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A bittersweet day for Anime. TV-Tokyo, by far one of the most important sources of anime in Japan, has entered into an agreement with Crunchyroll to stream English subtitled episodes of Naruto (as well as 4 more series) one hour after they air in Japan.

Great! The sweet taste of victory is followed by the nasty aftertaste of yet more freaking Naruto in our lives. Let us celebrate anyhow, this is an agreement that opens up the door to a bright future, even if it means more Naruto for now.

[ANN]

It seems we simply cant escape the hunger Hollywood has for turning anime into live action flicks. Warner Brothers has recently bought the rights to Ninja Scroll, much like a sick rich man buys a 12 year old bride from some poor village. The ninja epic is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, who are also producing the Akira live action adaptation, with the screen adaptation being written by Alex Tse, who did the Watchmen adaptation.

Now I’m going to do the obvious thing and say that this will turn out badly, but not for the usual reasons. Its not that Hollywood will turn this timeless classic into a bastardized action flick. It’s because Ninja Scroll was a really cheesy ninja story that could only be considered as acceptable in anime. Once you put real people in those roles it instantly becomes an unbearable cheesefest. You’d think they would have learned after video game movies… Oh wait they are still doing those too.

[Variety]

In these times of heated political discourse and twisted rhetoric, perhaps its best to look at things from a different perspective. How about an anime perspective? In the clip above from Yatterman, a children’s anime currently airing in Japan, we see McCain and Obama duking it out in the best of American political traditions, face-pulling.

For those who didn’t catch it Obama says “yes we can!” and McCain replies “no, you cant!”. Click the jump for 2 other clips with Obama-kun and Hilary-chan fighting for the candidacy… at school, oh yeah and Bill Clinton comes in too, looking better than ever.

Read more!

Anime After Dark, the film festival that earlier this year rocked Boston, is coming to California. Anime After Dark is making a name for itself as an event that has some eclectic taste in what it shows and generally have attract a smarter crowd.

This time around the festival will be at the GOLDEN STATE THEATRE in Monterrey, California and it will be showing 10 films over the span of 3 days. Among the picks for the showing are Ghost In The Shell: Innocence (great franchise, shitty movie),  Princess Mononoke, Millennium Actress (an excellent pick), and of course they are closing with the tear jerker de rigueur Grave For The Fireflies. You can check out the official website for tickets. Hope we get to see more events like this survive.

[Anime After Dark]

Thanks to the nice folks at Fathom Events we have 2 free tickets for the nationwide October screening of Death Note II: The Last Name, the latest Death Note live action movie. Screenings are on October 15th & 16th, so we have to give these away fast!

Fan or not, worst case scenario you can take this opportunity as a cultural expedition!

First off, to find out if you will be able to make it to this event, check here for the theater nearest you. Then  simply comment in this post. Yes, that is right, all you need to do is comment in this post and we will pick the winner at random. What should your comment be? Well, if you’re at a loss simply write a story on how much you like Death Note, or any funny anecdote on Death Note that may have happened to you, a friend, or someone you know. The content of your comment wont be judged but posting “LOL COMMENT, DID I WIN YET?” Will get old fast. Also one comment per person, be nice.

You have until the end of the month so we can get the proper prizes out to the right place!

GET POSTING!

For those of you who prefer their manga in dead-tree form, VIZ Media’s first issue of Black Lagoon hit stores on the 16th of this month. The crew of the Black Lagoon, filled with femme fatales and out of place salarymen is one manga you simply cant pass up. The price is the usual $12.99 per issue which makes for a very nice nearly-bare-ass per dollar ratio.

Full press release after the jump.

Read more!

The latest edition of Wired magazine includes an article titled How Manga Conquered the U.S., a Graphic Guide to Japan’s Coolest Export which explores the story of manga in the U.S., from its humble beginnings to the behemoth it is today. Oh and said article is in Manga form, with illustrations by Atsuhisa Okura. Its nifty and informative if you are rather new to the whole manga scene. The article is available on PDF as well.

[Wired]