Father Geek here deeply buried in the non-stop orgy of pop culture known as SXSW (that's the SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST INTERACTIVE - FILM - MUSIC FESTIVAL for the uninformed among you). I've got to leave in a sec to pickup Harry at his Fortress of Solitude and we won't touch down there, or here at Geek Headquarters until sometime in the wee morning hours. We'll catch about 3 hours sleep, then the havoc will repeat itself over again and again for the next 10 days... panels, guest celebs, films, clubbing, power lunches, parties, smoozing, etc to the point of infinity... Its Geek heaven! Anyway here's Scott's Manga & Anime report...

AnimAICN...

by Scott Green

Anime Spotlight: Tree of Palme

Release by ADV Films

Tree of Palme falls frustratingly close to being a great anime movie. On it's own, it might have been a memorable cult movie, but in the context of it's animated competition, it reinforces trends where its visual achieves get lost. It suffers the problems of many anime theatrical movies that aren't from the great minds (Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, Katsuhiro Otomu, or Marmou Oshii to name some of the more successful). The animation if frequently spectacular and innovative, but the story doesn't gel. Creator/director Takashi Nakamura is an old hand in animation, who has been all over the anime map, including a number of classics (Akira, Nausicaa, Robot Carnival). He brings plenty of visual imagination to this personal work, but the distribution of plot information inhibits the movie. The movie is in need of a script edit, with work to improve the punchyness and clarity from, it could have been, if not a classic, than a memorable addition to theatrical anime.

Tree of Palme is a fairy tale for an older audience . It's rated TV 14, and in this case the age recommendation probably should be a solid lower bound. Not just that it's harsh, but that even an adult needs some thinking work to digest some of the actions, events and decisions. It's quite skilled in creating empathing during moments of violence and danger, and has a number of memorably painful scenes.

Palme is Pinocchio by way of Travis Bickle, a human modeled wooden constructed, among other things, get caught up in the idea of becoming a real human. He was created by a botanist to care for and accompany his ailing wife, but he looses focus after the death of his adopted mother, getting caught up in explicable, self destructive pursuits. New purpose is thrust upon him when a strange warrior woman planets an egg in his chest and sends him to deliver it. Along the way, Palme and the viewer, struggle to process the experiences of an odyssey through slavers, orphan gangs, dessert treks, and strange exiles.

The movie offer excellent visual imagination, with an excellent grasp of large scale CGI effect, and plenty of stylistic touch stones are utilized. Figures evoke everything from 80's sci-fi OAVs to Miyazaki and Otomo, to Ralph Bakshi. However, it has problems expressing a story as a movie. It asks for a lot from the audience, to think through the stories, its history, and the ethics of the actions, without hooking them to work for the reward. Not being over explicit is often desirable, but it means you have to know what to paint out for the audience. Tree of Palme weighs the ethical issues, but by the time they've built momentum, the movie is racing to build story pack in all the story. The clues aren't well distributed enough to compel the viewer to invest in the world, so that when it starts exploding, the connection to the movie isn't there.

Manga Preview Bambi and Her Pink Gun By Atsushi Kaneko

To be released by Digital Manga Publishing June 2005

Bambi and Her Pink Gun is a good stress excising, none-too-serious violent grrl comic. A Tank Girl that's more proudly spiteful than glib. It isn’t what many go to popularized manga for. It doesn’t have the story attributes of most shonen or shoujo works. Instead, it does a damn the torpedoes, and just starts shooting.

A volume in, it isn't clear how intelligently subversively Bambi and Her Pink Gun will ultimately be, but free wheeling non-conformists deserve violent power fantasies as much as the next crowd, and this Bambi is a dam good one. If it just goes forwards as a bloody anti-consumerist, anti-corporate packaged, anti-mindless pop adherence rant, it still will have been entertaining. With pissed off illustrations from chapters that look like EC Comics inspired concert leaflets, to design that's comparable to English comic's pop standard bearer Mike Allred. The thick lined simplicity, working off the pierced, disheveled look of the characters and the blood of their interactions gives the work a forceful pop viciousness.

