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 Manga Bulletin: June 25, 2008
Written by Park Cooper
Hello, Park Cooper here, and welcome once again to Manga Bulletin, a newish feature 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... Not that I haven’t started ASKING other companies for their press releases...
Juuuuuuuuuuuust on the off chance anyone has anything clever or interesting to say about this...
VIZ MEDIA AND KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAIMENT, INC. ANNOUNCE LICENSING DEAL
VIZ Media Licenses BLUE DRAGON Trading Card Game Rights
To Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
For North America
San Francisco, CA, June 18, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, and Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KDE), a leading publisher of mass market video games and manufacturer of trading card games (TCG), today announced that KDE will exclusively manufacture and distribute the BLUE DRAGON Trading Card Game and Trading Card Game Accessories in North America. The agreement further extends the scope and popularity of the BLUE DRAGON franchise. VIZ Media is the master North American licensor for the television, home video and non-video game merchandising rights for BLUE DRAGON.
The BLUE DRAGON animation is based on the Xbox 360 video game Blue Dragon, developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of “Final Fantasy”, and featuring character designs by Akira Toriyama, the creator of the best-selling DRAGON BALL series of manga (which is published in North America by VIZ Media and featured in SHONEN JUMP Magazine). The new trading card game is also based on the Xbox 360 video game.
The animated series debuted in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 7, 2007 and is produced by Studio Pierrot, which is well known for its work on NARUTO and BLEACH, also licensed by VIZ Media. The highly anticipated BLUE DRAGON animated series, rated TV Y7FV, debuted across the United States on Cartoon Network on Saturday, April 5, 2008 and now airs regularly at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings.
The BLUE DRAGON video game and animated series is a classic adventure story of magical Shadow powers, flying air fortresses, and unbounded heroism! Brought together by fate, Seven Soldiers of Light must awaken the Shadow within themselves in time to overcome a despotic power and bring peace to their land. Their ensuing journey through a rich fantasy world is also an internal journey to awaken the great power within each of them. Journey with them into the world of BLUE DRAGON!
“Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. welcomes the opportunity to further build the popularity of the BLUE DRAGON franchise with this licensing agreement with VIZ Media and is thrilled to have the opportunity to work on its first ever role playing card game with a dynamically advancing game mechanic,” said Yumi Hoashi, Vice President, KDE’s Card Division. “We look forward to reaching out to an array of players of all ages and sharing the excitement of the group-oriented role playing card game, Blue Dragon. It is our expectation that the character designs of esteemed creator Akira Toriyama, combined with the unique game play of Blue Dragon, will create countless new fans within the card game community.”
Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of card and electronic entertainment properties. The most notable of KDE’s card genre is the wildly popular Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game, which is welcoming its 10th anniversary this year. In addition to Yu-Gi-Oh!, KDE’s other titles, although released only in Japan, include such hits as The Prince of Tennis, D. Gray-man, MÄR, Eyeshield 21 and more.
“The creative forces behind BLUE DRAGON include some of the most notable talents from the worlds of gaming, animation and manga/graphic novels,” says David Rewalt, Senior Director – Licensing and Retail Development, VIZ Media. “The continued development of BLUE DRAGON from a video game to an animated series and now a Trading Card Game demonstrates the successful convergence of all these entertainment and media genres. With established legacies in these arenas, VIZ Media and KDE will continue to develop the BLUE DRAGON brand through a variety of innovative and fun products.”
About Konami
Konami is a leading developer, publisher and manufacturer of electronic entertainment properties. Konami titles include the popular franchises Metal Gear Solid®, Silent Hill®, Dance Dance Revolution® and Castlevania®, among other top sellers. The latest information about Konami can be found on the Web at www.konami.com. Konami Corporation is a publicly traded company based in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary offices, Konami Digital Entertainment, Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, Japan, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. in the United States and Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH in Frankfurt, Germany. Konami Corporation is traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KNM. Details of the products published by Konami can be found at www.konami.com.
--David Rasmussen:
Sorry, no.
It’s a trading card game on a visually pretty but kinda average RPG game. Let’s see if they can crank out at least a passable Blue Dragon TCG video game on the DS so at least I can say the conversion was worth it.
...
Dang, David. You are truly the resident Master of Press Release Scorn.
I don’t even show you people everything David scorns. This was just kind of the “David Scorns PR” Play of the Week.
