Episode26 Astroboy/Tetsuwan Atom:The Greatest Robot On Earth
This time...
-I take a look at a classic Astro boy storyline
-Talk on the joy of laser discs
-Rant on the American dub of the 80s Astro boy
-Bring home the ANIMELOVE!
download HERE
Stock Market Giving You the Blues? You're Not Alone...
I know it's really no laughing matter, and believe me, I'm feeling your pain right now if you're a long term investor. I've been around long enough to have been through these sorts of 'crisis' since the early 70's, and the only things that are certain is that they are very painful, they eventually pass, and if you stay calm, make smart choices, are patient, and God forbid - don't take advice from your brother in law or ANYONE on CNBC - you'll come out ahead in the end.With that in mind, someone sent me this today. I thought it was hilarious and wanted to share:
"Once upon a time, in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each. The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort. The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching. The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one. The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each." The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. They never saw the man nor his assistant again, and once again there were monkeys everywhere.
Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works."
LOL! :-) Seriously though, before you start hording beans, bullets, and bullion - no worries - remember economic cycles are finite, but Anime is forever. :-)
Funimation's December Release Schedule Posted!
This will be a quick post for lack of time, but I wanted to post a couple of things.
Funimation sent us their December release schedule this week, and we've got it all posted on the store site now for pre-order.
First, the announcements have answered the questions about what they are going to do with ADV's former unfinished titles, and I know many fans will be a bit disappointed because it appears that Kanon will be the only series they will finish as single volumes and the rest will all be re-released as full season or half season boxed sets. This applies to Welcome to NHK, Red Garden, Tokyo Majin and Pumpkin Scissors. I'm not sure if this is an ADV problem, or if Funimation has looked at the economics and decided they simply could not afford to carry the cost of these licenses while only deriving revenue from a small part of them, but I think it's important to remember that it was not Funimation who let fans down on these titles in the first place, and that without them it's likely they would never have been completed in any form.
Ok, nuff said about that, now on to the list.
The following December releases from Funimation are now available for pre-order:
Air Gear Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Funimation sent us their December release schedule this week, and we've got it all posted on the store site now for pre-order.
First, the announcements have answered the questions about what they are going to do with ADV's former unfinished titles, and I know many fans will be a bit disappointed because it appears that Kanon will be the only series they will finish as single volumes and the rest will all be re-released as full season or half season boxed sets. This applies to Welcome to NHK, Red Garden, Tokyo Majin and Pumpkin Scissors. I'm not sure if this is an ADV problem, or if Funimation has looked at the economics and decided they simply could not afford to carry the cost of these licenses while only deriving revenue from a small part of them, but I think it's important to remember that it was not Funimation who let fans down on these titles in the first place, and that without them it's likely they would never have been completed in any form.
Ok, nuff said about that, now on to the list.
The following December releases from Funimation are now available for pre-order:
Air Gear Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Xenosaga Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
While I'm at it, we also managed to post a few new Q1 2009 figures for pre-order, and they are all pretty spectacular:
Full Metal Panic! Teletha Testarossa 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
While I'm at it, we also managed to post a few new Q1 2009 figures for pre-order, and they are all pretty spectacular:
Full Metal Panic! Teletha Testarossa 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
And finally, we added four more 2009 Import Calendars for pre-order based requests that folks e-mailed in this week:
Death Note 2009 Wall Calendar (Japanese Import)
Death Note 2009 Wall Calendar (Japanese Import)
Masamune Shiro Saber Tooth Cats 2009 Calendar (Japanese Import)
Due to heavy Japanese demand I've posted a disclaimer on the Saber Tooth Cats calendar:
Due to heavy Japanese demand I've posted a disclaimer on the Saber Tooth Cats calendar:
The Japanese publisher of this years Shiro Masamune calendar has designated it for the Japanese market only, and is not offering any unit to direct exporters. We have a partner in Tokyo that we have ordered them through that will transship them to us once it is released, however, the print run of this calendar is strictly limited and retailers will be filling Japanese orders first before our orders will be filled. This means that we probably will not get the amount that we ordered, so pre-orders for this calendar will be filled first come first served. Also keep in mind that we may not be able to obtain enough units to fill all pre-orders, so please keep in mind when ordering that our ability to fill your order will depend on circumstances beyond our control. We'll do our best, but we cannot guarantee that all orders for this particular calendar can be filled.
I'll be back tomorrow with lots more in our regular Friday newsletter. Have a great evening everyone!
MISSING: LOCKE THE SUPERMAN!
Here in the smoky aftermath of the "anime boom" we're digging ourselves out from under piles of $1 clearance manga and unsellable VHS tape, wondering just what the hell happened. And as we survey the hits and misses, we start to wonder about some titles that, to our creaky old school eyes, are conspicuous by their absence...
