News Anime – UK Anime and Manga

Miyazaki’s Sherlock Hound Confirmed for the UK

News - by Ian - November 25, 2009 - 17:11 Europe/London - 1 Comment

Manga Entertainment are becoming known for securing the rights to some older anime and selling it in the UK, this has been especially noted with the old Miyazaki classic: Panda Go Panda!. Today it has been announced that they have secured the rights to another pre-Ghibli Miyazaki work – Sherlock Hound.

Sherlock Hound

“Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) during his time at Japan’s largest animation studio, TMS. Before he went on to create Totoro and Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki captured a whole generation of childrens’ imaginations with his retelling of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries using a loveable cast of canines. For the first time ever in the UK, all 26 episodes of the cult toon classic are collected into one deluxe box set.

“Sherlock Hound”, released as either Famous Detective Holmes or Detective Holmes in Japan, is an anime based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series where all the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic animals, the majority dogs, though Holmes is a fox and his enemy Professor Moriarty is a wolf. The show featured regular appearances of Jules Verne-steampunk style technology, adding a 19th-century science-fiction atmosphere to the series. It consists of 26 episodes aired between 1984 and 1985.” – hmv

Available:
1st February 2010 – 5 Disc Complete Set

This classic Miyazaki series retells the famous Sherlock Holmes story as friendly dogs and is an easily accessable and adorable series. You can pre-order this now from hmv here.

Source: Manga Entertainment’s Twitter Feed

Barbican’s Evangelion 1.0 Tickets Available

News - by Ian - November 23, 2009 - 20:47 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!

The London based Barbican Centre, one of the premier spots in London and the South for anime and all forms of cultural events have today confirmed that their Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone are available to buy today.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

“This epic tale of alien invasion sees the earth under attack from Angels, giant creatures who seek the destruction of the human race. After the second impact, all that remains of Japan is Tokyo-3, and Earth’s last defence is the NERV organization’s and their Evas, giant mechas driven by bio-fused children.

Can reluctant rookie pilot Shinji Ikari, his young colleagues and their mega mechs save the world? An intriguing cast of characters enrich this psychedelic drama emblazoned with spectacular battle sequences. “The end is here…””

Screening:
26th January – 2030

The Barbican have been kind enough to send a couple of screenshots of the up and coming viewing across to us, just to whet your whistle if you have no seen the film just yet:

You can buy tickets from the Barbican’s website here.

Barbican Confirms Additional Ponyo Screenings and Evangelion 1.0

News - by Ian - November 21, 2009 - 13:53 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!

By their own words, the Barbican is “The Barbican Centre is the largest multi-arts centre in Europe, featuring art, film, music, theatre, dance and education all under one roof and under one creative direction.”. As such they are well known for being a bit more diverse than the average cinema and arts centre and this year we have reported multiple times about their extensive anime and asian film viewings.

Luther to this, Barbican announced on Thursday that the Studio Ghibli feature film, Ponyo will be getting additional viewings due to public demand and very happily they are also planning and confirming a few events for early 2010 as well.

Ponyo

“The greatest living film animator and storyteller, Hayao Miyazaki transforms The Little Mermaid fairytale into Ponyo, a magical and universal cinema experience that shines so bright all else seems grey. Ponyo is a little goldfish with a girl’s face who escapes the underwater home of her sorcerer father to explore the surface. She is discovered by Sosuke, a 5-year-old boy living on the top of a cliff by the sea. As Ponyo grows closer to Sosuke, her desire to become fully human strengthens. Screening in the original Japanese language version with English subtitles.”

Screening:
21st November – 1100
29th November – 1730

Two additional screenings are being held on the below dates that are subtitle only screenings.

Screening:
26th November – 1800
28th November – 1730

Mai Mai Miracle
“Adapted from Nobuko Takagi’s autobiographical novel, Mai Mai Miracle is a magical time-travelling adventure. Set in a town in the southwest of Japan in 1955 where nine-year-old Shinko and her new school friend Kiiko share a love of history. When they discover Shinko has an ancient family link to a legendary Japanese province, their imaginations take over and they explore a world which existed a thousand years before. Is it possible for daydreams to become reality?”

Screening:
26th November – before 1800

Mai Mai Miracle will be shown before Ponyo on the 26th November and will be introduced by the co-author of the legendary Anime Encyclopaedia – Helen McCarthy.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
“Shinji Ikari is sent for by his estranged father, Gendo at the beginning of the film. As he wanders around the town, which has been shut down over an emergency announcement, he is caught in the crossfire between the U.N. army and the fourth Angel. Rescued by Lt. Colonel Misato Katsuragi, Shinji is brought to Tokyo-3 and NERV headquarters, where he is pressured by Gendo, NERV’s Supreme Commander, into piloting the Evangelion Unit-01 against the Angel because the other Evangelion pilot, the mysterious Rei Ayanami, is too injured to do so. After the initial fight, Shinji is taken in by Misato as her new housemate and enrolled in middle school. The film portrays Shinji’s attempts to “settle in” with his newfound life alongside Misato, Rei, and the other characters while continuing to defend Tokyo-3 and the world from the coming Angels.” – Thanks Wikipedia

Screening:
26th January – 2030

On top of the above confirmed dates, we should also expect to see  Astro Boy and The Sky Crawlers in the early months of 2010.

