News

At first they we’re just rumors but now the news Bleach manga fans have been waiting for is finally here. Tite Kubo’s long-running manga Bleach is doing a live-action movie adaptation. The movie will open in Japan sometime in 2018. The news comes in time with the ending of the manga which is now in it’s 74th and final volume. Leaks have been circulating online recently but Weekly Shonen Jump is expected to release an official announcement on Monday, August 22nd.

Bleach Live-Action Movie

Sōta Fukushi will play Ichigo Kurosaki, the boy who becomes a shinigami and helps good souls crossover. Shinsuke Sato, known for his work in the Gantz series, Oblivion Island and many others will direct the live-action film. Original creator Tite Kubo will continue to assist in the production to make sure fans remain happy.

Weekly Shonen Jump first published the manga in 2001. Since then,...

Nishikubo Mizuho's animated feature film Giovanni's Island won the Excellence Prize in the Animated Films Category of the 38th annual Japan Academy Prizes. This prize now nominates it for the Grand Prize in the same category. Winners will be announced by the Japan Academy Prize Association on February 27th. In the past years, Mamoru Oshii's "The Sky Crawlers" (32nd edition) , Shinsuke Sato's "Oblivion Island" (33rd edition) and Hiroyuki Okiura's "A Letter to Momo" (36th edition) received the Excellence Prize."Giovanni's Island" screened in the official selection of several prestigious film festivals around the world, including the 36th Moscow International Film Festival, the 58th London Film Festival and the 36th Cairo International Film Festival. It was invited as closing film at the 4th Sakhalin International Film Festival, held...

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The 17th Japanese Film Festival is on full swing in Melbourne, playing commercial fare, classics and festival favorites that have been igniting the rest of the world this year.Twitch colleagues Andrew Mack and Diva Vélez got to sit down with two of the great and prominent directors featured in the festival, check out their in-depth interviews below!Shinsuke Sato and Library Wars:Shinsuke Sato is an award winning film director, screenplay writer and video game designer. He joined a collaboration of Production Ig and Fuji Television on a full-length animation film Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror, which screened at the 10th Japanese Film Festival in 2011. He directed Gantz and the sequel Gantz Perfect Answer. Both films became box office hits grossing over 300 million yen....

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McM Expo/London Comic Con returns to ExCel London on 25th – 27th October. As well as hosting a galaxy of great sci-fi, movie, games, comics, anime and cosplay content, they’ve also got their usual huge line up of special guests – with more guests being added all the time! see www.mcmcomiccon.com for the latest London Comic Con news – but here’s a round-up of who’s been announced so far:

Red hot fantasy-noir show Lost Girl is coming to McM London Comic Com, with stars Ksenia Solo (Black Swan, Life Unexpected) and Rachel Skarsten (Transporter: The Series, Birds Of Prey) plus executive producer Jay Firestone (Andromeda, La Femme Nikita). Stars from hit sci-fi series Warehouse 13: Kelly Hu (Arrow, X-Men 2, The Vampire Diaries); Eddie McClintock (Bones, Desperate Housewives) and actor/director Saul Rubinek (Frasier, Curb Your Enthusiasm). The stars of new crime thriller By Any Means: Warren Brown (Luther,...

(Mirror, mirror on the wall, in one viewing you won't see it all...) In 2009, renowned Japanese anime studio Production I.G. released Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror. Instead of a regular anime, this was an experiment in which the studio tried to create a computer-animated film in the style of Pixar. A few years back, I saw a theatrical screening of the film at the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, and while I wasn't all that much taken with the story, I was definitely impressed with the rich designs and spectacular action. Earlier this month, Manga UK released Oblivion Island on Blu-ray and DVD. How does the film hold up on repeat viewing at home? Time for a second look... The Story: (I'll...

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Anime, London

While hand-drawn, two-dimensional animation is now seen as slightly archaic in the west, it's still the foundation of Japanese animation, where it looks anything but – usually because it's used to render fantastic and futuristic tales that make ours look timid. Added to which, they're invariably gorgeous to look at. There are strange lands, mystical creatures and flamboyantly long titles to explore in this biennial weekend round-up, such as Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below by Makoto Shinkai, or the latest spin-off from the hugely successful series, Full Metal Alchemist 2: Sacred Star Of Milos (followed by a Q&A with the director). A Letter To Momo captures the spirit of classic Studio Ghibli productions such as My Friend Totoro, while Ghibli's own From Up On Poppy Hill is a fantasy-free coming-of-age story set in 1964 Yokohama, and Oblivion Island shows what they can do with computer animation.

Oblivion Island (Haruka and the Magic Mirror) was promoted as Production I.G's first real full-cg feature. This should have made it quite a bit easier to market to film to international audiences, but apart from a few festival screenings Oblivion Island failed to make a big international splash. It's not difficult to see why, though in my opinion these very elements only turn the film into a better and more interesting experience. Production I.G used to be Japan's prime studio for mature, feature-length and quality animation films. There was no studio out there that could equal the level of excellence that went into their films. Once they started to go down the TV series road though, the drop in standards was instantly visible. It's not...

Several press releases went out today featuring some huge news coming out of Canada's Fantasia Film Festival including the first batch of films that will be populating this massive three-week long event. Pull up your chair, kids! You're gonna be here for a while!

Dig on the wealth of information below from today's releases and look for more announcements and of course full coverage soon!

Spotlight: Between Death And The Devil

Recent times and crimes have seen extraordinary levels of disillusionment with organized religion, particularly with the Catholic Church, and genre cinema has mirrored this anger with startling impact. In the face of this, we’ve put together this troubling spotlight focused on the abuse of faith, the horrors of ideology and the corruption of Godliness. Several of these films will absolutely stagger you.

Black Death (UK) Dir: Christopher Smith – North American premiere. Hosted by Director Christopher Smith

With the Black Death sweeping across England,...

Fantasia has a proud tradition of showcasing the best and strangest of Asian cinema and 2010 will be no different!

The Asian film selection brought forth by Fantasia 2010 will allow spectators to experience a variety of Asian cultures, all while enjoying a wide range of cinematic genres that will inspire every possible emotion. From musicals to thrillers to war films and horror flicks, Asian filmmakers often use genre cinema as means of painting a portrait of their nation, highlighting certain social preoccupations, or examining historical events that have impacted that corner of the globe. This reality is strongly represented in the Asian film selection at this year's Fantasia Film Festival.

In order to paint an accurate picture of the national cinemas presented in our program, attention will also be given to certain key works that have helped shape the contemporary cinematic landscape of these countries. Therefore, Fantasia will offer an excellent selection of classic films,...

Japanese animation films were sorely missed at last year's Imagine Film Festival Amsterdam, but that criticism was taken to heart by the programmers so this year anime was back in a big way with representations by Studio 4C, MadHouse and Production Ig. The offering by Production Ig was the CGI feature "Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror", a flashy and spit-polished family adventure movie which actually ended up in the Top-10 of the Imagine Festival Audience Awards.

 

A high Audience rating is by its very nature deserved of course: a crowdpleaser is a crowdpleaser, and crowdpleasing is an art in itself. But was I impressed? Well... somewhat, in spots, but I was not overwhelmed.

 

I'll elaborate...

 

 

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