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manga (Page 67)

Prison School’s live-action cast appears in costume, looks the part of its anime inspiration

As tricky as the process of adapting a hit anime to live-action can be, in the case of the most popular series, it’s not hard to see why someone would want to try. Even if you can’t please everyone when making the transitions, in the case of something like Attack on Titan, having a huge, solidly cemented fanbase that’s hungry for more content is incredibly attractive to producers.

But not every anime-to-live-action project is based on such an established hit. While creator Akira Hiramoto’s Prison School manga was first published in 2011, its TV anime hasn’t even been on the air for two months yet. Nevertheless, there’s already a live-action television drama in the works, and the first pictures of the cast, in costume, have just been released.

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Some reviewers weren’t exactly kind to the first live-action Attack on Titan movie, and the adaptation of creator Hajime Isayama’s tale of brave youths fighting naked giants didn’t capture the hearts and minds of the movie-going public to anywhere near the extent that the smash hit anime and manga have.

But while the first film is looking like a swing and a miss, the live-action Attack on Titan is still getting a second chance, in the form of its sequel, Attack on Titan–End of the World, which hits theaters in Japan on September 19. Will the film, set to conclude the live-action version of the story, spell redemption for director Shinji Higuchi and his cast and crew?

Not in the eyes of one critic, who after watching an advance screening of the film condemned it as “miserably made.”

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Cosplay for pets! Dog fashion retailer selling Attack on Titan capes, uniforms

In recent years, it’s become increasingly popular for doting dog-owners in Japan to dress up their pets in little outfits when they head out for a walk. But since their canine companions are already equipped with a natural coat, all doggy fashion is really doggy cosplay, so why not dress your dog up like a member of the cast of smash-hit anime Attack on Titan?

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Tokyo realtor will give you hundreds of dollars of anime decorations for your new apartment

There’s a huge variety of fees that need to be paid when renting a new apartment in Japan. In addition to an advance payment of your first month’s rent, there’s insurance, the security deposit, the realtor’s fee, and the dreaded “key money,” basically a sign-up cost that you pay to the landlord for the privilege of being allowed to start giving him money on a monthly basis.

Add it all up, and you’ll probably find yourself out several months’ worth of rent before spending the first night in your new home. But there’s a nice upside if you chose to go through one unique realtor, because while you’ll still have some fees to pay, you’ll also get a nice housewarming present in the form of several hundred dollars’ worth of anime merchandise.

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Japanese library offers itself and its manga collection as refuge for emotionally troubled youths

Though summer vacation is a lot shorter in Japan than it is in the U.S., most tudents here aren’t exactly itching to go back to school once it’s done. Even worse, since it falls in the middle of the Japanese school year, the end of summer break is also the start of the second, and more demanding, semester.

Needless to say, a lot of kids would rather blow off school and kick back with a good manga, which is exactly what one library in Japan is encouraging them to do. The reason, however, is far more important than just finding out what happens to their favorite fictional characters .

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The families of Dragon Ball – look who’s been left out of love again

Considering it’s a fighting series that features the strongest warriors in the universe, Dragon Ball also has a deep sense of familial values that we non-Saiyans/mere mortals can really relate to.  It’s no surprise that Goku’s family became so large, but who would have ever thought that Vegeta would find something on planet earth that would keep him around for years?

Like a “modern family” in the future with aliens, these lovable clans are assembled together in these family portraits and show us that sometimes the most important thing in life isn’t becoming the greatest fighter ever, but familial bonds.

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This cat looks hilariously like a sleeping anime character

There’s a lot of anime shorthand that, while perhaps a little hard for Westerners and non-nerds to decipher (just kidding, we love anime as much as the next guy), actually works really well to convey a scene’s mood once you understand the visual jargon.

One such shortcut we’ve talked about is the random spewing of blood from a character’s nose, which is used to represent lecherousness and lust, especially in male characters; probably because a comical boooiiing! and a sudden pants-ripping erection crowding out the rest of the screen is both a little too obvious, even for Japan.

