When a Ping Pong anime series was first announced in early 2014, I had to ask: Why? Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga had already been adapted to film back in 2002. Directed by first-timer Fumihiko Sori with a script by rising star Kankuro Kudo, the film launched the career of actor Shido Nakamura. It even came with songs by Supercar and Boom Boom Satellites. I couldn’t imagine anything better than that. When I learned Masaaki Yuasa was directing the series, I became even more curious – and confused. Yuasa was one of my all-time favorite anime directors (and still is.) His 2007 science fiction series Kaiba changed my vision of what TV anime could be. He would have been a great fit to adapt Yuasa’s epic No. 5 . Instead he was hired to go back over old ground. I didn’t understand why at the time. Now I recognize that of all Matsumoto’s comics,...
- 4/11/2024
- by Adam Wescott
- Crunchyroll
New York, NY (4/4/23)—In their latest announcement of featured guests at this year's event, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival announced the attendance of Jun Mayuzuki, the acclaimed creator of Kowloon Generic Romance and After the Rain. A year after Jun Mayuzuki was a featured artist at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, she now receives even more international recognition as a featured guest at one of the most respected comics organizations in the world. As a Tcaf guest, Jun Mayuzuki joins an elite and exclusive club of manga-ka that includes the likes of Taiyo Matsumoto, Junji Ito, and Inio Asano.
“This will be my first time ever in Canada, and to be able to visit in this manner is such a happy surprise,” said Jun Mayuzuki. “Thank you for inviting me. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!”
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival takes place in Toronto, Ontario, from April 29 to 30. For more information,...
“This will be my first time ever in Canada, and to be able to visit in this manner is such a happy surprise,” said Jun Mayuzuki. “Thank you for inviting me. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!”
The Toronto Comic Arts Festival takes place in Toronto, Ontario, from April 29 to 30. For more information,...
- 4/5/2023
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
Using the awe-inspiring visuals and vocals of Taiyo Matsumoto, Avu-chan, and Mirai Moriyama, director Masaaki Yuasa gives audiences an ode to the power of music in “Inu-oh,” a film retelling the Muromachi period in Japan in a beautiful mix of history and fantasy.
Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023
“Inu-oh,” tells the story of Inu-oh, a child born to an esteemed family but born with an ancient curse that leaves him ostracised.
Continue reading ‘Inu-oh’ Clip: A Beautiful Mix Of History & Fantasy [Exclusive] at The Playlist.
Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023
“Inu-oh,” tells the story of Inu-oh, a child born to an esteemed family but born with an ancient curse that leaves him ostracised.
Continue reading ‘Inu-oh’ Clip: A Beautiful Mix Of History & Fantasy [Exclusive] at The Playlist.
- 1/5/2023
- by Jamie Rogers
- The Playlist
Japan Society is pleased to announce its fall lineup for Monthly Classics and Monthly Anime, kicking off on September 2, 2022 with a 35mm screening of Kihachi Okamoto’s satirical chambara, “Kill!”. 2006 anime classic “Tekkonkinkreet” will screen on September 16, featuring a Q&a with screenwriter Anthony Weintraub (“The Animatrix”). For October, Hideo Nakata’s 90s J-horror classic “Ringu” screens on October 7th followed by Mamoru Oshii’s rarely-screened 1985 ethereal masterpiece “Angel’s Egg” on October 14th. Monthly Anime continues on November 4th with a 35mm screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved “My Neighbor Totoro”.
Tickets: 15/12 students and seniors /5 Japan Society members.
Lineup and other details are subject to change.For complete information visit japansociety.org.
Kill!
Friday, September 2, 2022 at 7:00 Pm
Dir. Kihachi Okamoto, 1968, 114 min, 35mm, b&w. With Tatsuya Nakadai, Etsushi Takahashi, Yuriko Hoshi.
Kihachi Okamoto’s darkly satirical chambara opens in the midst of a pummeling windstorm on the outskirts...
Tickets: 15/12 students and seniors /5 Japan Society members.
Lineup and other details are subject to change.For complete information visit japansociety.org.
Kill!
Friday, September 2, 2022 at 7:00 Pm
Dir. Kihachi Okamoto, 1968, 114 min, 35mm, b&w. With Tatsuya Nakadai, Etsushi Takahashi, Yuriko Hoshi.
Kihachi Okamoto’s darkly satirical chambara opens in the midst of a pummeling windstorm on the outskirts...
