VIZ Media invites fans to catch the last episode of InuYasha: The Final Act scheduled to air on VIZAnime.com today! The finale to the long-running animated adventure saga will be broadcast on the video-streaming site shortly after it airs in Japan. Find out the exciting conclusion to one of the greatest anime series of all time in the installment titled “Toward Tomorrow”!
InuYasha: The Final Act is based on a massively popular manga (also published by VIZ Media, rated “T+” for Older Teens) by famed creator Rumiko Takahashi, who won the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award for the series in 2002. Many of Takahashi’s titles have been adapted into other media such as anime, live-action TV series, and film. The InuYasha anime series has run for 193 episodes in total and has also spawned several feature films.
Pulled back in time to Japan’s ancient past, Japanese high school girl Kagome finds her destiny linked to a dog-like half-demon named InuYasha, who remembers Kagome’s previous incarnation as the woman who killed him — and to the Shikon Jewel, or “Jewel of Four Souls,” which can fulfill the greatest dreams of any man or monster. Now Kagome and InuYasha must work together to search for the scattered shards of the jewel before everyone’s nightmares are given the power they need to come true.
Takahashi’s manga, as well as the other formats her work has been adapted into, have continued to delight generations of fans around the world. Distinguished by her wonderfully endearing characters, Takahashi’s work adeptly incorporates a wide variety of elements such as comedy, romance, fantasy, and martial arts. Rumiko Takahashi is an artist who truly represents the very best from the world of manga. Please visit the official North American web site for all Rumiko Takahashi-related news and information located at TheRumicWorld.com.
VIZAnime.com is a brand new, free-to-use interactive web destination that is the permanent home to some of the company’s best-loved animated series. VIZ Anime is accessible at: VIZAnime.com.
Codswallop! Doctor Tremont is at it again. Not content with the direction Earth’s Venusian campaign is taking, he’s been seen through the sooty window panes of his laboratory hugging his knees, rocking back and forth chanting barely coherent phrases in something that resembles Nedderdüütsch. Or possibly plain German. We have no doubt something will be revealed next week, as he has hung a sign on his door bearing the inscription “Fischen gegangen — zurück Dienstag”. We shall keep you posted by carrier pigeon. So don’t bloody cook or eat it this time!
Public Service Announcement
Lord Cockswain’s Top 5 tips for the endurance of hardship while on Safari.
1. Drink plenty of fluids morning (Gin), noon (Pimms or Claret) and night (Any well salted Islay Single Malt).
2. Do not bring women or children. Dogs, however, make great company and servants, while expendable, are indispensible.
3. Arm for all eventualities. There is no such thing as “over-kill”. It’s “under-kill” you want to avoid!
4. Wear sports attire. While a silk smoking jacket may be appropriate on board your ship, it’s too slippery for Toop wrestling.
5. Keep a log. All real explorers do. Scientists will one day find the answer why.
Not a Grordbort’s Collector yet? Buffoon!
Luckily, you have just run out of excuses, as we have decided to completely forego all sense and sensibility and extend our Dr. Grordbort’s Starter Pack until 7 April. 1x VICTORY, 1x Dingus Directory, 1x Victorious Mongoose — Miniature version and 4x postcards, one of which has been befouled by Greg Broadmore, the rapscallion. Get the whole kit and kaboodle for a measly US$49! That’s what the gun itself normally costs! (Bits of it will also make satisfying gifts, once you have ripped out anything of real value.) Also: Good news from the sweat print shop: The Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory is now in its 4th Print Run! Hazzaah!
Grand Theft FMOM!
At a recent stocktake, it became apparent that somebody has run off with 470 out of the 500 F.M.O.M. Wave Disrupter Guns manufactured by F.M.O.M. Industries and less than 30 remain in the entire Universe! We are currently investigating this atrocity and will keep you posted. Meanwhile, if you need an F.M.O.M. — don’t delay — the remaining 30 will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Unconfirmed reports from the bean counting department suggest the guns have been acquired entirely legally through sale and purchase agreements by customers across the planet, but we refuse to believe this can be the case for so many guns. We always assume foul play!
Dr. Grordbort’s has set up camp in Hongkers!
Hosted and presented by the wizardly Hong Kong based technological upstart CYBERPORT. Richard Taylor Esq. and Greg Broadmore attended the official opening Pomp and Circumstance this week. See more autophosphorescent etchings here!
Have you been insulted by the buffoons on the Forum yet? Go on — it’s a blast!!!
VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the cast for the upcoming North American debut of Vampire Knight, the gothic-romance animated series based on the bestselling manga (graphic novel) by Matsuri Hino.
Vampire Knight takes audiences to Cross Academy, which is attended by two groups of students: the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorm, they cross paths with the Night Class on their way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the Academy’s dark secret: the Night Class is full of vampires!
VIZ Media sought out a cast of talented voice actors and the recording expertise of Bang Zoom! Entertainment to bring this series to life. Yuki Cross, the adoptive daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, is played by Mela Lee. Veteran anime voice actor Vic Mignogna plays Zero Kiryu, a student who is a year older than Yuki Cross and comes from a family of vampire hunters. Finally, Kaname Kuran is portrayed by Ethan Murray. In the series, Kuran is a pure blooded vampire and the current Head of the Kuran Clan. He once saved Yuki from an attack by another vampire when she was seven years old and also serves as the president of the Night Class and the dorm leader. Kuran is both feared and respected by the other Night Class students.
“Vampire Knight is an important series that demanded skilled actors who could portray these complex characters without sacrificing any of the intensity and emotional drama each one exudes,” says William Germain, Director, Programming & Music Sales, VIZ Media. “We also know there are a lot of fans of the manga that have been waiting for this series so we wanted to bring in some very talented people who we know will take Vampire Knight to a whole new level. Look for more news coming soon about the North American debut!”
Vampire Knight (rated “T+” for Older Teens) is based on the best selling manga series created by Matsuri Hino, who burst onto the manga scene with her debut title, When This Dream is Over, in LaLa DX magazine. With the success of subsequent series such as Captive Hearts and MeruPuri (both published domestically by VIZ Media), Hino has established herself as a major force in the world of shojo manga. Vampire Knight is currently serialized in LaLa magazine. On January 17, 2010, the latest volume of Vampire Knight, Volume 9, ranked Number 1 on the New York Times Manga Bestseller list. Currently Vampire Knight has two volumes in the top ten.
The End is near… Bag End!
Check out the third installment in Daniel Falconer’s article series about the creation of a miniature collectible of Bag End from The Lord of the Rings. It’s getting near launch… keep an eye out before Easter!
Only one left: Strider’s Sword Edition #10 — Will it be yours?
Your last chance to own this incredible piece of art as well as fully functional weapon from The Lord of the Rings. Made at the hands of Weta Master Swordsmith Peter Lyon. The other nine swords have already been reserved by collectors. Will number 10 be yours?
New Lord of the Rings merchandise
A New Zealand Map of Middle-earth and a The Dark Lord Sauron T-shirt are available at the Weta Cave and to NZ customers on our website. (Unfortunately our licensing agreement only permits us to sell these to New Zealand customers.) Daniel Falconer designed both! Check them out! AND… The Miniature shields have started arriving in our warehouses. We are experiencing a few customs delays in our US and UK warehouses, but rest assured — we’re processing the orders as soon as we have the all clear!
The Art of District 9 — new book from Weta this year
We’re very pleased to reveal that we are working on an Art Book cataloguing the awesome work Weta’s artists and craftspeople did for Neill Blomkamp’s District 9. We promise to bring you ongoing updates on the progress. In the meantime — please join the friendly crowds in our online forum and tell us what you would like to see in the book! As a member of the forum (did we mention it’s FREE?), you can also Win District 9 Goodies in our forums in a fun competition by our friend and king of the forums, Charles Song.
The Exceptional Exhibition opens in Hong Kong
Richard Taylor and Greg Broadmore are currently in China for the opening of Dr. Grordbort’s Exceptional Exhibition at Cyberport. See the photos we just received!
Easter at the Weta Cave? Or at WonderCon in San Francisco?
Weta’s friend Phil Davis will be at WonderCon at the Moscone Center in SF 2-4 April. Go see him! For those of you who find Miramar, Wellington an easier place to get to, we have a fantastic line-up of guests at the Weta Cave:
Friday 2 April | 10am-11am | Champ the Chopper author Rebekah Palmer
Saturday 3 April | 11am-12pm | Sculpting demonstration with Weta sculptor Gary Hunt
Sunday 4 April | 1pm-3pm | Meet acclaimed Tolkien artist John Howe at a book signing
Monday 5 April | 1pm-2pm | Digital sculpting demonstration with Weta artist Scott Spencer
See the WotWots in person!
Here’s a free activity for parents who are wondering what to do during the school holidays. Take your no doubt grateful kids to see the WotWots in person at a selection of shopping malls in New Zealand and Australia. Check out where and when.
