Kenji Kawai composer of Patlabor and various anime soundtracks is featured on the Japan discovery show "toco toco." In this show, Japan creators show us places they like in Japan and speak about their activity. In this episode Kenji Kawai will introduce us to the Kita-Shinagawa area, where he was born and raised and where he is still living today. Check out the episode below.
If there is one thing every otaku must experience at least once is a Hatsune Miku concert. The Vocaloids have been around for a while and once again they make their rounds to the United States. This time they stop at the Wamu Theater for once again a spectacular show. If you never experience this unique show let me fill you in a little bit about it. The Vocaloids are holographic images who perform with voice synthesizer. One of the most famous of all the Vocaloid is Hatsune Miku. The show kicked off with the introduction of each Vocaloid with surrounding applause. The atmosphere was electrifying fans of all ages were in attendance. Die hard Miku fans with cosplay, accessories and t-shirts. One thing that was amazing to see beyond the performances was the reaction of people who never seen the show. Otakus & Geeks reached out to those in attendance and you can read comments some below.
"This was my first time actually going to a Miku concert. I've follow her since I saw a cosplay of her at San Diego Comic Con a few years ago. I asked the cosplayer about who she was dressed as and the rest was history. I started listening to every single album I can import or find and really got into the music. The concert is everything I thought it will be. What really struck me was the use of lighting, the sound quality and how well Miku moves. I'm definitely going to be seeing this again if they come back." - Debra Winston
"I must confess I don't follow the anime stuff or any of this so I didn't know what to expect. I know my girlfriend is really into this so I got her tickets for our 1 year anniversary. I have to admit that I was surprise oh how good it was. My girlfriend didn't pitch show very well to me when we arrive. The songs were catchy, the energy in the theater was positive and the movement of these holograms was life like. If you're a fan I will strongly recommend it." - John Kessler
Fans have spoken and our own friends have also enjoyed the show. Each Vocaloid gets there time to shine in the spotlight with a set piece of music for each one. If you love Vocaloid and are a big of Hatsune Miku this something you might want to check out. For more details on upcoming concerts visit here http://org.mikuexpo.com/na2016/
Tribeca Film Festival wrap up last month and now the all the awards have been given and movies have been seen. Justin gives you his review on this year's festival.
Read MoreShido and his assembly of adorable aliens are back in the second season of this sci-fi rom-com romp! Itsuka Shido was a once a normal high schooler. But after a spacequake started by an armored girl rocked his world, life was never the same.
Read MoreEveryone's favorite hedgehog is springing into action, and it looks like things are trending to blue. Starting Wednesday, a newly launched Instagram kicks off -- @SonicStyles, and Sonic the Hedgehog will now bring all things stylish to the popular platform.
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As a 90's kid, I grew up with many great entertainment that is considered nostalgic today. One of these forms of entertainment would be video games. During this time, my mom had gotten the first PlayStation and she was the #1 gamer in the house. I was up in coming with my ways of being a gamer. Probably my mom's favorite game was Spyro. As time went on, I started to get really attached to Spyro too. Soon I would watch mom play the games and she in turn would watch me. Every time I got stuck with a boss, I was too frustrated and afraid to even try to beat it, so I would hand the controller to her. I would hide in between my hands as she did it and she would say to me to watch so I would know what to do. I tried but after a while I put my hands back towards my eyes again. I guess I just wanted my mom to do the hard parts and I would pick up where she left off.
Spyro, has gotten more recognition with the Skylander series and seems to be reaching we within the new generation. However, in my opinion, nothing beats the original. Spyro was a part of my childhood and was one of the few games I remembered that led me to love videogames.
For those of you that have no idea what Spyro is all about, I will explain. Spyro the Dragon is a series of games that follows Spyro saving his world from different evils and saving dragons along the way. Of course the last titled Spyro game was Spyro; Dawn of the Dragon n the PS3 and XBox 360. They did have a series that was about where Spyro came from and those games came unto the Wii.
Spyro the Dragon has been a game that I can never put down. Even though the story of Spyro is linear, everything else about it makes it charming. The replay value is amazing and the series is a collect-a-thon for any complitionist. The one thing that really got to me though was the soundtrack.
The soundtrack is amazing. Some of my favorite songs come from the 3rd Spyro game Spyro: Year of the Dragon and other games of the series (except for the last game). It gives a real jazzy feel and makes me want to dance, even the boss music.
So why this post about a dragon? Well since Sony is bringing back (or by this time brought back) Ratchet and Clank and other games, I feel this series should make a comeback.
Do you agree? Please leave a comment below.
