Friday, February 29, 2008

Vulgar Ghost Daydream / Teizokurei Daydream / Ghost Talker's Daydream

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Vulgar Ghost Daydream (Teizokurei Daydream) is a shōnen manga by Saki Okuse (story) and Sankichi Meguro (art), set in modern Japan. As of 2006 there are 9 volumes available (ongoing story, with 10 volumes planned) also adapted as a four episode OVA. The English version released by Geneon changed the title to "Ghost Talker's Daydream", which is not a direct translation of the formal manga title.

This story is centered on a main character named Saiki Misaki who has two jobs, neither of which she is particularly happy with. Officially she is a dominatrix in a BDSM club who writes a column for a sex magazine. Additionally she works for a government agency, The Livelihood Preservation Group, as a necromancer. The term necromancer in this story refers to a person who can speak to and see ghosts, and who sometimes can allow the ghosts to speak with their voice to people who cannot see the ghost. Her government job usually entails helping to remove a troublesome ghost. Misaki considers her government job to be less respectable than her work in the sex industry.

There are many smaller story arcs within the story, although in most cases these stories are important to the main narrative. In some cases they introduce important characters, and in others they are used to explain motivations pertaining to the main characters. In general, these smaller story arcs consist of one or two chapters.

There are three major characters, at least one of which is in every chapter with the exception of chapter 16 Dead Mans Hand. In order of introduction they are: Saiki Misaki, Mitsuru and Souichirou. Many reoccurring and often important characters also populate the series.

The Japanese title translates as teizoku = vulgar + rei = ghost. However there is a pun on the word rei, which can also refer to a companion when spoken. In other words it can be said either Vulgar Ghost or Vulgar Companion, and Misaki Saiki is a professional dominatrix who can also speak to ghosts. A dominatrix could be considered a vulgar companion.





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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Super Robot Wars

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Super Robot Wars (abbreviated as SRW) is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by the Japanese gaming company, Banpresto, a division of Bandai, for various video game consoles and video game handheld consoles. The games' main feature is the use of mecha units from multiple Japanese anime and manga titles, mixing them together in a battle simulation and adding a complex plot involving some of their respective storylines, characters, and backgrounds. Another feature is a simple menu interface that can be understood by the gamer, even if he or she does not know how to read Japanese.

The very first game in the franchise was released for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991. The first animated mecha series featured on the game (and the ones usually present in all the series' games) are Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and the earliest incarnations of Mobile Suit Gundam. The first two, both creations of famous Japanese manga artist, Go Nagai, and his production company, Dynamic Productions, are representatives of the super robot type of units, while Gundam, realized by animator Yoshiyuki Tomino, represents the real robot units. It is a tradition for a Super Robot Wars game to include a Mazinger, Getter and a Gundam series, forming what fans call the "Holy Trinity", but as of July 2007, only the Mazinger franchise has appeared in every non-original incarnation of Super Robot Wars.

As more games were released, more characters, units and storylines were added to these games, both from existing mecha series and/or original units designed by Banpresto, exclusively for the games. As the number of series involved in the games increased, the stories have become increasingly complex.

Some series that have been featured, including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gundam, are well-known worldwide, whereas others, such as Heavy Metal L-Gaim and Raideen, have little to no fame at all outside of Japan. Because much of the appeal of any Super Robot Wars title resides in the player's knowledge of and familiarity with the various series involved, the games are most successful and have their biggest fanbase in Japan. There is, however, a small but loyal fanbase for the games, internationally. It was widely believed that the series would never see release outside of Japan, largely due to potentially complicated rights and licensing issues (a problem that also affects other games, such as Jump Superstars). Because of this, fan translations of some of the games have been made.

On March 3, 2006, Atlus USA released two Original Generation titles for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in North America, thus making them the first games in the series to ever see release outside of the Asian market. Because the Original Generation lineup uses original robots and characters not from any anime or manga series, these games do not have the licensing problems that other games might have.

Super Robot Wars Advance Portable for Sony PSP [Asian Version]



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Friday, February 15, 2008

Stellvia of the Universe

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Stellvia of the Universe is an anime series which is set in space and in the future. As a prelude to the series, the Earth of year 2167 AD is shown to be devastated by a powerful electromagnetic shockwave. This is caused by a nearby star, Hydrus Beta, 20 light-years away, going supernova. The series itself is set 189 years later, in the year 2356 AD. Civilization has been rebuilt with humanity having united together to face the coming of the second shockwave of the supernova. The second shockwave, unlike the first, is to contain a great deal of matter composed of the remnants of the star itself. Stellvia ran for 26 episodes. It was produced by the animation studio XEBEC and is distributed in the United States by Geneon. A sequel was originally announced for 2005, but was canceled after internal difficulties. Geneon however recently halted all distribution of anime DVDs in America. As of now Stellvia has been discontinued.

