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How ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ triumphed over the uncanny valley
When the first trailer for the live action Alita: Battle Angel dropped in late December 2017, the internet was abuzz about the eponymous character's large CG eyes. Heck, even we called them "creepy" and "weird." Now that the film's finally here and I've had a chance to check out this long-awaited comic adaptation, I can safely say our fears were overblown. In fact, Alita might be one of the most realistic humans I've ever seen on-screen -- huge manga eyes and all.
The best books, movies and graphic novels to give as gifts
It's cold outside! Which makes the holidays the ideal time to give the gift of indoor entertainment. We've curated a breadth of books, movies and music in our holiday gift guide to curl up to, all of them staff favorites. On the list you'll find some physical treats for film buffs, including The Matrix Trilogy 4K, the Mission Impossible series 4K Blu-ray, Stanley Kubrick's galactic masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey 4K, and animation Avatar: The Last Airbender Blu-ray collection -- due for the Netflix live-action treatment next year. Or you could nab a Crunchyroll streaming subscription for the anime fan in your life.
Hulu's expanded Funimation deal gives it first dibs on anime shows
Hulu likes to see itself as a go-to source for anime in the US (with certain exceptions), and it just cemented a deal reflecting that. The streaming service has struck an expanded "multi-year" deal with Funimation that gives it more access to desirable shows. It'll have "first look" at US streaming rights to anime series produced and released by Funimation from 2019 onward, while Hulu and Funimation will be the "co-exclusive" premiere outlets for key subtitled anime titles. You'll have to subscribe to one or the other if you want access to some shows the same day they launch in Japan.
Netflix is making a live-action 'Cowboy Bebop' series
Continuing on an apparent quest to secure the loyalty of classic anime fans, Netflix is following up yesterday's Evangelion news by acquiring a new version of Cowboy Bebop. This time it's doing the noir-ish bounty hunter series set in space as a live action TV show, and has commissioned 10 episodes that will be co-produced with Tomorrow Studios. We don't know a lot about the show yet, but the director of the anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe is listed as a consultant. The original anime series ran for 26 episodes, with a movie that arrived later. Netflix has tried its hand at live-action anime adaptations before, with Death Note, and we'd hope that experience leads to a better result with efforts like this one and its Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Marty Adelstein, the CEO of Tomorrow Studios is listed as an executive producer, and is also working on TV series versions of Snowpiercer and Hannah. It had announced development of the show back in June, and as the company said then, Chris Yost (Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok and Max Steel) will write the first episode, and Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost, Helix) has confirmed he's writing for it as well.
'Evangelion' will make its 'global streaming debut' on Netflix in 2019
Today in Tokyo Netflix announced another set of releases for its flood of content next year and focused specifically on the anime genre. The most familiar name on the list is Neon Genesis Evangelion, the classic series featuring children controlling massive robots battling aliens. All 26 episodes will make their "global streaming debut" (that's right, until now you've had to actually buy them in order to watch, and we're sure that license didn't come cheap) in the spring of 2019, as well as the followup films The End of Evangelion & Evangelion: Death (True)². It's not the only anime classic coming to Netflix either, as there's a brand new Ultraman movie and a series based on the manga 7 Seeds on deck in April. Rilakkuma and Kaoru is a stop-motion animated show about a woman with a stuffed bear as a roommate, while Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac takes place in modern day as warriors fight to protect the Greek goddess Athena.
Netflix is making 'Pacific Rim' and 'Altered Carbon' anime
Netflix is developing five original anime shows, including two titles you might be familiar with: Pacific Rim and Altered Carbon. The animated series will take place in the same universe as the live-action installments of the titles, though they'll tackle different stories and feature new characters. Pacific Rim revolves around siblings who are forced to pilot a Jaeger across dangerous lands to find their missing parents. Altered Carbon will focus on new elements from the Blade Runner-inspired Netflix show, wherein bodies are merely "sleeves" you can change and death doesn't always mean you're gone for good.
Funimation shows leave Crunchyroll following Sony's acquisition (update)
When Sony acquired Funimation, it apparently also meant the end of the anime localizer's partnership with Crunchyroll and VRV. According to Polygon, Funimation president Gen Fukunaga sent a memo to employees announcing that the company is leaving those streaming platforms as a direct result of Sony's purchase. Funimation specializes in distributing anime dubbed in English, including My Hero Academia and One Piece, providing a good complement to Crunchyroll's subtitled shows.
'High Guardian Spice' is Crunchyroll's first original series
Seemingly every streaming service is moving into original programming and AT&T-owned Crunchyroll is next to take a swing at it. Ellation Studios (also owned by AT&T) will start producing original shows for the anime-streaming service, starting with High Guardian Spice next year. Further details will be revealed at September's Crunchyroll Expo in San Jose, according to TechCrunch, but for now we know the show is about four girls at the magical High Guardian Academy where they'll train to become defenders of the city. Sounds a little like Hogwarts. The show will have an all-female writer's room and if you want a sneak peek, check out the video embedded below.
Over-the-top anime 'Kill la Kill' becomes a game in 2019
One of the better-known (if at times infamous) anime shows of recent years is getting the video game treatment. Studio Trigger and Dragon Ball FighterZ developer Arc System Works have announced Kill la Kill the Game: If, a 3D brawler adaptation of (what else?) Kill la Kill for both the PS4 and PCs running Steam. The creators haven't said much about how the title will work, but the trailer suggests it'll hew closely to the anime. That means a sword-wielding girl out for revenge (with a giant scissor-like sword), an abundance of violence and equal amounts of racy, sentient clothing.
