SciFi Japan » Godzilla / Toho

SciFi Japan » Godzilla / Toho http://www.scifijapan.com/articles Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:53:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 GODZILLA 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION SOUNDTRACK CD Going Out of Print March 31st http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/11/godzilla-50th-anniversary-edition-soundtrack-cd-going-out-of-print-march-31st/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/11/godzilla-50th-anniversary-edition-soundtrack-cd-going-out-of-print-march-31st/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:19:53 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=12525 La La Land Records Special Thanks to Mark Banning

La La Land Records has made the announcement on their website that their great 2004 release of Akira Ifukube’s career defining score for GODZILLA (Gojira aka; Godzilla, King of the Monsters, 1954) is going out of print on March 31st. There are reportedly less than 120 copies left in their inventory so fans who missed out on this when it initially came out would do well to act fast. Another great incentive to purchase this CD is that it’s price has been reduced to $4.98! To order the GODZILLA 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, go to lalalandrecords.com/Godzilla. La La Land’s release boasts a significant upgrade in sound quality and is a no-brainer alternative for fans who cannot afford to track down a rather expensive copy imported from Japan. The only Japanese import still in print is the version from the GODZILLA SOUNDTRACK PERFECT COLLECTION which cannot be bought on its own. The 1993 Toshiba/EMI release as well as the version that came packaged with the score to RODAN are both long out of print. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/11/godzilla-50th-anniversary-edition-soundtrack-cd-going-out-of-print-march-31st/feed/ 0 UPCOMING PRODUCTS: SCI-FI REVOLTECH SERIES http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/05/upcoming-products-sci-fi-revoltech-series/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/05/upcoming-products-sci-fi-revoltech-series/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:00:18 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=12251

Next month Kaiyodo launches a line of highly detailed and articulated figures based on popular science fiction and fantasy characters. Photos courtesy of Anime Jungle. Alien © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Daimajin © 1966 Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. © 2010 Kaiyodo Co., Ltd. The Popular Toy Line is Expanded to Include Kaiju and Special Effects Movie Characters Author: John “Dutch” DeSentis Translations: Jim Ballard Source: Anime Jungle Official Site: kaiyodo.co.jp/revoltech Special Thanks to Tetsu Shiota Fans and collectors are probably familiar with the brand Revoltech, which is owned by the Kaiyodo Company of Japan. It is a series of super-articulated figures in the 4-6 inch scale and based on various popular characters from manga, video games, television, film, and anime. The name itself reportedly means “Revolver Technology” as the revolver joint is what gives the figures their super-articulation. Of interest to kaiju fans is the upcoming line, SCI-FI REVOLTECH, which will showcase popular characters from both east and west. The first figures up for release on April 1st are the Xenomorph from Ridley Scott’s ALIEN and the vengeful god DAIMAJIN from the Daiei movie series of the 1960s, followed on May 1st by Tsuburaya Productions' friendly beast Booska and Toho's Baragon (from FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD). Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/05/upcoming-products-sci-fi-revoltech-series/feed/ 0 Monster Attack Team Issue 8 Now Available http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/03/monster-attack-team-issue-8-now-available/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/03/monster-attack-team-issue-8-now-available/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:17:49 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=12337 Monster Attack Team Special Thanks to Michael G Keller and Edward Holland

After far too long an absence, the popular fanzine Monster Attack Team returns! Edward Holland and the late Joe Riley began Monster Attack Team (the name taken from the anti-monster team in RETURN OF ULTRAMAN) began in the early 1990s as a fan club for aficionados of Japanese science fiction and fantasy. It soon evolved into a Dallas, Texas cable access television show and a small newsletter that grew to become a fan favorite mag. The print version of Monster Attack Team ran for seven issues, edited by Ed Holland with the assistance of David May and Michael G Keller, and featured articles and contributions by authors such as Ed Godziszewski, Kip Doto, Bob Johnson, Kevin Grays, August Ragone, Daisuke Ishizuka, Norman England, and Damon Foster. Nearly 15 years after the last issue, Ed Holland and Michael Keller have brought back Monster Attack Team with Issue 8. The editors have rounded up an "all star" group of tokusatsu writers and historians and produced a massive, 132 page edition that matches the quality of those truly great English language genre publications The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal, Markalite, and Japanese Giants. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/03/monster-attack-team-issue-8-now-available/feed/ 0 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD Gift Pack Winners! http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/02/20th-century-boys-2-the-last-hope-dvd-gift-pack-winners/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/02/20th-century-boys-2-the-last-hope-dvd-gift-pack-winners/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:52:33 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=12140 VIZ Pictures Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese) Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Three SciFi Japan readers have each won a 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE Gift Pack containing the DVD, poster, and button. Photo courtesy of VIZ Pictures. © 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts /Shogakukan © 2009 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

