Learn Japanese with our free Japanese lessons in podcast format. We use examples from anime and everyday conversation to teach you Japanese that is useful for everyday life. Hitomi-sensei is from Tokyo and will teach you to speak with the most common Japanese accent. If you are watching an anime now and want to know more about a word or phrase you have heard, post a comment or send us an email.
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このアニメ「めぐみ」は、昭和５２年、当時中学１年生だった横田めぐみさんが、学校からの帰宅途中に北朝鮮当局により拉致された事件を題材に、残された家族の苦悩や、懸命な救出活動の模様を描いたドキュメンタリー・アニメです。
Story: In 1977, Ms. Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old girl, disappeared on her way home from school. It was revealed later on that she was abducted by North Korea. This film features the anguish of Megumi’s family and their desperate effort to bring her back home.
Visit the source link above to download the anime. It’s been produced by the government of Japan to bring awareness to the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea.
The New York Anime Festival announced this week new dates for its 2008 show — September 26-28 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.
The New York Anime Festival, a Japanese pop culture convention from the creators of the New York Comic Con, held its first event on December 7-9, 2007.
The 2007 New York Anime Festival featured guests including Kobun Shizuno (Co-Director of EVANGELION 1.0: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE), Peter Fernandez (The Voice of Speed Racer), and J-Pop band UNICORN TABLE and over 100 exhibitors including ADV Films, Bandai Entertainment, Del Rey Manga, FUNimation, and TOKYOPOP.
NYAF previously announced 2008 dates of September 12-14, but it has moved back to later in the month after further discussions with the Jacob Javits Center.
Show Manager Lance Fensterman said, “The Jacob Javits Center is always in demand, and getting any dates in the building is difficult. Our new dates are the result of further discussion with the convention center, and we’re staying put right here. We’ll see you all September 26.”
The New York Anime Festival’s parent show, the New York Comic Con, will take place April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Center. New York Comic Con will play host to guest of honor T.M.Revolution, anime guests Justin Cook, Rachael Lillis, Jamie McGonnigal, Sean Schemmel, Mike Sinterniklaas, Veronica Taylor, Tom Wayland, Sean Michael Wilson, Steve Yun, and Tommy Yune, and premieres including CODE GEASS, EMMA, AMURI IN STAR OCEAN, LUCKY STAR, and THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME. Tickets are available now at newyorkcomiccon.com.
The New York Anime Festival takes place September 26-28, 2008 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan and was organized by Reed Exhibitions, the creators of New York Comic Con. The New York Anime Festival showcases the best of anime pop culture, including the latest anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, and anime-influenced comics, animation, and films from around the world.
The festival features exclusive and extensive screenings, a gala cosplay masquerade, sessions with the some of the biggest names in anime from Japan, Asia, and America, and explores the Japanese cultural experience with displays of both traditional and cutting-edge Japanese life.
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is one of the big names listed. Unfortunately, unless I hear otherwise, these are going to be dubbed, not subbed. Mainly this is due to licensing issues, as far as I know. When I worked for a large internet media company in the past, we talked to several anime distributors and they all said they are required to put dubbed videos on television rather than subbed. The companies in Japan are worried about things like piracy apparently. It’s too bad, because I for one cannot stand to watch dubbed anime. Here’s the article:
Starz will launch on iTunes tonight, said Marc DeBevoise, SVP of business development and strategy for the production company, speaking at a panel at the Future of Television West conference in Hollywood.
DeBevoise said that consumers have demonstrated that they will buy content “as long as it feels like free,” attributing that idea to Fred Seibert of Next New Networks.
“I think they’re probably the best in episodic television,” said DeBevoise of Apple. “Netflix is big in subscription, other people VOD.” The studio representatives on the panel all said they are embracing multiple platforms. “I want my shows and feature films on every one of them,” said Joe Patrick, EVP North American television distribution at MGM.
Starz Media content, which includes brands like Manga Entertainment and Film Roman, is already available on Xbox and Amazon Unbox. We’ll tackle DeBevoise after his panel to find out what content will be available on iTunes.
DeBevoise said that while Starz is the largest seller of fitness content, “We have not even explored what to do with that digitally, to make as much money as we make on DVD and selling in the supermarket.”
Update: DeBevoise tells us after the panel (see video embedded above) that Starz will post six series on on iTunes any minute now. Those will be two half-hour sitcoms, Hollywood Residential and Head Case, as well as four Anime favorites.
“We’re trying to put it anywhere, everywhere, all those platforms; we want to reach the audience wherever they are, and get it as many places as possible, it just took us a little longer to get the iTunes one,” he said. But that flexibility isn’t without limits. DeBevoise added, “Certainly our subscription base, we don’t really muck around
with that.”
TOKYO — A virtual bookstore said Wednesday it would put online the works of “Astroboy” creator Osamu Tezuka, the father of manga comics. Papyless, which sells digital versions of books, said it was teaming up with copyright holder Tezuka Production to upload at least 448 stories from the prolific late cartoonist.
Tezuka, sometimes called Japan’s Walt Disney, pioneered the country’s now massive manga industry, drawing stories whose characters were often fantastical with exaggerated physical features. He died in 1989.
Papyless will offer Tezuka comics including “Astroboy,” Japan’s best-known comic series relating the adventures of a robot-boy in a futuristic universe.
Others works to go online will include “Black Jack,” the tales of a doctor, and “New Treasure Island.”
Papyless, whose website is www.papy.co.jp/, said in a statement it would put the works online from March 18. It will cost 105 yen to read a volume over 48 hours.
Buying the work online will cost 315 yen per volume.
Digital books have become a growing market in Japan, with several online companies teaming up with publishers to upload works of various genres. Papyless has some 80,000 titles online.
Another growing market in Japan is for novels written specifically for mobile telephones.
Half of Japan’s top-selling novels last year were originally cellphone novels, which employ short phrases and “emoticon” symbols to adapt to the small screens.
Sadly for us in America, the dollar is at an all-time low versus the yen, so costs of items from Japan are much higher than before. If you visit the site, you can click the banner at the top and there are some free sample issues available. It’s using a proprietary online reader, but it seems to work fine.
Toon Radio and Limelight Media announce the return of ANIME IN THE LIMELIGHT after a three-year hiatus. The Japanese anime and videogame music radio show has been on local terrestrial radio and has been recording new episodes since January 2008. It will resume broadcasting on the Toon Radio internet radio station (www.toonradio.net) on March 15, 2008. On the air since 1997, Anime in the Limelight is a 30 to 60 minute Japanese animation music and Japanese pop culture show. The show features uncut anime music tracks by the original artists in Japanese language, with English introductions, background histories, news, and Japanese pop culture information and is America’s top rated streaming media anime themed Internet radio show. The show has aired on KUMU AM 1500 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and on the Fresno, California webcaster Japan-a-Radio (www.japanaradio.com). ANIME IN THE LIMELIGHT is scheduled to broadcast on Toon Radio every Saturday at 6 p.m. ET. More information on ANIME IN THE LIMELIGHT can be found at www.limepub.com/radio.html. More information on Toon Radio can be found at www.toonradio.net.
I always like to post things related to my profession. Here’s a great instructional video from Japan on how animations are created. It’s really basic, but for those of you who know nothing about animation, this really gives some insight into how much work goes into “simple cartoons”.
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