Anyone familiar with Berserk, the manga created by Kentaro Miura over 20 years ago is sure to appreciate this Italian fan-made film featuring the mercenary Guts and his colossal sword. A collaboration between LED Productions and Deus Ex Machina Visual Effects Studio, this gritty and dark short directed by and starring Francesco Sanseverino proves that given a chance, even on a-what I am assuming to be-small budget, there is a proper and effective way to translate a manga/graphic novel into a rather stunning, though short film.

Hollywood head cheeses, you may want to whip out a pencil and some paper and start taking notes.

Francesco and company, we here at DDN salute you.

We want to hear what you guys think of this fan-made film. Did you enjoy it? Have you seen any other manga, anime or comic book related fan films? If so, what are some of your favorite fan films?

[Anime Nation]

One of the anime projects that has excited me the most since 2007 is Cencoroll, an independent anime feature film which was announced at the Tokyo Anime Fair 2007. With backing from Anime Innovaton Tokyo, a project incubator, Cencoroll not only promised amazing animation but an offbeat story and delivery like those we haven’t seen since the mid 90’s (read: pretty awesome). The expected release was somewhere in 2008 and from the look of the teaser back in 2007 the movie was in advanced production stages.

Now its 2009 and we really don’t know much else about Cencoroll, could this brilliant project become Anime Vaporware? The joke that Cencoroll will come out one week after Duke Nukem Forever comes out isnt all that uncommon nowadays. Watch the 2007 trailer for a little refresher.

Cencoroll, where are you?!

Speed Racer was a cool arse cartoon. I use to watch it when I was a kid. So a part of me died when I heard they were going to do a live film based on it. And I damn near fainted when I read who was on board to write and direct the script: Andy and Larry Wachowski.

Read more!

I saw this short movie on Independent Lens a couple years ago on PBS. I’m one of those few who actually enjoy PBS. Well, every once in awhile anyways. Doki Doki addresses the themes of isolation and disconnectedness within the crowded subway cars of Japan.

Shot in Tokyo as a project for the UCLA film school, “Doki Doki” was produced by Chris Eska. It’s a story about a group of train-goers who see each other every day on the work commute, but never speak to each other.

It’s a little more than a half-hour long. However, if you’ve the time to kill and have taste in indie films, go on ahead and check it out. There are a couple of cute chicks in there as well :D