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█ VIZ Media launched a new site, called Ikki. It appeared out of the blue, maybe an online replacement of Shojo Beat? Not quite. Go to Sigikki.com, try the site and see what it does. What VIZ says it will do? Bring to western audiences new works of manga, from every genre out there, from the one published in Ikki (Ikki is a Japanese magazine appeared in 2003, who is publishing new and intriguing manga series), in form of a monthly online manga magazine. There is …

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Animage is the first anime fan magazine to appear in Japan? It appeared in July 1978, being published by Tokuma Shoten Publishing, a large japanese entertainment company.  It was the first anime magazine destined to the general public, with a totally different way to see the semnificance of anime and manga.  Animage helped in this way with the consolidation of the fan community and the expansion of the anime and manga market.  The cover of the first number featured an image of Space Battleship Yamato. Famous …

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is the sequel of Vampire Hunter D film from 1985. In Japan it was called Vampire Hunter D: 2000. It appeared in 2001, and it was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It is inspired by the 3rd book in the Vampire Hunter novels (Demon Deathchase) by Shoji Kawajiri, the creator of D.
The film is set in the future, when vampires imposed their rule over the race of men. Humanity struggles to survive, organized in small town and communities, fighting against the vampires. When Charlotte, the daughter of …

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█ For starters, the magazine is no longer accepting subscriptions for a month by now. On the Shojo Beat web page, the subscription forms are no longer working. The subscribers will get some Shonen Jump magazines instead, to compensate the remaining period of their subscriptions, many of them being informed over e-mail about this change. The last number of Shojo Beat appears to be the one for July. The magazine will join Anime Insider in the temple of the Glorious Dead. Not good at all.
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█ New movie from Mamoru Oshii
The “stray dog of anime”, on his name Mamoru Oshii, has a new movie in the making. The movie its called Musashi: Soken ni Haseru Yume or translated – Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai. Planned to have the premiere in Japan on 13 June, the movie tells the story of a Japanese swordsman who invented the combat with two swords in the same time (dual wielding if you are into RPG’s ^^). The director will be Nishikubo Mizuho (Patlabor …

█ Almost everyone in Japan reads manga, so the publishers have to supply the goods, keeping their audience and drawing in new fans. There is a huge industry, with a huge hungry public. The biggest manga publishers are based in Tokyo. Four Japanese companies distinguish themselves as the largest publishers: Shueisha, Kodansha, Hakusensha and Shogakukuan. From the smaller publishers I can mention MediaWorks, Akita and Kadokawa. Usually, the…

█ This article begins a series of many about the manga and anime industry in Japan, the mechanisms of this industry, the people who work in this domain and the publishers they work for. I hope you find it interesting. To begin with, manga industry differs a lot from the comics industry. In USA, the characters become the property of the publishing company after the author signs the…

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█ On 23 October, Astro Boy the movie will have its premiere in USA. If you look at the trailer and you do not find any similarities with the anime genre, you are not the first to notice. Astro Boy looks ok, but the other characters look cartoonish, like in… American cartoonish. While we are bombed with live action adaptations, remains to see how many from them will prove worth of watching. The official site is HERE.

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Here I am, back with the review of episodes 3 and 4 from this great anime. Well, I would not had expected a slowdown like this in the story. The things are moving, but very slow. I thought episodes 1 and 2 are the build-up but apparently I can say this about 3 and 4 now. The continuity of the story lacks, but the elements that made me like so much Guin Saga are still here.
After defeating the demon count, Remus, Linda and Guin,  together with a mercenary and a …