Isao Sasaki Makes Appearance at Honolulu Festival

Isao Sasaki (the voice of Condor Joe and singer of many anime themes including the themes to Gatchaman II and Fighter) will be making an appearance at the Honolulu Convention Center on Saturday, March 13, between 3:15 and 3:30 pm for the Honolulu Festival. I haven't heard of him making appearances at foreign events before.

Wish I could be there!

For more info:

http://www.honolulufestival.com/

Facebook link

Zero Da, Zero Da, Zero Da! JT Uses the Gatchaman Theme to Promote Coffee

The Gatchaman theme song is being used to advertise a new coffee drink, the JT "Roots Triple Free" (triple meaning 0 calories, 0 fat and 0 sugar). The lyrics have been tweaked to promote the song ("Zero da" instead of "Dare da"), though you can see the original lyrics posted beneath the commercial version. They've also riffed off the Gatchaman title type. The commercial features a comedy group called The Neptunes and the song is sung by singer/songwriter Sunplaza Nakano*.

You can see the commercial in its entirety on the Roots Triple Free Web site. The shorter TV version is here.

Thanks, Tatsunokofan!

* Sunplaza Nakano = Nakano Sun Plaza, a large mall in Tokyo that's the home of Mandarake, the ultimate anime/manga otaku mecca and a great place to shop for Gatchaman stuff.

Gatchaman Voice Actors Earn Lifetime Achievement Awards

For the 4th Annual Seiyuu Awards, three members of Gatchaman's voice cast will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards for their work. These seiyuu (voice actors) are Kazuko Sugiyama (Jun), Nobuo Tanaka (Sosai X) and Tessho Genda (various guest characters throughout the first series, including both Masaki and Oniishi).

The awards ceremony takes place on March 6th in the UDX Theater in Akihabara, Tokyo.

Thanks, Tatsunokofan!

Imagi Shuts Down

Imagi has officially shut down. There is still a possibility they could farm out labor to other companies, but I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for the Gatchaman movie.

Source: ABC News

Bad, bad news from Imagi

It started with news that Imagi had shut down their LA offices. Now, according to Felix Ip's blog, it looks like Imagi is shutting down and laying off their people in Hong Kong as well. They may find funding and continue with the Gatchaman movie, but right now, it's looking like a long shot.

It was fun to follow while it lasted. My condolences go out to the hard-working staff at Imagi.

UPDATE: According to this post on the Anime News Network:

"According to the Ming Pao Daily News paper, the layoffs are short-term and that the company is still operating on minimal staff as it continues to seek new investments. However, the newspaper also reports that company faces a critical decision next week on whether to be liquidated, depending on the outcome of investment talks. The studio underwent a round of layoffs before the Chinese New Year's holidays last year, only to rehire its animators after obtaining new financing to complete Astro Boy."

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Condor Joe Debuts

Annnnd... here he is. Condor Joe is revealed in the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom game in all his roaring glory. Read all about it on ign.com here. Better yet, see him in action on the video here.

If they didn't get Isao Sasaki (the original voice actor) to do his voice, they found somebody darned close. All his mannerisms are there, ramped up for 2009.

As a Joe fan, I think I'm in love again...

UPDATE: Isao Sasaki's name is reported to be in the game credits! Awesome!

Paul Dini and Joe Asakura

Paul Dini Explains What Happened at Imagi

Some time ago, Paul Dini was chosen to write the screenplay for the Imagi Gatchaman movie. Then, without warning, his name vanished from all mention and mention of Gatchaman vanished from his Web site. In this interview from 411mania.com, Dini explains what happened... well, as much as can be explained, anyway:

"I was working on it in the fall of 2007, I guess that's when the writer's strike was, and I worked on it from August to December of that year with Kevin Munroe, the director, and a very good art team. And I was contracted kind of a period of around that time, and then we made our presentation to the rights holder and then they said they were undecided on how to go at that point and my deal was essentially up, so they said OK we may call you back, we may go a different way. So I have no idea what if anything of mine is in the movie, the finished picture. I know that Kevin was let go a few weeks after that, and I think the project went into some sort of turnaround development at some point. Toward the end it was getting more and more confused. The more that Kevin and the artists and I were more united in our take on the picture, new producers came in that were less sure of anything and very antsy about everything. So I don't know, the whole thing sort of spun out of control. I left once my deal was up and basically, that was that. We'll see what happens. I think they proceeded with different writers and different producers. Definitely, they got a different director, and we'll see what ultimately comes out of it. I've seen the same trailer that everybody else has seen, and I did recognize some of the same basic setups and scenarios from some of the storyboards that we worked on together, but that's about it."

Click here to read the entire interview.


Condor Joe Joins the Fray in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom?

A member of the Shoryuken Forum unearthed a list of filenames for images in Capcom's Japanese Web site. In addition to the main characters, there is images/oncharactor_btn_joe.jpg

Hmm...

The image is not available yet, but I'd keep an eye on the site for when Joe makes his debut.