Animanga in the News: 10/30 - 11/5

This week we've got one new Berserk trailer, two manga titles ending, an Americanized Death Note film is still in the works, a website was sued for Power Rangers Halloween costumes, a future problem about fan-comics being banned if Japan uses the U.S publishing rules, a voice actress plans to create manga, and no anime submitted for the future Oscar Nominations! Read On!~


Director Shane Black confirmed at his Long Beach Comic Con panel on Saturday that Warner Brothers' planned live-action film adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga Death Note is still in the works. However, Black added that the project was in jeopardy because the studio initially wanted to lose "the demon [Ryuk]. [They] don't want the kid to be evil…. They just kept qualifying it until it ceased to exist."


Black said that "the creation of a villain, the downward spiral" of the main character Light has been restored in the script, and added that this is what the film should be about.

Warner Brothers hired Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang; writer of the Lethal Weapon film series) to direct Death Note, shortly before Marvel Studios revealed that Black would also direct Iron Man 3. Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry were slated to write the Death Note project's script.

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The official website for the Berserk anime film project announced on Tuesday that the Yahoo! Japan website began streaming the newest 110-second trailer for Berserk Ōgon Jidai-Hen I: Haō no Tamago (Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler). The new trailer features the ending theme song "Utsukushikumono" by the Japanese-American singer Ai.

Not only can this not come out fast enough in Japan, it can’t be licensed fast enough. Considering how many things are getting licensed before they air or just as they air, will continue to hold out hope that Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler will find its way here quickly. And to make that desire stronger, a new theatrical poster has debuted for the film, which in turn encourages all of us to go hunt it down for international purchase as well. The first of three features is set to debut in January 2012 with a new cast behind the characters.

The first film in the three-part retelling of the Golden Age arc of Kentaro Miura's manga will open in Japan on February 4.

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The official blog for the Nyan Koi! franchise announced on Monday that Sato Fujiwara will resume the Nyan Koi! manga series on November 9. The first new manga will be an extra four-panel manga story. The manga had been on an indefinite hiatus due to Fujiwara's unspecified illness and treatment.

In the story, Junpei Kōsaka is a second-year high school student who despises cats and has an allergy to them. It just so happens that his high school crush is Kaede Mizuno, a girl who adores cats. One day, while walking home from school, Junpei kicks an empty can and unfortunately beans the local neko-jizō-sama (guardian deity of cats) statue. He finds that he can now understand what cats are saying, including his family's own ill-tempered cat, Nyamsas. However, if he does not grant 100 wishes from cats, he will turn into a cat himself.


The manga has been running in the web comic magazine Flex Comix Blood since August 10, 2007, and Softbank Creative published the fifth compiled book volume in Japan last year. CMX Manga licensed the original manga, before DC shuttered the imprint last year. Sentai Filmworks and Section23 Films released the television anime adaptation on DVD last December.

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SCG Power Rangers LLC, Saban Capital Group's managing company for the Power Ranger franchise, filed a lawsuit on October 13 against Underdog Endeavors for selling Power Ranger Halloween costumes on its MyPartyShirt.com website. SCG Power Rangers alleges that the site infringe on its copyrights and trademarks and has ignored its cease-and-desist letters.

MyPartyShirt.com sells a "Red Ranger Power Rangers Muscle Costume" and a "Pink Ranger Power Rangers Women's Costume", and it says that both are licensed costumes. However, it also sells a "Pink Power Ranger Sexy Women's Costume" (pictured right) without claiming that it is licensed. This costume's page uses photographs and a YouTube video from the first Power Rangers series along with the following sales pitch: "Did you want to be the Pink Power Ranger growing up? Now you can be."

The Hollywood Reporter entertainment trade news source notes that the United States Copyright Act does not allow a "useful article" such as clothing to be copyrighted, but it does allow "pictorial, graphic, or sculptural" elements to be copyrighted.

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Manga creator Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima) has warned that if doujinshi (self-published manga) based on others’ works are banned as the result of a new trade pact involving Japan and the United States, that “the power of the entire manga industry would also diminish.”

Doujinshi based on major manga properties are tolerated by the Japanese publishing industry, and are seen by many (like Akamatsu) as contributing to the community of fans that support the largest comic publishing industry in the world. The annual Comiket convention, which is a marketplace for the display and distribution of doujinshi, attracts over 500,000 people over three days. Although this is a turnstile attendance, it still makes Comiket the largest comic convention in the world - so it’s hard to argue that doujinshi aren’t a critical component of Japanese comic culture.



The proposed agreement between the United States, Japan, and seven other Pacific countries would standardize copyright laws in all the countries. The provisions affecting doujinshi mean that copyright violations can be brought without a complaint from the injured party. That would be a big change for Japan, where copyright holders don’t prosecute doujinshi creators who self-publish in small quantities. The new laws would also provide for damages to be paid by violators.

Perhaps given the relative success of the manga industry in Japan, American copyright laws should be changed to mirror Japan’s rather than vice versa.

