Sinthetyc Sanytii Dojinshi
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Here we go, sorry for the lateness of this issue, it wont happen (I hope…;)) again. I got sort of swamped last Sunday, and well….er….well that’s not important, here we go with this issue. It’s pretty big, sort of a “make up” for being late….^_^ Also, you may, or may not have noticed, but I made a change to this dojinshi, there wont be manga in it. I don’t have enough free time to draw up a manga (damn work, taking up m time….but alas…….it can’t be helped.) There will be however other art from yours truly. Well ….here we go! Biography of Akira Toriyama: Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955, in the Aichi District, Japan. He graduated from the "Prefectural Industrial High School" as a graphic designer, and was working in the industry when he published is first manga in Shonen, in 1978. It was "Wonder Island", the scene of a strange and absurd world, where creature such a fish swimming in air with water bottle on his back, skateboarding monkeys and Tarzan were common (Later in Dr. Slump, Senbei and Arale visited Wonder Island). Later in 1979, came "Today's Highlight Island", the adventures of Kanta, a young boy who loves the food at his school, but can't eat because of dental problems. Then came "Tomato Girl Detective", who placed a girl as a hero like "Dr. Slump" would do, in 1980. "Dr. Slump" was his first great success, and the series lasted since 1985. A TV series of 243 episodes took air after the manga had been published only 5 weeks, something that had never happened before in Japan. At the same time, Toriyama also published short stories, like "Pola & Roid", the winner of a Shonen Jump artist contest, in 1981. Other short stories will follow, such as "Escape" in 1982, "Chobit" and "Pink" in 1983 which were published in "Fresh Jump". Then, near the end of 1983, Toriyama begin a series in two chapters, which will be unfinished: "Dragon Boy"; the story of a young boy who learn martial art and become really strong (hum?). Finally, in November 1984, begin "Dragon Ball", in the pages of Shonen Jump - immediate success. Other short stories were published at the same time as Dragon Ball, and most of them can be found in the 2 Akira Toriyama Sakugekijou books. Other ones were aimed at a more adult public like "Mamejirokun" and "Lady Red" After the end of DB, Toriyama decided to take a year off, to relax before beginning anew. All his fans all over the world cannot wait to see his next manga! It seems that I'm not alone to worship Toriyama, as he his known and loved worldwide. Here is an except from a Protoculture Addicts magazine, who shows the high status Toriyama-sensei has reached as an artist in Japan: «Akira Toriyama is often referred to as the successor of Osamu Tezuka (AstroBoy, Kimba the White Lion) who is credited with popularizing manga in Japan and the one artist who best represents the world of manga. Toriyama followed his great success Dr.Slump, which sold 28,110,000 copies and spawned a 243-episode animated series, which was rated number one in Japan, with an even greater phenomenon - Dragon Ball - which has sold over 109,300,000 copies (as of 7/95)!! [...] Dragon Ball has not only spawned almost 500 episodes of animated shows, but has created a merchandising frenzy with sales of 2.95$ billion in Dragon Ball-related merchandise! Akira Toriyama has reached a status few artists can hope for. An Akira Toriyama exhibition has recently toured nine public art galleries and other venues, drawing over 3.3 million people. This is the second time in history that a Manga artist has achieved this level of notoriety (the first being Osamu Tezuka and the exhibit was after his death). The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo has made an unprecedented move by exhibiting a manga artist's work. The worlds of Akira Toriyama can be seen displayed with those of artists such as Monet and Miro.