- 8/20/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Music is transportive to the extremes in Masaaki Yuasa's works. In his 2008 anime "Kaiba," there's a heartbreaking organ scene that inspires a bitter old woman to reminisce on long-lost affection. In "Ride Your Wave," a cheesy love song summons the spirit of a deceased loved one, fleetingly, like an incantation. Yuasa and Science Saru's latest feature cocktail "Inu-Oh," steeped in the 14th century Muromachi period of the ruling shoguns, rolls out rock music that unleashes the restorative power to unlock revelations to mysteries, gives restless ghosts peace through lyrical storytelling, and allow two misfits to assert their place in the world.
Based on Hideo Furukawa's novel "The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-oh Chapters," Akiko Nogi's adapted screenplay kickstarts the film deceptively. At the behest of shady noblemen, young Tomona (Mirai Moriyama) opens an underwater cursed treasure that blinds him and kills his father (Yutaka Matsushige). The...
Based on Hideo Furukawa's novel "The Tale of the Heike: The Inu-oh Chapters," Akiko Nogi's adapted screenplay kickstarts the film deceptively. At the behest of shady noblemen, young Tomona (Mirai Moriyama) opens an underwater cursed treasure that blinds him and kills his father (Yutaka Matsushige). The...
- 8/12/2022
- by Caroline Cao
- Slash Film
(Cbr) - Reading and watching some of the countless tributes to Robin Williams, who passed away far too soon on Monday, I was reminded that, in addition to being a father, a husband, a comedian, an actor and a philanthropist, he was also a comics fan. "I used to get excited emails from comics stores all over America when Robin Williams would drop in to buy 'Transmetropolitan' issues," Warren Ellis recalled Monday on Twitter. A semi-regular customer at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles, Williams discussed his love of comics in a video interview we spotlighted in 2010 on Robot 6. In the clip, he fondly relates his latest reads: Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's "Dmz," and Taiyo Matsumoto's "Tekkonkinkreet." Watch the brief interview below.
- 8/13/2014
- by Kevin Melrose, Comic Book Resources
- Hitfix
Sunny Volume 2
Written and Drawn by Taiyo Matsumoto
Taiyo Matsumoto has this shifting lens of reality. In this comics, he continually pushes the way we experience his drawings. No. 5 was manga inspired by Moebius. Tekkon Kinkreet was a wild trip viewing the city through the exaggerated experiences of children and GoGo Monster turned an elementary school into an alien landscape with new horrors and monsters behind every classroom door. Sunny Volume 2 is much less otherworldly than his other books but that makes it no less mesmerizing. Set in a home for unwanted children (not orphans exactly, more like kids whose parents for one reason or another are unable to care for them,) Matsumoto’s Sunny focuses in on the isolation of childhood as these children struggle through the normal insecurities of growing up but without the normal securities of a mother and a father who are there for them.
Sunny...
Written and Drawn by Taiyo Matsumoto
Taiyo Matsumoto has this shifting lens of reality. In this comics, he continually pushes the way we experience his drawings. No. 5 was manga inspired by Moebius. Tekkon Kinkreet was a wild trip viewing the city through the exaggerated experiences of children and GoGo Monster turned an elementary school into an alien landscape with new horrors and monsters behind every classroom door. Sunny Volume 2 is much less otherworldly than his other books but that makes it no less mesmerizing. Set in a home for unwanted children (not orphans exactly, more like kids whose parents for one reason or another are unable to care for them,) Matsumoto’s Sunny focuses in on the isolation of childhood as these children struggle through the normal insecurities of growing up but without the normal securities of a mother and a father who are there for them.
Sunny...
- 12/10/2013
- by Scott Cederlund
- SoundOnSight
Truth, Justice, The American Way… and turning on your friends! That, apparently, is what all good heroes are up to from time to time. Whether they've been brain washed, possessed, or are doing it "for the greater good," heroes from time to time have to get a little evil. Here at FEARnet, we love that! And as Comi- Con winds down we're taking a moment to look at our favorite turncoats in comic history! Warning: this is the most spoiler-y spoiler-filled article you may ever read.
Superman's Infinite Crisis Freakout
During DC Comics' tentpole 2004 event, Infinite Crisis, the publishers put out a storyline that featured one of the best sequences of a superhero getting mind-controlled we've ever seen. The plot line follows Maxwell Lord, one-time businessman, who has gone full villain. In The Omac Project, Lord control's Superman's mind, making him beat the snot out of Batman and really mess up Wonder Woman.
