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 Manga Bulletin: July 23rd, 2008
Written by Park Cooper
Hello, Park Cooper here, and welcome once again to Manga Bulletin, in which, among other things, ML will give you the manga/anime/industry news of the week and comment on it, perhaps snarkily (perhaps not). Indeed it’ll be a place for all sorts of shameless plugging, but let’s jump right into things with some professionals of hype with the newest press release I’ve gotten from... Viz!
VIZ MEDIA LAUNCHES HOLLYWOOD-BASED FILM COMPANY TO LICENSE AND PRODUCE LIVE ACTION FILMS BASED ON POPULAR JAPANESE GRAPHIC NOVEL PROPERTIES
San Francisco, CA, July 21, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has launched a new wholly-owned Hollywood-based company named VIZ Productions to produce and license live-action theatrical film and TV projects based on animated and manga (graphic novel) series. The new company will draw on a vast catalog of manga properties owned by its Japanese parent companies Shogakukan, Inc. and Shueisha, Inc., as well as publishing giant -Hakusensha, all of which are among the largest publishing houses in Japan.
VIZ Productions will also serve as liaison between Japanese creative licensors and Hollywood production houses, studios and agents and plans to produce or license live action films covering a wide range of graphic novel genres. Projects lined up include science fiction, fantasy, action adventure, horror, thriller, comedy and drama. The VIZ Productions launch is timely as Hollywood is looking actively for new material and a myriad of Japanese graphic novel material remains untapped in Hollywood. VIZ Productions’ parent company VIZ Media dominates the burgeoning North American manga market and its stable of animation titles are seen on Cartoon Network and other distribution outlets. Among some of its most popular titles include NARUTO, BLEACH, DEATH NOTE, INUYASHA and NAOKI URASAWA’S MONSTER.
“VIZ Productions will give Hollywood a unique conduit to some of the most innovative and unique entertainment properties from Japan. Hollywood has always looked to comic books and graphic novels and has recently discovered the untapped pool of Japanese manga for development into live action features. Worldwide, the creators of manga are viewed as artists, and the rich storylines are already a hit with the coveted 12-34 demographic,” says Jason Hoffs, Head of Production for VIZ Productions. “With our pool of resources of dramatic storylines and incredible characters coming from manga and animation, we are confident that the development of many new projects will attract the best talent, actors, directors, writers and bring a new array of films to domestic audiences.”
Adds Hidemi Fukuhara, President and CEO of VIZ Media: “We are proud to have Jason Hoffs as Head of Production for VIZ Productions; he brings a great deal of knowledge gained from over 15 years in Hollywood and has a keen eye for great stories. Our parent companies Shogakukan and Shueisha are the top manga publishers in Japan and hold a wealth of rich characters and storylines in their extensive catalog. Jason Hoffs will helm the effort to bring these wonderful stories to Hollywood and to build a bridge between the creative talents both in Hollywood and in Tokyo.”
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Any comment, anyone?
James Hanrahan:
While I think it would be great if Hollywood did actually pour money into such projects, I cannot see them actually being all that successful for the reason that Hollywood has a terrible habit of trying to make properties based on cartoons and comics palatable for families and all ages. The success of Hollywood properties based on comics that are faithful to those comics seems to be something of a surprise to Hollywood. Even the ones that are faithful and successful still seem to draw quite a bit of flack from producers and money people about the direction the source material goes in and they want to nice things up.
I hate to sound cynical, but I think there will be many projects in development hell. Watching how Hollywood is adapting to the idea of comic movies now has been very interesting because it is very much like watching how the comics industry reacted to the growth of comics 20 years ago. While I do not doubt that some manga projects may get made into movies, I wonder how long it will be before they are really very good.
David Rasmussen:
Proof is in the first batch of releases from VIZ. I’ll hold off on saying more until the first movies are out and we see how they handle their first releases (or if they can manage to even release before the weight of the effort crushes them whole before movie one sees an actual theatrical release).
