Manga Spotlight: Yotsuba&!
Volumes 2 and 3
By Kiyohiko Azuma

Released by ADV Manga

Azuma's Azumanga Daioh was a high light reel of high school life, focusing on the between moments that define memories of that stage. You might not remember any of pre-calculus, but you'll remember something someone once said in the library, even it it has no major significance. Azumanga keyed in scenes of that nature. Yotsuba&! dials life back a few additional notches to childhood, maybe, at the latest, grades level that can be found on one hand. As mood improving material, Yotsuba&! is unparalleled.

As opposed to Azumanga Daioh's 4 panel strips, Yotsuba&! is formatted in short chapters, in which the the girl haired dervish-child Yotsuba spins through the lives of her translator stay-at-home adopted father, his massive buddy Jumbo, and a family of neighbors with three daughters ranging in age from slightly older to young-adult. Yotsuba's life if high voltage mundane. She's about gigawatts of charge out of small stimuli: a frog, a swill, a water pistol.

Yotsuba&!'s play of ideas and responses build up a happy-child mindset. While the title is marked with an all ages ratings, it is not a kid's book for kids. It's a kid's book for non-longer-kid's who would like to spend a little time capturing the innocence of childhood with the kind of behaviors that anyone older wouldn't think of unless they were acting consciously juvenile or a drunk. If the character was in fact older or more aware, it would be real jackass material.

If you think too much about Yotsuba's gangster shooting her friend's treasured stuff bear with a water pistol, responding to an aggressive goat at a petting zoo by punching it, or drawing on her father's face with a markers and in a panic trying to remove it with mayonnaise, its really not that appealing. However, because the Azuma puts the reader on her wave length, the sense of wonder and lack of malice, and by focusing on splashing in the creak, not arriving home with wet pants, the writer invites the reader into to the fun.

The stories perfectly captures a mindset that hasn't been calcified by a built up of inhabitation and rote knowledge. Yotsuba simple thinks differently adults. The most telling example of Yotsuba think is probably when she tries to coach an ad-hock swimming class, only to give up in frustration when the listeners will not understand instructions like "let's start with pike". Spending time with the barely socialized is rarely this much fun.

Adaptation Spotlight: Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs
Live Action Movie

Released by Discotek

Like any good 70's exploitation movie, Zero Woman oozes raw, slick anger, politics and base appeal. If you enjoyed Japanese material like Sonny Chiba, Lone Wolf and Cub/Shogun Assassin and Hanzo the Blade, or the descendants like Kill Bill or the Miike movies, Zero Woman is worth seeing. As a "pinky violence" feature, it's bright, carnal and full of the material you wouldn't want to be caught watching, with social opinions as visceral as the rape and spurting blood.

The Zero Woman franchise, which was revived in the mid-late 90's is based on a manga by Toru Shinohara, who was also responsible for Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, adapted into live action with Lady Snowblood's Meiko Kaji. Miki Sugimoto, who, according to IMDB played the part of Prostitute with Strong Vagina Muscles in Hot Springs Kiss Geisha plays Rei aka Zero Woman, a stone cold law enforcement agent whose trademark gimmick is a red, long chained set of handcuffs that she uses to bind and strangle her prey. In this feature, she's set loose on a mission to exterminate a gang who fell in over their heads when they raped and kidnapped the daughter of an ambitious politician.

Zero Woman inhabits a world where people are either weak or unrelenting enough to assert themselves over those weaker. The antagonists are not so much tough as crazy and sadistic. They are street thugs who were lucky/unlucky enough to pick the right/wrong girl for a rape and sell operation. Their distinctive feature is their twitch reaction quickness to torture and kill. With some irony, the only quality separating the movie's cops from the gangsters is a degree of methodical order in place of free spinning chaos. The crooks, pummel, rape and stab their victims, but torture the hands of the cops refigures some Takeshi Miikie scenes and during the movie, the law is movomg in, literally, for the kill.

Along with the punch for punch viciousness, the two strongest currents in the movies are the level of sexual violence and an angry anti-American sentiment. Often the two are presented as linked phenomena. It's not just that the movie features plenty of sex and nudity, none of which is conceptual, but that it tries to tattoo America with the atrocities, with its criminal ambassador, or men in decidedly American outfits raping a woman in a kimono or people attached, brutalized and humiliated during a Romeo and Juliet rehearsal, the requisite anger of the genre is firmly fixed at American influence.

