Today during Otakon Viz Media announced that they are planning on releasing Ranma ½ on Blu-ray and DVD. While the company previously released the series on VHS and DVD many years ago, this is the first time that the series will ever be available on Blu-ray in North America.
Besides the physical releases, of which no timetable has been currently set, Ranma ½ will also begin airing both on Neon Alley this Fall as well as streamed on VizAnime.com. It is interesting to note that Rumiko Takahashi‘s series originally ran between 1989 and 1992 in Japan and had 161 episodes and multiple movies aired during that time-frame.
Cecilia Jin is a teacher, a storyboard illustrator, a concept artist and she works a great deal in magazines, not to mention that she’s an all around incredible artist and Anime/Manga-lover so it’s only natural that she had her own, seemingly little, workshop on the Main Stage of the Art Room at SMASH! 2013. Cecilia sat on stage, on her own and, despite a few technical difficulties, rocked a room packed full of eager art-fans with her extensive knowledge and raw talent. What started off as a “small workshop/art panel” grew into it’s own miniature event, as people who were just “passing through” stopped to sit-in on Cecilia’s teachings and it got so crowded that the SMASH crew even had to close the doors until the panel was over.
An incredible drawing of a creature done by Cecilia.
Cecilia ran through so many incredible different aspects of art whilst also giving us all small hints and tips on how to make ourselves better artists and on how to further our practice. She showed her own drawings, both from years ago and her most recent ones, and allowed us to see the development of a talent through years of training and practice. She started off her time by telling us to re-think all we know about drawing anime, she told us that before we can learn to draw the distorted cartoons that we see on paper or on the screen we first have to learn the way to draw and bring to life proper anatomy. She introduced us to five different points, five different and effective ways to get a full grasp on drawing proper anatomy: Draw as a whole, understand motion and form, copy the masters, get critigue and to practice and have patience.
An example of using shapes.
She explained that using shapes as guidelines are great but they should only be used as guidelines and nothing else because the human body does not just look like a circle and an oval stuck together, it’s much more than that, it is more intricate. Starting with what you’re comfortable with is a big “no no” to Cecilia, she told us that we should never start with what we’re good at because once you’ve finished the good parts of your drawing; the rest of it will fail to be as good. She suggested that we learn the way the body flows, the way the muscles sit on the bones and the way the spine is curved. “It’s like taping little beanbags to a stick” is the way she explained how muscles should sit on bones. “Learn from the best!” she said as she continued to explain to us that, while making sure not to fully plagiarize, it is always good to copy the works of your favourite illustrators to see how they create, “you will learn from them”.
A beautiful coloured work of Cecilia’s.
Being critiqued is the best way to quickly learn what to focus on, she told us to show a friend, to point out what YOU think is wrong and to return to that piece later to fix what you’re not too happy with. “Flip the picture, leave it for three days, view from afar”. At this point in time some of the audience, including me, began reaching into their bags and bringing out their sketchbooks to draw along with what she was saying. We were told to draw with a goal in mind, working on specific things within a drawing is the best way to master those drawings. Cecilia then ended her talk by saying:
“Draw complicated poses and actions! If you can draw a character in an action pose you’ll find that it will be much easier to draw that character standing still.”
Body structure.
To end her panel/workshop she did a bit of free drawing of her own, she called out into the audience for suggestions on what to draw, unfortunately for her what she got was “Unicorn, octopus and wolf” but she was more than happy to draw all three of those things together as one animal which ended this panel in such a fantastic way. You could tell that the audience was impressed and each person definitely took away something from the hour we were all in there.
Anime/Manga fanatics and artists seem to go hand-in-hand and you definitely saw that this year at SMASH! 2013 in the “Art Room” which was a dedicated, let’s say, sanctuary for all us artists out there, a place where we could come in, sit down and bust out some awesome Anime and Manga style drawings. Let’s just say that I was lucky to have been able to spend most of my day in this place because it made artists and art-lovers feel right at home. There were tables of people just free-drawing all day in comfort and while surrounded by friends. The SMASH! team had set up large pieces of hanging paper for people passing through to doodle on throughout the day in the hopes that, by the end of the day, we’d see some incredible mixes of styles and artworks. Mission accomplished!