Anyway, let’s take a look at What We’re Reading:
--Joy Kim
What I’m Watching:
—Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, v1: Decent so far. It’s nice to hear the songs that are being talked about in the original manga.
—Kanon, v1: I got through one episode before I decided that I couldn’t tolerate the moe.
—The Place Promised in Our Early Days: 90-minute OVA, directed by Makoto Shinkai. The plot has some fuzzy logic, but the animation is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Period.
What I’m Reading:
—Mushi-Shi, v1: Very enjoyable so far—though that’s no surprise to me, as I’ve seen some of the very faithful anime adaptation.
--David Rasmussen
What I’m Playing Right Now for Review:
--Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 (PSP)
AT LAST! I never thought I’d see the day this sequel wouild finally release, and here it is!! If you played the original PSP version (or are a long term fan of the franchise like I am) then out of the box you’ll be able to start racking up wins without a doubt. On the bright side this is an improved version of the original including online gameplay (I have to try that out ASAP and spin it against online opponents ASAP). Lots of new improvements to the game making it look slicker and improved!
--Ysabet MacFarlane
What I’m reading, other than things to review:
--The main thing has been that I’ve finally gone back and started reading Cardcaptor Sakura (five volumes down, and now I play the library’s waiting game for the sixth one). My reaction so far is that it’s too young and cute for me, and it’s very disconcerting seeing these versions of Sakura and Syaoran after reading TRC for so long. But cute, yes. So very cute.
--Other than that, I’m still reading through some long-running series via the library, which I don’t have strong enough opinions about to write reviews. I’m getting close to the end of Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers, which mostly serves to remind me of how much I enjoyed the first season of the Japanese TV drama—the manga itself does very little for me.
...
As for us, this week Barb read Dark Horse’s MAIL v2 and v3, and read Viz’s HUNTER X HUNTER, halfway through volume 9, so far... more on these soon, probably...
I read:
--Kaput & Zösky by Lewis Trondheim (It’s France’s answer to D.R. and Quinch)
--FullMetal Alchemist Vol. 5 (the special no-action volume)
--DrMaster’s JUNK v6 (A high school student gets a government-made suit to test that gives him super-powers... the woman sent to keep an eye on him decides to start sleeping with him. Why is the SECOND part so much more interesting than the FIRST part?)
--and I’m about halfway through enjoying The wildlife of Star Wars : a field guide by Terryl Whitlatch (Reminds me of the old book AFTER MAN, a guide to how Earth species might evolve millions of years after we’re gone).
Let’s finish up with a report from the Nibleys:
Athena and Alethea Nibley
--What we’re reading:
----Together:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Comic Anthology (Japanese) – thumbs up
Negima (English) – still neutral
----Alethea:
Hoshi wa Utau v.2 (Japanese) – thumbs way way up
VB Rose v.2 (Japanese) – thumbs up
The Three Musketeers (English) – thumbs up
----Athena:
Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time v.12 (Japanese) – thumbs up
The Count of Monte Cristo (English) – thumbs up
--What we’re watching:
B’t X v.1 – if I had to pick, I think it would be thumbs down, but we’re still interested in seeing more.
Kaleido Star v.1 – thumbs up
Tower of Druaga episode 11 – thumbs up
--What we’re playing:
Fushigi Yuugi: Suzaku Ibun (Japanese, PS2) – thumbs up
Incidentally, things we worked on that came out really recently:
--+ANIMA vol.8: One of our favorite volumes of one of our favorite titles, about our favorite character! This one is the one that confirms/denies all the crazy theories we came up with about Husky throughout the series!
--Saiyuki Reload vol.8: June is a good month for us—a lot of our favorite titles are coming out. This one doesn’t have quite the awesomeness of volume 7, but really, it’s hard to beat volume 7.
--Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition 3 (covering normal volumes 5 and 6): We didn’t know they were doing this until we saw volume 1 in stores, and we didn’t examine it, so technically we don’t know if we worked on this one, but it seems silly for them to re-translate everything. It’s a great way for people who haven’t read Fruits Basket yet to get caught up!
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1 July 2009
Words of Truth and Wisdom: Notes 23 June 2009
What I'm Keepin' Track Of: June 23rd, 2009What Ysabet's Reading: June 23, 2009 17 June 2009
Words of Truth and Wisdom: Spelling 10 June 2009
What I’m Keepin’ Track Of: Yen Press, June 10th, 2009
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