February 20, 2009

FILM

New "Evangelion" set for summer release
A smash hit sci-fi toon "Evangelion" will return to the silver screen in Japan this summer. With total of four series, the first installment was released in Japan in 2007 and took $20 million (¥2 billion) at the local box office and scored 600,000 DVD sales. Directed by Hideaki Anno, the second installment is scheduled to be released on June 27th 2009 in Japan. Much of the story is kept secret prior to the release, however, the new series will welcome a popular female character Soryu Asuka Langley and a new model of Evangelion.

For more information, go to:
http://www.animeanime.jp/news/index.html

3D film experience for cell phone
In early February, Japan's leading electronic company HITACHI has released a new cell phone which enables to display games, pictures and video content in 3D. The new model called Wooo KEITAI H001 has already attracted much attention in the media industry. As a part of HITACHI's marketing plans, the company invited press and industry executives to screen a short 3D film staring Misaki Ito (The Ju-on) at one of the Tokyo's popular cinemas, Shinjyuku Wald 9 on February 18th. With a touch to a 3D button, users can enjoy 3D contents without wearing glasses.

For more information, go to:
http://www.intomobile.com/2009/01/29/japanese-ketai-h001-gets-3d.html

MANGA

Japanese best-selling cooking manga hit the US market
A San Francisco based leading Japanese animation/manga publisher and film distributor, Viz Media released the first volume of a Japanese long-running best seller comic book Oishinbo: Japanese Cuisine in late January. Oishinbo is a largely popular cooking manga written by Tetsu Kariya and drawn by Akira Hanasaki. Since it was first released in Big Comic Spirits published by Shogakukan in 1983, the series (total of 102 volumes up until now) sold 130 million copies and was adopted as a TV animation series, TV drama and feature film. Oishinbo (Gourmet in English) revolves around a newspaper writer Shiro who has genius taste and knowledge in food and his co-writer/love interest Yuko. The two was assigned to create "ultimate menu", a long list of food which embodies the pinnacle of Japanese cuisine. Viz Media is scheduled to release total of seven volumes in the U.S. which features some of the highlighted episodes from the original series. Known for such titles as Naruto, Death Note, Bleach, Viz Media's releasing titles dominated 15 of the top 20 s pots on the recently released list of top 20 Graphic Novels for 2009 which was published by Nielsen BookScan.

For more information, go to:
http://www.viz.com/products/products.php?product_id=7489
Reference:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2009-02-04/viz-media-dominates-2008-bookscan-top-20-graphic-novel-list

GAME

Dragon Quest IX will experience delay in release
Experienced problems in software development, Square Enix has pushed back its release date of Dragon Quest IX in Japan from March 28th to July 11th 2009. The price of The Dragon Quest IX will be ¥5,980 ($59) and the Dragon Quest series has been sold over 4,700 copies worldwide since its first release in 1986.

Square Enix has recently announced its most-probable revenue drop for the fiscal year ending March-31-2009 from the previous year's over $9.1 billion to half that of $4.5 billion. The company also has recently made an offer to ourchase UK publisher Eidos which published hit titles including Tomb Raider series for reportedly $120 million.

For more information, go to:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=208163

MUSIC

Japan's up-and-coming female singer co-writes with Ben Folds
Commemorating 15th anniversary of his music carrier, Sony Music Entertainment (SME) released Japan-original release of Ben Folds's greatest hit album on February 25th. The album introduces Japan's young music talent, Angela Aki who co-wrote and co-performed a song, Black Glasses.

Born as a daughter of a Japanese father and American mother, Angela is fully bilingual with extensive music talent. In 2006, Los Angeles based Tofu Records released Angela's English singles and albums in the U.S. which includes "Kiss Me Good-Bye" which was a theme song of Final Fantasy XII. In Japan, Angela released her first album "Home" in 2006 and was ranked in 2nd at the national chart and sold over 600,000 copies in Japan. Her exotic beauty and strong vocal attract many Japanese. Her 3rd album "Answer" will be released in Japan on February 25th from SME.

For more information, go to:
http://angelaaki.wordpress.com/

January 23, 2009

FILM

Japan's major exhibitors plan to go digital
Japan's leading exhibitors Toho Cinemas and Kadokawa Cineplex are partnering to convert their existing screens into digital transmission and projection by 2012. Toho Cinemas currently operates a total of 60 multiplexes with 527 screens nationwide and is planning to digitalize 2 to 3 screens of each of its 47 multiplexes by this fall and to complete the conversion by spring 2012. Meanwhile, Kadokawa currently runs 12 multiplexes with 106 screens, of which the company plans to digitalize 7 multiplexes with 19 screens by summer 2009 and is aiming to complete the operation by spring 2012.

3-D digital film distribution in Japan is expected to be the norm in 2009 since some of the major American 3-D titles scheduled to open later this year include My Bloody Valentine (Feb 14th 2009), Fly Me To The Moon (March 28th 2009), Volt, Ice Age 3 and Avatar.

Both Toho and Kadokawa work with Japan's telecommunication giants NTT East and NTT West to enable this conversion.

For more information, go to:
http://www.bunkatsushin.com/modules/bulletin/article.php?storyid=27000
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117998862.html

ANIME

Toei Animation to strengthen its business in Asia
Japan's biggest animation producer, Toei Animation, announced that the company will turn its Hong Kong joint venture Toei Animation Enterprises?TAE?into a wholly owned subsidiary. Toei Animation owns 60% of TAE's share while a Hong-Kong based content production company, Animation International (AI) owns 40%. Toei Animation launched TAE in 1997 in order to boost sales across Asia with the help of AI's extensive sales contacts and strong marketing skills in Asia.

Meanwhile, Toei Animation is also aggressively expanding its business in producing content for mobile phones. The company co-produced FLASH animation "Keihin Kazoku" together with Hakuhodo DY Media Partners and DLE. A comedy drama series Keihin Kazoku is about people who live in a high-rise apartment building in the Keihin area (between Tokyo and Yokohama). New episodes will be uploaded weekly and are available on mobile phones beginning January 14th with a subscription fee of¥315 (about $3) a month.

For more information, go to:
http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/press/2009/01/100.html,
http://varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/7871/53/,
http://corp.toei-nim.co.jp/english/press/2008/12/removal_notice_of_toei_animati.html

GAME

Sony reports unexpected losses
Sony Corp predicts a¥260 billion net operating profit loss and¥150 billion net profit loss in the fiscal year of 2008 (March 2008 through April 2009).

In the game division, revenue is expected to be¥30 billion ($337 million) lower than previously predicted, with appreciation of the yen accounting for¥15 billion ($168 million) and worse-than-expected sales,¥15 billion ($168.5 million). The game console sales forecast is also expected to be lower than previously predicted; Play Station Portable went down from 16 million units to 15 million units, Play Station 2 went down from 9 million units to 8 million units while Play Station 3 remains the same at 10 million units.

For more information, go to:
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1221469_1124.html
http://varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/7907/53/
http://www.sony.co.jp/SonyInfo/IR/info/presen/20090122.html

MUSIC

Japan's Illegal downloading of cell phone reached nearly 4 billion songs in 2008
According to the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), the number of illegally downloaded cell phone ringing tones in Japan in 2008 reached 471,400,000 songs while the number of legally downloaded tones was 329,000,000. The number of illegally downloaded tones has surpassed the legal downloaded tones three years in a row.

For more information, go to:
http://www.riaj.or.jp/release/2008/pr081224.html
http://it.nikkei.co.jp/mobile/news/index.aspx?n=SSXKD0327%2007012009

January 13, 2009

FILM

Number of Foreign language Films Decreases at the Japan B.O. in 2008
According to the Foreign Film Importer-Distributors Association of Japan, a total of 388 foreign language films were released in Japan in 2008 down from the total of 403 foreign language films released in 2007. Of the 388 films, 162 films were from the US (down 20 films compared to 2007), 55 films from Korea (an increase of 14 films from 2007), 26 films from France (increased 1 film from 2007), 15 films from UK, 9 films from Thailand, and 9 films from Taiwan.

Dominated by the domestic titles, foreign films in general struggled at the Japanese box office and a handful of the US blockbuster titles managed to surpass $20 million milestone including "Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Y5.7 billion/$57 million), "I Am Legend" (Y4.2 billion/$42 million), "The Golden Compass (Y3.5 billion/$35 million), "Hancock" (Y301 billion/$31 million), "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Y3 billion/$30 million). The decrease in number of foreign films released in Japan is also attributed to the U.S. majors' aggressively expanding its business into domestic film production and cutting the number of their U.S. title releases. In 2009, the U.S. majors are hoping to kick back at the Japanese box office with some of the highly anticipated titles including "Quantum of Solace" (Jan/Sony), "Marley & Me" (April/Fox), "Angels and Demons" (May/ Sony), "Terminator: Salvation" (June/Sony), "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (July/Warner), "Star Trek" (Summer/Paramount).

For more information, go to: http://www.gaihai.jp/english/eindex.htm

MANGA

Japan's Top 10 Manga Sales Ranking - 2008
Mangazenkan.com, a popular online manga shopping site in Japan, has released the top 10 manga sales rankings of 2008 in Japan. Naoki Urasawa's action thriller 20th Century Boys scored the best sales of followed by Masanori Morita's feel-good baseball drama Rookies. 20th Century Boys was released as a feature film in August 2008 and has become a¥3.9 Billion ($39million) hit in Japan. Masahiko Inoue's high school basketball team drama Slam Dunk ranked 3rd while Eiichiro Oda's action adventure One Piece placed 4th and Crows---a story about troubled high school kids which was released as a feature film directed by Takashi Miike in 2007---ranked 5th.

Mangazenkan.com has a unique sales method of offering manga as a complete set (they don't sell manga per individual issue, but bundled into a complete set of volumes) and their rankings were based on the total number of sales in 2008 from its library of 2,000 titles. Thanks to its film adaptation, 20th Century Boys enjoyed its mammoth sales of 2,000 sets (24 issues per set) per month while Rookies also enjoyed its strong sales after it was released as a TV series in April 2008.

Top 10 manga sales ranking of 2008 in Japan:
1 . 20th Century Boys (Naoki Urasawa)
2 . Rookies (Masanori Morita)
3 . Slam Dunk (Masahiko Inoue)
4 . One Piece (Eiichiro Oda)
5 . Crows (Hiroshi Takahashi)
6 . Hanano Keiji (Tetsuo Hara)
7 . Rookies / Paperback edition (Masanori Morita)
8 . Nodame Cantabile (Tomoko Ninomiya)
9 . Slam Dunk / Complete Edition (Masahiko Inoue)
10. Dragon Ball (Akira Toriyama)

For more information, go to: http://animeanime.jp/news/archives/2009/01/200820_2rookies.html
Reference: http://www.mangazenkan.com/

GAME

Square Enix closed exclusive distribution deal with French giant
Japan's Square Enix announced on January 8th that it had entered into an agreement with France's Ubisoft, the developer and the publisher of hit titles like Prince of Persia and Assasin's Creed, to distribute the company's games exclusively in Japan from April 2009. The deal was part of Square Enix's plan to boost its presence as a publisher in the global game industry. In December 2008, Square Enix has already released LostWinds published by UK's Frontier Developments via WiiWare in Japan. Square Enix is planning to reveal upcoming release titles from Ubisoft's later this year.

