Results tagged “Manga” from Modern Mythology

It's round two for Anime Expo 2009 at Los Angeles Convention Center July 2nd- 5th. This will be the second year that AX has been at the LACC, and the convention is growing bigger each year. All the ingredients that make AX one of the biggest conventions of it's kind world-wide have returned including: concerts, industry panels and of course, cosplaying.

AX is hosted by the non-profit Society for Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) and whose current mission statement is: "to popularize and educate the American public about anime and manga, as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans."

Since the SPJA took over in 1992 Anime Expo has grown each year and hopes to continue to grow in 2009. Last year's attendance was up 5 percent from 2007, with the convention bringing in 43,000 attendees. This year attendees have a lot to get excited for. Main events include a concert by all-girl band Morning Musume, and AX Idol.

Morning Musume's story began in 1997 when Japanese producer Tsunku held auditions for a female rock vocalist for his band SHARAN Q held on the Japanese TV show ASAYAN. With the five runner-ups from the contest, Tsunku decided to create an all-girl group that sold 50,000 copies of their demo CD single "Seed of Love" and became MORNING MUSUME. While switching members in and out for the past 11 years Morning Musume has emerged as the top female band in Japan.

AX Idol is another fan favorite in which contestants enter the singing or voice acting competitions. The singing competition works similar to American Idol in which contestants sing tunes from anime and get critiqued by the judges, and the winner gets to record an album. The voice acting competition is a little more unique and has the contestants dub over part of a Japanese anime in English with the winner gettting a contract with Bang Zoom Entertainment to voice act.


Last year attendees were waiting to see if the L.A. Convention Center would be a great place to hold AX. All the rumors of the area not being safe turned out to be false. That area of downtown next to Staples Center, LACC, and the Nokia Theatre has great lighting, and is within walking distance of all the hotels. A walk back to your hotel even at 2 a.m. doesn't feel dangerous. The most dangerous thing that I saw last year was everybody jay-walking across Chick Hearn Court from Nokia Theatre back to the LACC after a main event was over.

Sadly the Nokia Center will not be used this year. The official AX statement is, "Due to evaluation of 2008 usage, and planned programming for 2009, Anime Expo® will not be utilizing Nokia Theatre for main events in 2009. All major events including Opening/Closing Ceremonies, Concerts, Masquerade, AX Idol and AMV¹s will be held within the Los Angeles Convention Center." This is an interesting move with attendance always increasing, and the Nokia Center packed last year, but during these economic times I assume it was too expensive to rent out this year.

Anime Expo 2009 kicks off this Wednesday, and we'll have any ground-breaking news that comes out of the industry panels, and main events. So if you're in L.A., and you love anime, manga, or video games be sure to stop by North America's largest anime convention during the July 4th weekend.

For more information regarding Anime Expo 2009 check out the official site at
www.anime-expo.org.

Last night I checked out Dragonball Evolution. I'm a fan of the franchise as I grew up watching Dragonball, Dragonball Z, and Dragonball GT. I didn't have my hopes set high for this movie, and I attempted to enjoy it for what it was.

For the price of admission though I got tons of laughs from a movie that is so bad, it's good.

The film synopsis goes like this. Long ago a menacing alien threat named Piccolo and a destructive god named Oozaru laid waste to the earth before being imprisoned by a loyal order of monks. Now Piccolo is loose and is after the seven mystical Dragonballs. It's up to Goku, a young Ki master, played by Justin Chatwin, and his friends to stop Piccolo and collect the Dragonballs.

First off, the movie is only around 90 minutes long. Events happen right after each other with no real logic or understanding behind any of it. New characters are introduced and plot points are being checked off, but you don't really care about any of it because there is no character development. They could have killed off Goku in the middle of the movie and I wouldn't have cared. You leave the theater without knowing anything about the main characters.

From the official movie website:

"The movie is an adaptation of the King Piccolo and Piccolo JR. sagas of Dragonbal. However, it will also contain important elements from the first season of Dragonball, such as Bulma meeting Goku, and Goku training with Master Roshi. It's the most important parts of Dragonball in one movie."

Except that you don't understand anything about Piccolo who says less than 10 lines throughout the whole movie, and never understand why he is trying to destroy the Earth. Bulma meeting Goku happens in less than 2 minutes, and there is no screentime of Master Roshi training Goku at all.

These are important events that any movie lover would care about, not just the fans. They are essential points which connect the audience with the characters. I don't understand why they took these events out when you still have 30 more minutes of movie you could have included.


TOKYO - MARCH 10: (L to R) Actor Joon Park, actress Jamie Chung, Eriko Tamura, actor Chow Yun-Fat, Justin Chatwin, actress Emmy Rossum, actor James Marsters, actress Megumi Seki and director James Wong pose for photographs during the world premiere of 'Dragonball Evolution' at Nippon Budokan on March 10, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. The film opened on March 13 in Japan. (Photo by Akihiro I/Getty Images)

The movie had a horrible script with corny dialogue and tons of material taken out of it. All the actors had poor timing with their lines, and the climax of the movie actually made me laugh out loud.

Despite how bad the movie is I still have to recommend that fans of the series wait until the DVD release and watch it with each other. You'll get more than a few chuckles out of it, and have tons of memorable moments. If you are brand new to the Dragonball universe then you shouldn't see this movie first. You should pick up the manga, or watch the anime.

The sequel is already green-lit according to the official movie website. I hope they explain everything in the next movie with a better script, and try to engage the audience in the Dragonball universe instead of slopping together a bunch of random scenes, and praying it all comes together in the end.