Category: November

Why Are Some Manga Cancelled In English?

Published November 29, 2021

When I’m researching manga series to pick up and collect, one of the first things I check is to see if the entirety of the series has been released in English. More often than not, the series completed its English release and I’m able to continue looking into the manga to see if I want to collect it. However, there are times where I find that the English release was cut short and, in those situations, I am immediately put off from collecting the series since I won’t be able to finish the story. Knowing all this, the question becomes why are some manga cancelled in English?

The first and most obvious answer is simple, money. Even with the notoriously low pay in the manga translation industry, releasing manga in English is not cheap. Beyond translation costs, there is touch up to the artwork costs, editing costs, printing and distribution costs etc. This all adds up and can result in a series being unprofitable. Understandably, businesses don’t like to lose money and, rather than continuing to haemorrhage money, they might decide to just cancel the manga’s English release.

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Why Anime Is Sometimes Localised To Hide Their Country Of Origin

Published November 25, 2021

When I was a child, I ended up watching a lot of series that I would later discover were anime series. From Pokémon to Beyblades to Yu-Gi-Oh! to Medabots to many more, it’s surprising how much anime I watched back then. However, I was completely unaware that these shows that I enjoyed so much were from Japan! Why was I and so many others oblivious to this information? The answer is surprisingly straightforward, because the American licensors didn’t want you to know! Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at why anime is sometimes localised to hide their country of origin.

I should start off by clarifying that I will be looking at localisation when it comes to English language releases of these shows. Anime has been incredibly popular internationally for decades and it’s explosion in popularity in the English speaking world was actually later than many other countries. However, I’m quite unsure about how heavy-handed censorship and localisation were in these countries and, if you’re aware of how this was handled in particular countries, feel free to comment below.

Those aren’t donuts! Those are rice balls!

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Why I Love To Be Able To See Concept Art

Published November 22, 2021

There are a wide variety of extras that I love to get along with the media that I enjoy. From commentaries to behind the scenes information to appendixes, there is so much extra content that I love to see included with releases. However, an area that I would love to see more from would be concept art, an extra that I would consider to be highly underrated.

First, let’s discuss what concept art is. Concept art is artwork that is produced for a wide variety of creative mediums such as animation, graphic novels, video games, live-action media etc. These concept art will develop ideas for characters, settings, technology etc. and will tend to go through several iterations as feedback, both creative and practical, is received. Concept art can be used for a variety of purposes from advertising to refining the product itself to even seeking funding from investors.

Original concept art for Darth Maul which is drastically different to how he would later appear in the Star Wars franchise.

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Games for Windows Live And Its Cursed Legacy

Published November 18, 2021

I recently saw an article from PC Gamer that Fallout 3 had patched out Games for Windows Live on Steam. While not significant news for many, I would imagine many people these days don’t even know what Games for Windows Live was, it not only reminded me of the existence of Games for Windows Live but the many problems that its cursed legacy continues to produce in modern PC gaming.

I should first begin by explaining what Games for Windows Live was. Back in 2006, Microsoft launched a brand called “Games for Windows“, an initiative to regulate PC games more similarly to the console market and to increase accessibility. Examples of features that were included as part of this branding were easy installation, compatibility with 64-bit operating systems, supporting a wide variety of resolutions, support for Xbox controllers etc. Additionally, games that passed these criteria and were accepted into the program had Games for Windows branding across the top of their case in order to differentiate them from PC games that weren’t Games for Windows.

Observe the Games for Windows branding across the top of the box.

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Manga Remakes: Examples And Why They’re Rare

Published November 15, 2021

It is a fact that remakes are becoming increasingly common across numerous entertainment industries. From films to gaming to anime, it feels like remakes are becoming more and more prevalent, perhaps overwhelmingly so. However, it occurred to me the other day that there aren’t that many manga remakes. Therefore, I thought it might be worth looking at a few examples of manga remakes and why they’re so rare compared to other media.

Let’s start off by looking at a few examples. A notable example of a manga remake would be Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage. Written by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto, author of the original 1978 Space Pirate Captain Harlock, with the art handled by Kōichi Shimahoshi, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage retells the story of the original manga while expanding on certain story elements and connecting more strongly with Leiji Matsumoto’s other series.

