It's New Year's Eve - Anime Style

@}-- Good-bye to 2010 --{@ 

@}-- Welcome 2011 --{@

Highlights of 2010

Here are some special moments of the year...

• Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

• Monty Oum's Dead Fantasy

• 2010 marks the 25th Anniversary of Robotech

• Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne

• Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror

• Black Butler the Musical

• Bleach the Rock Musical

• Mei and the Kittenbus

• Geraldine

• AMV Hell Series

• Hayao Miyazaki at SDCC 2009 - Part 1

• Hayao Miyazaki at SDCC 2009 - Part 2

• Fumiko's Confession

• Live Action Star Blazers

• Bento Boxes of your favorite animated shows

• Giant Gundam Returns With Giant Beam Saber

• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World 

• How to Train Your Dragon

• Yotsuba - Manga

• Korean Madness TV

• The Secret of Kells

• Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter on "Ponyo"

• Anime Central 2010 Announces the Japanese Voice Cast of Soul Eater

• Over The Future

• American Anime Producer Carl Macek Passes Away

• C2E2 - Chicago Comic Convention

• KICK-ASS the Movie

• Anime Central 2010 - Opening Ceremonies

• YOSHIKI of X Japan at Anime Central 2010

• Anime Central 2010 Cosplay Pics - Batch #1

• Anime Central 2010 Cosplay Pics - Batch #2

• Anime Central 2010 Cosplay Pics - Batch #3

• Anime Central 2010 Cosplay Pics - Batch #4

• Frank Frazetta, Fantasy Artist, 1928 - 2010

• Futurama Returns with More Episodes

• Happy Anniversary, Animatrix Network!

• At-At Day Afternoon

• Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW

• Star Wars - The Naughty Bits

• Technotise

• Thor - First Look Behind the Scenes

• TANGLED

• DC Universe Online Trailer

• COMIC-CON: Ryan Reynolds recites the Green Lantern Oath

• COMIC-CON: Scott Pilgrim Panel

• COMIC-CON: The Megamind Panel

• COMIC-CON: Stabbing at Hall H

• Redline - Trailer

• Scooby Doo: Mystery Inc.

• Peter Fernandez, Voice of Speed Racer, Passes Away

• Transformers 3 - Filming in Chicago

• Puzzle Agent: the animated horror game

• The Darth Vader Helmet Auction

• What the Last Airbender TV series has that the movie doesn't

• Studio Ghibli's Arrietty: The Borrower

• Satoshi Kon has Passed Away

• Team Avatar's Review of The Last Airbender Movie

• ‘Legend of Korra’: The ‘Avatar’ Creators on the New Spinoff

• Scott Pilgrim vs the Animation

• Supernatural Anime Teaser Trailer

• Flintstones Celebrate their 50th Anniversary 

• Young Justice

• Anime Expo's CEO Michael Lattanzio Steps Down

• Lindsay Lohan Gets Out of Prison

• Monster High

• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt [by GAINAX]

• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game

• More Scott Pilgrim Game Sprites

• X Japan Invades America with First-Ever U.S. Tour

• Remembering Satoshi Kon

• Chainsaw Maid

• The Haunted Mansion - Audio Tale

• The Scooby Doo Project

• Animation in Starts and Stops, Simplified

• OMG! - "Oh My Gundam!"

• Clone Wars' Jedi Get a Costume Change

• The Surprise Anime Hit of the Fall Season!

• The Best Song From the Scott Pilgrim Movie

• Katy Perry on the Simpsons Christmas Special

The Beauty of PIXAR

From the Best of Pixar's Animated Features

Katy Perry on the Simpsons Christmas Special

"That's not my belly button."

Flipped due to copyright reasons

Umineko Video Game

Umineko (thematically connected to Higurashi - When They Cry) is getting a new fighting game.

