The folks at Geneon have sent us the details of their Theatrical release of the new Appleseed Movie. Based on the manga by Shirow Masamune (Ghost In the Shell, Dominon Tank Police to name a few). They're marketing it as "3D Live Anime", an usual title for a CG movie. It's certainlly in the anime style, but many fans are divided and a few think it looks like a long cut scene from a PlayStation 2 game, others think it's superb. The Otaku News Crew can't comment yet, since we haven't seen it.
US fans can catch it from January 14th a full list of cinemas screening the movie can be found on the Offical Appleseed Movie Website.
Read More... | Souce: Geneon\'s Offical Appleseed Movie Website
Category > Fandom
The end of 2004 marked the end of another year, and it also marked another landmark for anime fandom, the most accurate and complete dedicated unofficial resource for Studio Ghibli fans - The Miyazaki Web celebrates it's 10th Birthday on December 31st 2004.
The site is really better known as a part of Nausicaa.net and has often been mistaken as the Official Studio Ghibli Website, because of it's professional finish and level of detail. Many have used it for research on Studio Ghibli and it's founder Oscar winning director Hayao Miyazaki. The Miyazaki web is more than a website it also has it's own mailing list, the Miyazaki Mailing List, which has grown steadily each year for the last 13 years, the majority of it's subscribers are American, but for a first time the UK is now the second most subscribed country, beating Japan to third place.
Here's wishing the Miyazaki Web a Happy Birthday, and good luck with the next 10 years!
Read More... | Souce: Miyazaki Web
Category > Events
We at Otaku News are offering our readers in L.A. (in the USA of course ^_-) a chance to attend the Sky Blue Screenings. We've got two pairs of tickets to give away!
OK, we know it's Korean animation and not Japanese anime, but Koreans have been doing inbetweening and other outsourcing for the Japanese animation industry for years now.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
The keen eyed people at Anime-Europe have noticed that Sci-Fi-London will be screening Katsuhiro Otomo's latest anime film Steamboy. The festival will run in February 2005 and has screened anime with great success in previous years.
The folks over at Anime UK News have also discovered that the latest issue (December 2004) of Impact Magazine has a Steamboy Cover, along with features on Steamboy and Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence.
Every otaku should already know Katsuhiro Otomo wrote the classic manga Akira and directed the huge smash hit anime version. Steamboy is a steampunk movie set in London just before the First World Expo in 1851.
Apart from being very high quality anime, it is noted for having authentic looking locations around London, with British bobbies on the beat and other landmarks, which makes a change from seeing Tokyo landmarks all the time in anime! ^_-
Souce: Sci-Fi-London
We've just heard from Go Fish Pictures that Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence has grossed an estimated $1,011,000 USD to date. According to Go Fish, this makes it the top grossing anime movie ever on a limited release with less than 100 screens, and the number 7 anime film in history.
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
Category > Production > Studio Ghibli
Yet more Howl news as a UK release is announced . Optimum Releasing have confirmed they have the rights to distribute Howl in the UK. An exact date has yet to be confirmed, as they have to wait for the English soundtrack to be finished.
Read More... | Souce: Neomag
Category > Production > Studio Ghibli
Howl's Moving Castle is setting records after making 1.5 billion yen in it's opening two days. That's approximately 1.1. million admissions. It's distributor in Japan Toho, is expecting 40 million people in total to see it; that's one third of the population of Japan.
Read More... | Souce: BBC News
Category > Production > Studio Ghibli
The Daily Yomiuri On-line have posted an excellent interview in English with Toshio Suzuki, previously the editor of Animage and has been working with Studio Ghibli since 1984 and produced every Studio Ghibli film after 1989. He has also produced Production I.G's Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence. Mr Suzuki (an incredibly nice guy) gives insight in to what it's like working at Studio Ghibli and some of Hayao Miyazaki's creative ideas.
