It is just a week to go before the premiere of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla and the marketing has begun to go into overdrive.
In addition to trailers and the latest tv spots, Warner Bros. has begun to release clips and behind-the-scenes to help announce the latest arrival of the King of Monsters.
We have here a brief clip that shows the Big Guy taking on the U.S. Navy as it tries to defend Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay it straddles. This marks two straight years that the Golden Gate Bridge has been threatened and/or destroyed by these damn kaiju.
With the release of the new American reboot/remake/sequel of the classic 1954 Godzilla by Ishirō Honda, I thought it was high time I shared one of my guiltiest of all film pleasures growing up.
Godzilla and everything kaiju I ate up as a wee lad growing up during the 80’s. There really wasn’t anything on Saturday morning and afternoon tv other than reruns of badly dubbed Japanese monsters flicks and anime. One such film was Ishirō Honda’s very own King Kong vs. Godzilla. Yes, you read that correctly. The King of All Monsters fought the Eight Wonder of the World to decide once and for all who was the greatest giant monster of all-time.
The film itself wasn’t that great when I look back on it. Hell, even I had a sort of understanding even as an 8-year old kid that King Kong vs. Godzilla was a pretty bad film, but I still had a blast watching it. The film lacked in coherent storyline and important themes of man vs. nature and the psychological impact of the two atomic bombings of the US on Japan to end World War II wasn’t at all evident in this monster mash-up.
What the film had was King Kong fighting Godzilla. It was like watching two of the greatest icons of youths of my generation duking it out for our pleasure. It didn’t need to have a story or worry about whether it’s depiction of the natives on King Kong’s island was even remotely racist (it was so racist). All it needed to do was show everyone the very fight they’ve been waiting for. Fans of both monster wouldn’t have to wait forever to see the fight happen. This wasn’t going to be a dream fight never to happen like Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
So, while King Kong vs. Godzilla was never one of the good entries in the Godzilla filmography (I think it was probably the worst) it more than made up for being one of the most campiest and entertaining entries in the Big Guy’s decades long history.
If there ever was a film from my youth that needs to be remade it would be King Kong vs. Godzilla and only Guillermo Del Toro should be chosen to direct it.
I was told today that one of my favorite anime series of all-time was going to get a new manga adaptation. I am talking about Manabi Straight. It’s from this series that today’s latest song of the day comes from: “Seioh Gakuen Kouka”.
The song was first introduced in the series by it’s main character Manami Amamiya who also goes by the name Manabi. The character’s voice actress is the very talented and popular seiyuu and singer Yui Horie. The song is pretty much the school anthem of the fictitious Seioh High School where Manabi and her high school friends attend. The series goes through the girls’ ups and downs of being high school kids who bond through their love of each other and of their school.
“Seioh Gakuen Kouka” is the school’s anthem and Manabi sings it in front of the entire school during her first day as a transfer student. It’s definitely one of my favorite songs of any genre and type. It brings back my own memories of being a high school student and all the friendships made during those four years.
Seioh Gakuen Kouka
Ima wo ikiru deai no kisetsu yo Mabushii hikari yume wo atsumete Onaji seishun ayumu kiseki Sakura iro no mirai tachi sora wo mau
Aah Seioh yorokobi doko he yo Aah Seioh manabi no sono ni hibike Kagayaku toki nakama to tomo ni aru
Ima wo ikiru yorokobi no naka de Mabushii hikari kaze wo atsumete Koi to kanashi jounetsu ni Kibou iro no musume tachi chuu wo mau
Aah Seioh ai no hibi yo Aah Seioh manabi no sono ni sodate Kagayaku toki nakama to tomo ni aru
Aah miageta ao wa haruka Aah tsukau toki kitto kitto Kagayaku toki nakama to tomo ni aru
Seioh Gakuen Kouka (ver. English)
Live the present moment, the season of encounters. The bright sunlight, the gathering of dreams. The miracle where people walk through the same youth. Cherry-blossom colored futures fly into the sky.
Ah, the cheerful sounds of Seioh! Ah, let it resonate through Seioh’s garden! When we shine, we shine with our friends.
Live the present moment, inside this happiness. The bright sunlight, the gathering of the wind. The burning love passion with the hope-colored girls fly into the sky.
Ah, the days of love at Seioh! Ah, grow up inside Seioh’s garden! When we shine, we shine with our friends.
Ah, the blue sky we look up to is far away. Ah, when we get a hold of it, for sure, for sure, when we shine, we shine with our friends.
Anime has always skewed towards the hyperkinetic imagery that most Western animation rarely, if ever, put on the screen. Where Western animation has a much more flowing style that tries to mimic realism in the artform with anime we get intense action in the animation no matter what genre.
One recent anime that pretty much takes this hyperkinetic style to a new level was 2009’s OVA (original video animation) title from renowned anime studio Madhouse simply called Redline. It’s a wall-to-wall scifi action film that combines futuristic setting and world-building with the speed freak action of the racing genre.