For more information, go to: http://release.square-enix.com/news/j/2009/01/20090108_01.html

MUSIC

Popular Trend-Setting Duo Premiere in Washington
Sakura-Con, scheduled to be held from April 10th-12th at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, announced Hangry & Angry will perform. The rock duo, (Hitomi Yoshizawa and Rika Ishikawa), is known for collborating with a famed Japanese designer, h. NAOTO, a popular fashion icon in the anime, or should I say Otaku world. The duo is usually portrayed as two punk/goth-style cats and are promoted with a fictional story, fashion and toys to expand their marketing options. Hangry & Angry's first CD "Kill Me Kiss Me" is available in the US exclusively through JapanFiles.com.

For more information, go to: www.sakuracon.org, http://www.s-inc.com/hangry-angry/main.php

December 22nd, 2008

FILM

Variety Japan Releases Top 15 2008 Japanese B.O. Titles
Starting off with Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature, “Ponyo On the Cliff By The Sea (distributed by Toho,¥15.4Billion/$154Million)”, another Toho released high-school romantic comedy, “Boys Over Flowers (Y7.7Billion/$77Million)” placed in second. Much anticipated latest installment of “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (distributed by Paramount)” took ¥5.71 Billion/$57.1Million and ranked in third. Only five foreign films managed to place in the top 15 in 2008. Much to everyone’s surprise, John Woo directed Chinese language saga “Red Cliff” ranked in 5th place, grossing ¥4.2Billion/$42Million since its release on November 1st and is estimated to reach a total gross of up to ¥4.8 Billion/$48 Million. Based on the hit TV series, a thriller “Suspect X (distributed by Toho)” placed in 4th taking ¥5Billion /$50Million. The entire top 15 titles are as follows (the ranking may subject to change since some of the titles are currently still in theatres):

1. Ponyo On the Cliff By The Sea (Toho) $154Million
2. Boys Over Flowers (Toho) $77Million
3. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (Paramount) $57.1Million
4. Suspect X (Toho) $50Million
5. Red Cliff Part 1 (Avex / Toho Towa) $48Million
6. Pocket Monsters Diamond Pearl the Movie: Firatina and the Skys (Toho) $48Million
7. Aibo (Toei) $44.4Million
8. I Am Legend (Warner) $43.1Million
9. The Magic Hour (Toho) $39.2Million
10. 20th Century Boys (Toho) $39Million
11. The Golden Compass (Gaga / Shochiku) $37.5Million
12. Doraemon: Nobita to Midori no Kyojin (Toho) $33.7Million
13. Mariko to Inu no Monogatari (Toho) $31.8Million
14. L Change the World (Warner) $31Million
15. Hancock (Sony) $31Million

For more information, go to:
http://www.varietyjapan.com/news/movie_dom/2k1u7d00000gyv1d.html

ANIME

Murakami to Animate in Hollywood
Murakami already boosted Louis Vuitton sales with his flower designs and had a successful gallery show at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007. What now? Often called Japan’s Andy Warhol due to his pop-culture-influenced contemporary art, Murakami will now expand his sculpture or canvas medium art onto the screen in Los Angeles starting 2009. Murakami already has a studio in New York and even created the Kanye West video for “Good Morning”, but he plans to expand his animation career at a studio on North Highland Avenue under the umbrella of Kaikai Kiki, his production and artist-management company. The studio will have 8,980 square feet and is expected to accommodate about 30 employees. The studio’s first project will be “Planting the Seeds,” which is a feature-length version of the shorts that premiered at MOCA.

Reference: 11/25/2008 LA Times
For more information, go to: http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/

GAME

Square Enix Releases the Latest Dragon Quest Series in March 2009
Since its first release in 1986, a hit series of console RPG, “Dragon Quest”, has sold a total of 47 million units worldwide. The publisher of the mega hit series, Square Enix, has announced on December 12th 2008, that the company is scheduled to release the ninth installment of the series, “Dragon Quest IX Hoshizorano Mamoribito”, on March 28th 2009, on Nintendo DS. Modestly priced with 5,980 yen per console (about $60), the latest series introduces some new features including multiplayer functions for up to four players via Wi-Fi. Square Enix is currently developing the next “Dragon Quest” series, “Dragon Quest X” for Nintendo Wii.

For more information, go to: http://release.square-enix.com/news/j/2008/12/20081210_01.html

MUSIC

Japanese Pop-Empress Sings for Hollywood’s “Dragonball Evolution”
The legendary Japanese anime/manga series that sold over $300 million worldwide is coming to theatres next year in April as a live-action film distributed by 20th Century Fox: “Dragonball Evolution”. Although the majority of the actors in the film are non-Japanese, 20th Century Fox has announced that they have selected the Japanese pop-empress, Ayumi Hamazaki, to sing the theme song for the film. The song is currently under works and it is scheduled to be released in 2009. Ayumi Hamazaki has been tremendously influential throughout Asia not only with her music but also with her fashion sense. Ever since her debut album, “A Song for XX” in 1999, which topped the Oricon music charts for five weeks and sold over a million copies, she has continuously succeeded releasing over ten albums so far.

Reference: 12/13/2008 Mainichi News
For more info, go to: http://avexnet.or.jp/ayu/en/

November 21, 2008

FILM

Fox and Fuji TV produce a Japanese remake of Alexander Payne's Sideways
20th Century Fox Japan and Fuji TV network are producing a remake of the 2004 hit Alexander Payne drama, "Sideways". Currently in production, Fox Japan will release the pic in Japan next fall. Cellin Gluck is making his feature directorial debut with the remake, which stars Rinko Kikuchi ("Babel"), Kyoka Suzuki, Fumiyo Kohinata and Katsuhisa Namase.

The film's first assistant director, Shohei Shiozaki was just awarded the grand prix prize at the "Picture Battle vs Show Biz Japan! (PBXSB)" on November 8th with his heartwarming short film "The Errand". Showcased at the Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre, PB vs SB (the biggest reality competition show for Japanese independent filmmakers in the U.S.) was co-hosted by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Los Angeles based Japanese TV company, United Television Broadcasting System (UTB). Shiozaki's film, "The Errand" and the actual show of "Picture Battle vs Show Biz Japan!" will be broadcasted on UTB' s channel 18 on January 1st, 2008.

Besides "Picture Battle vs Show Biz Japan!", JETRO-Los Angeles hosted its annual Japan Film Reception during the American Film Market (AFM) on November 5th, 2008, which attracted over six hundred film industry professionals and press. Guests included Tom Yoda, the Chairman of the Board & Representative Corporate Office of GAGA Communications Inc, U.S. and European acquisition representatives, and Japanese exhibitors at AFM 2008. This year's JAPAN/JETRO booth at AFM included eight Japanese film distributors: Dream Kid, Inc., GAGA Communications, Inc., Gold View Co., Ltd., Movie-Eye Entertainment, Inc., Open Sesame Co., Ltd., Showgate, Inc., Stylejam, Inc., TORNADO FILM Co., Ltd.

For more info, go to: http://www.jetro.org/afm/booth
For more info, go to: http://www.jetro.org/filmcompetition

NTT DOCOMO and Avex Entertainment to Distribute Mobile Video
NTT DOCOMO INC., Japan's leading telecommunications company and Avex Entertainment Inc.(AEI) , a subsidiary of Japan's leading etntertainment conglomerate Avex Group Holdings Inc, launfhed a joint venture company, Avex Broadcasting & Communications Inc., to distribute video content packaged for mobile phones. The new operation will start in March 2009 with capital of 3.5 billion yen. Unlike most mobile-content companies that distribute video services which were originally created for movie theaters and DVD systems, this new company will provide and distribute content developed specifically for mobile phones. DOCOMO will provide its IT infrastructure, advanced mobile technologies and vast experience in providing mobile customers with popular video content. AEI will contribute its expertise in the fields of content creation, artist management and services centered on intellectual property. AEI works with Japan's biggest artists in the music industry like EXILE or Ayumi Hamasaki. By collaborating with them, the new company will not only provide movies but also music. This new company is expected to partner up with five video-content production companies in the future, including Fuji Television Network, Inc., one of Japan's most popular nationwide television networks, and Oz Co., Ltd., a pproduction company founded by Takashige Ichise who produced hit horror movies such as "Ringu" (Japanese version of "The Ring"). Mobile distribution has been already popular in the Japanese animation industry. A major Japanese animation studio, Toei Animation Co., Ltd has started releasing " Toei anime?comic" from November 2006 and the company has started this mobile distribution service in Taiwan in August 2008. The service enables consumers to watch Toei's popular animation via mobile phones anytime and everywhere. This new style to watch an animation is also highly evaluated abroad and awarded for Best made-for-mobile or film channel in MIPCOM 2007 Mobile & Internet TV Awards in Cannes, France.

For more info, go to: http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2008/001417.html
For more info, go to: http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/press/2008/08/post_33.html

ANIME

Crunchyroll Puts a Halt on Illegal User-submitted Videos
Crunchyroll will stop accepting user-submitted videos and other content from individuals, and only host videos approved by copyright holders, starting January 8th. Gonzo and Toei Animation have already decided to stream on Crunchyroll. Now TV Tokyo, a Japanese broadcaster, has announced that it would begin streaming Naruto episodes with English subtitles on the Internet via Crunchyroll's video service starting January 8, 2009. The episodes will be streamed on Crunchyroll's website about an hour after it is broadcast in Japan and will be visible only to monthly paid members. Crunchyroll will provide free streaming videos (with commercials) seven days after the members-only release. Due to the time gap between Japan's anime release and the U.S. subtitled DVD release, anime fans began subtitling the episodes themselves and uploading them online. Now that this tactic will only cause a day delay, it is thought that this may prevent illegal video streaming online.

For more info, go to: http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/contents/ir/jpn/press/pdf/081117.pdf

MANGA

Tsutaya Online Starts Japanese version of Netflix service for Manga
Starting November 4, Tsutaya, a Japanese nationwide rental chain of CDs and DVDs, has expanded their business to the comic rental service through Tsutaya Online. Tsutaya Online has provided online rental services similar to that of Netflix, as well as movie and music distribution service prior to this new online service. Consumers can also place a rental order for manga books on the internet, have it delivered to their home, and call the delivery company when it is ready to be returned. The rental period for manga is 14 days, and customers will be able to rent 10 to 30 manga books at one time. It costs 144 yen-177 yen (around $1.50) per book, and the overtime charge is 53 yen (around ?50) per book/ per day with free delivery. Tsutaya has provided about 50 manga titles for rent such as "Naruto", "ONE PIECE", "Dragonball", and "Death Note". Tsutaya is planning to add hundreds of manga to its library every month.