Thank you to everyone who entered VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan's contest for a free 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2 DVD Gift Pack. The following randomly drawn entrants correctly answered all contest questions: Evan Brehany Joseph W. Whalen Wilton E. Newman Congratulations to the winners! Each of you has won a Gift Pack containing the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD, button, and theatrical poster. VIZ Pictures will be shipping the Gift Packs shortly so keep an eye on your mailbox. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/02/20th-century-boys-2-the-last-hope-dvd-gift-pack-winners/feed/ 0 SINKING OF JAPAN on UK DVD http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/01/sinking-of-japan-on-uk-dvd/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/01/sinking-of-japan-on-uk-dvd/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:17:17 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=12221

Tokyo crumbles in SINKING OF JAPAN, director Shinji Higuchi's big budget remake of the Toho classic SUBMERSION OF JAPAN. Photo courtesy of The Associates. © 2006 "Sinking of Japan" Production Committee Toho Box Office Hit Coming from MVM Entertainment on March 8th Source: The Associates press release Special Thanks to Louise Rivers

The 2006 disaster film SINKING OF JAPAN (Nihon Chinbotsu) will be released on DVD in the UK next week by MVM Entertainment. The movie is based on the best selling novel Japan Sinks by Sakyo Komatsu, and the previous film adaption, Toho's blockbuster SUBMERSION OF JAPAN (1973). SINKING OF JAPAN was a co-production among several companies; most notably Toho and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS). It was co-written and directed by Shinji Higuchi, the acclaimed FX director on the Heisei Gamera series who has gone on to helm hit films such as LORELEI: THE WITCH OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN (Lorelei, 2005). The special effects were directed by Makoto Kamiya of GODZILLA, MOTHRA AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK (Gojira, Mosura, Kingughidora: Daikaiju Soshingeki, 2001) fame. The film was a tremendous box office success across Asia. Distributor Tartan USA acquired North American rights and planned to release the movie on Region 1 DVD as DOOMSDAY: THE SINKING OF JAPAN in 2008, but the company went out of business before that could happen. The upcoming UK DVD will finally give Japanese cinema fans in the west a chance to see SINKING OF JAPAN. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/03/01/sinking-of-japan-on-uk-dvd/feed/ 0 VIZ Media DVD Releases for April 2010 http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/28/viz-media-dvd-releases-for-april-2010/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/28/viz-media-dvd-releases-for-april-2010/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:14:38 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=12186 VIZ Media, MediaLab press releases Special Thanks to Evelyn Dubocq and Erik Jansen

VIZ Media, LLC has announced their list of DVD titles scheduled for release in April 2010. This includes the final box set release of NANA, the next episodic releases of the popular BLEACH and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN series, and the latest box set release of NARUTO SHIPPPUDEN. Also releasing is the live action feature film, K-20: THE FIEND WITH TWENTY FACES, from VIZ Pictures. VIZ Media DVD titles are distributed (in English) in the U.S and Mexico by Warner Home Video and in Canada by Allegro. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/28/viz-media-dvd-releases-for-april-2010/feed/ 0 Review: Toho SFX DVD Collection by DeAgostini http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/22/review-toho-sfx-dvd-collection-by-deagostini/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/22/review-toho-sfx-dvd-collection-by-deagostini/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:17:21 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=11991

Japanese bookstores are now selling the Toho SFX DVD Collection which packages classic movies with a collectible booklet. © 2009 Toho Co., Ltd. © 2009 KK DeAgostini Japan Author: Ed Godziszewski Official Site: KK DeAgostini Japan

