The time has finally arrived! One Piece’s anime has finally unveiled the first look at Gear 5 and to celebrate, Fezzy has finally returned to join Suki and Joe to talk all things One Piece in the latest episode of Den Den Murphy.
Tag: Anime
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‘Cowboy Bebop’ Creator Barely Got Thorugh the Opening of Netflix’s Live-Action Adaptation
Cowboy Bebop is a much-beloved anime series for how it bent and twisted our understanding of the genre to fit its neo-noir episodic format. So, when Netflix announced it’ll attempt on bringing it into live-action, there was quite some concern early on. Not only was Netflix’s track record not the best with the controversial release of Death Note, but it also seems like one of those series that just won’t translate well into the media format.
In 2021 we finally got the release of the live-action series starring John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, and Daniella Pineda in the roles of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, and Faye Valentine. It did not catch the attention of viewers as much as Netflix may have hoped and stands at a 47% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though it did get a more positive reception from viewers. Still, it seems not enough to watch it for it was swiftly canceled after teasing a second season.
Interestingly enough, the series creator Shinichiro Watanabe was brought on as a creative consultant had many think that it may stay true to the spirit of the original. Yet, it seems that Watanabe may have had a consulting role but only received some footage to review and barely made it through the opening of the series which was an adaptation of the famous casino scene from the movie.
For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video to review and check. It started with a scene in a casino, which made it very tough for me to continue. I stopped there and so only saw that opening scene. It was clearly not Cowboy Bebop and I realized at that point that if I wasn’t involved, it would not be Cowboy Bebop. I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.
Shinichiro WatanabeThis is quite surprising, as it raises the question of just how far his consulting job went as he states that he “wasn’t involved.” This is quite a curious reveal and stands in quite a contrast to how One Piece is currently being handled. While it’s unclear if this may have been a learning from that project, Eiichiro Oda is also very protective of how his beloved manga series is brought to life.
Multiple times it has been pointed too that Oda has a very heavy involvement with the live-action adaptation with even some hints that they may actively be having him ensure that the spirit of his work remains alive. So, it’s a shame that a similar level of care hasn’t been done with Cowboy Bebop. Though it’s a shame that its talented cast couldn’t continue their work as there was still some potential to utilize this unique world and cast of characters in a new take.
Source: Forbes, Twitter, Rotten Tomatoes
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‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Heading to Netflix Later This Month
Fans of the hit series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba will be able to revisit the iconic series’ second season quite soon, as a new listing on Netflix has it set for a release on January 21st. There are no details on what is included in this second season, as the Mugen Train Arc was available as a standalone film, but was also redone in a seven-episode arc for the series. There’s a chance that they’ll simply include that arc with the Entertainment District Arc, the actual second season of the anime.
Kimetsu no Yaiba was a popular manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotoug, which was first published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in February 2016. The series ran until May 2020 and follows the story follows the journey of a Tanjiro, whose life is changed forever when his family is killed by demons. With his sister infected, he sets out to find a cure and save what is left of his family.
The series saw a massive increase in popularity after the release of its anime adaptation. It offered a beautiful showcase of what animation is capable of, and the colorful cast of characters added a lot to get viewers hooked on its surprisingly dark premise. The series is currently set up for the next season, which will adapt the Swordsmith Village Arc from the manga series.
Source: Netflix via Anime News Network
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Everything You Need To Know Ahead of ‘Tokyo Revengers’ Season 2
Get ready to mark your calendars because the highly anticipated Season 2 of Tokyo Revengers is finally premiering on January 7th as part of the Winter 2023 lineup of new anime releases. As some have been anxiously waiting to find out what happens next in this drama-filled series, here’s a quick recap of the first season and what to look forward to in the next.
What Happened So Far
It feels like an eternity since we last spent time in the world of Ken Wakui’s Tokyo Revengers. Toman and Valhalla now proudly stands at 450 people, with Kisaki hailed as a hero after the events of Bloody Halloween. Takemichi is now the leader of the first division while Chifuyu took over as his second-in-command. Then he travels to the present to learn that Toman has grown even more powerful and influential. However, in this timeline, Mikey has vanished and Draken has been executed with Kisaki left in charge. In the end, Kisaki kills adult Chifuyu and prepares to shoot Takemichi for opposing him for the past 12 years. He confesses to orchestrating Baji’s death and calls him “my hero” before the screen fades to black as a gunshot is the last sound left with the viewers.