New Asian Cinema Season on Film4

News - by Ian - November 13, 2009 - 18:16 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!

Film4, the free to air Freeview film channel from Channel 4 is well known for their support of anime films and asian cinema in general. Every now and again an Asian Cinema film or anime film crops up and an announcement is made across the anime community. This time around though, Film4 are going all out and are creating a New Asian Cinema film season.

Yesterday on the Twitter stream a lovely little post was made regarding Kamikaze Girls being shown, well, tonight the Live Action Death Note films will be shown. The full season is as follows:

Death Note
“Shusuke Kaneko’s live-action manga adaptation defines the phrase ‘big in Japan’ – Death Note has sold 21 million magazines, and inspired its own anime series, video games, a novel and of course a series of live-action features. Tune in to find out what all the fuss is about.”

Airing: 13th November – 2240

Death Note The Last Name
“The second part of this Japanese franchise about a serial killer was directed back-to-back with the first Death Note in 2006 and features the same cast and crew as the original. Death Note: The Last Name is a high-concept morality tale spearheaded by a deadly battle of wits between two immature and arrogant geniuses. Possibly inspired by The Libertines. Except for the genius part.”

Airing: 14th November – 0105

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK.
“Set in an asylum and rich in character and colour, Cyborg is a coming-of-age tale – with the odd SF action sequence thrown in – and crucially, is funny, poignant and always surprising, with a healthy disregard for the genre cliche. Backing up its whizz-bang visual effects with real heart, it also happens to feature the meanest yodelling to have graced film since the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona. Don’t try to tell us you’re not intrigued.”

Airing: 14th November – 2300

Zatoichi
“‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano takes on the classic Japanese legend of the blind master swordsman who wanders 19th century rural Japan and gets caught up in gang conflict. So far, so trad, but did you know there’s also a climactic music and tap dance routine? True story. If you don’t believe us, tune in to Film4 at 11.20pm.”

Airing: 15th November – 2320

Memories of Matsuko
“Tetsuya Nakashima, the director of Kamikaze Girls, serves up the merriest variety of miserabilism in this post-modern melodrama of a fallen woman. Human abjection never looked so good – expect whimsy and quirkification to rival even Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. (Note: this is nothing like Fantastic Mr. Fox.)”

Airing: 16th November – 2315

House of Flying Daggers
“Here’s another chance to catch our season opener: the modern classic of assassins, romance and some really rather improbable athletics. D’you think wires could possibly have been involved?”

Airing: 17th November – 2300

Toyko Sonata
“Japan’s contemporary nightmares bubble to the surface in this allegorical family drama directed and co-written by genre hopper Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His aloof style keeps the menace simmering just beneath the surface in this family drama about the waking nightmare of recession, divorce and the breakdown of law and order.”

Airing: 18th November – 2240

Thanks to Film4 for the summaries.

So that’s Death Note twice tonight and tons of other Asian goodness throughout the week. So get that SkyPlus box recording!

Source: Film4 Twitter.

See the full listings here.

Beez at the MCM London Expo

News - by Ian - October 17, 2009 - 12:11 Europe/London - Be first to Comment!

Beez Enterainment have announced that there’s a number of changes happening at the London Expo for them this year. The first is actually where they are going to be, rather than theri usual block they’ve joined forces with their parent company Bandai, so they will be at the Namco Bandai Partner’s area right next to the gaming area.

The biggest points for Beez this year are summarised below:

In conjunction with London MCM Expo we are proud to bring you two of the best creative minds from Japan – the President of Studio BONES and Producer of Sword of the Stranger – Masahiko Minami and the Director of Sword of the Stranger – Masahiro Ando.

Signings from both guests will occur on the Beez stand once on the Saturday (11:00-12:00) doing a second signing each day too while Mr Minami signs on the Manga stand (Saturday: 16:00-16:30 approximately for Ando-san on Beez stand and 16:30-17:30 for Minami-san on the Manga stand Sunday: Ando-san on Beez stand at 13:00-13:45 and Minami-san on Manga stand at 14:00-14:45__)!

There will be both a Studio BONES panel held by Minami-san and a Sword of the Stranger panel looking at how feature length animes are made.

We’ll be holding some giveaways in conjunction with the Namco Bandai Partners as part of their Iron Fist Tournament over at the Tekken stand across from Beez/NBP’s block.

In another amazing giveaway we will be including one full-priced Beez DVD from our back catalog (sorry no Gurren Lagann’s!) in just over 3000 of the goodie bags going out to early arrivers at London Expo in October. So best get there early to get in on it – which one will you end up getting?

Plus – looking to do your Christmas shopping early? Well we’ll be selling most of our remaining titles for 2009 at Expo including:

- Sword of the Stranger (2-DVD edition)
- Cowboy Bebop Remix set (6 DVDs)
- Code Geass Part 1 (3 DVDs)
- Code Geass Part 2 (3 DVDs)

All will be going for discounted prices (you guys know the rough pricings already, think half-way between the Gurren LE and RE prices at Expo in May for Bebop + Geass sets and far less for SotS, in limited quantity though so best come get them while you can!

