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Stan Lee and Takei's "Ultimo"

Anime

Jan 202010

Historic Collaboration Comes To Life In New Manga Release

San Francisco, CA, JANUARY 20, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, in conjunction with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment (PK:POWN) has announced the highly anticipated release of the new manga ULTIMO on February 2nd. ULTIMO is the result of a historic collaboration between comics legend Stan Lee, co-creator of many iconic superheroes including Spider-Man™, the Fantastic Four™, and the X-Men™, and Hiroyuki Takei, the creator of the popular SHAMAN KING manga series. ULTIMO, rated ‘T’ for teens will carry a MSRP of $9.99 US/$12.99 CAN.

With girl and money troubles, life is hard enough for high school student Yamato, but then he stumbles upon Ultimo, a peculiar-looking puppet. Things only get stranger when Ultimo awakens and his archenemy, Vice shows up. Ultimo and Vice are Karakuri Dôji, the mechanical embodiment of pure good and pure evil, devoid of human emotions that can cloud one’s judgment. Their purpose: to battle to the death to prove once and for all whether good or evil is the most powerful force in the universe.

For over half a century, Stan Lee has been synonymous with superhero comics. In addition to creating countless memorable series and characters, including Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and Daredevil, he served as the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. Lee remains a hugely respected and dynamic figure in the entertainment industry and continues to develop a variety of film, television and video game properties.

“I am indescribably thrilled to have the honor of working with the famous and extremely talented Hiroyuki Takei on our exciting creation ULTIMO. I feel that ULTIMO combines the very best of Western mythology with the very best of Japanese manga. “ says Stan Lee. “It gives me the greatest pleasure to be associated with VIZ Media on such and exciting and ground-breaking project.”

Unconventional author/artist, Hiroyuki Takei began his career by winning the 1994 Tezuka Award. After working as an assistant to famed artist Nobuhiro Watsuki (RUROUNI KENSHIN), Takei debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997 with Butsu Zone, an action series based on Buddhist mythology. His multicultural adventure manga SHAMAN KING debuted in Japan in 1998 and has been adapted into a popular animated television series. The SHAMAN KING manga series is also published in North America by VIZ Media; for many years it was serialized in English in SHONEN JUMP magazine.

”While it’s epic in scope and rich in mythology, the ULTIMO storyline is grounded in modern teen angst which is what fans will gravitate to. It’s manga, but it’s got that ‘Stan Lee’ feel of the teenager who suddenly has all this power and can’t believe how crazy that is.” Says Joel Enos, Senior Editor for Shonen Jump Manga, VIZ Media. “This story has found a common ground between Western comics and Eastern manga. Here you have two amazing creators, all this action, robots, and the universal theme of pure good vs. pure evil, all the while staying in high school youth culture and the drama and depth of everyday kids.”

For more information on ULTIMO, please visit www.shonenjump/ultimo.

Apple Volume 2 Inspires

Anime, Featured

Jan 032010

Apple Volume 2 is a compilation of paintings and comics from 40 top Korean illustrators. Coming from different background, the artistic style and medium featured are extremely diverse.

There are plenty of single page splashes and character design portraits between the multiple short story comics. While some stories are great, some just makes no sense to me. Sometimes, I never can quite get the Korean/Japanese stories they are trying to tell.

Also, some stories come with a “to be continued” but I found out that some stories from Volume 1 are not continued in this volume.

Treat this book more like an art book rather than a graphic novel and you won’t be disappointed. Even the comic panels are lavishly painted.

The list of artists featured:

Yu Young-Il
Jung Yong-Sick
Moon So-Hyun
Lee Seung-Chan
Lee Jeong-Myeong
Kim Bum
Kim Gang-San
Ryu Hun-Yong
Lee Dae-Hoon
Jang Hye-Mi
Hyung Min-Woo
Bak Zin-Woo
Sin Dong-Uk
Kang U-Ho
Lee Jin-Young
Cory
Hyun Hwan-Kyu
Lee Seul
Lee Jin-Ho
Park Jung-Sik
Kim Joo-Yeun
Dric
Lee Myeong-Un
Kim Seong-Gyu
Hwang Sun-Min
Hwang Seung-Chul
Park Sang-Sun
Seo Young-Min
Lee Min-Pyo
Kim Young-Ha
Song Hyun-Jung
Na Young-Hak
Lee Jin-Young
An Jeong-Won
Jun Hyun-Jung
Kim Tae-Hyung
Kim Keun-Ju
Seo Jung-Eui
Lee Sun-Yeong
Yeo Joo-Hyun

Top 5 Bad-Ass Anime Characters

Anime, Featured

Oct 042009

5. Major Motoko Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell)

She is a cyborg employed as the squad leader of Public Security Section 9, a fictional division of the real Japanese National Public Safety Commission. Is she a bad ass? Hell yes she is. Her character may seem to be a bit inconsistent from the Ghost in the Shell movies to the TV series but ability to kick ass has never been in question.