For more info, go to: http://www.tsutaya.co.jp/company/press/2008/1104.html
For more info, go to: http://www.discas.net/netdvd/topComic.do

Kadokawa Expands Manga Business in China
Japan's media conglomerate, Kadokawa Group Holdings, has partnered up with Chinese publisher, Guangzhou Comicfans Culture, to expand its comic business in Asia. Guangzhou Comicfans Culture has already published nearly 1,000 Japanese comic titles, including the Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy". The two companies' collaboration enables Guangzhou Comicfans Culture to publish Kadokawa's content (comics and novels) targeting young adults in China while Kadokawa helps talented Chinese comic artists debut in Japan. They also plan to expand their partnership to co-developing animation, games and content business with internet. Kadokawa has recently acquired Japanese distribution rights to "Astro Boy," the $65 million animation feature.

Reference: 10/1/2008 Variety Japan, 9/30/2008 Variety Asia, 10/1/2008 Yahoo Japan

Comicalizing Film: The New Way of Expanding Content Business
Making a film based on comics and novels, like "Lord of the Rings" and "Dragon Ball", has been long practiced in Hollywood and Japan. But what about the other way around? The Japanese call it "comicarize", the process in which a manga series is published after the film is made. Some of the films which have been comicarized this year are "Okuribito (Departures)" -the Grand Prix des Ameriques winner at this year's Montreal World Film Festival-- published by Shogakukan on "Big Comic Superior" manga magazine, and ""Boku no Kanojo wa saibôgu (Cyborg Girl)" published by Kodansha on "Weekly Young Magazine". The popular Takashi Miike's film "Sukiyaki Western Django" was also published by Shogakukan last year on "Big Comic Superior". But comicarizine doesn't end at manga magazines. Kodansha's information magazine "Tokyo 1 Week" has also succeeded in signing a deal with Walt Disney to publish "Pirates of the Caribbean" as a comic series. This comicalization is a new marketing tool for the Japanese film industry to promote films based on the original scripts.

Reference: 9/10/2008 Asahi.com

GAME

SQUARE ENIX AND GAS POWERED GAMES ANNOUNCED STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of Square Enix Entertainment products in North America, and Gas Powered Games Corp. announced November 13th that they have partnered up to launch SUPREME COMMANDER® 2, a sequel to the award-winning real-time series. This partnership is the first step for Square Enix Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and its affiliates to further expand their outreach to the West and enter global markets. Partnership with developers outside of Japan, in particular in North America and Europe, can help them create products that are more localized for that specific territory. Gas Powered Games (GPG) is known for making real-time games like their renowned franchise, "Supreme Commander". Square Enix Group's involvement in the real-time strategy genre shows a significant expansion of its product lineup and will help diversify the company as it was the leading company for role-playing games like "FINAL FANTASY®" or "DRAGON QUEST®".

For more info, go to: http://www.square-enix.com/jp/company/j/news/2008/download/20081113_153.pdf
For more info, go to: http://www.gaspowered.com/news_detail.php?ID=379

CESA announced Japan Econoomic Ripple Effect is Approx. Trillion Yen
According to the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), an organization that promotes the computer entertainment industry through its various research and promotional activities, the ripple effect of the game industry on the Japanese economy in 2007 was 1.261 trillion yen ($12.34 billion). Compared to other leading industries in Japan like digital cameras, cosmetics, film and the auto industries, the game industry has the best growth and earning rate of the past five years. Game exports ranked second to the digital camera industry but the game industry has the best export growth rate for the past five years. Thus, internationally, the Japanese game industry has a strong growth and earning rate.

Reference: 10/1/2008 Famitsu

Digital Manga Comes to Wii
In July, four big Japanese publishers, Kadokawa (publisher of "Gundam"), Kodansha (publisher of "Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo"), Shogakukan (publisher of Meitantei Konan, also known as "Case Closed"), and Shueisha (publisher of "Naruto"), have joined together with TOSE CO., LTD, a software/video game company, founded by Librica Co., LTD to deliver digital comics through Nintendo Wii. Five million units of Wii had been sold in Japan through January 2008 and since the four publishers have a large share of the entire manga market in Japan, the manga library of Wii is expected to expand rapidly. They will develop new functions to transfer digital comics from Wii to Nintendo DS in the future. Librica will seek to collaborate with other publishers and software companies. Out of the 28.3 billion yen ($283 million) digital book sales market for mobile phones, digital manga sales totaled 22.9 billion yen ($229 million). With digital manga for mobile phones accounting for about 65% of the entire digital book profit, manga sales are expected to continue to rise.

For more info, go to: http://www.librica.co.jp/index.html
For more info, go to: http://www.tose.co.jp/

Advance report regarding Japanese game market first half year of 2008 ENTERBRAIN, INC., publisher of Japan's popular game magazine, Famitsu, announced that the game market size of the first half of 2008 (from March 2008 through September 28th 2008) was approximately 238.8 billion yen. By comparison, the first half of 2007 saw market size of 303.3 billion yen, which shows that the game market in Japan as a whole decreased about 22%. PSP hardware sold 1.5 million units in the first half of 2008 and ranked first for total units sold. On the other hand, Nintendo DS sold around 1.3 million units and ranked 2nd. Although everyone expected Nintendo domination, PlayStation managed to sell more than Nintendo DS and is still leading in the Japanese game market.

For more info, go to: http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1218501_1124.html

MUSIC

Japan's Music giant teams up with YouTube The music industry is no stranger to anti-piracy attempts in Japan. Avex Group Holdings Inc., one of the largest record labels in Japan, in late October, launched an official "Avex Channel" on YouTube Japan. Avex is distributing their artist's music videos on this "avex Channel" to promote appropriate use of the content and continue to monitor illegal posting of their content. Some of Avex's artists include big time artists, Namie Amuro, Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, BoA, etc

For more info, go to: http://www.avex.co.jp/e_site/press/2009/081023.pdf
For more info, go to: http://ravex.jp
For more info, go to: http://jp.youtube.com/avexnetwork

September 16th, 2008

FILM

Toho's Titles Dominate the Late Summer B.O. in Japan
Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated feature "Gake No Ue No Ponyo (Ponyo On the Cliff By The Sea)" released on July 19th, continues to lead the late summer box office in Japan taking in $120M at 481 screens through the end of August. Also released July 19th, the latest installment of Pocket Monster series "Pocket Monster: Diamond & Pearl / Gilatina To Sora No Hanataba, Sheimi" has grossed over $40M after 31 days while a high school romantic comedy "Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers)" has been showing strong legs in grossing over $70M since its release on June 28th. Another Toho's summer hit "Detroit Metal City", released on August 23rd on 238 screens, has grossed $10.1M through the end of August. Based on the bestseller comic book of the same title, "Detroit Metal City" - a comedy - revolves around an aspiring young pop singer who somehow ends up becoming a lead singer in a death metal band and struggles to accept his fame. The film was screened at the Midnight Madness section of this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Meanwhile, a blockbuster $60M sci-fi thriller trilogy "20th Century Boys" was released on August 30th and nabbed an estimated $6.2M from its two-day opening weekend. Toho is scheduled to release its second installment in early 2009 followed by the third installment, which started shooting in mid-August 2008.

For more info, go to: http://www.toho.co.jp/

Japan's Major TV Networks Aggressively Moving into Film Production
Nippon TV network and Robot, which produced the box office smash hit "Always San-Chôme no Yûhi" series, (the original grossed $32.3M and the sequel grossed $45.6M in Japan) team up again to produce the action thriller "K-20 Kaijin Nijyumenso Den" staring Takeshi Kaneshiro ("House of Flying Daggers", "Onimusha") and Toru Nakamura ("Purple Butterfly"). The story tells of a cat and mouse chase between a legendary thief Kaijin Nijyumenso and a veteran detective Kogoro Akechi. Directed by Shimako Sato ("Unfair: The Movie" "Tale of a Vampire"), "K-20 Kaijin Nijyumenso Den" is scheduled to be released on December 20th by Toho. Meanwhile, Fuji TV Network who produced the mammoth box office hit titles including "Hero ($81.5M)" and "Saiyuki ($43.7M)," is producing a TV series and a movie based on a popular mobile phone novel, "Akai Ito". Akai Ito is a coming of age drama about a young girl who falls in and out of love with an old childhood friend. She goes through her adolescence dealing with issues like her troubled love relationships, drug use, and death of her loved one. The TV series starts from December 2008 while the feature film is scheduled to be released by Shochiku on December 20th 2008. Akai Ito was originally released on mobile phone in 2006 and soon became a word-of-mouth sensation among high-school students and was published as a novel in 2007 that has sold 18,000 copies in Japan.

For more info, go to: http://www.k-20.jp/
For more info, go to: http://www.akai-ito.jp/index.php

Fully Digitally Restored Akira Kurosawa's Masterpiece will be Screened in L.A.
In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the great maestro Akira Kurosawa's death in 1998, a series of Kurosawa's screenings and the exhibition "Akira Kurosawa: Film Artist" will kick off on September 18th, 2008 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Together with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Kadokawa Pictures' fully digitally restored Kurosawa"s 1950 title, "Rashomon" will have an open screening September 18th at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. Other Kurosawa's masterpieces including "Kagemusha", "Seven Samurai", "Ran", "Yojinbo" and "Dersu Uzala" will be screened till early October. The three-month exhibition of master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) will continue through December 14th, 2008

For more info, go to: http://www.kadokawa-pictures.co.jp/official/rashomon/6224.shtml, http://www.oscars.org/events/kurosawa/index.html

Japan's Hit Movies in U.S. Theatres
"Love and Honor" starring Japan's "Brad Pitt", Takuya Kimura, and live-action "Death Note 2" will be on big screen throughout September and October, 2008. "Love and Honor" was released in Japan by Shochiku in December 2006, ranking fourth on the domestic box office in 2007 with $40.3 million. Eleven Arts handles a theatrical release of "Love and Honor" in the U.S. nationwide in May and will continue its big screen release in selected theatres till the end of September 2008. Warner Brothers Japan's live-action "Death Note II: The Last Name" based on the hit manga series has been originally released in November 2006 and grossed $52 million while its prequel, "Death Note", also live-action released in June 2006, reached $28.5 million in Japan. Warner released its third feature "L Change The World" in February 2008, which grossed $30 million. San Francisco based Viz Pictures releases " Death Note II: The Last Name" to select movie theatres nationwide in the U.S. for two nights, October 15th and 16th, 2008. Viz Pictures will also release the first feature "Death Note" on DVD on September 16th, 2008.

For more info on "Love and Honor", go to: www.loveandhonorthemovie.com
For more info on "Death Note II: The Last Name", go to: http://www.fathomevents.com//details.aspx?eventid=752

Japanese Robots to Take Over Hollywood
The Japanese have been fond of animated robots and it has been a popular subject in the Japanese anime industry for over 50 years. According to the entertainment industry statistics and information provider in Japan, Oricon Inc., Japanese anime fans between the ages of 20 to 50 chose "Gundam" (first choice for males) and "Doraemon" (first choice for females) as their favorite animated robots. But now with "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" coming into the picture, it may be time for Hollywood to prepare for a Japanese robot invasion! "Voltron" is based on a popular Japanese anime TV series from the 80s and Relativity Media is currently in negotiations with New Regency to pick up rights for the project. Hollywood's interest in popular robot toys and animated robots from Japan has grown after the big box office hit of "Transformers" and Warner Brothers has also bought the rights to "Robotech".