Redline was directed by Takeshi Koike and it took him and his crew of animators from Madhouse a total of seven years and millions of dollars to finish the project. This was a project that pushed the animation to it’s limits with the film using over 100,000 hand-drawn pages of animations that at times looked like it was something that looked more computer-generated. It’s a film that showed many of Koike-san’s artistic influences from his mentor Yoshiaki Kawajiri (well-known for classic anime titles as Vampire Hunter D and Ninja Scroll) right up to the thick lines and heavy blacks of Frank Miller.
The plot for Redline is really not that complex and for some it’s too simple that it became a flaw. It’s a story about the a futuristic race that uses the greatest groundcar racers in the galaxy (instead of the current hovercar this world has turned to using) to tell a story about the underdog fighting against adversity to win not just the ultimate prize but the love of a girl who also happens to be one of his main rivals in the film. The story revolves around the main characters of Sweet JP, with his ludicrous pompadour (the subject of many jokes in the film) and 50’s-style Greaser leather jacket, and his main rival and love interest in Sonoshee.
Redline barely brings the main leads past being cardboard cutouts as characters, but the story gives the two enough backstory to make them easy to relate to. Yet, it’s not the story that will hook and pull in anime fans both veterans and newbies. It’s all about the action and animation that makes this film one of those anime that people really should be watching. There’s so much action going on in the film that one could easily lose themselves in all that kinetic energy to forgive it’s story’s basic simplicity.
Some have called Redline as the anime version of the latest Fast and Furious films (mainly the last two), but I disagree with that assessment. The latest Fast and Furious films are attempts to make a live-action version of Redline. The two share similar traits and follow that racing creed that the Vin Diesel franchise has popularized: “Ride or Die”.
Redline might not the be the greatest story ever told in anime, but for pure-adrenaline action from beginning to end there’s none better. One can watch it on Youtube on their streaming service, yet I recommend that people who have a huge HDTV (especially the latest 4K screens) watch it on that to see hand-drawn animation at it’s best.
It’s just 17 more days til the King of Monsters return to the big-screen. What better way to make a path for his triumphant return than showing you one of my favorite Godzilla scenes ever.
This scene was what got me totally hooked on Godzilla and his monster buddies. While Godzilla vs. Megalon was never one of the brightest stars in the history of the Big Guy’s filmography it definitely showed that Godzilla was more than just kicking and smashing buildings down and burning things with his atomic breath.
Say hello to the Godzilla’s Tail-Slide Double-Kick!
Gareth Edwards’ upcoming Godzilla film has been gaining some major hype and buzz since last year’s Comic-Con and with each new teaser and trailer that the studio releases. Yet, outside of more and more looks at the King of Monsters himself we really haven’t seen anything to tell us that there will be other kaiju in this film.
Well, this latest trailer released for the Asian market finally answers the question of whether Godzilla will be wreaking destruction on human cities by himself or doing so while fighting other kaiju. From this latest trailer we see several glimpses of other giant monsters with a flying one being the most obvious. Some think this could be a new iteration of Godzilla rival and sometimes ally Rodan, but I’m hoping that it’s something new and that Rodan and other famous kaiju from past Godzilla films get introduced in later films (if there’s to be any).
Korean manwha artist and illustrator Hyung-tae Kim has become famous for his video game illustrator and art design work.
Born in February 1978 in Seoul, South Korea, Kim began his career in the video game industry creating background music for games, but he soon moved on to the art and design phase of the game process. His most notable works has been the covers and art design for the console rpg series Magna Carta and the Korean mmorpg title Blade & Soul for software studio NCSoft.
His style of artwork has been described as anatomically incorrect which is true, but he uses this deformation technique as a way to allow the unique individual personalities of each character to come out through the design. The unique look of his artwork has made his art books and art pieces highly sought after (both of which are very limited in nature) once they come out and then afterwards in secondary collectible markets.
It’s been a month since Anime Boston 2014 and I’ve decided to put up the third AMV to win one of the categories from the con.
This particular AMV won the Romance category and for once it uses an anime that I’m not familiar with, but after watching the video I’m definitely looking forward to checking it out once the blu-ray comes out sometime this year.
The AMV in question is “Strangers Like Us” by davenfonet who uses the Phil Collins song of the same title and the mecha series Gargantia on the Verdorous Planet. The video itself doesn’t go for the usual ballad-like tone, but instead goes for a much more fun romance vibe that doesn’t seem to win many Romance category contests. This time this type of romance AMV wins and the fact that it makes me want to watch the series after never having heard of it til Anime Boston means the creator succeeded.
The latest “AMV of the Day” doesn’t come courtesy of this past spring’s Anime Boston, but it caught my eye since it was the latest creation from one of my favorite AMV creators: IleiaAMVs.
“RadioAkshun” was her very popular and excellent AMV from last year’s anime con season and her latest offering for this weekend’s Sakura-Con 2014 may just be another hit.
This latest anime music video from IleiaAMVs combines one of the more mature-oriented anime one can get into without venturing into the truly extreme anime with one of the most popular songs of the past year with “Let It Go” from Frozen. One wouldn’t think that Elfen Lied and Frozen would go together like peanut butter and jelly but in this one instance they’re perfect together.
Here’s the first official trailer for Eli Roth’s first film in 6 years. It’s been awhile since we;ve had a proper cannibal film in the theaters and from the buzz coming out of the festival circuit this one could be something to keep a look out for.
Through the Shattered Lens 