Dude.

They are cute girls who walk around with no pants on.

… and oh yeah, they have animal ears and fluffy tails when they go flying. Some of them are even cat girls!

Do I really need to say any more about it?

* * *

The Good: Everything.

The Bad: Nothing.

Final Verdict: Strike Witches is the best show ever made.

Review copy provided by FUNimation Entertainment.

UPDATE: Read my real review here.

This was originally going to be part of my Katsucon report, but I feel that there is enough content here that it deserves its own post.  I’m going to have many unfavorable things to say about this convention in tomorrow’s post, but the truth is that my weekend actually started off on a positive note as I attended a panel for voice actor Greg Ayres.

My long time readers probably remember the controversial interview I did with him two years ago over the issue of fansubs. I approached Ayres before his panel last weekend, and much to my surprise, he remembered me very well. We actually got into a very friendly, and somewhat gossipy, conversation prior to the panel. Then I sat with the rest of the audience to hear his interesting story.

And this time, it really had nothing to do with fansubs.

Almost exactly one year ago, Ayres, then a hardcore smoker, was rushed to a local Texas hospital after he began feeling chest pains during the Ikkicon convention. Ayres commended the quick thinking of the con staff to allow him to be taken away on a stretcher without attracting the notice of the convention’s audience.

A short time later as he was in his hospital bed, he suffered a mild heart attack.

The amazing thing is that as Ayres was describing this near death experience, the Katsucon audience were laughing along with him. In fact, they were laughing a lot. The actor was actually working with the audience in making his heart attack a funny and entertaining story! He described how his doctors and nurses quickly discovered his celebrity within the anime community when they Google’d him as he was undergoing treatment.

“Well, according to your Wikipedia page,” his doctor informed him, “You died of a heart attack last night.”

But the jokes came to a brief end as Ayres described how the experimental medications he was put on drove him to a deep depression for the following months. He felt suicidal, ill tempered, and even made a McDonald’s cashier cry when he lashed out, “what the fuck did you do to my burger?”

After realizing the side effects of his prescriptions were probably doing more harm than good, he sought out the second opinion of a new doctor, who quickly took him off the experimental drug.

Ayres immediately felt in higher spirits, and is now far more optimistic about his  condition and situation. He was forced to give up smoking, and has found the change to be far more beneficial to his health and voice acting ability. He now claims that he can achieve his unique voice of Negi Springfield of the Negima! series with much less prep time than he did as a smoker.

But he did say that the experience did change his outlook on his career and the anime industry in general, and he wasn’t afraid of speaking out against certain companies and certain individuals.

He was highly critical of an unnamed anime news publication, who Ayres described as “the Enquirer of the anime world,” for the way they handled his heart attack story. The publication was one of the first to report on the news of the heart attack, but they had removed it when Ayres’s family requested privacy. However, the media outlet then threatened to repost the article within a few days if the Ayres didn’t comply with an official statement himself.

Ayres was surprised that the anime media was so insistent in reporting his story and threatening his family to publicly address the issue. He pointed out that in the same week, Japanese studio Gonzo had undergone a major restructuring and was forced to lay off 100 members of its staff. “So what was more important to the anime world that week,” Ayres rhetorically asks the Katsucon audience, “Gonzo’s massive layoffs or some smoker who had a heart attack?”

He also had some words of warning to anime fans wishing to get into voice acting. He felt that some of his colleagues in the industry were taking advantage of these fans by offering up classes and instruction manuals for an excessive fee. He urges his fans to not pay these voice actors any money as they are highly unlikely to get you into the anime business.

During the Q&A section of the panel, the fans did inquire his take on the industry in the past year. He was very sad to see one of his largest employers, ADV Films, going under, but he was very optimistic about the future of Section23. He was particularly excited to see the former ADV dubbing studio now working on the Halo Legends project. But still, he’s disappointed that he’ll never get to see the ADV stamp appear on DVD cases ever again.

And as far as his fansub lectures go, he got tired of all the fighting and arguments that resulted from his talks. “I mean, what other industries have to deal with this kind of arguing?” he asks. “Take alcohol for instance. I will never have to fight to save the alcohol industry because their customers will always be paying for that product. I will never have to tell anyone to stop downloading vodka.”

But he did say that he’s planning to restart the fansub panels in the near future, but he’s going to go about it differently. Rather than reminding the audience of the negative consequences of piracy, he’s going to focus on the positive aspects of legal, online alternatives. He also highly commended FUNimation’s recent ventures into online streaming, and for “making free profitable again.” He hopes to have his new panel ready for Anime Boston this spring.

So I was very glad to see that after two years and one near death experience, Greg Ayres hasn’t lost his edge one bit. If you ever have the chance to see him speak, you really should because it’s quite thought provoking. He knows how to make his audience listen with shocking, controversial, and brutally honest stories. But at the same time, he also manages to keep it all amusing and entertaining. After all, he is the kind of man who’s able to make them all laugh about as something as serious as a heart attack.

* * *

UPDATE: When I had originally posted this report: I made the following accusation following Greg’s statement on an anime news source covering his story:

[Writer's note: Although Ayres did not name any publications in particular, I remember that Anime News Network had pulled the heart attack story shortly after initially reporting the event, and then reposted it a few days later with his official statement.]

In defense of my accusation, ANN’s Zac Bertschy denies giving Ayres such an ultimatum, and maintains that Ayres and ANN has maintained good relations since then.

I still stand by my original accusation because the story just doesn’t make sense if he was dealing with a smaller news site.

But it if was me, I would have never pulled the story in the first place. Ayres’s heart attack was the biggest news that weekend, and it did everyone a disservice for ignoring it as if it never happened.

Now, the word “new” can most certainly mean different things in the world of anime fandom these days. There are the new series that are coming out in Japan each season, and then there are the new series that are just being imported in America this year. So just for clarification on why Series X doesn’t appear on this list this year, let me outline the three ways I consider a series to be “new” in 2009:

1) Anime series had to have had its first volume released on R1 DVD in 2009. (no continuing series or re-releases)

2) Anime series had to have its first episode legally available online for American viewers in 2009 (no fansubs)

3) Anime film had to have had a nation-wide American theatrical release in 2009. (no festival screenings)

Now it’s obvious that one company dominates the list this year. It is not just because of my own personal bias, there is certainly a logical reason for this. FUNimation is monopolizing the anime industry here in America, so most of the new releases this year have been from them. Five out of my top ten are FUNi titles, which is consistent with the top ten lists put together from Chris Beveridge (5 out of 10) and Amazon.com (4 out of 10) this year.

But enough talk and disclaimers, let’s get to the list!

10) Kanamemo (Crunchyroll, July 5, 2009) Kana Nakamichi is a young girl who loses her house after her only family member, her grandmother, passes away. So she goes out in search of a job to support herself when she discovers a newspaper delivery office staffed and housed by a colorful cast of young females. The timid Kana takes a job at the office and begins working and living with these crazy girls. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a huge fan of moé series, but because of this, I’m the first to tell you that most of them are just pure crap. But when one moé series comes around that turns out to be really good, I have to take special note of it. Kanamemo is one such series. What makes this one stand out so well is just how lovable every character is. Every one of them has such a bold and wild personality, and the clashes they present when they interact with each other are so damn funny and amusing. Be it diving into seriously inappropriate territory or spontaneously breaking into silly musical numbers, this little gem of a series continues to entertain its viewers episode after episode.

9) Bamboo Blade (FUNimation, November 24, 2009) Toraji Ishida is a bad high school kendo instructor with practically no money in his bank account. One day he is shooting the breeze with an old pal of his, and they issue a challenge to each other. Since they both went on to become high school kendo instructors, why don’t they relive their days of competitive glory with their two teams going at it? If Toraji’s team wins, he gets a lifetime supply of sushi, which would be the perfect solution to his little financial crisis. So he sets off to recruit a team of new freshmen to revitalize the club and win that precious all-you-can-eat sushi prize. Among his finds is Tamaki Kawazoe, a soft-spoken shy girl who is a phenomenal kendo player. Now with this star fighter on his team, does Toraji finally have a competent kendo lineup? On the outside, Bamboo Blade looks like your typical moé fluff anime series, complete with a harem of highly characterize pretty girls, a weak female lead, and silly comedic antics. But when I had the chance to review it last month, I discovered that this is actually a wonderfully written series that mixed interesting character relations with the excitement of competitive sports. Read my complete review of volume 1.

8) To Love-Ru (“Trouble”) (Section23, December 15, 2009) Rito is your typical high school boy who has a huge crush on his cute classmate, Haruna. But just around the time he is finally ready to confess his love to her, a big breasted alien babe, Lala, appears out of no where completely buck naked. She turns out to be an alien princess, and by Rito accidentally groping her bountiful bosoms,  he is now betrothed to her. And so hilarity ensues as the boy must keep his alien fiancee at bay while still trying to get with his human crush. I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a huge fan of ecchi series, but because of this, I’m the first to tell you that most of them are just pure crap. But when one ecchi series comes around that turns out to be really good, I have to take special note of it. Trouble is one such series. (See what I did there?) What makes Trouble stand out so much is just how damn sexy it is. There are a lot of female characters, and every one of them is very attractive and appealing in an unique way. But unlike most ecchi series, Trouble also has more than just its eye candy to keep the show moving. While it dives heavy into cliches quite often, it is actually very funny. Its excellent comedic timing will actually keep you laughing despite its corny setup. Now, I do take issue with Section23’s choice to name the series To Love-Ru, which seals its fate that no English speaker will ever say the name of this series correctly. The title is actually called Trouble, but it is spelled using English words that would be pronounced differently to a Japanese speaker (“To Love”  is meant to sound like “toe rub”, i.e. the “troub-” in “trouble”). It’s a pure visual pun and they always write the proper pronunciation in Japanese to make sure everyone knows how to pronounce the title correctly. But alas, Section23 never writes the proper title anywhere in the English release. So shame on you, Section23, for making us all sound stupid trying to say this title.