Reference: 7/31/2008 Oricon Career, 8/17/2008 Variety

Anime Takes Over Japan B.O.
"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan: the Movie" produced by Gainax Company, Ltd., the renowned Japanese animation studio famous for "Neon Genesis Evagelion" was released on September 6th, 2008. Screening in eleven theatres in Japan, it has earned 657,000 yen ($6,570) on the opening weekend. The animation feature earned higher per-screen averages than the high profile live action movie "20th Century Boy" that was released in theatres on August 20th, 2008 in Japan. Originally released as a TV series in 2007, "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan" is about the future when human beings are forced to live under the Earth's surface. It was also released as comic books in 2007. Clokworx and Kadokawa Shoten handle theatrical distribution to the animated feature in Japan while Bandai Entertainment handles the North American rights for the anime series.

Reference: Variety Japan For more info, go to: http://www.gurren-lagann.net/, http://gurren-lagann.bandai-ent.com/

ANIME

Japanese Beauty Queens to Star in Anime
A character designer from the Japanese anime production company, Production I.G. ("Ghost in the Shell"), and a Japanese music, movie DVD, and video game publisher, Pony Canyon, Inc. are working on an anime modeled after the Kano sisters - a popular television personality duo. Pony Canyon will be producing this anime, titled "Abunai Sisters-Koko & Mika", a straight to DVD release on January 21st, 2009. The DVD will contain ten 3-minute short episodes and consumers will be able to reserve their copy of the DVD prior to the release on October 1st, 2008. The Kano sisters, Kyoko and Mika, are Japanese celebrities (somewhat equivalent to America's Paris Hilton) who are known for their plastic surgery enhanced body, revealing clothes, wealth and appearances on television shows, magazines, movie premieres and award ceremonies. Their background, age and lifestyle are concealed somewhat and that mysteriousness has been attracting much curiosity from television viewers. They made their first appearance in the U.S. for this project's press conference which was held during Otakon at the Baltimore Convention Center on August 9th, 2008.

Reference: 8/11/2008 AV Watch
For more info, go to: http://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/asianbeauties/officialsite/index.html

University to Study Anime in Depth
The New York based theater, film and special events production company, Gorgeous Entertainment has developed an anime screening series, Anime Masterpieces, that will highlight Japanese animation at various universities and museums across the U.S. Each screening event will be preceded by a short introduction of the film and will be followed by a panel discussion consisting of anime industry professionals. The first screening and panel event is scheduled to be held at UC Berkeley on September 27th, 2008 featuring Ghibli Studio's "Grave of the Fireflies". "Grave of the Fireflies" is a 1988 anime feature film written and directed by Isao Takahata and the story revolves around two orphaned children, Seita and Setsuko, in Japan during WWII. The panelists will include the renowned author of "Japanamerica", Roland Kelts, author of "Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle", Susan Napier, author of "Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics", Frederick Schodt, and author of "Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization", Ian Condry. The event is free and open to the public.

For more info, go to: http://www.animemasterpieces.com/program.html#about, http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/2008.09.27.html

Initial D Back on the Street
After waiting over a year for the next new episode of "Initial D", the next DVD release of the animated movie based on the popular manga has been set to December 5th, 2008 in Japan. The new episode has been titled "Initial D Extra Stage 2". From Kodansha-published anime, Sega's "Initial D Arcade Stage" video games to live action films by the two guys who created Hong Kong's "Infernal Affairs", the hit manga series has also expanded its global reach to the U.S. Tokyopop's English manga release was made in the U.S. and iaTV's anime T.V. release has just also launched on September 1st, 2008.

For more info, go to: http://mv.avex.jp/initial/initial.html

GAMES

Dynasty Warriors Back on the Market
A leading game publisher in Japan, Koei's mega-hit action game "Dynasty Warriors" is ready to hit the streets again this October 2nd in Japan. The new PlayStation 2 game, titled "Dynasty Warriors 6 Special (U.S.)" and "Shin Sangokumuso 5 Special (Japan)", will be released on PC and PlayStation 2 in the U.S. on November 18th, 2008. Koei's award-winning "Dynasty Warriors" and "Samurai Warriors" series sold over 18 million units combined worldwide and it is an action-fighting game that revolves around the legendary war that occurred between the three kingdoms of China. The characters resemble historical figures that actually existed in the Chinese and Japanese history.

Reference: 8/27/2008 Famitsu
For more info, go to: http://www.gamecity.ne.jp/smusou5sp/

Show Off Your Skills at TGS 2008
With its record attendance with a total of 193,040 attendees and 217 exhibitors in 2007, the Tokyo Game Show is expected to be a success again. The event is organized by Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and it will be held this year on October 9th-12th, 2008. "Sense of Wonder Night (SOWN) 2008" will be held during TGS for the first time this year giving people the chance to expose their new and eye-opening game creation to the industry and the general public. SOWN 2008 office began accepting entries on June 23rd and presentations are planned to be held on October 10th.

For more info, go to: http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/english/

MUSIC

Two Japanese Indie Bands to Enter U.S. Market
The largest U.S. online service specializing in MP3 sales for Japanese artist, JapanFiles.com, adds another popular indie punk band in its library. Voted "Best Japanese Punk Band", in 2008, by Viz Media's Shojo Beat magazine readers, Thee Out Mods will debut on JapanFiles.com with their CD "Rock-n-Roll Pirates". For months, the band was in the studio refining their 11 songs in this collection.

Thee Out Mods consist of three members, Sana (Vocals), Yoshiki (Bass), and Kenny (Drums). They are produced by Ace from 7 Samurai Records.

Dr. USUI MP3s - http://www.japanfiles.com/drusui
Dr. USUI / MOTOCOMPO Official Website - http://www.motocompo.com
THEE OUT MODS MP3s - http://www.japanfiles.com/theeoutmods
THEE OUT MODS Official Website - http://www.7samurairecords.com

X JAPAN Approaches New Marketing
Japan's famous rock band X JAPAN launched their official mobile website "X JAPAN TV" on August 27th, 2008. The band was one of the first in Japan to achieve mainstream success while on an independent label and most importantly; they are credited for the ground-breaking "Visual Kei" movement. The newly launched site will allow cell phone users to view their latest music videos and an actual live concert recorded back in March 2008. Their Paris concert on July 5th, 2008 attracted 20,000 fans and they will also have their first live concert in the U.S. that will be held at the Madison Square Garden on September 13, 2008.

Reference: 8/27/2008 Oricon
For more info, go to: http://xjapan.besthit.jp/? (this site is only accessible with NTT DoCoMo, au, or Softbank provider cell phones)

August 19, 2008

FILM

Bandai Visual Goes Blu-Ray
A Limited edition Blu-ray disc box of two popular sci-fi anime series, "Freedom" on November 11th, 2008 and "Gunbuster vs. Diebuster: Aim for the Top! The GATTAI!! Movie" on November 21st, 2008 will be Bandai's first titles in its introduction of premium Blu-ray products released simultaneously in Japan and other select international markets. The company plans to reduce the time lag between Japan and other markets by continuing its simultaneous releases for its premium Blu-ray titles. "Freedom" will available in the U.S. for $139.98 and the "Gunbuster vs. Diebuster: Aim for the Top! The GATTAI!! Movie" will be available for $99.98. The products will be released simultaneously in Japan, North America, France and UK. Consumers will have the choice between English or French subtitles or multi-lingual dubbed and it will be packaged similarly to the products made in Japan. Bandai Entertainment Inc. will handle the U.S. distribution.

Reference: 7/10/2008 Bandai Visual

Hayao Miyazaki's Latest Animated Feature is leading the summer Japanese Box Office
The Academy Awards winner, Hayao Miyazaki's "Gake No Ue No Ponyo", was released on July 19th and took $10M for the two-day opening weekend beating the latest installment of the Pocket Monster franchise, "Pokemon Diamond & Pearl the Movie: Giratina and the Sky's Bouquest: Shaymin", which also opened on the 19th and generated $7M respectably. Although "Ponyo" may not likely reach the buffalo grosses of "Howl's Moving Castle" ($300M) and "Spirited Away" ($200M), Miyazaki's latest animation feature has already grossed over $50M in two weeks from 481 screens. Meanwhile, America's summer box office wonder "The Dark Knight" has opened in 460 screens on August 9th and took just over $2.1M in the two-day opening weekend while "Ghost In The Shell" director Mamoru Oshii's latest animated feature "The Sky Crawler" grossed $1.1M in two days since its release on August 2nd. Warner handled the domestic distribution of both "The Dark Night" and "The Sky Crawler" in Japan.

For more info, go to: http://www.varietyjapan.com/news/movie_dom/2k1u7d00000919f1.html

ANIME

U.S. Anime Companies Target Apple's iTunes For Online Sales
Viz Media has announced release of three of their top titles, "Naruto", "Bleach" and "Death Note" on Apple's iTunes store in America. FUNimation Entertainment announced back in February that it will release "Samurai 7", Desert Punk" and "Speed Grapher" via iTunes for downloading. Besides FUNimation and Viz Media, Manga Entertainment and Tezuka Productions have added anime to their line in America and we are sure the list of episodes will continue to increase. Each available episode will be available for $1.99 per episode (the same as a standard TV episode download). Distributed by Toho, Naruto's latest animated feature "Naruto-Shippuden-The Movie 2" was released on August 2nd and grossed $2.18M from 252 screens.

Reference: ICV2

Manga

Tokyopop to Release Two Titles From the Creator of Fruits Basket
Tokyopop acquired the rights to two shojo manga titles, "Tsubasa: Those With Wings" and "Phantom Dream", from "Fruits Basket" creator, Natsuki Takaya, to be released later this year. "Fruits Basket" has proved to be the most popular shojo manga in North America since its debut in 2004 as it has sold over 2 million copies since its initial release in 2004. "Tsubasa: Those With Wings", is a six-volume shojo manga fantasy/adventure series that revolves around Kotobuki, a strong and agile teenage thief in the 22nd Century, a time where only the rich and powerful members of the military live well. Raimon, Kotobuki's accomplice and center of affection, an ex-military and highly intelligent agent who quit is job to be with Kotobuki, joins her quest to find the Tsubasa, a powerful object that will grant its wielder's wishes. Tsubasa volume 1 will be promoted along with "Fruits Basket" volume 23 later this year. Volume one with 380 pages will sell at $14.99. "Phantom Dream" is Takaya's debut manga series that features a powerful character named Tamaki. Being the last of his kind, he must protect humanity by pushing back the forces of evil. "Phantom Dream" is expected to be released in the U.S. December 2008 for $9.99.

