Japanese Government Wants to Shut Down Foreign Pirate Sites.

Okay, what I roughly understand from this NHK news is Japanese government will go after 580 sites outside Japan to remove all illegal content such as anime, manga etc 1 year from now. The particular target is China and government ministry estimated 560 billion yen is lost due to piracy (equals to USD$ 5.4 billion) annually. Undoubtedly, the fansub sites might be targeted too.

How successful it would be is kinda doubtful, given the dissemination of these products is so widespread and common especially at Asia.

I am interested to see how they will pull this one off.

Link.

Hatsune Miku Domino's Pizza Japan Ad.

Uhhhh....what? Guess this will Japan centric, I can't imagine this will work in other places.

Wow, a special treat for Makoto Shinkai fans.

A friend of mine linked me this album on imgur of Makoto Shinkai productions stills and works which is remarkable. Being a fan of his work, this is indeed a big boon for me.

Here is the album, enjoy!

LINK

Kadokawa launching new online manga portal service soon.

Wow, an impressive number of 200 titles are to be featured on this portal with starting 40 titles will be available in translation to English or Chinese at the launch. What more, it would be free and the library is from anthologies like Shonen Ace and Young Ace. Titles like D-Frag, Haruhi, Haganai, Gundam and Eva (for example) will be ready for fans to read. It is 100 percent legal too.

AFAIK, no limitation in terms of nationality so non Japanese can access the site too. What is the catch?

Well you can read the new chapter of ongoing series 2 weeks after it is published in printed edition - a small price to pay IMHO. Just wait a while and you will get your fix.

Kadokawa is hoping to feature translation option in French in future soon and set the date for the site operation on 22nd March 2014. Oh, I forgot to mention again that this site is free.

The website.

Sub vs Dub?

The eternal struggle between sub vs dub. Honestly, I am in the middle of both.

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Hayao Miyazaki announcing his retirement

The beloved anime director, Hayao Miyazaki is announcing his retirement. I dunno if this has to do with storm of criticism against him for anti war stance that he expressed so overtly in last movie, Kaze Tachinu but the announcement has an interesting timing nevertheless. I certainly remembered that he came back after his son, Goro directed Earthsea back in 2007-2008.

One might say that his comeback is not very successful, Ponyo and Kaze Tachinu has failed to garner the applause like his best previous works - Nausicca, Spirited Away, Totoro and Mononoke Hime. Perhaps he felt he has lost his touch hence the retirement? Purely speculation from me though. Or health reasons? He will make more announcement soon at Tokyo after noted absence at Venice film festival.

No other details are known yet.

Source

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Sadogawa Jun passed away :(

Creator of Muteki Kanban Musume, Jun Sadogawa (34) passed away recently. RIP.

Cause of death is suicide, he is found at the park.

Source. 

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Hataraku Maou Sama is Doing Very Well on Sales

The charming little series, Hataraku Maou Sama make quite an impression on Bluray sales in Japan, breaking the normal barrier for 1st volume.

At number 8, 1st volume of the series already sold 11,192 copies so far in July 8th - 14th time period. If the sales is sustained then sequel is a very likely prospect. I will not be surprised if the 2nd season will be announced end of this year or 2014. Time will tell.

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Something I completely agree with Miyazaki Sensei.

In this article, the famous animator expressed how frustrated he was with voice acting in Japan, too many try to sell themselves instead of making the characters work. And his particular pet peeve which I agree completely is the ear piercing cutesy voice tendencies in current anime scenes.

His latest work, Kaze Tachinu is coming soon to theaters at Japan on 20th July 2013.

Read this for full detail. 

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Why am I interested about Free?

No, no, I am not going to watch this swimming anime. But the real reason I am interested is....

The bottomline is always Blu Rays because this will make or break a studio. The ex-director of Haruhi was completely broken after his series, Fractale completely bombed at the sales (Vol 1 only sold like 900 plus units in 1st week).

For benchmark, most series will get sequels if the 1st volume release breach 4000 units in 1st week.

This is why I looking at the sales of this series with great interest. First time Kyoto Animation is aiming specifically at female audiences with series of this nature. Can they reverse the failure that they suffered for Nichijou?

Time will tell.

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New Toyota Doraemon themed ad, starring Jean Reno

I found this hilarious and just plain wrong. Ah well.

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Official Manga Portal opened in USA

Nice initiative by Japanese publishers to reach North America audience, charging minimal fee for content. I do hope they will expand the effort to my part of world too, soon.

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How much an anime episode cost (2010)?

A typical 20-30 min anime episode in Japan cost breakdown:

Original work - 50,000 yen ($660)
Script - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
Episode Direction - 500,000 yen ($6,600)
Production - 2 million yen ($26,402)
Key Animation Supervision - 250,000 yen ($3,300)
Key Animation - 1.5 million yen ($19,801)
In-betweening - 1.1 million yen ($14,521)
Finishing - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Art (backgrounds) - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Photography - 700,000 yen ($9,240)
Sound - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Materials - 400,000 yen ($5,280)
Editing - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
Printing - 500,000 yen ($6,600)

Source: Media Development Research Institute Inc.