Revisioned Tomb Raider

 Pre-Teen Raider

In commemoration of the 10 years of Tomb Raider, GameTap did a special celebration to coincide with the release of Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Along with several interviews and a feature documentary, GameTap also hired renowned talented artists to develop an animated series of 10 episodes inspired on Lara Croft's adventures. Minnie Driver, famed English actress, is the voice actress of Lara Croft in this series.

Original Dirty Pair TV Series Now Available on DVD

Right Stuf Unleashes the Lovely Angels Upon Us

[Source: Wikipedia]

Kei and Yuri are the two voluptuous members of Trouble Consultant team 234, code named "Lovely Angels". Almost every mission they are involved with ends up in disaster, but not failure (they'll catch the crook, but a city may be destroyed in the process), and thus they are more generally known as the "Dirty Pair", a nickname they hate. They are always cleared of any wrongdoing by the 3WA's Central Computer because the extreme damage is never actually their fault (though their mere presence has been known to make things worse). In some but not all continuities, they have joint ESP powers, usually limited to precognition. This talent was the reason they were recruited in the first place.(This is alluded to in the Adam Warren Collection "A Plague Of Angels")

• Kei: a hot-headed tomboy with red hair and tanned skin who wears a silver-white uniform. Favors large weaponry and prefers to "shoot first, ask questions later". The more aggressive of the two, she is also the bustier of the pair and is attracted to manly, muscular men.

• Yuri: Japanese in ethnicity, wears a golden-yellow uniform. Often uses non-gun weaponry such as energy whips. While the more feminine of the two, she is known to become very violent when crossed. She is the more bottom-heavy of the team and is also a coy flirt who prefers cultured, refined men. Her most recognized weapon is the Bloody Card, a technologically-enhanced throwing card that can be used to take down several people at once. While Yuri often uses it in the novels, it only appears in the anime a few times, once in Affair of Nolandia, in Flight 005 Conspiracy, and in episode 6 of the OVA series. In that episode, it is used by Madame Beryl instead of Yuri. In the comic series, it is used in the stories "Biohazards" and "Start The Violence".

Disney's TRON UPRISING Animated TV Series!

Following the Revolution that takes place within the grid

[Source: BoxOfficeMagazine]

Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis, screenwriters of the new film TRON: Legacy, told BOXOFFCE that the forthcoming TRON spinoff projects would offer a continuation of the mythology of the movie series. "There's a 10-part micro series that will premiere next summer that Eddie and I wrote," Horowitz said during an interview in Los Angeles, Calif. "And we've also worked on a couple of episodes with the series itself. We've hired an incredible team; we've got a guy running the show named Charlie Bean who is an amazing director."

When asked whether the animated series will be part of the continuity of the films, Kitsis said, "Absolutely. And we're treating it very seriously." He explained that the events of the show will take place in between the events of TRON and TRON: Legacy. "This animated show will take place from when Flynn is in a safe house. It's from when Clu takes over the grid to before when Sam comes in. So if you were wondering what was the grid like before that, then watch the show."

Horowitz indicated that it will feature an eclectic cast of voice actors, including the actor who played Tron in both films. "We hesitate to tell too much just yet, but it will fill in the blanks of some things, and also explore some new areas as well," he revealed. "Bruce Boxleitner is in it, Elijah Wood, Linda Moore, Paul Reubens, Lance Henriksen. I mean, we've got a really cool group of actors."

He also suggested that some of the stories might piggyback on preliminary ideas that he and Kitsis developed for the film that didn't make it into the final cut. "To give you an example of how we approached storytelling sometimes is like when you're in the End of Line club, when we first meet Castor and he's being berated by one of the patrons saying, ‘I want an audience with Zuse.' His name is Bartik, and there's an entire back story we have for him. The guy with him, his name is Hopper, there's a whole thing between the two of them, what they are doing in there, and how they got there. It's like over the years of developing this movie, we developed all these mythologies and all these back stories and all little tangential things."