Dragons Rule!!!!!
image credit marvel
Press Release
Straight from the pages of Squadron Supreme comes the most brutal super hero in the Marvel Universe in a hard-hitting new ongoing series! Marvel is pleased to present your first look inside NIGHTHAWK #1 – the new ongoing series from fan-favorite creators David Walker (Power Man And Iron Fist) and Ramon Villalobos (E is for Extinction). He is Chicago’s lethal vigilante – dispensing swift and vicious justice to those who truly deserve it. But when the city’s shadiest power brokers begin turning up dead – each murdered more gruesomely than the last – Nighthawk must ask himself the hard questions. Does this killer deserve to be caught? What does he want? More importantly, what does the killer have to do with Nighthawk? To answer those questions – Nighthawk might have to look in the mirror first. The mystery begins here! Don’t miss one minute of the bone-crunching action when NIGHTHAWK #1 comes to comic shops and digital devices this May!
20th Century Fox has released a brand NEW trailer for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE! As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) and the Four Horseman. Check out the trailer below and get ready for X-MEN: APOCALYPSE in theaters May 27, 2016!
Read MoreThe sudden retirement of the famous idol Yuka Kusakabe from the entertainment business shocks the world and devastates her biggest fan, a teenager named Kosaku Hata. His classmates at the Tamo Agriculture School manage to get him out of his depression and bring him out of his room to attend his classes.
Read MoreLuffy’s impulsive attack on Gecko Moria ends up costing the rubber-man something he can’t 5live without – his shadow! When Zoro and Sanji find themselves in the same boat, the three fierce fighters must find a way to recapture what was lost, or face the possibility of death by sunlight.
Read MoreJ-POP SUMMIT 2016, one of the world’s biggest Japanese pop culture events, presents pop princess -- Kyary Pamyu Pamyu– for a special live concert performance in San Francisco at the Regency Ballroom on Friday, July 22nd to kick off the weekend-long J-POP festivities.
Read MoreThe new edition of the classic action epic from the Shonen Jump imprint covers a fan-favorite story arc of the series and will be presented in a vivid, full-color volume at a larger 6 5/8" x 10 ¼” trim size.
Read MoreThe 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival, co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff, and presented by AT&T, announced the winners of its competition categories at the awards ceremony at 42 W NY. Top awards went to Dean, Junction 48, and Do Not Resist. The Festival runs through April 24, 2016.
For the first time in the Festival’s history there were separate US and International narrative competition categories. In total winners were awarded in the following feature film competition categories: US Narrative, International Narrative, World Documentary, New Narrative Director, The Albert Maysles New Documentary Director, and the Nora Ephron Prize. Awards were also given in the short film categories: Narrative, Documentary, and Student Visionary.
In addition, the Festival announced the recipients of the Storyscapes Award, for immersive storytelling, and the inaugural Tribeca X Award, a new juried award for branded storytelling recognizing the intersection of advertising and entertainment.
This year’s Festival included 102 features, 74 short films, and 38 immersive storytelling projects from 42 countries.
“We are proud to celebrate the winning filmmakers, artists, and creators from our 15th edition,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder, Tribeca Film Festival. “Their stories have entertained, inspired, and challenged us to think about the world and we are grateful to them for sharing their work with us.”
Screenings of the award–winning films will take place throughout the final day of the Festival: Sunday, April 24, at various venues. Specific times and ticketing information are available at www.tribecafilm.com/festival.
The winners of the Audience Awards, powered by Infor, which are determined by audience votes throughout the Festival, will be announced on April 23.
In addition to cash awards and in-kind services provided by sponsors including AKA Hotel Residences, AT&T, Bira 91, Coach, Company 3, Freixenet Cava, HBO, Infor, and Netflix, the Festival presented the winners with original pieces of art created by 10 contemporary artists: Keith Edmier, Marc Hundley, Zak Kitnick, John Miller, Virginia Overton, Laura Owens, Josh Tonsfeldt Sara VanDerBeek, Stephen Hannock and Clifford Ross.
The winners, awards, and comments from the jury who selected the recipients are as follows:
U.S. NARRATIVEFEATURE COMPETITION CATEGORIES:
The jurors for the 2016 U.S. Narrative Competition, sponsored by AKA Hotel Residences,were Anne Carey, James Le Gros, Chris Nashawaty, Mya Taylor and Jennifer Westfeldt.
INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION CATEGORIES:
The jurors for the 2016 International Narrative Competition were Hany Abu-Assad, Jean Reno, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Danny Glover.
WORLD DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION CATEGORIES:
The jurors for the 2016 World Documentary Competition, sponsored by Bira 91, were Laura Poitras, Douglas Tirola and Roger Ross Williams.
BEST NEW NARRATIVE DIRECTOR COMPETITION:
The jurors for the 2016 Best New Narrative Director Competition were Hill Harper, Col Needham and Ry Russo-Young.