Akira Toriyama is primarily a gag manga artist. He is also the creative force for the present Toriyama empire. He started out as a graphic designer, before selling his first short story manga. He had several one-shots published, then hit the big time with the toilet-humor gag series Dr. Slump. Eventually, Dr. Slump ended, and was replaced by the adventure series smash hit — Dragon Ball. The Dragon Ball manga ran for 10 years, and finally wrapped up in the spring of 1995. Along the way, Toriyama has acted as character designer for:
All of the Dragon Quest home console games (SNES) Toraneko's Great Adventure (SNES) Chronotrigger (SNES) (Story by Yujii Horii) Tobal #1 and #2 (Sony Play Station.) Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump have both been animated as TV series (Dr. Slump has been revived as a new TV show, with new character designs, but basically the same stories as before), TV specials, and theatrical movies. The movies have been released on video tape, but the TV series hasn't. Because of the continued popularity of Dragon Ball, a sequel series was created: Dragon Ball GT. Toriyama had acted only as "artistic consultant" for DBGT, and was not directly responsible for writing the stories. Note that Toriyama has stated that he has NO interest in drawing a manga for DBGT. After resting for 2.5 years, Toriyama returned briefly in Nov., 1997, with a new manga, entitled "Cowa!". Cowa! is a slapstick gag series, aimed at younger readers, set in a world where monsters and humans co-exist. In July., 1998, Toriyama introduced the 12-chapter long "Kajika", a series influenced heavily by his earlier work, "Dragon Ball". Interview #1 Interview with Toriyama Akira This interview is taken from the first World book published by Shueisha Inc. after the Dragonball manga ended in 1995. What you see here is an English translation of the French translation by Eran Kameya, published by Glénat. ------------------------------------------------------- Q: Interviewer TA: Toriyama Akira -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q: Since this book is a sort of illustrated bible of Dragon ball, we'll concentrate on just one theme for this interview - your visual universe. To start, we'd like to know if you deliberately changed your drawing style between Dr. Slump and Dragon ball, and if so, why? TA: Generally, I tend to adapt my style to the story. I can't stand doing the same thing twice. I could have drawn Dragon ball in the same way as Dr. Slump but the wouldn't have matched the story. One practical example: the fights in Dragon ball. The more prevalent they became, the more my strokes had to become simple and angular to be effective. With a more rounded stroke, as in Dr. Slump, it wouldn't have worked as well. And anyway, when it comes down to it, I have a warped mind. When I get a letter from a reader who tells me that my style has become too angular and they preferred my old style, that just makes me go even further...(laughs)... In the beginning I was more of an illustrator than a comic artist, that was why it was so difficult for me to draw characters in movement. I have to tell you that the first scenes of the martial arts championship were a real trial for me. Q: It's said that in your studio you have no reference materials... So, what did you use as inspiration for those first combat scenes? TA: Hmmm... How did I do it? Since my pride would not let me take inspiration from other manga, I went back to the films that were a part of my childhood. Q: Do you still find the time to go to the cinema? TA: Not since I have children. However, I try to record most of the films shown on TV, everything thrown in together. That way I can have them on while I work. In those conditions, its best to avoid subtitled films... (laughs). I decide if something is interesting by listening. When a film really interests me I'll watch it all the way through, otherwise I just let it run. Q: Did some of your cult films inspire the story for Dragon ball? TA: No, not particularly. I'm more interested in the visual aspect of films, for example, in a scene with an explosion there isn't just a bang, there's a bright flash immediately beforehand... It's that kind of thing that makes my visual universe richer. Q: The narrative style in Dragon ball is still very like that of a film... TA: It's true that I'm a great fan of the Jacky Chan films and of their incredible pace. For combat sequences it's hard to find a better reference. For the rest, I only look for reference materials if I have to draw cars or planes. In those cases, studying lots of models is invaluable to me. Q: All your readers are impressed by your ability to deform existing types of cars to create unusual vehicles... TA: When I try to reproduce an existing vehicle exactly, it takes me a terribly long time. You have to have a feel for detail. On the other hand, if I decide to deform and modify reality, everything becomes simple. Basically, I always choose the easiest way to get rid of my work as quickly as possible!...