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[merylsilverburg]

I'm sure some of you have seen the classic Appleseed film and just to let you guys know there's a new movie that should air in Japanese theaters in April. Apparently this film is supposed to be incredibly realistic because the crew used this "3D Live Anime" technique along with the CG motion-captured characters. I'm not sure if this film borderlines visually with Innocence or not, but it should be something cool to look forward to. The soundtrack is supposed to be fantastic as well, with people like Sakamoto, Ryuichi, the BOOM BOOM Satellites, Basement Jaxx, and Paul Oakenfold. I'm sure it'll be licensed for the US but as for when, it's unknown.

Speaking of Innocence, I’m sure many of you have heard about it or are anticipating this film because it’s the second Ghost in the Shell movie. Oshii, Mamoru is once again directing this film. It already premiered in Japan in March and it’s rumored that Studio Ghibli also worked on the visuals besides the main studio. From the pics I’ve seen, the visuals are stunning. I’m not sure what the plot is though... The main theme, "Follow Me" sung by Ito, Kimiko sounds really nice...very haunting and mellow.


Fans of Watanabe, Shinichiro (Cowboy Bebop) should be very happy because he’s back to direct this new TV series called Samurai Champloo. I think it’s supposed to be a cyber samurai series...very awesome indeed, there’s three main characters, Mugen, Jin, and Fuu. The soundtrack should be great, since there seems to be some hip-hop, jazzy tunes in there. I'm anticipating how this series will turn out.

GONZO’s future project is this title that I have no idea what it says, but I know the word “King” is in there. I think it’s about the Count of Monte Cristo because from pics of the March issue of the Japanese NewType, he’s everywhere. The visuals look pretty cool; stained glass images are used as texture on the clothing, the colors are dark and bold, with a lot of grays, pinks, gold...mostly “cathedral/church” royal colors with an “updated” look, if you know what I mean. However, the drawings look something like a Disney film...the characters are kinda blocky (lot of sharp angles on the faces...square-like), not your usual anime style. There are no images or any information yet...all I know is that Maeda, Mahiro (director of Blue Submarine No. 6 and the “Second Renaissance” story of the “Animatrix”) is directing this series.

For those who really love the Serial Experiments Lain series should probably check into Texhnolyze. It’s going to be released on April 6(coming up!) and the same crew behind Lain have created this series. It’s really interesting...the main character is a guy named Ichise who is a boxer and lives in Rukusu. There is this organization called Orugano who leads Rukusu and created an interface called Texhnolyze which can replace lost limbs and body parts. The people of Rukusu loses limbs easily which is why the interface was created. The only people who can afford this operation are the wealthy and high on the social class. One day, Ichise was in a fight with a religious cult/gang called the Alliance and has his left arm and right leg cut off (due to certain events). So now, the viewers are left with wondering if he’ll be able to get the operation. All this happened within the first episode, so the pace picks up pretty quickly. I really like it so far and glad they decided to bring it over.

That’s about it. There’s more news, but I think people are more interested if it’s closer to being brought over to the US than airing in Japan right now. ^_^;;; I also started watching Peace Maker Kurogane and Hagane no Renkin Jutsushi (“Full Metal Alchemist” which is doing incredibly well in Japan). Both series are terrific so far, I can’t wait to see more.

[Cannibal Clown]

Wow, thanks for the info. I've been trying forever to find someone i know who has a copy of Blueseed, because i've wanted to see it forever, and the next one seems to be great as well.

Oh, and regarding innocence, do you happen to know whether or not it's directly tied in with the first movie as a sequal, or if it's just another movie all together. I have only seen trailers for the second movie, but nothing else, mainly becauae all of the sites i've ever bothered to visit are in japanese. It seems to me though, that the lead character has moved from Motoko to Batou. And with that note, i was wondering if the series had any relevance to the first movie, or if it's just from the manga and nothing more.

With the samurai thing, there seems to be a lot of them comming out recently. I rememeber seeing nothing more than a small glimps of Champloo, which was also being advertised with another one called Afro Samurai. I couldn't rememebr if they had anything in common, like creator or director, but they both seemed to be really good. And if it's Watanabe directing it, i'm sure it won't be anything short of fantastic.

And a minor thing, full metal alchemist, yes, it is very good. Il Palazzo first told me of this one. I have only seen a few episodes from the last anime con i was at, but it looked very good. I also couldn't help but notice that it seemed to share many simularities with Naruto, comedy and visual wise anyways. And Naruto is unbelievable, so i'm expecting even more from this one as well.

[merylsilverburg]

Originally posted by Cannibal Clown

Oh, and regarding innocence, do you happen to know whether or not it's directly tied in with the first movie as a sequal, or if it's just another movie all together. I have only seen trailers for the second movie, but nothing else, mainly becauae all of the sites i've ever bothered to visit are in japanese. It seems to me though, that the lead character has moved from Motoko to Batou. And with that note, i was wondering if the series had any relevance to the first movie, or if it's just from the manga and nothing more.

Sorry, I have no idea whether it's connected to the first film or not. It does seem to be an entirely new film, but I could be wrong. Not much info has been released on this.

With the samurai thing, there seems to be a lot of them comming out recently. I rememeber seeing nothing more than a small glimps of Champloo, which was also being advertised with another one called Afro Samurai. I couldn't rememebr if they had anything in common, like creator or director, but they both seemed to be really good. And if it's Watanabe directing it, i'm sure it won't be anything short of fantastic.

Yeah, I agree about Watanabe...Samurai Champloo is defintely one on my list I must see.

