Anime & Manga News (Late July/Early August)

A recent exhibition at Tokyo’s J-Art Project called “Imagination of Evangelion” featured displays based on and inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion. The displays were divided into four zones: “Eva at Work”, “Evangelion Store”, “Evangelion Inspired – New Generation” (displays by students who entered Bandai Visual’s design competition), and “Evangelion Inspired – Professional Designers”.

One exhibit featured a dish modeled on the amputated body of Lilith. On either side of the dish are utensils based on the design of the Spear of Longinus.

Speaking of the Spear, another display had a replica (”human-sized” according to the ANN article) which was over 2 meters long and weighed 28 kilograms (a little less than 62 lbs.). The Spear will be auctioned off at a later date.

The photos: © Gainax, Khara/Project EVA

English Story:
Human-Sized Evangelion Spear Exhibited, Auctioned

Japanese Source:
Shibuya Keizaki Shimbun

There is a group of volunteers in Japan (in Kitajima, Tokushima Prefecture) which transcribes books into Braille. This group, the Illustrated Braille Club, also recasts illustrations into raised dot “images”. One of their recent projects is transcribing the new Chibi Maruko-chan manga (which was restarted by creator Momoko Sakura in July 2007) into Braille.

The Club encodes the manga into dots with the help of special software (BASE for the text and EDEL for the images). The Chibi Maruko-chan transcription is downloadable from the Club’s homepage.

Besides Chibi Maruko-chan, the Club has transcribed Only Yesterday, Crayon Shin-chan, and Hayao Miyazaki’s The Journey of Shuna. They have also done work outside of manga including Japanese picture books, children’s novels, and reference books…plus they have transcribed English picture books (including some Disney cartoon storybooks, Peanuts, and Curious George).

Quoting from the ANN article:

“According to the club’s 82-year-old representative Kōji Sangawa, ‘the visually impaired don’t have many opportunities to experience art, so they enjoy our work. I want to continue working as long as my body allows me, with the encouragement of their words of gratitude.’”

Images: © Momoko Sakura

English Story:
Japanese Volunteers Transcribe Manga for Blind People

Japanese Source:
Tokushima Shimbun

Speaking of transcribing…software developer Voice Bank recently demonstrated software which can convert manga for Apple iPhone screens. Voice Bank CEO, Yoshihide Kinokawa, conducted the demo at the Red Herring 2007 “Insight Japan” conference, in Kyoto, using sample manga by Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby).

The converter was developed with the support of the Digital Manga Association of Japan (chaired by Monkey Punch of Lupin III fame). The converter is called the “iPhone Manage Converter™” (or iPhone Manga Converter in the original Japanese). Unfortunately, no images of the demo were provided.

Here is a version of the press release via ANN:
Voice Bank Delivers Manga for iPhone Users in the US

Recently (August 2), the US public radio network, NPR, ran a story on their program Morning Edition about making AMVs (animated music videos)…David also wrote an article about this. The setting was Otakon 2007 in Baltimore, Maryland. While it briefly mentioned cosplaying and trivia contests, the main focus of the story was on AMVs…primarily with the Iron Editor Challenge. As the name suggests, it is similar in format to the TV show Iron Chef. Two editors are provided with identical editing stations and video from 5 anime…plus a secret ingredient to be unveiled just before the competition begins. Also, the editors have to adhere to a theme for the AMV. They have a 2 hour time limit. They are competing in front of an audience.

The contestants for this year’s contest were Jeff Heller (Gambitt) and Bryce Winant (JMI Productions). Actually, Bryce was a late substitute for last year’s winner Brad Backofen (AtomX) who had to withdraw…lucky for Bryce since he won this year’s contest.

The theme was “The World’s Last Hope”. The Ingredients (at least 3 had to be used in each AMV):

• Avatar the Last Airbender: 17-20
• Excel Saga: 22-25
• Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
• End of Evangelion
• Read or Die OVA: 1-3

I don’t know what was this year’s secret ingredient and it was not revealed in the story.

In the following excerpt, the reporter, Neda Ulaby, spoke with Bryce Winant about the Iron Editor format:

BW: “You’re really under pressure and you’ve really got to get it done (laughs), ’cause the audience…ultimately this is not a competition, it’s an event to entertain and you have to make something worthy of entertaining them.”

NU: “What goes through your head when you have to put together an animated music video in 2 hours?”

BW: “Oh Crap!?”

The full story (Real or Windows Media) may be found here:
‘Iron Editors’ Test Anime Music-Video Skills

Finally, here is a report from the BBC which notes that the Thai Police have a new way of punishing officers who break the rules…at least minor ones like being late for work, parking in the wrong spot, etc. They have to wear a bright pink armband which has Hello Kitty atop two hearts. The offending officer will have to wear the armband for several days. Quoting from the story:

“The armband is designed to shame the wearer, police officials said.

‘This is to help build discipline. We should not let small offenses go unnoticed,’ Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan told Reuters news agency.

‘Guilty officers will be made to wear the armbands in the office for a few days, with instructions not to disclose their offences. Let people guess what they have done,’ he said.

Further offenses would be dealt with using a more traditional disciplinary panel, he said.”

Hello Kitty was introduced to the world by the Japanese company Sanrio in 1974.

One blogger has noted that the Hello Kitty on the armband looks suspiciously like a knock-off and wondered if the Thai Police may be in violation of copyright…

Hello Kitty image: © sanrio

BBC Report:
Thai cops punished by Hello Kitty