TOBUZE! GO!

Okay. This is really fitting for Halloween as the following video is something REALLY scary. Ichiro Mizuki teamed with a Visual Kei band….

Yeah….

Dance Break!

YOU WANNA SEE A HOT HEAD!?!

This has been a rather educational week. Aside from learning that Dumbledore from Harry Potter is gay and that Gundam Wing was conceived as a joke, I’ve become aware of the following.

-Riki “King of V-Cinema” Takeuchi has some singing chops.

-Nick Cage is freaking nuts.

Also, The Wicker Man is the most hilarious film ever.

-Essence of Pikachu DOES exist…

-You can turn the most epic film into a comedy…

And at the same time, turn a cute and cuddly franchise into something twisted.

It’s all in the marketing.

-Some things are even more amazing in acapella.

So that explains it…

And lo, the Harry Potter fandom did thus have a massive weekend long fangasm. And the internet did explode into tiny bits as the fanfiction doth crasheth servers all across the land.

Just WILD BEAT COMMUNICATION

Masashi Ikeda: “Gundam Wing was a joke, we made it because we knew it would be popular with the public, the anime airing in that time period was all pretty bad, most of the same things seen over and over again in shows. I made a bet with a coworker that I could make a generic, bland, Shounen anime out of something popular like ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ and it would become popular with the youth of today, just like all the other garbage.”

Gfan: “So what you’re saying is, Wing was never meant to be serious, and has basically been tricking fans for over a decade?”

Ikeda: Yes, although Wing turned out to be a fine anime when compared to other things at the time.

Just let that sink in for a bit folks ^_^

EDIT: Oh for god’s sake….Read this.

Come on TIGA/Take Me, Take Me Higher (Again!)

Hot off the heels of Ultraseven X, Tsuburaya unleashes the following bombshell:

Sponichi Annex reports:

Pop singer Hiroshi Nagano (35), the star of ULTRAMAN TIGA will be reprising his role as Daigo, the human form of Ultraman Tiga, in a new feature film produced by Tsuburaya Productions, which will be released in Japanese cinemas, next fall. Nagano last appeared as Daigo in the 2000 film, ULTRAMAN TIGA: THE FINAL ODYSSEY. The ULTRAMAN TIGA television series first debuted on TBS in 1996 ( the series was briefly aired in the US as part of Fox’s “Fox Box” children’s line up in 2000, and is now available on DVD from Funimation).

“It’s been eight years since Daigo transformed into Tiga,” commented Nagano at a recent press conference announcing the new film, “I hope that I will be still able to transform properly for the audience, since it’s been so long.” Other Ultramen who have returned in their later days to transform again, include the original Ultraman, Susumu Kurobe (67), who appeared in last year’s ULTRAMAN MOEBIUS & THE ULTRA BROTHERS, as a senior to the new Ultraman. In the 41 year history of the Ultra Series, the oldest actor to first take the role was 27 year old Yusuke Kirishima, who starred in ULTRAMAN NEXUS (2004).

The new film, entitled DECISIVE BATTLE! THE 8 SUPER ULTRA BROTHERS (Daikessen! Cho Urutora Hachi Urutora Kyodai), as you can guess by the title, will feature eight different Ultramen, but who exactly, besides Ultraman Tiga, are not being revealed at this time. An original Ultra Series alumni, Ultraman movie producer, Kiyoshi Suzuki enthusiastically stated, “In recent years, we have pretty much ignored the mythology of the Heisei Ultras, while we have been concentrating on returning to the Ultra Brothers of the Showa Era. Now, we will bring them both together for the first time.”

(Article posted on October 17, 2007 [Japan Time], translation by August Ragone.)

Thanks to August for spreading the good news on HJU…Now excuse me while I have a massive fangasm in the corner here.

You are the savior of this world!

So you remember a few weeks ago I posted the TV spot for Ultraseven X, Tsuburaya Pro’s next Ultra Series installment and something looking to be the next big Midnight (or in this case, 2 AM) Action Drama.

I finally managed to see the first episode subbed (after catching it hours after the premiere raw on Nico). Let’s just say that this is possibly the closest thing to the great return to TPC’s Glory Days, something that some fans have been dying to see since the return of Kaiki Daisakusen. Find out why after the jump

MOERU MOE DENSETSU! (Burning Moe Legend-Wait, What?!)

So thanks to Daryl Surat, I have stumbled upon another great truth, rivaling the revelation that anything involving Cory Yuen and Jason Statham will always suck (I still want my money back for War dammit). Take the most popular moe titles right now, switch the protagonist from a “Walking Pillar of Turn Ons” into a badass man with a burning soul and fists of iron, and you will end up with the following.

Pretty Cure -> MUSCLE CURE
Lucky Star -> MUSCLE STAR
Moetan-> MANLY-SAN
Ouran High School Host Club> OURAN KOREAN WAR FIGHT CLUB
Dears -> (NO) FEARS
The Meloncholy of Suzumiya Haruhi -> The Fist of Suzumiya Kenshiro
Card Captor Sakura -> CARD BRAWLER SAKURAI
Rozen Maiden -> G.I. JOE Manly Adventure Hour

There’s more on the thread Daryl found this on here.

Till the next, my fists are crying to see The Fist of Suzumiya Kenshiro.

“You should smile more” “…Yeah, that isn’t happening.”

ADV Films presents the NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: PLATINUM PERFECT COLLECTION, compiling the popular anime series in a collectible tin. This commemorative collection also includes all the extras from the original individual disc releases. This limited edition release will hit store shelves November 27, in plenty of time for the holiday gift-giving season. EVANGELION is widely regarded as the most popular anime show ever, and it was recently named by both Anime Insider and Newtype USA as the top series of all time. Now with EVANGELION beginning its broadcast run on [adult swim] October 20, hundreds of thousands of new viewers will soon discover this modern classic for themselves.

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: PLATINUM PERFECT COLLECTION (SRP $129.98) is a DVD-only release including the entire groundbreaking series thin-packed in a collectible tin case, presented in both English 5.1 and Japanese 5.1 with English subtitles. This collection contains every video extra produced for the original single disc release of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PLATINUM.

……….So, let me get this straight ADV; You hold back the fancy Anniversary Box Set for two years, have me waste 50 bucks on the Thin-packed release of the first Platinum set that didn’t have the extras, only to shiv me in the back by putting all the stuff back in and charging 130 bucks for the same set?

Damn you T_T

Better Days Are Coming

Sound familiar?

It should. It’s the the Zeta Gundam theme, “Zeta ~Toki wo Koete”.

Y’see, the infamous Neil Sedaka had two of his songs adapted into the first opening and closing themes for the series; “Better Days Are Coming” (which is in the above video), and “Bad and Beautiful” which is “Hoshizora no Believe“. There was also an English version of “Mizu no Hoshi Ai wo Komete” but that was never recorded according to Wikipedia.

Sadly, Bandai wussed out because they were apparently too cheap to pay for copyright royalties strategically decided to swap out the opening and ending themes for the US release of Zeta Gundam. To this day, fans are still pissed about it and even compare this to the slight BGM change in Aim for the Top!/Gunbuster’s stateside release. Thankfully, the latter case isn’t as bad but one can only hope Bandai can just put out a proper release of the series with the themes intact.

Either way, I just thought this would be fun to listen to :P