Bambi is a volatile pinked haired young woman who kidnapped a fat, slovenly child at the request of the "Old Men". Bambi's primal mind, eat, sleep and fight rampage perpetually collides with the world's gangsters, low lifes and sick-o's out to collect the bounty for killer her, and returning the child unharmed. She gets plenty of chances to spray the brains of criminal thugs, and wise guys against the walls, but the real sadistic fun is when she tussles with the degenerate bastards, like the spider fetishizing teacher who has fun hobbies like manipulating children into getting beaten by their parents. At the end of the road is Gabba King, a fat Elvis stand in, who sits at the top of pop culture pyramid, and beats scores of his groupie offerings into bloody messes.

With the prevalence of rush job manga releases, it is worth pointing out when an aspect of localizations is done really well. In this case DMP does a thought out and artful job of integrating translated sound effects. They retain the original noise illustration, subtly putting in the English equivalents in a small manner that blends into the work. You pick up what is being conveyed without really noticing the alternation. It’s like the difference between translated dialog that just conveys the meaning but reads like a translation, and a translation reads like it the work was always in English. The extra effort, especially in a series as visual as Bambi, really pays off.

Manga Spotlight: Dead End by Shohei Manabe

Released by TOKYOPOP

Despite a particularly uninspiring cover and title, Dead End looks like a promising mature audience series. Comparable to a current version of surreal cyberpunk anime Texhnolyze, Dead End builds on a convergence of unusual events, and people from outskirts. It's set in motion when Shirou a young man with a pretty menial job takes in a naked woman from the street that seems to have fallen from the sky, and quickly pushes Shirou through a slaughter filled journey to find associates he doesn’t remember having. He soon hooks with the mangled former protégé of a mob boss (brutalized for stealing from his former boss/maybe lover), and towering a martial artist, inhuman in the ring, and aimless outside. The three of immediately being crossing paths with bizarre thugs who leave trails of stomach turning slaughter

Dead End’s illustration looks a bit like Taiyo Matsumoto’s (No. 5, Black and White, Blue Spring), which gives the work an instant jolt of personality. It doesn't have Matsumoto's flair for dream design, but the characters have a unsymmetrical ugliness that gives them an endearing human presence.

The story really works because it invests the reader in seeing what makes the characters tick. Background is balanced with mystery to make motivations, and perspectives interesting. The very brutal, unforgiving world of the series looks to be an intriguing catalyst for the characters.

Nausicaa Theatrical Run

Nausicaa.net reports that Disney will be giving Hayao Miyazaki's ecological epic Nausicaa a small theatrical run this summer.

How to Find Fixed Innocence

TwitchFilm points out that the new version of the North American Ghost in the Shell: Innocence DVD which has can be spotting in stores by listing of "V4" on its security tab label. Reportedly the new version contains a sub track with the square-bracketed information sound removed, but the text remains in the same position and at the same size apparently. The initial DVD release of Innocence featured used text for the hearing impaired rather than a traditional subtitle track, which was over the video image, larger than most subtitles, and included sound guides.

Comarties Preview

Amazon is streaming the first, 15 minute episode of absurdist sketch comedy Cromartie High School at here

New Anime Licenses

Bandai has confirmed that they will be releasing Gundam SEED Destiny in an interview with Mecha & Anime HQ here. The series is a sequel to the initial Gundam SEED series, a modernized relaunch of the venerable war-giant robot franchise.

The Gundam SEED compilation movies, wth new animation and the epilogue sequence, will be released this summer.