Beginning with the May 2003 issue, a manga adaptation by Ryo Akizuki was serialized in Dengeki Daioh and has been published in the US as a two volume graphic novel series by DrMaster. The word Stellvia is actually made up from two Latin words, stella meaning star(s) and via meaning street. In Japanese the kanji for street is "Michi" which can be translated as either street or road. Therefore Stellvia is roughly translated as The Road to the Stars.



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Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time ( Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo )


The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an animated Japanese film produced by the animation studio Madhouse and distributed through Kadokawa Herald Pictures, first released in theatres in Japan on July 15, 2006. The film was later released on DVD on April 20, 2007 in Japan in regular and limited editions. A German RC2 DVD (with German and Japanese dub and German and Polish subtitles) was released on September 24, 2007 by Anime Virtual/AV Visionen. A manga story, set as a prelude to the film, was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace manga magazine between April 26, 2006 and June 26, 2006; the chapters were later collected into a single bound volume which went on sale on July 26, 2006.

On December 9, 2007 Bandai Entertainment announced that the anime film will be released as a region 1 DVD. Bandai Entertainment, who had very recently obtained the North American distributing rights to the film said in a New York press conference that they are also considering releasing the film in limited release in selected theaters in Los Angeles, New York, and possibly other locations. Bandai Entertainment did not specify whether or not they will release the film dubbed or subbed for American viewers, though they are considering both options.

Tsutsui Yasutaka's novel, Toki o Kakeru Shōjo (unofficial translation: The Little Girl Who Conquered Time) is the basis of the film, but the film is not a movie version of the book. Instead, the film is set as a continuation of the book in the same setting some twenty years later. Tsutsui Yasutaka praised the film as being "a true second-generation" of his book at the Tokyo International Anime Fair on March 24, 2006.

Death Note


Death Note

Death Note is a Japanese manga series created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata. The series primarily centers around a high school student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

Death Note was first serialized by Shueisha in the Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump from the first issue in December 2003 to May 2006, with 108 chapters in total. The series has been published in its entirety in 12 tankōbon volumes in Japan and in North America. The series has been adapted into a pair of live-action films released in Japan on June 17, 2006 and November 3, 2006, and an anime series which aired in Japan from October 3, 2006 to June 26, 2007. Also, a novelization of the series, written by light novelist Nisio Isin, was released in Japan on August 1, 2006.

Some schools in Shenyang, People's Republic of China have banned the manga after some of their students started to tease friends and teachers by altering a notebook to resemble a Death Note and writing their names in them.

The newspaper Shenyang Night Report called Death Note "poison, creating wicked hearts". One major Chinese newspaper felt that the ban is an overreaction and is inappropriate.

Beijing also has a ban on "horror stories" around schools to protect the "physical and mental health" of students, which includes local adaptations of Death Note. China itself is likewise trying to weed out pirated copies of the books and television series, as well other Japanese horror magazines, where no legal publication house prints it. Wang Song of the National Anti-piracy and Anti-pornography Working Committee has said that the series "misleads innocent children and distorts their mind and spirit".

On September 28, 2007, two notes stating "Watashi wa Kira dess" (I am Kira, with "desu" being the more phonetic transliteration of the verb) were found near the unidentified remains of a Caucasian male. Nothing was found on or near the victim besides these two notes. Belgian police are investigating the matter further.

A senior at the Franklin Military Academy in Richmond, Virginia was suspended after being caught possessing a replica Death Note notebook with the names of fellow students

Rurouni Kenshin


Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki with an anime adaptation. The story is set during the early Meiji period in Japan. The English-language versions of the OVAs as well the film is released as Samurai X, although the original title was included in the DVD releases. The series tells the story of an assassin named Himura Kenshin, who was known as the Hitokiri Battōsai. Kenshin later grieves for all the lives he has taken, and vows that he will never kill again.

The manga originally appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from September 2, 1994, to November 4, 1999, and the completed work consists of 28 tankōbon volumes. The United States release of the manga has been completed by Viz Media. Rurouni Kenshin is subtitled "Wandering Samurai" in some English releases, as a rough translation of "Rurouni."

Writer Kaoru Shizuka has written an official Rurouni Kenshin novel titled Voyage to the Moon World. The novel has been translated by Viz and distributed in the United States and Canada.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Black Magic


Black Magic is a science fiction manga by Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed). It was first published in a fanzine in 1983, and later reprinted in tankoubon format in 1985.

The series was adopted into an OVA in 1987, which was directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Shirow himself. The OVA is loosely based on the manga with its plot centered around the efforts of a female journalist named Sybel to save a young girl from a malfunctioning military robot which was created by the girl's grandfather for initial enemy combat fighting.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=260





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