Winter Sonata / 冬のソナタ

Now I find this is weird as hell, why are they redo a successful live action series (which arguably launched the K-Wave phenomenon back in 2002) into anime series with same leads as VAs? What could they possibly able to achieve by this copy and paste project, to be honest?

I am interested to see the response to this series much later.

Official Anime Site

Mein Kampf / わが闘争 the manga

Heh,

I guess it is inevitable since Das Kapital was published last year in manga format hence the direct opposite is just screaming for a manga treatment. Here it is and apparently it sold well in Japan (45,000 copies now). I read it few years ago and it is nothing but anti Semitic ranting and presuppositions based on flimsy, historically selective bias.

I am not impressed with the book but at the time when Germany under heavy boot of economic downturn and hyperinflation, this book sounds like a great messianic salvation for the desperate Germans who wanted easy solution for their woes. Hitler seduced and played with their human weaknesses and strength to be their Fuhrer. Ultimately the Germans paid it with their own blood in Valhalla made by themselves in 1945.

Let me made this clear, I have no intention to purchase this manga. I have enough of Nazism and whatever they represented. It sucked.

Amazon Japan.

Bavarian state reject the plans to reprint it

Tokyology Documentary

This pop culture documentary of Japan, Tokyology hosted by a very hot Carrie Ann. This segment focused on anime and manga which I felt very instructive. It is easier to convey the culture using sight and sound instead of words. In the documentary, Carrie Ann interviewed Yoshitoshi ABe, the guy who gave us magical Haibane Reimei and brain sucking Lain.



That interview is the most interesting segment to me besides brief image flashes of pretty cosplayers. The rest pretty blah to me, lolita goth segment for example did not inspire any interest from me. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Gotta to confess here, some of the cosplayers in this short video are pretty good looking. Gobsmackingly good looking. The film is available at select stores, anyone with interest of Japanese pop culture discussion might want to check the documentary out.

Chinese Animation rips off Makoto Shinkai

San Com and ANN ripped into this Chinese show that uses same background template and animation with 5cm Per Second by famous Makoto Shinkai. They already said what needs to be said but one fact caught my eye and I cannot get over it is this from ANN:

The program's introduction describes it as "a program produced for the youth of China, and animation to raise wholesome minds and teach a noble view of life."

Now....ripping off someone else work is "wholesome minds and teach a noble view of life"?



Making the female students skirt longer did not "nobly" compensate the obvious image piracy. First picture is from Makoto Shinkai and 2nd one is from the Chinese copy.




Chinese did not have to rip off people's work, they have good standards as can be seen here:



Or this one.

Oh well.

Roberta The Maid and Revy The Two Hander

Ah this post is pure fanboy moment. I am not ashamed of it, this is a nice cover featuring both of them eyeballing each other out in bikini. Yeah babey! Click for higher resolution!

Fancy a Masters in Anime and Manga?

Kyoto Seika University (KSU) established bachelor's program in manga & animation and became the first real, accredited university in the world to do so in 2006. Now, KSU has upgraded its manga & animation program to the graduate level. Starting in 2010, you can earn not only a bachelor's degree but also master's degree in manga and/or animation.

KSU's "Faculty of Manga" department consists of cartoon art, comic art (story manga), manga production, and animation. Professional manga artists, anime creators, producers and editors from industry teach those courses. A legendary shoujo manga expert Keiko Takemiya (Fly Me to the Moon, To Terra..., Kaze to Ki no Uta) is one of the professors.

However, all the classes are taught in Japanese so international applicants must pass Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for admission.

It means the applicant must have studied the language more than 900 hours, mastered 2.000 kanji characters and 10,000 vocabulary words, and is able to discuss manga & anime in Japanese. Ouch.

English homepage of KSU

Autumn/Fall 2009 Anime Lineups.

This is lineup for 2009 Autumn batch. Nothing really caught my interest except for Natsu no Arashii 2 and Darker than Black 2. Nogizaka Season 2 and Darker Than Black 2: Comet of Gemini will be popular watch. However, I am actually very, very intrigued by Winter Sonata anime series. Why they redo it in this format puzzles me to no end.