Reference: ICV2

Battlestar Galactica Manga
Even through all the renovation fiascos, Tokyopop has announced on July 5th, during Anime Expo, that it will publish a series of OEL manga based on a the popular American television series, "Battlestar Galactica: Echoes of New Caprica", in March 2009. The manga volume will be an anthology title with various writers and Tokyopop is allegedly working closely with the show writer to create an accurate manga version for the fans. The original "Battlestar Galactica" series had its DVD release in Japan on December 31st, 2004 and has attracted Japanese fans to the series ever since. It will be interesting to see an OEL manga released in Japan after a DVD release of the American TV series.

Reference: 7/9/2008 ICV2

First Slam Dunk Episode Streamed with English Subs
While Toei Animation's manga and anime series sold over 100 million copies in Japan, "Slam Dunk", is streaming its anime version through the IGN entertainment website, Viz Media promoted its manga release at Comic-Con International. Comic-Con International was held from July 24th to the 27th and attracted over 130,000 people this year. To promote their manga based on a high school basketball team, being released on September 2nd, 2008, Tokyopop invited NBA player Greg Oden of the Portland Trailblazers and two of the Los Angeles Laker Girls to their booth. The Laker Girls attracted attendees to the Viz Media booth on the 25th and Oden signed autographs on the 27th.

Reference: 7/24/2008 Variety Magazine

Game

SUN Electronics To Release Manga via Wii
SUN Electronics will begin distributing manga via the Internet that is compatible with Nintendo Wii this summer in Japan. By utilizing the WiiWare services that enables consumers to download games through the internet to their Wii video game console, SUN Electronics will provide Reiji Matsumoto's ("Captain Harlock" and "Galaxy Express 999") new manga series to their consumers to view with Wii. So far, WiiWare only provides downloadable games but Sun Electronics will be the first to release manga by collaborating with Nintendo. The cost per download has not been announced but the service is planned to expand overseas and to make a game and anime version of the new Matsumoto work.

Reference: Nikkei Net

Music

Akiko Wada Sings in N.Y.
Japan's famous Akiko Wada has announced her first ever overseas concert at New York's Apollo Theater. The concert will be held at the theatre located in Harlem on September 29th, 2008 to mark her career's 40th anniversary. The Ray Charles fan commented that she is excited to perform on the stage that Ray and other soul and R&B artists had performed on.
Ray Charles was her guest performer at her 30th anniversary concert in Tokyo in November 1998. When Akiko recorded her song "Mienai Sekai" in 1975, she became the first Japanese artist to use black backing singers. She will be busy with a tour in Japan from June 20th to mid-September before she leaves for the U.S.

Reference: Japan Zone

Mariko Takahashi To Join in With N.Y Philharmonic
Mariko Takahashi is scheduled to return again to New York's Carnegie Hall after 15 years on October 31st, 2008. She will perform on stage with Henry Band and the members of New York Philharmonic. Mariko Takahashi is a famous vocalist who has been professionally singing since 1972 when she became one of the members of Pedro & Capricious, a popular Japanese band during the 70s and 80s. She singing style ranges from Latin to pop and the members of the Henry Band, which consists of eight musicians, have been supporting her performance on stage and in the studio since 1982.

For more info, go to: http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/mariko/35th/

Reference: H.I.S.

July 15th, 2008

FILM

Live-Action “20th Century Boys”
While the major Hollywood studios are turning Japanese animation/manga into live-action features including Warner Brother’s “Akira”, Dreamworks’s “Ghost In The Shell” and Fox’s “Dragonball”, Japanese studios are also adopting their own widely-known contents for the silver screen.

This summer’s biggest blockbuster live-action anime/manga release in Japan is Toho’s first installment of three live-action trilogy feature based on Naoki Urasawa’s Sci-fi suspense comic book, “20th Century Boys” on August 30th.

With a reported budget of $60M, the trilogy is about a group of old friends from primary school who write down a list of premonitions about what an evil being would do in order to invade the earth, only to find out later that their childhood nightmares are coming true and now they have to prevent them from happening. Yukihiko Tsutsumi (“Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World”) is the director.

Meanwhile, Shochiku’s live-action ninja saga “Kamui Gaiden” is scheduled to be released 2009. Directed by Yoichi Sai (“Quill”, “Blood and Bones”), Sanpei Shirato’s classic ninja action comic first appeared in “Weekly Shonen Sunday” from 1965 to 1967 and was later released as a TV animation series. Shochiku is also producing another live-action feature based on a classic comic Yatterman, withTakashi Miike (Audition, Ichi The Killer) directing.

Reference: Anime News Network

Japanese Romantic Comedy Has Successful Opening
A high school romantic comedy, “Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers)” scored just over $10M at the Japanese box office over its two-day opening weekend on June 28th, beating “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, which scored $8M on its two-day opening weekend on June 21st. Based on the best-selling comic book by Yoko Kamio, “Hana Yori Dango” revolves around an ordinary middle-class girl, Tsukushi who enters into an ultra-rich upper-class high school and struggles to find her own identity. She eventually befriends the “cool” group of guys in her high school called “F4” (Flower Four) and falls in love with one of the group’s four bourgeois boys. “Hana Yori Dango” originally appeared in a girls’ manga magazine, “Margaret”, from 1992 to 2004, and was later released as a TV animation series. The live action feature film “Hana Yori Dango” is expected to be have the similar success of last year’s box office hit feature, “Hero” staring Takuya Kimura (a Japanese version of Johnny Depp), which grossed just over $80M.

Reference: The Japan Times

ANIME

Funimation Buys Heroic Age
The North American anime distributor Funimation has licensed “Heroic Age”, a mecha based anime directed by Toshimasa Suzuki. The manga version of this content, published by Kodansha, was distributed last year shortly after the anime series started broadcasting on Japanese TV networks. Funimation plans to release “Heroic Age” DVDs in 2009 and is currently streaming a trailer on their new official English website. “Heroic Age” is a sci-fi anime that revolves around a battle between humanity - Iron Tribe, and technology - Silver Tribe. The story is slightly similar to the time of “Heroic Age” in Greek mythology and the featured tribes are to some extent based on Hesiod’s “Five Ages of Mankind”.

Reference: Anime News Network

Business While You Promote New Business: A New Anime PR Strategy
Basic PR Strategies include commercials, bulletin boards, posters, trailers, etc. How about making business while you PR? Japan’s animation studio, Gonzo, will collaborate with three cafes in otaku-town of Japan, Akihabara, to promote their DVD release of “Blassreiter”. The three locations include a maid café, “Cure Maid Café”, a male café and bar, “Queen Dolce”, and an ice cream store, “Dragon Ice”. The three locations will post their new menus revolving around “Blassreiter”, show clips of the anime, and pass out name cards to each of the customers. The customer who picks the winning card will be able to receive a gift that contains the autograph of the voice actors, singers and staff of “Blassreiter”. “Blassreiter” is about an outbreak of biomechanical creatures, “Demoniacs”, that rise from corpses. While the members of XAT, or police, try to prevent these transforming creatures from destroying the world, one of the “Demoniacs” rise above all to become the “Blassreiter”. The television release of the anime was in April 2008 and the DVD will be released on August 7th, 2009.

For more information, go to: http://www.blassreiter.com
Reference: Anime Anime

MANGA

American Major Publishers to Option the Comic/Manga rights to Japan’s “Vampire Hunter D”
One of the ten largest comic book publishers in the U.S., Devil’s Due Publishing, will develop an original comic series based on a Japanese novel, “Vampire Hunter D”, with a U.S. manga distributor, Digital Manga Publishing. “Vampire Hunter D” was originally a series of novels by the top Japanese horror author Hideyuki Kikuchi. The story revolves around a wolf-like knight-errant who travels through a far-future post-nuclear Earth. Since 1983, Kikeuchi has written 17 novels of this series and Digital Manga Publishing released an English manga based on the first book in 2007. The two publishers have not announced their creative staff listing or the release date of this collaborative project. Meanwhile, Hideyuki Kikuchi has appeared at Anime Expo, an anime convention in Los Angeles that attracted 43,000 attendees, on July 5th and the 6th.

Reference: Anime News Network

Avril Helps Young Talent For Her Manga Sequel
Avril Lavigne produced her first Japanese manga-style comic called “Make 5 Wishes” through U.S. manga publisher Del Rey, in 2007. Now for its sequel, Avril has launched a project this summer in Japan called “Make The Last Wish”, which is an audition for talented Japanese rock artists. The audition focused on girls between the age of sixteen and twenty-one and the application deadline was July 2nd, 2008. The winner of “Make the Last Wish” will be appearing on the documentary drama which is a sequel to her anime-style comic “Make 5 Wishes”. Avril will not only be the final judge of the audition, but will also produce the winner’s debut song. The documentary drama will be released through the internet starting August 2008.

For more info, go to: http://www.make5wishes.jp
Reference: Venture Plus

GAME

Namco-Bandai Releases New Dancing Game with Wii

One of the leading Japanese video game producers, Namco Bandai Games, Inc., will release a new dancing game exclusively for Wii, “Happy Dance Collection”, in Japan sometime this year. The players will imitate the character in the game and move the remote in the same exact way the character moves. The game contains 24 songs for consumers to choose from and by adding additional remotes, it will enable mutiple players to compete. The third and fourth player will be assigned to dance with a tanberine or marakus. Namco-Bandai has exhibited at the “Next Generation World Hobbie Fair’ in Tokyo on July 12th and 13th to test audience response. No official release date has been set yet, but it is scheduled to be released sometime this year.

For more info, go to: http://namco-ch.net/dance_collection/index.php
Reference: Yahoo News!

MUSIC

B’z Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Top Sales
The leading Japanese corporate group that provides the music industry with statistics, Oricon Inc., marked “B’z The Best ‘Ultra Pleasure’” by the ever so popular Japanese hard rock duo, B’z, as their number one album. The DVD was released on June 4th, 2008, and it has already sold over 560,000 copies. Their next album, “B’z The Best ‘Ultra Treasure’” is to be released on September 17th, 2008, and the fans will be the one to choose the track listing by voting on three songs through their special 20th Anniversary website. Both of these albums were made to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

For more info, go to: http://bz20th.com/
Reference: Oricon

July 2nd, 2008

FILM

U.S. Blockbusters and Domestic Animated Features Fills Japan’s Summer Box Office
The much awaited, Hayao Miyazaki’s new animated feature “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” will be released in Japan on July 19th. The animated feature written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki revolves around a goldfish named Ponyo who wants to be a human and befriends a five-year-old human boy named Sosuke. The latest installment of Pocket Monster series “Pocket Monster: Diamond & Pearl/ Gilatina To Sora No Hanataba, Sheimi” will be released on the same day as Ponyo while both Dream Works’ “Kung-Fu Panda” and M. Night Shayamalan’s “The Happening” will debut on July 26th.

In August, the Marvel comics hero, “The Incredible Hulk” will open on August 1st, and on the same weekend “Ghost In The Shell” director, Mamoru Oshii’s latest animated feature “The Sky Crawlers” will be released on August 2nd. “Sex And The City” and “Hancock” will follow accordingly on August 23rd, and on August 30th. The U.S. box office wonder of the year, “Iron Man” is scheduled to be released on September 27th in Japan.