Another is ubiquitously used to show a character sleeping and we’ll be damned if this real-life Japanese cat doesn’t nail it.

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Be the coolest (and brokest) fan at your next cosplay event with a US$5,000 Fate/stay night kit

Even though your mother would like you to know that it’s a silly, pointless hobby to spend your time trying to dress up like video game characters, and also, would it kill you to bring a girl home once in a while, Mike, instead of staying in your room all day reading those weird Japanese comic books?, cosplay is actually kind of hard work and requires a lot of commitment.

Sometimes that commitment comes in the form diligently researching every detail of a character, up to and including freeze frames from films and anime to get every dent, scratch and imperfection in your costume just right. Sometimes it’s commitment in the form of slaving away over the plastic pieces of your storm trooper outfit to ensure they fit together perfectly and are comfortable to wear and are appropriately badass.

And sometimes, it’s in the form of dropping the equivalent of a used car in cash to just buy a pre-made kit.

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Japanese manga artist shares his creative process for making a manga volume’s front cover

A series of tweets by Japanese manga artist Tsubasa Fukuchi, who’s best known for his work The Law of Ueki and is currently penning Psyche Once Again, has given his followers a glimpse into the manga production process. He recently shared a series of eight tweets which detail the creation of one of his manga covers from its sketch stages to completion, along with his amusing comments thrown in. If you have a penchant for manga or if illustration fascinates you in general, his tweets are well worth the look!

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Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto shares the genre of his next work, wants it to surpass Naruto

Masashi Kishimoto, who turns 41 this year, made it very clear last month that after 15 years of drawing his hit manga series Naruto he wants to take a break from the world of ninja. But being a manga artist and all, he’s constantly thinking up potential character and story ideas for the future. In fact, it turns out that he’s already decided on some details about his next big work–along with the fact that he intends to make it into a bigger hit than the story of the legendary Konoha ninja himself.

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Japanese pancake artist offers new batch of amazingly edible pancake character art!

Pancakes have existed since the Greek and Roman eras, and are one of the oldest surviving forms of food made from grain. Whether or not it’s the king of breakfast foods may be debatable, but almost every culture has their own version of this delicious treat.

Since Japan’s pancake kick over the past couple of years, we’ve introduced a number of ways you can add more pancakes to your breakfast or snack menu, like this rice cooker recipe for beginners, or for those of you looking to impress, this pancake character art that almost looks too amazing to eat.

This time we’ve got the scoop on pancake art from another artist in Japan, whipping up plates of not only classic cartoon and anime characters, but other more recent anime and manga favorites as well.

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  • Aug 17, 2015

Short thriller by JoJo series creator Hirohiko Araki to become unique theatrical production!

Manga artist Hirohiko Araki is best known for his hugely popular JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure comic series, which began in 1986 and is still going strong today, after nearly 30 years. But now fans of the series can look forward to enjoying one of Araki’s works in a different form this fall — as a theatrical production! This is actually the first time a manga by Araki will be turned  into a play, so fans are bound to be excited, but, as it turns out, it’s not a story from the JoJo series that we’ll be seeing on stage. Instead, it’s a short story with a fast-paced and bizarrely creepy plot, known in English by the title Under Execution, Under Jailbreak, and fans are already abuzz with speculation about the upcoming production!

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Is Dragon Ball with sheep the greatest live-action anime adaptation ever? 【Video】

Even though the live-action Attack on Titan hasn’t rampaged to the same sort of success as its anime and manga versions, it can still pride itself on not being as universally and intensely panned as Dragonball Evolution. The attempt to recreate Akira Toriyama’s phenomenally successful martial arts saga with real people confused and bored audiences who couldn’t care less about the anime it was based on, and simultaneously angered existing fans for not even being faithful enough to its source material to write Dragonball as two words.

But it’s been six years since Dragonball Evolution made its theatrical debut. Maybe it’s time for someone to try making a live-action Dragon Ball again, and maybe this time he should make it with sheep.

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Just how big is Comiket, the dojinshi (independently produced comics) event held twice a year in Tokyo? Over the three days of the event, some 35,000 creative groups and roughly 600,000 fans are expected to attend. In terms of size, Comiket isn’t so much an anime convention as it is a temporary city that roles through the Big Sight conference center.