So if you’re going, make sure you swing by and say Hi to Andrew and the team!

Ghibli Announce Latest Project

News - by Ian - September 30, 2009 - 18:19 Europe/London - 1 Comment

Today one of the largest and most well known anime studios in the world announced their latest addition to their ever expanding portfolio. Studio Ghibli today announced that the next project they will be releasing is The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (also known as Taketori Monogatari) and will be directed by Isao Takahata. Takahata hasn’t directed a Studio Ghibli film in a long time; however, he was the director behind one of the most touching Ghibli films ever created – Grave of the Fireflies.

Bamboo Cutter is a classic 10th century tale from Japanese folklore and is considered one of the oldest in existence. A mysterious girl called Kagaura-hime discovered a baby inside of a stalk of glowing bamboo, this baby is said to be from the Capital of the Moon and has unusual hair that shines like gold. She then rebuffs a number of suitors, including Mikado, the Emperor of Japan (who gives up immortality for her), and eventually returns to the Moon.

This tale has huge relevance in Japanese culture and is said to be one of the reasons behind the loved Fuji-san’s name.

Along with this, it’s also being noted that there are three more Miyazaki films in the pipeline at the moment as well.

Source: Empire Online

Sci-Fi-London Oktoberfest Announced – Updated

News - by Ian - September 26, 2009 - 21:06 Europe/London - 2 Comments

Update:

SFL have updated their site with one more title: Eureka Seven – Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers. For more information see the very last film description.

Sci-Fi-London have recently announced their new line up for the Sci-Fi-London Oktoberfest.

This well known and interesting anime all-night event starts at about 2230 with the DJ’s in the bar and the MANGAWALL for everyone to attack with their mark. Lots of goody-bags and Redbull will be on hand everywhere.

The animes that will be featured this time around are:

King of Thorn

“During the pandemic outbreak of the mysterious Medusa virus, Kasumi and her twin sister Shizuku become infected. They are separated when Kasumi is chosen to be one of a select group of 160 people to be placed in cryogenic suspension until a cure can be found.

After an indeterminate amount of time Kasumi awakens from her deep-freeze hibernation, only to discover that she and a handful of other survivors are in a desolate and treacherous world populated by vicious creatures.

Although Kasumi wants to learn the fate of her twin sister, she and the other survivors want to unravel much larger mystery of what happened while they were sleeping, and if, and how, they are going to survive in this post-apocalyptic world.”

The Sky Crawlers

“Although most of us seem to be living the lives of eternal adolescents it is a lifestyle choice of our own and not one forced upon us like the Kildren in this film.

Set in an alternate history where the world is at peace, but in order to ease the tension of those accustomed to war and aggression, private corporations contract fighter pilots to stage combat operations against each other for show.

The Kildren are genetically designed humanoids who have the blessing/curse of eternal youth but are also conscious that every day could be the last, because they have to take part in the staged battles. Rather than being typical maudlin teenagers, they embrace the reality of their situation and live their day-to-day lives to the full.

Directed by GHOST IN THE SHELL maestro, Mamoru Oshii, from the manga of the same name.”

Time of Eve

“It’s the near future and androids are in common usage. One day Rikuo, who has taken robots for granted all his life, discovers that Sammy, his home android, has been acting independently and coming and going on her own.

He finds a strange phrase recorded in her activity log, “Are you enjoying the Time of Eve?” He, along with his friend Masaki, traces Sammy’s movements and finds an unusual cafe, “The Time of Eve”. Nagi, the waitress, informs them that the cafe’s main rule is to not discriminate between humans and androids.

Within the cafe androids do not display their status rings, and, when patrons depart, the door is automatically locked for two minutes to prevent anyone from following them to discover their true nature.

There are plenty of references to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics to keep it interesting.”

Evangelion 1.0

“This is a rebuild of the hugely popular, Neon Genesis Evangelion series. Tokyo-3 is all that remains of Japan after the second impact. The city is being attacked by giant creatures called Angels that want to eradicate humankind.

Shinji Ikari, who has not seen his father for more than eight years, receives a phone call in which he is told to urgently go to the NERV Headquarters, an organization that deals with the destruction of the Angels using giant mechs called Evas. Shinji’s objective is to pilot the Eva Unit 01, while teaming up with the Eva Unit 00 pilot, Ayanami Rei.”

Eureka Seven – Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers

“

Renton, son of scientists, and Eureka, a girl who can’t live under the sun, are raised together when very young and become very attached to each other.

One day, Eureka is taken away. Powerless at the time, Renton vows to rescue her. He enters the military and is soon assigned to the Independent Youths Unit 303 of the First Mobile Forces thanks to his exceptional performance alongside his Nirvash, a bio-mechanical armor/control system.

Unknown to Renton, lies a plot to extinguish the alien invasion that is currently happening. It involves not only him, but Eureka too.”

No actual date for this has been organised yet, but as soon as there has we’ll let you know. You can check their site out here.

Thanks to Manga UK for the tip.