While TOKYOPOP movie projects remain in a sort of limbo– announced, but with no specific details like cast or dates –VIZ continues their slower but firmer roll into the movie industry, with Variety now reporting that the new office, VIZ Productions, has brought on former Amblin and Dreamworks executive Jason Hoffs to liaise between Hollywood and VIZ’s Japanese overlords, Shogakukan and Shueisha.

In the article, Hoffs notes a few specific titles. He doesn’t say that they’re being made into movies for sure, but it’ll give you a sense of some of the possibilities…not that many of them are surprising:

• Naruto
• Bleach
• Death Note
• InuYasha
• Monster
• Vampire Knight

Now, it’s kind of tough for me to imagine lengthy series like Naruto, Bleach, or InuYasha– or the complex tapestry of awesome that is Monster –being made into a single live-action movie, and I’m also not sure if the movie studios would be confident enough to commit to doing a series of movies. I suppose an arc or two from Naruto or Bleach would be doable in a single movie, though.

And I don’t have a hard time imagining movie studios liking the concept. First off, manga is big with that ever-desirable market of pre-teen and teenage kids (mm, delicious disposable income). Second, do we really have any good action movie series right now that are geared more towards that young audience? Maybe it’s just because of my own age, but it seems like The Mummy and the latest slew of comic book movies are much more designed for the 20-30 crowd.

And third, let’s face it: they’re probably getting tired of the endless adaptations of young adult fantasy that are being churned out in hopes of catching the Harry Potter crowd. It’s not hard to imagine that tween-friendly shounen action flicks might be the ever-sought “Next Big Thing.”

Which brings us to Vampire Knight, a darker-themed series but still very much aimed at tween girls. I mean, The Twilight Saga is doing pretty damn well– why not VK? But since Twilight Saga is already being adapted into movies, might it be too late for VK to hit the mainstream market without seeming like a knock-off (even though VK started before Twilight– barely; January 2005 versus October 2005, respectively).

…Well, that’s all speculation on my part. No doubt we’re ALL looking forward to hearing whatever official news we get in the future.

Posted by gia in Gossip, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (8)

So, here we are in the U.S. waiting to get our hands on Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys manga– which VIZ won’t release until after Urasawa’s Monster is finished –and meanwhile, NTV is off selling the movie trilogy to other countries. Megabox bought the Korean rights and plans on it being the biggest Japanese series ever to hit Korea; buyers have also acquired it for Hong Kong and Taiwan (bought by Golden Harvest), Thailand (M Pictures), and Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei (Encore Films).

Which, of course, begs the question: who’s gonna score it in the US? VIZ, with the manga license plus their movie picture distro, seems like the obvious choice…but they haven’t yet put on a theatrical release of more than a few days. So maybe NTV is going to look for a more mainstream distro? Then again, maybe not; they seem content with VIZ doing the Death Note movies, which were also major sellers for them in Asia.

Posted by gia in Gossip, JP News, Manga, News • Comments (5)

The Beat has this year’s Eisner Award nominations, which include Japanese names in many of the categories (not always for manga, mind).

But Naoki Urasawa’s Monster was nominated for Best Continuing Series and Fumi Yoshinaga was nominated for Best Writer/Artist for Flower of Life (pictured). I dunno about you, but I’m throwing a goddamn party! It’s about time Yoshinaga got some real recognition here.

Here’s a full list of manga nominations:
- Best Continuing Series: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ)
- Best Publication for Kids: Yotsuba& (Kiyohiko Azuma/ADV)
- Best Archival Collection/Project: Apollo’s Song (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical)
- Best Writer: Fumi Yoshinaga for Flower of Life (DMP)
- Best Writer–Humor: Brandon Graham for King City (TOKYOPOP)
- Best Penciller/Inker: Takeshi Obata for Death Note (VIZ)
- Best Comics-Related Book: Manga: The Complete Guide (Jason Thompson/Del Rey)
- Best Comics-Related Book: Understanding Manga and Anime (Robin Brenner/Libraries Unlimited & Greenwood Publishing)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories (Jiro Taniguchi/Fanfare)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: MW (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Tekkonkinkreet (Taiyo Matsumoto/VIZ)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Fuyumi Kouno/Last Gasp)

Also nominated (but not really ‘manga’ per se, from what I can tell): Yuichi Yokoyama’s New Engineering, published by PictureBox.

Posted by gia in Manga, Misc, News, Western News • Comments (3)

According to Anime Nation, VIZ will be soliciting both the anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster and the anime of Hunter x Hunter at an upcoming conference, which proves once and for all that they have a license for them (it’s long been speculated, especially since they have the manga versions of both, but no official announcement ever came). They hold the master U.S. licenses for each, but this announcement doesn’t necessarily mean they’re planning to distribute either title– it could depend on whether they get on TV.

That said, they’ll be soliciting the show at the National Association of Television Programming Executives conference– and yes, that is the same NATPE that has been suffering from the writer’s strike in Hollywood. Will their desperation for new content that doesn’t require them to hire writers make anime look like a better bet? Hard to tell, but Monster in particular could be an excellent experiment; it’s suspenseful and adult and more likely to interest, say, the 24 crowd than Hunter x Hunter.

Of course, they’re soliciting other titles as well: Bleach (…already on cable), Blue Dragon, Buso Renkin, Death Note, Deko Boko Friends, Honey and Clover, Nana, and Naruto.

Of these, I think Monster has the best odds of being picked up during or around primetime for the reasons I mentioned above; Death Note would also be a possibility. The rest are either likely to be picked up for the after-school crowd or might be tricky for non-anime-fan western audiences to pick up on (Honey and Clover, for example– if *I* was weirded out by the 18-year-old-who-looks-12, it would probably throw off plenty of potential watchers who aren’t used to anime. I suppose Nana is a possibility; I haven’t watched enough of it to really be sure).

Posted by gia in Anime, Gossip, Licenses, News, Western News • Comments (3)