Learn Japanese @ Japancast.net

Even though they aren’t a sponsor, I always like to point out bargain anime when I find it.  Right Stuf has some awesome deals right now on anime on DVD.

Go here:  http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/cBuyGqMr6ieJrAhUOS/browse/category/4/0/0

And then click on the button that says “Bargain Bin Blowout” - I saw Ergo Proxy DVDs for $5 and some really good deals on EVA Platinum Editions ($6).  Samurai Champloo DVDs are going for $10 too.

If you buy something, feel free to mention you saw this post here!  Maybe Japancast can pick up Right Stuf as a sponsor.  \(^-^)/

From AWN.com:

Original, uncut Japanese versions of NARUTO, BLEACH and DEATH NOTE animated episodes (subtitled in English) are now streaming on Web video service Hulu.com.

Hulu has more than 100 content partners and offers nearly 900 show and movie titles, including 200 full-length feature films and 400 television series with hundreds of videos added to the service each week. NARUTO and DEATH NOTE launched in the United States on Hulu this week. BLEACH and new episodes of each title will be added regularly on Hulu.

The launch with Hulu is the latest expansion of VIZ Media’s strategy to make available a variety of hit animated series through Web-based, video streaming outlets. Hulu, launched in March of this year, provides free accessibility and offers users the freedom to legally share full-length episodes or clips via e-mail or embed them on other web sites, blogs and social networking pages.

NARUTO, DEATH NOTE, and BLEACH have emerged as three of the world’s most popular Japanese animated series, each attracting millions of devoted viewers with a blend of stylish animation, multi-faceted characters and riveting story lines. Each series is based on a popular manga series and enjoys tremendous international popularity.

LINK to the anime category on Hulu.

If you’re a fan of anime figures, now’s your chance to easily purchase them.  Danny Choo has just announced the English version of the Good Smile Company website.

Danny is one of the most popular bloggers in Japan, covering anime, manga, toy shows and games.

I’ve always been impressed with the level of detail these figures have.

I will warn you, though.  Although many of the figures are quite tame, there are figures available in Japan that are from Ero-games, manga and anime.  They most certainly are rated R.

A quick check of the site and I found they do indeed give you a warning that says “mature content, 18 years or older” - so you are warned before going to a section that is NSFW.

Check out Good Smile Company.

The world’s top film animators, comic book artists and illustrators have come together to create original works of art inspired by the iconic animated film MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO for an auction to benefit the Totoro No Furusato (Totoro’s Homeland) National Fund — also known as the Totoro Forest Fund.

The organization is dedicated to preserving Sayama Forest, a large park outside Tokyo that inspired the beloved film by respected Japanese movie director Hayao Miyazaki. The Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction (http://totoroforestproject.org/) will be held Saturday, September 6, at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California.

The Sayama Forest, which inspired the landscape of 1988’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, occupies nearly 15 square miles of cultivated forest, rice paddy fields, wetlands and grassland amidst an encroaching sea of urban development. The area has been the subject of preservation efforts since the 1970s, but because land is at such a premium in the Tokyo area, it is under constant threat of development. The Totoro No Furusato National Fund was established in 1990 following the success of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO and the attention the film drew to the Sayama Forest.

“Professor Tashihiko Ando, chairman of the Totoro No Furusato National Fund, has stated that Hayao Miyazaki has described MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO as a movie that portrayed a paradise for children,” said Dice Tsutsumi, art director at Pixar Animation Studios and one of the organizers of the Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction. “The Sayama Forest is the embodiment of that paradise. The auction is a wonderful opportunity for artists to help preserve this historic forest for future generations of children, and pay tribute to Miyazaki-san and the film that has been so inspirational to their art.”

More than 200 artists from around the world have created nearly 210 original paintings, illustrations and sculptures for the Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction. A high quality book featuring all the works of art will be available for purchase at the event. Additionally, a selection of the artwork will be featured in a special exhibition September 20, 2008 to February 8, 2009 at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.

Pixar artists Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen, and Yukino Pang of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, lead the Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction organizing committee.

For more information about the Totoro No Furusato National Fund and the Totoro Forest Project Charity Auction, visit http://totoroforestproject.org/ or email totoroart@gmail.com.

If you’ve always dreamed of having huge eyes like the characters in your favorite anime, now you can!  Apparently this somewhat sketchy appearing site is now selling contact lenses that have a much larger colored area than normal colored contacts.  This gives the appearence of much larger eyes.

