Photo from LA Weekly Blog This past weekend was the Power Morphicon, the fan convention for Power Ranger enthusiasts…be they fans of the original series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or any of the numerous spinoff series that are still actually on television. Growing up, I was ADDICTED to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, watching it every single day and tirelessly wanting more. Yeah, I was obsessed. The show, which was originally based on a Jap...

Wow. Just wow. Yoshifumi Takashe, a 30-year old guy living with his mother in Kasai, Hyogo prefecture, burned down the house they shared after his mom threw out some boxes of Gundam robot action figures. Takashe is quoted in this article as saying, “The Gundam figures are like the partners I spend my life with,” he reportedly said after pleading guilty at western Kobe’s District Court. “I wanted to die with them in a fi...

Were I more creative with words, I could have crafted some sort of visual joke alluding to the business suits at Universal Pictures circling in the water like…well, like sharks at the thought of some random Japanese movie totally ripping off their franchise. “Jaws in Japan”, whatever it is, seems to be about a killer shark called Jaws…hmm, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The folks over at Cinematical tipped me off...

photo via FoxNews Usually when you’re out on the town at local bars and such, the best you can do if you’re looking for something distinctly Japanese, the bar only has Sapporo beer or something like that. Well, as this article describes, Japanese whisky may soon be a mainstay in many bars in the country. Japanese-style whisky is not widely available just yet, but mega-super-big company Suntory is hoping to expand its reach a bit more ...

photo found at Comics Alliance I posted about this way back a while ago, but more information just came out regarding four special anime series that will be premiering on G4 in 2011. Madhouse, the animation studio behind this coolness, is working on four separate anime series chronicling the tales of Wolverine, Iron Man, Blade and the X-Men. While clips and extensive previews of the series are not really available yet, there is a trailer for the ...

The World Cosplay Summit took place this weekend in Nagoya, Japan, and Italy emerged victorious. By that, I mean the grand prize winners were Luca Buzzi and Giancarlo di Pierro, who dressed up as Link and Ganondorf of the Legend of Zelda games. According to this recap from Anime News Network, the Italians beat out representatives from 15 countries and did so in front of about 15,000 summit attendees. That’s a lot of costumes. The article a...

Right at this very moment, comic book/movie/game/tv show/cult/pop culture obsessors are converging in San Diego, California, for the yearly Comic-Con convention. Once there, everyone will stand in lines to see panels for all types of things, such as upcoming films like TRON: LEGACY and SALT and SCOTT PILGRIM and THE GREEN LANTERN and so on. Unfortunately, I won’t be attending the convention, much to my disappointment…I haven’...

I just stumbled upon an article in the Detroit Free Press about “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo“, the movie I’ve written about numerous times on this blog. Director Jessica Oreck’s film explores the role of bugs in Japan, with an emphasis on the “obsession” between the general public and its bug population. As I’ve said before, the movie looks fascinating, if only for the fact that here in the USA we hardly...

Are you in the Los Angeles/Southern California area? If so, then this post is for you. Visual Communications and the Japanese American Cultural Community Center are teaming up to host some cool events this summer, including a FREE outdoor screening of the film ULTRAMAN. Just read for yourself: Movies, food trucks, and lively music all come together in the JACCC Plaza as families, friends and downtown LA neighbors join in on the festivities unde...

This was a fun read. Yumi Wilson, on the blog for the San Francisco Chronicle, posted a nice recap of FanimeCon, a 3-day anime festival in San Jose, California last week. I grew up in the Bay, and I don’t really remember hearing much about any anime conventions, but I was probably not paying much attention back then. Wilson’s recap is entertaining, and it highlights the convention from the perspective of someone who wasn’t terr...

Wow. I read about this the other day, but didn’t bother checking it out…now that I have, it’s pretty darn impressive. Anthony Le, a 25-year old man from Colorado, has taken it upon himself to design a slick-looking replica of the War Machine costume from Iron Man 2….complete with shiny armor and everything. Check it out: Le does more than make Iron Man costumes out of boredom…he’s also heavily involved in cha...

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you’ve probably seen our posts about the cool upcoming film called Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo. Well, I’m happy to report that the film raised enough money to open across the country, including here in Los Angeles. May 28 through June 3, the film will be playing at the Downtown Independent Theatre in LA. Click here for more information about the theater and the screening schedule. ...

The Cove, the Academy Award-winning 2009 documentary that focuses on the slaughtering of dolphins in the Japanese city of Taiji, has caused a more than palpable stir in the past few months. Now, due to the popularity of the film and because of the threat of protests and challenges from Japanese people and groups offended by the film, a screening of the film at US Yakota Air Force Base was halted from taking place. In an act of defiance against t...

I’m sure you all remember our previous post about Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, the upcoming film focusing on Japan’s obsession with bugs that looks to be pretty interesting. Well, after that previous post, I was contacted by the film’s people and given a heads-up about the film’s involvement with Kickstarter.com, a site designed to help filmmakers gather enough money to finance various endeavors for their movies… As...

Heads up, manga fans. Apparently, Warner Brothers is adapting the long-running Japanese manga Bleach for a motion picture. As this article from Reuters details, Filmmaker Peter Segal is in negotiations to produce, though not direct, the adaptation with Viz Media, the anime publishing house that releases the books in English in the U.S. Michael Ewing, Segal’s partner at Callahan Filmworks, will also produce. Segal might seem like an odd op...