New anime - "Steamboy" and Catwoman Japan-style

[Mulboyne]

Don't know which FG posted this on a film site but he sounds connected....

Tonight, in the upscale Ginza district of Tokyo, in a small concert hall on the fifth floor of the Yamaha building, there was an exclusive press screening for Katsuhiro Otomo's highly-anticipated Steamboy. I was lucky enough to get a ticket and be one of the first to see it (it doesn't open here for about a month). Here's what I thought (and forgive me if there are a few inaccuracies in the details - my Japanese leaves much to be desired):

Also, on the anime/manga them, DC Comics has released figurines of Batman, Catwoman etc based on the drawings of Japan manga star Kia Asamiya

See Here

Asamiya is rare in carving out a career in US comics as well as in Japan. He has worked for DC and Marvel. The fans ddn't give him an easy ride...

Asamiya cleared up any doubts about the impact of Internet message boards on comics and manga artists. He read the Marvel bulletin board messages on his reworked X-Men designs, "...and I was shocked at some of the sometimes negative reactions. I said `I can't do that, they hate me.' The editors reassured me that it was common on the message boards. I'm used to my work being slammed on the Japanese messge boards, but that was the first time I've seen that in English. It was an eye opening experience, so I'm not going to look at message boards any more. That is a sticky situation, because you do have to take the fans into consideration." Earlier in the discussion about his X-Men work, Asamiya had said "I'm afraid that if fans don't like them, that's going to be it for my career."

[Taro Toporific]

Asamiya cleared up any doubts about the impact of Internet message boards on comics and manga artists.....

Those damn message boards.

"Stop belitting Anime?" That's like saying 'stop making fun of the wifebeaters on 'Cops'"

They both just NEED to be ridiculed.

:P

[Mulboyne]

"Stop belitting Anime?" That's like saying 'stop making fun of the wifebeaters on 'Cops'"

They both just NEED to be ridiculed.

:P

I thought that was a great comment too. Anime fans do tend to get a tad over-protective. But there is money in them thar hills...US anime conventions are turning into nice little earners for J-pop stars. hiro (ex-Speed) showed up in Seattle a couple of weeks ago for a very tidy sum. TM Revolution seemed to be a huge hit last year. (Evidence taken from one source, mind you...)

hiro

TM Revolution

[Taro Toporific]

Here's a glowing review of Steamboy in the the Japan Times....
.

Remembering the good old futureBy MARK SCHILLING / Japan Times (July 14)
Steamboy
Rating: * * * * (out of 5)
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Running time: 126 minutes / Language: English / Opens July 17
I am old enough to remember when the future looked fun. As a kid I was an eager reader of Jules Verne, whose futuristic novels, written in mid-19th century France, had proven thrillingly prophetic...........
The latest is Katsuhiro Otomo's "Steamboy," an animation set in the London of 1866, when Verne was at the height of his powers, the Machine Age was well under way, and, to the era's optimists, mankind's horizons looked unlimited....
.... In contrast to...otaku-y meditations on the destiny of humanity in a digitalized world, "Steamboy" is more of a mainstream, all-ages entertainment. Rightly so, since it took 10 years and 2.4 billion yen to make. To recoup that budget -- the largest ever for a Japanese animated feature -- distributor Toho will have to attract more than anime geeks.
Not that they will de displeased. Known for his fanatical attention to detail, Otomo has created steam-driven tanks, planes and all-terrain vehicles that clank, soar and sail with an eye-goggling realism. This, for geeks, is pure manna.
And the rest of us? The combination of nonstop action, imaginative sweep and period authenticity -- the sense of watching photos of 19th-century cityscapes spring to animated life -- hit me right where the 12-year-old Jules Verne fan still lives. I didn't watch this film so much as escape into it.

[Caustic Saint]

Maybe Verne's ghost can rest a little easier now, knowing that some people have a true appreciation for his ideas. (Let's forget the recent raping his work got with that horrendous "80 Days" pile of dogshit.)

[Andocrates]

I like anime, but the word "steam" in the tile is so negative to me that it killed any desire to see the movie. The poster also look stupid and old-fashioned- some kid in an old leather helmet. All I could think of was that god-awful movie Metropolis or that delivery girl anime (I forgot - "nani nani delivery girl")

I really don't like, nor have any desire to see old-fashioned amines or movies, unless the point is unrelated to the time (Grave of the Fireflies) Who goes to see period pieces anyway? Old ladies that's who. It's a stupid concept made from some out of touch movie directors. Even if it's the best anime ever made it will flop . Of course everyone will blame the wrong reasons. It will flop because no one cares what happened in the steam powered era.

