Tuesday 27 March 2012

Brighton Japan Festival - 23rd June to 1st July





The Brighton Japan Festival will be returning again this year, and their website has been updated for the 2012 event. The festival will be running between the 23rd June and the 1st July, so is 8 days long (much longer than most of the other festivals in the UK).
  
The festival events will be launched with a Moshi Matsuri on 23rd and 24th June, which will include "Japanese music and performances, traditional children's games, workshops and street processions, as well as a profusion of shitamachi-style stalls selling all sorts of street food and Japanese goods".
It will also include an Asahi Anime Festival, 30th June and 1st July, which is "A delirious and colourful celebration of all things anime, with Cosplay contests, manga drawing and karaoke competitions galore".
Lastly, there will be evening events at the Festival Hub, 22nd June to the 1st July (the official site states the 22nd June, yet the event starts on the 23rd June...) which will include "A series of classy, quality evening events held in a specially erected tent next to Moshi Moshi in Bartholomew Square"

For more information on the event please check out the official site. Performers, sponsors, stallholders and volunteers who would like to be involved can apply here.

Sunday 25 March 2012

UK Anime and Manga Releases - 26/03/2012 to 01/04/2012

It's that time of the week again where we look at the upcoming releases for this week.

There is only one anime release this week, but it is a full series release of a very popular series. There are however a lot of manga releases coming this week to keep you going.

Without further ado, here are the new releases:

ANIME
Monday 26th March
Black Butler: Complete Series Box Set
 
MANGA
Tuesday 27th March
A Bride's Story - Vol.3
Bamboo Blade - Vol.12
Bunny Drop - Vol.5
Is This a Zombie? - Vol.1
Negima! Omnibus - Vol.4
Pandora Hearts - Vol.9
Spice and Wolf - Vol.6
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan - Vol.5

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden - Promo Trailer Released

A trailer has finally been released for the Naruto spin-off series Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden, which is due to premiere on 3rd April in Japan.

If you are unaware of the series, it began as a spin-off manga from the Naruto series, but with a lot more focus on comedy than the standard manga. It is drawn in a chibi style, and as such all the characters look visibly different than their Naruto series forms.
This series is also being produced by the same studio who create the Naruto anime. The full name of the series is Naruto SD: Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden, with the SD in the title meaning 'Sugoi Doryoku' or 'Super Determined', although generally SD is used to mean 'Super Deformed'.


New Naruto Shippuden Movie Announced - Naruto: Road to Ninja

In the newest edition of Weekly Shonen Jump a new Naruto movie has been announced. The major announcement of this movie is that it will be designed and wrote by mangaka Masashi Kishimoto, who created the Naruto series.

The film, which is the ninth Naruto film in total, but the sixth Naruto Shippuden movie, will open in Japan on 28th July.

Unfortunately there are not many details regarding the plot etc at the moment, but as they are released i will post them here.

Monday 19 March 2012

UK Anime & Manga Releases - 19/03/2012 to 25/03/2012

It's that time of the week again, albeit one day later than usual, where we have a look at the new releases coming to you this week.

It's quite a slow week this week, with only 2 releases, one an anime release and one a manga release. However it looks like that is set to change next week, as has been the recent trend.

ANIME
Monday 19th March
Bleach: Series 8 - Part 1

MANGA
Tuesday 20th March
Animal Land - Vol.4   

Saturday 17 March 2012

Japanese TV - Gaki no Tsukai

I had a new idea for an extra type of post on this blog, and that is Japanese TV. I, like most of us, used to stereotype Japanese TV as mad, unusual, and weird (and quite a lot of it is) and it is this type of TV that makes me love Japan. They are not afraid to create something weird and put it on at a primetime slot, and to an outsider it appears they are not just trying to please shareholders like Western studios appear to, and are more interested in making sure that their program is entertaining.

One such show is Gaki no Tsukai. I was told about this show a friend of mine, @Bekkii_chan , whilst we were completing a charity walk with our Tae Kwon Do club. The show is quite similar to Takeshi's Castle but on a larger more extreme scale, as the videos below of a 24 hour game of 'tag' will show. There were 5 episodes of this I believe, and I have only seen the first one but will definitely be seeing the others if I can find them online.

I hope you enjoy the videos as much as I did. If you are a fan of Takeshi's Castle you will definitely love this. The entire show lasts for around an hour and a half so you may wish to watch it over a few days like I did or make some space in your diary to see it, as it is hilarious.



New Anime Convention - SunnyCon

A new anime convention will be taking place in Sunderland on the 24th and 25th March called SunnyCon. It will be taking place in the Crowtree Leisure Centre, next to the Bridges Shopping Centre.
Tickets are £20 for the weekend, and can be bought etiher from the Tucky's Anime site, or you can send a cheque with a registration form with details posted on their FAQ.

The event will include a Japanese Fashion Show, a Cosplay Contest, and an AMV Competition amongst other things.
There will also be guest stars attending, among those being two dub actors for anime shows. One of those being Christopher R Sabat who voiced Louis Armstrong in both the Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series', and also voiced Daisuke Jigen in various Lupin the Third movies. The other guest attending is Veronica Taylor who voiced Ash from the Pokemon series.

Other guests include Gina Lucia, editor of the Anime Picks website; Lawrence "MasaKox" Simpson of TeamFourStar; and Sonia Leong of Sweatdrop Studios.




