Japanese Entertainment – Geeking Out About.com

Keeping Tabs: Avatar sequel unlikely to win animation Oscars, and other stories

Posted on 11 July 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Ever since Spirited Away was the second movie to win the Best Animated Feature award and the first anime (and non-English language) movie to win, anime and animation geeks have been keeping a close eye on this Academy Awards category. The newest change in the rules of the category, amongst other rules changes, were announced, including this death blow for films like Avatar which featured extensive use of new technology: “”Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.” (Source: ANN)

In the “We Can Do It!” department, Josh Tolentino gave a brief update and provided screenshots from studio Ordet’s Black Rock Shooter, a 50-minute OVA whose source material comes from a one-year old illustration, a song recorded using the Vocaloid software, and an ensuing music video. The OVA will be released in Japan on July 24 as “special pack-in DVD with the newest print editions of Animedia, Hobby Magazine, and Megami. Two questions: 1) If James Cameron combined Vocaloid usage with his mo-cap technology for his next movie, how much money would that make? and 2) Is that really a string bikini top that the underaged-looking protagonist is wearing in the image above? (Source: Japanator.com)
And finally, if you’re a gadget geek and/or a comics geek but wanted to know which of the iPhone or Android apps to download in order to get the most comics for your bucks, Johanna Draper Carlson and Glen Weldon have got you covered with Draper Carlson providing a very succinct update on the status of the currently existing ventures and Weldon providing a very nuanced editorial on the current Digital Age of Comics.Is this enough to put a nail into the coffin of the “local comic book store” or increase comics readership? Let me put it this way: if I had an iPhone or ‘Droid (or an iPad) and knew that I could pay $5 or less for comics, you betcha I’d be reading some of them more often (Source: Comics Worth Reading, NPR’s Monkey See blog)

Digital Manga to “hire” scanlators to translate manga

Posted on 18 June 2010 by admin 1 Comment

rsz_manga_scan_image — One hopes the results will be better than this (Source: K-Rotaku)

Erica Friedman, your questions have been answered.

Earlier this week, the founder of ALC Publishing (a GLBT-themed manga publisher) posted her musings about how the problem of fighting manga scanlation piracy could be solved. In short and apparently after two months of thinking about it, Friedman concluded that that someone with more money and more brainpower than she does needs to come up with a publishing model which allows the community to have its say in what gets translated, how it gets translated, how it gets published (digital only or also in print) and still be able to pay the creator (or his/her original publishing house) for the rights to translate the original Japanese into whichever language they want.

Apparently, over in the man-on-man side of the manga world, Jennifer LeBlanc at The Yaoi Review.com dug around a little and discovered that a Japanese manga publisher is doing exactly that:

[Digital Manga Publishing] is working on a new ‘secret’ project for publishing more manga faster and cheaper than it is now. It would be via a digital format and they are looking to hire scanlators to help with this. Essentially, scanlators would be doing what they do now except there is the possibility of getting paid based on the sales of said manga titles they worked on. They also get to have their name on everything they translate and retain certain rights to the work they do. What rights I do not know. There is also the possibility of becoming a paid translator ‘if qualified’ and you’d be ahead of the pack when it comes to any other candidates that applied for the position.

Today, Anime News Network confirmed the details in LeBlanc’s blogpost, adding that DMP would start this program off with the “boys love” genre and gauging its viability before moving into other genres and novels.

Personally speaking, I think part of this is brilliant because crowdsourcing does seem to be the “new” way of getting things done and giving consumers a say in what they purchase. By giving the scanlator circles a bit of legitimacy, it takes away the “cool” factor in choosing the pirated works and also would make the scanlators want to work on the official material because, hey, they’re finally getting paid and recognized for their work!

Of course, if I were part of one of these manga scanlator circles, I’d demand to see a contract first and to have it vetted by a lawyer who’s familiar with international law because there’s nothing that would suck more than being screwed over by a work-for-hire contract.

I hope that the folks at DMP will be able to say more at the summer anime/manga convention panels.

Ghost to get remake… in Japan?

Posted on 13 May 2010 by admin 1 Comment

Though I am quick to enjoy a good “nerd rage” on the idea of yet another remake or readaptation being announced, I do have to say that the news that there will be a remake of the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore 1990s hit Ghost is making me just a little bit giddy–because it’s going to be in Japanese.

From Cinema Today.jp and Nippon Cinema.com—and our friends at Japanator.com—comes the news that Paramount Pictures Japan and Shochiku have handed over the reins of the Japanese remake to live-action drama director Taro Otani (“Gokusen”), and it sounds like they’re fast-tracking it, too with shooting to begin this June with a release in the fall. Taking on the Swayze role will be Korean actor Song Seung Hun while Japanese actress Nanako Matsushima will be stepping into Moore’s shoes.

No word on whether or not producer Takashige Ichise (The Grudge) will be getting an Okinawan-style comedian to play the Whoopi Goldberg role.

Category: Japanese Entertainment