(laughs)... On more serious note, since my manga is a comedy and the main characters are themselves caricatures, the things that surround them should be the same. Q: In Dragon ball, as well as deformed vehicles, we see a good few machines that have come straight out of your imagination... TA: It's when I invent, when I innovate, that I enjoy myself the most! (laughs) I try to make even my craziest inventions credible by not leaving anything to chance. I design them as if they were destined to be used in real life. Q: Coming back specifically to your drawing and particularly your colouring, how do you do it? TA: I use a range of ready-to-use inks called 'Ruma', a shojo-manga artist recommended them to me a few years ago. Before that I used an ink which I had to lay out on a plate and dilute before I could use it. It was time-consuming and tedious. Q: What is your favorite colour? TA: Green! Dark Italian green, but yellow and orange too. Q: Yellow and orange are the colours of Son Gokuu's kimono... TA: That's right, but I only chose them because they're the colours worn by Chinese monks, not because I like them. They're lucky colours. Q: How do you create your characters? TA: At first I think more of a story, of a universe than of a character. You first have to create the setting, then the characters become obvious. Sometimes, after I've done it, I regret creating some of my characters, or parts of them. Cell, for example, but that's more laziness than anything else. Each time I think I've finished a story he appears in, I realize that I've forgotten to put in the markings all over his body. I really don't like characters that need to have toning sheets applied, especially when I have to apply them myself...(laughs)... Q: Do you plan the colour of your characters' clothes in advance? TA: Pfff... I work more by feeling, and since I almost never look at my previous drawings, it can happen that the colours vary noticably from one page to the next...(laughs)... Q: In this book, your drawings are arranged in chronological order, so we can see how your style has evolved over the years... TA: I think that that evolution happened naturally, without my being aware of it. But each time I see one of my published books, I tell myself that my drawings and my colours are mediocre. Q: Really?! TA: If I had the time, I wouldn't hesitate to do them all again. (laughs) Q: Your colours have evolved too... TA: In 1989, I produced, as director, an anime called Kosuke and Rikimaru and that allowed me to draw on animation techniques for colouring and the use of light and shadow. It was a real turning point in my career... Q: When you're working on an illustration, do you do the black and white drawing and the colours at the same time? TA: Generally, yes. When I start a drawing, I concentrate myself totally; I no longer hear anything around me. I can't do anything else until it is finished. Q: To finish off, what are your favorite illustrations from Dragonball? TA: The one where Son Gokuu and Son Gohan are riding a sort of Harley-Davidson ostrich. Q: Just one, that's all?! TA: As far as composition and colour goes, I think that really was the only one... But, you know, that really isn't surprising, coming from someone like me. I have a passionate nature and what I love above all else is change, the unexpected. You have to put yourself in question constantly to progress. The worst thing would be if I became bored with my work. That's why I make myself make mistakes, so that I always have room for improvement...(laughs)... Q: Thank you for giving us some of your precious time. Akira Toriyama's other mangas Dragon Ball Series Dragon Ball is a gag/adventure manga by Akira Toriyama, based on the old Chinese Monkey King legends. Dragon Ball started out as a gag manga, with adventure elements. But, by volume 14, Toriyama switched focus and concentrated on the martial arts aspects. According to various sources, Toriyama was beginning to burn out on Dragon Ball around the Freeza storyline. However, his editor pressured him to keep going. Finally, Toriyama took Dragon Ball as far as he wanted, and wrapped it up at the end of volume 42, in the summer of 1995. Dragon Ball Z was a name change for the TV series, that reflected the change in focus mentioned above. But, the manga has always been named Dragon Ball. Because