Superman's Infinite Crisis Freakout
During DC Comics' tentpole 2004 event, Infinite Crisis, the publishers put out a storyline that featured one of the best sequences of a superhero getting mind-controlled we've ever seen. The plot line follows Maxwell Lord, one-time businessman, who has gone full villain. In The Omac Project, Lord control's Superman's mind, making him beat the snot out of Batman and really mess up Wonder Woman.
- 7/22/2013
- by Giaco Furino
- FEARnet
[Our thanks go out to Chris MaGee and Marc Saint-Cyr at the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow for sharing their coverage of the 2010 Nippon Connection Film Festival.]
In 2005 director Toshiaki Toyoda was poised to take his career to the next level. At that point only 35-years-old Toyoda had already gained a reputation as one of Japan's most promising filmmakers. Throughout films like "Pornostar (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rampage")", the Taiyo Matsumoto manga adaptation "Blue Spring", and the masterful ensemble prison break film "9 Souls" he showed that he could combine tongue-in-cheek comedy with brutal drama, but by mid-decade he was ready to release a film that would place him alongside the likes of international festival favorites Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda. "Hanging Garden" was an unblinking look at the disintegration of the Japanese family starring Kyoko Kozumi and Itsuji Itao as parents who demand 100% honesty from each other and their children, but who end up holding damaging secrets from each other. Not since Yoshimitsu Morita's "The Family Game" had a filmmaker presented such a damning llok at the core of Japanse society.
In 2005 director Toshiaki Toyoda was poised to take his career to the next level. At that point only 35-years-old Toyoda had already gained a reputation as one of Japan's most promising filmmakers. Throughout films like "Pornostar (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rampage")", the Taiyo Matsumoto manga adaptation "Blue Spring", and the masterful ensemble prison break film "9 Souls" he showed that he could combine tongue-in-cheek comedy with brutal drama, but by mid-decade he was ready to release a film that would place him alongside the likes of international festival favorites Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda. "Hanging Garden" was an unblinking look at the disintegration of the Japanese family starring Kyoko Kozumi and Itsuji Itao as parents who demand 100% honesty from each other and their children, but who end up holding damaging secrets from each other. Not since Yoshimitsu Morita's "The Family Game" had a filmmaker presented such a damning llok at the core of Japanse society.
- 4/17/2010
- Screen Anarchy
TOKYO -- Tokyo-based distribution and production company Asmik Ace Entertainment said Monday that it is expanding into Artist Management to take advantage of Japan's domestic movie industry, signing anime director Michael Arias to direct, produce and supervise special effects.
Arias began his career at Dream Quest Images and worked on such titles as "The Abyss" and "Total Recall" before moving to Japan in the early 1990s. Regarded as an innovator of three-dimensional software, he also worked with DreamWorks Animation on "Prince of Egypt" and Studio Ghibli's animated classics "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away".
"Japanese films are doing well at the moment and are strong in overseas markets," an Asmik spokesman said. "We are looking to build on that for the long term as well as the immediate future."
Arias will make his feature film debut with "Tekkonkinkreet", based on the popular manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, and is directing a short animated film for Japanese public television.
Another Arias project in pre-production is a live-action feature to be produced and distributed by Asmik Ace.
Arias began his career at Dream Quest Images and worked on such titles as "The Abyss" and "Total Recall" before moving to Japan in the early 1990s. Regarded as an innovator of three-dimensional software, he also worked with DreamWorks Animation on "Prince of Egypt" and Studio Ghibli's animated classics "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away".
"Japanese films are doing well at the moment and are strong in overseas markets," an Asmik spokesman said. "We are looking to build on that for the long term as well as the immediate future."
Arias will make his feature film debut with "Tekkonkinkreet", based on the popular manga by Taiyo Matsumoto, and is directing a short animated film for Japanese public television.
Another Arias project in pre-production is a live-action feature to be produced and distributed by Asmik Ace.
- 8/28/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Michael Arias has been working in Hollywood for a while. He started out doing special effects for films such as The Abyss, later he would develop software that would help turn Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke into an international success. It was this plus producing The Animatrix that landed Michael in a position to be the first western director of a Japanese anime. Michael is no stranger to Japan, in fact, he’s lived there since he was 24 and speaks fluent Japanese. He currently lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children. Tekkonkinkreet is based Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga published in the United Stated under the title Black and White (the names of the two lead characters). It takes place in an alternate universe in the colorful city known as Treasure Town, where gangs of flying children protect their slum from cooperate corruption. The film blends a unique mix
- 7/13/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
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