Enter the spellbinding world of dragons... and those who tend them
With over 20 fantasy novels in print, Robin Hobb has firmly established herself in the fantasy community, garnering praise from both her readers and her peers as “one of the most gifted fantasy authors writing today”, and deservedly so. What I discovered as I began to read Dragon Keeper, the first book in her new The Rain Wilds Chronicles series, was an endearing gem that struck a cord with me the way books like Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth, Raymond E. Feist’s The Riftwar Saga and Marcia J. Bennett’s Ni’Lach series did.
From the moment I first laid eyes on Dragon Keeper, I was excited. The cover of the book appears to be 3D animation, with the kind of color and depth you’d find in a scene from an Ubisoft game such as Myst. It features a girl and a dragon standing along the banks of a river at sunset with a tree village sprawling in the background against an overcast sky. The image is so detailed, I feel as if I could step into the scene and wander the grassy banks or walk across the suspended bridges between the tree tops. I am pleased to say that the world painted within the pages is just as vibrant and detailed as that depicted on the cover.
Dragon Keeper is the story of an ill-fated attempt at restoring dragons, a near extinct species, to their former glory. After being rescued by dragon Tintaglia from a savage invasion by the Chalcedeans, the Trader cities strike a bargain with her: she will continue to protect them from their enemies if they assist her in trying to restore her species.
Dragons begin their life as sea serpents and must make a voyage upriver to their former breeding grounds in order to start the transformation process into dragons. Tintaglia disappears soon after only a handful of dragons hatch, and the Traders find themselves stuck with the burden of having to care for them. A plan is made to “help” relocate the dragons to the fabled city of Kelsingra, the ancient homeland that has long ago disappeared into the jungles and into myth. The only clues to the location of Kelsingra lie in the ancestral memories of the dragons and a handful of ancient scrolls that have been translated by Alise, a woman who has dedicated her life to the study of dragons.
Having made her way to the riverbanks of Cassarick to continue her studies, Alise soon finds herself caught up in the expedition to Kelsingra. Chaperoned by her husband’s much-disapproving secretary, she travels up the Rain Wilds River with a motley assortment of misfits and castaways in hopes of discovering the past while helping the dragons find their future.
At risk of sounding like a fangurl, I have to admit how very enamored I am with this book. Not just enamoured, but deeply, madly in love with it. I simply devoured it, reading about 150 to 180 pages a day (it’s 474 pages long), giving it every waking moment I could spare. All of the characters are interesting, even the unlikable ones. In many books with a lot of supporting characters, those characters remain very two-dimensional and you are left with only an impression of who they are as they fulfill whatever their purpose is in moving the story along. The characters in this book, however, truly round out what should be considered an ensemble cast. There is a depth to them, each personality, emotion and motivation ringing true and breathing life into them. Even the relationships and interactions between characters are compelling.
One of the nice little touches that forward the story is the correspondence between towns that begins each new chapter. Carrier pigeons are used to carry scrolls between the towns and, along with those scrolls, two of the pigeon keepers attach personal notes. These notes not only give us some information about their own lives, but add additional tidbits about what’s happening back at home as Alise and the others make their way up the Rain Wilds River.
Dragon Keeper explores the internal workings of each character with both humor and levity. The world is beautiful and wild, the characters are compelling, and the story is so interesting — and so easy to submerse yourself in — that by halfway through the book I was already lamenting the long wait for the next book in the series. Imagine my joy when I noticed this little note at the very end of the liner notes at the back of the book:
Look for the second book in the Rain Wilds Chronicles, Dragon Haven, coming in May 2010 from Eos.
This book didn’t just make my week, it looks like it will be making my summer as well.
VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, lets fans quench their desire for stories of the undead with the premiere of the sequel to Akihisa Ikeda’s smash hit manga series Rosario + Vampire. Rosario + Vampire: Season II will be published under the Shonen Jump Advanced imprint and hits stores nationwide on April 6th with a “T+” for Older Teens rating and a MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.
In this action filled series, average teenager Tsukune accidentally enrolled at a boarding school for monsters — no, not jocks or the popular kids, but bona fide werewolves, witches and other unnamable denizens from his wildest nightmares! On the plus side, all of the girls have a major crush on him. But on the negative side, all the boys are so jealous they want to kill him! And so do the girls he spurns, because he only has eyes for one of them — the far-from-average vampire, Moka. Still, on the plus side, Moka only has glowing red eyes for Tsukune. But on the O-negative side, she also has a burning, unquenchable thirst for his blood!
