Deny~!

SO yeah, w-inds. The boy band that brought us such hits as SUPER LOVER, NEW PARADISE and IT’S IN THE STARS. Their lead singer Keita Tachibana (pictured on right) has just released his first solo single.

Now here’s something to consider; the other two members of the group are there just to dance, lip sync with the chorus and rap (occasionally singing though like in the case of their third album in 2003, Prime of Life. Let us never have to go through that again -_-).

(Whaaat? I thought it was their weaker album…)

So in the end, technically, doesn’t this release by Keita just count as just another w-inds single?

Think about that and get back to me :P
-mike

OHMYFRIGGINGAWDYESS!!

THANK YOU LORD!

This just in from Scifi Japan!

In the on-going litigation between Tsuburaya Productions of Japan and Chaiyo Productions of Thailand, a new lawsuit has been filed in Chinese court. This is the latest court case involving the companies’ dispute over rights to ULTRA Q, ULTRAMAN, ULTRA SEVEN, RETURN OF ULTRAMAN, ULTRAMAN ACE, ULTRAMAN TARO and JUMBORG ACE. Also included are the two films, SIX ULTRABROTHERS VS. THE MONSTER ARMY and JUMBORG ACE VS. GIANT.

On August 23, 2006, the Chinese courts opened “The Ultraman Copyright Study Group” in Beijing in response to Tsuburaya’s lawsuit against Chaiyo for copyright infringement and plagiarism. According to Tsuburaya Productions, the Thai company created three characters including Ultraman Millennium and produced goods based on them. From May of this year in Hongzhou, China, a long-term event featuring these 3 characters has been going on and a television program is in preparation.

The Tokyo High Court ruled in 2004 that in 1976 Tsuburaya Productions transferred “usage rights” (termed as “shiyo kenri”) for its earliest characters to the then chairman of the Thai company, Sompote Saenguduenchai for territories outside of Japan. Tsuburaya still holds the copyrights to the characters and their likenesses. Tsuburaya contends that the original contract the ruling was based on is a forgery and that Chaiyo holds no rights whatsoever. From now on it seems as if the stage for the dispute may move to China.

It seems that Tsuburaya is currently concentrating on the lawsuit in Beijing and awaiting the outcome of that court case before proceeding with additional litigation against other Chaiyo-based licensing agreements and products that it considers further infringement on its copyright of the Ultraman character and image.

I’ll keep you guys posted when more info on what looks to be the final battle presents itself. Cross your fingers and pray hard folks, Chaiyo my finally get their asses handed to them by TPC!

Hear it for yourself!

This Week:
Mike ventures to Chicago to watch the US premiere of the “Zeta Gundam: A New Translation” trilogy premiere. In the process, he gets to hear Yoshiyuki Tomino speak…and see Card Captor Will get wasted shortly afterwards.

Questions and Answers..Part 2

And ‘ere we go, Part 2 of the Tomino Q and A. Same disclaimers as part one sooo Gundam Fight All Set! REAAAADYYYY! GO!

—
Fanboy 4: ….I was just wondering how much creative control
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: Well actually, I can’t speak for every aspect of production but for every single frame, I personally oversee it.
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: Also…all the film editing was done by me.
(Applause)

Schwartz Cosplayer: I wanna ask now that you’ve done Zeta with a happier ending, I was wondering if you’re going to re-do Char’s Counterattack with a happier ending?
(Translator speaks to Tomino)
Schwartz: I was wondering if he’d redo any of the other series he’s directed..
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: You’ll have the business people for that one too.

Fangirl 1: (In Japanese)
Translator: One question is that why she combined both the old and new materials. The second is that she was wondering if she could work for the Sunrise Corporation.
(Everybody laughs)
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: Well you can work at Sunrise anytime but there is one catch or one element though. You have to find the right timing or the time that you are able make something new. (In other words, know the right time to pitch something)
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: Okay the first question which is that..um..why we combined both the old and new footage. I will give you two reasons…the first one is the budget reputation, we just didn’t have enough budget to make [everything] new.
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: Well the second question is that..ah..in the promise of using old footage..we kind of respected the old footage because I think there is some sort of [nostalgia] in it. So, having that, let’s say you can make that whole thing everything new. Probably the outcome [may become totally different] so that is why I liked to retain the content of the old Zeta. Therefore I used more footage of the television show.
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: Well it’s not neccesary you know to..make everything..better than the old things…but at this point I’d like to say that doing this…because of combining those two things that it was another challenge I had never thought I’d be [making a page] anime history so this was a great motivation to combine those two elements..
Tomino: (Speaks)
Tomino’s Translator: If you can think of the movie “King Kong”, the old one and the new one, does that mean better or worse? Please think about that.