No Thank You! (biggest disappointment of the year) Ponyo (Disney, August 14, 2009) Ponyo tells the story of five-year-old Sosuke, a little boy who lives on a cliff near the sea. One day while he’s playing near the ocean, he spots a goldfish with her head stuck in a mason jar. So he frees the fish from the jar, puts her in a green bucket full of water, and keeps her as a pet. He names her Ponyo. The movie absolutely starts off strong with some beautiful imagery with Ponyo as a fish, but after she turns into a human, all the excitement is washed away and the audience is left with about 30 more minutes of plot developments that make no logical sense. When the film alludes to the potential of something remotely exciting or climatic just around the corner, it quickly crushes that hope by showing that, in fact, everyone is just standing around doing nothing. This final act is as bland and dull as unflavored oatmeal. Ponyo completely misses its mark on whatever it was trying to aim for. I think that critics let Miyazaki off the hook way too easily because it would simply be blasphemous to ever say anything bad about him. But don’t let that name in the credit fool you.  Ponyo is not a good Miyazaki animated film. Hell, it’s not even as good as most American animated films. And I just really hope the old man finally retires after turning out this, his second stinker in a row. Read my full review.

7) Baccano! (FUNimation, January 27, 2009) Man, how do you summarize this series? Set in a depression-era America, Baccano is a series of individual stories and individual characters that somehow end up intersecting and interacting with each other. This includes stories of mafia wars, psycho assassins, and of course, immortal alchemists. Two things really got me with Baccano, and the first was its style. This is probably going to be the closest we get to a Guy Ritchie style of action flick in anime. A lot of emphasis is placed on the music and fashion of the era, and the story is told in bits and pieces and completely out-of-order.  While the series could have probably done better if it had cut out half of its cast, it was certainly very interesting to watch. The second part that got to me was the dubbing. Through out the year, I really started to appreciate anime dub adaptations as they are quickly becoming a lost art form in the industry these days. But with a story set in America during the great depression, the English voice actors over at FUNimation got to play around with some amazing accents that really spoke at a level that no Japanese cast could ever pull off.

6) Eureka Seven – good night sleep tight young lovers - (Bandai Entertainment, September 24, 2009) As a kid, Renton was separated from childhood friend Eureka after a military squad barged into their house and abducted the girl right in front of his eyes. The boy grows up to become a mech pilot and joins the Gekko military crew. But the Gekko crew is not at all what they appear to be, and their ulterior motives will reunite the boy with his long lost love, and thrust the two into immediate danger. What I really enjoyed about this film was that it was not simply a movie adaptation of the anime series. It was a completely new and original story using the same characters in a completely new environment. This way, new viewers weren’t missing anything by not seeing the TV show beforehand, and fans of the series got a chance to see their favorite characters portrayed in a whole new light. But another part I enjoyed was how quickly Bandai released this movie in the US. The film very explicitly says that it begins in April 2009. The director did this on purpose so that when the film debuted in Japan in April 2009, theatergoers would say, “Wait, April 2009? That’s right now!” Although Bandai screened the film screened in America five months later in September 2009, we got to have the same experience the Japanese did when we found out the sci-fi film begins in the present day.

5) Big Windup! (FUNimation, August 18, 2009) Mihashi is a spineless wimp of a high school baseball pitcher who nervously joins his new school’s hardball team. When the new school’s spunky female baseball coach spots him lingering around the practice field, she forces the reluctant boy to throw a few balls to their team’s catcher, Takaya. The catcher quickly realizes that Mihashi isn’t a bad pitcher at all, he’s just been misguided and underestimated by his former teammates. Now with Takaya’s brilliant game play strategy and Mihashi’s dormant pitching ability, the brand new Nishiura high school baseball team is on their way to greatness in this fantastic 26-episode sports anime series. For me, the core of this series is in its portrayal of the game of baseball. The level of detail is so incredible that you’ll actually feel like you’re watching a real baseball game during these few episodes. You’ll start keeping track of the inning, the count, the batting order, and the score in your head as each episode progresses. This is a fantastic way to draw in fans of the sport and keep them interested in this fictional story. Read my full review of volume 1.

4) Mainichi Kaasan (“Everyday Mama”) (Crunchyroll, April 1, 2009) Everyday Mama is the autobiographical anime series about manga artist Rieko Saibara and her family. Her (late) husband is an alcoholic deadbeat. Her son, Bunji, is a hyperactive 6-year-old, and her 4-year-old daughter, Fumi, already knows how to use her cuteness to get what she wants. The series takes a humorous look at how Saibara juggles her professional career with being a full-time mother to this dysfunctional family. What is amazing about this series is that since this gag comedy is based on Saibara’s real life family, it feels authentic and familiar to the viewer. This humor manages to translate flawlessly into English as apparently parenting and child rearing is just as difficult in Japan as it is over here. But on top of that level of familiarity, Saibara also manages to create a series that has you rolling on the floor one second, then crying your eyes out the next.  Although her husband and kids can be a real pain-in-the-ass most of the time, her love for these characters in her real life shows through in each episode with many sentimental, bittersweet moments. It is a very personal project from one manga artist that still manages to be one of the funniest series out there.

Honorable Mention (not quite anime, but needs to be on this list) 20th Century Boys Live Action Movies (VIZ Media, December 15, 2009) In 1969, Kenji and a group of his friends build a little clubhouse in the middle of a field. Out of boredom, the boys write the “Book of Prophecies”, a sci-fi scripture on how they become super-heroes who protect the world from an evil organization in the year 2000. Nearly 30 years later, the now adult Kenji begins noticing that everything they wrote in that “Book of Prophecies” was starting to come true. So sets up an epic saga as Kenji reconnects with his old friends to figure out what they wrote in that book 30 years ago, and just which one of them is trying to make it a reality. And when I say epic, I mean epic! The original comic ran for 24 volumes in Japan, and each one of the live-action trilogy films lasts for nearly 2.5 hours. Of the parts that I can compare to what I read in the manga, I saw the most perfect live-action adaptation possible. The actors they selected were dead-on perfect doppelgangers to their fictional counterparts, especially in the more “cartoonie” looking characters. All the costumes and props matched the original artwork, and many of the scenes were shot like the comic panel-by-panel, frame-by-frame. I named 20th Century Boys my #1 Manga Release of 2009 several weeks back. While we may never see an anime adaptation of this series made in the future, I feel quite satisfied with the way it was brought to life in these three films. Read my full review of the first two films.

3) Romeo x Juliet (FUNimation, June 23, 2009) Romeo x Juliet takes the old Shakespearean classic about the star-crossed lovers and sets it into a world more appropriate to anime. The entire house of Capulet has been slain by Lord Montague, and the sole survivor is young Juliet. The poor girl is kept hidden away disguised as an orphaned boy her whole life. When she grows older, she spends her days as a masked crime fighter protecting the streets of Neo Verona, when she finally meets the dashing Romeo and his flying horse. Yes, Romeo has a flying horse, just like in the original play by Shakespeare. ;-) First and foremost, I must talk about the unique dub that FUNimation created. Almost every line from start to finish in this series is so brilliantly thought out to recreate the feeling of watching a Shakespearean-inspired story. Even little subtleties like having Juliet yell, “Never you mind!” when she’s mad rather than simply saying, “nevermind!” brings this ambitious idea to full realization. From the perspective of an English-speaking anime viewer, I think this is the first time I have ever felt the dialogue actually matter while watching an anime show. The art of language just doesn’t translate from Japanese to English, so FUNimation took it upon themselves to adapt life and creativity back into this script. And as ridiculous as it may sound to have Juliet as a caped crusader or Romeo to have a flying horse in an adaptation of the classic play, I’ve really got to give the folks at Gonzo credit where credit is due - They wrote one fantastic story! Gonzo kept the best aspects of the original story, and that is the tragic beauty of the two falling for each other despite being destined to be enemies. But on top of that premise, they made the two characters absolutely believable. Through the emotions they display on their animated faces and the actions they take within the story, you believe that these cartoon characters are actually in love with each other. Read my full review of volume 1.

2) Chi’s Sweet Home: Chi’s New Address (Crunchyroll, April 15, 2009) Fed up with having to hide their cute and curious kitten Chi from their landlord, Yohei and his family move into a new, pet-friendly apartment complex. Now Chi is able to wonder around and play with the dog, cat, rabbit, and bird that live next door to her, and also make friends with stray cats in the area. But after her curiosity leads her far, far from home, how will the little kitty find her way back to her new address? Broken up into little 3-minute episodes, Chi’s Sweet Home was the highlight of my week for most of 2009. Every Saturday (“Chi’s Sweet Saturday”, as I’d like to put it) at 1:00 pm EDT, Crunchyroll would post four new episodes on their website. If I was home, I’d be there watching the streaming video as soon as it turned 1 o’clock. If I wasn’t home, it would be the first thing I do when I got home that night. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so devoted to a series like this. So what makes Chi so good? Well, it’s adorable. D’uh! Just look at any frame from this anime and tell me it is not the cutest thing you have ever seen! You would have to have a heart of coal not to fall in love with this kitty. But besides for all the cute, artist Konami Konata manages to perfectly capture the fun and excitement that comes with being a pet owner. Cat lovers across the world can easily identify with Chi’s silly antics, and it will keep you laughing, smiling, and saying, “awww!” with each and every tiny episode.

1) Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone (FUNimation, November 17, 2009) An event known as “Second Impact” changed the world when a massive explosion in the arctic melted the polar ice caps and flooded over Japan. Fifteen years later, Tokyo-3 has rebuilt itself as a retractable underground city, and a whole new generation of kids has been born and raised in the post-Second Impact era. Then one random day, a giant monster appears and moves his way towards the city. The Japanese military are useless against stopping the approaching Angel, so they call on the government agency NERV to take care of the monster. NERV commander Gendo Ikari enlists his estranged 14-year-old son, Shinji, to pilot the giant bio-mechanical robot known as Evangelion. And so suddenly thrust into battle, we begin the epic story of a timid and reluctant teenager who suddenly becomes mankind’s final hope against the Angels and Third Impact. … but really, do I need to explain the plot to you? Are you the only otaku in the world who has not seen Eva before? The 1995 anime TV series was a landmark achievement that turned the giant robot genre into a psychological trip that dove deep into the human condition. It blew my mind when I first saw it eight years ago, and it still goes down as my favorite anime series of all time. Director Hideki Anno set out to create a brand new remake of his anime masterpiece over the course of four theatrical films. Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone is the first of these films, and it retells the first six episodes of the TV show. While the film does not diverge too far from the original just yet at this stage of the series, it still offers enough visual enhancements to make this fanboy nearly blow his load while watching it. Every scene has been completely redrawn with digital animation and enhanced with 3D computer generated images. The character designs look fresh and revitalized, the animation flows very smoothly, and the background images are lush with colors and crisp details. It is remarkable how most of the iconic scenes that we have been familiar with from the TV series will look completely different with 15 years worth of technological advances. Evangelion 1.01 is everything you remember from the best anime show of the 90’s redone with glorious modern animation technology. It is the ultimate visual feast for any Eva fanboy, and so it earns its place as my #1 Anime Release of 2009. Read my full review.

So because I do keep a very close eye on everything that goes on in the anime and manga business in America, here is my annual list of the ten companies I feel made the biggest difference for the industry and for the fans out there in 2009.

10) Tokyopop

Tokyopop was noticeably absent from my list last year, but that is because they really hit a rough spot in 2008 and had to go off the grid for a good part of that year. But we saw them gradually recover in 2009 and really try to clear up all the loose ends that were left with their sudden departure. Series that went on “indefinite hiatus” now started to come out again, and the paper quality on their books began to improve as well. The company also started holding panels again at anime conventions and have even starting holding online “webinars” for the fans.

They’ve been doing a great job rebounding in 2009, and I look forward to an even stronger presence in 2010.

9) Del Rey Manga

Frankly, Del Rey should have been higher on the list. Following the fall of Tokyopop, they became the second largest manga publisher in America. But honestly, they haven’t done much in the past year. They released only two notable titles in 2009, Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei and Moyasimon, and did a fairly remarkable thing with the release of a shojo-infused X-Men series that was also generally liked by critics.

But other than that, it has been pretty bland. Hopefully they make stronger presence in the new year.

8) CMX Manga

CMX was actually my #11 pick last year, so they just missed the cut-off. But in 2009, I started to review all their new releases, and because of this, I was exposed to the one part of their company where they truely shined, their shojo division!

They put out some really good shojo series in 2009. I probably would have never picked them up on the store shelves, but as I was reviewing their products, I found myself enjoying mostly all of them. In fact, three of them ended up on my Top Ten of 2009 list last week.

CMX has had one of the best track records of putting out quality manga series in 2009, and I’m looking forward to checking out all their new releases in 2010.

7) Bandai Entertainment

Now, I often give Bandai a hard time, and I’ve been predicting their eventual demise for quite a long time now. But the truth is that I really like these guys, so whenever they do something that I find interesting, I tend to praise them to the high heavens.

This year, they won me over with marketing blitz of Kannagi. They teased the title for months ahead of time, and then for Otakon weekend, the unleashed the title at full force. This was such an insane marketing ploy completely unprecedented in the industry, and I loved every minute of it.

6) Right Stuf / Nozomi Entertainment

Right Stuf / Nozomi are far from being the largest or most influential company in the business, but my God, do they have a huge fan following!

Whenever they have a sale or special deal going on in their retail store, Twitter and various message boards begin buzzing. When they license a title, they do so knowing that there is a hardcore niche audience there begging for the title to be released in America. And they appeal to those hardcore fans by offering to print their names in the packaging and releasing limited edition lithograph prints for them to buy.

Right Stuf / Nozomi is the finest example of solid company-to-fan relations in this industry, and all the others should look at what they are doing in this respect.

5) Vertical Publishing

When Ed Chavez saw that Vertical made it onto my list at #10 last year, he said something along the lines of, “That’s great, but I’d really like to see us much higher on the list next year.” At the time I thought he was crazy, because Vertical’s ultra-niche and reclusive approach to the market wasn’t really impressing a lot of regular manga readers back then.

But in the course of the year, Mr. Chavez completely turned around the company’s manga division and announced that they would be releasing such highly anticipated series like Chi’s Sweet Home and Peepo Choo beginning in 2010. Not only has this made the company jump half way up my list this year, but I’m predicting that Vertical will become one the most talked about manga publishers in the new year.

4) Yen Press

Frankly, Yen Press’ placement on the list can be summed up in three words:

They saved Yotsuba!

Yotsuba&! is one of the best manga series to hit the US market, and it was a shame that it was in limbo for two years as ADV fell apart. When Yen Press rescued the license at the New York Comic Con in February, they made a whole lot of American manga readers really happy.

But even besides Yotsuba, Yen Press still continues to be doing amazing things like putting out their monthly anthology Yen Plus Magazine and releasing the light novels to fan favorite franchises like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Spice and Wolf. And on the business side, they have been making smart decisions by creating original manga adaptations of their parent company’s top selling novel franchises, Maximum Ride, Gossip Girl, and the Twilight saga.

No matter how crazy or unconventional these schemes seem to be, Kurt Hassler continues to run this company the only way he sees fit. And because of these risky-yet-successful ventures, they have continued to impress me  year after year.

3) VIZ Media

Yes, remember VIZ Media? They’re still around, and they’re still the largest manga company and second largest anime company in America. And even though their public relations and brand marketing obviously still needs a lot of work, they have made massive changes to the manga market in 2009.

VIZ presented the first ever manga “simulcast” in America in 2009. They began releasing weekly installments of Rumiko Takahashi’s latest comic Rin-Ne on the internet the the same day the chapter came out in Japan. They also started their first online manga periodical IKKI in 2009, and released a lot of critically acclaimed series through that medium as well.

I really believe the manga industry will be going digital in the next year, and I really commend VIZ for taking some initiative in this movement.

2) Crunchyroll

I named Crunchyroll the worst company of 2008, yet they somehow managed to become the second best company of 2009. What brought about this massive shift? Well, in the first week of 2009, the video streaming service that was orginally designed to hold illegal fansubs went 100% legit.

2009 was the Year of the Simulcast, and Crunchyroll was the company that coined the term. They began with a handful of series in winter including the highly popular Naruto series. From there, they bumped it up to a dozen series simulcasted in spring, and by the time the fall season started, over 50% of every new series airing in Japan was legally streaming on Crunchyroll.

This was a game changer. Crunchyroll shifted the entire anime industry in one year, and thankfully, they did it 100% legal and legit.

1) FUNimation

Okay, is it really a surprise that I name FUNimation the #1 company for the second year in a row? I mean, come on, I freaking love these guys.

But it is not just me. FUNimation went from having 30% market share in 2008 to over 50% in 2009! They dominate over half of the entire US market. As other companies continue to fall by the wayside, FUNi emerges as the only game left in town. They are clearly doing something right.

So let me just recap why they remained awesome in 2009.

2009 was the year that FUNimation dived into social media and social marketing. They began a Twitter account, Facebook fan page, and of course, a very funny blog which they update daily. They have directly engaged the fan community through these avenues by answering questions, sending out surveys, and running spontaneous contests for fans to win free stuff.

Heck, even I managed to win a Twitter contest from them back in February. (^_^)

And on the digital front, we saw FUNi massively expand their online video streaming service as they have been gradually putting up their entire catalog online for free. They have also been simulcasting the highly popular Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and One Piece series using this avenue. While this simulcast did end up biting them in the butt when videos began leaking prior to their Japanese broadcast, FUNi eventually pulled through to become more stable and secure.

While they may be coming close to monopolizing the American market at this point, they haven’t shown any signs of abusing that power. Unlike most other companies, FUNimation continues to be very open and honest with the fan community. Unlike most other companies, FUNimation continues to innovate within the medium and experiment with new technologies. That is why FUNimation is my #1 Company of 2009.

