Japanese robots

Costumes from Takashi Miike’s “kid’s film” Yatterman revealed

Variety Asia and Japan Today posted some pics from Takashi Miike’s next film Yattaman, or Yatterman, based on an animation which first aired in Japan in the late 1970s. Miike, who has directed some of the most violent crime thrillers and bloody horrors in recent memory, is trying the teen genre. But this won’t his ….

Keanu Reeves will top-line Cowboy Bebop live-action film for Fox

It’s been reported for some time that Fox is overseeing a big-screen version of the popular Japanese anime series Cowboy Bebop. Variety has confirmed that Keanu Reeves in fact attached to star as the easygoing bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, who wanders through space in search of fortune and good times, in the year 2071. Cowboy ….

Bakugan anime to get feature film treatment from Universal

Variety reports that Universal has entered into a deal with toy company Spin Master to bring Bakugan Battle Brawlers to the big screen. The Japanese anime show airs six days a week on the Cartoon Network, and also has a strategy game that uses metal cards and magnetic, spring-loaded figures that transform from marble-like balls ….

Animation community site goes global

The Association of Japanese Animations, an industry organization consisting mainly of animation production companies, recently announced that its community website, called Open Post, now has an English-language section. Open Post acts as a forum that provides animation professionals with an opportunity to submit and publish their work online. The new English-language section allows submissions from ….

Japanese anime company making live-action Bubblegum Crisis movie

Tokyo-based animation outfit Anime International Company (AIC) has contracted with Singapore-based Cubix, a visual software production company, to make a live-action version of the sci-fi anime series Bubblegum Crisis, according to Variety. The companies plan a large budget for the feature, directed towards a U.S. theatrical release sometime in 2011. Bubblegum Crisis creators Shinji Aramaki ….

The New York Anime Festival lands in NYC this weekend

The New York Anime Festival comes to NYC this weekend. The con is held at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan and features exclusive and extensive anime screenings, guests from America and Japan, manga, cosplay, video game competitions, live-action Japanese cinema, fashion, food, and the cultural treasures that gave birth to Japanese pop ….

Grave of the Fireflies getting 20th anniversary screening at Anime After Dark fest

Resonance Features and The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival present Anime After Dark, a twelve hour film festival event at Boston’s historic Somerville Theatre, on October 18, 2008. It will start at 7:00 PM, and run until 7:00 AM the next morning. The festival will screen some of the best in new and vintage anime, ….

The Animatrix film review

The ANIMATRIX is a series of animated short films, inspired by and linked to the MATRIX universe. They were created by some of the hottest Japanese animators working in the industry today. The following reviews are for each of the nine shorts. The Final Flight Of The Osiris The first short within the Animatrix disc ….

Howl’s Moving Castle film review

Miyazaki (Academy Award winner for Spirited Away) has delivered us another sophisticated and pleasantly whimsical animation. Although it is visually stunning, this is Miyazaki’s most complex fantasy to date, with straightforward narrative, and a multilayered approach that reflects the contradictions of real life. Here the master Japanese animator exerts a strong command over the story ….

Steamboy film review

Year: 2004 Animation in America once consisted of icons like Snow White, Mickey Mouse and Bug Bunny. But those icons are changing. These days, it’s just as likely to mean giant fighting cyborgs, kinetic action and sinister monsters. A large part of the reason for the increasing growth in popularity of Japanese animation is Katsuhiro ….

20th Century Boys a.k.a. 20-seiki shonen a.k.a. Twentieth Century Boys a.k.a. 20 Seiki Shounen film information

Fantasy Manga Comic-Based Action Adventure Science Fiction Synopsis 20th Century Boys is the first film in a planned trilogy with a budget of $57 million, that will be shot in seven countries, including China, Thailand, the U.K., Japan and the U.S. The first film will revolve around a “Book of Revelations” written by the main ….