(NOTE: this was the hardest section to transcribe T_T)

——-

Posting more of Part 2 later on tonight!
-mike

SOS-DAN! SHUUSTUGEKI!

Okay I know you guys are waiting for part 2 of the Q and A session but Isaw this in the midst of transcribing and I couldn’t pass up showing this to you.

The opening theme of “The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”. Set to the opening of Tsuburaya’s series “Fireman”.

A million back massages from the finest women money can buy for this guy.

Questions and Answers..Part 1

So I was recently at the Zeta Gundam: A New Translation Trilogy US premeire this past weekend and I was one of the few people to record the entire Q and A session. Thus, for the benefit of everybody that couldn’t make it, I’m posting a transcript of the events that transpired here.

Now be warned, I’m going by my audio alone so somethings are inaudible and I had to take some liberties but not alot of them. The full audio will be made available in this weekend’s episode of R5 Central. In the meantime, if you wish to use this on your site, please credit me for this one.

Also if you recorded some of the Q and A as well and you spot something off about this, lemme know and I’ll change it.

So without further adieu, here goes Part 1 of the Tomino Q and A transcript.

—————-

(Movie credits for “Love is the Pulse of the Stars” finish)
Guy: Where’s the Hyakku Shiki!?
(Everybody laughs)
Emcee: (instroductory speech blah blah blah) ..We’ll be passing the mic around
Tomino: (speaks)
Fanboy 1: Does Ze-Double Zeta still happen?
(translator speaks to Tomino)
Translator: What’s the question?
Fanboy 1: Does Double Zeta still happen?
Translator: (speaking about what Tomino said before the Q and A actually started)
Fanboy 1: Is Judau okay?
(Laughter again)
Tomino: (Smiles) Um…
(Everybody bursts into laughter)
Tomino: (Speaks in Japanese)
Tomino’s Translator: He doesn’t really want to do it…
(Everybody laughs)
Tomino: (Speaks)
Tomino’s Translator: Rather than going back to the past, I’d like to do something new, something challenging.
(Applause)

Fanboy 2: Actually..I actually have two questions if that’s alright. Um..are we ever going to get Turn-A Gundam in America?
(Everybody applauds)
Fanboy 2: Turn-A Gundam! Will we ever get TURN-A Gundam! In America?
Tomino: (speaks)
Tomino’s Translator: You don’t have to ask me, ask the people in the buisiness
Fanboy 2: And were Diana and Loran an actual couple or were they just friends? I just wanted to know that..If they were romatically married? Diana and Loran! Cehack!
(Translator speaks to Tomino)
Fanboy 2: Diana!
Tomino: (Speaks)
(People get the general idea and laugh)
Tomino’s Translator: You’d have to ask them, I don’t know…
(Everybody Laughs)

Japanese Fan: (Asks question)
Tomino’s Translator: What he asked was…(Basically it’s about why Tomino chose a happy ending this time around for Kamille)
Tomino: (Speaks)
Translator: 20 years ago, there was alot of [robot anime] and I thought it was a good time for me to make it extremely dark..but after 20 years, it is a time for me to make it happy.
(Applause)

Fanboy 2: Actually..I actually have two questions if that’s alright. Um..are we ever going to get Turn-A Gundam in America?
(Everybody applauds)
Fanboy 2: Turn-A Gundam! Will we ever get TURN-A Gundam! In America?
Tomino: (speaks)
Tomino’s Translator: You don’t have to ask me, ask the people in the business
Fanboy 2: And were Diana and Loran an actual couple or were they just friends? I just wanted to know that..If they were romatically married? Diana and Loran! Cehack!
(Translator speaks to Tomino)
Fanboy 2: Diana!
Tomino: (Speaks)
(People get the general idea and laugh)
Tomino’s Translator: You’d have to ask them, I don’t know…
(Everybody Laughs)

Fanboy 3: Well I’ve got two questions. The first is is that um…Did Char live at the end of ah..the current version of Zeta?
Tomino: (Speaks, saying something to the extent of “I really don’t know”)
(Lite laughter)
Translator: I just answered this in a previous question..
Fanboy 3: Oh sorry, well..the other question is that what does Mr. Tomino think of the AU (Alternate Universe) series?
Translator: AU Series?
Fanboy 3: You know, like the se-productions…
Some Guy: SEED!
(Everybody laughs)
Tomino: (Smiles and Speaks)
(Everybody laughs, once again getting the idea of what he said)
Translator: I haven’t watched it so I really can’t tell you.
(Everybody laughs)
—————-

I’m working on the rest of it as we speak so hang tight folks.
-mike