Otaku Crave

Hi Gundam fans, there is a brand new gundam series call Gundam 00, it currently airing on TV in Japan. The story is about four mysterious super-mecha suddenly start interfering with international conflicts, using their incredible capabilities to force the various warring groups to stop fighter. The secret weapon of this war is the Gundam-type mobile suits piloted by elite soldiers known as Gundam Meisters, Setsuna and the other three Meisters travel around the globe, meet alies and enemies as they fight to free mankind from the yoke of war. The characters on this series is designed by Michinori chiba, and the director is Seiji Mizushima. The main character on Gundam 00 is Setsuna F. Seiei. He is the pilot of the Gundam Exia, specializing in close range combat. He, keeps to himself and generally avoids interpersonal relationships. The next character is Lockon Stratos, he pilots Gundam Dynames. Allelujah Haptism pilots Gundam Kyrios, and the last character is Tieria Erde, he pilots Gundam Virtue. Each Gundam series has beautiful ladies, this one is basely the same. Sumeragi Lee Noriega is a commender of the ship call Ptolemaius. The Gundams design are different then the other gundam series. Each gundam front chest design like a big glass ball with armer around it. Over all look at all the gundam, they look cool. If you are a hardcore gundam fan, you should check the new gundam series.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Starting on November 15, and continuing until January 15, Microsoft will make the first two episodes of the Blue Dragon anime series available for free downloads on the Japanese version of Xbox Live Marketplace. This promotion is tied to the November 1 Japanese release of the budget-priced Platinum Collection version of the original Blue Dragon game.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The book and media store Borders is exclusively offering a collection with seven of the eight Studio Ghibli films that were directed by Hayao Miyazaki and are available on DVD in North America. The Miyazaki Collection contains DVDs of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle at a price of US$202.99. Until November 12, Borders Rewards members can use a coupon to take 30% off that amount.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The Variety entertainment industry magazine previews the October 20-28 Akihabara Enta Matsuri in Tokyo by profiling some of the upcoming anime movies and quoting their directors and producers. Among the movies profiled are Shinji Aramaki’s less-than-utopic science fiction sequel Appleseed: Ex Machina, Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers alternate world story, Rintaro’s Yona Yona Penguin 3D computer graphics film, and Osamu Dezaki’s Clannad slice-of-life story. Aramaki and Rintaro in particular speak on their respective works.

Popularity: 4% [?]

DBZ fans, here is a good news or may be bad news for you

So you’ve heard rumors about a “live action DBZ movie”, eh?

Well, for a while back, it WAS a rumor, until in 2002 FUNimation confirmed that FOX had acquired the rights to make a live action Dragonball/Z motion picture.

After that, the web-community pretty much went berserk. All of the sudden, online forums started pooping up, enlightening fellow Z-Freaks with possible “rumors” (i.e. lies) about what the movie really was to be about.

After that, magazines like Beckett (not to mention the Official DBZ Site) began to write surveys and polls, asking fans—“Who would YOU like to see play Goku (Vegeta, Krillin, Gohan) in the DBZ Movie?”

Some fan sites started popping up, though very few of them had “actual” or “true” information. Official news—though a rarity—came here and there; mostly from IMDb.com and the Official Dbz Site itself.

From then on, possible directors/actors/writers/producers/etc. were thrown in and out of the picture…until in early 2004 production came to a complete halt, and plans were almost cancelled. But now it’s back….

The Story…

An epic story between good and evil, centering on the character Goku and a handful of friends who battle for the Earth against the deadly forces of the Saiyans, who are sweeping across the universe, leaving a path of destruction. Goku and friends’ best chance of survival rests with the Namekian DragonBalls, which provide them the power to summon a mighty dragon.

Live-Action-DBZ-Movie FAQ

Q. - Who is directing the movie?

A. – Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, Godzilla, and Day After Tomorrow.

Q. – Who is writing the movie?

A. – Tedi Sarafian, screenwriter of Terminator 3.

Q. – When will be movie be out in theaters?

A. – 2006 (probably summer, since most action blockbusters are released then).

Q. – Does Toriyama have anything to do with it?

A. – DBZ creator Akira Toriyama was hired as the film’s consultant but wanted too much control over it so FOX made him sign a new contract, which basically gave him the boot.

Q. – So, who’s distributing it?

A. –20^th Century FOX.

Q – MPAA Rating…what’s it gonna be?

A. – Not rated yet, because the movie has to be finished before the MPAA can give it a rating. But FOX is shooting for a PG-13.

Q. – Hm, who’s doing the special effects?

A. – It was supposed to be George Lucas’s ILM company, but rumor says they’ve bailed out.

Here’s an official (or what could become unofficial when time passes) list of the cast and their pictures:

RAY PARK: “Vegeta”

CHRIS JUDGE: “Goku”

JASON BATEMAN: “Raditz”

ORLANDO BLOOM: “Tien”

BILL GOLDBERG: “Nappa”

JESSICA ALBA: “Bulma”

ELIZA DUSHKU: “Chi-Chi”

Popularity: 100% [?]

This artical might be old, bu the evangelion fan might want to know this.

