Animanga Nation

October was a slow month for us and mainly because Animanga Nation has moved from our old cramped office space to a much bigger one that will accomodate our sister site, Comic Revolution, with their own office space. The bottom floor will house the PlayStation Frontline crew … a new game review and news site dedicated to the PS2, PS3 and the PSP. So this building will have a healthy staff of writers and reviewer all under one roof.

We would like to take this time to thank all of you for making Animanga Nation what it is today and we’re so happy that we reached readers as far as South America and even South Africa. It was so cool to hear that readers in Peru have started their own Bleach fan club called Bleach Mania and the founders will even come to our shores to cosplay as their favorite characters for AX 2010. We’ll be more than happy to meet them all there.

While the site isn’t up yet, I thought I’d share a portion of the list the PS Frontline crew that relates to Naruto. They count down the best and worst Naruto video games. Here’s a small taste of their list. They list 5 best and worst but I’m only including 2 for each.

Top 2 Best Naruto Games:
1. Naruto: Rise of the Ninja (Xbox 360)
2. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS3)

Top 2 Worst Naruto Games
1. Naruto: Ninja Council  (GBA)
2. Naruto: Ninja Council 4 (Nintendo DS)

  Well, time to get back to unpacking and make this bigger office space more presentable. It’s a dirty job but that’s what Editor-in-Chiefs are for, right? Right?

 Edward Zacharias
Editor-in-Chief

I really love Tokyo.

It’s been a long while since I’ve been to Japan and I definitely was looking forward to going to the Tokyo Game Show this year and was all set to go to cover the three-day event when a few unexpected bumps in my schedule forced me to sit it out. I wasn’t disappointed about not being able to see all the latest games that are heading our way but rather I was disapointed I wasn’t about to see Tokyo again and bring back a suitcase filled with anime and manga.

Why would I mention video games in a blog dedicated to manga and anime? Well, yours truly is producing and leading a team to resurrect PSFrontline, a blog site dedicated to all things PlayStation. We reviewed games here before but they were related to anime or manga and wish to do more of that here but if you’re interested in unbiased game reviews and news please look forward to PSFrontline.

I would also like to thank all our readers who gave positive feedback to my little sister’s comic review site, Comic Revolution (http://comicrevolution.wordpress.com). She’s just getting warmed up and will have plenty of comic reviews heading your way. She is actually turning out to be a good Editor-in-Chief and has a loyal following of readers. This from a girl who covered the San Diego Comic Con 2009 dressed as a cheerleader.

Anyway, thank you again for your continued support. We have more reviews for you and other new projects.

With much love,

Edward Zacharias
Editor-in-Chief

In our household, you were either reading Hawthorne out loud before dinner or reading quietly in our favorite room in our home. Of course, my tastes ran more towards manga than my young sister who preferred comics such as Justice League of America or X-Men.

Funny thing is that my sister, one of the most girliest girls I know (next to Sophie Stevens), loved guy comics. At our school, she had boys hanging on her every word as she talked comics and one of her first jobs was working at a comic book store (where I bought most of my manga at half price … score!). She loves Wolverine and loves comics with plenty of gore. This from a girl who was a cheerleader in Middle School and High School. How can a girl that loves shopping, shoes and was a contender for Miss Teen California love horror comics and Sin City with a passion?

I think what I’m trying to say is that my sister, Eden, is the perfect choice to be the Editor-in-Chief for Comic Revolution. A new blog site dedicated to reviewing comics. While Animanga Nation covers the manga and anime front. Comic Revolution will dedicate itself to this front so if your interests also include comics that aren’t manga then Comic Revolution will have you covered. Also, our own Faith McAdams will have a hand in keeping Comic Revolution busy.

Here’s hoping that Comic Revolution will have a long and happy life.

You can find Comic Revolution on our Blog Roll but I’m including the link right here on WordPress:

http://comicrevolution.wordpress.com

I can still remember sitting up in my seat at my local movie theater, transfixed at the sight of brilliant Japanese animation at work when the first five minutes of “Spirited Away” just passed like a beautiful dream. Same thing happened when I went to see “Howl’s Moving Castle” too as I, once again, sat up in my seat lost in the story.

Guess what, this happened again this weekend when I went to see “Ponyo,” yet another release from master animator Hayao Miyazaki. If you haven’t already seen it you will be – half way through this movie – want to see it again. Well, that’s how it was with me anyway.

Since we’re talking Japanese animation, I began thinking of anime I wish was coming to our side of the pond. The one on the top of my list as well as Clive Owen’s is Rosario + Vampire. We hope that VIZ Media would acquire the rights to bringing the anime series based on the popular manga right here. Imagine seeing Moka and Kurumu in color looking just as good as in the manga. We don’t just want the first season but we want the second one too.

