Click here for full promotional poster
A little plugging for my hometown event – as a part of our Animinitime convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we’re excited to announce that we’re now selling tickets for a special midnight showing of Cowboy Bebop The Movie: Knockin’ On Heavens’ Door.
The movie will be played on the big screen at downtown’s Parklane Theatres on the evening of April 24. The showing falls between the two events planned for that weekend – one is a picnic the day before while the convention itself follows the day after. Each ticket is on sale for $5 (taxes included). You can currently buy tickets for the movie event at Strange Adventures and upcoming Anime@Large (a local anime club) events.
Original Author: Osamu Tezuka
Studio: IMAGI
Rating: PG (Violence)
Release Date: October 2009
Synopsis: “Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Dr. Tenma. Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly. Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it means to be a hero.”
Based on Osamu Tezuka’s popular Astro Boy series, this movie had a lot of weight on its shoulders – attempting, and in several ways succeeding, to cater to not only fans of the original but also to a generation of viewers for whom Astro Boy comes along as a just another computer-built children’s film.
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Last night was the first of two showings across Canada of Evangelion 1.0, part one of a four-part retelling of the popular Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, revamped with new scenes and new graphics for an old, an undeniably well-loved, story.
I went to the showing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with over 200 fellow fans – not only did the show almost entirely sell out but we also made up the biggest turn-out across the entire country! Way to come out and show your support, Haligonians – you guys rock! Winning moments include a fun pre-show with lots of prizes and trivia and an impromptu light show during the film’s closing credits where everyone took out their cell phones and swayed them to the lovely Utada Hikaru song.
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Today’s AnimeNewsNetwork has posted its list of winners for the recently held Canadian-exclusive contest for tickets to Evangelion 1.0. Congrats to all the winners!
And as another reminder, the first showing of Evangelion 1.0 hits Canadian theatres across the country September 30th (next Wednesday!). The Empire Theatres’ website has information on participating locations including word that each theatre will again be holding cosplay contests for attendees with prizes and goodies for the winners on the premiere night!
I’ll be attending the Halifax showing as both a fan and promoter for 2010’s Animinitime events, so I hope to see lots of friendly and familiar faces there :)
Reusing the above graphic because it’s cool and relevant. AnimeNewsNetwork is holding a contest giving away tickets to 67 showings of the upcoming Evangelion 1.0 film, coming soon to Canadian theatres. ANN is giving away 310 tickets in total and it’s one ticket per location per winner. The giveaway ends on September 19th so head on over for a quick and easy chance to see the movie compliments of ANN and Eleven Arts Inc.
Canada’s Empire Theatres recently put up a landing page for the upcoming special event screenings of Evangelion 1.0. The threatres and dates were announced by Funimation earlier in the summer but Empire Theatre’s page has a few additional locations and times than those originally listed from ET (including two locations now playing it in Halifax, yay!).
Two times are now listed for the showings as well: Wednesday, September 30th and Saturday, October 3rd. The movie itself will be dubbed and will not have any special featurettes playing before or after it (unless specifically added by the individual threatres).
Along with this new information, you can also now pre-order your tickets for Empire Theatre showings, something worth doing in the near future thanks to the notority of large anime screenings selling out. Most theatres will also be hosting cosplay contests in connection with the film and will have some goodies on hand for prizes and freebies, including posters and postcards, and even a few surprises.
Empire Theatres will also be playing Studio Ghibli/Disney’s Ponyo in select theatres across Canada later in the summer with final showtimes and any-applicable special event information coming soon.
Day one of SDCC wraps up tonight and what a day it was! My 6000km trek across the continent that was full of trials standing between me and Comic Con, from barely connecting flights to lost luggage and no hotel room. But, patience and perserverance wins in the end and I was able to join fellow con-goers in enjoying day one (and writing about it on no sleep. It’s all about the con experience!). On that vague note, please excuse any crazy spelling errors or icky photo placement. My SDCC posts will all recieve a cleaning up once I return home from my trip.
As today was preview night for 4-day badge holders, press and professfionals, there wasn’t anything in the way of panels occuring but that didn’t mean the thousands of people who flocked to San Diego to attend didn’t find exactly what they were looking for. Open to the public after a slightly disorganized, but still very smoothly executed, registration, Comic Con International’s exhibitor area (“San Diego Comic Con”) was officially open to its eager audience.
You can read about my initial manga finds on the floor and see some photos after the jump.
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It comes as little surprise anymore when us Canadians get the short end of the theatrical anime-stick. Those of us who don’t live in the big cities of Vancouver and Toronto, and occassionally Montreal, can usually count ourselves out of many big Japanese animated film releases. However, in a news release from Funimation, it seems that Canadians are getting the good end of the stick this time.
On September 30, 2009, the first of four Evangelion remake films, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, will be playing across Canada in 67 different theatres. The film, rated PG-13, will sport a dub bringing back many of the voice talents from the original Evangelion series’ dub.
You can watch a trailer for the movie on Funimation’s Eva 1.0 website, and see the full list of Canadian theatres under the post cut.
News Source: AnimeNewsNetwork (FUNI Press Release)
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Originally written sometime last week, this post suffers from forgot-about-it-itis:
It’s no exageration that I’m a huge fan of Nickelodeon’s recently finished animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. As one of the most original and well-animated shows to play on television in my memory, I’ll forever be impressed and amazed by the creative team behind it and their visual and story-telling prowess that brought the unique series to life. You can see some screenshots of the multiple characters and gorgeous background paintings thanks to a “visual essay” of the series here.
