Category Archives: Anime

At the time of this writting I have just learned the The Manga and Anime Cyberpunkish hit "Ghost In The Shell" is being adapted into a Live Action Movie, and that Scarlet Johansson has been cast in the lead role as the Major Motoko Kusanagi (Though weather they will keep the name the same is doubtful).  That's right Johansson is going from protraying Avenger Black Widow, to playing the role of a  Japanese Secret Police Agency Cyborg Soldier.

The Movie which has been written by Bill Wheeler, and directed by Rupert Sanders, will be produced by Dreamworks Studios. Ghost in the Shell has been one of those projects that have been pitched for a long time, but with the signing of Johansson to star in it seem to finally gotten some legs beneath it and a green light to be made.

Now back in September of 2013 I did a mini review of the Anime Series "Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex" which you can read HERE if you are unfamiliar with the Ghost in the shell which is one of my favorite Sci-Fi animes.  As I said I really like the original Ghost in the Shell Movie, and the Stand Alone Complex Series that followed however I not sure I have high hopes for this movie.

Anime Themed live action movies made here in the States have a history of being crap fests in my opinions ( Dragon ball, and Avatar The Last Airbender come to mind). So I would like to ask all you fine anime fans out there. Are you looking forward to this movie ? If so do you think it will be able to do the source material, the Manga, and Anime Justice ?

Last year at this time I gave you a list of  Anime that I like to watch during the Halloween Season. This year I am going to give a similar list, a list of 8 anime series I want to watch this week leading up to the 31st.

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Greeting all your anime fans out there in the HeroMachine community! It has been a while since I last posted an anime talk and I intend to change that starting today, However there is a bit of a change in format. Instead of being a weekly feature Anime talk is more likely to be a monthly feature instead at best! There will be time I will post more then one a month and there may be time it will be more like 5 or 6 weeks instead of every 4 it all depend on when inspiration strikes! This weeks topic is inspired by a suggest that JR emailed me last week.

What we are going to discuss here are Anime Intros. Those opening scenes that are designed to grab our attention and draw us in and make us want to watch that particular anime! What I am going to do is after the jump share some of my favorite Anime intros, and share what I like about them and then you can either comment on the ones I have shared or share some of your own ( or both of course) .

SO Lets begin!!

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Well JR gave me a bit of a kick in the backside when he posted his vlog post to the blog yesterday and so I have been working on this anime talk intro video since. Take a look please and let me know what you think.

*** WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

On this addition of Anime Talk I want to discuss the anime series "Sword Art Online".  For those who do not know, Sword Art Online, or SAO for short is an anime about people being trapped inside a Virtual reality MMO computer game. Now before I go any further with this discussion I want to address the one thing I always see or hear come up when this series is discussed, which is .hack. Now I honestly do not know if SAO is a "ripoff" of .hack, or if .hack is a ripoff of SAO and honestly I don't care. The premises of both series may be similar but the difference between the two are so large that I personally do not think either could be considered a true ripoff.

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For this weeks Anime Talk with Halloween being today I want to share with you those Anime series and movies that I enjoy watching at this time of year. What follows are my 10 favorite Anime for Halloween in no particular order, and I invite you to give me your list in the comments below.

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As I sit down to write this edition of Anime Talk I find myself drawing a blank on a topic so I have decided to make it an open discussion on all things Anime.  Is there a favorite series you want to recommend? A Favorite Genre of Anime ? A hated series you want to warn us about ? A rant? Any and all things anime are free for your comments in this post, so have at it!

This week on Anime Talk I would like to talk about Marvel Entertainment and Japanese Animation Studio Madhouse's anime Adaptations of Wolverine, The X-Men, Iron Man, and Blade.

Now I will admit I have only seen a couple episodes each of the Iron Man, Wolverine, and X-Men anime's and none at all of the Blade series thought from what I saw I certainly want to see a lot more of Iron Man, and The X-Men ( not impressed with Wolverine ). However since I have not seen a great deal of these shows to give a proper mini review of any of them I want to turn to you the readers and ask you have you seen any of these four Anime series? If you have what did you think of them? If you haven't are you interested in seeing any of them ? why or why not?

This weeks Anime Talks is going to be a mini review of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex". This 2002 anime series which follows the exploits of Major Motoko Kusanagi ( simply refereed to as the Major most of the time ) and her team from the Japanese anti-terrorism crime unit "Public Security Section 9" . The series is set in the fictional Japanese city of Niihama during the mid 21st century, where cyber crime, and cyborgs are common and the setting is very cyberpunk in it's feel.

It is worth noting at this time that there is also a Ghost in the Shell movie, and a Manga series however while the characters are more or less identical within these there medias each is independent of each other with vastly different plots. I like Ghost in the Shell ( both the SAC series and the movie ) because I find the characters interesting, and while it has plenty of action with tons of violence the show is more about detective work and mystery solving though it can get bogged down at time by the heavy political commentary which can be a turn off to some viewers.

The Animation is beautifully drawn, the story is gripping most of the time, the characters are very well developed and the plot twists are intriguing.   This is a series that I recommend unless you are not a fan of politically intrigue or dark gritty worlds full of violence, deceit and death.

The "Anime Talk" column here on the blog is normally geared towards fans of anime, this week I want to hear from that segment of our community that doesn't watch nor do they care to watch any anime.  I'd love to know why you do not like anime, what about it turns you away is it something about the entire genre or was there a particular anime series or movie that ruined it for you ? As I have mentioned a few time that the classic anime movie Akira almost made me into an Anime Hater. I watched that movie and could not stand it and did not want to see anymore anime. If it were not for a stubborn friend that kept pushing anime on me until he found something I did like I likely would not be writing about Anime on this blog today.

So that's our topic of discussion for this week, leave your comments below letting us all know about why you don't watch anime, and so that our anime fans out there do not feel left out on this topic I'd like to ask you what Anime (s) series or movies you dislike even though you are fans of the genre.