Dragon Ball has been a hugely successful marketing vehicle (promoting products as diverse as clocks, posters, curry rice, eye drops, and children's study desks), many promotional agencies demanded that a replacement TV series fill the gap left behind by Dragon Ball. Thus was created Dragon Ball GT. Toriyama was retained as artistic consultant, but no longer had direct input to the storyline and there is no manga to accompany the TV anime. Apparently, DBGT was intended to end around April, 1997. However, the latest DBGT video game for the Sony Play Station had to be released before the end of the show, and the game missed its first deadline. So, the DBGT TV series was extended for a few more episodes, until the new game could be released at the end of August, 1997. DBGT ended its TV run on Nov. 19, 1997. Dr. Slump took over DBGT's timeslot the following week. Dr. Slump Dr. Slump is a gag manga by Akira Toriyama. It starts with Senbe Norimaki, a brilliant if erratic inventor, building a robot in the shape of a young girl. He names the robot "Arale" ("senbe norimaki" is a kind of rice cracker; "arale" is a smaller rice cracker. Dr. Slump is full of these kinds of puns.) Arale is enrolled in an elementary school, as a test to see if she is designed well enough to fit in with the rest of society. Arale actually is very strange — being super strong, and liking to play to dog turds — but the rest of Penguin Village is just as weird, and no one complains about her. The succeeding stories are mainly parodies of various movies and Japanese TV shows. But, there is also a sort of unfolding drama, as Senbe falls in love with Arale's teacher, and eventually marries her. They even have a son, named Turbo. In the final volumes, Toriyama throws in more, longer multi-part stories, that always have some stupid joke at the end. With the creation of the video game magazine "V-Jump", Toriyama revived his characters with a continuing serial manga in V-Jump. However, most of the new stories were written by Toriyama's studio staff, and are not as good as the originals. Sometime in 1996, the New Dr. Slump disappeared from the pages of V-Jump. The Dr. Slump TV series ran from April, 1981, to Feb., 1986. During the revival of the story in V-Jump, there were a few short movies released to the theaters (as part of a triple-feature.) Each of the movies have seen print in the form of Jump Anime Comics. As with Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump has been translated into many different languages, and has appeared in quite a few different countries. Beginning with January 1997, an Italian version of the manga has apeared in print. Dr. Slump is not as popular on Internet as Dragon Ball is, but there are a few web pages geared to this manga, with most of the current interest being in Europe. Toki Mecha ("Time Machine") In December of 1996, Toriyama started a 3-issue short story called "Tokimecha". The episodes appeared on 12/21, 1/4, and 1/13. It is basically about a young girl — Tai — who finds a time machine. She travels to a pre-historic period, where she runs into a caveboy — Muu, and her machine gets busted. Apparently trapped, she discovers that the caveboy can speak Japanese, and that she is not the only time traveller here. Muu wants to marry Tai because she is the strongest woman on Earth (due to her use of technology), which causes Muu's previous betrothed — Meh — to take an immediate hate towards Tai. The other time travelers are two hunters on the lookout for fun dinosaurs to shoot at. They kidnap Meh to sell her back in the future to slavers. Muu and Tai chase the hunters down, and Muu beats them up. Tai gets the hunter's time machine and returns to her own time (leaving the hunters stranded in the past.) Just after Tai destroys the second machine to prevent the technology from being misused anymore, she discovers that Muu and his pet dino had sneaked themselves into the future via her machine. The artwork is as good as we've come to expect from Toriyama, and the sight gags are no different. None of the characters are directly based on any of the previous main designs of Dragonball, Dr. Slump, or Go! Go! Akkman (which apparently no longer appear in V-Jump magazine.) The Tokimecha designs are clean and solid, though, and interesting to look at. The story is a very straight-forward set-up. There are no real hooks to allow Toriyama to turn Tokimecha into a long-term running series. Don't expect Tokimecha to reappear in Shonen Jump any time in the near future. However, there will undoubtedly be a collection of the new short stories released when there is enough material for it. Look for Tokimecha to be reprinted at that time.