Another anime series we would love to see is brought over here is One-Pound Gospel by the creator of InuYasha. So far, Ai Kano has shown us her incomplete collection on VHS and we love every second of it. How about a DVD release of the Complete Collection? This is definitely a series that deserves that kind of attention seeing as VIZ Media has re-released the manga in a four-volume deal.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the second Bleach Movie (review coming up very soon) as well as the Eureka Seven movie. If you haven’t already, I still recommend Ponyo.

- Edward Zacharias

July was a busy month for us with AX 2009 behind us. We totally missed San Diego Comic Con despite the fact that we were invited and considered as Most Welcomed Guest but we will most definitely cover it next year seeing as we got a nice e-mail inviting us again for 2010.

Anyway, the announcements made in AX 2009 has been very interesting and we hope to bring reviews for each of them. In the meantime, we’re happy to find a nice number of outlets for watching anime out there such as Hulu.com that is bringing a number of VIZ Media and FUNimation anime for us whether you like The Slayers or Honey and Clover.

Speaking of Honey and Clover (one of our office favorites), we totally love the anime and are certainly looking forward to the box set that is heading our way this September. If you can’t wait that long, check out the series on …

http://www.hulu.com/watch/84071/honey-and-clover-i-saw-someone-fall-in-love-for-the-first-time#s-p3-so-i0

Anyway, we will, once again, bring you plenty more review. We thank you for your continued support and the very inspiring e-mails we’ve been getting from readers as far as Kobe, Japan (we love you and your famous Kobe beef!). We also love to thank all the supportive readers we met at AX 2009. It was a highlight meeting each and every one of you.

Edward Zacharias
Editor-in-Chief

Clive Owen here posting this live from the busy halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center. I’m dead tired but loving every minute of this event. Just like Faith mentioned yesterday, we got to meet Animanga Nation readers and all I can say is that there was much love for us. I knew we’re not huge but your support means so much to us.

Speaking of our readers. Thank you, Becky Franklin from Las Vegas, Nevada for your kind words and the super awesome little figurine she made of Gaara from Naruto. Girls dressed like male characters look ten times cooler in my book. She looked amazing!

There were a lot of Code Geass fans out there, which is great since I love the series so much myself. Just take a look at this group …

Oh, I should also mention that I was in need of medical attention during Day 3. I think I had a momentary case of acute brain freeze … or so I told these hot “nurses.”

Best HMO plan ever!

Here’s an anime fan that made our day joining us at the FUNimation panel. She was so cute that Faith just had to hug her.

Well, it’s time to get back to work. While the expo continues tomorrow, Day 3 is our last day here. It’s a fun event with a lot to see and do and we will bring back great memories of it. We would especially like to thank all of you who stopped and talked to us and would like to thank all the new friends we met as well. Hopefully, next year we’ll get to meet those who couldn’t come this year.

Clive Owen
Reviews Editor

Faith McAdams here, your exhausted-but-still-very-excited Managing Editor. This being our second day at AX 2009, we thought we would dig some more news for you all and boy do we have some news. Yes, it’s exhausting but we do it because we love it and we love all of you.

I mean it! We all individually met a number of Animanga Nation readers and it was so wonderful to hear all your words of encouragement. I would like to thank Marie Dobbs who came all the way from Boston U to be at AX and for the cute plushie you gave me. Marie cosplayed as Nami from One Piece. We had a picture taken with her but my darn camera broke from the many times it fell on the floor. That’s the last time I buy a digital camera from the Paris Hilton line.

Anyway, because I’m a HUGE Morning Musume fan, I was able to attend the concert dragging Clive to the show. They’re not his cup of tea but something about cute Japanese girls dancing made the guy cheer louder than I did. He won’t admit it but he loved the show even more than I did. I did feel sorry for the girls who were sweating bullets. I don’t know how the summers are in Japan but I’m sure they never felt anything like the heat in LA.

Clive did get some shots from his camera phone of our friends at FUNimation Entertainment who, we regret, weren’t able to attend their panel. I’m seriously kicking myself but I had appointments I couldn’t get out of at the same time. Here are some shots of their awesome booth.

FUNimation! We love you!!!

Look’s like it’s back to school at FUNimation as well.

Our kind of summer school!

Clive is a huge Afro Samurai fan and if you are too there’s plenty of Afro Samurai art in the Artist Corner. Check it out …

Afro!

Anyway, back to the scene, folks. We’ll definitely have more news and stuff headed your way. By the way, I got to check out a bit of the Gurren Lagann movie and I think it rocks! I cannot wait for it to come out  … among other surprises.

If you happen to see five or so kids in black suits and black ties, that’s us so please say hello. We loved meeting you guys and it made us happy to hear your words of encouragement.

Lots of love,
   Faith McAdams

It’s July and for us here at Animanga Nation it means the Anime Expo is in town here in hot and humid Los Angeles. If you haven’t been to AX before it’s a truly exhausting and wonderful experience for fans of manga, anime and everything else Japanese. For us, this was Day 1 so we’ve got some anime and manga news for you.