This year, I’m giving each category (manga, anime, and companies) its own special post. Along with listing the top ten new entries, I will also pick out one “No Thank You” title, a series that will probably show up on other critics lists, but I will purposely point out that it is not included on mine. Likewise, I’ll also pick one “Honorable Mention” selection, a series that is not necessarily manga or anime, but I feel really should be included on this “Best of” list.

The criteria for manga is simple – the first volume of a series had to have been released in the US at some point in 2009. This means no re-releases are included (sorry, Yotsuba&!) and neither are continuing series (sorry, With the Light).

My 2009 manga list is going to look a little different from my 2008 list. Since I started doing manga reviews this year, I got exposed to a lot of series that I probably would have never picked up on my own. I don’t think I would have normally included a shojo title, but CMX Manga has released a number a good ones this year, and I included two of them on this list.

There is also no doubt that 2009 belonged to just one manga artist who blew away all the critics this year, and I am no exception. But more on that as we get closer to the #1 spot… Let’s get this thing started!

10) Ballad of the Shinigami (CMX Manga, June 9, 2009) This manga adaptation of the light novel follows Momo, the cutest little shinigami (a “God of Death” or grim reaper) that you have ever seen. It is not so much of a serialized series as it is a collection of short stories that Momo watches in the shadows as the human drama plays out in front of her in the world of the living. What really got to me about this series was the way that artist Asuka Izumi managed to always get me with a surprised ending to each of the four stories included in this first volume. Even though I was not particularly into the story as I was reading on, by the time I came to the end of each chapter, I thought to myself, “Wow, I like that. I really liked that!” Read my full review of volume 1

9) Pig Bride (Yen Press, April 21, 2009) Rich boy Si-Joon made a promise as a little boy to wed Mu-Yeon, a mysterious little girl he encounters deep in the forest. Mu-Yeon is said to be cursed with a spell that turns her ugly, so she is forced to wear a pig mask to cover his face. The only way to break the spell is for her to marry Si-Joon, which the two children do. Writing the encounter and marriage as nothing more than a dream, the boy is surprised on his 16th birthday when his bride returns, pig mask and all. Now he has to keep the magical girl a secret while still maintaining a public face as the most popular boy of his high school. This Korean comic was the highlight of reading Yen Plus magazine for me every month. An absolutely charming and hilarious fairy tale subtlety introduced me to an Asian culture and folklore that we rarely see by just reading Japanese comics. I also loved the pretty character designs, and I can’t wait to see that mask come off of the pig bride because I’m sure she will end up being the cutest of the bunch.

8) Deka Kyoshi (CMX Manga, November 17, 2009) Detective Toyama is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of an elementary school teacher. He goes undercover as a teacher himself and fills in for the victim’s class of fifth grade students. He quickly discovers Makoto, a strange boy who seems to be an outcast and bullied by his classmates. But it turns out that the reason why Makoto is so strange is because he has a special gift. He is able to look at people and see all their stresses and worries manifest into hideous demons and monsters. So with the help of the kind undercover detective, the two work together to fix the problems that plague these early adolescent students. I really got to give manga artist credit Tomio Baba for being able to recapture the retro look and feel of shonen manga from the 80’s in this modern comic. And with the nice looking art comes a simple and sweet story that tackles the hardships of early adolescence. Every chapter focuses on one 5th grader in particular who is suffering from some problem not too far from the problems that children face in real life. Not being afraid to tackle these tough issues is what earns Kyoshi a spot on this list this year. Read my full review of volume 1.

No Thank You! (biggest disappointment of the year) Detroit Metal City (VIZ Media, June 9, 2009) Soichi wants nothing more than to be the best squeaky clean folk singer to ever come from Japan. Well, the good news is that he does get a career in music, but the bad news is that it is as the front man of Detroit Metal City, a hardcore heavy metal band. Instead of singing acoustic songs about ponies and sunshine, he’s wearing KISS-inspired make-up and singing songs about rape, murder, and more rape. You get it? He’s really a nice guy off stage, but when he’s on stage, he’s a brutal metal head. And that’s all that Detroit Metal City is. That one joke repeated again and again and again. There is no variety, there’s no development, nothing changes! One joke is repeated ad nauseam,  and it gets very old very quickly. I have no idea why everyone raves about DMC because this series blows.

7) A Drifting Life (Drawn and Quarterly, April 14, 2009) Clocking in at 840 pages, A Drifting Life is a massive autobiography that details the life of pioneering manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. We get to see how he got into manga as a child by entering contests, how he met his hero Osamu Tezuka, how he got his first gigs in the industry, and finally, how he took part in revolutionizing the manga industry in the 1950’s. While the comic is not necessarily the easiest or most entertaining comic to read, you have to admire the scope of this ambitious project. Tatsumi put his heart into these 800+ pages chronicling his life, and it is really worth checking out if you’re really into manga.

6) The Lizard Prince (CMX Manga, December 1, 2009) Canary is a young princess who has been betrothed to Heath, the prince of a nearby kingdom. But Heath is a real jerk, and he has no desire to wed the girl. So he conjures up a plan to mess with the girl’s head. Heath has a pet talking lizard. With a little bit of magic, he switches bodies with the reptile and then forces his pet to go on a date with the girl in his place. But it turns out that the lizard was quite the gentlemen, and Canary ends up falling head over heels for him on their first date. The prince is royally pissed that his mean plan did not work out, so he decides to take matters into his own hands and expose the princess to what was really happening. How will Canary react when she finds out her true love was really a lizard? Yes, this is the second series from Asuka Izumi that makes it onto my list this year, and it is because she got me once again with those surprise endings.  The first chapter ends with such a twist that it changes the tone of the rest of the comic, and I highly recommend avoiding any plot summary or the description on the back of the book as it will spoil it for you. On top of that, this comic is adorable, especially with the character of the lizard. Izumi draws him as a very simple cartoonish figure that looks more like a worm than a lizard. This ends up contrasting the traditional shojo look of all the other characters in a fun and humorous way. Add on his kind and sweet personality, and you can’t help but to also be charmed by the lizard prince.. Read my full review of volume 1

5) Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi (Tokyopop, June 2, 2009) After learning all he can about martial arts from his father, the 17-year-old Yoichi moves from his secluded mountain village to study at the Ikaruga family dojo in the big city. But Yoichi has more to worry about than just getting used to high school and big city life – it turns out that Ikaruga family consists of four rather attractive young girls. How will this naive country bumpkin deal with these unruly females? This is probably not going to show up on most other “best of” lists this year, and those critics probably got turned off by the English title alone. But don’t judge this book by it’s cover, Samurai Harem is actually one of the funniest comics I read this year. It takes all the best elements of Love Hina and School Rumble, and then combines them together with perfect comedic timing and just the right amount of fan service. The harem genre very rarely has good material, but this is one title that hits on every level it is going for.

4) Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu (Last Gasp, September 1, 2009) Pelu is not a dog. He is not a cat. He’s a puffy creature from an alien planet who lives with a carnivorous space hippo and a ton of beautiful naked women. After Pelu’s sister gives birth to a baby, he learns about how babies are born on this alien planet and how he, as a puff ball, is unable to have one. But Pelu longs for a baby and will not accept this predicament. So he runs away to the planet Earth in search of an ideal mate. And what follows is a series of short episodes as Pelu pursues one screwed up Earth woman after another. If you are familiar with artist Junko Mizuno, you know exactly what to expect going into this book. Her combination of sugar-coated pop art portraying extreme sex and violence is so distinct and powerful. It is a shocking and seriously f@#$ed up place to explore, and it is most certainly not suitable for every manga fan. But if you’re into that sort of thing, then Mizuno is the pinnacle of manga guilty pleasures, and I am pleased to report that she delivers her magic once again in Pelu. Read my complete review of volume 1

Honorable Mention (not quite manga, but needs to be on this list) Sayonara, Mr. Fatty! (Vertical, July 14, 2009) Yeah, this is not really manga, but this is the only book that actually changed my life in 2009. Gainax founder Toshio “Otaking” Okada was a 5′7” Japanese man who weighed 260 pounds. Fed up with being fat all his life, he finally found a diet plan that worked for him. Over the course of a year, the Otaking was able to lose 110 pounds to finally have a normal weight for his body type. He wrote this book and described his diet plan in 5 simple steps. By the time I got around to reading Fatty last summer, I was six foot tall and 243 pounds. I decided to give his diet plan a chance, and I ended up slimming down to 216 after only three months, losing 27 pounds. I’m proud to say that I’ve lost another 10 pounds since posting my review, and I’m getting closer each day to being a healthy, normal weight. I can completely cite this book as being the catalyst for this major change in my life.

3) Pluto (VIZ Media, February 17, 2009) When Mont-Blanc, one of the world’s most beloved robotic heroes, is suddenly found destroyed and dismembered, robotic detective Gesicht begins his investigation on a series of “murders” involving both robots and humans. But his investigation takes an unexpected turn when he begins to suspect a robot as the perpetrator of this crime. Since robot law states that “no robot shall do harm to humans”, just how dangerous could this rogue bot be and how safe is Gesicht himself from being the next victim? After VIZ released the final volume of Monster in December 2008, the self-imposed embargo on Urasawa’s other manga series was lifted and the floodgates opened for him to dominate the manga scene in 2009. And did he ever! Pluto is Urasawa’s remake of a series of episodes in the classic Tezuka series Astro Boy.  What makes it so brilliant is the vivid sci-fi world created when Urasawa takes on Tezuka taking on Isaac Asimov. You get the best ideals and philosophies from all three writers blended into one imaginative and very exciting story. On top of that, you have Urasawa’s remarkable manga style. He creates so much life and emotion into his cartoon characters that even the robots feel like the most realistic people ever drawn on paper. And not to give away any spoilers, but the third volume contains such an unconventional manga technique that I was left speechless when I reached it. Bravo, Mr. Urasawa. Bravo.

2) Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei (Del Rey, February 24, 2009) To call high school teacher Nozomu Itoshiki a “pessimist” would be an understatement. The guy is the embodiment of despair and sorrow, and we begin this series with his attempted suicide on a cherry blossom tree. His plan is foiled when Kafuka Fuura, his student and the bubbly embodiment of optimism and joy, discovers him and convinces him to stay alive. From that point on, we are gradually introduced to Itoshiki’s classroom full of student with highly exaggerated personalities and hang-ups. There’s the shut in, the OCD chick, the internet flamer, the illegal immigrant, the stalker, and of course, the completely normal girl with nothing unusual about her. What makes this series place so high on the list is just how smart, sophisticated, and concise the humor is in this work of Japanese satire, especially for a shonen series. For example, one chapter focuses on Commodore Perry, the real-life historical American who “opened” the ports and trade route between Japan and the west. But when Perry enters Itoshiki’s classroom, he goes around opening everything – books, lockers, the swimming pool, and the plastic seal on girlie magazines. But of course, whenever you open the plastic seal on those girlie mags, you’ll always be disappointed with what’s inside. So maybe it’s best that you don’t open that, just like how you shouldn’t open Pandora’s box, email with virus attachments, or the door to your parent’s bedroom. It is creative play on words like that mixed in with biting pop culture and social commentary that speaks much deeper than any other manga out there, and thus involves much larger “laugh out loud” moments while reading it. And although Del Rey gets a little sloppy in their English adaptation around the third volume, they do an amiable job on the first two volumes.

1) 20th Century Boys (VIZ Media, February 17, 2009) In 1969, Kenji and a group of his friends build a little clubhouse in the middle of a field. Out of boredom, the boys write the “Book of Prophecies”, a sci-fi scripture on how they become super-heroes who protect the world from an evil organization in the year 2000. Nearly 30 years later, the now adult Kenji begins noticing that everything they wrote in that “Book of Prophecies” was starting to come true. So sets up an epic saga as Kenji reconnects with his old friends to figure out what they wrote in that book 30 years ago, and just which one of them is trying to make it a reality. I admit, 20th Century Boys and Pluto were neck and neck all year as to which Urasawa series would take the top spot on my list. After reading the first five volumes of both series, and seeing the first two movie adaptations of one, I decided that Boys is the better of the two. Like Pluto, 20th Century Boys has a creative sci-fi setting front by a cast of interesting characters. But the one element that sends it over that final hurdle is just the huge scope of this mystery spanning over three timeframes, the past (1969), the present (2000, the time of the manga’s publication), and the future (2015). In order to answer questions in one time and setting, you have to explore the others. This creates an amazing new dynamic to mystery storytelling that is just as exciting as it is unpredictable. 20th Century Boys will eventually consist of 24 volumes, but it will never get stale. You will be fully immersed into this epic adventure, and you will be begging to read more with each page that VIZ puts outs. That is why this is the best new manga release of 2009.

But first, let’s take a look at all the things I predicted for 2009 and what actually happened.

2009 in Review

Prediction: If [Bandai] can finally work out the licensing issues with their Japanese overlords and bring new content to the internet ASAP, then they could potentially change everything. However, if they continue to shy away from the ‘net, then I predict that BEI will be gone within a few months into 2009.

Result: 2009 was not a good year for Bandai. On January 21st, the company laid off a good part of their 19-member staff. It has been downhill from there, as they were forced to cancel dubbing on shows like Hayate the Combat Butler and delayed the release of almost all of their titles in the 2nd half of the year.

But Bandai did show some creativity this year and FINALLY started embracing the internet. They pulled off the first simultaneous dubbing of a show when Kurokami aired on Japanese, Korean, and American TV with in hours of each other and in that country’s native language. Eighteen weeks in, the simulcast began streaming on YouTube and Crunchyroll. And then they did that crazy Kannagi thing Otakon weekend.

Prediction: ADV will make big promises, but unless they find some magical new way to turn a profit on their current titles, don’t expect for them to meet any of those expectations at all.

Result: ADV did some crazy ass things this year when they sold off their assets to fake companies and changed their name to Section23. But despite this sleazy move, I have to give them credit for following through on their promises in 2009.

ADV/Sentai/Section23/Whatever the hell they’re called found a new niche doing what Media Blasters have been doing for years – licensing low-rate titles that have enough T&A to plaster on the cover, do minimum production work on it, and then sell to that very small niche looking for anime with a lot of T&A on the cover. And that has been working, so good on ‘em.

Prediction: The stars of 2009 will be the Japanese themselves following Gonzo’s lead and releasing new series globally online. […] I can easily see a dozen new Japanese series being available globally like this for the summer season of 2009.

Result: 2009 was when the simulcast exploded. We reached over a dozen during the spring season, and over 50% of every new show that aired in Japan during the fall season was simulcast on Crunchyroll. Remind you, there were only two or three simulcasts going by this point last year, so I totally nailed this one. ;-)

Prediction: I don’t see any current series making a big splash in America if or when they see an American release. All the top titles will be coming fresh out of Japan next year, and hopefully they will all be available legally.

Result: I guess Ponyo was the only big American release among the otaku community, but that might be a special exception since it’s Miyazaki and all. However, the biggest titles of the year were, without a doubt, K-on and the second season of Haruhi. K-on was not simulcast, but Kodakawa actually did put a number of those Haruhi episodes on Youtube.

Prediction: Tokyopop’s money struggles will finally start to disappear and they’ll gradually return back to normal, albeit a little more cautious about their spending. They will be returning to the convention scene with the NYCC this February, and I expect them to remain in the public spotlight all the way until the New York Anime Fest next fall.

Result: I wasn’t too far off with this. Tokyopop has been recovering in 2009, but they’ve been doing it much slower than I was expecting. They went back to holding panels at the major anime conventions and they have even began to hold online seminars with the fans.

They are not shying away anymore, but they still do not have the spotlight they used to have in the industry, and they did not run any convention booths this year. But then again, that probably falls under the “a little more cautious about their spending” part of the prediction.

Prediction: Don’t expect [Kodansha USA] to release any new title under their label until 2010.

Result: I’m gonna cheat with this one and say that it came true due to semantics. “Kodansha Comics” debuted in November by re-releasing two titles that were previously released in America by Dark Horse Comics. They made practically no changes to what had already been release, and thus, they released no “new” titles in 2009.

Prediction: Unfortunately, the only manga casualty I see for the next year was my #1 new release this year, Yen Plus magazine.

Result: I am happy to report that I got this prediction wrong. Yen Plus magazine is still around and still going strong! (^_^)

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Predictions for 2010

1) The Death of DVD

2010 will be the year that the industry drastically cuts back on DVD and moves on to digital distribution as their main method of releasing anime. And by the industry, I mean the only anime company actually left in it, FUNimation.

In 2009, FUNimation released all of their series on DVD with a dub track included. This will stop happening in 2010 as FUNi begins to only release their top-selling titles on DVD and Blu-ray with dubs. All niche and low-quality series will only be available online with subtitles only. I would be really surprised if My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto no Hanayome) makes it on to DVD.

2) Bandai Entertainment Disbands, Assets Go to FUNimation

I’m amazed that Bandai-Namco in Japan still keeps around their American anime division after the past year has been so brutal to them. Their situation is never going to get better, and BEI holds too many huge titles to go without an American release. So Bandai-Namco will disband BEI and give FUNimation the best parts of their catalog. Among these acquisitions will be Haruhi Suzumiya, and FUNi will release the complete set with new “second season” episodes included.

3) Shodojo.com Overtakes Crunchyroll

FUNi’s been taking their sweet time developing their own social network, and that hard work will pay off in the next year. They have been stabilizing their video streaming service for the past year, and they worked out all the security and bandwidth issues that emerged from it.

So when Shodojo is finally released, it will utilize that tested video service while bringing on board the massive fan following and brand loyalty the company has gained through out the years. Combine this with the trust that the Japanese studios have given FUNimation from years of DVD distribution, and you will see the Japanese give much more exclusivity to the R1 company over the small start-up that began as a piracy hub. That is how Shodojo will overtake Crunchyroll in this digital space.

4) Over 90% of the Fall Season will be Simulcast Online

Now, I can never say that every series will be available legally online by the end of the year because there will be one or two series that will go completely ignored. However, mostly every new anime series, especially the popular ones, will be. We will not see something with the hype level of K-on go without one, the Japanese studios will consider it a requirement for every new series by the fall season.

5) Manga Industry Embraces E-Reading Devices

We saw a number of manga companies release OEL and original comics on the Amazon Kindle in 2009. However, with the release of the Nook from Barnes & Noble and the rumored Apple Tablet expected to be announced in January, there is going to be a legitimate e-reader market in 2010, and manga companies will get all up on that.