Kitsis said that he and Horowitz came up with explanations for every aspect of these peripheral characters, and that gives them a richer mythology to draw upon for future stories. "Did we have time to do the Bartik story? No. But now maybe the Bartik story is in the animated series —you know, he's got a huge scar on his face. I want to know how he got that scar. We couldn't sit down and write that there's a guy with a scar on his face without knowing what the scar was. So we hope it adds to the depth of the movie. Our intention is to try and make something that is more than just, let's go get something. We treat TRON very, very seriously and as writers we try to have a reason and a world for everything and not all of it gets to be shown because in this particular movie, we only had two hours.

"[So] hopefully it fills in the blanks in and in a fun way and an intriguing way."

Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden

 New Dragon Ball game for the DS

Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Fighting
Origin: Japan
Release: February 3, 2011

Bandai Namco announced Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butoden, a new Dragon Ball fighting game for the DS, which will be released in Japan on February 3, 2011.

A New Anime "Documentary" About North Korea

 Emotional Content is working on "North"

an animated project focusing on North Korea's prison camps.

"North Korea - The Worst Human Rights Crisis in the World Today." - Human Rights Watch

A group of animators and human right activists from Japan are determined to produce an animation film to inform, inspire, and empower others to raise a voice against heinous human rights violations inside North Korea's notorious concentration camps, where over 200,000 "violators" are overworked, tortured, raped or publicly executed today.

"In the repatriation program in the 60's, more than 93,000 Japanese Koreans left Japan to head to North Korea, which was promised by North Korea leaders to be "Heaven on Earth." The main character's family was one of the families who took the voyage to this "Heaven on Earth", to dedicate their lives and wealth for the construction of what was meant to be the greatest nation, and that would promote communist idealism.

Relatively peaceful days in Pyongyang enjoyed by the family abruptly ended with the disappearance of the grandfather, and the main character's forced transfer to Yudok concentration camp. Suffering through years of forced labor, violence, and the loss of loved ones, the main character grows to become a man from inside the concentration camp...."


Funding is being raised via Kickstart

Day 25 of our 25 Days of Christmas

*** Merry Christmas!!!!!! ***

The True Meaning of Christmas

 

*** Have a Safe and Happy Holiday! ***

Anime News

 Hitting American Shores

[Source: aicn.com]

The live action Coastguard manga adaptation THE LAST MESSAGE: Umizaru will be released in North America. Distribution deals have also been signed for France, Russia, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, China, Taiwan, Singapore, United States, Mexico, Peru, and Argentina

4Kids
Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D: Bonds Beyond Time will hit American theatres as a special events February 26 and 27, March 5 and 6. then be released on video later in the year

Discotek
Discotek will be releasing a Cry
ing Freeman anime complete collection on February 22nd

Disney
Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Goro Miyazaki's Tales of Earth Sea will be released on Blu-ray on March 8th.

On Nausicaa
BLU-RAY BONUS FEATURES:
Blu-rayThe World of Ghibli Visit Nausicaa's world in this enchanted interactive experience
- Behind the Studio: Discover the film's fantastic origins in this fascinating documentary, including an interview with Hayao Miyazaki.
- Enter the Lands: Explore the many worlds of Studio Ghibli
Blu-ray: Original Japanese Storyboards
DVD:Behind the Microphone: With A-list voice talent
DVD:The Birth Story of Studio Ghibli
DVD:Original TV Trailers

Media Blasters
Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit will be released on Blu-rau in February

Media Blasters will be reviving their yaoi manga line

Suzy Snowflake

 A Chicago Christmas Tradition

On December 28, 1953, Chicago area kids were introduced to the whimsical story of Suzy Snowflake "tap, tap, tappin'" on every windowpane, seen on "Garfield Goose and Friends" then on WBBM-TV. Like "Hardrock, Coco and Joe", Suzy too was brought to life by the stop-motion animators of Centaur Productions. Norma Zimmer was Suzy's voice and the song was sung by The Norman Luboff Choir, a premier studio group who recorded with well-known artists, such as Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte. To purchase this DVD in a digitally remastered format, visit The Museum of Broadcast Communications for more information.