Geneon has announced that they licensed the right to the anime based on the Viewtiful Joe video games. The company is currently in talks with major children’s television networks and programming blocks to secure broadcast distribution and will also release the Viewtiful Joe series on DVD. Geneon Entertainment expand the property into North America through licensed toys, action figures, clothing, publishing, food and beverages, electronics and more. Based on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube console games, developed by Capcom Co. Ltd., a worldwide leader in the development and publishing of video games, Viewtiful Joe is a combination of Japanimation and American comic-style character design that is ripe with action and loaded with comedy. Joe is just a normal guy with two great loves: his girlfriend Silvia and Captain Blue, an action movie superhero. When Silvia is magically captured through a movie screen by a celluloid monster, Joe gets himself swallowed into the screen to save her. There, Joe meets Captain Blue just as the superhero is about to retire, exhausted from his lifelong battle against villains known as Jadows. With special superpowers bestowed upon him by Captain Blue himself, Joe transforms into Viewtiful Joe to vanquish the enemies in Movie Land. Geneon has also announced that it has licensed the video rights to XEBEC’s giant robot anime Fafner, making its DVD debut in July. In addition to the series itself, Geneon Entertainment has also acquired the rights to the Fafner Original Soundtrack, which will be released simultaneously with the first volume of the DVD. Featuring characters that have been consistently ranked among the Top 25 anime characters of all time, Fafner boasts a creative team which includes producer Toshimichi Otsuki (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Slayers, Nadesico), animation production by XEBEC (Zoids, Love Hina, D.N. Angel), character design and animation direction by Hisashi Hirai (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Infinite Ryvius) and direction by Nobuyoshi Habara (D.N. Angel, Sorcerer Hunters).

ArtsmagicDVD has acquired Salaryman Kintaro, to be released based starting in May. The series, based on a popular manga by Motomiya Hiroshi, following a former biker gang leader who takes an office job in order to take care his son. The manga was also adapated into a live action movie by Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Gozu, Dead or Alive)

Anime on DVD reports that ADV announced at the Anime Overdose convention that they had licensed Yugo the Negoiator

Digital Manga Publishing has announced that they have licensed the following manga titles :

• * Horror Title – Twilight of the Dark Master - August 2005
• * Instructional Title Let’s Draw Manga – Bodies and Emotion - August 2005
• * Yaoi Title – Jazz Vol. 1 – October 2005
• * Yaoi Title – Our Everlasting – October 2005
• * Yaoi Title - La Esperança Vol. 1 – October 2005
• * Yaoi Title – Kimi Shiruya – Dost Thou Know? – November 2005
• * Yaoi Title – Beyond My Touch - December 2005

Series Premieres

ADV will be releasing the first volume of Madlax, another girl gunslinger anime from the creators of Noir on April 12th. Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU, the more relationship comedy sequel/retelling of espionage/highschool Full Metal Panic! will be released May 10th, and Elfen Lied volume 1 will be released May 17th. The first volume of Yugo the Negotiator will be released May 24th.

Elfen Lied is a grizzly variant of magic girlfriend romances, about a boy who takes in a girl who shifts between being helplessly naive, and a bloody killer with strange powers.

Bandai will be releasing the first volumes of the children series DICE and hard sci-fi drama Planetes on June 14th. Basketball anime Hoop Days will be released June 28th.

Dragon Drive Vol. #8, Galaxy Angel Z Vol. #3, Magical Meow Meow Taruto Vol. #3 and Overman King Gainer Vol. #3 will also be released June 14th. Scrapped Princess Vol. #2 and Stratos 4: Return to Base will be released on June 28th

Galaxy Angel Z Vol. #2 will now be released April 26th.

FUNimation will released the first volume of Tenchi Muyo RYO-OHKI (the new third OAV) on June 7th. The first volume of Baki The Grappler will be released June 14th. The first volumes of the highly anticipated Kodocha will be released June 28th. Lupin the 3rd: Farewell to Nostradamus will be released June 28th too.

Upcoming ADV Releases

April 5th

• Colorful! (volume 1 of 1, re-release)
• Gantz: Aftershocks, Volume Three (volume 3 of 13)
• Get Backers: Virtual Apocalypse (volume 5 of 10)
• Saint Seiya: The Battle for Sanctuary (volume 11 of 12)
• Sister Princess: Brotherly Love (volume 4 of 7)

April 12th

• Madlax: Connections (volume 1 of 7)

Madlax

Directed by Koichi Mashimo (Noir, .hack//sign, Sorcerer Hunters) and designed by the full Noir team of Satoshi Osawa, Minako Shiba, Satoko Miyachi and Kinji Teraoka, MADLAX was produced by animation powerhouses Bee Train (Noir, .hack//sign) and Victor Entertainment (Excel Saga, Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, RahXephon). Female gun-for-hire Madlax is a super-sexy and super-deadly mercenary who makes her living in a nation embroiled in civil war. Margaret, a rich orphan who lives almost a world away, attends school like any normal girl her age. Both of these women live completely different lives but share a strange similarity: they have no recollection of their past. What is the connection between these two beautiful strangers, and what do they have to do with the mysterious international criminal organization and intelligence network known only as “Enfant”?