Expect Viz Media to lead the charge by putting their Ikki magazine and Rin-ne digital release on these wireless e-readers. Also look for a Japanese manga publisher to cut out the American partner and sell their titles directly to the American market this way.

6) Vertical Becomes a Big Player in the Manga Industry

Just like how Yen Press came out of nowhere in 2008, Vertical will emerge as one of the most talked about publishers in 2010. Their new marketing director, Ed Chavez, is making some major changes with in that company, and that is going to pay off with a lot of buzz.

His first manga acquisitions, including the highly anticipated Chi’s Sweet Home and Peepo Choo, will hit store shelves during the summer, and that momentum will continue to grow from that point on. Keep an eye of these guys because they are about to get pretty popular.

7) Twilight and Scott Pilgrim Will Draw New Fans to Manga

Love it, hate it, or love to hate it, when Yen Press decided to adapt the Twilight franchise into a manga series drawn by a Korean artist, they practically found a way to print money. A huge amount of teenage girls will be picking up this comic, and this will be their gateway into discovering more shojo manga series with pretty boys and vampires.

Likewise, when the wacky Scott Pilgrim movie adaptation comes out next year, a lot of young geeky Americans will make their way to the manga sections of the local Borders for the first time to pick up the original graphic novel. They will discover other awesome manga series while there.

Every Wednesday this month, I will be posting a new list recapping the best anime, manga, and companies of the year, plus I’ll come out with a new set of industry predictions for 2010. This week, I’ll kick it off with my ten favorite articles posted this year.

Interviewing artist Uruma of UrumaDelvi.

The Anime Almanac went through a major change this year. When my “industry going digital” editorials began losing the impact they once had in 2008, I started feeling a serious case of writer’s block and went weeks without posting anything. At that point, I had gained a substantial following on Twitter, including some PR reps from some major anime and manga companies. They asked if I was interested in reviewing their new releases on my blog, and I gladly accepted their offer.

So half way through the year, I switched over to writing mostly reviews of new anime and manga releases. I increased my posting frequency from once a week to around 2-3 times per week. The blog gained a larger readership with the change, but I had to cut back on my editorial content because of it.

So while I had a much smaller list of posts to chose from this year as opposed to last year, there are still some good ones in this mix. I began interviewing more artists and industry folks at conventions, and dived a lot deeper into the Japanese music scene.

So here are my favorite editorials, interviews, and features from the past year with the background of why they mean so much to me.

10) Interview: How Vertical Owned NYAF

Ed Chavez is one of the most interesting people I’ve met in the manga world, but listening to him talk can either be a blessing or a curse. His mind goes off on a million different tangents, and it is unpredictable on where the conversation will go.

So when I was prepping to interview him at the NYAF over Vertical’s impressive showing this year, I knew that six simple questions would easily fill an lengthy column. And sure enough, we ended up with 20 minutes of pure conversation and a very interesting take on how Vertical was able to acquire some key titles for next year.

9) An Exclusive Look at “Oblivion Island”

This was the first time I ever got an exclusive screening of an anime that was still relatively unknown in America that point. Fuji TV and Production I.G. were generous enough to invite me to this movie that was just released in Japanese theaters months prior.

Why was I there covering the film? I don’t know. It is not slated for American release any time soon, and that one screening in New York City was intended only for Japanese audiences. But I did love the film, and it was very interesting to deal with the Japanese PR people on making sure the article came out well.

8) Bandai and the Marketing Blitz of Kannagi

Kannagi was the talk of Otakon this year, and Bandai did an amazing job promoting it in this unprecedented move within the American anime industry. 2009 was not kind to Bandai, but for one weekend they were on fire. So I was very enthusiastic to talk to their Marketing Director Robert Napton to find out just how they managed to pull off this impressive stunt.

7) Scott on Scott Pilgrim and the Best OEL Manga Evar!!!

This was an article I wanted to post with an interview with Scott Pilgrim artist Bryan Lee O’Malley himself at the New York Comic Con. The interview never went down, but I decided to write the article anyway.

Much to my surprise, O’Malley actually stumbled upon the article by himself and sent me a private message over Twitter to respond to some of the things I said. While I would have much rather had a one-on-one with him on the topic itself, I was still very happy to know that the man himself got a to chance read what I wrote about him.

6) Becca – An American Rock Girl in Japan

This was actually the worst interview I ever did. I had only 15 minutes to talk to her, so I prepared a short list of concise, hard-hitting questions for the exported rock star. But… all she gave me were simple short answers. So my 15 minute interview was over in 5 minutes, and I left the room bitter with practically nothing to work with.

I sat on it for about a month before I forced myself to type up an article. Once I combined her short quotes with her Wikipedia-provided biography, I manage to come up with a very interesting piece on her. That was the reason why I wanted to interview her, I thought she would have an interesting story to tell. And apparently I could do a much better job telling it than she did.

5) Butt Biting Bugs and the Wacky World of UrumaDelvi

This was the first time I got to interview an artist that I was actually a huge fan of. I have been following the Butt Biting Bug phenomenon for years, so when I heard the team behind it was going to be making a rare American appearance in New York City, I leapt at the chance for a face-to-face talk with them.

Unfortunately, I only got to meet with one member of the team, Uruma, but she was a very pleasant woman and I really enjoyed talk with her. And as you see in the picture above, one of their cartoon characters even blogged about me too!

4) AKB48 – Cute Girls in the City

These 16 members of the peppy girl group were, without a doubt, the biggest celebrities I have ever met and talked to. The whole process was actually kind of annoying, as their management really tried to control how the girls would be perceived by the media with silly and stupid demands that I had to abide by. And even though I was granted three pre-screened questions to ask four of the members, I had to do it in front of a crowd of Japanese TV cameras and photographers.

But still, I’d do it all again in a heart-beat, because that was a pretty cool experience.

3) An Email About Fansubs and Morality

I stayed away from the fansub issue this year after all the headache it caused last year, and this post was my final word on it. It outline exactly what I was going for in lashing out against piracy and what I actually expected of my readers and anime fans in general. And I don’t think it’s a very unreasonable plea, so I hope more of my nay-sayers have had the chance to read this very personal editorial.

2) Dragonball Evolution or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Box Office Bomb

The title alone makes this post a winner for me, and I wrote this whole essay in my head as I was watching the film in the theater. Not only was I able to come out with a very unique take on a very hot topic that week, but it was my chance to combine my passion of anime with another obsession of mine: Hollywood movies.

The result a post that went viral among social network communities, which made it the the most popular post of the whole year.

1) Reni – The Japanese Idol of New York City

If you ever ask me why I do this blog, the answer is to write articles like this one.

I just stumbled across a flyer for this aspiring j-idol at the New York Comic Con, so I decided to check out her show a few weeks later. What I witness was this amazing portrait of American otaku culture when a Japanese girl cosplayed as a bunny girl, and a crowd of New York men gathered to hear her sing anime songs at a small karaoke bar.

Here was this hidden gem that very few people knew about, and I wanted to share it with the rest of the world. So I got in contact with the girl’s manager, we did an interview, and I put together an article written with a unique narrative that I’m still quite proud of.  In fact, I sort of reused a lot of my writing in this essay for my AKB48 feature.

And beyond the one article, the Reni story continued through out the rest of the year. I helped out her management get in contact with people I knew in anime cons, so she went from unknown to now becoming the highlight of the local convention scene. And I even spent a whole day in the summer co-writing her first American single, My Shy Master, with her and her manager in a stuffy NYC apartment.

* * * * *

So even with all the new reviews being posted every week, my goal with the Anime Almanac is to always tell the story that you won’t find on any other anime blog, and I believe that these ten posts really showcase that feeling in the past year. So here’s hoping that 2010 also brings many new opportunities to write about this unique subculture of ours. (^_^)

That is the premise behind the latest anime movie from Production I.G., Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror. As a child, Haruka heard an old Japanese fable of how all the items that have gone unnoticed and forgotten by people eventually get picked up and taken away by nature’s most sneaky creatures, foxes.

Now your typical rebellious teenager, Haruka wonders what ever happened to a mirror given to her by her late mother. She happens upon a Shinto shrine and makes an offering to the gods to return the mirror to her. There she encounters a tiny fox-looking creature named Teo carrying an abandoned toy plane.

While following him, she is suddenly swept away to Oblivion Island, a secret world inhabited by Teo’s people and built entirely out of the objects that humans have long forgotten about. So now she teams up with Teo to explore the island and find her long lost mirror.

The movie was only released in Japanese theaters a few months ago, but Fuji Television was generous enough to invite me to an exclusive screening in New York City last week. What I saw was an absolutely delightful children’s film filled with more imagination, heart, and wonderment than the last two Miyazaki films combined.

Oblivion Island is the first full length film from Production I.G. done completely in 3D computer generated animation. The film’s animation director, Naoyoshi Shiotani, was on hand at the New York screening to offer his take on the making of the studio’s landmark title.

“I was moved to finally see the finished cut,” he tells a sold out theater audience. “There were 200 people involved in this movie and I spent 4 years working with them on it. I put a lot of my thoughts and feelings into this movie.”

While almost every animated film in America is done in 3DCG these days, we very rarely see it done in Japanese anime. However, the difference between Hollywood and Japanese cinema is still evident in this particular medium.

The character designs have that unique “anime” style to them, and the look and feel of the animation resembles more like a video game cut scene than a Pixar or Dreamworks film. This is a little difficult to get used to as a viewer. Human characters like Haruka and her parents give off the look of plastic, lifeless dolls, and their body movements are stiff and unnatural.