“In an announcement sure to make waves in the entertainment industry, ADV Films President and CEO John Ledford today publicly confirmed industry rumors that the firm has acquired the rights to produce, and has already begun development of, a live-action feature-film based on the Japanese animated television series “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” a multi-million dollar worldwide franchise and perhaps the most influential anime title in the history of the art form. The project is a collaboration between ADV Films, Gainax and Weta Workshop, Ltd.

The Participants ADV Films is the leading producer-distributor of Japanese animation in North America. The Japanese anime and game studio Gainax Network Systems was one of the original production studios responsible for Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Weta Workshop, Ltd. is the New Zealand-based special effects studio that created the effects for Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

"The three main players here represent something of a 'dream-team' for a project like this one," said Ledford. "Between the quality and significance of the Gainax title, Weta's industry-leading skill in the creation of special visual effects, and our expertise in the marketing and promotion of anime and anime-related content, this project is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

After that several images/concept art were released by WETA Workshop.

After a long while of no new news it was then announced by Matt Greenfield that ADV had raised half of the $120 million dollars to produce the film. It was also announced by Matt Greenfield that three “top A list directors” had been competing for the chance to direct the movie.It has again been a while since any new news has been given on the movie but one thing is sure, there are a lot of people that want to see this movie happen. This can be seen by all of the hard work that ADV, WETA, and Gainax have put into this project. The most resent evidence of this was during an interview with Richard Taylor of WETA Workshop.

Q: So King Kong was Peter's dream project since he was a child. Is there a dream project you have?

Taylor: There are many ideas that I would love to one day bring to fruition, but I respectfully put them on the back burner while we develop other people's ideas. [b]But right now probably my greatest desire is to see Neon Genesis Evangelion come to life.[/b] I’ve been working on that nearly four years with ADV, the people who own the rights to the live action film. We’ve traveled to Japan, we’ve met the original creators, we have done development work on it. I believe Evangelion, to the Asian market, could be up there with the Lord of the Rings.

Q: What is the current status of that film?

Taylor: I don't honestly know, but that's not to say that it won't happen. Everyone's intentions is to see it happen. It's a very, very complex property to bring to the world cinema because of its incredible following. It has to be done, hopefully, with great sensitivity and aesthetically with utter perfection. That requires time and thought.

Right now there is no idea of when the production of this movie will start mainly because of the involvement that WETA Workshop will have in the Halo movie.

P.S. :
Just to give you an idea of the computer power behind Weta check this out:
Weta runs the third largest supercomputer on the planet if you count the number of processors, 3300, it can call on, says Scott Houston, chief technical officer at Weta.
The ones that beat WETA are the Japanese Earth Simulator (5120 processors) and Los Alamos National Laboratory's supercomputer (8192 processors).

Popularity: 11% [?]

 

The Digital Contents Association of Japan (DCAJ) has announced the five award-winners of the 22nd Digital Contents Grand Prix, which include Khara studio’s new Evangelion science fiction movie remake, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone, and Namco Bandai and KOEI’s Dynasty Warriors: Gundam robot action game for the PlayStation 3 console. Evangelion: 1.0 won the DCAJ Chairperson Award, and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam won the Award of Excellence. The awards presentation ceremony took place during the ASIAGRAPH computer graphics conference, which started in Tokyo’s Akihabara district on October 11.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The same L.A. Times article that announced the “Transformers 2″ scribes also notes that while Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ehren Kruger put down some ideas for a new story, director Michael Bay has already begun some digital pre-visualization robot designs that did not make it into the first film. L.A. Times has noted that “Transformers 2″ has an advantage over a regular film: if a Hollywood strike does happen, the animators will be able to continue work on the robots, which took a large part of production on the CGI-heavy “Transformers” film.

Popularity: 17% [?]

AZN TV announced that it will air the Saiyuki Reload Gunlock anime series every Monday through Wednesday starting on October 29. The fantasy adventure is the third television anime series based on Kazuya Minekura’s Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload manga series, which in turn are loosely based on the classical Chinese mythological novel Journey to the West. The Anime Network aired the original Saiyuki anime series, and Encore Action aired the first sequel, Saiyuki Reload.

Popularity: 8% [?]

TOKYO — Digital download sales of songs by Hikaru Utada to the end of September have already hit nearly 10.5 million according to EMI Japan, the first artist worldwide to break the 10 million mark in a single year.

Digital downloads, which in Japan are dominated by contents for the mobile phone market, amounted to 10,491,000 from January to September, selling more in nine months than anyone has managed in a year.

The song ‘Beautiful World’ has been downloaded over 800,000 times, boosted by its inclusion in the movie “Evangelion 1.0 You are (not) alone”. The tune is used for the closing credits of the new cinematic version of Hideaki Anno’s anime classic, which has been chosen to close the Pusan International Film Festival after a huge opening in Japan last month.

“We know that “Beautiful World” sales were helped by the release of “Evangelion” because at weekends after young people have been to see the movie, there is a huge rush of downloads,” said Nozomu Kaji from EMI Japan.

“In Japan, almost all of the music downloads are for mobile phones, like most of the 800,000 downloads for “Beautiful World”. These days tracks are released for mobiles before the CD is out,” said Ritsuko Jinno, from PR at EMI Japan.

With high-speed internet connection on 3G phones the standard for most of Japan’s 100 million handsets, music and video downloads, along with a host of other contents, is a fast-growing market.

Popularity: 12% [?]