An 'Ingress' anime series is coming to Netflix
There's no question that Pokémon Go has overshadowed Niantic's original augmented reality game, Ingress. The developer may have a clever way of revitalizing interest when Ingress' major revamp arrives, though: launch a streaming video series to capture gamers' attention. Variety has learned that Netflix, Fuij TV and Crafter are collaborating on Ingress: The Animation, an anime series that will serve as an introduction to the next game, Ingress Prime. Both are expected to launch sometime around October.
'Gundam' is being made into a live-action movie
Gundam is heading to the big screen -- and, yes, we're talking about a live action adaptation, not a movie-length anime movie you can see in theaters. Legendary Entertainment and Gundam's creator, Japanese animation studio Sunrise, have announced that they're teaming up to create a film version of the classic robot saga at the Los Angeles Anime Expo. The franchise was established in 1979 with the animated series Mobile Suit Gundam, which helped popularize the "mecha" genre. It grew over the years to encompass several anime series, manga and video games, remaining relevant and popular even to this day.
Netflix renews 'Aggretsuko' and commits to more new anime
Netflix is going all-in on anime, renewing another series and bringing in a bunch of new ones, it announced at the Anime 2018 festival. There'll certainly be a lot of variety, starting with season 2 of Aggretsuko (below, arriving in 2019) about a red panda who bristles against her quotidian life via nightly death metal karaoke sessions. It also revealed that the second season of vampire-fighting show Castlevania will debut on October 26th.
'My Hero: One's Justice' brings the Plus Ultra action
Dragon Ball Fighter Z is currently the reigning champ of anime-based fighting games but it's about to get some tough competition -- and not just from the highly-anticipated release of Jump Force next year. My Hero Academia, one of the biggest hits in the anime universe right now, is getting its own fighter as well. My Hero: One's Justice is slated to drop later this year and, based on the demo that I just played at E3, is going to be a (Detroit) smash hit.
'Forgotton Anne' is a puzzle-platform game hidden inside an anime
Forgotton Anne looks like a gentle animated feature film you can't quite remember the name of, with an art style somewhere between Studio Ghibli and those curious kids' animation series I used to watch from Europe. The charming characters, mostly anthropomorphic objects called forgotlings, make for an entertaining adventure, combined with occasionally smart puzzles and surprising gameplay twists. That said, ThroughLine Games have made a gorgeous animated story where the gameplay comes second.
CrunchyRoll's first game is based on 'DanMachi'
Anime streaming network CrunchyRoll is making a video game based on the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? series. The free-to-play Memoria Freese/Dan-Memo is available for both Android and iOS and will feature in-app purchases and an original storyline from the show's first season. Series creator Fujino Omori is handling writing duties, with Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Inori Minase, Saori Ōnishi and others lending their talents to the voice cast. And don't worry about dubs here: CrunchyRoll promises there will be Japanese voices with English subtitles.
Shigeru Miyamoto will co-produce a 'Mario' animated movie
Nintendo's third big announcement of the evening (after Switch Online and Mario Kart Tour) comes right back to its main star, Mario, and the news that he will star in an animated movie. Confirming earlier rumors, Shigeru Miyamoto is listed as co-producer along with Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, Minions, Ice Age) head Chris Meledandri, but the announcement didn't mention other details like a title or release date. The press release notes that Universal Pictures is co-financing the project and will handle worldwide distribution, and it seems ripe for a tie-in with theme park plans both companies are working on. The big question now is if it will live up/down (depending on how you feel about it) to the reputation of 1993's Super Mario Bros. movie.
Amazon folds its little-known anime service into Prime Video
Amazon has killed off the anime streaming platform it launched merely a year ago, according to Kotaku, and we're not exactly surprised. Anime Strike required an additional $5 a month on top of Prime Video membership fees, after all, which might have been a bit too much for subscribers already paying $99 a year. Amazon has already incorporated its shows into Prime Video -- yes, including its exclusives -- and we'll bet a lot of people would say that that should've been the case from the start.
Crunchyroll website hack tried to infect visitors with malware (updated)
Hacks that target major websites are nothing new, but Crunchyroll just suffered a particularly vicious attack. The anime streaming service was compromised for hours on November 4th after intruders planted a fake home page that pushed a malicious "CrunchyViewer" program to visitors. If Windows users were trusting enough to launch the file, it installed a mysterious background process that likely affected their systems. Mobile users were safe, although Crunchyroll noted that they weren't functional simply because the web team was fixing the website.
Netflix anime parody 'Neo Yokio' loads up on star power
If you were wondering why the next Vampire Weekend album is taking so long, now you have your answer. It seems lead singer Ezra Koenig has been busy working on an anime with his celeb pals. We heard rumblings about it in the past (from Jude Law and Koenig) and now we're getting the first official trailer, directly from Netflix. The show, dubbed Neo Yokio, hits the streaming service on 22 September.
With Funimation deal, Sony's PS4 will be a must-have for anime fans
Japanese animation has exploded in popularity over the past few years, thanks to increased availability on streaming services like Crunchyroll, Hulu and Amazon. It was popular enough for Funimation, which specializes in translating anime for American audiences, to launch its own service in 2016. It's no surprise that larger media companies came looking for a piece of the pie, with Sony grabbing a 95 percent majority stake in Funimation this week.