But the awkwardness of the CG animation completely fades away the moment that Haruka and Teo go to Oblivion Island. The fictional world is so beautifully rendered with vivid bright colors, and incredible detail has been paid to the buildings comprised completely of old signs and cardboard boxes.

“I wanted this movie colorful,” explains Mr. Shiotani, “because the island is created with things people leave behind. I think there must be a variety of things like that, so that is why I wanted to make the island as colorful as possible.”

But even more impressive than the visuals is the emotional story of how teenage Haruka reconnects with her own childhood by wondering around the island. The turning point comes when she stumbles upon Cotton, her adorable long-forgotten stuffed animal.

“Stuffed animals are usually loved and hugged by people, which means they should be cute or lovable. Cotton was once loved by Haruka.  So, I wanted something very cute and pretty that the audience would fall in love with instantly.”

And we do. Cotton’s reunion with Haruka brings about the same kind of emotional identification and response we had to the “When She Loved Me” flashback montage in Toy Story 2. But unlike Toy Story, Haruka and her cherished doll are able to speak to each other in this magical island, thereby putting into words the type of love that is otherwise implied between a child and their toys.

Needless to say, I fell head over heels for this film, and being a blog about Japanese anime in America, I have to look at how such a film would do in our domestic market.

Unfortunately, the problem that Oblivion Island faces is that it is an anime film made for children. It is a fantastic children’s film, but that would still be a tough sell for the predominately mature American market. In fact, I think the only way you can release a children’s anime film domestically is to attach the name “Miyazaki” to the credits.

And that is a real shame. When I gave Miyazaki’s Ponyo a negative review earlier this summer, the biggest reaction I heard back from the community was, “well, that’s because it’s made for kids, so of course you wouldn’t like it.” But being a children’s film doesn’t mean it has to be a bad film. With its childish blend of fantasy and Japanese traditions, Oblivion Island has shown me just what Miyazaki has been missing since Spirited Away.

This movie is too good to be kept hidden in Japan forever. The New York International Children’s Film Festival takes place every year in the city, and it has been the home to many great anime films in the past. I believe that Oblivion Island is perfect for this festival, and I hope that one party approaches the other to get this movie playing there next year.

Oblivion Island is the best anime film I’ve seen in a long time, and I hope more American fans have the chance to see this heartwarming and delightful 3D story too.

Movie screening and animation director comments courtesy of Fujisankei Communications International and IACE Travel. All images ©2009 FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK/ Production I.G. / DENTSU / PONY CANYON

But my winner of the NYAF this year came completely out of left field. Vertical Publishing has never been a particularly exciting company to watch at these cons. Their focus on classical manga and non-manga Japanese publishing seemed to be disconnected with the convention audience, and I honestly did not consider them part of the same industry as Del Rey or Yen Press.

And then a few months ago, they hired manga expert Ed Chavez as their new marketing director, and immediately things started changing for the small publisher. At the NYAF, we finally got to see what the future of Vertical was going to look like with Chavez on board. They announced four new manga acquisitions, including the experimental Peepo Choo and the highly anticipated Chi’s Sweet Home. This was arguably the most exciting news to come out of that weekend.

To learn more about how Vertical managed to make such an amazing appearance at NYAF this year, I spent some time interviewing the man himself, Ed Chavez:

* * *

We have never had a Vertical panel like that before. We were used to hearing about classical manga, Japanese prose, cookbooks, sudoku, and cute animal craft books, but never so many modern manga titles like this.

Was this the company’s plan when they hired you? Were they aiming to change their manga division?

Yes. That was part of Vertical’s plan way before I started working for them.

I ran into [Vertical's Editorial Director] Ioannis at the Takehiku Inoue event when Kinokunya opened in New York in fall 2007, almost two years ago. I was not with Vertical at the time, I was with CMX. We were talking about Tensai Bakabon, a classic title from the 60’s, and he pulled me aside to tell me, “We’re finally getting close to expanding our manga division, we’re just looking for a core partner in Japan.”

For two years now they’ve been trying to find that partner to grow in the manga market, and unfortunately, we still don’t have one yet. But now that I’m around, we have much better connections to Japanese publishers and we’re able to twist their arms a little better to acquire new titles. That’s what I do, my background and my connections are all in manga.

Have your manga connections to Japanese publishers helped Vertical with acquiring new prose or sudoku titles?

I wouldn’t really say I’ve helped with the sudoku part, because that division sort of runs itself. But when it comes to the prose, yes, strangely enough.

You haven’t seen it yet, but Ioannis and I are preparing to launch a line of Japanese light novels in America, expanding on the success we’ve had with the Guin Saga. I’ve also been helping them in acquiring future criticism and non-fiction books.

I wear a lot of hats. Because I’m willing to experiment a lot and have a decent understanding of the Japanese language, I’m able to help Vertical out in many different areas, not just with their manga. So working with light novels and non-fiction along side the manga is great because it keeps me sane.

Now let’s talk about the new manga announcements. As a personal friend of Felipe Smith, do you know if he was shopping around Peepo Choo to other American publishers or did you approach him first?

As far as I know, they were shopping Peepo Choo around to American publishers.  When I had lunch with him in Japan some time ago, he was telling me that they were trying to get a New York manga publisher to pick it up at that time.

In a recent message posted by Smith on YouTube, he appeared to be a little pessimistic about his work being released in America.

Yeah, and that was only a month ago! [laughs]

Do you think he was expecting Peepo Choo to be released in America at that point?

I think he was expecting it to happen one day, but even as an American artist, it was much easier for him to get work published in Japan than it would be for him to get work published in America. But something like that just doesn’t make sense. It really shouldn’t be that way.

Did his former American publisher Tokyopop enter in the picture at any point, or had that relationship sour for Felipe? His first OEL manga, MBQ, didn’t seem to be marketed well over here.

I really can’t speak about Tokyopop’s policy or how they handled MBQ, but we at Vertical are going to make an effort for Peepo Choo to do well here in America.

We’re taking a lot of risks and resources in importing the title back to America, and we’re confident that it will pay off. We’re also going to try to fly him back to the US to attend the major comic cons and promote himself that way. We’re even going to try to pitch the title to Hollywood on his behalf.

We are serious about this and we are going to put a lot of effort in him. Is that any different than what Tokyopop was offering him? I can’t say. But I hope that he decided to go with us over the other publishers because he trusts us to treat him and his series properly.

I really like the idea of Peepo Choo, and I really think he’s improved as an artist since MBQ. Ioanni feels just as strong about the title as I do. It actually wasn’t on the top of our list for titles to acquire as I was more focused on getting Chi at the time. But Ioannis really pushed for the deal to happen, and we ended up getting both series.

Of all the artist to have emerged from Tokyopop’s OEL division, I felt the two most talented were Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon, Nightschool) and Felipe Smith. He had such a bold style and an amazing voice.

Yeah, and he really has improved so much as an artist since his Tokyopop days, it’s almost shocking. I’m almost curious to see how American fans will react to Peepo Choo when we release it because it so bold and over-the-top. That’s the beauty of it. It’s not a comic, it’s not manga… it’s Peepo Choo!

What were your connections to Chi’s Sweet Home?

When I was in Japan, I did a little work with Morning magazine, the magazine that Chi is published in. I’ve been a fan of the title for a while. Being around Morning, I actually got to meet and spend time with the editor of Chi.

While we were having dinner together, we discussed Chi and how to approach it in the US if it ever were to be released over here. Having that conversation back in Japan some time ago made things a little easier for me later on, but that wasn’t necessarily the final blow.

When we made our presentation of how Vertical would handle the “flipping” of Chi, I made sure that everything was just as we discussed back in Japan. And once the artist, Konami Kanata, saw Vertical’s version, she wasn’t just happy to give it to us, she actually liked it a lot more than she thought she would.

And that’s good because another publisher was trying to license it and they also presented their flipped version to Kanata. But she rejected their version, so I guess we just did it better.

By releasing it in color and flipping it “American” style, you’re obviously not going for the regular manga reader. Who are you aiming this series towards?

Everybody, not just the manga readers. We’re targeting it to the comic book readers, we’re targeting it to the Garfield fan, we’re targeting it to the person who reads Cat Fancy, we’re targeting it to that three-year-old that can’t really read yet, to that three-year-old’s mom, that mom’s grandma… We want everyone to read Chi!

That’s the funny thing about Chi. My girlfriend loves Chi, and she doesn’t read any Japanese. I didn’t even introduce her to Chi because she doesn’t like manga or anime, she finds most of it repulsive.

But she found Chi on the internet because she’s a crafts maker and she saw a lot of people making paper crafts and little toys from the comic. And once she started seeing the cartoon on Crunchyroll, she started hunting down the manga on her own, then she forced me to translate every chapter for her.

That’s the range of Chi. There are people who have never seen the manga before, but they’re still fans of this little kitty. I want to get every single one of them, and I want to make it accessible to every single one of them, so that’s the reason for flipping it.

The color is a bit of a bonus. If you read it in the magazine, it’s in black-and-white, but if you read it in the graphic novel, it’s in color. That’s really just a bonus feature for the fans, so keeping it in the English version is also our little gift to the fans.

I know that hardcore manga fans are not going to be too happy that it’s flipped, so we hope the color makes up for it.