And a minor thing, full metal alchemist, yes, it is very good. Il Palazzo first told me of this one. I have only seen a few episodes from the last anime con i was at, but it looked very good. I also couldn't help but notice that it seemed to share many simularities with Naruto, comedy and visual wise anyways. And Naruto is unbelievable, so i'm expecting even more from this one as well.

Heh heh, for me, I thought that Hagane no Renkin Jutsushi reminded me more of King of Bandits Jing while Peace Maker Kurogane reminded me of Naruto. In "Peacemaker", the main character, Ichimura, reminded me so much of Naruto and a little bit of Yahiko from Rurouni Kenshin. I also got Gungrave, Gilgamesh, and Chrno Crusade but I still need to see those. So far, they seem pretty good.

[Cannibal Clown]

Originally posted by merylsilverburg


Heh heh, for me, I thought that Hagane no Renkin Jutsushi reminded me more of King of Bandits Jing while Peace Maker Kurogane reminded me of Naruto. In "Peacemaker", the main character, Ichimura, reminded me so much of Naruto and a little bit of Yahiko from Rurouni Kenshin. I also got Gungrave, Gilgamesh, and Chrno Crusade but I still need to see those. So far, they seem pretty good.

Ah, yeah, well, i only saw a vbery small bit of Bandits Jing, and well, it wasn't my thing. I'vce nevr seen anything of peace maker, so that i9s kind of intriguing. And well, i worship kenshin, and yahiko, well, if you think so, all opinion anyways. But what you said about Gilgamesh. A Film Professor was asking me about this, whether or not it was an actual anime representation of Gilgamesh, and well, i looked up on it a bit, and, to his dissapointment, it wasn't. However, it did look very interesting to me. I tried to get episode 1, just to check it out, but it neever went. Since you have knowledge of it, mind telling me if it's any good? The specifics of it at least?

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Cannibal Clown

Ah, yeah, well, i only saw a vbery small bit of Bandits Jing, and well, it wasn't my thing. I'vce nevr seen anything of peace maker, so that i9s kind of intriguing. And well, i worship kenshin, and yahiko, well, if you think so, all opinion anyways.

Well, when I said it reminded me of Bandits Jing, I only meant the whole interaction between characters and a little of the plot...but don't refuse to see it! It's a pretty good series, as Il said in his thread, and you might like it. Also, yes, Kurogane is pretty good...I would say this is a lot better than Samurai Deeper Kyo but just below Kenshin. Reid has also seen this (he was the first one to mention it) and he liked it, I believe.

But what you said about Gilgamesh. A Film Professor was asking me about this, whether or not it was an actual anime representation of Gilgamesh, and well, i looked up on it a bit, and, to his dissapointment, it wasn't. However, it did look very interesting to me. I tried to get episode 1, just to check it out, but it neever went. Since you have knowledge of it, mind telling me if it's any good? The specifics of it at least?

Heh, if something went wrong with the first episode you tried to see, then it must be our bad luck. My VCD of Gilgamesh was all screwed up...the downloading process didn't go well and I couldn't see the whole thing. Sorry I can't tell you anything...this series must be spectacular if we both couldn't see it.

[merylsilverburg]

Sorry guys, I'd hate to double-post, but I just have a few more things to share.

In the April issue of the Japanese Animage magazine, there was a DVD included that had trailers of all the popular Spring 2004 animes soon to be shown in Japan. Well, I saw it the other day and:

Those who've seen the "Appleseed" movie trailer would know already, but....HOLY CRAP. The visuals are so unbelievable...I was so friggin' blown away, I just watched it over and over and over again. The 3-D Live Anime technology really shows in this movie and when you have CG characters (motion-captured), it's nearly a...well...CG movie. It's like "Final Fantasy: Spirits Within" except the characters have that drawn animation look. Some people might get turned off by this only because it really is more "eye-candy" at his moment...but if the story is good, hopefully it wouldn't be such a distraction. Simply stunning....you guys should check out the trailer if there is one out there.

Some of you may have heard of the Samurai7 which is the anime version or taken from Kurosawa, Akira's "Seven Samurai". Well, the trailer showed a lot of mecha...so, it's probably blended with sci-fi futuristic along with old fashioned swords. It looks good and visually appealing...but I somehow couldn't feel interested in it. I dunno...maybe it's just me. There were a slew of characters (seven of them) and they look pretty colorful, but nothing too out-of-the-ordinary or unique. I can't say much because I can't understand what they were saying, but hopefully some more news will reveal the plotline and if this actually follows Kurosawa's film. Does anyone know more?

This might not be too appealing to some, but if anyone enjoys those gothic or odd/mysterious animes, there's this OVA series called Cossette no Shouzou/"Portrait de Petit Cossette" or "The Portrait of Little Cossette" which debuts on April 28 in Japan. This is news to me; I haven't seen or heard anything about this series until I saw the trailer. Well, Cossette is a little girl dressed in black Gothic Lolita clothing and there's this young man who's apparently involved. From the trailer, there is a glass cup with images and I'm thinking this cup is very important or a key item of the series. This series seems pretty gory and dark; a lot of blood, roses, dark buildings (like castles, mansions), skeletons...all that stuff. I don't want to give out inaccurate information, but my guess is that this series might resemble the book The Picture of Dorian Gray? Who knows? Anyone else heard about it?

For those who are fans of GONZO's works, their latest one is called Bakuretsu Tenshi. There's more information on it somewhere, but I gotta go find it. More news on it later.

That's about it. If anyone else has any information, please do share!

[LrdAlucard]

i never saw the original movie....but...i did see the trailer of the new one....and i have to say...i really got :O ....i almost drooled....