[leathernick]

All I could think of was that god-awful movie Metropolis or that delivery girl anime (I forgot - "nani nani delivery girl")

you mean kiki?

[Taro Toporific]

I wonder how it will play in Peoria?

Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy in Theaters
Posted Slashdot by CmdrTaco on Tuesday March 08, @04:20PM
"big things can be expected" [[...read the geeky comments....]]

[Pencilslave]

I like anime, but the word "steam" in the tile is so negative to me that it killed any desire to see the movie. The poster also look stupid and old-fashioned- some kid in an old leather helmet. All I could think of was that god-awful movie Metropolis or that delivery girl anime (I forgot - "nani nani delivery girl") .

You should have seen the trailer Ando. The film looks like it'll be absolutely stunning.


"I really don't like, nor have any desire to see old-fashioned amines or movies, unless the point is unrelated to the time (Grave of the Fireflies) Who goes to see period pieces anyway? Old ladies that's who."



Ehh? What's that sonny? Seriously, yours truly likes period pieces both anime and live action, and last time I checked I don't have saggy boobs and a craving for Geritol.
You can't tell me you haven't enjoyed at least one samurai era anime.




"It's a stupid concept made from some out of touch movie directors. Even if it's the best anime ever made it will flop . Of course everyone will blame the wrong reasons. It will flop because no one cares what happened in the steam powered era."

Then why are westerns so popular, and time-travel to the past films still being made?

You need to give Steamboy the benefit of the doubt. Stories about the past can be entertaining because we get to see the way things were before we were born.

As for all the folks who tease us anime and manga geeks: To an extent, everyone's a geek in regard to something. I live in Alabama and it never ceases to amuse me how fanatical some Alabama and Auburn football fans are to their respective teams. Shit like, Avoid the Rush, start hating Auburn early, or If Auburn's a cow college, why's all the bull in Tuscaloosa?

If someone gives you a hard time about your interest, give them a hard time about theirs.

If all the pro and college football teams quit playing, it wouldn't bother me one bit.

Regarding Asamiya getting bent out of shape because of the American fans getting bitching about his work on the message boards: He needs to get some iron in his spine. Not everyone is going to like what you do. While it's highly desirable to want to please your fans, there are some who won't like you no matter what you do

There's my two yen on the subjects.

Alan

[Charles]

You need to give Steamboy the benefit of the doubt. Stories about the past can be entertaining because we get to see the way things were before we were born.

Apparently you aren't keeping up with the SF geek trends. This isn't a story about the past, it's from a genre called "steampunk" which is about how the future would have been envisioned by someone in the past. This originated from an old SF theme originally called "post-anachronism." I can't remember the first post-anachronist work I ever read back in the 1970s, but it was titled something like "Professor Montcrief's Fantastical Steamship Voyage to the Moon." The whole point is to spoof SF futurism by having a modern writer create something as if it was written by a SF writer of a hundred or more years ago. Usually it's some steam-powered vision of the 18th century (like Wm. Gibson's "The Difference Engine") but it doesn't really matter as long as the future it envisions is already an anachronism (thus: post-anachronism), oftentimes the stories are about today as envisioned by someone from the past.
Anyway, this is just another recycled theme from the last golden age of SF back in the 70s, which is one reason I don't read much SF anymore, thousands of untalented hacks are grinding out junk plagiarized from old works they hope nobody remembers.

[Pencilslave]

You need to give Steamboy the benefit of the doubt. Stories about the past can be entertaining because we get to see the way things were before we were born.

Apparently you aren't keeping up with the SF geek trends. This isn't a story about the past, it's from a genre called "steampunk" which is about how the future would have been envisioned by someone in the past.

Point taken, I'd forgotten about that. I haven't read any steampunk novels, but I do remember a couple of cheesy but enjoyable tv series.
The first was 'The Adventures of Brisco County Jr" with Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame in the title role. He played a wild west lawman who had to deal with villains with futuristic weapons as well as the regular gunslingers.

Another was a serial that was on a short lived NBC series from the 70's called "Cliffhangers". I can't for the life of me remember the name of it, but it was about a cowboy getting mixed up with a princess who lived in an underground futuristic lost city .