What to Expect
The second season of the anime will adapt the “Christmas Showdown” Arc and will introduce a slew of new characters. Yet, there are also some major changes to the previous cast, as Tatsuhisa Suzuki, the original voice actor for Draken, was involved in a big cheating scandal and multiple suicide attempts. As a result, he has been replaced by Masaya Fukunishi. The new cast includes:
- Mikako Komatsu will play Yuzuha Shiba.
- Tomokazu Sugita will play Taiju Shiba.
- Junya Enoki will play Inui Seisyu
- Natsuki Hanae will play Kokonoi Hajime
- Tasuku Hatanaka will play Hakkai Shiba
The next seasons’ new opening called “White Noise” has already been released with the song being performed by Official HiGE DANdism, which you can check out here:
Tokyo Revengers has become a popular series throughout the years and there’s a lot of excitement to see how they bring the second season to life. It’s upcoming release on January 7th will see the series. It’ll be made available on Hulu in the United States and on Star+ in the rest of the world. If you need to catch up, the first season is currently available on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
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End of an Era: ‘Pokémon’ Ends Ash Ketchum’s Journey After 25 Years
Yes, Ash Ketchum has finally reached his goal and will no longer be the main lead of the 25 years ongoing Pokémon animated series. Now, two new characters will take over as the anime enters Paldea and introduces us to a whole new world. It’s crazy to think how long we’ve spent time with Ash and his Pikachu; especially with him still being 10 years old for most of his journey.
Luckily, Ash’s journey isn’t just randomly over but rather gets a final run with the new special episodes Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series. We get one last journey with our iconic duo before the new team takes over. Sarah Natochenny has voiced the character since 2006 and it originally began all the way back in 1997.
It truly is the end of an era to not see Ash as part of the series and might be the perfect time for a new generaiton to check it out. The new designs of the main characters do include some staples from Ash, such as the logo from his cap being used as a clip. We might still have to wait a bit before we see the new characters in action and perhaps the farewell series might even hint at where Ash would return in a future episode.
Perhaps he’ll become a gym leader or teacher so that he can pass on his experiences to a new generation. He may not be leading the series anymore, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still be a part of it moving forward. It’ll be weird not to have Pikachu as a main member of the Pokémon roster either given he’s the series mascot. So, perhaps he finds himself in that same role soon again.
Source: Twitter
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Live-Action ‘My Hero Academia’ Adaptation a Go at Netflix
Netflix and Legendary Entertainment are partnering to adapt the incredibly popular manga property, My Hero Academia, into a live-action film. The project, which is being written by Obi-Wan Kenobi scribe Joby Harlold, will be directed Shinsuke Sato.
Legendary acquired the rights to produce a live-action version of the property in 2018 and have been searching for a partner since and Sato has been on board all along. The popularity of My Hero Academia has been growing rapidly and in 2019, Kohei Horikoshi, who has written and illustrated the manga, won a Harvey Award for his work.
Though the project has been in development, THR reports there is no cast in place at present.
Source: THR
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‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ Director to Tackle Bad Robots’ ‘Your Name’ Remake
It looks like the upcoming remake of Your Name, based on the animated film by the director Makoto Shinkai, is moving forward with Blindspotting and Raya and the Last Dragon director Carlos López Estrada set to tackle the project for Paramount, Toho, and Bad Robot. He is not only tackled to direct the remake but also to rewrite the current script, which was helmed by Eric Heisserer known for his work on Arrival and Bird Box.
J.J. Abrams is producing the film alongside Genki Kawamura, who worked on the original adaptation, Hannah Minghella and Jon Cohen. The original Your Name made $230M in Japan alone and was quite the international hit, which led to the interest in adapting the romance story. Estrada is currently working on an animated documentary and also Disney’s live-action adaptation of Robin Hood.
The remake will follow two teenagers swapping bodies as a disastrous event could change their lives in many ways. Distribution in Japan will be by Toho with Paramount taking the rest of the world. No casting has been done as of yet, as they are still in the middle of the rewriting phase and with Estrada busy for the coming years, it’s unclear how long we’ll have to wait to see the film release in theaters.
