John Woo as guest VA in Souten Koro / 蒼天航路

A different interpretation on Romance of 3 Kingdoms anime series, Souten Koro / 蒼天航路 will feature the famous director as one of the voice soon. The particular episode is scheduled around 28th April.

It coincides with screening of Red Cliff 2 in Japan, so it is a form of viral marketing for his movie.

Red Cliff 2 is rather conventional story on Cao Cao as baddie who tried to conquer whole China whereas Souten Koro depicted Cao Cao as benevolent leader who tried to put down disruptive rebellion by Liu Bei and the gang.

Rather interesting juxtaposition.

Personally, I think both views have their merits but Romance of 3 Kingdoms were so shrouded in many mythos that is difficult to divide which one is true and which one is not.

As for Red Cliff 2, the movie tries to too hard to be epic but it kinda overwhelms itself by focusing too much on few individuals in such vast canvas. John Woo can't make up his mind which movie should be, epic or human drama. It is a shame.

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Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn / 機動戦士ガンダムUC(ユニコーン Movie confirmed?

According to this Italian Gundam fan website, the Sunrise people sort of confirming that there is works on Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn in progress at Italian anime convention news conference. The president of Sunrise stated the release of Unicorn movie in 2010 to mark 30th anniversary of famous mecha franchise which also saw the completion of full mock up statue of Gundam.



Storywise, it took place 3 years after Operation Axis (seen in Char's /Sha's Counterattack) firefight between remnants of Zeon called "The Sleeved" and moping up Federation fleet led by Londo Bell taskforce that successfully blocked Char's /Sha's masterstroke. Based on ongoing novel series by Fukui Harutoshi.

Bad news though, creator famous for "Mr-Kill-Em-All" Tomino himself is not involved and so is Katoki Hajime in the production. Katoki has his detractors but I love his touch on Gundam since 0083 Stardust Memory. So it remains to be seen who will be the mecha designer and director for Unicorn movie.

Cheers.

Future of Manga reading?

I always believe in one day, paperless society is possible and we can stop chopping down trees to make it. This article talks about current products in the market and what is general trend of consumers of manga in USA. I was wondering if same thing is occurring in Japan right now as this article was published. Manga in Japan is very big business and I am not too surprised if the industry is most reluctant to switch to e-manga reading culture that is on the rise on rest of the world.

It will repeat the same problem that Naptster started years ago, giant and clumsy Japanese corporations find themselves outfoxed by small nimble software that enables fans in Japan to read manga electronically and swipe memory cards at drop of the hat to exchange manga datas scanned by people who believed in traditional manga format will endanger world ecology. No doubt the Japanese were moving torwards e-manga which I approved a lot but it is rather at slow pace, signifying more resistance to the change of medium.

Sounds too fantastic? Maybe. But never underestimate prosumers (refer to Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin Toeffler) power to influence market.

Cheers.

Valkyria Chornicles / 戦場のヴァルキュリア game sequel is announced

The critically acclaimed game which is a now basis for ongoing anime series is going to have sequel announced by SEGA soon (they use word considering but Japanese are masters of understatement). While they failed in console business,they still rocks in software development and they see big money when there is one. It is just matter of time, to be honest.

I wonder if they will make anime of Virtual On. LOL.

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K-On! / けいおん！ Mio pantyshot? LOL

Mio, easily the fastest growing popular character female since Nagi from Kannagi, have the accidental panty shot in this chapter.

Question is, will Kyoto Animation do this part faithfully? Or they modify it? How the fans will react? Or haters will use this to justify why they hate the anime? The list is mind boggling.

The fan's reaction will be interesting to see, IMHO.

Cheers.

Soft Power Discussion no 6, Taro Aso plan to revive Japanese economy

Highly unpopular and wrangling with massive economic crisis in Japan (worst in 30 years memory), Premier of Japan Taro Aso pledged to make 120 trillion Yen (that's 1.2 trillion plus USD, folks) by 2020 CE by promoting Japanese remaining asset, softpower. Where Honda or Toyota falters in their quest to make money for Japan Inc, now Taro Aso is turning to moe schoolgirls and hot blooded sentai heroes to take the lead.

Another eyebrow raising statement he made is he will create 500,000 jobs using anime and Japanese fashion to fight off unemployment. I don't know how is he going to do it since Japanese animators were possibly one of the lowest in food chain in job market of Japan. He stated that in 3 years time, 1.4 jobs will be created with this new economic plan that for first time in history; stressing softpower to be leading factor of national economy. He is in fact, still promoting Japan Cool campaign that he initiated years ago under Junchiro Koizumi adminstration.

I don't know if I should take him seriously or not but time will tell. Miyazaki is not amused by him. The overseas anime market, notably USA is struggling too so I kinda doubt his pledge here. A tad too optimistic, perhaps?

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