When new ones come out, I link to Anime streaming presentations you can watch online. There are a few places you can watch more than a single episode, and Funimation is in the process of releasing some new series for online consumption. So it seemed like the perfect time to mention that group, and a few other of my favorites. Veoh is where the new Funimation titles live, with series including Aquarion, Ghost Hunt, and xxxHolic being added to a library that already had titles like Kiddy Grade, Moon Phase, and Slayers. The folks at Anime News Network also have a library of legally watchable series, including some of those mentioned as well as Blue Gender, Origin, and Shuffle, to name a few. And then there is Crunchy Roll, where you can watch new series episodes the day after they first aired in Japan (a small fee is required for full access, other series and episodes are free). There are more, but these should get you started; got your Internet-Aware TV with the Ethernet/Wireless interface to your cable modem yet?
Yes, the first trailer has been released for this Sunday’s episode of Family Guy, in which baby Stewie buys plans for a transporter at a Trek convention and kidnaps the entire cast of TNG. Thanks to Giant Freakin Robot for the heads up on this one…
The first teaser came out in February (shown below), but now the first English language Live Action trailer of Blood, The Last Vampire is out, and SFX has it. It opens in Japan on May 29th, the UK on June 12th, and France on June 17th. I haven’t found the US release date yet, although Star News of Korea claims Universal bought the US rights, and plan to release it this month (Thanks to the Anime News Network for translating that bit for me). The team behind it did a few other movies you might have heard of, including Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; combine them with the excellent story and fully developed characters of the original Anime series, and I am expecting a major movie experience. Rope of Silicon has the Japanese trailer as well as the international version; I have to install the Kanji character set on my computer before I can find the link to it on the official movie home page.
The folks at Dark Roasted Blend have posted a very nice article all about Robot Art. There have been some amazing things done in the field, with robot artists from the Bay area to France and everywhere else building future art. If you build future art, specifically digital art in 2D or 3D, still or motion, you still have time to enter you work in the Expose 7 competition. The entry deadline this year is February 23rd for the Ballistic Publishing contest. The CG Society just posted its coverage of the 36th Annual Annie Awards, where Kung Fu Panda swept the field with 10 awards, and their spinoff Secrets of the Furious Five got another 4. They didn’t take all the awards; Avatar: The Last Airbender, Futurama, Robot Chicken, and Wallace & Gromit each took a few home. I was rather ticked Wall-E didn’t get any, as I felt it should have split the main group with the Panda. If you want all the details on the winners, be sure to stop by the Annie Awards Home Page, or you can watch the podcast of the ceremonies. And if you like animation, did you know the NY Comicon is going on this weekend?
AMV, or Anime Music Video, is one of the file types I enjoy from my time online. One of my favorite variations on it is from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi – God Knows is the song, and here it is…
I have lost all entries with tonight’s computer crash, but here are a few of them I managed to recover. Starting with the Watchmen News, that Fox gave up trying to kill the Watchmen movie in return for a cut of the take. We already knew about the Live-Action version of Cowboy Bebop, but did you know what other live action versions of these stories are coming to town? Disney brought over a pablomized version of Mulan, but the Chinese Government has to step in on something that culturally important to them. They called themselves the China Film Group, and built it with Xinhua this time around. Then there is the Ninja Scroll live action remake, another major milestone. And just in case you haven’t gotten today’s dose of Silly yet, get ready for the live-action version of Marvin The Martian. Does anybody besides me find it scary that Fox and the Chinese Government have so many interests in common, the end result being they are only in it for the money and don’t care about the rest of us (like their citizens/customers)?