Shonen Jump magazine has periodic contests to allow readers to vote for their favorite artists. The Jump Reader's Cup '97 started out with a 46-page one-shot from Toriyama, entitled Majin Mura no Bubul, appearing in the #22/23 issue of Shonen Jump. Each subsequent week, a different artist will submit their own one-shot story in the contest. (No news yet as to who the winner is this year.) "Majin" translates to "Magical being". As Toriyama presents them in this story, Majin are short, fat creatures (probably blue creatures) with Kewpie Doll-style peaks on their heads. Majin can fly, perform various kinds of magic, and essentially act like good-natured demons. They live in a world apart from humans, but they do have some limited interaction with their human counterparts. The main character is Bubul, a young Majin that loves to watch humans along with his little brother, Purupuru. Bubul's father works in the human world, and uses a dimensional gate to travel back and forth. One day, while making snowmen in the human world, Bubul and Purupuru hear a car approaching them; this is the closest they've ever gotten to a human, and they watch excitedly (their eyes turning into binoculars.) In the car is a bank robber, who is attempting to outrun the police. The robber is named Patchi, and he drives until he runs out of fuel. Continuing on foot, he runs until he discovers the dimensional gate. The police lose Patchi's tracks, so they use a robot dog (when the robo-dog reaches a river, it pauses to take a piss; the sheriff comments that he doesn't know why these robo-dogs do this thing.) Patchi hears the robo-dog's barking, and enters the gate to hide. Bubul and Purupuru follow Patchi and introduce themselves. Patchi tries to scare them off with his gun, but Bubul tells Purupuru to play bowling -- Purupuru complains about being the one that always has to play the part of the pins. Bubul removes his head, and knocks the pins over. The two Majin then discuss human things, as Bubul tells Purupuru what a "bank robber" is. They are both impressed that Patchi is a robber. The police locate the gate, and Patchi uses Bubul as a hostage, while Purupuru flies off to get their mother. Mom arrives, introduces herself to Patchi, asks what a "bank robber" is, and then prepares to fly away to do some shopping in town. Bubul takes a fancy to Patchi's expensive sneakers (about $100). Mom runs into her husband, and they return past the police and enter the dimensional gate. Dad comments that he's heard on the news that Patchi has robbed a huge amount of money and is now rich, but the man replies that he's just doing this to save his wife. Dad decides to send his eyes (they fly out of his head) out into town to determine how Patchi's wife is. Dad is disappointed to discover that the other gang members are ignoring the tied up woman, and are just playing cards instead of doing sexually nasty things to their captive. Dad's eyes come back, and he says that he'll allow Bubul to go out to help Patchi. He'd do it himself, but he'd probably get angry, and kill everyone. Patchi gets on Bubul's back and they fly FAST to a ship that is anchored near the town. The real villians leave the ship, confront Patchi, and ask for the money. Patchi tries to sic Bubul on them, but the Majin is weak if he isn't angry, and ends up receiving bubblegum from the villians cause he's so cute. Zuroosu yells at Patchi to wake up, and stop trying to rely on the little fat, stupid-looking geek. This insult makes Bubul angry, and he becomes twenty-plus feet tall. As Bubul destroys the dockyards, the villians run away, and Patchi rescues Zurousu. It takes Patchi and Zurousu two days to walk back to the gate. By that time, the police are gone. Patchi discovers that Bubul's family has spent all of the money (Bubul gets expensive sneakers, Purupuru gets a giant teddy bear, and mom and dad get a new car and expensive clothing.) Because Patchi is a wanted criminal now, he and Zurousu end up spending the rest of their days happily raising a family of their own in the Majin world. Majin Mura no Bubul is a fun little one-shot. It's not one of Toriyama's funniest stories, since he relies less on toilet humor than he does on weird twists on how the Majin view human oddities. Bubul is outstanding mainly due to its pacing, original storyline, and great layout drawings.
Haven’t read this one through yet…. Kajika Kajika is Akira Toriyama's newest manga title since Cowa! Kajika premiered in Shonen Jump #32 1998 and seems to be a long running series. The story is about a boy named Kajika who is cursed with have a fox's tail and ears. When Kajika was young he killed a fox by crushing it with a boulder. The fox's ghost came out and gave Kajika his curse which can be broken if he saves 1000 living creature's lives. If Kajika successfully saves 1000 creature's lives, only then will he be restored into a human being again. The first issue starts off with Kajika saving a little lizard from falling off a waterfall. Kajika shows the lizard to Gigi, the fox's ghost, to get his approval. Gigi then says that he has saved 990 living creatures and he only needs to save 10 more. Kajika is ecstatic about this since he will soon be turned back into a human after 5 years of being a fox. He and Gigi continue on their way to help save more creatures but are interrupted when Kajika hears the sound of cars and that someone is being chased. So he and Gigi run off to see what is going on. They arrive only to see a girl named Haya being surrounded by a group of men with guns. The big men yell at the girl to give the egg to them saying that she will die. Haya disregards their comments and starts fighting the armed men with her sword. She is able to parry all of them and the leader of the group tells his men to stay back. He then attacks Haya with his sword and cuts her face. Kajika then decides to save the girl who is now losing. Kajika makes a mockery of himself and tells them to pick on someone their own size. One of the henchmen says that the kid is Kajika and that he can turn a bad guy into good. The leader puzzled and annoyed tells him men to get him, but Kajika uses his powers to knock the men off their feet without even touching them. The leader is shocked and rushes Kajika with his sword. Kajika grabs the sword and breaks it in half and uses his powers to freeze the leader. He then proceeds to cleanse the leader's soul to make him into a good guy. The bad guys ride away peacefully giving Kajika their thanks. Haya then introduces herself to Kajika saying that those men were hired by Gibachu to get the Dragon Egg. She explains that the egg possesses can give a person incredible powers if used properly. Haya explains that she has to return the egg to its rightful owner and asks Kajika to accompany her.