Animation Spotlight: Count Duckula
The Complete First Season

Released by Capital Entertainment

With 26 episodes on 3 DVDs, the first season collection of funny-animal British comedy Count Duckula proves plenty of material to keep young and old animation fans entertained with its distinct smart and educated, but silly brand of humor. It's Sponge Bob for people who can compete at trivial pursuit, going back to Vaudevillian banter for people who read along the lines of "I'm employing a couple of philistines" "Phillis Stein? isn't that Gertrude's sister".

The situations evolve out of the relationship between the trio of Count Duckula, the vegetarian vampire, who's pretty much an aristocrat looking for nice things in his life, Igor, the sardonic butler pushing to keep up appearances of the family tradition, evil, and Nanny, the purely unrefined, colossal maid servant. It's the mix of class and generation that sailed a thousand sitcoms. Mix in a castle that teleports itself, and various time lost interlopers, and there's a wellspring of material.

Duckula offers slap stick, such the wall crashing, hulking half-wit Nanny and classic sight gags, such as the mirror reflection that's actually a person starring back, and this should be enough to keep younger animation fans amused. However, with episode titles ranging from "No Sax Please-We're Egyptian" to "Restoration Comedy as" (a little home/castle improvement), and with jokes such a time traveling foe attempting to dispose of Count Duckula by dropping him off in the midst of the French revolution and outing him as a count, it resembles the pop culture reference tossing banter, but with more never-dated material.

Work was done restoring Count Duckula for its DVD release, there's an extra feature to prove it, but the DVD was, without a doubt, mastered from a print that took a beating. It doesn't impede of the enjoyment, but even non-perfections/animation archives will occasionally be jolted by the artifacts in the image.

Anime Channel News

FUNimation Entertainment announced that it is launching the FUNimation Channel, a 24-hour, digital network that will feature distinguished anime programming from FUNimation's anime brands. They are working with OlympuSAT, one of the leading distributors for independent programming in the United States, so it will be available to video service providers throughout the nation. The plan is for the FUNimation Channel to be part of the basic and extended digital packages, so it will be a regular channel in the lineup.

The programming will be an evolving mix and will include programming from top-rated shows in Japan that have not been aired in the United States. We will have more news and information on the FUNimation Channel website (www.funimationchannel.com), which will launch within a few weeks. Fans will be able to get more information on which shows will be in the lineup, the programming schedule and where to go to contact their local providers so they can request the FUNimation Channel.

FUNimation also announced plans to launch the FUNimation Channel website (www.funimationchannel.com) within a few weeks. Fans will be able to find more information on the programming, the schedule and the shows. For interested video providers, detailed programming and other exciting network information is available exclusively through OlympuSAT.

Anime News Network reports The Anime Network's (TAN) will be available on Comcast in The Cutting Edge folder as a free on demand channel, and they will also be available on a pay-per-watch basis in the Events & Specials folder on the main On Demand page.

Trailers

An English trailer for Eureka 7 has going online at eurekaseven.bandai-ent.com

Japanese trailers for the upcoming Blood+ TV series are online here

A trailer for King of Fighters Trailer: Another Day is online here

A trailer for the live action adaptation of Boku to Kanojo no XXX/Your and My Secret is online in WMV and MOV

Del Rey Announces New Manga Title

Del Rey Manga, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, announced the acquisition of four new Kodansha manga properties for publication in Summer 2006. The four titles are:

Pichi Pichi Pitch (May 2006, Ages 13+) by Michiko Yokote and Pink Hanamori is a magical girls story in the tradition of Sailor Moon. Luchia is a mermaid princess of one of the seven mermaid kingdoms, and like the other six princesses, she possesses a magic pearl. When Luchia gives her pearl to a young boy to save him from drowning one night, she has little idea what the consequences will be for the both of them. To save her kingdom from an evil force, Luchia must somehow retrieve her pearl.

ES (June 2006, ages 16+) by Fuyumi Soryo, creator of the best-selling Mars! The ES (Eternal Sabbath) gene was created by man in the pursuit of immortality; those who possess it can live for two centuries. But the gene gives the ES clones unexpected powers, and while one clone uses his gifts to create a life for himself, the other devotes himself to the destruction of humanity.

Kurogane (July 2006, 16+) by Kei Tome, author of Lament of the Lamb, is the strange story of a samurai brought back from death and the depths of hell, only to find himself without a home, family, friends, or any memory of his past life! Worse, he finds himself living trapped inside a robotic metal shell. Determined to discover if his new life has some kind of meaning, he wanders the countryside of medieval Japan, and changes forever the lives of those he encounters in his journeys.

Q-ko-chan (Aug 06, 13+) by Ueda Hajime, artist for the best-selling FLCL! (Fooly Cooly). The bizarre and hilarious story of an alien girl sent to invade earth, Q-ko-chan features the quirky art style that has won Hajime countless fans throughout the world.

