Archive for the ‘Previews’ Category

In what is perhaps the greatest parody marketing image I’ve seen this year, Image Comics announced today that it seems Mark Grayson will be joining up with the Guardians of the Globe in an August issue of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible.

For those of us who read the book on a regular basis, this comes as somewhat of a surprise, seeing how Mark left the entire government operation in recent issues.

This could be a great storyline coming up…

…or they could just be teasing us to tease Marvel for their oddly put together campaign.  In either case, I’m planning on reading Invincible no matter what and you should, too.

You can (and should) catch up on Invincible.  Get it from your local comics shop or order them here on Amazon.

Arata Vol. 1 Copyright VIZ Media

Let’s start off this update with something for the ladies with the newly released Shojo manga, “Arata: The Legend”. Shojo, for those who don’t know, are manga specifically geared towards women, so you can expect plenty of pretty girly-men and romance throughout. VIZ has been kind enough to summarize the plot for us, here:

In a world where humans and gods coexist, Arata is the unfortunate successor to the matriarchal Hime Clan–unfortunate because if he’s not cross-dressing to hide his gender one minute, he’s fleeing for his life the next! When Arata winds up in the modern world and switches places with a boy named Arata Hinohara, it’s a wonder which Arata is actually better off…
In Volume 1, Hinohara is the spitting image of Arata, so he suddenly finds himself fighting people after his life! As he navigates through this foreign world filled with power-hungry warriors, who will come to his aid? One thing’s for sure–it’s not easy being Arata!

Yes, that’s right. It seems to be a cross-dressing take on “The Prince and the Pauper” where the male Arata is forced to dress as a woman to keep his position in line as the clan’s next matriarchal ruler. Expect plenty of shenanigans as a result, and a fair share of  Yoai undertones in this teen manga.

Next up, the very hot-button issue surrounding “Dance in the Vampire Bund” and Funimation. For those not familiar with this, basically Funimation acquired the rights to show Bund and announced they would censor said anime for some more questionable content. Of course, there was a huge backlash against this decision, and Funimation was bombarded with rage until yesterday they made the announcement that while the stream would still be censored, DVD and Blu-ray releases should be able to remain uncensored unless the last episode of the series really cross taste borders. (Source: Anime News Network)

So there is a ton of issues on both sides of the fence. On one side, censoring is bad, and really shouldn’t exist with private DVDs for home use. On the other hand is Bund, which is pretty intense. The main character pictured here. (Sorta NSFW), while being about seven-hundred years old, has a very young appearance. With scenes depicted of not so family-friendly behavior, this could further drive those people we’re trying to convince that anime is a valid, moving form of expression. It’s a tough debate, but at least we’re seeing some kind of compromise.

That’s it for this week, but don’t forget to leave your thoughts on censorship in the comments below.

This seems to be the time for big anime news around the world. From the always great source Anime News Network, we get info on the screenings of several choice anime names in Dublin:

The Irish Film Institute in Dublin will be screening Hideaki Anno and Khara’s Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Ha) movie and Mamoru Hosoda and MADHOUSE’s Summer Wars movie during a two-day festival next month. Evangelion: 2.0 will run on March 20, and Summer Wars will run on March 21.

Other films to be shown at the festival include Anno and Khara’s Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone (Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Jo), Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters Per Second, Hosoda and MADHOUSE’s The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Production I.G’s Blood: The Last Vampire. Blood: The Last Vampire will share a double-billing with a “mystery film.” Jonathan Clements (author of Schoolgirl Milky Crisis and co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia) and industry guests Hugh David and Andrew Partridge will host a panel on the future of anime during the festival.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance is the second film in the theatrical film remake of Anno and Gainax’s Neon Genesis Evangelion television
anime series. The film continues the story of a group of 14-year-olds entrusted with giant biomechanical units to protect Earth from mysterious Angels. It opened in Japan in June 2009. It then ran in Spain’s Sitges, Scotland’s Glasgow
Film Festival, Canada’s Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema, and France’s Lyon Asian Film Festival. Funimation had released versions of the first film, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, in North America in 2009 in theaters and on home video.