Our lovely Cosplay model!
Alongside the free-drawing sessions that ran all day was the Cosplay Life Drawing sessions. The Cosplay Life Drawing sessions gave artists the chance to show a bit more of their skills, they did this by having a real Cosplayer head into the center of about six or seven tables, strike a pose and let the group of artists to their best. Anyone was eligible to draw and it was open to all ages and all drawing styles. As I took pictures I was even offered a seat by one of the SMASH! staff, unfortunately I didn’t hang around but had I had the time I would’ve definitely tried it out.
Concentration is key, so it seems…
There were constant murmurs of people sharing how they go about drawing their style and how they could improve on it. People continuously flocked to the Art Room throughout the entire day for both the Free Draw and the Cosplay Life Drawing. It was nice to see the Anime and Manga-loving community come together so tightly to bond over something such as art and illustration specifically and I hope to see it in the coming years because it was a hit and everybody loved it!
Homegrown Manga artists Kelly Green and Ngoc Han Nguyen ran the “How To produce Manga” panel at SMASH! 2013 this year and what a great job they did at it! You know a day is going to be fantastic when it, more or less, begins with a panel on how to produce Manga and when it’s a panel as good as this one you know that what follows in the day will be just as good. Both Kelly and Ngoc have been immersed in the world of Anime and Manga for many years and have both studied and produced Manga in their time so they were the perfect duo to be up on stage giving us “young hopefuls” some interesting and helpful tips.
Kelly Green and Ngoc Han Nguyen
They went through the different types of Manga that one can create and explained each of them to us. From Shonen to Dojinshi they explained both the positive and negative sides as well as what to do and what not to do when creating such types of manga. The audience was introduced, once again, to the “5 Ws” which are; who, what, when, where, why. Kelly specifically went on to explain that, in Manga, you cannot just “put something in because it’s cool“, an artist needs to fit everything into the universe he/she has created and, even though it’s a fictional world, it still has boundaries and rules that need to be followed. No matter how crazy it is, the story needs to be honest.
Kelly Green’s Shonen Manga Example
Both Kelly and Ngoc had also done some drawings for the audience beforehand that showed their takes on the different Manga types and how they would portray it. They showed us their very own Manga panels and took as through ways to set out drawings and scenes so that it grabs the audience. The key piece of information that they had given us was to make pages flow in a way that forces the audience to turn the page in suspense which can be done in many ways; having a panel closest to the corner to lead a reader on or having a scene on the turn of a page that will startle or intrigue a reader were just two great ways they outlined.
Almost wrapping up.
Social Networking was mentioned, by the ladies, to be a fantastic way to spread your name and gain a following and how through that somebody can start a great career in illustration so it’s all about “getting yourself out there“. “Do NOT buy How To Draw Manga books!“, Kelly went on to explain that they teach you the very basics and the way to get good is to draw from real life and, most importantly, you must “draw what you see”. Before leaving us for the day the ladies explained that you can not just become a Manga artist overnight, that it takes hundreds and hundreds of hours to master an art yet that shouldn’t discourage people at all because it is the passion in a work that makes it a success and we should all aim to put that passion on the page.
We have known for some time now that the Hatsune Miku V3 English version was going to be released by Crypton Future Media sometime soon, but until today we had no idea exactly when that release would happen.
Well today it was revealed that the company is planning on releasing the Vocaloid software in North America on her sixth birthday, August 31st, the same day as one of her concerts. The downloadable version of the software will cost $149.99while the physical copy hasn’t been given a price or a release date as of yet.