Comiket is such a large-scale gathering that it changes the whole atmosphere of the neighborhood on the weekend it’s held, and with this summer’s iteration right around the corner, the local train station and convenience store are looking a lot more otaku-centric, as these photos show.

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Determining Japan’s most popular anime or manga franchise isn’t such a cut-and-dry thing, as different criteria suggest giving the crown to different series. For example, if you’re going by longevity, pirate saga One Piece has to be in the discussion, since its manga started in 1997 and its anime in 1999, with both still going strong.

However, you could also make a case that teen idol singer story Love Live! is a contender for the title, since currently no other show’s fanbase can hold a candle to the burning passion of the Love Livers, as Love Live! fans are called.

But while the main characters of both One Piece and Love Live! and friendly, forgiving, and work well in a team, the Love Livers are feeling quite a bit more animosity towards One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda for a remark he made that many interpreted as the famous manga artist throwing shade on the way Love Live! has become a pop cultural phenomenon.

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There’s no denying that the Attack on Titan manga and anime have become runaway hits, but reactions to the franchise’s recently released live-action movie have been far less enthusiastic. Some detractors have complained that the changes made to the series’ well-known characters and events don’t work, and more than a few purists are upset that any alternations were made at all.

We’ve seen the film’s director and special modeling director testily respond to harsh criticism, but what does series creator Hajime Isayama have to say about all this? Not only did he recently comment on the debate, he’s even offered a simple way to check if the live-action Attack on Titan is for you before you drop your hard-earned cash on a ticket for it.

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Remember that manga we talked about a while back which was a thinly veiled erotic retelling of beloved children’s story Doraemon? Or, perhaps more specifically, have you been unable to completely repress the memory and knowledge that it exists?

Nozoemon, which prominently featured an android of the same name that looked like an elementary school girl and whose moniker and design were clearly inspired by robot cat, was sure to be a decisive work. But while controversy can help generate attention and sales, it’s generally a good idea to keep the publisher on your side. Nozoemon, though, wasn’t able to do that, and it looks like the “Slightly Fakkin’” (the manga’s words, not ours) tale has come to an abrupt end.

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Growing up, I spent many a weekend fighting traffic to drive into downtown L.A. or Orange County to check out the manga, magazines, and other publications imported from Japan at one of the area’s handful of Kinokuniya bookstore branches. But Southern California isn’t the only place where you’ll find fans of Japanese pop culture looking for a fix. Over the last few decades, anime and manga fandom has spread around the globe, and travelers to the Middle East are sometimes surprised to find that there’s a gigantic Kinokuniya branch in Dubai helping Arabic and expat otaku keep up to date on all their favorite series.

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Japanese netizens attempt to answer our questions about confusing things that happen in anime

As much as we all love Japanese anime and manga, we also have to admit that they can be a little… confusing. For almost all of us, there’s probably been a few times when watching a show or reading a manga that something happened to make you go, “Wait, what?”

Why is that guy’s nose bleeding? Why are they eating a “Christmas cake?” Our cultural misunderstandings can be pretty funny to the Japanese, so much so that they’ve been compiled into a book: If Japan’s So Safe Then Why Are There So Many Chikan? With all the questions in one place, Japanese netizens have stepped up to finally provide some potential answers.

Ready to finally clear up some of your anime misunderstandings? Read on to find out the answers!

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Cardcaptor Sakura becomes Day Planner Sakura with this cool anime organizer

We recently talked about an elegant iPhone case inspired by anime/manga franchise Cardcaptor Sakura, and judging from the enthusiastic response, it seems like many of you still have a special place in your hearts for creative team Clamp’s magical girl series. We couldn’t help but notice that a few of you mentioned you don’t have an iPhone to put inside the case, though.

So if you’re iPhone-less but looking for functionality in your anime merchandise, or simply prefer to keep track of your appointments the old-fashioned way, we recommend this Cardcaptor Sakura day planner.

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