How times flies. 20 years ago today, on March 7th 1992, the first episode of Sailor Moon aired in Japan. 5 years ago I wrote this short article commemorating 15 years. Not a ton has changed in the past 5 years. The manga is being released again and a lot of merchandise has come out in the past few months but the rights issues with this now classic 20 year old anime series remain the same. You just can’t walk into a store and buy the greatest anime series of all time in North America.

Take a moment to think back on the show, an maybe watch an episode or two.

There’s a Japanese live action Rurouni Kenshin film in the works. It’s set to be released on August 25th 2012. Rurouni Kenshin is a popular manga turned anime series about a samurai with a dark past who fights with a backwards sword and hangs around with women and children to be a nice non threatening guy. When Kenshin holds his sword backwards, you know he means business!

The trailer looks pretty good, and not totally crappy like other manga turned anime turned live action movies like Death Note which sucked more than most movies could ever dream of sucking. With a solid story as source material there’s no good reason for this movie to suck, but it still might, like Death Note, which sucked really bad. I didn’t see Shishio in the credits so that’s promising.

In the waning months of 1994, fans were packed in at theaters across North America waiting to see the Live Action adaptation of Capcom’s Street Fighter. Me, my mom, and my 9-year old brother were just three of these fans that were packed in at one theater ready to see what was sure to be a silver-screen celebration of the arcade fighting action that we enjoyed for years. What we got instead was a cinematic clusterfuck featuring Jean-Claude Van Damne, Kylie Minogue (before she was hot), and Ming Na (before anyone knew who she was), along with a host of no-names helping the directors obviously cash-in on the host of Street Fighter fans. Although Raul Julia’s performance helped to redeem the film. I’m not saying this out of respect for the deceased mind you (Street Fighter was Raul Julia’s last role as he died before it’s release), but out of all the actors on the screen, his was the most enjoyable to watch. That, and the awesome MC Hammer/Deion Sanders collaboration “Straight to My Feet” helped keep the film from being a total failure. Enough about that however. A few months earlier, on the other side of the Pacific ocean, our Japanese cousins were also gearing up for their own Street Fighter movie. Unlike us, the Japanese were treated to a cinematic masterpiece that bought the characters that we loved into a whole new light, and gave them voices and personalities in a way no other video game adapted work has done before and few have done since.
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The long anticipated fan made Sailor Moon movie has finally been released! You can watch the film online right now.

A great deal of effort has obviously gone into this fan film which features high quality costumes and effects and original music. The entire cast and crew did a great job putting this film together. Check it out and spread the word to other Sailor Moon fans.

Check out this trailer for “The Secret World of Arrietty”, a new movie which is coming to North America in February 2012. The film is by Studio Ghibli and the screenplay is written by Hayao Miyazaki, director of good movies like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky and bad movies like Ponyo.

The dub will star David Henrie and Bridgit Mendler, who play on again, off again couple Justin and Juliet in the Wizards of Waverly Place. It’s not easy being in love when one of you is a Wizard and the other is a Vampire who turned old after being bit by a Werewolf and then being young again. There are actually 2 dubs, the British version stars Saoirse Ronan, from Hanna and Tom Holland, from nothing I’ve ever heard of.

Keep reading to watch the intro to the Littles, the inspiration for this film:

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The live action Akira film has officially been green lit by Warner Bros. and the current front runner to play Kaneda is Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund. Plans are to start as early as February or March of next year.

So is Flynn Jr. a better Kaneda than Leo? Do you prefer this crappy photoshop to the one I did back when Powet.tv reported details on the movie’s director and writer?

A word to fans! Please don’t call this a remake, like fools at slashfilm and many others have done. Akira was a Manga before it was an Anime movie, so this simply an adaptation of that Manga in a different medium. We can still speculate about the validity of white people fucking it up, but it’s no more a remake than Dragonball Evolution was a remake of that shitty Anime Dragonball Z movie. Which one? Take your pick…

Source: Variety

In this past weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live a skit featured host Anna Faris as a character that looks quite familiar to Sailor Moon fans. The clip has Faris playing a Japanese anime fan and despite the similarities to Sailor Moon she mentions she is dressed as her own fan made character “Cherry Cherry Rock and Roll”.

Americans can watch the clip on Hulu:

The rest of the world can keep reading for the YouTube version which might not be around for long…

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Hey did you know there’s a Blade anime? Well there is, and Marvel has announced that the voice of Blade for the dub will be none other than Harold Perrineau, Michael from Lost. Will Harold be able to live up to the legacy left by Wesley Snipes, Sticky Fingaz and a bunch of people you’ve never heard of who voiced him in video games? With a great movie and TV show predating it, this anime has some tall shoes to fill.

The Blade anime has already started airing in Japan and will be playing on G4TV in January 2012 along with many other Marvel anime shows. We previously gave our thoughts on a number of these shows on the Powetcast back in May.

Keep reading to watch some footage from the Blade anime. [Read the rest of this entry…]