For more information, go to: http://www.ghibli.jp/ponyo/

ANIME

Japanese legendary comic hero, Cobra to be revived
Japanese video distributor and production company, Happinet Pictures, is producing a series of animation projects based on Buichi Terasawa’s hit comic series, “Cobra”. Written and created by Terasawa in 1978, an infamous space pirate “Cobra” was adapted to TV animation series and animated feature film back in the 1980s.

Happinet will first release a newly recreated animation series (total 4 episodes) based on Terasawa’s original Cobra episode, “The Psycho-gun”, on DVD monthly from August 29th in Japan, followed by two animation series based on original “Cobra” episodes, “Time Drive”, scheduled to be released in DVD next Spring. Both series will be written and directed by Terasawa. Also in March 2009, TV animation series based on Terasawa’s original episode “Sex Warriors” is scheduled to be released by one of the major TV networks in Japan. A total of 13 TV animation episodes will be directed by Osamu Dezaki, who directed the TV animation series “Space Cobra” in 1982.

The main character of the story, Cobra, is known for his signature weapon, Psycho-gun, an arm-laser that can automatically target enemies accurately and its connected to his brain. The original comic book was published in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1978 to 1984 and enjoyed huge popularity in Japan. Reportedly, there is a rumor that Terasawa has been approached by Hollywood producers to option his “Cobra” for a live-action feature film.

Reference:6/25/2008 Mainichi Shimbun

First Slam Dunk Episode Streamed with English Subs
Toei Animation’s 31-volume manga and anime series that sold over 100 million copies in Japan, “Slam Dunk”, is now posted on the IGN entertainment website with English subtitles. The story revolves around an athletic high school boy who is introduced to a basketball team. He first joins the team to impress the captain’s sister, but he later develops a tight bond with his teammates. The English volume of the manga version will be released by Viz Media in September. IGN Entertainment is a unit of Fox Interactive Media, Inc. and is a leading Internet media and services provider. Their site attracts more than 31 million monthly users worldwide.

For more information, go to: IGN
Reference: 6/4/2008 Anime News Network

Japan’s Major Publisher Turns to Licensing and Merchandising Business
A Japanese leading publisher, Shueisha Inc. has announced that they have made an investment in Shogakukan Production Company Ltd. Shogakukan Production Company Ltd. (ShoPro) is a licensing and merchandising subsidiary of Japanese publisher Shogakukan, Inc. The investment was made to give more flexibility in developing titles for the overseas marketplace, including the burgeoning graphic novel/manga market in North America and Europe, and to streamline internal operations. As a result, ShoPro has been renamed Shogakukan-Shueisha productions Co., Ltd. Masao Yagi has been named president of the new company and the company will now handle properties related to manga from both Shogakukan and Shueisha. Shueisha produced hit titles including “Dragon Ball”, “One Piece”, “The Prince of Tennis (Tennis No Oujisama)”, “Naruto and Bleach”, while Shogakukan produced “Doraemon”, “Pocket Monster” and “Kirarin Revolution”. Both Shueisha and Shueisha are the parent companies of Viz Media.

For more information, go to: www.VIZ.com

MANGA

New Naruto Chapter Book Series
The renown anime, manga and Japanese entertainment company, Viz Media, presented their first chapter book series based on “Naruto” at the event for North American publishing industry, Book Expo America 2008 (BEA), on May 30 to June 1st. The first two chapter books will be available to U.S. consumers on October 7th, 2008 for $4.99 each. The original manga series of “Naruto” has sold 3.6 million copies in North America and has been mainly popular among teenagers. The “Naruto” brand has been successful also as a TV series, toys, trading card games and video games. New c books, designed for younger readers ages 7-10, are expected to be as successful as the original manga series.

For more information, go to: www.NARUTO.com

Tokyopop to Restructure
Tokyopop, the manga and anime publisher based in California, is currently restructuring their company and changing its name to Tokyopop Group. After HarperCollins Publishers gave distribution rights for Tokyopop to begin creation of global mangas, the owner of Tokyopop, Stuart Levy, decided to split his company in two. One side will continue its focus on publishing and Tokyopop Media will deal with the company’s new focus on digital releases and comics-to-film division. Due to their new focus, Tokoypop has laid off 39 employees and will not exhibit at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July.

For more information, go to: www.tokyopop.com
Reference: 6/4/2008 Anime News Network

GAME

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. and Viz Media-Licensing Deal
Viz Media, a leading publishing, animation and licensing company, has made a licensing deal with Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., a leading publisher of video games and manufacture of trading card games. Konami Digital Entertainment will manufacture and distribute the “Blue Dragon” trading card game and trading card game accessories in North America. The trading card is based on a Xbox 360 video game called “Blue Dragon”, which has been developed by the “Final Fantasy” creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi. The animated series of the game is licensed by VIZ Media and now Konami will extend its reach to the card gaming industry.

For more information, go to: www.VIZ.com

First Look of “Blazblue” at Anime Expo 2008!
A leading publisher of interactive entertainment products, Aksys Games, and Arc System Works, a Japanese videogame developer, is pleased to announce the very first U.S. Location Test Tour for “Blazblue” the arcade version. The two companies collaborated with Anime Expo to host their very first location test in the console gaming room during the convention, held from July 3rd to the 6th. “Blazblue” is a 2D fighting game created by the staff responsible for the popular “Guilty Gear” series. The game itself is to be released this Fall.

For more information, go to: www.anime-expo.org, http://blazblue.jp/us/

MUSIC

New ketchup mania CD Released, Distributor Works with Fans to Prevent Illegal Downloads
A Japanese pop/punk/rock band, “ketchup mania”, released their new CD “F.L.A.G.” on June 11th, same day as their album’s release in Japan. U.S. fans can purchase their CD via JapanFiles.com. The band released two singles after their U.S. tour with SXSW/Japan Nite and entertaining 2500 people at their concert at Sakura-Con. Their 11-track CD features their latest single, “BAD! BAD! BAD!”, "Pink Water" and many more. You can purchase the entire album legally at JapanFiles.com, an online Japanese music distributor, for just $10. (“Ketchup mania” appears on JapanFiles.com in cooperation with Toy's Factory and ark Music Ltd.) JapanFiles.com began working with fans to prevent illegal music downloading. The company’s zero tolerance in punishing members who illegally provided downloads of their artist’s music is now going to change. The company will use their site to post their artist list online to notify the fans of their new acquisitions as soon as they go live on their site. They will give 48 hours notice so fans can remove all tags, posts and links from the community, and then continue with their legal actions.

MP3s and videos - www.japanfiles.com/ketchupmania
MySpace - www.myspace.com/ketchupmaniajf
Official Site (in Japanese) - www.ketchup-mania.com
Streaming radio (ketchup mania Monday!) - www.live365.com/stations/japanfiles
Reference: Japanator.com

 

June 3rd, 2008

FILM

Hollywood Movies on Japanese Cell Phones

A Japanese mobile content distributor and a subsidiary of Faith Inc., GIGA Networks Inc., has teamed up with Neo Inc. to begin distributing Hollywood movies and TV shows for cell phones, through their portal site “GIGA Miranca”. Consumers will choose out of 1000 line-ups of anime and movies, including Hollywood movies and TV shows, to view their content of choice on their cell phone or PC. Fifty new arrivals are expected per month and it will cost around 100-200 yen each. Neo Inc. operates "Miranca ®" to distribute video content for PCs and GIGA Networks Inc. provides ringtones and video contents for mobile phones. The partnership broadened their content library and consumer market all at the same time.

For more information, go to: http://www.faith-inc.com/ir/doc/20080421miranca.html

DreamWorks to remake a Japanese feature Yomigaeri

DreamWorks announced that the studio had acquired the US remake rights of the Japanese 2003 box office hit feature, “Yomigaeri (Resurrection)”, from Tokyo Broadcasting System. Shooting is scheduled to start this fall. Reportedly, there is a chance that Steven Spielberg himself might serve as a director after his three-year-long pursuit to the project remake. William Nicholson (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Gladiator”) will pen the remake and Takashi Hirano of TBS and Tetsu Fujimura of Filosophia will serve as producers. The 310M Yen (about $31M) box office hit title will be the 4th Japanese remake feature that DreamWorks acquired including Japanese horror masterpieces, “The Ring” and “The Ring Two”, and the recently announced Japanese animation feature “Ghost In The Shell”. Based on a novel by Shinji Kaijo and directed by Akihiko Shiota, “Yomigaeri” is a fantasy tearjerker about a miracle that happens in a rural village in Southern Japan. The deceased come to visit their love ones and the villagers become thrilled to get another chance to see them. A government official is sent to investigate this incident and finds its mysterious rules.

Reference: http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/6161/53/

First Teen-Psychological Horror 3D

President of the renown manga distributor, Tokyopop, Stuart Levy has acquired the rights for the hit manga series, “Lament of the Lamb”, for Tokyopop’s first independent film production. The title has then been changed to “ Love Like Blood” and Takahiko Akiyama (“Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within”) has been chosen to co-direct with Levy. This is the world’s first teen-psychological horror 3D movie and they are currently searching actors for the main roles, while a Japanese actress will play the lead female role. The story involves a high school boy, named Blake, who lives an ordinary life until he meets a mysterious beauty named Jira. Their intense relationship gives the film a gothic feel and finale will include a surprising twist.

For more information, go to: http://www.tokyopop.com/ugc/tokyopop/uploads/misc/hollywoodreporter20081.pdf

Japanese Filmmaker Chosen for Closing Night @ Hoboken Film Festival

Hiroo Takaoka, an independent filmmaker who was also chosen as one of the finalists for JETRO’s “Show Biz Japan! Sneak Peek” 2006, will show his first feature film as the Closing Night Feature Film at the Hoboken Film Festival. “iMurders” is a psychological thriller starring William Forsythe (The Devil’s Rejects, Deuce Bigalow), Gabrielle Anwar (The Three Musketeers, Scent of a Woman), Billy Dee Williams (Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi), and many more. Two of the director’s short films, “Three Chris’s” and “Swingers Club Sachi” were also chosen to be shown during the festival. Enjoy the warm night in June at the outside theatre in New Jersey free of charge.

Schedule:
“Three Chris’s”: May 30, 2008 8:30PM
“Swingers Club Sachi”: June 1st, 2008 8:30PM
“iMurders”: June 4, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Location:
Pier A Park, First Street and Sinatra Drive, Hoboken, NJ

For tickets and more information, go to: http://www.hobokeninternationalfilmfestival.com/

ANIME

Bandai to Start Collectors Business in U.S.

A major Japanese toy manufacturer, Bandai, has created an international sales department, in April, within their collectors division to market their high-priced collectors items in the U.S. The department will begin participating in major U.S. comic events to research their future marketing strategies, catered to U.S. consumers, to equal their success in the Japanese market. The department is planning to create their products starting 2009.

