In the newest issue of Metropolis (a popular magazine intended for foreign audiences in Japan), they are featuring Aoi Sora. Basically, Metropolis claims that the japan industry has gotten a lot better since its Yakuza driven days. Headlined by stars like Aoi Sora, popular AV stars are using AV as a spring board to other ventures such as J-Drama. If you didn’t know, Aoi Sora did that in 2006 in the drama called “Glory Days.”
An excerpt:
“Indeed, Aoi is the first of a new breed, a symbol of the AV industry that was rocked in 2000 by actress Ai Iijima’s tell-all book, Platonic Sex, which revealed the business to be as seedy as everyone had suspected. According to Iijima, AV was awash with girls picked up off the streets, unable to say no to lurid propositions or simply in need of cash. Platonic Sex inspired a change in the industry and propelled Iijima to stardom as a TV commentator, while new, “clean” companies revolutionized the business with no yakuza involvement at all.”
About Sora Aoi
Sora Aoi, also known very well as Sola Aoi is a Japanese AV superstar, very popular in Japan. She does fully hot modelling and media stuff. Her stardome eventually overflowed into a mainstream career for herself.
Sora is often referred to as Japan’s Jenna Jameson, primarily because she’s one of the most popular japanese idol ever. And of course she’s super sexy!
» Birthday: November 11, 1983 (she’s 25 years old currently)
» Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
» Measurements: 90 (G cup)-58-83cm, which is 35-23-33 inches
» Height: 1.55m, (5ft 1in)
» Eye Color: Brown
» Hair Color: Brown
The following chart covers sales from November 17, 2008 to November 22, 2009. No new manga volume of Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys was released in 2009. However over 2.6 million more copies of the suspense manga were still sold on the strength of the ongoing movie trilogy.
Similarly, sales of Riko Miyagi's Mei-chan no Shitsuji manga jumped thanks to the 2009 live-action television drama series. A week after the drama's January premiere, the first seven volumes of the manga entered the weekly top-30 sales chart and almost doubled their sales to date — even though the first volume was released back in November of 2006.
1 One Piece 14,721,241
2 Naruto 6,836,494
3 Bleach 6,471,021
4 Fullmetal Alchemist 4,733,511
5 Gintama 4,733,511
6 Katekyo Hitman Reborn! 3,076,659
7 Mei-chan no Shitsuji 3,076,659
8 Fairy Tail 2,886,942
9 20th Century Boys 2,655,379
10 Saint Young Men (Saint O-nii-san) 2,614,269
Anime News Network
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION is providing two theme songs for the upcoming live-action "Solanin" movie. The film, first announced in April, is an adaptation of Inio Asano's manga of the same name.
The movie stars Aoi Miyazaki (24) as Meiko, an office lady who quits her job, hoping to escape the tedium of her daily life and finally figure out her place in the world. Her long-time boyfriend (Kengo Kora) is a part-timer who belongs to an amateur band, but he too is stuck in life. Meiko tries encouraging him to seriously pursue his music dreams, but things aren't that simple.
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION wrote the main theme "Solanin," based on a song that appears in the original manga. In the movie, Miyazaki performs the song on stage, so she had to undergo guitar and voice training for the role. ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION also wrote the movie's ending theme "Mustang," inspired by the manga.
Takahiro Miki directed the film, which is scheduled to open in April 2010. The supporting cast includes Kenta Kiritani, Sambomaster bassist Yoichi Kondo, Ayumi Ito, ARATA, Kento Nagayama, Sayuri Iwata, Jun Miho, and Kazuo Zaitsu.
tokyograph
Actress Ashina Sei (26) is going to play the lead in "Nanase Futatabi The Movie" that is scheduled to open next June. Konaka Kazuya will take the director’s seat and bring this monumental sci-fi novel of Tsutsui Yasutaka to the big screen. It’s rather a surprise to see this work being turned into a movie, but with Ashina they got an actress who perfectly fits into the role of the young woman who can read the minds of the people around her.
Tsutsui’s "Nanase Futatabi" (Nanase Once More) and "Toki o Kakeru Shōjo" (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) are both considered as masterpieces among sci-fi novels. Nanase Futatabi tells the story of a young woman called Nanase who has the ability to read the thoughts of the people around here. She starts to meet other people with similar abilities and eventually ends up fighting against an organization that tries to hunt down all of those gifted people. There are already 4 doramas who adapted this storyline for the TV, but it’s the first time we get to see it as a movie.
