Anime News (Interview Edition)

Shusuke Kaneko

The manga, Death Note, was popular enough to spawn an anime series and a pair of live-action films, Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name. Twitchfilm.net was able to interview the director of the live-action films, Shusuke Kaneko, recently at the 25th Brussels International Film Festival. In this brief interview, Kaneko-san talks about casting, the need/risks of making two films, thoughts about the US release (by Warner Bros.), and his future projects. Here is an excerpt where he talks about the moral themes in the Death Note films:

“I think a big reference for me in making the Death Note films, was Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. I think that theme of judging over other people and being judged. I wanted to use that as a theme.”

On a related note (no pun intended), Douglas Wolk of Salon.com has posted a review of the Death Note manga. Speculating on an American live-action remake, he says:

“Part of the fun of Death Note for American readers is also the way that Japanese culture frames and directs the plot. Given the enormous success of the movie version in Japan, and the fact that the story isn’t tied terribly closely to the comics medium, I’ve wondered if a filmed remake set in America could work. I don’t think so. For one thing, the peculiar logic of Death Note depends on unbreakable social rules that aren’t nearly as stringent in the United States.”

One other related bit of Death Note news…apparently, there will be a spinoff movie with the character L (which is also the working title of the film) as the lead. This will be a live-action prequel and is scheduled to open on February 9, 2008 in Japan. The Director will be Hideo Nakata and Ken’ichi Matsuyama will reprise his role as L. The English source is ANN…Death Note’s L Spinoff to Open on February 9 in Japan…and the Japanese source is Ultimatum.
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As I mentioned in my earlier Interview Edition, the Production I.G interview with composer Yoko Kanno had at least one more unreleased part. Recently, that third part (and it is the final part) has been released. In this part, she continues and concludes her discussion about the film, Solid State Society. In this excerpt, she responds to the interviewer’s comment, “…your music is made with your love for the project and the staff. It seems like your eagerness to enrich the content comes through in your music.”:

“The ultimate root of my music making was a love letter. When I was in kindergarten, I really liked one boy and I composed a song called, ‘I like you very much’ for him. This was the first song I composed. I guess I couldn’t say it with words. But I could with music. So it is true that even with Solid State Society, I compose a score to tell the director, ‘I love this scene!’”

For those of you who missed it, here are part 1 and part 2 of the interview. According to Production I.G, this interview was originally published on clappa in Japanese.

Mai from the blog, A Gabriela Robin Site, has posted an article with links to a recent interview Yoko Kanno had with Creator’s Station. For those of you who can read Japanese, here are part 1 and part 2 of the interview. If you can’t, then here is a translation of part 1 provided by one of A Gabriela Robin Site’s readers, pulseczar…Note: pulseczar warns that this is his/her first translation post. Part 1 apparently covers Kanno-san’s early career. Here is an excerpt where she talks about the start of her composing career. She was a member of a band (Tetsu 100%) and she started her new career after the band broke up:

“Since there’s no such thing as a proper career start for composers, the logical thing to do would be making a demo tape. But I couldn’t bring myself to make one, I lack the confidence to do so. But even though there were people who asked me ‘you’re not making a demo?’, probably thinking to themselves ‘what, she can’t even do something that simple?’, I was able to come this far (laughs). Whenever I tell my composer friends this they say ‘I don’t believe this. I must have made like 10 demo tapes so far! Sending tapes out relentlessly even though they get rejected, then finally getting assigned to a job, that’s the norm.’ You can say I was a very fortunate exception.”

Mai also posted links to video excerpts from the interview in Quicktime and WMP formats.
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Conventions are difficult events to organize and maintain. Sometimes, these difficulties are more attention getting than the convention itself. While this may or may not have been the case at the recent Anime Expo 2007 in Long Beach, California, there certainly were plenty of problems and complaints. Anime News Network’s Zac Bertschy spoke with AX’s marketing consultant, Chase Wang. They discussed the problems at the SKIN concert, the ASOS Brigade concert, AMV program, and the issues with Halko Momoi, as well as the low profile of Viz Media and the absence of Del Rey. They also talked about the possibility of moving from a volunteer staff to a professional staff. They finally spoke about AX moving from Long Beach to the LA Convention Center.

Here is an excerpt where Mr. Wang replies to the question why he is not in favor of moving to a professional staff…as Mr. Bertschy said, “…Not to knock the fan staff, but I think at a show of this size, everyone – attendees, press, and industry included – expect a staff that’s comprised of professionals for whom running this show is their job.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but AX grew because of the fans. I recognize that AX couldn’t be where it’s at without the fans, or the industry; everyone has to work together. But I also believe that it wouldn’t be the same show – it would become a cookie-cutter show – without fan input. I mean, there are pros and cons to everything, but I think AX would lose something essential without the fan staff.”

“The con’s grown exponentially, and we understand that. One of the things we learned in 2007 was that we need to train our volunteer staff more. Maybe give them cheat sheets so they know where everything is at all times. We need to give them more tools and more training, and that’s one of the things we’ll be working on in 2008.”

It was an interesting interview, though, looking at the comments, not everyone agreed with or believed in what Mr. Wang had said while others didn’t like how Mr. Bertschy conducted the interview.

ANN also has a couple of AX related polls. First, one asks if any attendees had been mistreated by the security staff at the Long Beach Westin. Second, which is more important the dates of the convention or the venue site.
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This last interview is rated MA (Mature Audience Only). If you are under 18 years of age, please move on to the next article…move along, move along.

Okay, it’s not really that bad. If it were, Rachel and David would probably censor and censure me.

Ed Chavez of PW Comics Week (a division of Publishers Weekly) interviewed publisher Simon Jones of Icarus Publishing. Icarus publishes manga solely devoted to Japanese erotica. They currently have a bimonthly anthology, Comic AG, which is the longest running manga anthology in North America. Sixteen of the AG series have been collected into graphic novel format…including Midara, Blue Eyes, and Innocence. Mr. Chavez talked to Mr. Jones about the challenges of publishing (solely) erotic manga…which is, as the PW article says, “…effectively a market niche within a niche.” When asked about the viability of ero manga in the US, Mr. Jones said:

“It’s funny that, as a publisher, I’ve repeatedly referred to our own chosen market as ‘niche’ and ’small.’ Retailers and any other publisher would be horrified by that. So let me make clear that what we do is and will be sustainable. Will ero manga ever achieve the success other genres have had? Maybe, but it’ll take a long time. Will it ever be as ubiquitous as it is in its home country? Never—the two manga-reading cultures are just too different. But have we or anyone else maximized the full market potential of ero manga? Not even close.”

Here is the full interview:
Scratching the Niche: Erotic Manga