GHOST IN THE SHELL - Official Trailer #1

Ghost in the Shell is a pretty popular Anime movie from the 90s that I own but can't remember anything about. The main character is a girl who is a machine and a cop and she can turn invisible. I believe she also hacks into computers, that's about all I remember. Oh wait, I do remember everything takes place in Tokyo and everyone was Japanese.

With that in mind, here's you new Hollywood live action remake staring Scarlett Johansson and a lot of other white people. I guess in the Future all the white people leave the US and go to Tokyo. Thanks Obama. I have two hot takes regarding this trainer:

First off I don't think this doesn't look visually stunning enough to separate it from every other sci-fi action flick. When she strips down and she's just all robot it doesn't look cool or sexy it just looks weird. Serious uncanny valley thing going on there. Unless this movie gets some really great buzz or a second way cooler trailer this thing is DOA.

Secondly, good. These racists jerks deserve what's coming to them. It would be one thing if they had decided to set the film in New York and completely appropriate the plot of the film into a western setting but just sticking a bunch of white people in Japan and having them all be the leads while it looks like the bad guys are still Japanese is hot garbage and the studio should be ashamed. They won't be because you know, you have to have a big star attached and I'm sure they only cast people right for the part, race has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

This is the reason people wanted Iron Fist to be Asian.

Things I want: Toyota Gundam Auris

Remember the commercial for the Toyota Camry Sport Edition where the woman says the car feels really grounded to the ground? Yeah this commercial for the Toyota Gundam Auris is pretty much the exact opposite of that.

If everything works out the way my wife and I would like it to (obviously a pretty big if) we might be in position to buy a new car in 2016. The Gundam Auris doesn't exactly check all the boxes for what we're looking for in a new family vehicle but who cares? GUNDAM.

Attack on Titan Trailer

The very successful Anime & Manga, Attack on Titan, has a really cool looking live action movie coming out soon. It's Japanese, not a Hollywood remake so it has a chance of actually being pretty cool. If you can handle subtitles that is. And find a theater in the states playing it. Or I don't know.. wait until it comes to Netflix in 3 years.

Behind the Links

50 behind the scenes photos from RETURN OF THE JEDI. I had seen a couple of these but not all of them. Man I miss physical effects like goofy rubber suits and model space ships. Ever seen any behind the scenes of Episodes I-III. It's just Natalie Portman in front of a green screen acting with a big piece of lifeless plastic.... and that's just the scenes with Hayden Christensen. Hey-Oh!

Imagined Email Correspondence From The Desk Of The Marketing Director For Carl’s Jr. "Hey, so I had an idea for our next commercial: We open on a hot tub with David Hasselhoff in it, then we zoom out to see that he’s in there with some of his old Baywatch co-stars (Anderson, Electra, etc.) They’re all going TO WORK on some bacon burgers. Real sloppy. Real sloppy. BBQ sauce clogging the filter and everything."

Starblazers has been uploaded to youtube. I believe it was just a few months ago that I had this near the top of my "things I want on netflix list", youtube is the next best thing. Every episode is available for free including the tie in movies. Not bad at all.

‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Marks The End Of The ‘First Class’ Trilogy And Wipes Away The Other ‘X-Men’ Movies. Jeez, YEARS ago I blogged about when Fox was going to reboot the X-Men franchise. It looks like that's finally happening? I liked First Class and Days of Future Past but they've kind of made a giant mess of the X-Men franchise going forward. You have two versions of the same characters running around and while that works in the context of a movie about time travel it doesn't work for a tentpole franchise. At a certain point Fox will need to cut the cord and recast Cyclops, Wolverine, Jean Grey, etc. and start telling contemporary X-Men stories again Sounds like that might just happen after Apocalypse.

Go Nuts! Ryan North & Erica Henderson Launch ‘Squirrel Girl’ Series For Marvel. Dammit, I'm trying to buy less comic books not more. Squirrel Girl is pretty rad. What started with a joke (her beating Dr. Doom with an army of squirrels) developed into the ultra-silly idea that Squirrel Girl can beat any character in the Marvel Universe. It's a nice way of poking fun at the nerds that like to debate Batman vs Captain America or Thor vs the Hulk. The answer has always been whoever the writer needs to win. It just so happens that's ALWAYS the girl with squirrel powers.