For the producers it’s been a long process to turn this novel into a movie and they almost gave up on this idea. The biggest problem has been to find the right person for the leading role. "We want to stay as faithful to the original as possible." However, after more than 20 years of pursuing the plan to make the movie, they’ve finally found the perfect actress to play the role of Nanase.
Nanase was born with her supernatural abilities and therefore she had to experience a lot of difficulties and distress. Until the end she stays this cool beauty that she is, but not everyone can play such a role. That’s also the reason why all the dorama adaptions so far made her character into a very young and sweet girl, including the most recent one (Fall 2008) with Renbutsu Misako as Nanase.
Now thanks to picky producers we can finally see an adaption that will hopefully stay faithful to the original. Ashina Sei is an actress, but thanks to her other career as a model she adds a lot of style to the role. Her beautiful long black hair fits perfectly and her sad expressions are top-notch. "There is no better Nanase than Ashina."
Tsutsui is satisfied with their choice as well. "Of all the Nanase’s I’ve seen so far, she is the closest to the actual Nanase. When you look at her you can feel strength and dignity, that’s exactly how Nanase should be like." Ashina herself also talked a bit about this difficult role. "Nanase doesn’t think of her power as something special anymore. She doesn’t get surprised or amazed by her abilities, instead she feels like ‘Let’s just do it again…’ . I tried to convey those kind of feelings when playing as Nanase. The movie itself turned out as an absolutely fast-paced and thrilling experience from beginning to end without giving you even a single break to rest."
Let’s see it for ourselves when it opens in 6-7 months from now.
kawaii-joyuu
The manga publisher Yen Press has announced on Friday that it will adapt Cecily von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl series of high school novels into graphic novel form. The novels center around the drama between Blair, Vanessa, and the other girls of an elite New York City private high school. However, Korean artist Baek Hye-Kyung (Bring it On, Happy Spider, Chiro) will be drawing new stories instead of directly adapting the 13 existing novels. Baek's Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only work will appear Yen Press' monthly manga anthology, Yen Plus, starting in the January 2010 issue.
The original novels have been adapted into a live-action television series that is now in its third season on The CW network. According to Yen Press, Baek is already "a huge fan" of von Ziegesar's novels.
Yen Press and another Korean artist, Narae Lee, have been adapting Scott Patterson's Maximum Ride novel series since last year. Another Korean artist, Seung-Hui Kye (Recast), is adapting Patterson's Daniel X science fiction novel series. Both of these novel series have been optioned for film adaptations. Yen Press is publishing Takahiro Arai's Japanese manga adaptation of Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak novels and has revealed plans for Korean artist Young Kim's adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels.
Anime News Network
The Japanese company CoMix Wave Films has announced on Thursday that Jun Awazu, the director of the computer-animated Negadon: The Monster from Mars film, is directing a new CG film called Planzet for a 2010 opening in Japan. The story is set in 2053 when mankind faces a crisis. A teaser trailer will be unveiled on the film's official website in six days.
Like Negadon, Planzet is being created with many homages and nods to the Japanese special-effects films of the 20th century. CoMix Wave produced both Negadon and Planzet as well as the works of anime auteur Makoto Shinkai.
Central Park Media released Negadon in North America.
Anime News Network
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced that 15 animated feature films have qualified for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category for The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's Ponyo anime film is among the submitted features, but not David Bowers and IMAGI's computer-animated adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga.
The 15 submitted features are:
* 9
* Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
* Battle for Terra
* Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
* Coraline
* Disney's A Christmas Carol
* Fantastic Mr. Fox
* Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
* Mary and Max
* The Missing Lynx
* Monsters vs. Aliens
* Planet 51
* Ponyo
* The Princess and the Frog
* Up
The HFPA had announced that there will be five nominees for the Best Animated Feature category for the first time in the 67-year history of the awards. The nominees will be announced on December 15, and the awards will be presented on January 17. Members of the HFPA had voted to expand the number of nominations from the previous maximum of three to five, if 12 or more qualified films were submitted for consideration.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that a record 20 films, including Ponyo and Astro Boy, were submitted for possible Oscar nominations in the Best Animated Feature category of the 82nd Academy Awards. The Annie Awards' nominations were already announced, including two for Miyazaki and his Ponyo composer Joe Hisaishi, and two for Astro Boy's storyboards and script.
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