For more information, go to: http://www.bandai.co.jp
Reference: 4/30/2008, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun

Walt Disney Japan produces its first domestic TV animation, RoboDz

Walt Disney Television International Japan will co-produce a 3DCG animated short, “RoboDz”, with Toei Animation and a 30-minute TV show, “Stitch!”, with Japan’s leading animation production house, Madhouse. “RoboDz” is scheduled to be aired on Toondisney every Monday and Saturday starting from June 2nd. The two and a half minute long Sci-fi action comedy TV series is about a group of ninja heroes, “RoboDz”, saving the planet from the evil outer space force Baddle Group.
“Stitch!” will feature the character from the 2002 feature toon “Lilo & Stitch”.

Walt Disney Television International Japan’s partner for “RoboDz”, Toei Animation, has created 2D animation hit TV series “Onepiece” which launched in 1999 and has since racked up more than 340 episodes and aired in 13 countries. The animation studio has also proved its state-of-art CG creation with a live action feature, “Yamato (Otokotachi No Yamato)” directed by Junya Sato. “RoboDz” will be the company’s first 3DCG TV animation series to produce.

For more information, go to:
http://corp.toei-anim.co.jp/press/2008/05/_62.html

MANGA

Creator of Bleach to Appear in San Diego Comic-Con International

Tite Kubo, the creator of the popular manga series “Bleach” and “Zombie Powder”, will make his first visit to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International. His first appearance would be on the 25th during the screening of “Bleach the Movie: Memories of a Nobody”, which was released in Japan in December 2006. He will also be at the Viz Media booth (#4113) to sign autographs on July 26th and will also attend the Shonen Jump panel to do a presentation on his future projects.

A major publishing and licensing company in the anime/manga industry, Viz Media, and Japan’s most popular boy’s manga magazine, “Shonen Jump”, has arranged Kubo’s visit to celebrate its 5th anniversary in the American market. “Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody”, will be screened in over 300 movie theatres across the country on June 11th and 12th and will be released on DVD this year in October.

For more information, go to: http://www.viz.com/news/newsroom/?id=90, http://www.shonenjump.com, http://www.fathomevents.com (tickets for movie)

EBookJapan launches its online manga shop site

On May 20th, Japan’s biggest online bookshop, eBookJapan, has launched its first online manga shop, Manga Daimokuroku, which will distribute Japanese comic books out of their 18,000 titles. The site enables customers to search their favorite comic books by title, genre, author and publisher. It also lists the weekly released new titles as well as the daily, weekly and monthly top 20 sales rankings. 500 new titles will be updated on Mange Daimokuroku every month. The customers can download to browse the first 20-25 pages of each manga titles before actually purchasing them online. Launched in December 2000, eBookJapan currently has 500,000 users and sold over 21,000 titles online.

For more information, go to: http://www.daimokuroku.com, http://www.ebookjapan.jp/shop/info/news/080520.asp

GAME

Reality Cooking Game

From reality drama shows to reality game shows, everything tied to reality is becoming popular all over the world. Ebara Foods Industry, Inc. has launched their cooking game online to market their products by allowing players to select their “real” products to make the best dishes. The game can be played for free online and the players will choose the six best products to combine within a time limit and in the correct order. Once the player passes the game, they will be provided with the correct recipe to try at home. Once this successfully attracts consumers to buy their products, this may become the company’s new marketing strategy to rely on.

For more information, go to: http://www.ebarafoods.com/
Reference: 4/30/2008, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun

Japan’s GONZO to Partner with Taiwan’s Major Online Game Publisher to Offer PANDORA SAGA in East Asian

Japan’s animation powerhouse, GDH K.K., has announced on April 23rd 2008 that the company will partner up with Taiwan’s game developer and publisher, Gamania Digital Entertainment, to publish its online game “PANDORA SAGA”, in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau in the fall. The partnership was initiated to boost the GDH’s online presence in Asia where the Japanese games enjoy their large popularity. Set in a Medieval Europe, “PANDORA SAGA” is a three-way war online RPG consisted of actual battles fought in history and enables players to experience fights in actual medieval battlefield-like setting where they will be divided into three countries and six tribes to fight against each other using 140 different combat skills.

For more information, go to: http://www.gdh.co.jp/english/news/20080423.html

MUSIC

Compose with Yamaha

Yamaha began to sell their composer device, “Tenori-On”, on their Japanese homepage on May 12th. “Tenori-On” is a 16 x 16 LED button matrix performance tool that enables people to have a visible music interface and compose music in just 20 minutes. It costs about $1200 each to purchase. A popular Icelandic song artist, Björk, has also featured “Tenori-On” during her latest tour. Björk ‘s band included Damian Taylor, who used the “Tenori-On” as part of the rig to allow the fascinated concert crowd to visualize their track “Who Is It?”.

For more information, go to: http://www.yamaha.co.jp/tenori-on/

Love Psychedelico U.S. Debut

A Japanese duo, “Love Psychedelico”, has released their first U.S. debut album, “This is Love Psychedelico”, on May 20th. The duo, Kumi (vocal) and Naoki (guitarist), formed their band in 1997 and has sold 2 million copies of their first album in Japan, “ The Greatest Hits”, in 2001. They will release their U.S. debut album from HackTone Records and the album would also be released in Japan as “This is Love Psychedelico ~U.S. Best~”.

Reference: 5/20/2008, Variety Japan

ART

Discuss Japanese Contemporary Art and Explore the Works of the Renowned “Sakuran” Director

A public lecture and discussion session of Japanese contemporary art, “Tokyo Tremors: Four New Waves of Japanese Contemporary Art” will be lead by a Associate Professor of Sociology at UCLA, Adrian Favell, on June 11th. Favell will be presenting and discussing the work of several Japanese contemporary artists such as Mika Kato, Erina Matsui, Toshiyuki Konishi, Mika Ninagawa, Mikiko Hara, Miwa Yanagi, Pyuupiru, Tatzu Nishi, Chiharu Shiota, Tabaimo, Kei Takemura, and Kohei Nawa. Selected works by Mika Ninagawa, Japan’s most popular photographer who is known for her directorial debut with “Sakuran”, will also be at the show. Admission is free but RSVP is required. (RSVP to RoyalT@fyaworld.com)

Schedule:
June 11, 2008
Reception 7PM, Lecture and Discussion 7:30PM
Location:
Royal/T: 8910 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232

For more information, go to: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/favell/RoyalTevent.pdf

** Send us your news updates to epj_la@jetro.go.jp**

May 21st, 2008

FILM

Japanese Films Screening at L.A. Film Festival

Film Independents’ Los Angeles Film Festival presented by Los Angeles Times will be held from June 19th to 29th in Westwood Village. The festival screens more than 250 narrative, documentary, short film, and international features to a diverse audience of 83,000. L From VIP galas to celebrity-studded premieres, the Los Angeles Film Festival highlights film from every corner of the globe.

L.A. Film Festival 2008 is proud to introduce two Japanese films this year that will be screening at the event.

The Makioka Sisters (Sasame-yuki)
Director: Kon Ichikawa
CAST: Keiko Kishi, Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Yuko Kotegawa
Tuesday, June 24, 4:30 PM
Billy Wilder Theater/Hammer Museum
In a career spanning more than 70 years, Kon Ichikawa created many acclaimed literary adaptations, and this is one of his finest from the '80s, a visually stunning film about fading traditions in the modern world.

X-Cross (Ekusu-Kurosu)
Director: Kenta Fukasaku
CAST: Mizuno Shiyori, Hiuke Aiko, Asamiya Keiichi
From the screenwriter of Death Note and the director of Battle Royale II and Yo-Yo Girl Cop comes this fabulously fractured film about two friends running for their lives — just not from the same things.

For tickets or more information, please call 1.866.FILMFEST or visit http://www.LAFilmFest.com

Hannari-Geisha Modern Summer Extravaganza

A documentary film that captures the true Geisha on camera, “Hannari-Geisha Modern”, will be screening several times in the summer. The screening schedule is posted below .Please join the director at a sake tasting event in Santa Monica on May 25th.

Screening Schedule:
June 26 thru July 2- Laemmle Santa Monica (CA) 1:00PM, 3:20PM, 5:40PM, 8:00PM & 10:15PM
For details, go to: http://www.geishamodern.com/purchase_tickets.html

Live Action Manga-Based Movie, AZUMI 2 Stateside Release

Urban Vision Entertainment, a DVD distributor of Japanese Animation and live action film in the states, releases the manga-based movie, AZUMI 2 on May 6th. AZUMI was originally released theatrically in N.Y. in 2006. The story continues as a young female assassin, during the feudal era of Japan, seeks out the remaining corrupt Japanese lords to eliminate. An amazing combination of director Shunsuke Kaneko, director of the two DEATH NOTE movies, and screenplay writer Yoshiaki Kawajiri, also known for working on “Ninja Scroll” and “Vampire Hunter: D”, came together to bring this fast-paced action-packed series to life.

Reference: Urban Vision Entertainment official website

Japan Film Festival 2008 (April 11th -20th)

The annual event, The Chanoma Film Festival, has transformed itself to The Japan Film Festival (JFF), and was held on April 11th to April 20th. The JFF is the only film festival for Japanese films held in Los Angeles and this year, it was held at The Imaginasian Center in Los Angeles, and at Starplex Cinemas in Irvine. The event successfully attracted 2500 visitors and many of them left comments to encourage this event to continue next year. The JFF gala, held on April 10th, welcomed Shin Koyamada from “The Last Samurai” and they have screened a total of 22 feature films.

For more information, go to: http://www.jffla.org/

3-D Ghost in the Shell with Spielberg

DreamWorks and Steven Spielberg are recreating the classic police action manga, “Ghost in the Shell”, in 3-D. Sony and Universal were also fighting for the rights of the content, but Spielberg’s personal interest led Dreamworks to buy the rights. The graphic novel, originally created in 1989 by Shirow Masamune, has been the basis of a TV series and movies. The animated Japanese feature, “ Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence” was released theatrically in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Furthermore, Mamoru Oshii, the director of animated feature “Ghost In The Shell” and “ Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence” is returning on the big screen with his latest animated feature, “The Sky Crawlers” this summer. Distributed by Warner Brothers Japan, the film is scheduled to be released in Japan on August 2nd 2008.

Written by Hiroshi Mori, “The Sky Crawlers” is a bestseller novel about young fighter jet pilots. Set in the near future, “The Sky Crawlers” deals with a question of death where the war and the killing become a part of the daily routine of young fighters.

Reference: 4/14/2008 Variety Magazine

ANIME

Founder of Madhouse Studios @ OTAKON© 2008

Masao Maruyama, the founder and Creative Director of award-winning MADHOUSE, will make his sixth appearance at Otakon© 2008. Maruyama has been in the animation industry for forty years. He has produced numerous successful anime projects, such as “Chobits”, “Cardcaptor Sakura”, "Urusei Yatsura”, “Death Note” and much much more. Otakon will once again be held in Baltimore, Maryland on August 8th to the 10th.