BEST NEW DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR COMPETITION:
The jurors for the 2016 Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Award were Jason Biggs, Karen Cooper and Sebastian Silva.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION CATEGORIES:
The 2016 Best Narrative Short Competition jurors were Mike Birbiglia, Chloe Grace Moretz and Sheila Nevins.
The 2016 Best Documentary Short and Student Visionary Award jurors were Maria Cuomo Cole, Mark Conseulos, Jessica Yu, Parker Posey and Alan Yang.
STORYSCAPES AWARD
The 2016 Storyscapes Award, presented by AT&T, which recognizes groundbreaking approaches in storytelling and technology, jurors were Jessica Brillhart, Jigar Mehta and Saschka Unseld.
THE NORA EPHRON PRIZE
The 2016 Nora Ephron Prize, sponsored by Coach, jurors were Rachael Leigh Cook, Judy Greer and Mary Stuart Masterson.
TRIBECA X AWARD
The Tribeca X award, sponsored by GE, jurors were Laurie Anderson, Scott Carlson, Judy McGrath, Liev Schreiber and Hank Willis Thomas.
FULL LIST OF ELIGIBLE 2016 TFF FILMS IN EACH CATEGORY OF COMPETITION:
U.S. Narrative Feature Competition:
International Narrative Feature Competition:
World Documentary Feature Competition:
Best New Narrative Director Competition:
Albert Maysles New Documentary Director Competition:
Short Film Competition:
Storyscapes Competition:
Nora Ephron Prize:
Tribeca X Award
For more information on all of the films in the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, please visit tribecafilm.com/festival.
About the Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival, now in its 15th year, brings together visionaries across industries and diverse audiences to celebrate the power of storytelling. A platform for independent filmmaking, creative expression and immersive entertainment, Tribeca supports emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning filmmakers, curates innovative and interactive experiences, and introduces new technology and ideas through panels, premieres, exhibitions, and live performance.
"Behave" is a fictional biography of Rosalie Rayner Watson; the wife and assistant of John B. Watson. Together they carried out The Little Albert Experiment; which studied classical conditioning in human beings. The novel starts with her time at Vassar and goes through Rosalie meeting John, becoming involved with him, and the experiment itself.
Though lovingly written, it was difficult to get fully into this book. The feel of it is poetic and lush but the main character seems so distant and cold it's hard to relate to her. It is not the writing at all because some of the descriptions are very detailed; even beautiful at times. But yikes, it was hard to pick this book back up if I put it down. And if Rosalie was distant, John was flat out unpleasant. You don't have to love babies but his flippant attitude towards his test subjects was grating. Despite being a pair of smart, capable characters; reading about them experimenting on these kids was distressing. Or maybe that's just me, I'm not a fan of making babies cry.
Overall, if reading about what Rosalie may have been like interests you and you are a fan of good writing, this book will please you. It's a solid 4 out of 5 since I just couldn't get over my dislike of the two main characters.
For more reviews and various hi-jinks, check out Lenni's blog at Haunting Hypatia.
Hey O&G fans, Capt. America: Civil War will premiere in a couple weeks which means two years from now, we will be preparing for the Infinity Wars part 1. This will start the end of the first three phases of the MCU. That being said, what will be the next storyline? What will be the next big threat?
The Russo brothers have been quoited to have access to atleast sixty MCU characters, heroes and villains. With that many characters at their disposal, Marvel Studios could plan out some interesting stories after the Infinity Wars. Here are some suggestions of Super Villain teams that would make great stories for the next phases of the MCU.
The Black Order (also known as the Cull Obsidian) are a group of alien villains that work for Thanos. They help Thanos conquer worlds where they demand tribute. Their first comic book appearance was in New Avengers Vol. 3. If Thonas is defeated at the end of the Infinity Wars, Marvel doesn't have to end his reign of terror there. They could use this team of villains to exact a more sinister plot for revenge. The members of the Black Order are: Black Dwarf, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Supergiant.
Millions of years ago, the Celestials performed genetic experiments on the reptilian ancestors of the Skrulls, resulting in three branches of Skrulls that eventually warred with one another. The Deviant branch—possessing the innate ability to shapeshift. The Skrulls would be a great for the MCU........ if Marvel Studio owned the rights (Hint,Hint, make the deal Fox) Having the Skrulls in the MCU, we could see the Secret Invasion story come to the big screen. This could also give Marvel the ability to change the Avengers line-up and add new characters.
The original Masters of Evil (consisting of existing Marvel Comics supervillains Black Knight, Melter, and Radioactive Man) was gathered by former Nazi scientist Baron Heinrich Zemo. The team has had different members and leaders: Egghead's Masters of Evil, Doctor Octopus' Masters of Evil, and Pre-Thunderbolts Masters of Evil. This would give Marvel the ability to mix and match Villiains for the MCU. Let's consider that they start with (Characters that might be introduced in Capt. America civil War) Baron Zemo, Crossbones, and Klaw. Leading up to Infinity Wars, Marvel could plant the seeds of these guys being the next big threat.
