Category News

Feb 1 2012

Stage Plays And Cute Foods

(I missed all the excitement and buzz about Tiger & Bunny The Live on Twitter thanks to timezone differences and the fact that we were both already asleep. Anyway…!)

Tiger & Bunny The Live is going to be the 3rd step of NEXT Project. Ozaki went on a tweet spree to announce it, you can read a full translation of his tweets here. Save for the other things he said, what really caught my attention was this:

Ozaki: “Somehow, every time it tries to do something, T&B is always told “it’s impossible”, “you should give up” (^^;)”

Yet, Tiger & Bunny always does it, and it does it so well it surprises everyone. These guys have a really unshakable faith in Tiger & Bunny, and I really hope they keep succeeding at doing the impossible. Like with the live-action movie clarification, I got the impression that Ozaki and the others really care about their creation and do their best to respect the original work – the anime – and the fans. This is an important and a crucial part of marketing, you could pull in new audience (or customers) in many different ways but all too often I’ve seen that done while forgetting the existing fans. You shouldn’t exclude the fans you already have on the expense of getting new ones, and Ozaki and the team working on Tiger & Bunny show that they’ve done their homework here.

Well, at least when it comes to Japanese fans. I just wish there was something more for us fans overseas, now we’ll have to wait until BD&DVD releases which take a long time.

Another thing that came to my mind while reading Ozaki’s tweets is that one of the themes in the series is how people from different generations can come to understand each other and bond. What Ozaki said – how he wants people from different generations to come together to enjoy Tiger & Bunny – reflects this and is really fitting in my opinion.

And then, after promising more information on the movie next week, he went on to raise a giant S2 flag:

Ozaki: “This work was originally an anime, and I sincerely understand that what fans really want is a new series. Please wait some more…!”

Speaking of NEXT Projects, Namco Namja Town café event is currently listed on the site on the 4th step place, but I don’t recall seeing it referred to as a NEXT Project so it’s probably there just for promotion convenience. We aren’t even sure how many NEXT Projects there will be, nothing says it’ll stop at step four.

These are too cute to eat.

Jan 26 2012

Hero Awards 2011 BD/DVD Contents Listed On The Official Site

Hero Awards 2011 cover art by character designer Hayama Kenji.

Hero Awards 2011 BD/DVD release contents were added to the official site today.

CONTENTS:

  • Skits
  • OP & ED artist performances
  • Hero introductions
  • Urgent Special Project: Let’s Connect With The Whole Country~ Origami-Rock-High live tweeting with everyone
  • Hero History
  • NEXT Project Step 2 announcement
  • Live viewing cast comments

Also:

  • Last episode live viewing talk digest
  • Pocket-size pamphlet (this is marked as subject to change on the official site)
  • Cover especially drawn by character designer Hayama Kenji

And I just have to say this. Barnaby, I know you have a “stylish” image but man, get a stylist. That suit is just…

Update: It just got more amusing. And here come the manips. More at subcultureblog.

Jan 18 2012

Ozaki Talks About Live-Action And Musical Adaptations

As you may know, ASCII published an interview with executive producer Ozaki Masayuki a couple of days ago. In the interview he talked about how Tiger & Bunny was born, and also about what future plans for the franchise would interest him – such as live-action and musical. It seems he may have said too much (and it’s not the first time – though who can blame him for being enthusiastic?) because he further clarified his thoughts on a live-action adaptation in length on Twitter. You can read a full translation of his tweets at Crunchyroll.

“These are my personal feelings as the producer. However, at this time nobody less than a Hollywood mainstay production studio could realize the vision I have. If we don’t secure complete agreement on staff, cast, production scale, supervisory rights, etc then I don’t intend to give permission.”
– Ozaki Masayuki

The feeling I got from his tweets is that he and the other creators are very protective of Tiger & Bunny – which is a really good thing for the future of the series. Although he has ruled out a Hollywood live-action for now, a musical seems like a possibility. The Code Geass stage musical is currently in production, and I could imagine that if it does well it would be a good sign also for a Tiger & Bunny musical. As a fun fact, director Satou mentioned in an interview around September that he’d be interested in trying a musical in the future. He didn’t specify it further and I took it just as a joke but maybe he wasn’t trolling after all…

Personally I think that Tiger & Bunny would fit a live-action movie better than musical. I’m not into musicals in general, and us foreign fans would have no chance of seeing a musical until the eventual BD release. A live-action movie – if done right – could turn out very good, but anime/manga based live-action movies have a pretty uneven success rate. The Japanese versions tend to be better than the few Hollywood versions that have been made. Tiger & Bunny has taken a lot of inspiration from the American superhero comics and movies so a live-action adaptation feels fitting – although I may be pretty alone with my opinion.

Whether or not you like the idea of a live-action Tiger & Bunny, Ozaki has no plans for that at the moment and he is currently concentrating on the already announced movie projects. That hasn’t stopped the Japanese fans from making speculations about a dream cast for a Hollywood live-action adaptation:

Jan 12 2012

Kotetsu Zero Coming To The North American Market? (Updated January 21st)

Tamashii Nations USA tweeted this at us:

https://twitter.com/#!/TamashiiNations/status/157361377751744512

A closer inspection led me to their Facebook page, teasing about Kotetsu Zero maybe not being an exclusive if you live in North America. This sounds like good news to our friends on the other side of Atlantic, and maybe this’ll be the start of the merchandise flow there.

Update: Now they’re also teasing with Barnaby Figuarts Zero on the Facebook page. I’d suggest going to comment/like the Kotetsu and Barnaby Figuarts Zero posts there if you’re interested in getting them brought to the North American market.

Update 2: Figuarts Zero Kotetsu is coming to North American market in limited quantity, release in May 2012 and price $49.99. (source)

Jan 11 2012

Tiger & Bunny KING OF WORKS Archive (Updated)

Tiger & Bunny KING OF WORKS
Publisher: Bandai Visual
ISBN: 978-4894571006
Release: 2012/6/29
Price: 5,880 JPY [Amazon Japan] [Amiami] [CDJapan] [Hobby Search] [HLJ] [Otacute]

I had been fretting over not being able to order Katsura’s Limited Edition artbook, but now I don’t mind because KING OF WORKS sounds more interesting. If you’re balking at the price, it’s not actually that bad when you consider it covers a set of three books. There are over 400 pages Correction: Release date was changed to June, and page count increased to 800 in four volumes. The archive consists of character designs, setting materials, original scripts, and more. It also comes with a calendar as a bonus item. CDJapan helpfully lists item weights, and KING OF WORKS is listed at 1950g (almost 2 kilos or 4 pounds) so shipping fee will not be cheap.

I’ll update more links and information to this post as I find them.

(This Spring is shaping up to be lethal for my wallet…)