“They’re sexy, they’re undead and unlike any student body you’ll find!” says Elizabeth Kawasaki, VIZ Media Senior Editorial Director. “The popularity of the vampire genre has exploded in the wake of films like Twilight and TV shows like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, but it’s also long been a favorite subject for manga. Rosario + Vampire: Season II continues to find Tsukune’s life at Yokai Academy anything but normal. Readers will want to hold on tight to the page, and their souls, with this exciting new action comedy release from VIZ Media and Shonen Jump Advanced!”
Creator Akihisa Ikeda debuted in 2002 with the four-volume magical warrior fantasy series Kiruto, which was serialized in Japan in Monthly Shonen Jump magazine, which later went on to feature Rosario + Vampire beginning in March 2004. Rosario + Vampire also spawned an animated series and a drama CD, produced by studio Gonzo.
For more information on this title, or others from VIZ Media, please visit viz.com.
The author of the critically acclaimed Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and Year’s Best collections. His latest book is Horns, the hottest thing in fantastic horror since Stephen King’s last book (Joe Hill, incidentally, is Stephen King’s son), and it is an amazing read. Hill will be signing copies of Horns and meeting his fans at the Toronto Public Library. This is seriously an event not to be missed.
VIZ Media will be releasing the much anticipated final volume, Volume 8, of Naoki Urasawa’s manga masterpiece Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka on April 6th.
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka is a modern reinterpretation of the work by the master of manga, Osamu Tezuka. In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something is after the seven great robots of the world. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case — and he eventually discovers that he is one of the targets!
In the final volume Atom is back, and the fate of the earth is in his hands! Now that Atom has all the answers to the unsolved mysteries around Pluto, Bora and more, he’s prepared to put everything on the line. With the memory of his fallen brethren — Gesicht, Mont Blanc, North No. 2, Brando, Hercules and Epsilon — etched deeply into his heart, Atom is headed for one last battle to save the world!
Naoki Urasawa’s career as a manga artist spans more than twenty years and has firmly established him as one of the true manga masters of Japan. Born in Tokyo in 1960, Urasawa debuted with Beta!! in 1983 and hasn’t stopped his impressive output since. Well-versed in a variety of genres, Urasawa’s oeuvre encompasses a multitude of different subjects, such as a romantic comedy (Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl), a suspenseful human drama about a former mercenary (Pineapple ARMY; story by Kazuya Kudo), a captivating psychological suspense story (Monster), a sci-fi adventure manga (20th Century Boys) and a modern reinterpretation of the work of Osamu Tezuka (Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka; co-authored with Takashi Nagasaki, supervised by Macoto Tezka, and with the cooperation of Tezuka Productions). Many of his books have spawned popular animated and live-action TV programs and films, and 2008 saw the theatrical release of the first of three live-action Japanese films based on 20th Century Boys.
No stranger to accolades and awards, Urasawa is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and has received the Kodansha Manga Award. Similarly, Monster has been nominated three times for the Eisner Award in America. Urasawa has also become involved in the world of academia. In 2008 he accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of course, manga.
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka is rated “T+” for Older Teens and has a MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 Canada. For more information on this and other titles from VIZ Media, please visit viz.com.
Exciting times! As many of you know, we are just about to take delivery into our warehouses of the first of our Miniature shields, the Numenorean. They look fantastic and we’re about to start processing pre-orders. This is something we’re really looking forward to, as it’s the first tangible evidence that we have truly returned to Middle-earth and our “collectible roots”.
SPECIAL OFFER! Buy two Dr. Grordbort’s Books and get a Miniature Raygun for US$10!
For a week, we have put together a special package for those who want to acquaint themselves with the wonderful world of Dr. Grordbort’s. When you buy Greg Broadmore’s two beautiful and hysterically funny Dr. Grordbort’s Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory and VICTORY, you get your first collectible Miniature Raygun, the Mini Victorious Mongoose, for US$10 (usually US$49)! And not only that — we throw in four postcards, one of which will be signed by Greg Broadmore. Start your Raygun collection here!
Listen to the Weta Cast Episode XV — Avatar Special
Listen to Richard Taylor and some of the designers and workshop crew talk about Avatar. Also an excerpt from an interview on Fictional Frontiers and LOTS of news! All you need to listen is a pair of headphones or speakers! Listen to it here!
Strider’s Sword now available for order
The second sword in the Master Swordsmith’s Collection of swords from The Lord of the Rings is now open for orders in our shop. It follows Anduril, which sold out in the first week. Three edition numbers are available for new collectors — first come, first served!