One of the recent trends in Japan is take movie and TV series that have long been marketed on video, LD, and dvd and repackage them a new way to sell them yet again to the public. The preferred approach is to produce a bare bones DVD, bundle them with an A4-size booklet, and introduce a new volume every 3-4 weeks, thus bypassing video sales arrangements and allowing the product to be sold as a book in bookstores. Always one to look for ways to sell the same movies to collectors many times over, Toho jumped on this bandwagon recently and intends to sell 55 titles from their special effects film catalog. Sold by a company named DeAgostini starting in September of 2009, the Toho SFX DVD Collection has been a huge seller in its first few months, moving well over 200,000 units of each of the 11 titles released to date. Not bad for films, many of which have had at least at least 6 different home video releases over time. So what do you get for your ¥1990 (roughly $22 at today's exchange rate) per volume? Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/22/review-toho-sfx-dvd-collection-by-deagostini/feed/ 0 Honoring Akira Kurosawa http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/20/honoring-akira-kurosawa/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/20/honoring-akira-kurosawa/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:41:37 +0000 Bob Johnson http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=11901 Stanford Theater, akirakurosawa.com

Director Akira Kurosawa, ca. 1952. Photo courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library.

The historic Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, California reopens this weekend after remodeling and is off to a huge and auspicious start. Beginning February 20 and running through March 30, the theater will feature an Akira Kurosawa Film Festival. The festival will feature no less than eighteen of Kurosawa’s classic films, starting with THE SEVEN SAMURAI, considered by many to be the greatest film ever to come out of Japan. Also on the schedule are such films as RASHOMON, THE BAD SLEEP WELL, IKIRU, THE LOWER DEPTHS, HIGH AND LOW, KAGEMUSHA, SANJURO, THRONE OF BLOOD, and RAN. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/20/honoring-akira-kurosawa/feed/ 0 Winter WonderFest 2010 http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/18/winter-wonderfest-2010/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/18/winter-wonderfest-2010/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:07:54 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=11846

Burning Godzilla roars over the crowd at Winter WonderFest 2010. Photo by Ed Godziszewski. © 1995 Toho Co., Ltd. A Look at the Winter Model and Toy Collectors Show Held in Tokyo on February 7, 2010 Author: Ed Godziszewski Official Site: Wonder Festival Owing to an accident in 2008 which occurred at the Tokyo Big Sight, former home of Wonder Festival, this biannual mega collectors event was canceled for the year 2009. But after securing a new venue at Makuhari Messe, WonderFest is back and bigger than ever. Ed Godziszewski presents a look Winter WonderFest with nearly three dozen photos of the latest Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman collectibles coming from Japan. Continued...
]]> http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/18/winter-wonderfest-2010/feed/ 0 Win a 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2 DVD Gift Pack! http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/08/win-a-20th-century-boys-2-dvd-gift-pack/ http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/02/08/win-a-20th-century-boys-2-dvd-gift-pack/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:37:37 +0000 Keith Aiken http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/?p=11444 VIZ Pictures Official Movie Site: 20thboysfilms.com (US), 20th Boys (Japanese) Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

VIZ Pictures is offering SciFi Japan readers the chance to win a 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE Gift Pack containing the DVD, poster, and button. Photo courtesy of VIZ Pictures. © 1999, 2006 Naoki Urasawa, Studio Nuts /Shogakukan © 2009 “20th Century Boys” Film Partners

The popular 20TH CENTURY BOYS (20-Seki Shonen) live-action movie trilogy is now being released on Region 1 DVD by VIZ Pictures and VIZ Media. The films are based on the critically acclaimed 20th Century Boys manga series created by Naoki Urasawa, which is a national phenomenon in Japan, selling over 20 million copies to date. The 20TH CENTURY BOYS movies were released in Japan by Toho and quickly shot to the top of the domestic box office. The three films made their US premieres at the VIZ Cinema in San Francisco in August of 2009. VIZ Pictures and SciFi Japan now follow up December's 20TH CENTURY BOYS 1: BEGINNING OF THE END Gift Pack Giveaway with a new contest for the second film in the series, 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE. SciFi Japan readers in the United States and Canada have a chance to win one of three Gift Packs, each with the 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD, the US theatrical poster, and a 20TH CENTURY BOYS button. The 20TH CENTURY BOYS 2: THE LAST HOPE DVD will be available for purchase on February 16th. The suggested retail price is $24.92. Continued...
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