Souce: Daily Yomiuri On-Line
According to the Yomiuri On-line Newspaper Studio Ghibli have announced that their latest film Howl's Moving Castle will be released in Korea on December 24th and then in France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It will be released in about 50 countries. Regarding the US release, Studio Ghibli Producer Toshio Suzuki says that he has heard Howl is likely to recive a wider cinema release than Spirited Away did.
Posters on the Miyazaki Mailing List suggest that you don't get your hopes up too high until US details are confirmed.
Souce: Yomiuri On-line
Ever since the domain name BattleAngelAlita.com was registered in March 2000 and pointed to Foxmovies.com rumours of a live action Hollywood version of Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnm which translates as Gun Dream) started to fly. James Cameron (one of Hollywood's most sought-after directors thanks to films like Aliens Terminator, Terminator 2 and Titanic) was one of the names that was suggested to direct the movie and now according to Ain't it Cool News he has confirmed that it is indeed his next movie.
Apparently Gally/Alita will be a Computer Generated character, and the film will be shot in 3-D.
Souce: Ain\'t it Cool News
The folks over at Go Fish Pictures have just sent us the press release for Casshern, a live action movie inspired by the 1973 anime Robot Hunter Casshan.
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that eleven animated films are eligible for the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 2004 Academy Awards.
The BBC have published an article about all the features that are running. Anime News Network also have more details.
This year Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence is the only anime eligible, the eleven films will compete for a maximum of three nominations, to be announced in January. One of the three nominations will then win the Oscar.
This is the forth year for the best animated feature Oscar, which was first awarded to Shrek in 2001. Then anime history was made with Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away winning in 2002, making it the first anime title to ever win an Academy award. Finding Nemo won in 2003.
Souce: BBC News
The UK Sci-Fi channel is having a Japanese horror weekend 6-7th November to celebrate the release of 'The Grudge' a remake of cult Japanese horror film Ju-on. Fans of the Ring series of horror films will be pleased to know that three of the Japanese Ring films are to be screened one after the other.
Read More... | Souce: UK Sci Fi channel
Having been busy working for and interviewing Production I.G. Staff, Justin Leach has put up a fascinating Production Journal about his work on Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. It has all sorts of interesting titbits such as Oshii's skill at drawing storyboards, how Justin's knowledge or weaponry has increased (pretty scary if you ask me) and things you never really consider like the amount of effort that goes to putting a small doll on a car rear view mirror!
Souce: VFX World
Animaxis have posted some news about the second Naruto Movie, basic plot details are quite thin on the ground at the moment, but the film seems to be about Sasuke "being led astray" and as a result Naruto has to save the day!
Souce: Animaxis
We've just heard from the folks at Go Fish Pictures some news that will please our Canadian readers. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, will debut in Montreal on October 14th followed by Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton on October 29th. Figures for the US box office have been positive, so it will be interesting to see if the pattern continues in Canada too.
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
Category > Events
Anime-Europe has brought to our attention the Leeds International Film Festival. They mention the official UK premier of Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence (Sat 6th Nov - 8.30pm, Sun 7th Nov - 6.15pm) and Steamboy (Sat 6th Nov - 6.15pm, Sun 7th Nov - 8.15pm), both of these films are hotly anticipated by anime fans, myself included.
Also recomended is the Fanomenon Film Strand, with some other top notch cult live action Japanese cinema.
The Otaku News crew suggest you check out:
- Electric Dragon 80,000V
- The Live Action version of Cutie Honey (directed by Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame).
- Doppleganger
- Izo
- Ju-on: The Grudge 2
Then there's Otakus In Love the film title explains what it's about, I'll have to put that on my to watch list for the title alone! ^_-
Also if you liked Hero, you will really want to see House of Flying Daggers.