Values were adjusted to 2010 USD inflation so the total is around USD 145,000 per episode. I wonder if there is any difference between pre and post March 11th tsunami in costing. AFAIK, any sales of Bluray/DVD that passes 4000 unit tends to get sequel. Best indicator is sales of 1st volume in first week itself since it will establish general trend onwards for particular series.

In Amazon Japan for example, Magica Puella Magi Madoka vol 1 Bluray is selling at 5,826 yen now (76 USD).

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Toyota and Evangelion? Ah.

Evergreen and genre changing Evangelion now used to promote Toyota Prius hybrid. Marketing, marketing, Toyota is banging on the fact that most anime fans of the 90s will form biggest purchasing power and they intend to capture this. First promoting their products with Miku now this.

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Fractale manga controvesy?

Yamakan, reeling from dismal series "Fractale" got into news again. This time he asked the manga of the series to be discontinued after a complaint from mangaka herself that the story is "uninteresting". He is basically tell the mangaka to take a hike and stop riding on other's back.

Despite his request, the manga is still being published, now it is up to chapter 10 in Japan. Volume 2 will be out soon too.

Oh so much drama. How typically him, I still remember his pledge that he will quit anime business if Fractale turns into lemon. Ironically, the manga has more coherent pace than the rushed anime. Oh, I haven't blog what I don't like about series. Sucks.

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Miyazaki talk with R.Kelts at UC Berkeley 2009

Still cranky after this years, the old man hasn't lose much of his spirit. Hee. Kelts wrote for Japanese newspaper on pop culture, specifically anime scenes nowadays.

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Cranky old man Miyazaki interview with BBC Jonathan Ross

Hahahah, he is already a cranky old man here. Recorded on 2002.

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Manga creation process again?

Manga creation process, this kinda fascinating to watch how the works were created. Enjoy the video.

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Magica Magi Puella Madoka BD sales is a big success story

According to here, 1st volume sold about 53,000 units so far. Not surprising, considering the critical acclaim it got during airing few weeks ago. SHAFT has land another goldmine besides Bakemonogatari.

Congrats. This is what Yamamoto Yutaka wanted with Fractale but failed with pretty low volume of 830 plus on April 2011 sales. In contrast, the harem mecha anime Infinite Stratos did 35,000 units so far. Pretty good indicator for 2nd season possibility.

Some pundits will flail hands in air, saying Japanese anime fans have gone moe mad.

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Analysis on Fractale / フラクタル, what works and what is not. Part 1.

I heard Yamamoto Yutaka is retreating from anime directing for a time being after he admits that Fractale failed his expectations. He was reportedly perplexed at "failure" of Fractale and why it did not become breakthrough anime that he hoped for. He also said he could not understand other anime shows ( I wonder if he talks about Infinite Stratos which managed to sell 22,000 BDs for 1st volume or Madoka in this aspect). The clincher is he wondered whether he has gone insane or the world has gone crazy instead. Sourced from Otona Anime here. Personally I think if he really did retire, it will be quite a loss to anime scene. Despite his bombastic boast that he will single handedly turn back anime from moe pandering to real plot and real story before the airing of Fractale, I still thinks he is talented, slick director.

This will be quite long article, so bear with me as I go through slowly as to what I like and what I don't dig about this series. Beware though beyond this point, it is spoilerific territory. Part 1 deals with what I like with this series, part 2 is what I do not like about Fractale.

What works



Music is stupendous, very sweeping in orchestration and feel. Many times I have chill listening to the BGM while it accompanying the scene. The OP/ED is quite decent combo, however I love the ED more as the image meshed with the song perfectly. Peaceful, quiet yet endearing feel fueled by Irish poem inspired song. This is where Yutaka Yamamoto really shines: making slick OP/ED montage. Many will still remember the legendary Haruhi S1 ED.



Now, next on the list, art. Many controversy generated when fans are not too keen with the anime style, they wondering why the promo arts (done by Hidari) is so different from finished product. For me, it did not really bother me as the animation is smooth and pleasing, just not as distinctive as the illustration art. Some pundits hammer this is one of the reason why the anime failed to be big since they don't employ the promotional art all the way.



Hidari's art.



Anime's art.

Frankly, I disagree with those pundits since it did not really jar me anyway. Fractale's anime art is lush and beautiful, very high production value for TV series in honesty.

Storywise?

I quite like the general outline of the story, it has the sweeping epicness behind it and general interesting ideas. What happened to the world after Fractale was activated? Why humanity at large become glorified sloths in global Holodeck? Why Lost Millennium rebel against this "religion"? Is Fractale too happy for humanity to live? I have to pay tribute to the writer who came up with this good ideas, a great potential for a great series. What screw it up though is some plot holes and execution.

And the ending. Ah, it is one of the most beautiful and heart tugging ending ever in anime. I still feel the bittersweet sensation, weeks after I watch the finale. It wrapped up the story nicely, giving it a solid closure. Nice writing for the scene.

Stay tune for Part 2.

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