Neil Gaiman visits the Weta Cave
Neil Gaiman, the science fiction and fantasy author of short stories, novels, graphic novels and comics came to see us at the Weta Cave last week! It turns out Neil is also a huge Doctor Who fan.
In a significant news announcement, VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has detailed the launch of VIZ Anime — a brand new, free-to-use interactive web destination that will become a permanent home to some of the company’s best-loved animated series as well as new content which will be added on a weekly basis. VIZ Anime is accessible at: VIZAnime.com.
VIZ Anime kicks off with more than 400 episodes from hit series such as Bleach, Buso Renkin, Death Note (complete series), Hikaru no Go, Honey and Clover, InuYasha (complete series) and InuYasha: The Final Act, Nana, Naruto (complete series) and Naruto: Shippuden as well as The Prince of Tennis. The site will also be the future web home for many other eagerly anticipated anime series set to launch later this year!
Episodes can be streamed for free with new ones being added weekly. A variety of interactive social networking tools and features also help foster an official online home and community for VIZ Media anime fans allowing them to connect on and discuss favorite shows, and offer ratings and opinions of various episodes. New functionalities will be added regularly.
Users can “follow” as many series as they like and choose to be notified each time a new episode is released, as well as keep track of the last episode they’ve watched. This makes it easy to stay current on series like InuYasha or Naruto, which feature more than 100 episodes.
Users can comment on individual episodes and also meet and interact with other fans, invite friends to join, ask questions and debate plot twists and characters, voice their opinion on what’s happening in a particular series, and also find out what else is going on across the anime and manga spectrums.
Users can rate their favorite episodes by using a “Like” button on each episode page. They can quickly access a list of all the episodes they’ve similarly liked to compare how other users have liked an episode.
Users can make a personalized profile page to keep track of the episodes they’ve watched and enjoyed, the series they’re currently following, and comments they’ve made. Mail tools can also be used to send private messages between individual users. Privacy controls let users decide what information is shared publicly and who is able to send them messages.
“We’re committed to developing VIZ Anime as a premiere online destination, and hope to offer a real community for VIZ Media fans to interact with each other and share their love of anime,” says Ken Sasaki, Senior Vice President & General Manager of VIZ Media. “We will also utilize the site as a means of two-way communication to better understand what our fans enjoy most and want, and how they engage with anime and manga online. With a lot of content to select from, VIZ Anime will become a favorite site to visit again and again!”
For more information on VIZ Media or VIZ Anime, please visit VIZAnime.com.
First there was the Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters trailer.
Now, we at Quirk Books would like to give you even more Regency-era drama, delivered with some intense martial arts and brilliant brain-eating action.
a Book Trailer by Dirty Robber,
based on the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith,
starring Anabella Casanova, Cameron Cash, Martin Roe,
and several thousand gallons of blood.
VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, will publish manga creator Q Hayashida’s gritty urban sci-fi/horror series Dorohedoro on March 16th. The new series under the company’s VIZ Signature imprint, is rated “M” for Mature Audiences and will carry an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $16.99 CAN.
In a city so dismal it’s known only as “the Hole,” an underground group of Sorcerers have been abducting people off the streets to use as guinea pigs for atrocious “experiments” in the black arts. In a dark alley, Nikaido found Caiman, a mutant man with a reptile head and a bad case of amnesia. To undo the spell, Nikaido and Caiman hunt and kill the Sorcerers in the Hole, hoping that eventually they’ll kill the right one. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering his people, he sends a crew of “cleaners” into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.
Dorohedoro blends bloody mutant action with the classic horror elements — zombies, demons, and ghosts — and an intricate postapocalyptic urban setting,” says Leyla Aker, Editorial Manager, VIZ Media. “At the same time, the characters are likable, the dialogue’s funny, and I think readers will be surprised by its charm.
Manga creator Q Hayashida is known for her bold art style and the way she seamlessly integrates alternate universes into her stories. Hayashida made her manga debut with Maken X Another, which ran in Magazine Z in Japan and was subsequently adapted into a video game. She followed with a sequel, Maken X Another Jack. Dorohedoro is her latest creation and is serialized in Shogakukan’s manga magazine IKKI and also featured on SigIKKI.com, the publication’s innovative online joint venture with VIZ Media.
For more information on SIGIKKI, please visit SigIKKI.com.
For more information on this title, or others from VIZ Media, please visit viz.com.