CHOJIN LOCKE! The immortal teenager with immense psychic powers, an enormous shock of green hair, and a constantly-frustrated desire to just be left alone. For more than thirty years his story has unfolded in manga from more publishers than I can count and four separate animated adventures. Along with other dreamy ESPers with curious hair colorings like COSMO POLICE JUSTY and TOWARDS THE TERRA's Soldier Blue, the image of Locke decorated the bedroom walls and the fan artworks of many an anime fangirl, carving a vital niche between more manly space operas and the other, girlier side of the spectrum. Even the American otaku scene of the Reagan years was lousy with those giant-haired psychic prettyboys.
However, in the subsequent wave of manga translations of series both popular and obscure - an avalanche of imported Japanese comics destined to strain the shelving capacities of bookstores from coast to coast - our ESPer friend and his 38 volumes of manga were neglected. The LOCKE THE SUPERMAN animated film from 1984 was released here, after a fashion, and the LORD LEON and NEW WORLD COMMAND videos got American anime-boom releases, but manga? No way.
But why not? It's a no-brainer. It's a classic, reader-friendly space adventure series with appeal to Americans from both a "manga is cool" angle and a "X-Men meets Star Wars" approach. Yuki Hijiri's artwork plants one foot in the high-tech world of the future and another firmly in the delicate linework and soup-plate eyeballs of Shoujo manga. His art style is breezy, uncomplicated; yet manages to seamlessly integrate the outer-space computers, blasters, and starships aesthetic with that of beautiful youths and their rose-petal strewn melodrama, and sophisticated enough to make us believe in both. (Fun fact: Hijiri designed characters for COMBATTLER V, VOLTES V, and DAIMOS as well as drawing manga for the tokusatsu series NINJA CAPTOR.)
Even though the story of CHOJIN LOCKE spans a thousand years and the aforementioned 38 volumes - a heft that might scare your more chicken-hearted manga publishers - LOCKE's saga is conveniently spread out over dozens of separate, moderately self-contained stories set amid the backdrop of Earth's discovery of star travel and colonization of the galaxy.
Locke the Chojin (don't call him "Superman" when DC's lawyers are around) is - well, appears to be - a teenager with long green hair and a gentle manner. But in reality he's at least a thousand years old and is quite possibly the most powerful ESPer in the universe. His youthful looks hide a world-weary soul whose desire to enjoy the simple life is constantly being frustrated by the space criminals and secret organizations who attempt to conquer the galaxy and the Earth Federation who, backs to the wall, is forced to ask Locke for help. In spite of his wishes Locke is frequently forced to take an active part in events; his innate, almost childlike sense of right and wrong driving him to seek the truth and fight for justice. And tragically, even though he's the most powerful ESPer in the galaxy he can never have the one thing he wants most - a normal life.
The stories themselves are dense - packed with supporting characters who frequently take the spotlight from Locke, they jump from era to era over a thousand years of space history,leaving the reader with a colorful tapestry of mankind's journey to the stars. Events or people mentioned in one story will be expanded upon in another, and blank areas are filled in piece by piece casually, as part of a natural storytelling technique. The anime versions of Locke follow this tradition with flashbacks of Locke's time with the rebellion on Lonwarl or by inserting friends and foes into the opening credits of the OVAs.
(fan translation of the first Locke story courtesy L.G. from the "Mind's Eye" APA)
It's interesting because there's always been a Locke contingent of American fans who collect the manga and write fan fiction about Locke, Justy, Soldier Blue, Takeru and Marg from GOD MARS, and other angsty future psychics of manga. The 1984 feature film not only was one of the screen's earliest (and most restrained) uses of computer animation, it recieved two video releases in the States, an edited version courtesy Just For Kids (titled "Locke The Superpower") and a later uncut release from Best Film & Video. Locke's always been in the background of the Western anime fan scene, but unlike other contemporaneous titles like SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA, LOCKE's manga never made the jump. And that's the surprising part, considering the volume of Japanese comics that have been thrown at us over the past few years.
I'd like to think the success (or not - see comments) of Vertical's TOWARDS THE TERRA and Tezuka manga has proved there's interest in elaborate 70s SF shoujo action. While LOCKE perhaps isn't as philosophical as TOWARDS THE TERRA, it's at least girl-friendly, with enough spaceships and blasters to keep the guys reading. And that's my challenge to Tokyopop, to Viz, to Vertical, to CMX, to Del Rey, to whoever is still mining that manga vein - use your super psychic manga powers for good, not evil, and deliver LOCKE THE SUPERMAN to America!