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010

 Merry Christmas from Neil Gaiman

39 Degrees North: Christmas Card 2010 from 39 Degrees North on Vimeo.

T'was the Night Before Christmas

@-}-- Day 24 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

This 1974 Christmas cartoon from Rankin-Bass is a Holiday classic. Based on the poem "t'was the night before christmas" starring a mouse, an inventor, and a clock, who are all part of a plan to get Santa Claus to visit them for Christmas.

@-}-- Day 23 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Welcome Christmas!

 

The Who's of Whoville gathered together to sing.

@-}-- Day 22 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

The Grinch!

Here's a Christmas Classic that has been a staple of childhood for many years. Enjoy!

Lyrics:

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn't touch you, with a
thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile.
Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you,
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots,
Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap overflowing
with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable
rubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch.
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse.
Mr. Grinch.

You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool
sandwich
With arsenic sauce.

@-}-- Day 21 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Family Guy Christmas!

Anime News

 News from the Shores of Japan

[Source: aicn.com]

Kenji Kamiyama is overseeing a 3D conversion of Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society, scheduled to hit Japanese theatres on March 26, 2011.

----

Hayao Miyazaki has a new short "Pan-dane to Tamago Hime" ("Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess") playing at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo. -based on the Corn Harvest

----

Keiichi Satou (Karas director, The Big O character/mechanical designer) is helming the project, and Masafumi Nishida overseeing Sunrise produced Tiger & Bunny featuring original design by Masakazu Katsura (Video Girl Ai, DNA², I''s, Zetman)

----

Loudness will be performing the for the upcoming Mazinkaiser OVA

----

Studio DEEN's Hiroshi Hasegawa is sponsoring an anime adaption of a local folktale associated with the "Inu Matsuri" ("Dog Festival") in the memory of his late wife.

----

A second Black Rock Shooter OVA is the works

----

Angel Beats!'s Seiji Kishi will be directing an adaptation of Eri Takenashi's Type-Moon (Fate/Stay Night, Melty Blood) short manga anthology

----

Kazuki Sakuraba's (Gosick) fantasy romance boys-love manga re-imagining of the classic epic Nanso Satomi Hakkenden, will have an anime adaptation will be adapted into an anime movie

@-}-- Day 20 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Merry Christmas to All !!!!!

Gon - The Anime

Gon with the Wind

Gon is a tiny fictional dinosaur and the title character of a Japanese manga series created by Masashi Tanaka. The Gon series features the completely wordless adventures of the irascible title character as he interacts with the natural world, depicted by Tanaka in lush, realistic detail. Gon somehow survived the extinction of his fellow dinosaurs and interacts with paleolithic animals. In 1998, the manga received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival. [Source: Wikipedia]

Now it is being made into a CGI animated film. Check out the clip below:

@-}-- Day 19 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

The Little Drummer Boy

A Holiday Favorite

@-}-- Day 18 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Snow Miser - Heat Miser

Christmas Anime Music Video

It's the Greatest Time of the Year!!!!

@-}-- Day 17 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Have a Sci-Fi Christmas!!!!

@-}-- Day 16 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Kim Possible Christmas

Ron is disappointed that his favorite TV Show, Snowman Hank, has been replaced. Meanwhile, as a gift to Kim, Ron decides to foil Dr Drakken's Christmas plot himself so that she can enjoy the time with her family. But when he and Drakken get trapped in the North Pole, Kim, followed by the Possibles, has to go round the globe to search for him. Ron discovers that Drakken is a big fan of Snowman Hank and Drakken temporarily embraces the spirit of Christmas after the rescue.

Part One

Part Two

Anime and Manga are Banned

 Tokyo Ban on "Virtual Crimes" Passes

Tokyo’s ban on anime, manga and games featuring “virtual crimes” or which are “likely to interfere with the healthy development of youth” has passed after the DPJ agreed to support it.

