This year’s 24th issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine has published the first official image of Justin Chatwin as the main character Son Goku in James Wong’s live-action Dragonball film on Monday. The film adapts Akira Toriyama’s fantasy fighting manga, which ran in the same magazine from 1984 to 1995. The magazine’s article confirms that Japan will be the first country in the world to screen the film in March of 2009. The film will then open in the United States on April 3. Chow Yun-Fat (Master Roshi), Emmy Rossum (Bulma), Jamie Chung (Chichi), James Marsters (Piccolo), and Eriko Tamura (Mai) also star in the international production.
Speed Racer, the Wachowski Brothers’ live-action film remake of the classic car-racing anime, finished its opening weekend (May 9–11) at second place with an estimated US$20,210,000 at 3,606 American theaters. That was well below Jon Favreau’s live-action adaptation of Marvel Comics’ Iron Man superhero, which earned an estimated US$50,500,000 at 4,111 theaters in its second weekend. Speed Racer barely nosed out Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher’s What Happens in Vegas film, which earned an estimated US$20 million in 3,215 theaters.
Speed Racer also opened overseas in 30 territories with an estimated US$12.8 million at 3,940 sites. Those results put the film in third place overseas for the weekend, after Iron Man (US$39 million) and What Happens in Vegas (US$23 million). It did take first place in South Korea with US$2.4 million at 229 sites. The film features Korean pop superstar Rain. Overall, Speed Racer earned US$33 million in combined domestic and overseas box office totals so far.
The final American box office tallies are now in, and What Happens in Vegas earned US$20,172,474, pushing it to second place. Speed Racer actually earned US$18,561,337, which puts it in third place instead. Speed Racer’s combined domestic and overseas box office totals now stands at US$31.2 million.
Funimation announced that it has acquired the Save Me! Lollipop (Mamotte! Lollipop) romantic comedy anime from the Japanese publisher Kodansha. The story centers around a girl named Nina who swallows a Crystal Pearl after mistaking it for a lollipop. Two sorcerers from another world sudden appear to claim the Crystal Pearl as part of a critical trial. The two vow to protect Nina from other competing sorcerors until one or the other can safely retrieve the jewel and win the trial.
Director Noriyoshi Nakamura (Dragon Slayer, My Santa) adapted this anime from Michiyo Kikuta’s Mamotte! Lollipop manga, which ran in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi sh?jo manga magazine. The anime aired 12 episodes in Japan in 2006. Funimation plans to release the series in one DVD set in late 2008.
The Daily Yomiuri newspaper carries an English translation of a Yomiuri Shimbun article about two manga titles that explore the classical Japanese performing arts of noh and kabuki. The Hana Yorimo Hana no Gotoku manga (pictured at right) by Cipher creator Minako Narita depicts the world of noh in Hakusensha’s Melody sh?jo manga magazine. In Kabukumon, writer David Miyahara and artist Akio Tanaka (Shamo, Meisou-Ou Border) follow a budding kabuki actor in the pages of Kodansha’s Morning manga magazine. Both Narita and Miyahara describe the research they had done to ensure their works’ authenticity and the unexpected positive reception from readers of different walks of life.
On May 9, the Kyoto Prefectural Police’s High-Tech Crime Task Force arrested three individuals on suspicion of using the Share file-sharing software to distribute anime and other content on the Internet without the copyright holders’ permission. The three suspects were company workers in their 20s to 40s from Kanagawa, Hiroshima, and other Japanese prefectures. Authorities searched the suspects’ homes on the same day they were arrested.
Although other individuals have been charged with using other programs to share files without permission, these three were the first in Japan to have been arrested for allegedly using the Share file-sharing program. Authorities suspect that the three individuals shared Gundam anime (pictured at right) as well as programs from paid television channels.
The earlier Winny peer-to-peer file-sharing software was developed in 2002 by a then anonymous computer engineering student. The software promised anonymity for its users, but the High-Tech Crime Task Force found flaws in its integrated forum feature. After two users were arrested for sharing copyrighted material using Winny in 2003, the developer was identified as Isamu Kaneko of the University of Tokyo and also arrested. He was convicted and sentenced with a 1.5-million-yen (about US$12,000) fine. During Kaneko’s arrest and trial, another anonymous developer created the Share program which promised better protection of users’ anonymity on Winny’s file-sharing network. Since security researchers also found flaws in Share in 2006, other successor applications are being developed.
Japan’s Copyright Law prohibits unauthorized uploaders but expressly allows people to download for private use. The Japanese government is pushing for a ban on unauthorized downloads as well, despite receiving thousands of messages from citizens opposing the ban.
Fans have recently pointed out that ADV Universe, ADV’s website for DRM-protected digital downloads, has had no titles listed on its website. While ANN is unable to verify how long the website has effectively been vacant, ADV representative Chris Oarr tells ANN that ADV Films rolled its digital download offerings into the main advfilms.com website in January and February. All the digital downloads previously available from ADV Universe are now available from ADV Films.
In a related matter, ADV Films is outsourcing its online fulfillment to RIght Stuf. Oarr says, “ADV is really great at a lot of things and pretty good at most everything else, but when it comes to fulfillment, Right Stuf certainly is one of the best. We’re getting out of the online fufillment business, and we’re looking forward to improving the service received by our customers via this partnership with Right Stuf.”
Right Stuf also handles fulfillment for Funimation products ordered from Funimation’s website, and did the same for Geneon Entertainment before that company ceased its North American DVD sales.
The AsoBit City store chain in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku shopping district has revealed its exclusive bonus gift for people who buy all the Japanese DVDs of the Lucky Star anime: a telephone card, drawn by manga artist Kagami Yoshimizu, of the main cast cosplaying The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya dance. The card shows the main lead Konata (as Haruhi herself), Kagami (Kyon), Tsukasa (Yuki), Miyuki (Mikuru), and Akira (Itsuki) in the final pose from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s ending animation. An episode of Lucky Star has Konata playing homage to the “Hare Hare Yukai” dance of the earlier anime.
In related news, this year’s tentatively titled The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya game for the Nintendo Wii console will have players using the Wii Remote to dance along with Haruhi, Yuki, and Mikuru. A deluxe edition of Kadokawa Shoten’s game will include a poseable Haruhi figure in her school uniform from Kaiyodo’s Fraulein Revoltech series. Nagaru Tanigawa and Noizi Ito’s original light novels and later anime have already been adapted for the PSP and PlayStation 2 consoles.
The Siberian Express (Siberia Ch?tokky?) cult suspense film series by film critic and director Haruo Mizuno is being made into anime with the Madhouse animation studio and director Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge film franchise). Mizuno (who goes by the pen name “Mike Mizuno”) began the film series in 1996 after deciding he could write and direct a feature-length homage to the classic suspense films by Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho). Four more Siberian Express films have since been made, most of which have been entirely set on one train. The anime project is planned as an anthology work with several directors. The animation studio Madhouse (NANA, Death Note) will produce at least one of the parts, and Shimizu will participate in the project in an unspecified role.