And that’s it, the Scorn of the Week from David Rasmussen. A brave and noble try to knock David off his championship throne, James, but it’ll take more cynicism than that to out-scorn the master.
And remember, folks: They said it, not me.
I... _did_ get one other piece of PR this week... but might you... DO you have the popcultural fortitude to face... GLAY?
FIFTY-PLUS-MILLION-SELLING JAPANESE SUPERSTARS GLAY TO MAKE LIVE U.S. DEBUT IN AUGUST 2008
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Beloved Band’s Long Awaited Shows Taking Place at San Francisco’s Fillmore and L.A.’s House of Blues
After selling more than 56 million albums, singles and DVDs, and drawing more than 7 million fans to the massive stadium tours in their home country, Japan’s GLAY is finally taking their signature mix of pop and rock to American shores for the very first time. As one of the most popular bands ever produced in the Land of the Rising Sun, GLAY’s long awaited live U.S. debut promises to recreate their electrifying stage show in just two intimate but highly regarded West Coast venues. GLAY will kick off their brief series of dates on August 12th, 2008 at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore at 8:00pm, before arriving in Los Angeles for two consecutive nights at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip—Friday, August 15th and Saturday, August 16th, 2008, starting at 9:00pm on both nights.
GLAY will be hitting these U.S. venues hot on the heels of the June 11th release of their latest album, Verb, which contains the hit title track as well as their stunning rendition of the classic U2 song, “With or Without You.” Since their 1994 major label debut, GLAY has remained a steady presence at the top of the charts in Japan, with 10 albums to their credit, successive sold-out national tours of arenas and stadiums, and multiple awards in their homeland.
The band’s special “Glay Expo” shows are wildly popular as well; their 1999 show at the Tokyo area’s Makuhari Messe venue gathered an audience of 200,000 rabid fans, marking the largest single concert event ever held in Japan at the time. They are a regular presence in the mainstream of Japanese media, with appearances on major TV and radio programs as well as the covers of the biggest music magazines in the country; at one point, GLAY’s images were even printed on the sides of Japan Airlines jumbo jets to promote their “Expo ‘99” concert.
“It’s so cool that we’re finally coming to play in America,” says GLAY singer Teru. “We can’t wait to rock for all of our fans, and make some new ones, in San Francisco and L.A.”
The band was formed in 1988 by high school friends, guitarist Takuro and vocalist Teru. After moving to Tokyo and recruiting guitarist Hisashi and bassist Jiro, they made their major label debut in 1994 with the EP Rain. In 1996, their second album Beat Out! debuted at #1 on the Oricon Chart, the Japanese equivalent of Billboard that represents the official sales statistics of music releases in Japan. Their greatest hits album, Review, was released in 1997 and sold 5,000,000 copies—the greatest selling album in Japanese chart history at the time.
Other highlights of the band’s long and successful career have included their October 13th, 2002 performance in Beijing, China, considered to be one of the most successful rock shows in the history of that country; the 10-year anniversary celebration in front of 100,000 people at a custom stage within the Universal Studios Japan amusement park; a concert at the legendary Budokan venue; and several massive arena tours, most recently the five-month “GLAY HIGHCOMMUNICATIONS TOUR 2007-2008,” in which they played 52 shows in 42 cities throughout Japan. The band has won numerous awards throughout their career, including consecutive “Best Album” prizes at the Annual Japan Record Awards in 1997 and 1998, “Best Selling Japanese Artist” at the 1998 World Music Awards, and consecutive wins at Japan’s Annual Gold Disc Awards for “Song of the Year” (1999-2003) and “Rock Album of the Year (1998-2001), among many others.
Is America ready? I’m not sure. We’ll all find out together.
Oh, and now that it's Wednesday, happy birthday to Jake Forbes, current adapter of FullMetal Alchemist and other manga past and present, writer of Tokyopop's Labyrinth project... Kudos! Unlike a lot of state alchemists... and Tohru Honda's mom... you're still alive! Woo-hoo!
That’s it for this week... please look forward to next time...
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