Summer 2006 will also see the launch of Del Reys new line of manga for mature readers, leading off with the critically acclaimed and eagerly anticipated BASILISK (June 2006) by Futaro Yamada and Masaki Segawa.

January Bandai Releases

1/3/06 Gundam Seed Movie II (UMD) Mars Daybreak Vol. #3

1/24/06 Cowboy Bebop Remix: Vol. 4 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Chapter 4 Planetes volume 5 Scrapped Princess Volume 6 Pacificas Destiny (final volume)

Bandai also announced that PSP UMD releases of Gundam SEED Movie I, Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, and s-CRY-ed Vol. 1 have been delayed to December 13th.

Starship Operators Premiere

Geneon will be releasing the first volume of reality show/sci-fi invasion action parody Starship Operators on December 26th.

For the 73rd class of cadets of the Defense University of the small planet Kibi, a maiden voyage on the new warship Amaterasu is a fitting event just before graduation. As they are returning home, however, they are shocked to hear news of a declaration of war by the aggressive Kingdom of Henrietta against Kibi. When the Kibi government surrenders without a struggle, the cadets decide to fight back, using the Amaterasu, with funding from the Galaxy News Network. The only stipulation? Exclusive airing rights to the action and good ratings. So, the cadets find themselves the "stars" of their own reality show.

January Media Blasters Releases

AnimeWorks Releases 1/17 Otogi Zoshi Vol.6 (of 6) (epi 23-26) Rurouni Kenshin TV Series - Season 2 (of 3) (epi 40-62) $89.95

1/31 Ah! My Goddess Vol.3 (of 6) (episodes 11-14) Shura No Toki Premium Collection ($139.95) Shrine of the Morning Mist - Complete Collection ($29.95)

Shura No Toki
According to legend, there was a clan of warriors in the Heian era who were a match for any samurai even though they fought without weapons. They were called the Mutsu clan, and their art was known as the Mutsu Enmei Style. The great samurai, Musashi Miyamoto, cuts down a group of assassins and saves a young nobleman. However, he has no desire to work as an escort. To keep the young master safe, Musashi recommends a passerby from whom he senses great potential. And thus, Yakumo Mutsu becomes a bodyguard, and the young master gains the protection of an invincible warrior.

Shrine of the Morning Mist Yuzu Hieda was just an average High School student and part time Shinto priestess. But then she was given a mission in the form of her classmate, Tadahiro Amatsu. Tadahiro has a secret buried behind his left eye, a secret that has attracted the attention of an evil sorcerer and his army of demons! To fight the evil, Yuzu assembles a team of five powerful priestesses and prepares to master the magic arts.

Tokyo Shock (live action) 1/17 Baian the Assassin vol.1 (of 4) Space Amoeba

1/31 Zatoichi - TV Series Vol.2 (episodes 6-9)

Media Blasters Press - Anime Works (manga) 1/17 Eiken III Samurai Man III

October 4Kids DVD Releases

4Kids Entertainment Home Video, Inc are releasing Yu-Gi-Oh! Volume 3.5: The Final Face-Off on DVD on October 18, 2005, part of the third season Battle City Championship, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 3.5: Mutants and Monsters on DVD on October 4.

The Final Face-Off (Parts III, IV & V) features episodes 240 through 244

Mutants and Monsters features episodes 66 through 8

Both retail for $14.98.

Bandai Launches Avenger Site

Bandai has launched the official North American website for upcoming anime series Avenger from Koichi Mashimo (.hack//SIGN) at avenger.bandai-ent.com

Years into the future, colonies have been established on Mars. Resources on the planet are thin and domed cities have resorted to a gladiatorial contest between the cities to determine which of them receives the most rations. Layla Ashley is the gladiator for Serena City and a powerful Barbaroi fighter with a vengeful and mysterious past. And with dark times falling, she roams the Martian landscape seeking answers and a send of cold vengeance that suits her moniker as an Avenger. A new era is about to begin

The upcoming AVENGER Collection will contain all 13 episodes collected within an exclusive collectors tin case. The DVD will feature both Japanese and English language tracks including English subtitle option. The animation will be presented in its original 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen presentation with plenty of DVD supplementary features like Image Gallery and Trailers included. DVD release date is set for October 25th.

Golgo 13 Release Information

Urban Vision Entertainment announced that it will be releasing The Professional: Golgo 13 on November 1st.

Based on Takao Saito's wildly popular manga series, the assassin who is often compared to a Japanese James Bond has become a worldwide phenomenon with over a hundred volumes of the original Japanese manga becoming the foundation for two animated movies, two live action movies, and several video games.

THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 tells the story of a hitman of unknown age, nationality, and no apparent affiliation, but with a near-perfect accuracy. Oil baron Leonard Dawson sees this on his 62nd birthday when he witnesses the public assassination of his son and heir, Robert. From this point on, Leonard becomes obsessed with revenge on the hitman, sparing nothing to enlist the CIA, FBI, and U.S. military in an unrelenting manhunt for his son's killer. As GOLGO's survival depends on stopping Dawson himself, the hunter and the hunted chase each other in a breathless game of kill or be killed.

Naruto on CN Boosts Manga Sales

Retail industry watchdog ICV2 and the Anime News Network have reported that VIZ's NARUTO manga series dominated Bookscan's Graphic Novel Top Seller list for the week of September 18. The NARUTO anime series premiered on Cartoon Network on September 10 and during the first full week following the airing, sales of the graphic novel series have soared.

All seven previously released volumes of NARUTO made it into the Top 20, with four editions coming in on BookScan's Top 10.

November ADV Releases

11/8 Es Otherwise: Suffer The Children (4 of 6) Edens Bowy Complete Collection ($39.98) Original Dirty Pair Movie Box ($24.98)

11/15 Area 88: Tightrope At The Speed Of Sound (3 of 4) Elfen Lied Vector Four (of 4) Gantz: Judge, Jury And Executioner (9 of 10) HELLO KITTY ANIMATION THEATER Complete Collection ($29.98 DVD) Maburaho: Surprises & Suspicions (5 of 7) MEZZO Complete Collection ($39.98) Peacemaker Complete Collection ($89.98) Shadow Skill: Fight For The Ones You Love (1 of 6)

Area 88 First broadcast on Japanese television a little over a year ago, Area 88 is based on the classic manga by Kaoru Shintani with a screenplay by Hiroshi Onogi (RahXephon, Macross Zero). It tells the story of Shin Kazama, an ace pilot on the verge of a comfortable life with a commercial airline. Tricked into joining a motley crew of mercenary fighter pilots, Shins only way out is to complete the three year term or pay $1.5 million to break the contract. Truly innovative animation and heart-pounding suspense transport you to a world where every breath could be your last. At Area 88, theres no such thing as a normal day.

Elfen Lied Elfen Lied is one of the most notorious series of the year. Within the fan community, much has been made of the casual nudity and limb-popping violence that are its hallmarks. But discerning otaku appreciate Elfen Lieds playful inversion of genre conventions, in which a happy harem setup is turned on its head and forced to play by ultra-violence rules. Or is it an ultra-violent sci-fi thriller subverted by its harem trappings? One thing is for sure Elfen Lied is one series that fans will be discussing for a very long time.

Edens Bowy Beautifully animated by the acclaimed Studio Deen (Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, Tactics), Edens Bowy is an action-packed fantasy adventure with a technological twist. The saga of the God Hunter Yorn will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Synopsis: Yorn gazes up at two massive cities floating in the sky and dreams of discovering their mysteries. Without warning, those mysteries come looking for him! Edenic assassins murder his father and Yorn is next on the hit list. Only a nameless old man and a mysterious young girl can help Yorn on his quest to find his long lost mother. . .and the truth. Known as the God Hunter, Yorn leads a race against the dark designs of the technological overlords in this action packed fantasy adventure!

Mezzo Her name is Mikura and shes all about service with a smile. So what if that service is cracking skulls and the smile happens to be on the other end of a loaded gun? With a killer body, vicious skills, and an attitude to match Mikura gets away with murder (literally). Its a good thing, too because in the world of Mezzo, staying alive is never easy!

Meet the Danger Service Agency (DSA), a high-risk trio that pays the bills by putting their asses on the line. Ducking bullets, and dodging punches, the trio find themselves working for a friendly ghost and a foxy weathergirl helping old friends and hunting down an extraterrestrial. Whether youre looking to run recon on a cheating spouse or smuggle a deadly virus, if the job reeks of danger, theres only one team to call. With Mikura and friends on the case, danger has never looked so good.

Peacemaker Known for its winning combination of elegant design, serious adventure, and sharp comedy, Peacemaker was produced by the acclaimed GONZO Digimation (Gantz, Chrono Crusade) with character designs by noted craftsman Akemi Hayashi (Fruits Basket). The series follows the career of 15-year old Tetsunosuke Ichimura, who joins the elite Shinsengumi swordsmen after his parents are murdered by Choshu rebels.