Conventions and Appearances

Anime Boston has announced that Chrono Crusade manga creator Daisuke Moriyama and voice actors Scott McNeil, Monica Rial, and Brianne Siddal will be Guests of Honor at Anime Boston 2005 from April 29th through May 1st at the Hynes Convention Center.

Anime News Network reports Puffy AmiYumi (Teen Titans opening theme) will be performing at SOMA San Diego on Saturday, April 30th. Doors open at 7pm with the show starting at 8pm. Tickets are $27 and can be purchased at www.lunatiks.com, www.somasd.com, and SOMA Box office.

Gainax/AIC Studios producer, Hiroaki Inoue will lead a panel on the anime industry at the Arts of Japan Celebration at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC from March 27th to April 10t

Stonebridge Press points out that Anime Essentials, and The Anime Companion writer Gilles Poitra will be introducing the life action adaptation of Go Nagai's Cutie Honey at weekend the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, CA (Saturday, March 12 at 9:45 PM) and the Castro Theatre in San Francisco (Sunday, March 13 at 9:15 PM) as part of the S.F. International Asian American Film Festival 2005.

Game News

The Magic Box has screen shots of One Piece Grand Battle: Combat Rush at here

Gundam Figures News

Figures.com has a schedule and images of the 2005 release of Gundam SEED figures at here

Models includes 18 piece Skill Level 1 kits for $.4.99, 70 piece Skill Level 2 kits for $6.99 and 80 piece Skill Level 3 kits for 14.99

30 4.5" figures will retail for $5.99 each

10 4.5" deluxe figures with extra "action features" will retail for $7.99

7.5" figures will retail for $12.99

An Arch Enemy line w with pairs of figures will retail for $24.99

Gankutsuou Manga Announced

Manga News Service reports that Gonzo's adapation of Count of Monte Cristo, Gankutsuou is being adapated into a manga series written by series director Mahiro Maeda and illustrated by Arihara Yura

Charges of Importation of Child Porn leveled at Manga

Anime News Network reports The Edmonton Journal states that a local man has been arrested for attempting to import 15 books containing sexually explicit manga featuring adults having sex with children, including depictions of "tied-up children and infants in diapers." When police searched the man's house they found 78 more books of similar pornographic nature. The man has been charged with importation of child pornography. The Edmonton Journal writes, "[the Internet Child Exploitation team in Edmonton] searched a house on Edmonton's south side on Feb. 10 and found 78 books containing thousands of pages of explicit pictures, commonly known as anime.... anime has been given a black eye from a perverted offshoot of the industry called Hentae[sic], where cartoon characters are bound and raped."

Tetsujin 28 Poster and Trailer

TwitchFilm points out a live action Tetsujin 28 (aka Gigantor) poster at here and a large trailer here

Howl's DVD Release Date?

TwitchFilm reports YesAsia is listing that Hong Kong edition of Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle will be released on DVD on July 31st.

Industry Deaths

From Anime News Network and Anime News Service

JC staff animator Takashi Wada (Azumanga Daioh and The Melody of Oblivion) passed away at age 39.

Hiroyuki Nasu, director of the recent live action Devilman died of liver cancer at age 53.

Vetran voice actor Barry Stigler has passed away.

Gokusen Actress Makes 2Mil Yen an Hour

Japan Today reports that Yukie Nakama, the lead actress in the live action TV adaptation of Gokusen (also adapted into an anime) is now being paid 2 million Yen an episode for the hour drama. Gokusen is a comic drama about a yakuza heiress who takes a job as a high school teacher.

For more information on Japanese TV ratings and pay scale see here

James Cameron bringing Battle Angel to Xbox Next?