Star Wars the 1980s Anime

I'll give whoever at NachoPunch put together this Star Wars 1980s anime some credit. I mean I'm not going to give them a ton of credit but I'll give them some. The idea of Luke's X-wing turning into a giant mech is pretty inspired. However, if you're going to pass this off as "lost" footage don't half ass it. Either make the title screen genuine (hint: not many cartoons from the '80s actually said they were from the 80s) and transfer it onto and off a real VHS tape a couple times or don't bother getting cute. Everyone knows you made this on a MacBook Pro.

.. The Blurst of Times: Highschool of the Dead

Having the Hanta Virus (or something slightly less lethal) all week has provided me with ample opportunities to explore the depths of Netflix instant in between coughing fits while hoped up on Nyquil and codine. With "..the Blurst of Times" I'll tell you all about whatever horrible abortion of a TV show I watched the night before (or in this case last week).

Highschool of the Dead had me at the title. Two things you probably already know about me: I love Zombies and over the last 2 years have watched almost every episode of 90210. Even the really terrible post college ones when Brandon leaves and they bring back Dylan. Woof, those episodes are terrible.

Anyhoo, Highschool of the Dead (yes it's supposed to be misspelled) is about a bunch of kids dealing with a zombie invasion during 4th period. The show throws you right into the action, with a small group of kids already on the run from a zombie horde. The animation is pretty tight, they cut a lot of corners by using these sort of styalized still shots. You've seen them if you've watched any adult swim. The kind where a character covered in blood stands all heroic with just a small lock of hair moving in the breeze. The English dub is pretty good too, the acting isn't the best but whoever translated the show did a decent job.

It's been a while since I've really watched any anime, but I don't remember them being this jiggly. Seriously the boobs they are a bouncing in this. There's no nudity or sex, at least not yet but sometimes it feels like I'm watching Dead or Alive Zombie Beach Volleyball the movie. I think if my wife saw me watching it she'd just point and laugh at me.

On a scale of 1 to Battle Royale, Highschool of the Dead scores a baseball bat to the side of the head. It's not a headshot but it more than gets the job done.

There's a Starship Troopers Cartoon?

Have I already posted something about the Starship Troopers Cartoon? Well here it is in all it's CGI glory. I don't know, I mean I'm ready to worship at the shrine of all things Starship Troopers this just feels like a reach to me. Just make Starship Troopers 4 a straight to Cable movie on Syfy and be done with it. Johnny Rico can fight a shark with 8 legs or something.

It's like Full Metal Jacket with Bunnies

This is a bit of an oldie but a goodie. In 2009 ADV published a manga called Cat Shit one that was sort of a Maus for the Vietnam War (or G-Force for people not mentally challenged). From all I've heard the manga is excellent but the publisher went bankrupt and currently there are no plans to bring a translated version over to the US. Of course who needs to read when you can watch TV?

Studio Anima is bringing a CGI animated series to the US under the name Apocalypse Meow (skip to the 40sec mark on the video). It's due in late 2010 and will probably go straight to DVD. I could try and come up with more details that that would involve clicking on a link to Aintitcool and there's no way I'm doing that. I've already showered once this morning.

BTW, Apocalypse Meow? Cat Shit One? I didn't see a single cat in that video.

thanks to ComicsAlliance on this one

We're off to outer space...

That clip from the upcoming Gaiking movie I posted yesterday gave me a Star Blazers jones. I never did see anything more about the new CGI Star Blazers (or Yamato) movie that came out in Japan over Christmas. I scoured the youtubes and this clip is the best I could come up with. It's not great, but you get the point.

You can watch the first 9 minutes of the movie in hi-def here, which I would totally recommend. The movie looks awesome, and if the plot makes the tiniest bit of sense this could easily make House Party 3 looks like House Party 4.

Gaiking looks face meltingly awesome

Good gravy, I don't know anything about Gaiking (quick google search says it was a japanese cartoon that ran in the states similar to Star Blazers) but this teaser trailer for the upcoming cgi reboot looks incredible. Hopefully this thing makes its way to the states with a decent dub.

Wnning the War on Pants

Here's a trailer for the super awesomely Japanese cartoon Strike Witches. It's about girls with Cat ears and jet legs fighting aliens without wearing pants, because why wouldn't it be?

YouTuber "bridge bunny" gives this excellent review:

I don't mind the English dubs BUT AT LEAST HAVE ACCENTS TO MAKE IT FEEL LIKE A MULTINATIONAL FORCE.

You tell them bridge bunny, I mean lets try and keep things realistic here.