Source: Variety
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‘One Piece Film: RED’ Becomes Franchise’s Highest-Grossing Film in Just 10 Days
Now that’s quite the record. It seems that One Piece Film: RED has already become the highest-grossing film in its cinematic counterpart within just 10 days. Eiichiro Oda‘s iconic manga is no stranger to releasing films and it seems that the return of Shanks has led to the latest entry overtaking One Piece Film Z‘s position in a record time.
The film’s official Twitter has shared that it already passed 5 million tickets sold and earned around 7 billion yen, which is equivalent to $52.9M. to put that in perspective, Z managed to pull in 6.87M during its run back in 2012. There is speculation that the film’s use of music and topping worldwide charts helped boost the film’s popularity. It’s also not available in all international markets, which will also add to its growth and we’ll see just how big the franchise with a live-action adaptation on the way from Netflix and Tomorrow Studios.
Of course, there’s also the fact that this sees the return of fan-favorite Shanks in a much bigger role than he’s probably had throughout the entire series’ 25-year run. The announcement of One Piece entering its final saga definitely also shook some fans to their core given just how long it has been going. Perhaps the timing was perfect. As of now, the film is likely going to make around 15 billion yen, which would be ahead of Jujutsu Kaisen 0‘s run but it does seem unlikely it’ll pass Demon Slayer: Mugen Train.
Source: Crunchyroll
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RUMOR: ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ May Be Heading to Disney+
Disney has been quite busy trying to continue building its streaming platform. They invested quite a bit when they purchased all of 20th Century Fox to make use of its library, building upon it as one of the biggest competitors to join the market and producing original productions for Marvel, Star Wars, and more. Now, they have started embracing their international audiences with original Korean dramas and even trying to venture into anime, such as Star Wars Visions. If a new rumor is anything to believe, they may have seen the opportunity in building their anime offerings.
Known leaker @SugoiLITE has taken to Twitter to share that the upcoming continuation of the Bleach anime might be getting a new home. Supposedly, Disney has acquired the streaming license for Disney+ as the show is about to get its revival to tell the final saga from the manga, Thousand-Year Blood War. We have to keep in mind that there is no official confirmation and we’ll have to take it with a grain of salt.
https://twitter.com/SugoiLITE/status/1558106191146143745
There is still something interesting if this does turn out to be true. Disney+ has been trying to become a strong competitor with Netflix. Disney’s three streaming service totaled even managed to surpass Netflix’s subscriber count and while the numbers are slowing down, as to be expected with more competitors entering the market, it’s still seeing growth. Disney has recently upped the price with a new ad-supported model added in, which is likely to shake up things moving forward but we’re entering the cost-covering era for these streaming ventures. We’ll see if this potentially pays off for the streaming service.
Source: Twitter
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SDCC: Production I.G. Will Produce Keanu Reeves’ ‘BRZRKR’ Anime For 2 Seasons at Netflix
All eyes may be set on John Wick: Chapter 4, but Keanu Reeves has an entirely different project he’d like his fans to focus on. The actor made a surprise appearance at San Diego Comic-Con to discuss the future of BRZRKR, a brand new franchise co-created by Reeves and writer Matt Kindt. Debuting as a Boom! Studios comic book series in 2021, the story follows an immortal warrior named Berzerker as he battles his way through time. After centuries of honing his skills as a killer, B spends the modern age working as a government agent and attempting to find a way to end his unnaturally long life. The titular hero is illustrated in Reeves’ likeness, and the Hollywood icon has big plans for the character’s future.
It was announced last year that Netflix would produce a live-action film adaptation of the comic with Reeves in the lead role and Project Power’s Mattson Tomlin helming the script. At the time, it was said an anime series would act as the streaming service’s follow-up to the movie, but no further information was given. Now, Boom! Studios has revealed that the anime will be produced through Japanese company Production I.G., best known for their acclaimed work on Ghost in the Shell and Eden of the East. It was also confirmed that the anime will last only two seasons, planned ahead as a contained story as opposed to an ongoing epic. If that wasn’t enough, Reeves closed his panel with a final reveal that Random House will be publishing a BRZRKR novel from an unnamed New York Times bestselling author. The identity of the author is being kept under wraps for now.
Source: IGN
