CAPCOM and Sony Pictures Entertainment of Japan have announced on October 29 a joint project to produce Biohazard: Degeneration, a fully computer-animated film in the Biohazard horror franchise (known as Resident Evil in North America and Europe). Sony Pictures Entertainment of America has already produced live-action films based on the franchise. ...

The Technical Research and Development Institute in Japan’s Ministry of Defense has posted on its website the programGundam (Advanced Personal Equipment System).” The exhibit runs alongside another one for a “Miniature Robot (for Reconnaissance and Data Gathering).” No other information on either exhibit is provided on the s...

Anmitsu-hime, Shosuke Kurakane’s classic shojo comedy manga series that first ran from 1949 to 1955, is being revived in a live-action television drama special that will air on Japan’s Fuji TV next January. Mao Inoue (live-action Hana Yori Dango’s film series, a 1983-84 live-action drama television series starring Kyoko Koizumi, a...

Two articles from the international film industry newspaper Variety look at the past, present, and future of American manga publisher Tokyopop. The first of these articles by journalist Thomas McLean is an interview with Stuart Levy, Tokyopop’s founder and chief executive officer. Levy talks about the history of the company and describes the...

The Variety entertainment industry newspaper reports that Takashi Murakami, the pioneer of the anime-influenced “Superflat” style of modern art, will premiere his own anime short at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles on September 29. The 10-minute episode is the first one of the kaikai & kiki series, which features two of...

The live-action film adaptation of the light novel Negative Happy Chain Saw Edge has made its world premiere at the 20th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on Thursday. The original novel is the debut work of author Tatsuhiko Takimoto, who also created the light novel and manga series Welcome to the N.H.K.! (NHK ni Y?koso!). A preview and sy...

The North American manga publisher Tokyopop introduced its plans for a live-action adaptation of Yuji Shiozaki’s Ikki Tousen fighting manga at its booth at the TIFFCOM film trade show in the Roppongi Hills in Tokyo on October 22. Tokyopop publishes the English version of this manga under the name Battle Vixens. The story is loosely based on t...

Miku Hatsune, the first popular Japanese idol singer whose “voice” is generated on-the-fly by computer software, will have her own manga drawn by her character designer Kei in Monthly Comic Rush magazine’s January 2008 issue (on sale November 26). The virtual idol was originally created by Crypton Future Media to launch its Vocalo...

On Tuesday, the Tokyo District Court sentenced a young man and his twin sister to jail time and probation for extorting money from people on the streets of the “Electric Town” neighborhood of Akihabara. According to the verdict handed down by court judge Masahiko Hayashi, the twins “viewed the otaku in Akihabara as easy targets fo...

The Yahoo! Comics Japan website has launched Flex Comix Flare, a free online manga “magazine” aimed at women, on October 18. The two inaugural titles are Kanashi no Homura: Yume Maboroshi no Gotoku, Eri Motomura’s historical epic set in Japan’s feudal era, and Nariyuki Mystery Club, Makoto Hasebe’s one-shot high school...