The light-hearted “action entertainment” story of Summer Wars revolves around a modern-day family on a midsummer adventure. The project reunites many of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s staffers, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera (Angel, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Miyori no Mori) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, FLCL). The film opened in Japan on August 1, 2009, and has since been scheduled in Spain’s Sitges, England’s Leeds Film Festival, Germany’s Berlin International Film Festival, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in the New York International Children’s Film Festival.

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The Heatvision Blog over at The Hollwood Reporter turned us on to this Behind the Scenes video from Iron Man 2.

You can watch it here.

It looks cool and it’s a nice look at the introduction of whiplash, but the Heatvision guys are right, it would have been nice to get more substance instead of Robert Downey, Jr and Scarlett Johannson saying really bland and generic things.

Captain America, Iron Man, Thor were a given.  But it’s nice to see that Wolverine and Spider-Man made the cut.  Taking into account the fact that John Romita, Jr. is drawing it, Spider-Man should have been pretty obvious to me.

I think this is a great line-up and I can’t wait to see how these guys pull together in the post-Siege Marvel world.  I hope all of this heroic age stuff doesn’t get boring…

Now when are we going to get a look at the Secret Avengers?

It was recently announced that the adaptation of “Akira” would be handled by Allen and Albert Hughes for Warner Brother’s take on the now legendary manga by Katsuhiro Otomo about a post apocalyptic Tokyo.

The new film will be based in Manhattan in a similar setting, with the leader of a bike gang attempting to save his friend from a medical testing facility. No other set news has been revealed, but rumors abound of Leonardo DeCaprio playing the role of Kanada have yet to be confirmed. This news comes after this movie has been floating around since Legendary Pictures acquired the rights in 2007 from Kodansha Publishing.

The Hughes brothers are attached after finishing work on “The Book of Eli’ and of course, when any other info comes out, we’ll make sure to have it to you. So, what’s your opinion on this? Should we really have a live-action Akira?

Lucasfilm has been kind enough once again to give us a taste of this weeks episode of Clone Wars. From the official press release, the clip follows below:

Duchess Satine Kryze tries to keep the Republic from interfering in Mandalorian affairs after attacks by the Death Watch, the splinter group advocating a return to the old warrior ways. But when Satine herself is attacked and framed, she sets off – against the better judgment of her Jedi protectors – to uncover the full breadth of the conspiracy and the faction’s true origins. No longer content to operate from the fringes, the mysterious Mandalorian Death Watch sets its sights on the “Duchess of Mandalore” in an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 12 on Cartoon Network.

“Satine is struggling with many fires now, and trying to keep them from merging into one large inferno that can’t be put out,” says Anna Graves, the voice of Satine in The Clone Wars. “She wants peace above all else, and will shout it as loud as she can. Historical pacifists are often met with more hatred and violence, but that seems to push someone like Satine to fight for peace even harder. I think with any culture that idolizes war and violence, some people will naturally rebel against that traditional way of thinking and focus their efforts on peace and tranquility. I’m sure a lot of people agree with her views, but I’m sure there are just as many who don’t. Her neutrality in The Clone Wars is such a beautiful cry for love and peace, which throughout history has upset those who idolize power and control.”

Set against the backdrop of a sweeping conflict which threatens to consume the galaxy, Satine’s struggle is all the more personal, however, as she faces upheaval from within her own constituency. Using violence as their language of dissent, the Death Watch threatens to unravel all of Satine’s efforts, and to undermine the peace she has fought so hard to preserve. But the war itself is a battle of ideologies. Despite their extremism – or perhaps because of it – the radical faction represents a popular opinion among the re-emerging culture.

“I see Mandalore as an old world, full of history and tradition. After years of glimpses into Mandalorian lore, it’s exciting to get new facts and faces,” Graves says. “Every fan has their own reasons for loving Mandalore, but Boba Fett opened the door with his intriguing armor and history as a bounty hunter. I know fans will want to hear more about Death Watch – and those who oppose them. To be a small part of that history is so exciting. Add a little Mandalorian-Jedi romance, and that’s good stuff!”

Come back this weekend for my review of the episode!

From the official press release:

Reunited with a former flame while on a mission of vital importance to the war effort, Obi-Wan Kenobi must defend his convictions and fight for his beliefs – even though taking up arms drives him further from the woman he once loved. The Mandalorian saga takes a personal turn in “Voyage of Temptation,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 5 on Cartoon Network.