Akira Toriyama is not merely a manga artist — he is also a super-powerful corporation, a force to be reckoned with in the manga world in Japan. He has woven strong contacts with Shonen Jump magazine, due to the amazing successes they have both had with Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball. So, when the Jump publishing corporation decided to create a magazine dedicated to video gaming — V-Jump — it was not too surprising that Toriyama would have a few fingers in the new pie. Over time, Toriyama has run a number of manga through the pages of V-Jump. Most of these manga were actually written and drawn by staff artists from Toriyama's studio, and were subsequently not exactly what we would have expected from Toriyama himself. The below titles are the long-running series that appeared in V-Jump. I don't have much more info on them,
Scenario writer for the New Dr. Slump, and Cashman, Savings Soldier. (He may have been responsible for Go! Go! Akuman, as well.) Born 1948, in Tokyo. Debuted with the TV show "Inaka-pe Taishou". Worked on Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball Z, and many other shows as a writer. Katsuoshi Nakatsuru Artist for the New Dr. Slump, and Cashman, Savings Soldier. (He may have worked on Go! Go! Akuman, as well.) Born 1962, in Ooita. Joined the Toei Studios artist staff in 1981. Worked on Dragon Ball Z, Dr. Slump Arale-chan, and others as an artist.
Colorist on the New Dr. Slump. Satoko is not given direct credit on the manga covers. But, the color manga is what's called a "cel comic". That is, it's created just as if it was going to be filmed for an anime series. The first volume of the New Dr. Slump manga demonstrates how cel comics are made, and shows a photo of Satoko deciding which colors to use for each of the characters, and directing the people that actually paint in all of the panels. With the creation of the video game magazine "V-Jump", Toriyama revived his characters from the original Dr. Slump manga (starting in Feb., 1993). However, most of the new stories were written and drawn by Koyama and Nakatsuru. If you love the original manga, you probably won't care for the new series. However, the new stories and artwork are pretty good if they are judged on their own merits. And, there's lots of gag cameo appearances by other Toriyama characters (Gokuu, Toruneko, and the Dragon Questers all show up along the way. One story also featured a parody of Bruce Willis from "Die Hard".) A few new characters were added to the Penguin Village cast, and the stories were updated to make fun of the technology of the mid-1990's (several gags revolve around virtual reality game systems.) Some of the character designs were modified, becoming a little more square and blocky ala the later Dragon Ball Z episodes. In Sept., 1996, the New Dr. Slump ended. There are a total of four tankobon (collected volumes) of the New Dr. Slump. They are pretty hard to find — since I've only seen one store that carries them out of all the places that I have visited. I have read all four volumes, and I really like them. There's some strange ideas that Toriyama himself never would have come up with, and occasionally some of the best artwork I've ever seen. (During one Halloween party, the adults are supposed to go through a graveyard and brave the "ghosts" that are played by the kids. Senbee discovers a cache of girly magazines. The other adults have a picnic supper. Akane, dressed as a vampire, is so angry that no one is trying to reach the goal that she smashes Senbee in the head with a mace, and sends his upper teeth down through his jaw. The result is so scary that when the real monsters show up, they run away in fear. The image of Senbee in this scene is great. In another story, Turbo gives Arale an adult body, which is really sexy. But, the robot's brain is still only 10-years old, making for some beautiful scenes as she runs around at mach speeds o_0)