Any plan of expanding the Chi branding with merchandise outside of the book?

I want to. We literally just got the license the other day, so we only have the manga for now. We’d have to go through the whole process again for merchandise.

But we’ll look into it. Our biggest concern first would be what the fees are going to be, because we’ve never done merchandising before. Books are tricky enough to manage with cost and risk of returns. But we’ve never done merchandising, so I don’t know what that means as far as returns and cost of materials.

If we do get the merchandising rights, it’s not going to happen soon. We need to have the capitol to make the toys. But if Chi takes off, it will make it VERY easy for that to happen.

And what was the motivation behind the other two acquisitions, Needle and Twin Spica?

The real motivation behind that was my bosses. As soon as I started to work at Vertical, they said, “We trust that you know your manga, and we don’t think anyone else in the US knows that content as much as you do. You know the big names, the small names, the unknown, the self-published… So since all the big publishers are tied up with other American publishers right now, where can we find a catalog?”

So I had to look at really small publishers, publishers that only release like one or two manga magazines, and indie publishers.

We got Needle and Twin Spica from Media Factory, a publisher that hasn’t really done a lot of business in America outside of light novels and anime. Our Guin Saga manga came from them.

So I basically suggested to our president, “How about Media Factory?” and he said, “Well, we’ve had great relations with them in the past, If you can find good manga titles from them, I’ll try to get the license.”

So I did some research and we kept in communication with Media Factory over in Japan. Because they’re such a small publisher, their books were not easy to find at Kinokunya or Book Off in New York, so they were nice enough to ship us some sample volumes from Japan.

Out of the samples, we found books that were not only charming, but were also in an ideal genre for us. Ioannis and I like sci-fi and fantasy.

We also found books that were technically sound. I have a hard time reading books that don’t have good structure, they rely too much on paneling to convey symbolism and such, and that’s just too confusing for me. But Twin Spica and Needle are pretty straight and to the point. Their story telling is almost refreshing that way.

Also with Needle, you have a good starting point with Hal Clement’s sci-fi novel as the inspiration. The manga artist for that series adapts the story for a modern audience, switches the main character from a guy to a girl, and slightly alters the type of aliens involved.

And Twin Spica is possibly one of the most heartfelt series I’ve read in ages. With Twin Spica and Chi, we think that we’ll get this totally different audience. For the longest time, people have seen Vertical books to be “manly” and more classical and literate. But when they look at Twin Spica and Chi, they’ll think, “Wow, Vertical actually has feelings!”

But that’s what we’re going for. I want people to change their minds about what we are doing at Vertical. I want people to change their minds about what manga is. I want people to change their minds about what Japanese pop culture is.

People aren’t comfortable with change and being challenged, but I am. I’m not going to change that, and I don’t think Vertical is going to change that either. That’s why they’ve had that eclectic and unique catalog for such a long time. And we’re going to continue to do that.

But, we’re mindful of that, and we’re experimenting. For me, Chi is experimenting. For any other manga publisher, it would be an obvious title to acquire. But I think it’s going to be fun. It excites me.

* * *

It excites me too. After their appearance at NYAF, Vertical has quickly shot up on my “Companies to Watch” list. I find every one of these four manga series to be interesting, and I can’t wait to read them when they’re released later next year.

2010 will be Vertical’s year for sure, and with Ed Chavez at the helm, this company is going in a very good direction.

The house lights dim, the stage lights go on, and an announcer blasts, “Are you ready?” to the crowd’s enthusiastic applause.

Then suddenly sixteen girls, with ages ranged from 14 to 21, step onto the stage and begin performing a synchronized song and dance. It is quite a sight to see so many pretty girls occupy one single stage like this. Their opening song, an upbeat number called “Aitaikatta”, greets the crowd with Japanese lyrics that translate to,”We’ve missed you all, we’ve missed you all, we’ve missed you all, yes!”

Sure, the pitch perfect vocals going through the speakers were all prerecorded, but that did not seem to matter to the predominately male audience. Their bouncy choreography got the crowd hyped up and waving their glow sticks to the sugar coated beat of their music. And for extra fan service, their catholic school girl outfits were specially weighted so that their skimpy skirts would flare up with every turn, innocently exposing their black undergarments.

Cute, sexy, cheerful, and pure, the girls of AKB48 are to these nerdish men what the Jonas Brothers are to American teenage girls. But the j-idol phenomena is rarely seen outside of Japan, so for most of these native New York otaku, this was their first time seeing a show like this in person.

And what better idol show to see for your first time than the most popular group in Japan these days?

AKB48 was born out of the “Otaku Boom” fad of 2005 when the book Densha Otoko turned the Japanese media attention towards Tokyo’s electronics and anime district, Akihabara. Producer Yasushi Akimoto sent out an open casting call to start a new idol group for this geeky mecca of Japan.

“I always wanted to be an idol,” 21-year-old member Haruna Kojima recalls. “I just happened to see a poster that was asking for young girls to audition for a new idol group. So I sent them a picture of me from my cell phone, and I got an audition because of that.”

Tens of thousands of girls have since auditioned to be part of the group, but as it stands right now, only 65 girls make up the entire troupe. They take turns as 16-member “teams” in performing at their theater in Tokyo. Over the years, the group has managed to release chart-topping pop music singles and star in their very own weekly TV and radio shows.

They are, without a doubt, a Japanese media sensation. The fact that they were going to the New York Anime Festival drew a lot of foreign press to the Javits Center that weekend. And they played it up perfectly to show their native country how big their American debut was going to be. Even during my private interview with the head members of the group, Japanese photographers constantly shot photos of them and a Japanese TV crew filmed our little Q&A session.

But their fame and attention in Japan has not necessarily reached America yet, and since they’ve only done theme songs to two obscure anime titles, even the New York Anime Festival attendees were mostly unfamiliar with them. But that didn’t make the group feel unwelcome or out-of-place in this foreign land.

“New York is like having all the different parts of Tokyo, like Shibuya and Harujuku, into one concentrated area,” says 18-year-old member Atsuko Maeda. “It all just feels so close together, like we’re in a miniature version of Tokyo.”

In fact, one key member seemed to be completely psyched about attending the Anime Festival itself. Minami Takahashi, age 18 and often considered the leader of AKB48, proudly declared herself a full-on anime fan and otaku.

“I really love anime!” she enthusiastically tells me. “I’m a huge fan of Shonen Jump titles like One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto. So after I found out that we would be performing at an anime convention in America, I asked, ‘Do I really have to be a guest? Can I just buy a badge and attend the convention myself as a fan?’ I want to see everything that’s going on here!”

But there were still worries about performing for the American audience for the first time. “We’re doing most of our songs in Japanese,” says 20-year-old Yuko Oshima. “How will the American fans understand what we’re saying?”

There was most certainly a difference between the American fans and the Japanese fans. But it probably had nothing to do with the language barrier, it was because their Japanese fans were absolutely crazy about them!

Several dozen AKB48 fans from Japan made the international trip with the group in order to see their favorite pop stars make their American debut. They were clearly the loudest of all the attendees. This was the most obvious during their two events that Saturday at the Javits Center, an hour-long Q&A panel and a “Preview Concert” on an open stage located towards the back of the venue.

While tickets to the Webster Hall show were pretty hard to obtain, the Q&A and preview concert were open to anyone attending the festival. So the Japanese fans waited for hours to be in the front row for both events. And as the girls performed the preview show, the Japanese fans drowned out everyone else with all the chants and cheers they would do for their regular shows in Akihabara.

And really, this kind of performance and fan pandering is what the group was made for. Even with the chart topping hits and celebrity-level media attention, AKB48 is still just a theater troupe at its core. They have set up a residency theater in Tokyo, and they perform two shows everyday – a matinee and an evening performance. Their goal is to always put on a huge stage show to please their biggest fans.

So there is far more emphasis on the visual look in their live shows that you are not going to get from just listening to their music. Every song in their 100-minute set at Webster Hall was fully choreographed so that every girl was dancing intensely through out the entire show. They were barely able to speak to the audience in between songs because the choreography left them completely out of breath.

And the costumes they wore also became a huge part of their stage show. After a few songs with all 16 members, the group broke up into smaller sets for a series of “unit” songs with only a handful of girls on stage. For each unit song, a new set of girls came out with completely new outfits. The costumes ranged from 50’s bobby socks to 60’s swinger chick to cute fluffy animals to sexy leather-clad rock babes.

But my favorite costume in the entire show was what they wore for their encore performances. Every one of the sixteen girls came out in a simple gray flannel skirt and the white iconic “I Love NY” t-shirts. It was time for the fans to take out those red handkerchiefs and wave them around with the girls on the stage.

The AKB48 experience at New York Anime Festival was truly unique event that I don’t think I’ve seen before at any anime convention I’ve attended. The interview, the Japanese media, the insane Japanese fans, the choreography, the glow sticks, the costumes, those white t-shirts… they all made a lasting impression on me.

The Akihabara show has been so successful that they established an SKE48 troupe to set up residency in a theater in Nagoya. So with the legendary lights of Broadway only a few blocks away from the Javits Center, how about setting up a j-idol team here in America?

“NYC48,” one of their managers jokingly suggests.

Yeah, NYC48. I would be totally down with that.

-

Webster Hall photos courtesy of AKB48 management, NYAF photo courtesy of Christian Liendo and Fanboy.com.