This time of the year it is customary to list stuff so here is some stuff I think will be good in 2010.
Suehiro Maruo will return to us with The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, 17 years after the last English release of a full length manga by him. It is about time. The English release is helmed by the boys of Same Hat. Usamaru Furuya will also make a triumphant return to the English manga community with CMX's September release of 51 Ways to Save Her a disaster manga about a pair of newly reunited classmates stuck in the aftermath of the inevitable huge Tokyo earthquake.
Someone at Viz must be crazy because they are releasing FOUR different manga from never before published author Natsume Ono. Not Simple is the first one out of the starting blocks with Ristorante Paradiso, House of Five Leaves and Gente following with a few months apart. I don't know what they are thinking but I like it!
D&Q are releasing Yoshihiro Tatsumi's first full length crime manga Black Blizzard in April. The worst Tatsumi book to hit the market so far? The Ax anthology will hopefully come out next year as well and Vertical are aiming to release a new Tezuka manga 10/19/2010 though they have yet to disclose which one it is.
Remember this trailer of a new 3D animated series based on the manga Apocalypse Meow (aka Cat Shit One)? It is supposed to come out soon. Can't find any info about the status of the production though. Masaaki Yuasa will return with a new anime in April, Yojō-Han Shinwa Taikei, based on a novel by Tomihiko Morimi with Yūsuke Nakamura designing the characters. Oh my God this one could be gorgeous.
Redline has been in development for six years and is the baby of Takeshi Koike, the guy behind Trava and the World Record segment in Animatrix. The plot, scripted by long time collaborator Katsuhito Ishii (Funky Forest, The Taste of Tea, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl), revolves around the deadliest race in the world and its racers. This one promises to be completely bonkers. Just watch the trailer.
I think Satoshi Kon's next movie, The Dreaming Machine, is supposed to come out this year as well.
If we are lucky Genjiro Arato's adaptation of No Longer Human will be just as good as the book. Or at least enjoyable. The trailer looks promising. The Sukeban Hunters trilogy looks like it could become a pretty awesome tribute to the Pinky Violence movies of yore. And just as low budget and filled with av stars you'd expect.
The guy who did Negadon is back with another CGI-fest called Planzet, this time it seems to be a homage to the giant mecha genre. Hopefully not as boring as the teaser suggests. And then there's the live-action adaptation of Solanin, yet another over acted drama based on a manga with a theme song by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION only this time with Aoi Miyazaki to save the whole thing.
Best movie ever House aka Hausu is coming out on DVD with English subtitles, THE release of 2010. Thank you Eureka Video!
FUCK I forgot about the Toshio Saeki book from Last Gasp, Onikage.
9 comments:
Ahh I hope HOUSE will be released on region 1 dvd though... :?
I think D&Q is making a mistake by releasing Black Blizzard.
As important as I'm sure it is contextually, I doubt it'll stand up to the quality of the Tatsumi work they've already released.
The really bad part is that if it flops, that might be bad news for seeing more gekiga in english. And then I'd be upset.
GOOD POST, MY BROTHER.
I'm with you 110% on your pronouncements
House/Hausu was easily the best film I saw in 2009. But I was hoping for a Blu-ray release. I don't have a HD tv, but would totally get one for that one.
Is Eureka affiliated with Janus Films?
I pushed D&Q to release Black Blizzard, here's why: It's good. It holds up about as well as a b&w crime thriller from the 50s that you'd see on TV on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I don't read Japanese myself, but friends who've read it really enjoyed it, and the art and storytelling is really neat even in its original language.
Beyond that though, I think it's incredibly important to have 'classic' material coming out now. I think experiencing the history of the medium, and not just being told but reading and being a part of it by reading the works themselves, that's important, and powerful stuff. I mentioned this a little in my recent post on Buddha at Comics212, but with Tezuka, for example, its one thing to be told that he's the God of Manga all your life, but for Buddha to hit store shelves and change everything in 2003? Something else entirely (though I prefer Phoenix).
I'm all for armchair quarterbacking the publishing industry, but I'm sincerely glad D&Q decided to publish Black Blizzard, and I'm looking forward to reading my copy and all of the gekiga and manga that they'll assuredly publish in the years to come. Don't let your temporary anger at not getting more classic-period gekiga short stories from the late 60s blind you to the fact that you're getting an incredibly rare book from the origin of gekiga, in English!
Beyond that, I know people on the net like to bitch, but is anyone REALLY naive enough to think that after the enormous success of the first 4 Tatsumi books that one poor-selling book would spell the end of gekiga in North America? Tatsumi's already given interviews testifying about his intent to continue the Drifting Life stories, specifically at the request of his Canadian publisher. Google that up if it'll make you feel better.
Also, totally excited about 51 Ways To Save Her. Totally missed the announcement that it was coming out in English.
@That Girl: With Criterion already selling House tees I don't think a region 1 release is far away http://www.criterion.com/shop_products/69
@Anonymous: I don't believe that if Black Blizzard is crap it will kill gekiga in English. Most manga is crap and that hasn't stopped hundreds of series getting published. And I don't believe that will turn out to be crap either. A bad Tatsumi is still better than a good Kia Asamiya.
@ryan: hear ye, hear ye.
@fort90: I don't think Eureka is affiliated with Janus, but don't quote me on that. Criterion is Janus' homeboy.
@Christopher: I wish I could honor those comments with a longer reply than this but: I agree (with both of them)
Awesome! Once Criterion has it, be sure to let us know :D
House, holy fucking masterpiece, is there any extra on the DVD?
And don't expect much from "panorama-tou kidan" apart from a really impressive artwork, story is so so... though being from Edugawa Rampo.