First, however, I must say that it’s great to be among so many anime and manga fans and cosplayers. Myself, Faith, Clive, Ai and Kiki even met some of our readers. It was so awesome meeting all of you and we were glad to take pictures with all of you. Kiki got so many requests for photos and she wasn’t even cosplaying. Speaking of cosplayers, here’s a reader who came as Yoko from Gurren Lagann. We love you too!

One bit of sad news … I’ve been so looking forward to the Digital Manga Publishing panel because we love them so much but it was postponed. We would have loved to have seen a lot of their new stuff headed our way.

On the plus side, I did get to see the opening ceremony where the guests of honor showed up to welcome everyone. It was awesome seeing Morning Musume, Moi Dix Mois and the always awesome voice actor Kari Wahlgren (who voiced Saya from Blood+ and the princess in Naruto: Clash in the Land of Snow) all in one room.

Speaking of Moi Dix Mois, I got to attend their concert and my ears are still ringing. They were amazing and everyone there had a blast as they played a number of my personal favorites. Unfortunately, no flash photography was allowed so I don’t have a shot of them. Here’s what the stage looked like … dark and awesome just like them.

Ok, I have a number of things to attend to and tomorrow will be just as busy. Fans of Morning Musume should definitely be there tomorrow because these girls are just amazing. We will be sure to bring you more news and AX 2009 awesomeness as it comes.

Faith McAdams here returning from three days of tackling the Los Angeles Convention Center for this year’s E3 2009. For those who don’t know, E3 is an industry-only event showcasing all the upcoming video games and consoles (like the PSP Go, the newest handheld from Sony). It’s an amazing yet exhausting event but I had a blast covering it with our Editor-in-Chief.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop a quick note about some games that are connected to our main crush … anime and manga. Among the games is another Naruto game for the PSP. It’s called Naruto Shippuden Legends: Akatsuki Rising and I got to play it for awhile and it already looks fun. Here’s what the area where Namco-Bandai demoed it looked like:

In the same booth was a Dragon Ball Z game for the Xbox 360. I got to play as Vegeta and so far it looks like a decent fighting game. It’s called Dragon Ball: Raging Blast.

Oh, and there’s a Yu-Gi-Oh! game as well but I didn’t get a chance to see it because I had some appointments to attend (by the way, the new Batman game that takes place in Arkham Asylum is awesome. Here’s what the Konami area looked like:

Our Editor-in-Chief has a bunch of favorites (Assassin’s Creed II, a new Halo game and the new Splinter Cell being his favorites) and so do I (Tony Hawk game and a game that allows you to become a DJ.

Ok, enough typing. This girls needs like three days of sleep before I fall asleep and drool all over my keyboard … again.

Hi everyone, Clive Owen here with this month’s editorial.

Alas, our gummy bear-loving Managing Editor was going to be the one filling this space seeing as she’s (A) the Managing Editor; (B) super cute; (C) good at filling in for our Editor-in-Chief when he’s away and (D) the only one who has access to all your e-mails that she tries to answer. Unfortunately, our Chief and Managing Editor are busy preparing for all the work that tomorrow will bring when E3 2009 hits the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Wait a minute, what “work?” E3 is the biggest event for video games and they call that work? It’s more like them running around the convention floor like kids playing every new video game that will be coming out in the coming year. If that’s what they call work then sign me up, baby. Have fun working, you guys, while the rest of sit in our office sticking pins in our home-made voodoo dolls Ai Kano made of the two of you.

Ok, that’s fine seeing as we will be running around the same convention floor next month when AXE 2009 comes into town. We hope to see all of you there but just in case you can’t make it we will be happy to bring you plenty of coverage and pictures. Since the entire crew is going we will be really bringing in the coverage.

By the way, I heard a bit of gossip from a friend working at a studio I can’t mention but the rumor has it that – thanks to the Dragon Ball Z movie – said studio is very very very interested in making a live-action Robotech movie … the Robotech with Rick Hunter as the protagonist. The same studio friend said he heard whispers of a live- action Bleach movie heading for Japan. She mentioned that in Japan, Bleach has had live-action events before such as a musical so a movie would definitely make sense.

I don’t know if these rumors are true but that would be so super cool, wouldn’t it? I actually though Dragon Ball Evolution wasn’t so bad but it definitely wasn’t the Dragon Ball Z movie we had all wanted it to be seeing is it’s downright nearly impossible to capture all the elements in a live-action feature. I mean, even the first two Death Note movies had to change things around to fit the big screen’s standards.

Anyway, thank you for reading my rambling rant. Believe me when I say that we love what we do for Animanga Nation and will continue to do it seeing as our readers are growing and growing. Thank you again and here’s hoping we get to see all of you at AXE 2009.