In the aftermath of the Skrull Invasion, Norman Osborn became head of the Fifty-State Initiative, the Thunderbolts Initiative and S.H.I.E.L.D.. He disbanded all three with different results. S.H.I.E.L.D reformed into H.A.M.M.E.R. with Osborn as its Director, the Thunderbolts became a secret black-ops team for him and his Cabal and the Fifty State Initiative came under his control after its founder, Tony Stark, was blamed for the Secret Invasion and became a hunted fugitive. This would be one the best storylines and Super Villain team for the MCU because with Sony and Marvel working on Spiderman reboot and now that the characters can interact, it could open up a huge story. Since some of the actor like Robert Downey Jr might end their run, this would be a good way to have him still in the MCU, but only with cameo's and introduce new characters. This also leads into my Number 1 Super Villain Team.
The Cabal (a.k.a. The Dark Illuminati) was formed by Norman Osborn, a covert group set against the aims of the scattered Illuminati, made up of Namor of Atlantis, Emma Frost of the X-Men, Doctor Victor Von Doom of Latveria, Loki of Asgard, and the criminal known as the Hood. With all the movies leading up to the Infinity Wars, the theme has been some shadowy figure with a sinister plot..... why not continue! After all is said and done, the storyline about the Dark Avengers and Norman Osborn would be perfect. Every Tv, Streaming, and Movie could be affected by the backlash and start a new Story with new characters.
What do you think of our List? Did we miss any groups that would fit better? Let us know in the comments.
by Sean Tucker
BAD RAP follows the lives and careers of four Asian-American rappers trying to break into a world that often treats them as outsiders. Sharing dynamic live performance footage and revealing interviews, these artists make the most skeptical critics into believers.
Written By Justin D Williams
Tribeca Film Festival 2016 had one very interesting showcase that caught my eye this year. This showcase was Tribeca Film Festival: Virtual Arcade. While the showcase did have one or two VR games to experience. The showcase main focus was to show what can possibly the future of movie interaction. The Virtual Arcade showcase 13 VR shorts/films and all. I must say that I was really immerse on how close to the action I was. I saw two films. One film focus on an actual carnival experience which had some horror elements. I was right in the middle as the performances were going on. This was something to see and for someone who isn't too fond of clowns, this was kind of a nerving experience when I turn around and saw a clown behind me. The way VR uses the cinematography to have to whole film play all around you is definitely going to be the future. I will go on record to say that the best thing that will happen to VR will be the horror genre. The way horror is going to be able to grab us by our emotions, the way we have to use our body to see what is behind us is going to be a huge hit. Other films were also great to see. Animation was also used very well in VR. I think kids are going to really gravitate to what will be happening in 2017. Overall I had a great time interacting with some new films and getting to see some cool stuff like the Shadow technology which operates on motions and touch. If this comes back in 2017 I'm surely going to go back and check more stuff out.
THE MAIDEN, a short thriller/horror film, made its online premiere exclusively on bloody-disgusting.com on April 18. Following the 24-hour exclusive, the film will live on the-maiden.com.
THE MAIDEN is the story of a real estate agent (Alia Raelynn) who is pushed to the edge as she struggles to close on a mysterious estate. As she goes about her business, she begins to discover that this house is not as deserted as it seems - and a very powerful and evil presence is working against her. The closer she gets to the sale, the more dangerous things get. Can she close on the house before its too late?
Michael Chaves wrote and directed the original short. The story was inspired by the real estate crash a few years ago. “I was fascinated by how corrupt it was,” said Chaves. “I’ve always loved haunted house stories, but I wanted some kind of a twist. I started wondering ‘what happens before the young family moves in? How was someone able sell something so evil?’
The film was shot on location in Los Angeles at the famous Beckett Mansion. Chaves produced the short with his family and close friends. He enlisted his high school best friend Tristan Nyby to shoot it. Michael’s wife, Dina Buglione, did the casting. His next door neighbor David Moore and Lynda Pribyl produced it with Chaves.
“We wanted to anchor it in reality, so we shot primarily with natural light,” said Tristan Nyby, Director of Photography. “Especially for a thriller/horror, the power is in believing this is real. The house had such an amazing structure that it shaped the light really beautifully.”
For more information please visit http://www.the-maiden.com.
Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheMaidenFilm/
Twitter, https://twitter.com/michaelchaves
Superhero movies are the hottest thing in Hollywood but is too much a good thing? Justin gives his take on the every growing franchise.
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