Video
Haruhi Licensed for North America
One of the smartest, most virally marketable anime ever made, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, will soon hit North American shores via Kadokawa Pictures USA and Bandai Entertainment. As I’ve mentioned before, the high-sci-fi-inspired hijinks of Haruhi and friends are purpose–designed for the age of the mashup.
The zany tone of this promo video suggests translators will stay true to the spirit of the source material — essential for a global product American fans have been incessantly dissecting almost since it premiered in Japan earlier this year. North American bloggers and remixers, even those not normally into anime, will love this. Click here to continue reading “Haruhi Licensed for North America”…
Twenty Years of Transformers
After seeing the hideous Gigeresque… things in the new Transformers movie trailer, you’ll need some brain bleach to remind you why you came to love these robots in the first place: they’re solid, relatable, timeless characters. Optimus Prime believes in the sanctity of all life, Megatron believes in aggressively ensuring his people’s future, Starscream is a brilliant asshole whose persistence transcends death, Ultra Magnus is the loyal soldier who’d rather fight than lead (though one version casts him as Prime’s jealous second fiddle, while another casts him as Prime’s brother), Unicron is a god of destruction (in the comics, quite literally), Bumblebee’s the nimble little guy who likes to hang out with plucky little humans, Arcee’s the loyal yet fickle ho with good taste… you get the picture. I don’t see how Michael Bay’s monstrous designs and overwrought animations can convincingly convey such strong personalities. After retching at the new movie trailer, reboot your brain by watching the above tribute to twenty years of Transformers history — the kind no soulless trendy propaganda-filled summer action remake could ever destroy. Click here to continue reading “Twenty Years of Transformers”…