Game Spot reports James Cameron made an appearence at the Game Developers Conference, speaking of plans for Matrix-like crossover game based on his next movie. "In my next film, I can only tell you what we're planning on doing which is simultaneous developing a major motion picture and hopefully a major game title that co-exists in the same world, that share characters." He continued, "Going into that world will actually inform those watching the film and vice-versa. I don't want to say anything more than that because I don't want to give away some of the cool stuff that we're working on." The assumption was that the project involves his adaptation of the Battle Angel Alita manga, but when asked to confirm, a representative said "I'm not going to argue with those observations, but the fact remains we have not made any announcements."

Navarre Withdraws Stock Offering to Finance Funimation Purchase

Anime News Network reports that though Navarre Corp still plans to purchase anime distributor FUNimation, the company has cancelled the public stock offering that was to have been used to finance the purchase.

Studio Plug'n Play Sued by Shogakukan

Doujinshi, fan comics makers Studio Plug'n Play has announced that after being sued by Shogakukan, Inc. over their used of Inu-Yasha, they will not be making comics in 2005. They will finish their next five book series of Wolf's Rain and Trigun, and making convention appearences at Yaoicon in 2005 and Ushicon in 2006.

Toyota Launches Manga Campaign

Tokyoto will be launching a children target ad campaign in the Pacific market, including Australia and New Zealand to promote their cars through manga comics. Magazine K-Zone will carry a 32-page comic sponsored by Toyota.

FUNimation Cleans up in About.com's 2005 Anime Awards

FUNimation Productions, Ltd. announced that several of its properties Dragon Ball GT®, Dragon Ball Z®, Fullmetal Alchemist™, Case Closed™ and Yu Yu Hakusho™ swept the "Best of Anime" awards in the inaugural 2005 Anime Awards at About.com. Properties from FUNimation won eight of the eleven 2005 Best of Anime awards. Dragon Ball GT won Best New Anime Movie and Best Anime Theme Song; Fullmetal Alchemist won Best New Anime Series; characters from Dragon Ball Z won Best Lead Male Character (Goku), Best Anime Villain (Cell) and Best Anime Action Figure of 2004 (Gogeta SS4); a character from Yu Yu Hakusho won Best Supporting Male Character (Kurama); and a character from Case Closed won Best Supporting Female Character (Rachel Moore).

Upcoming Japanese Movie Releases

From Anime News Network A new trailer of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!!: Attack of the Mechavulacan can be seen at here According to the official site the second Naruto movie will feature the teen ninjas Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura and Gaara against a young knight.

New TOKYOPOP Projects

According to Thought Balloons, TOKYOPOP will rebrand a number of their titles "Manga After Hours", which will include mature titles for women such as the works of Erica Sakurazawa, The Tramps Like Us and Happy Mania. According to AnimeNewsNetwork, TOKYOPOP will be replacing their "Sneaks" collected previews with Tokyopop Takuhai, which wil feature manga previews, author interviews, fan art, behind-the-scenes making-of-the-manga featurettes. Readers can sign up to receive the first issue for free at here The quarterly, 160-page magazine will contain 5-10 previews of Tokyopop titles (versus 15 in Sneaks), creator interviews, additional art, a feature called "Evolution of a Manga" (focusing on Princess Ai in the first volume) and other editorial content. Previews in the first volume of Takuhai are expected to include (subject to change) Tramps Like Us, RG Veda, Legal Drug, Lagoon Engine, Sakura Taisen, Princess Ai, MBQ, Sokora Refugees, Van Von Hunter and Bizenghast.

Vote for Rising Stars 5 People's Choice

The judging process for the People’s Choice Award for TOKYOPOP's 5th Rising Stars of Manga competition begins tomorrow at www.tokyopop.com After an avalanche of entries, the TOKYOPOP editorial team has whittled the stack to 20 hopefuls. On Friday March 11th through Friday March 18th (one week only) TOKYOPOP will post the top 20 entries on the company website. TOKYOPOP will choose 7 of the 20 entries as finalists, with the People’s Choice emerging as a possible 8th. The opportunity to cast your ballot ends on March 18th.

Previews for Upcoming In Japan

From Anime Nation A trailer for the new Saishu Heiki Kanojo ("Saikano") OAV is online at here. The first episode will be released on on August 5th. The second volume will be released on September 21st.

New images of Gonzo's Speed Grapher can be seen here

A trailer Sousei no Aquarion anime for can be seen here