Back in 1990, Cashman, Savings Soldier appeared in V-Jump #12 as a three-part one-shot. In that story, a crash-landed alien rescued people to raise money for a new space ship. Toriyama's staff resurrected this manga, turning it into a series with V-Jump #6, 1997. This time, the alien, named "Jiora", has taken over the identity of a small-town Earth cop named "Chapat". Chapat had been brain-damaged when he was hit by the landing strut of Jiora's ship. Jiora takes over Chapat's body to work in the Slope Town police force, to raise money to refuel his ship (his ship runs on gold, which is very expensive to buy on Earth.) In the first chapter, as Cashman, Jiora foils a bank robbery, charging the bank 50,000 ien (a play on "yen") for the work. Later, Jiora gets Chapat's paycheck, for 150,000 ien. Only to discover that Chapat owes 200,000 ien to his boss and co-workers. Scenario Writer: Takao Koyama Artist: Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru
The DVD's special features will include a feature on the development of anime as an artform, behind the scenes looks at the creation of seven of the films and audio commentaries in Japanese for The Second Renaissence 1 and 2, Program and World Record. Information about the specific films themselves follows, taken directly from the press release.
The Second Renaissance - Parts 1 and 2 Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski; Directed by Mahiro Maeda Animation and production design by Studio4°C, Tokyo The Genesis of the Matrix: the last cities of mankind, the war with the machines, and humanity’s ultimate downfall. An epic guided tour of the Zion archives and the history of the Matrix. Kid’s Story Written by Andy and Larry Wachowski; Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe Animation and production design by Studio4°C, Tokyo Sitting in his high school classroom, THE KID gets a personalized invitation from Neo (voiced by Keanu Reeves) to escape the Matrix. But finding an exit proves more difficult than he ever imagined. Program
Animation and production design by Madhouse Studios, Tokyo In the simulated world of a Samurai training program, CIS, a soldier of Zion, is forced to choose between love and her comrades in the real world. World Record Written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri; Directed by Takeshi Koike Animation and production design by Madhouse Studios, Tokyo Through an incredible combination of will power and physical strength, DAN, a world-record-holding sprinter, breaks out of the Matrix and gets an all-too-brief glimpse of the real world beyond. Beyond
Animation and production design by Studio4°C, Tokyo In a quiet town where all is not as it seems, YOKO finds a bug in the system: an abandoned mansion in which anything seems possible. And then the exterminators arrive to “de-bug”. Detective Story Written and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe Animation and production design by Studio4°C, Tokyo Hard-boiled private investigator ASH tracks cyber-criminal TRINITY (voiced by Carrie-Anne Moss) through the looking glass… Matriculated Written and directed by Peter Chung Animation and production design by DNA, Seoul A small group of rebels have captured a sentient robot and proceed to program it to act as an ally for their cause. They succeed too well in teaching the robot to prefer their “human Matrix” to machine reality. And the robot’s appetite for the “human Matrix” may exceed the humans’ ability to supply it. AnimEigo's You're Under Arrest TV series will be available for retail purchase beginning Thursday, February 20th. The three volumes will be sold individually for $24.95, as well as a four-disc box set for $79.98. Borders took another step toward bookseller dominance in the manga market, becoming the exclusive distributor of Viz Communications' Di Gi Charat manga. Each volume will be made availiable to Borders on a quarterly basis, other retailers will recieve the title six months later. "We felt Di Gi Charat was a perfect mall product; the characters are ultra-cute, and shojo titles sell most of their copies outside the direct market," said Mike Roberson of Viz. The arrangement appears to be working out, with Borders making large orders and the title selling well. [editor's note: Digi Charat isn't actually Shojo]