The site says:

Wanna get big watery shiny eyes without plastic surgery?  Always crave to get big eyes like Korean actresses and famous Ayumi Hamasaki?

I suppose if you’re really into cosplay, it’d be worth the $35.  Of course, personally I don’t stick anything in my eyes (but I’m a big chicken).

What do you think?

Over on the Japancast Social Site, I’ve asked everyone to make sure they have an avatar & upload a photo.  However, some people don’t want to use their photo for their avatar and don’t know how to make one.  I just found a site that will let you create your own avatar in manga style.  It’s easy to use and does a pretty nice job.  Here is an avatar of me.

So head over to http://www.faceyourmanga.com and create your avatar and then upload it to the Japancast Social Site!

From AWN News and Variety:

Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B have purchased the rights to manga series MIKI FALLS, per VARIETY.

TV writer Sera Gamble will adapt the four-volume series from Mark Crilley. MIKI FALLS is about Miki Yoshida’s senior year in high school. When she tries to befriend handsome new student Hiro Sakurai she is met with resistance, but she stubbornly refuses to take no for an answer, leading to a surprising revelation about the secretive teenage boy.

Crilley is best known for the AKIKO young adult novels and comics. The first of the MIKI FALLS series, each of which is a calendar season, was published in May 2007 by HarperTeen.

Gamble is a producer on SUPERNATURAL on The CW and was a staff writer on EYES on ABC. She was a finalist on PROJECT GREENLIGHT for her screenplay CHEEKS.

I find it interesting that Spielberg is remaking Ghost in the Shell.  Hopefully he won’t wreck it the way he wrecked Indy 4….

From AWN News:

Two animated features from Japanese masters have been selected for the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival: Mamoru Oshii’s THE SKY CRAWLERS and Academy Award-winner Hayao Miyazaki’s PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA (GAKE NO UE NO PONYO).

The films are in competition for the Golden Lion award at the festival, which will be August 27-September 6 in Venice, Italy.

Oshii is the only Japanese animation director who has had their work selected for competition at both Cannes and Venice. Production I.G.’s THE SKY CRAWLERS will be released in Japan on August 2. Oshii’s 1995 film adaptation of famed manga GHOST IN THE SHELL is being remade by Steven Spielberg in the U.S.

THE SKY CRAWLERS is set in another possible “now” — a world that has eradicated war. Private war contractors enlist fighter pilots known as Kildren to perform in an endless “war as a show” that people watch on TV and read about in the papers. Kildren don’t age, and live in a state of eternal adolescence until they die in the sky. When pilot Yuichi Kannami arrives to his new airbase, the only things he recalls are that he’s a Kildren and how to operate a fighter plane. Base commander Suito Kusanagi behaves as if she’s been impatiently waiting for him. What does Suito know about Yuichi’s past? What are the secrets behind the Kildren?

PONYO is the reclusive anime director Miyazaki’s latest feature animation; Miyazaki will be making an appearance at Venice. PONYO’s hand-drawn animated story follows a 5-year-old boy and his relationship with a goldfish princess who wants to become human. It was released in Japan on July 19.

Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY won the 2002 Best Animated Feature Oscar and 2004’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE was nominated for the 2005 Best Animated Feature. SPIRITED AWAY was the first anime film to win an Academy Award.

Looks like we’re going to see a flood of new movies based on Naruto, Bleach, Death Note and more.

From AWN News:

Japanese manga and graphic novel publisher VIZ Media is starting a production company to create films from their catalogue, including NARUTO, BLEACH and DEATH NOTE, per VARIETY.

Jason Hoffs, former production exec at Amblin and DreamWorks, will head up the company, based in Hollywood.

Japanese publishing houses Shogakukan, Shueisha and Hakusensha are the parent companies. Those three publish almost half of all manga that comes to the U.S.

Hoffs will be a mediator between the creative licensors in Japan and Hollywood, with VIZ Prods. to develop some titles in house.

“Properties like NARUTO, BLEACH, DEATH NOTE, VAMPIRE KNIGHT and MONSTER are just a few properties that show the massive appeal of manga to many different demographics, and we have an almost endless pool of titles to draw from,” Hoffs said to VARIETY.

VIZ is just one of many publishing companies taking the Japanese example and setting up production pipelines for their own content. Newspaper giant THE NEW YORK TIMES and videogame company Capcom have also recently announced film projects.

Found this on FEED this morning.  A very cool spot created for Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo.  Click on the image to head over to Nike Labs and check out the spot.