The DPJ’s only addition to the critical portion of the law was a short rider which requests “prudent application of the law in light of any artistic, social, scientific or satirical merits the work might express” – it does not however add any legal obligation to consider these, or establish any clear or indepdently enforced criteria for judging whether a work can be declared “harmful” or not.

@-}-- Day 15 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Prep and Landing!

@-}-- Day 14 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Asuka for the Holidays!

Character: Asuka Langley Sohryu
Series: Evangelion (Christmas)
Cosplayer: etaru (Click here for more pics of her)

@-}-- Day 13 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Father Christmas

Father Christmas is a 1991 animated short based on two books written by Raymond Briggs: Father Christmas and Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, published in 1973 and 1975 respectively. It was first aired in Britain in 1991 on Channel 4, nine years after The Snowman, another animated Briggs adaptation produced for the same channel.

Part One of Three

@-}-- Day 12 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

The Snowman

A classic British Christmas movie, first broadcast on Christmas Eve of 1982 on Channel 4. 

Part One

@-}-- Day 11 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Itsudatte My Santa - Episode Two

Episode 2 (Part 1 of 3)

@-}-- Day 10 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Itsudatte My Santa - Episode One

Episode 1 (Part 1 of 3)

@-}-- Day 9 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

All I Want For Christmas - [Anime Style]

@-}-- Day 8 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

The Star Wars Holiday Special

Here is a segment from the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special featuring Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia singing an ode to "Life Day" - the Star Wars Universe's answer to Christmas. This aired on local Chicago TV on Friday, November 17th 1978.

Watch 1st two minutes of live-action Space Battleship Yamato

@-}-- Day 7 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Star Blazers to the Big Screen

The big-budget live-action version on the classic military sci-fi anime series opens in Japanese theaters this week to rave reviews. This video clip reveals the opening scenes of the film as the Earth forces go head to head with the evil Gamillons. There's still no sign of a U.S. release date, but no doubt this will be a hit on American screens!

@-}-- Day 6 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Christmas 2010 Gift Guide From Japan

[Source: FlutterScape Cafe] Christmas is just around the corner and you must have been thinking "what should I get for myself or my beloved ones..."

Here is the shopping trend on FlutterScape so far, for this Christmas season.
...
Fuji Natura Classica 

Click to view large

...
Mameshiba

Click to view large

Mameshiba was really popular last year as well but this kawaiiness still remains this year.

...
Kawaii 

Click to view large

Japan is known for this! Decotti is just an example that some customers were recently purchasing but please check out more of Kawaii products.

...
Rilakkuma 

Hahaha Rilakkuma is so cute! This Rilakkuma cosplay cap is one of Rilakkuma blockbusters on top of the fact that its USB toy, plushes, mug cups and body pillows, etc. are being recently bought as gifts.

...
Amazon Danbo Yotsubato Figure

I know, adorable right? Despite its popularity, Amazon Danbo figures are always in limited production therefore carries a scarcity value. The market price is hence so high but people still buy those a lot as well as its MINI ver.  

...
Togainu No Chi Plushes

Got to FlutterScape Cafe for more info on any of these products.

@-}-- Day 5 of our 25 Days of Christmas --{-@

Connect With "Star Wars: Kinect"

The upcoming "Star Wars" 'Kinect' third-person action video game revealed during Microsoft's 'Project Natal' June 2010, is now set for a Christmas 2011 release, according to Kinect creative director Kudo Tsunoda.

'Kinect' for Xbox 360 is a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience" by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform, and may later be supported by PCs via Windows 8.

"I think you could just easily imagine being a 'Jedi'," said Tsunoda, "using Kinect to make you feel you're part of a 'Star Wars' experience, building yourself up into a Jedi...its super compelling."

The LucasArts video game is currently being developed at the Terminal Reality company, in association with Infernal Engine.

Launched in North America, November 4, 2010, 'Kinect' is based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, enabling users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Star Wars Kinect"...