For more information, go to: http://www.otakon.com

U.S. Theatrical Release of “Death Note”

A Japanese live-action film distributor, VIZ Pictures, has teamed up with NCM FATHOM, to theatrically release “Death Note” for two nights in over 300 theaters across the U.S. “Death Note”, which made over $27 million in Japan’s box office sales in 2006, will be shown in the U.S. on May 20th and the 21st. They will also be showing a 20 minute feature on how the original manga transformed itself to live-action and an interview with the director, Shusuke Kaneko.

For more information and tickets, go to: http://www.FathomEvents.com, http://www.viz.com/news/newsroom/?id=72

Shoko Nakagawa at Anime Expo

The all so popular Shoko Nakagawa, also known as Shokotan, is a television celebrity, blogger, voice actress and illustrator will join the hottest line up of Anime Expo 2008 Guests of Honors for the 2008 convention July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

For more information, go to: http://www.anime-expo.org

Anime Industry Award Finalists Announced by the SPJA

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), organizers of the largest Japanese Animation and Manga convention in the U.S. (ANIME EXPO), released the SPJA Industry Award 2008 finalists for 21 different categories. The announcement was made during the SPJA Symposium at the Tokyo International Anime Fair in April 2008. The top five companies holding the most nominations include: Bandai Entertainment, Viz Media, Geneon Entertainment, Bandai Visual, and FUNimation.

For more information, go to: http://www.spja.org

New Doraemon Movie Goes Green-Themed

The latest animated feature installment of the Doraemon series, “Nobita and the Green Giant Legend”, features a greener environmental awareness-theme. The Doraemon series (manga and anime) has been running in Japan for decades and is well known to all ages. “Nobita and the Green Giant Legend” is about Nobita and his friends, along with Doraemon, trying to save the world from the “Green Planet Plan” which intends to annihilate human beings by covering the earth with greenery. This time, Nobita will solve these problems without relying on Doraemon’s magical tools. “Doraemon: Nobita and the Green Giant Legend” has already grossed over $24.9M (Y3 billion) since its release in Japan on March 8th 2008 with 300 screens nationwide.

Reference: 3/29/2008 The Asahi.com

Doraemon Awarded Title of Japanese National Anime Cultural Ambassador

On March 19th, “Doraemon” was inaugurated as the Japanese National Anime Cultural Ambassador. The purpose of the Japanese National Anime Cultural Ambassador is to promote and introduce Japanese culture to the world through anime. Doraemon was chosen due to the high amount of cultural scenes in the series.

Reference: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan official website

Kamikaze Girls’ Nakajima Oversees Anime TV Shorts

The director of “Kamikaze Girls”, Tetsuya Nakajima, released his new flash-animated series, “Itsumo Wagamama Gama Oji”. It premiered in Japan on April 21st. The anime series is a spin-off from the director’s upcoming feature film “Paco and the Magical Book”. The film itself will be released on September 13th in Japan.

The five-minute-short animation series will show on TV Tokyo every Monday for six months, until the film’s release in September (total 20 episodes). Releasing the spin-off before the actual feature film release is unprecedented. However, if this succeeds, this style of film promotion may soon become wildly popular in Japan. “Paco and the Magical Book” is a fantasy comedy of a young girl Paco, and her amazing friendships with her peculiar fellow patients in a mental hospital. With his third feature film “Memories of Matsuko (Kiraware Matsuko No Issho)”, released in Japan in 2006, Nakajima scooped major film awards. The musical style comedy grossed just over $13 million at the Japanese box office and Nakajima quickly became one of the most demanded directors in Japan.

Reference: 4/22/2008 Anime News Network
For more information, go to: http://www.paco-magic.com/

Bleach The Movie on Big Screen!

Viz Media and NCM Fathom will team up to screen the best-selling animated series feature, “Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody”, in over 300 movie theatres across the country on June 11th and 12th. Advance purchase tickets will go on sale from May 2-8 to all subscriber of “Shonen Jump” e-mail newsletter. General tickets will go on sale May 9th.

For more information, go to: http://www.fathomevents.com, http://www.vizmedia.com

MANGA

Aurora Publishing, Inc. Introduces Ladies Comics with LUV LUV Imprint

Aurora Publishing, Inc., a Japanese Manga publishing company, launched their Luv Luv imprint for women readers. Manga from Luv Luv feature more mature storylines for adult female readers. The first title launched under this imprint was “Voices of Love” by Kanae Hazuki, which was released in January 2008. “Real Love” by Mitsuki Oda was released in March, and “ Love for Dessert” will be released on May 2008.

For more information, go to: http://www.aurora-publishing.com

Viz and Stan Lee Manga Collaboration

During the NY Comic Con press conference, VIZ announced that they will publish “Ultimo”, created by the ever so mighty tandem of Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei, widely known for his work “Sharman King”. The first installment of Ultimo appeared on Japan’s “Jump SQ.II”, a spinoff manga magazine of Shueisha’s newly launched “Jump SQ”, in April 2008. Although the U.S. release date has not yet been announced, Stan Lee hopes this content will eventually become as big as “Spider-Man” and expand to TV shows and movies. “Sherman King” appeared in Japan’s “Weekly Shonen Jump” from 1998 to 2004 and was also created into a TV animation series released on TV Tokyo from 2001 to 2002.

Reference: 4/21/2008 ICV2

GAME

Square Enix Japan Release RPG via Wii Ware

Square Enix Japan has released their RPG game, “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The World of The Little King,” through WiiWare on March 25th. Consumers are able to purchase the game for 1500 Wii points by accessing the Wii shopping channel.

For more information, go to: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/littleking

SEGA Begins Releasing New Golf Simulation Game in Arcades Around Japan

SEGA has released a golf simulation game, on April 8th, titled “GO GO GOLF!” for game arcade and amusement park use in late March. The new game enables players to use two simulation modes: to practice how to approach the pin, ways to increase shot distance, or to increase levels of preciseness and speed of shots on the actual golf course. In addition, there is an option to use tennis balls for beginners who feel conventional size golf balls are too difficult to strike. Much larger than traditional interactive simulation games, players stand in a large tent area facing a screen. Balls are hit toward the screen, and the rest is taken care of by the simulation game. “GO GO GOLF!” can be played at the cost of 200-500 Yen (About $2-5 US Dollars) per game (price varies by location).

Reference: 4/8/2008 Famitsu.com

Atlus goes Portable again with “Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2”

On April 7th, Atlus U.S.A., Inc. announced the release date of “Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2”, sequel to the 2005 smash hit, for Nintendo DS. This unique medical simulation game allows players to surgically operate by cutting, sewing, draining, disinfecting among many other options. Part two contains the original characters, Derek and Angie and is updated with new difficulty modes and operations. “Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2” is currently scheduled to be released on July 1st. You can preorder on amazon.com for $29.99 each.

For more information, go to: http://www.atlus.com/tcutk2/

MUSIC

Budo Grape announces new USA tour dates!

Japanese pop quintet Budo Grape, nominated for Best Japanese Pop Band in 2008 by Shojo Beat magazine, has added two more dates to their upcoming U.S tour. Starting with their American debut at A-Kon 19 in Dallas, on May 30th, they will travel to San Antonio, on June 3rd, and to New York City, on June 5th. Budo Grape has just released their 4th album in Japan, "AIMORE," and is putting the finishing touches on a compilation album entitled "JUICE" available exclusively on their USA tour.

USA Performance Dates and Locations:
May 30- Dallas, TX - A-Kon 19
June 3 - San Antonio, TX - Sam's Burger Joint
June 5 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory (presented by Karaterice)

For more information, go to:
MP3s and videos - http://www.japanfiles.com/budogrape
USA MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/budogrape
Official Site (in Japanese) - http://www.budo-grape.net

AI in L.A.

Popular Japanese R&B singer, Ai, will be returning to her hometown, Los Angeles, to stage a benefit concert to honor her grandfather and all those who serve as inspiration to young people.. The 26-year old top recording artist in Japan has sold over 300,000 copies of her first major release, “Story”, in 2005, and continues to succeed. The concert will be held on June 22nd at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center. Ticket information is available by calling Go For Broke at (310) 222-5713.

For more information, go to: Go For Broke , http://www.universal-music.co.jp/ai/live.html

Famous Soft Rock Duo @ Anime Expo 2008

Anime Expo 2008 announced on April 15th that Jyukai, a Japanese soft rock duo, would be joining the event, which will be held on July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Jyukai - Manami (vocal) and Dewa Yoshiaki (composition) - formed in 2004 when they began performing in Osaka, Japan. They had their TV anime debut in 2006 when they sang the closing theme for “Fate/Stay Night”, titled “Anata ga Iru Mori” which ranked 16th on the Oricon Chart in its first week of release. Following their successful debut, they continued to sing opening and closing songs for other anime shows, such as “Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy”, “Buso Renkin” and "Shin - Onna Tachigui Retsuden", which was directed by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the
Shell: Innocence).

For more information, go to: http://www.anime-expo.org

Young Tsugaru-Shamisen Virtuosos Is Coming to L.A.
The well-known Shamisen duos, Ryoichiro and Kenichi Yoshida, also known as the Yoshida brothers, will be performing at El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, on May 14th. Shamisen is a traditional Japanese three-stringed instrument and their passionate performance is close to that of a rock ‘n roll concert. Their CD will also be available through Domo Music Group on June 3rd, 2008. They are also performing at other locations throughout the U.S. so go the site for detailed schedules.

For more information, go to: http://www.domo.com/YoshidaBrothers/

Laugh all Night Long with Rakugo
Recently awarded the Ministry of Culture Award for Cultural Exchange, Kaishi Katsura is a well-known Rakugo, also known as the Japanese stand up comedy, performer. He will be prepared to make you laugh your heart out by performing his Rakugo in English. He began his performance on April 1st, 2008 in New York and he is still continuing his tour in more than 30 states. See the official website for detailed schedules.

For more information, go to: http://eigo-rakugo.com/english/index.html

JETRO Event News

Picture Battle vs Show Biz Japan (PBXSB)
JETRO’s “Show Biz Japan! Sneak Peek” teams up with UTB’s (United Television Broadcasting Systems) “Picture Battle” to create the first ever reality show competition specially designed for Japanese independent filmmakers. The selected applicants will show their short film in front of a live audience and judges at the Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood on November 8th. The event itself will be filmed and broadcasted on UTB. The deadline for application is August 29th, 2008. If you are interested in attending the show as an audience, the even schedule will be announced later.

For more information, go to: http://www.jetro.org/filmcompetition

Japan Pavilion booth @ GDC

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to those of you who visited our Japan Pavilion during the Game Development Conference that was held in February. A total of 18000 industry personnel joined the event, and we were able to set up 58 meetings for our six game developers. If you are game publisher and was not able to set up a meeting with us, email us to be connected with these Japanese developers: Acquire Corp., Bauhaus Entertainment Co., Ltd., Premium Agency Inc., Microvision Inc., R-FORCE Entertainment Inc., and RIZ Inc.