(Locke fanart by D.V. from the "Mind's Eye" APA)
CHOJIN LOCKE! The immortal teenager with immense psychic powers, an enormous shock of green hair, and a constantly-frustrated desire to just be left alone. For more than thirty years his story has unfolded in manga from more publishers than I can count and four separate animated adventures. Along with other dreamy ESPers with curious hair colorings like COSMO POLICE JUSTY and TOWARDS THE TERRA's Soldier Blue, the image of Locke decorated the bedroom walls and the fan artworks of many an anime fangirl, carving a vital niche between more manly space operas and the other, girlier side of the spectrum. Even the American otaku scene of the Reagan years was lousy with those giant-haired psychic prettyboys.
However, in the subsequent wave of manga translations of series both popular and obscure - an avalanche of imported Japanese comics destined to strain the shelving capacities of bookstores from coast to coast - our ESPer friend and his 38 volumes of manga were neglected. The LOCKE THE SUPERMAN animated film from 1984 was released here, after a fashion, and the LORD LEON and NEW WORLD COMMAND videos got American anime-boom releases, but manga? No way.
But why not? It's a no-brainer. It's a classic, reader-friendly space adventure series with appeal to Americans from both a "manga is cool" angle and a "X-Men meets Star Wars" approach. Yuki Hijiri's artwork plants one foot in the high-tech world of the future and another firmly in the delicate linework and soup-plate eyeballs of Shoujo manga. His art style is breezy, uncomplicated; yet manages to seamlessly integrate the outer-space computers, blasters, and starships aesthetic with that of beautiful youths and their rose-petal strewn melodrama, and sophisticated enough to make us believe in both. (Fun fact: Hijiri designed characters for COMBATTLER V, VOLTES V, and DAIMOS as well as drawing manga for the tokusatsu series NINJA CAPTOR.)
Even though the story of CHOJIN LOCKE spans a thousand years and the aforementioned 38 volumes - a heft that might scare your more chicken-hearted manga publishers - LOCKE's saga is conveniently spread out over dozens of separate, moderately self-contained stories set amid the backdrop of Earth's discovery of star travel and colonization of the galaxy.
Locke the Chojin (don't call him "Superman" when DC's lawyers are around) is - well, appears to be - a teenager with long green hair and a gentle manner. But in reality he's at least a thousand years old and is quite possibly the most powerful ESPer in the universe. His youthful looks hide a world-weary soul whose desire to enjoy the simple life is constantly being frustrated by the space criminals and secret organizations who attempt to conquer the galaxy and the Earth Federation who, backs to the wall, is forced to ask Locke for help. In spite of his wishes Locke is frequently forced to take an active part in events; his innate, almost childlike sense of right and wrong driving him to seek the truth and fight for justice. And tragically, even though he's the most powerful ESPer in the galaxy he can never have the one thing he wants most - a normal life.
The stories themselves are dense - packed with supporting characters who frequently take the spotlight from Locke, they jump from era to era over a thousand years of space history,leaving the reader with a colorful tapestry of mankind's journey to the stars. Events or people mentioned in one story will be expanded upon in another, and blank areas are filled in piece by piece casually, as part of a natural storytelling technique. The anime versions of Locke follow this tradition with flashbacks of Locke's time with the rebellion on Lonwarl or by inserting friends and foes into the opening credits of the OVAs.
(fan translation of the first Locke story courtesy L.G. from the "Mind's Eye" APA)
It's interesting because there's always been a Locke contingent of American fans who collect the manga and write fan fiction about Locke, Justy, Soldier Blue, Takeru and Marg from GOD MARS, and other angsty future psychics of manga. The 1984 feature film not only was one of the screen's earliest (and most restrained) uses of computer animation, it recieved two video releases in the States, an edited version courtesy Just For Kids (titled "Locke The Superpower") and a later uncut release from Best Film & Video. Locke's always been in the background of the Western anime fan scene, but unlike other contemporaneous titles like SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA, LOCKE's manga never made the jump. And that's the surprising part, considering the volume of Japanese comics that have been thrown at us over the past few years.
I'd like to think the success (or not - see comments) of Vertical's TOWARDS THE TERRA and Tezuka manga has proved there's interest in elaborate 70s SF shoujo action. While LOCKE perhaps isn't as philosophical as TOWARDS THE TERRA, it's at least girl-friendly, with enough spaceships and blasters to keep the guys reading. And that's my challenge to Tokyopop, to Viz, to Vertical, to CMX, to Del Rey, to whoever is still mining that manga vein - use your super psychic manga powers for good, not evil, and deliver LOCKE THE SUPERMAN to America!
(Locke fanart by D.V. from the "Mind's Eye" APA)
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