The volume 2 English language cover for Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage.

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The Unique, Stunning Experimental Anime Shorts Of Osamu Tezuka

Published November 11, 2021

I recently read The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime, a manga biography of the life of Osamu Tezuka, and found a particular aspect of his career especially fascinating. I was already quite familiar with his manga works, his anime offerings such as Animerama etc. but I was really surprised to learn how many anime shorts he produced over his career. These anime shorts were experimental, unique, stunning and I wanted to tell others about this incredible aspect of Osamu Tezuka.

In order to explain the production of his first experimental short, I have to discuss the state of anime at the time. In the early 1960s, the television industry was booming in Japan but TV anime was practically non-existent due to competition from American animation. Tezuka, however, believed in the potential of animation and was determined to develop animation both for television and short films that would push the boundaries of the medium. This resulted in the studio’s first projects being the Astro Boy television series, which I’ve spoken about before, and the experimental shorts “Tales of a Street Corner” and “Male”.

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The Important Animator Ralph Bakshi Part 2

Published November 8, 2021

Here is my continuation of “The Important Animator Ralph Bakshi Part 1“.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is American-Pop-Poster-538x1024.jpg — American Pop (1981)

After The Lord of the Rings, Ralph Bakshi wanted to create another original film and approached Columbia Pictures to finance his next film. After securing the deal, Ralph set about making a film that would incorporate a large number of songs into a story that stretched across multiple generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family. Similar to The Lord of the Rings, American Pop used a lot of rotoscoping to create the animation although it also incorporated other techniques such as live-action and archival footage as well. The film was ultimately successful when it was released in 1981, doing well at the box office and being warmly received.

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The Important Animator Ralph Bakshi Part 1

Published November 4, 2021

I recently wrote about the amazing American animator Don Bluth and the impact his films have had on American animation. However, there is also another animator who contributed greatly to the development of American animation and that is the incredibly important Ralph Bakshi, a pioneer of independent, generally adult animation throughout the 70s and 80s.

Born in the city of Haifa in modern day Israel, then the British Mandate of Palestine, in 1938, he and his family emigrated to America in 1939. When Ralph was 15 years old, he discovered Gene Byrnes’ “Complete Guide to Cartooning” and studied the book intensely, learning the techniques associated with cartooning. By the age of 18, he was hired at the New York animation studio Terrytoons to clean animation cels. He worked on a variety of Terrytoons shows such as Heckle and Jeckle, Deputy Dawg and eventually created his own animation series for them, The Mighty Heroes. However, he was unhappy with the quality of the show due to limitations by the studio and left to create his own animation studio. He eventually came across the Fritz the Cat comic strip and became determined to produce a film based on it.

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The History Of The Resident Evil Franchise Part 2

Published November 1, 2021

Here is my continuation of “The History Of The Resident Evil Franchise Part 1“.

In 2007, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, a rail shooter game covering the events of Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, was released for the Nintendo Wii while the third Resident Evil film “Resident Evil: Extinction” was also released and performed well at the box office. In 2008, an animated film called Resident Evil: Degeneration was released and, unlike the live-action films, was actually canon to the universe of the video game series. In 2009, Resident Evil 5 was released with an emphasise on co-op gameplay. The game sold record numbers and was praised critically although some were concerned that the franchise was losing its horror roots in favour of action. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, a sequel to Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles that covered the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was also released in 2009 while the next Resident Evil film “Resident Evil: Afterlife” was released in 2010 and proceeded to double the box office gross of Resident Evil: Extinction which had previously been the highest grossing movie in the franchise.

2012 saw an unbelievable wave of Resident Evil content with Resident Evil: Revelations released for the Nintendo 3DS, pushing the graphical limits of what the handheld was capable of, a squad-based co-op game called Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City and the next major entry, Resident Evil 6. Despite selling millions of copies worldwide, Resident Evil 6 received backlash for continuing to strip away the survival horror elements and turning into an outright action game (perhaps a tad harsh in my personal opinion but I understand where they’re coming from). Additionally, the second Resident Evil animated film “Resident Evil: Damnation” was released while Resident Evil: Retribution, the fourth film in the live-action film series, continued to prove successful at the box office.

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