The organisers of Sunnycon posted this message on their site regarding the tickets:


With SunnyCon now just over a week away we are very excited. We have sold just fewer than 500 tickets so far and it's shaping up to be a fantastic turn out for a first time convention. On Tuesday 20th March we will stop online ticket sales to make sure everyone has their tickets in time. However tickets will still be on sale at the venue. From Saturday 17th you will be able to pick up in person from Crowtree. Remember you can also arrange a special pick up if you live in Sunderland just e-mail donna@sunnycon.co.uk to arrange ticket pick up. Remember our allocation is 1000 for the event so we still have just over 500 tickets left for sale so at this moment in time tickets are being made available for purchase on the doors. This can change depending upon sales however we will keep you updated on Facebook and Twitter with how sales are going.
According to SunnyCon's facebook page, tickets will be on sale on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3.30 p.m.

Manga Entertainment Acquires Rights to Blue Exorcist

The UK Anime Distributor Manga Entertainment announced yesterday that they have obtained the rights to publish the supernatural anime Blue Exorcist. As of writing a date has not yet been announced though. They have however mentioned on their twitter account @MangaUK that it will be solely subtitled on a double disc DVD (no mention of blu-ray release yet).



The anime revolves around the main character of Rin Okumura. He was raised by a famous exorcist named Father Fujimoto, who tells Rin he is actually the son of Satan. After this announcement Rin decides to become an exorcist and rid the world of demons, only hindered by using his fathers sword that unleashes his dark power within.

The people behind the series have some great credentials also, as it is directed by Tensai Okamura, the man behind Darker Than Black, and animated by A-1 Pictures who also animated the Black Butler series.

Saturday 10 March 2012

Yakuza Dead Souls - American Pre-Order Gifts

With the upcoming release of Yakuza Dead Souls at the end of the week, 16th March for Europe, American computer games stockist Gamestop have announced the pre-order gifts you can get for the game. The items will include new weapons, new costumes for all the main characters, extra costumes for the hostess, and... Karaoke?? Hopefully some items will be announced for other areas, but these appear to be the only ones shown at the moment.

You can see them all the video below:

UK Anime & Manga Releases - 12/03/2012 to 18/03/2012

It's that time of the week again where we have a look at the new Anime and Manga releases for the coming week.

Following the recent trend, there is only one new anime release this week, but there are multiple manga releases. However, this week the manga releases are spread out a little bit more.

ANIME
Monday 12th March
Phantom: Requim for the Phantom - Part 2

MANGA
Monday 12th March
A Certain Scientific Railgun - Vol.3

Tuesday 13th March
Gate 7 - Vol.2
House of Five Leaves - Vol.6
Sailor Moon - Vol.4
Shugo Chara Chan - Vol.3

Thusday 15th March
Black Bird - Vol.13
Naruto - Vol.55
One Piece - Vol.61         

Monday 5 March 2012

Japanese Culture - Hinamatsuri

Hello All, and welcome to first lesson in Japanese Culture (one that I have been promising for quite some time now). This first Japanese Culture event takes place on 3rd March every year, and is called Hinamatsuri, or Girls Day. It is also called Momo no Sekku, but it is called this as much as it is called Hinamatsuri.

Although I have learnt about this previously in a Japanesepod101.com lesson, for this post I have been looking up bits and pieces from Wikipedia, and the lesson notes from JPod, to rattle my brain to bring back the information to pass on to you.

Hinamatsuri is a festival to celebrate all the female children in Japan (boy's get their own day later in the year, called Kodomo no Hi or Childrens Day, and is technically to celebrate both genders but is recently more for boys). The festival is to celebrate the birth of girls and their future happiness.

The reason it is sometimes called Momo no Sekku is that Momo means 'Peach Flowers'. In the old Japanese lunar calendar 3rd March signified the season of Peach Flowers, hence the name of the festival. The festival is believed to have originated from the Heian Era (794 to 1185AD).

One of the major parts of Hinamatsuri is displaying a set of dolls, which are dressed in ancient court costumes, on a 5 to 7 tier set of shelves called Hina Ningyo. The main dolls for this set are the Emperor, Empress, Courtiers, Court Ladies and Imperial Musicians. All of theses dolls are collected for girls as they are believed to protect them from illness and evil spirits.


 The dolls are displayed in a specific order, and each doll is meant to be put on a certain level of the tiered shelves. The emperor and empress are placed on the top shelf, the court ladies are displayed on the second shelf, and the court musicians are placed on the third shelf.

These dolls are displayed for a few weeks prior to the 3rd March, but must be taken down immediately after the 3rd March. This is another superstition, as if the dolls are not put away quickly then it will delay the daughter getting married.


As with the majority of the Japanese festivals there is special food associated with it. In the case of Hinamatsuri the 2 foods mentioned on the sources are Hina Arare (a type of sweet rice cracker) and Hishi Mochi (a 'rhombus shaped rice cake'). A drink associated with this festival (seems a little odd to me as the day is celebrating young females...) is white sake , or Shirozake.

Hina Arare
Hishi Mochi
Shirozake
 Lastly, there is a song associated with the festival, and the lyrics are as follows:


Akari wo tsukemasho bonbori ni
Ohana wo agemasho momo no hana
Gonin-bayashi no fue taiko
Kyō wa tanoshii hinamatsuri

(English)

Let's light the lanterns
Let's put peach flowers
Five court musicians are playing flutes and drums
Today is a joyful Doll's Festival

UK Anime & Manga Releases - 05/03/2012 to 11/03/2012

It's that time of the week again where we have a look at the upcoming releases for this week. I apologise that this article is late, but better late than never :)

Only one anime release again this week, but it's part of a series so it should take up a bit of your time. Following the recent trend though there are quite a few manga releases out on Tuesday for you to look forward to.

ANIME
Monday 5th March
Fairy Tail - Part 1

MANGA
Tuesday 6th March
Dengeki Daisy - Vol.9
Fairy Tail - Vol.18
Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll - Vol.2
Gantz - Vol.21
Ninja Girls - Vol.9
Oh My Goddess! - Vol.20