Souce: Leeds International Film Festival
We've just heard from the folks at Go Fish Pictures, they've sent some interesting details about Ghost In the Shell 2. It's always good to hear that anime does well in the box office! ^_^
"Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" continues breaking records for an anime film at the U.S. box office. Mamoru Oshii's long-awaited sequel surpassed last Monday, after only 11 days in theaters, the entire gross of the first "Ghost in the Shell" film as well as that of another cult movie, "Akira." Its gross now stands at a very impressive $576,350.
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
The folks at Go Fish Pictures have informed us about the opening weekend for the US release of Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence, in three days it's grossed $312,568 and is the #1 movie in 22 of the 48 screens it's playing at. This is as always good news for Anime fans. ^_^
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
Those lovely folks at Go Fish Pictures have just put the first 8 minutes of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence on-line, it's available in Windows Media, Real and QuickTime formats. Take a peek at the footage here - http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2642793
The only trouble of course is that you just have to run out and watch the rest of the movie after seeing the first 8 minutes!
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
Category > Anime
We've just been sent a very interesting press release for the Ghost In The Shell franchise, it's well known that the movie Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence it will be hitting US cinema screens on September 17th and that Manga Entertainment and Bandai Entertainment are jointly releasing the DVDs for Ghost In The Shell Standalone Complex series. However what they also point out is that Standalone Complex will be aired on Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim from early November!
The press release also mentions that Dark Horse is republishing Shirow's Ghost in the Shell manga as Ghost in the Shell 2nd Edition, it features extra materials not published in previous US editions and will be printed in it's original Japanese size.
It also mentions the new PS2 game. So it looks like US anime fans will be able to get Ghost In the Shell in every single format they could want!
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
Category > Anime
A few websites have linked to a story on CGNetworks. In this article Justin Leach interviews the staff at Production I.G. (Kill Bill anime sequence, Ghost in the Shell 1+2, Blood The Last Vampire, plus loads more) about their thoughts on the Anime industry. It's well worth a read.
Souce: CGNetworks
We've just had details in from the folks at Dreamworks.
Mamoru Oshii the director of Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence will be answering questions posted to the offical Ghost In the Shell 2 Site's forum. Sign up and Join this thread - http://www.ghost2.com/board/showthread.php?t=62.
Fans will already know that Oshii was behind the original Ghost in the Shell Movie, and the first two Mobile Police Patlabor Movies.
Read More... | Souce: Go Fish Pictures
We've just heard the following from the folks at Dreamworks and GoFish Pictures:
We are happy to report that writer/director Mamoru Oshii's long-awaited sequel GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE will have its Canadian premiere this September in the Midnight Madness section of the
29th Toronto International Film Festival (www.bell.ca/filmfest).
Read More... | Souce: GoFish Pictures
Category > Events
Starting from Thursday September 23, the Ottawa International Animation Festival will screen a selection of Miyazaki films to form a Retrospective.
They'll be showing:
- Princess Mononoke
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky
- Spirited Away
- Kiki's Delivery Service
- Porco Rosso
If you can get to Ottawa go - nothing beats watching a Ghibli movie on the big screen!
Souce: Ottawa International Animation Festival
The Anime News Network have noticed that Mamouru Oshii's entry in the Internet Movie Database has been updated with the Coen Brothers new film Paris, je t'aime. It appears the director of both Ghost in the Shell movies will also be directing a segment called "8th arrondissement". For more details check out the plot summary.
Souce: IMDB - Mamoru Oshii
Category > Production > Studio Ghibli
The latest Ghibli film "Howl's Moving Castle" has finally been finished. According to Nausicca.net the release date for Japan is November 20th.
Read More... | Souce: Naussica.net
We've just heard from the folks at Dreamworks that they'll be showing exclusive teaser trailers at Otakon 2004. As always this massive anime convention is fun, and Dreamworks have supplied another reason to get over to Baltimore!
Read More... | Souce: Dreamworks
TV Tokyo's Naruto website now has a trailer up for the Naruto movie, to be released theatrically on 21 August 2004.
Souce: Natsume Maya