Traveling to Coruscant aboard the palatial royal vessel of the beautiful Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, Obi-Wan and Anakin discover a plot to assassinate the powerful political figure before she reaches her destination. As the Jedi and their clones fight to protect the Duchess from a deadly cargo of assassin droids, Anakin discovers that his former Master has a history with the Mandalorian emissary – and that the elder Jedi is not without personal attachments of his own.

“I always wondered what would happen if Obi-Wan had been put in the same position as Anakin – specifically meeting and falling in love with a woman,” says series writer Henry Gilroy. “Would he be able to maintain his vow to the Jedi at the cost of true love? We know how Anakin dealt with this, but how would Obi-Wan fare against the same temptation? I think a lot of people have had relationships that never really got a chance to flourish, and there’s always that ‘what if…’ sort of feeling. Even people in healthy, happy relationships ponder their old flames and think about what might have been. I think it really broadens Obi-Wan as a character. He’s revealed as a man – someone we relate to because he has romantic feelings like the rest of us, even though he’s a Jedi.”

Of course, the vows of the Jedi Order are not taken lightly, and it takes a truly remarkable woman to turn the head and test the heart of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Resolute in her own pacifist ideologies, Satine provides a counterpoint to Obi-Wan’s notions of peace-keeping and conflict resolution.

“Satine’s a formidable woman in all regards – extremely intelligent, incorruptible, passionate and beautiful, with a great devotion to peace. She might come off as stuffy, but that is because she knows she’s in a den of wolves and must appear powerful and unshakable,” Gilroy says. “Throughout history, some of the most powerful figures – like Gandhi and Dr. King – were pacifists who literally changed the world by refusing to fight. There’s so much fighting in The Clone Wars; when someone is brave enough to speak up to try and stop it, that voice becomes like a light in the darkness, strong and memorable. Satine’s resolved to always use peaceful means to end conflicts. The Jedi are peacekeepers, but they carry swords; if they have to use violence to end conflict, they will. That’s unacceptable to Satine; she believes that if you bring a weapon to negotiations, you don’t want peace. So, she’s upset that the Jedi have allowed themselves to be drawn into the war, because it is everything that they are supposed to be against.”

Together, the two consistently challenge one another, each steadfast in their respective beliefs. It is this mutual respect which draws them together, even as their convictions keep them apart.

This is pretty much the end-all-be-all as far as Invincible is concerned.  The Viltrumite invasion of Earth is going to be epic and we’re all going to read it and we all know we’re all going to read it.

Who will live?  Who will die?  What will happen with Eve’s pregnancy?  Will she lose the baby in the fight?  How might that make Mark feel?

We’ll see it all unfold as soon as issue #71 hits stands.

In the meantime, please to enjoy this excellent piece of artwork from series regular and friend of Big Shiny Robot! Ryan Ottley.

Yeah, I got a little giddy when this came across my email. Mecha, futuristic technology, and zombies? I’m already sold on this title, but I wouldn’t be doing my job without telling all of you about it.

From Viz Media:

Zoichi Kanoe plunges into the depths of 9JO, a sprawling island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, in search of Eon Green, a girl with the power to transmute the N5S virus. The deadly contagion is spreading across the world, turning humans into disfigured, zombie-like “drones.” But he’s not the only one looking for her. Agents of the Public Health Service’s Compulsory Execution Unit are also in hot pursuit, with sinister designs of their own. Zoichi and his trans-human allies have no time to waste; the countdown to the apocalypse has begun!

“Tsutomu Nihei created BIOMEGA with a jaw-dropping, intensely powerful art style that reflects his background in modern architecture,” says Leyla Aker, Editorial Manager, VIZ Media. “The main characters—the “enhanced” human Zoichi and Fuyu, the AI in his rocket of a motorcycle—navigate this apocalyptic landscape in a story that offers pure speed, action, and suspense. Both manga and American comics fans won’t want to miss this exciting debut!”

Tsutomu Nihei debuted with the acclaimed manga short story BLAME!, which was nominated for North America’s Harvey Award and won the Shiki Award in Japan. The artist also created NOiSE, a manga prequel to BLAME!. His visually striking Wolverine tie-in SNIKT! was published by Marvel Comics along with a commission by Bungie Studios for the HALO graphic novel.

To pre order your copy, you can find it here.

All images are copyright of Viz Media.