Synopsis: For 15-year-old Tetsunosuke Ichimura, childhood innocence has given way to a blinding thirst for revenge. Haunted by the vicious slaying of his parents, Tetsu decides to seek out the Shinsengumi, an elite group of swordsmen sworn to protect the capital. The Shinsengumi are engaged in a brutal conflict with the Choshu rebels, the same ruthless killers who murdered Tetsus parents. In the name of justice and against the will of his older brother Tetsu desperately hopes to join the Shinsengumi.

But an incident late one night forces him to face reality. The Shinsengumi show themselves capable of the same brutality as his parents murderers. Wading through a sea of espionage, intrigue, and flowing blood, the young boy must decide whether to shed his humanity and become a demon of the Shinsengumi, or to relinquish his hatred and become a Peacemaker in the spirit of his father. Revenge is sweet, but is it worth losing your soul?

Shadow Skill Produced by Studio DEEN (Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, Get Backers), Shadow Skill is an awesome new fighting anime for the Dragonball generation! The warrior kingdom of Kuruda is home to the fiercest fighters in the world, men and women who live solely for the chance to fight and become the greatest in the world. Young Gau Ban dreams of becoming the warrior of his generation. Along with his adoped sister Elle and the legendary Scarface, Gau trains and battles for the mastery of Shadow Skill.

Synopsis: The kingdom of Kuruda has known many warriors, none greater than the Sevalle, an elite breed whose mastery of martial arts has made them legendary. But for the 59th Sevalle, Elle Ragu, a.k.a. Shadow Skill, being a legend is shaping up to be something of a drag. After all, adventure alone doesnt pay the rent, and living check to check takes its toll on even the fiercest warrior. Strong as an ox and stubborn as a mule she may be, but its drinking like a fish that usually gets Elle in trouble. And as she travels alongside her brother Gau, leaving property damage and unpaid bar-tabs in their wake, a new threat looms on the horizon: spies from the kingdom of Solfan have entered the picture, and Kuruda seems to be headed for war...

TOKYOPOP Talks The Dreaming

TOKYOPOP announced the upcoming release of Queenie Chan's manga, The Dreaming.

"There's nothing so frighteningly delicious as a ghost story among friends: the chilling tale, a dimly lit room, the restless sleep, and, eventually, the dreaming-often filled with nightmares. Now, imagine this nail-biting experience inside a centuries-old boarding school in the dark, impenetrable Australian outback..."

Jeanie and Amber Malkin - identical twin sisters - are new students at the 100-year-old Greenwich Private College, a boarding school in North Sydney that lies on the edge of vast, virgin bushlands. After settling in and meeting new friends, the girls learn an unsettling secret: time and time again over the past century, students have wandered off into the wilderness surrounding the school and vanished without a trace ... never to return. Jeanie and Amber begin to discover the mystery behind the disappearances ... and also the reason why the College's creepy vice-principal carries such a prejudice against identical twins."

Princess Tutu Extras

ADV posted on Anime on DVD's forum that upcoming releases of the Princess Tutu series will feature all the extras that appeared in the region 2 Japanese releases.

Viz Acquired MAR Anime?

Anime on DVD reports according to a credits list at their website, PCB Productions has listed that they've done work for Viz Media with the anime series fantasy action Mar. The manga version of the series is currently be released by Viz.

New TOKYOPOP Licenses

Anime on DVD reports Amazon lists the following series: Battle Club
Gacha Gacha
by Yutaka Tachibana (not Hiroyuki Tamakoshi's Gacha Gacha) Last Fantasy
Made in Heaven
Neba Giba!
Someday's Dreamers Never Give Up Gravitation - first novel DNAngel artbook: Feder

Geneon Comments on DearS Mono Audio

Anime on DVD reports that Geneon Entertainment stated that a mono audio glitch on the first volume of shonen relationship comedy DearS is known to the company, and that they are setting up a replacement policy.

ADV Posts Career Page

ADV Films' web site now has a careers page at here.

Limited Edition Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Release

Viz will be releasing a limied edition version of the fourth volume of the Full Metal Alchemist manga for $19.99 that will be bundled with either an Ed or Al Elric action figure.

Astro Boy Character Talks Safe Sex

Anime News Network report Osamu Tezuka's character Dr. Ochanomizu, Astro Boy's mentor, is appearing in 5 minute public service announcements at Japan's Narita Airport, where the large nosed inventor talks about HIV and safe sex.

TOKYOPOP Win a Nano of Manga

TOKYOPOP announced a follow up to their Win a Mountain of Manga contest, with "Win a Nano of Manga". which will give away a an iPod Nano loaded with exclusive TOKYOPOP manga pods. Entrants can apply by referring friends to their Manga Magazine promotional periodical (rebranded from Takuhai). For more information see here.