That said, casting news of its upcoming live-action movie has created more than a little stir, a ripple of disbelief, that reaches far beyond its loyal fanbase. This of course comes from the fact that the entire cast of this live-action movie are caucasian. As a series starring pre-dominantly Asian characters in beautifully rendered Asian locales, this doesn’t only seem completely inaccurate but also unneccessary. Is it to say there aren’t any talented ethnic actors and actresses out there? Because goodness knows that isn’t true.
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Tenth day of December anyway. Some random fun/entertaining/otherwise interesting links for you today :)
The new trailer for Fox’s upcoming Dragonball adaptation, now titled Dragonball Evolution, is currently up and ready for viewing! My thoughts remain generally the same as before, obviously not a faithful adaptation but still looks like fun! In fact, I think now it looks even more fun. Go check it out and see what you think.
AnimeNewsNetwork has the first of its free streaming anime up for viewing now! No complaints about free, legal anime :) Currently you can watch Kite: Liberator, Girl’s High and Ramen Fighter Miki.
Also ANN related: Their annual Holiday Logo Contest has begun! Momentary ANN-fame and anime boxsets await the winner. I’m entering the contest in the slim hope I could get my hands on the CLAMP School Detectives boxset! Going to be fun to see all the cute submitted artwork starring their AnimeNewsNina mascot when the entries are displayed.
And a little late on the update, but for those (like me) who’ve missed Gia’s site updates, you can now rejoice at her return on her website, AnimeVice. Extra goodies include some video updates such as fun look at the inside of Viz Media’s office. Envious of their working space? I think so.
And lastly, for the yaoi fans, Yaoi Generation has preview pages up for its first release, Breath by Chifumi Ochi. So if you’d like to take a look, then by all means! I recommend viewing the images in full size since the preview window shrinks them down and makes ‘em fuzzy.
A reminder to Canadian folks that the second live-action Death Note movie, Death Note 2: The Last Name, will be playing across the country in select theatres this Wednesday, December 3rd! Tickets are going fast and the first movie was sold out across the nation so if you want to make sure you and your friends get a seat, then I recommend buying your tickets early.
Also, don’t forgot to check out your local anime organizations and theatres for special events and get-togethers surrounding it, such as Halifax’s pre-movie cosplay contest :)
Edit: Another event definately worth attending if you’re in the area, is at Granville 7 theatre in Vancouver, where there’ll be a signing session with the Death Note English voice cast.
A reminder to Canadian anime fans; the first Bleach movie, Bleach: Memories of Nobody, will be playing in select theatres across the country tomorrow, October 20th. Even if you’ve seen the movie, there’s nothing quite like watching it on the big screen. Remember, the more you go to anime in the theatre, the more you’re supporting it and up the chances of more being played!
While I’m not sure of what kind of special events are happening elsewhere, I know the Bayer’s Lake Empire Theatres in Halifax will be having a special Bleach cosplay contest before the showing so those interested should definately show up a bit early for some fun and prizes :)
Three little news posts in one day? Happy first day of October I guess! Time for some Dragonball news for some wondrefully testorone-pumped nostalgia.
The folks at Japantor have posted an image and some information regarding the short anime film of Dragonball that will premiere as a part of the celebratory Jump Super Anime Tour. It’s written by Akira Toriyama himself so fear not another GT. The story starrs a newly-introduced-to-the-DB-universe Saiyan-jin, who just so happens to be Vegeta’s younger brother. I’m looking forward to it!
And, what may not be counted as going in as good a direction (depending on who you ask), a bootlegged version of the Dragonball live-action movie trailer has surfaced. The Anime Blog crew has found it and put it up for the masses to see. Gotta say, like them, I am quite underwhelmed… but then again I suppose hopes were never too high in the first place. Regardless, I still think it looks like a fun movie to watch in theatre, just maybe not in the form of this childhood memory massacre. It was reported a few weeks ago that this trailer will be premiering during the upcoming theatre release of Max Payne on October 17.
It figures that an announcement like this would be made just as I was getting on the plane! Anyhoo, Viz Pictures announced this past Friday that the first live-action Death Note movie will be playing in select theatres across Canada on September 15. The movie already played in movie theatres down in the States a little while back. The movie is due out on DVD in North America on August 29th and tickets to showings will be bundled in with the film going for $29.99. The Empire Theatres website has a list of the theatres that’ll be playing this first installment.
Also, in partnership with Viz Media, the east-coast convention Animaritime is hosting a contest for tickets! So if you’re in the Moncton, New Brunswick area ,and would like to win a two-person pass, than head on over there and take a stab at the trivia contest! The convention has also begun accepting applications for new staff members and volunteers so definately fill out a form and send it in if you’re interested in joining our team!
Random things that may be of interest to some people on this slow Sunday:
Dragonballmovieblog.net has posted an image of the first official look at Justin Chatwin in his role as Goku in the upcoming live action adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball. Supposedly a scan from the next issue of Shonen Jump in Japan, it’ll no doubt be a picture we’ll be seeing pop up around the internet soon enough.
Having announced their licensing of the Code Geass mangas back when they acquired the anime, Bandai Entertainment has got a bunch of listings for the books up on Amazon.com. Five books in five months, looks like Code Geass fans will definately be getting their fix in fairly rapid succession. Bandai Entertainment is also going through a big site revamp at this time with a blog to update visitors of their progress, media and general company happenings.
And finally, also over at Amazon.com, Viz sent the site some updated images for future releases (see pictures above), for any who want to see some pics.