The video system will be based on proprietary am3 SmartMedia cards, which are capable of holding 24 minutes of video or 5 hours of audio. The adaptors themselves will sell for 2800 yen. The cards will initially be sold with anime episodes encoded on them for a price between 200 and 500 yen. Later, the company has plans to publish 26 episode CDs for the price of 6000 yen. Later, blank SmartMedia cards will hit the market. Users will be able to download media to these cards through in-store kiosks or Internet file distribution. Cartoon Network has announced that, starting in March, Toonami is adding Yu Yu Hakusho as well as the final episodes for Dragonball Z. The programming block will also once again be shortened to a two hour programming block. Toonami was once before shortened to 2 hours in May of 2001. The third hour returned in June 2002. Also in March, Inu Yasha will be returning to Adult Swim. Trigun, meanwhile, has been pushed to an April debut. ANN spoke with J. Philip Oldham, head of Sales at Sandy Frank Entertainment, who cleared up lingering questions about the upcoming Battle of the Planets animations currently in production. Oldham informed us that they are already in production and expect to have 26 episodes ready by September 2003, however they are not certain on the final number of episodes that will be produced. An additional eight feature films will be produced and ready in September. Each episode will be half an hour long (22 minutes), and each film will be around 90 minutes long. The original Japanese Gatchman series was 105 episodes long, Battle of the Planets drew from the first 85 of those 105 episodes. The new battle of the Planets series, The New Exploits of G Force, will draw from the same 85 episodes, as well as from the remaining 20 episodes. It is the first time that any American series uses footage from the remaining 20 episodes, however Oldham explained clarified that there is no new footage being animated for this series. Oldhman stated, "105 episodes is a lot of material, more than enough for 26 episodes and 8 films." While they will be focussing on the same classic story, the battle between G-Force and Zarc, Sandy Frank Entertainment will be starting from scratch for the new series, they will be producing new scripts and new music. "We're taking a successfule franchise and re-writing it so that it is more contemporary," explained Oldham. The series will be airing on TV, however Oldham would not tell us on what network(s). Following a a post on Toonami Info Link we contacted ADV to check up on the details of their immediate future on Satellite TV. The result is a bit more in keeping with what we would have expected than the over-optimistic (but factually accurate) post. ADV confirmed for us that they are indeed talking to numerous cable and satellite companies around America, but our rep didn't know of any firm deals with satellite companies at this time. In short, ADV is actively working to make The Anime Network available nation wide, but don't expect to find it on your cable or satellite subscription plan just yet. As always, any fans hoping to get a particular channel available in their area can tip the scales in their favor by contacting their cable or satellite provider. [I love his style….^_^]
Production has begun on Sony's feature film Astro boy. Sony has chosen to make the film entirely in computer-generated imagery rather then a combination of live-action and cgi. Yahoo! Movies reports that animation production and design started on Astro Boy (with a space, unlike the anime & manga titles) in the late spring of 2003 Art Here’s some manga pages the I drew, there’ only sketches and not totally done as far as detail goes, but here they are. Next issue I’ll put some nice pics up ;) 
[If you want to enlarge these, just run the through an image editor…..preferably Photoshop….^_^….good ole Photoshop….] Reviews Haven’t watched an anime lately…..:P There will be some next time!! Japanese 101 In an effort to learn Japanese myself, I thought that it would be helpful if I put it in here, so you could learn…something…. Just my convoluted way of drilling vocab/phrases into my head!! ^_^ This is also going to be a continuing list, just to let you know. If you’re not interested in learning Japanese or looking it over, just skip it, it’s all good. Also, if I screw something up, please tell me! Even if just a little…thanks! Mae- Front (in front of) Temae- Before (in front of, this side of) Ushiro- Back (behind) Naka- Inside Soto- Outside Ue- top (on top of) Shita- Bottom (under) Chikaku- near Tonari- Beside Muko’- Beyond Mukai- Opposite Kara- From Agari- To rise, to ascend Age- To give (to a second, or third person) Akasi- To reveal, To disclose Aki- To grow tired of, To lose interest in Aki’- To open, To become vacant Anadori- To dispise Download 79.86 Kb. Share with your friends:
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