voice actor Minoru Shiraishi and his senior, the jaded and faded starlet Akira Kogami. Yeah, Lucky Star seriously packs on the funny.
Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.
The other day I visited Namjatown. It’s run by Namco, the video game company. It’s a food theme park fit into two mid sized department store floors inside Ikebukuro’s slightly euphemistically named Sunshine City Mall (well it’s indoors and near the former site of a notorious prison). One of it’s three food themed zones is ice cream city.
After passing on a curry flavored frozen dessert I went for the Gelato Nero which I believe was being promoted as the most popular flavor. It’s very black and scooped into a black cone. I was hoping it would be something more original than say chocolate or fudge and I was rewarded. It was very tasty black sesame. It did require a but more clean up with a wet napkin given the dark color.
Nick Kent is a New York based artist who works with electronic media and is an occasional pop culture pundit.