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The YouTube user darwinfish105 posted a 'time leaped' video of Akihabara on Monday that was inspired by the Steins;Gate game and its anime adaptation. The video features the crashed satellite from the series that was recreated on Friday at the actual building in Tokyo's Akihabara district seen in the story.

The satellite's recreation was a part of last weekend's Aki-Fes @ Radi-kan collaboration event between Steins;Gate and Akihabara's signature Radio Kaikan building. Friday also marked the release date of the Steins;Gate 8bit game.

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Intandem Films will collaborate with IFA Distribution, a joint venture between FUNimation Entertainment and American United Entertainment, to distribute about 20 lower-budget live-action thrillers, comedies, and faith-based films per year outside North America. As a Los Angeles-based distribution and acquisition company, IFA Distribution will finance the movies and distribute them in North America. Intandem currently holds about 40 titles.

American United Entertainment chair Robert Rodriguez stated, "We expect this to be a longterm arrangement that helps build a strong catalog of features that can be exploited on digital outlets as well as traditional media."

When asked how this may in the future involve anime films and series, Funimation noted, "At the present the main focus is live action, however that doesn't rule out the possibility that anime films or series maybe included at a later date."

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Voice actress Masumi Asano confirmed on Friday that she is creating and selling her first dōjinshi (self-published) manga with Hayate the Combat Butler creator Kenjirou Hata for the next Comic Market event. For this four-panel manga about life as a voice actress, Asano is drawing the storyboards and drafting the story, while Hata is drawing the final art.

Comic Market 81 will run from Thursday, December 29 to Saturday, December 31, and Asano's dōjin circle ("Hajimemashite.") will appear on December 31 in East Hall at space Shi-61a.

Asano starred in such titles as Doujin Work, Ikki Tousen, Basquash!, Kowarekake no Orgol, and Senjō no Valkyria 3: Ta ga Tame no Jūsō. She previously took part in the Doujin Work television series' live-action segments, during which the cast members tried to create their own dōjinshi. She played Risa Asakaze in the Hayate the Combat Butler television series.

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TV Tokyo confirmed on Friday that the television anime adaptation of The New Prince of Tennis manga by Takeshi Konomi will premiere on January 4, 2012 at 25:50 (effectively January 5 at 1:50 a.m.) The broadcaster's website also posted a new piece of main visual art for the project.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Friday that 18 films have been submitted for possible Oscar nominations in the Best Animated Feature category of the 84th Academy Awards. No Japanese-animated film was submitted this year, although the submitted films hail from several countries such as Australia, the Czech Republic, and Spain.

The 18 submitted features are:
The Adventures of Tintin
Alois Nebel
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Gnomeo & Juliet
Happy Feet Two
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
Kung Fu Panda 2
Mars Needs Moms
Puss in Boots
Rango
Rio
The Smurfs
Winnie the Pooh
Wrinkles

Mamoru Hosoda and MADHOUSE's Summer Wars anime film was submitted last year, but was not nominated.

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Editions Kana tell us that as of December 1, the series Nabi (five volumes published) and one shot Nabi Prototype of Kim Yeon-Joo will stop marketing, lack of sufficient sales.

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This year's 23rd issue of Shogakukan's Sho-Comi magazine is revealing on Saturday that Kanan Minami's Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu shōjo romance manga will conclude in the magazine's next issue on November 19. The slice-of-life story is ending serialization after almost four years of publication in Sho-Comi.

The manga follows Tsubaki Hibino, a girl who is indifferent to both romance and fashion, even though she loves giving other people adorable hairstyles. On the first day of high school, she happened to sit next to Kyōta, a mean-spirited boy who teases her. In retaliation, she spontaneously pulls out scissors and cuts off his long tresses of hair. Thus begins the long love-hate relationship between Tsubaki and Kyōta.

Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu began serializing in Sho-Comi in January 2008, and its penultimate 13th compiled book will ship in Japan on November 25. The manga's first original anime DVD bundled with limited editions of the ninth manga volume in June 2010, and a second anime DVD bundled with limited editions of the tenth compiled book last October.

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This year's 23rd issue of Hakusensha's Hana to Yume shōjo magazine announced on Saturday that the next issue will launch a two-part manga called Sakura Taisen: Kanadegumi (Sakura Wars: Performing Division) on November 19. Since its debut 15 years ago until now, Sakura Wars has been a dating simulation/tactical role-playing game franchise aimed primarily at male gamers.

Chie Shimada is drawing the new manga based on the concepts of "Team Kanade." The current Hana to Yume issue also has an interview with Shimada and a preview silhouette of the characters.

The new Sakura Wars: Kanadegumi project was revealed in a suprise announcement at the "Sakura Wars: Budōkan Live 2" event on October 7. The previous entries in the franchise followed the alternate-history adventures of several all-female mechanized task forces — that also perform musicals to maintain their top secret cover.

NIS America, a subsidiary of the game company Nippon Ichi Software, adapted the Sakura Taisen V ~Saraba, Itoshiki Hito yo~ game as Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, the first Sakura Wars game to be released in North America. There have also been many anime and manga adaptations over the years, including the return of Ikku Masa's Sakura Wars the Manga Part II in last month's inaugural issue of Kodansha' Monthly Shonen Magazine +.

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