Brian Ashcraft

One Piece Editor Accidentally Clicked On Pirated Manga Site, Says Publisher

To mark One Piece reaching 1,000 chapters, there was YouTube live-stream earlier this week with the staff at the Weekly Jump offices. The editor of One Piece showed his smartphone screen. On it, viewers could see his browsing history. Oh dear. Most of it was rather pedestrian—Yahoo! Japan, One Piece sites, etc.—but one entry was for a…

New Evangelion Film Delayed Once Again Due To Covid-19

In a move that should surprise no one, anime studio Khara has delayed the upcoming Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. Again. Fans have been waiting for the new Evangelion for years. In 2016, creator Hideaki Anno apologized for the hold-up after working on Shin Godzilla. Then, the movie was penciled in for June 2020…

Animator Inspired By Daigo Vs. Justin Wong Street Fighter Match

One of the most famous moments in esports history is the Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike semifinal match from 2004. With only a pixel of health left, Daigo Umehara parried a slew of attacks from Justin Wong before mounting an incredible comeback. The fight will never cease to be remarkable. Professional animator Alain Vu, who…

Universal Studios Japan Delays Super Nintendo World Again Due To Covid-19

Super Nintendo World, the Mario and friends themed area at Universal Studios Japan, was scheduled to open next month on February 4. However, due to the state of emergency declared in Osaka, it will not. This is not the first time the park was delayed. It was originally slated for a summer 2020 opening, but…

From Pokémon To Studio Ghibli, Here Are Excellent Snow Sculptures

In the Northern hemisphere it’s cold! Some places are seeing snow, which might mean snowball fights and snowmen. For one Twitter user in Japan, the freezing precipitation means excellent sculptures. Each winter, Twitter user Mokomoko_2015 turns into a yuki daruma shokunin (雪だるま職人) or “snowman artisan.” The creations are typically anime, game, and movie-themed. Check out…

Evangelion Is Teaming Up With Anna Sui For Fashion Items In Japan

Over the years, Evangelion has done all sorts of collaborations, but its latest with fashion designer Anna Sui is one of the more interesting. The brand is releasing a handful of items for Japan, including t-shirts, bags, wallets, hand towels, and more—12 items in all. Anna Sui’s style really suits the look of Evangelion, don’t you think?…

Last Fall’s Cyberattack On Capcom Compromised Personal Info On Over 16,000 People

Last November, Capcom suffered a cyberattack. As previously reported, the group claiming responsibility for the attack said they downloaded around 1TB of data, containing things like employee’s visa records, customer bank details, and internal Capcom information. At that time, Capcom confirmed that the personal information of nine people had been compromised in the attack. Today,…

Fans Surprised By New CG Anime Show’s Quality

Cyberpunk manga Ex-Arm is getting a TV anime adaptation this month. The show, which is a CG anime, was originally slated for release last summer but got pushed back due to the pandemic. When the Ex-Arm trailer first debuted, fans were not complimentary. “The anime is about bad CGI vs bad CGI,” wrote one YouTube…

View from Ebisu Tower, 2016. Tokyo, Japan. By Patrick Lehrmann | Flickr

It’s Almost Like Akira Predicted Covid-19’s Impact On The Olympics

Akira certainly did predict the 2020 Tokyo Olympics 19 years ahead. The manga—created by Katsuhiko Otomo (above)—and ensuing anime are set against the backdrop of the impending 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It also appears that one panel in the manga refers to measures for combating a contagious disease. As pointed out on the popular Japanese gaming…

The winter Wonder Festival, the biannual garage kit model event held in Tokyo, has been canceled. The event was supposed to be held on February 7, but was nixed due since a state of emergency has been declared because of covid-19.

Eiichiro Oda On Reaching 1,000 Chapters In One Piece

Back in July 1997, Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump. Now, twenty years later, it has become the biggest-selling manga series ever. Last summer, it was announced that One Piece was entering its final arc, which should take four or five years to wrap up, and this month the manga reached…

Koei Tecmo Filing Charges Over Dead Or Alive Nude Mod

Koei Tecmo announced it’s filing charges with Kanagawa police against a suspect for allegedly selling an unlicensed DVD filled with naked Dead or Alive characters. According to the game maker, the suspect allegedly recorded footage of characters from Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation that had been illicitly modded. The footage was compiled onto a DVD…

New Slam Dunk Anime Movie Announced

The iconic basketball manga Slam Dunk is getting a new feature animated film. Creator Takehiko Inoue made the movie announcement via Twitter. As Famitsu points out, Toei Animation’s press release clarified that this is a new animated movie, and thus not a live-action one. The manga first debuted in 1990 and spawned a popular Toei-produced anime…

Sony Stops Nearly All PlayStation 4 Shipments For Japan Except Standard PS4 Slim

Now that the PlayStation 5 is out, Sony is turning its attention to its new console. In Japan, that means almost all its attention, leaving only the standard slim Jet Black 500GB PlayStation 4 as part of the old-gen line-up. As IT Media and Game Watch Impress report, Sony ceased manufacturing of the PlayStation 4…

McDonald’s China Has A Spam and Oreos Burger, It Seems

Goodness. In what sounds like a dare, McDonald’s China is offering a Spam burger with crumbled cookies. As pointed out by Daniel Ahmad on Twitter, the burger will go on sale in China starting December 21 and will apparently be limited to 400,000 Spam Oreo sandwiches Do note that the fine print does mention the…

Watch The First Episode Of Mamoru Oshii’s New Anime Right Here

Mamoru Oshii is famous for influential anime feature films like Patlabor 2: The Movie and Ghost in the Shell. Prior to that, he made a name for himself directing the Urusei Yatsura TV series in the early 1980s. He’s now returned to TV anime with Vlad Love Created by Oshii and co-directed with long-time collaborator…

Track: Late Evening In Jersey (from Heat) | Artist: Brian Eno | Album: Film Music: Crime Pays

Cyberpunk 2077 Comes To Death Stranding On PC, Bringing Items And New Missions

Given how Hideo Kojima appears in Cyberpunk 2077 as an NPC, it should be no surprise that the world of CD Projekt Red’s sci-fi yarn is coming to Death Stranding in a just-released update. The new, free patch for Death Stranding’s PC version brings a number of unlockable items, including: • Cyberpunk 2077 themed Reverse…

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Director Leaves Capcom

Daisuke Ichihara, who helmed the successful Monster Hunter World expansion, has left Osaka-based game maker Capcom. As of this September, 6.6 million copies of Iceborne have been sold worldwide, surpassing Street Fighter II on the NES and making it Capcom’s sixth-biggest seller ever. Previously, Ichihara directed Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate. He had worked in the…