4. Rock lee (Naruto)

Lee was created by Masashi Kishimoto. Kishimoto considers Lee his favorite character to draw, and at first designed Lee to symbolize human weakness. In the anime and manga, Lee is a ninja affiliated with the village of Konohagakure, and is a member of Team Guy, which consists of himself, Neji Hyuga, Tenten, and Might Guy—the team’s leader. Unable to use most ninja techniques, Lee dedicates himself to using solely taijutsu, ninja techniques similar to martial arts. Lee dreams of becoming a “splendid ninja” despite his inabilities. And he kicks butt like nobody’s business. Definitely a bad-ass.

3. jin (samurai champloo)

He wields a Katana, Wakizashi and spent the majority of his life training in kenjutsu dojos. Need I say more?

2. Gaara of the Sand (Naruto)

Gaara is a ninja affiliated with Sunagakure, and is the son of Sunagakure’s leader, the Fourth Kazekage. As a child, his father attempted to turn him into a human weapon by placing a tailed beast into him, and he was ostracized by the Sunagakure villagers. As a result, he developed into a ruthless killer and a serious bad-ass, which places him at #2 of our top 5.

1. Shikamaru Nara (Naruto)

A member of the Ninja group Team 10 with an IQ over 200 and a perchance for laziness, we not only are completely in love with this character but also want to be him when we grow up. Yes he is a bad-ass, smart and lazy but also a bad-ass.

If you disagree with our list, feel free to comment. I’ll probably disagree with you but I’m willing to hear your argument.

Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter dubs Anime

Anime

Sep 272009

So Funny you will cry!
Ghost In The Shell and Blood: The Last Vampire are both classic, serious anime but when The Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien and his sidekick, Andy Richter, try their hand in dubbing these 2 classic fan favorites, the word serious is thrown out the window.

Naruto Shippuden the Movie on DVD this Fall

Anime

Sep 172009

Feature Film Featuring The World’s Most Popular Ninja Is The First With The Teenaged Naruto On A Dangerous New Mission That May Cost His Life

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the DVD release of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN THE MOVIE on November 10th. The new film is the fourth in the NARUTO movie series, is rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens, and will have an MSRP of $24.92 U.S. / $35.99 CAN.

In the newest animated feature film adventure, a powerful spirit that once threatened to destroy the world is back! Naruto’s mission is to protect a priestess named Shion, who is the only one with the power to seal away the monster. She also has the uncanny ability to predict someone’s fate. Her latest prediction: Naruto will soon die. Naruto’s only hope is to abandon Shion, but that’s not Naruto’s style. He decides to face her fatal prediction head-on–and die!

“The NARUTO Shippuden story arc is largely about growing up and as the world’s most popular ninja grows into adolescence, so have millions of his fans,” says Brian Ige, VIZ Media Director of Sales, Home Entertainment. “Naruto’s missions have become even more dangerous, and even fate will test Naruto’s skills and self confidence in this latest adventure as a mysterious princess foretells his death. We invite fans to check out all the action in this new feature film this fall!”

The NARUTO Shippuden manga and animated series pick up two years after Naruto left to train with his teacher and mentor Jiraiya. Now a teenager, the stories in the new series take a more mature and sometimes darker approach as Naruto returns to the Hidden Leaf Village to reunite with his old friends and discovers they are stronger than before – and maybe even stronger than he is! For Naruto, the spirit of a nine-tailed fox spirit trapped inside him is a metaphor for adolescence. There is a powerful force in this spunky teenager and he must learn to conquer it and overcome his own uncontrollable spirit and emotions while battling an array of villains and completing near-impossible missions.

Created by Masashi Kishimoto, NARUTO was first introduced in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan in 1999 and quickly became that country’s most popular ninja manga targeting tweens and teens and has sold more than 92 million copies to-date. The manga series (rated ‘T’ for Teens) and animated counterpart (NARUTO rated ‘T’ for teens, and NARUTO Shippuden rated ‘T+’ for older teens) are some of VIZ Media’s most successful properties and have captivated millions of fans across North America, Europe and South America. NARUTO is a co-production of TV TOKYO, VIZ Media parent company Shueisha Inc., and Pierrot Co., Ltd.

For more information on NARUTO Shippuden, and to view NARUTO Shippuden episodes (subtitled) please visit the official NARUTO website at www.naruto.com. In addition, DTO (dubbed) is also available on iTunes. Classic NARUTO episodes can be viewed on hulu.com, Playstation Network, Xbox Live, amazon vod and iTunes.