The downloadable package will include the English vocal database, the vocal editor Piapro Studio, over 200 PreSonus sound files for instruments and the Studio One 2.5 Artist Piapro Edition digital music workstation software. To commemorate the release date announcement the company also released a video of the song “Six Greetings” by Kikuo which demos the enhanced Japanese version of the software.
Today Seven Seas Entertainment has announced that they have picked up a new yuri romance manga from the well known Morinaga Milk. The manga series is called Gakuen Polizi and began running in Japan’s Futabasha’s Comic High! magazine in 2012.
Seven Seas Entertainment has provided the below story synopsis for the manga:
As a child, Sasami Aoba fantasized about becoming a defender of justice, like the magical girls and “Sentai Rangers” she admired on TV. Years have passed and now Sasami has become a police officer herself. Her first assignment is to infiltrate Hanagaki All-Girls High School and ferret out any trouble she may find.
On her first day posing as a student, Sasami is shocked to discover that a supposed book thief at school is actually a fellow undercover police officer, Sakuraba Midori. What’s more, Midori insists that she herself is the officer in charge of the school, not Sasami. Will the two girls become rivals, partners…or something more?
Currently Seven Seas is planning on releasing the first volume of Gakuen Polizi in June 2014 with the second volume expected to be released sometime in Fall of 2014.
Developer Creative Assembly and publisher SEGA have announced that everyone who purchasing the upcoming strategy game Total War: ROME II will also be able to participate in an advanced beta of their free-to-play MMO Total War: ARENA that was shown off at GDC this year. But even more than just the early access owners of ROME II will also get special Legion bonuses for ARENA.
These bonuses will give players in-game Legion Armory items, “Legion” status for Total War: ARENA and about $15.00 (USD) of in-game currency. Though there are some terms and conditions, so players wanting the full details should probably check out the full details from their website. Plus, ARENA wont be ready immediately upon release of ROME II either.
Total War: ROME II will be releasing September 3rd, 2013 for PC, so players hoping to get the full experience of Roman combat, but don’t forget about Hannibal though, should be prepared and those that do should keep an eye out for the Total War: ARENA beta access.
Join Capsule Computers editor Joe Morgan as he recaps all of the video game, anime, movie, and manga reviews for the week of July 29 – August 3, 2013. This feature is intended as a way to give you, our readers, a quick recap of every game we’ve reviewed on the site each week. The goal is to let you get the review information you want in five minutes or less.
At their industry panel at SMASH 2013, Hanabee Entertainment made several major announcements regarding future releases and license acquisitions. They revealed that they have acquired the following titles:
Princess Knight – the Osamu Tezuka anime classic, planned for release in September on both DVD and Blu-Ray with English audio only.
Hakuoki: Dawn of the Shinsengumi – the third season of the Hakuoki series and also a prequel to the first season. It is planned for release in November on both DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio.
Hiiro No Kakera: The Tamayori Princess Saga – the second season of the Hiiro No Kakera series. It is planned for release in November on both DVD and Blu-ray with dual audio.
Not only did they announce these new acquisitons, but they also confirmed the release plans for the Rooster Teeth series RWBY. It was announced that RWBY will release on both DVD and Blu-Ray in November with English audio only.
It was undoubtedly an impressive showing by Hanabee, especially with the licensing of a work from the legendary God of Manga Osamu Tezuka. Please stay tuned for further updates on Hanabee releases as news surfaces.
Madman Entertainment made several acquisition and release announcements during their industry panel at SMASH 2013. Alongside updating on previously announced titles, Madman confirmed that they have acquired the license for the following anime titles:
Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – Commonly known as C3-Bu, while they did not confirm any plans for a physical release of the series they confirmed it will begin streaming on the Madman Screening Room by the end of this month.
Maou – The full Japanese name of this series is Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, it appears Madman will be releasing it simply as Maou. Other than that no release plans were given for this title as of yet.
Date A Live – There are plans to stream this series in the Madman Screening Room, however no date has been confirmed. There was also no details given for a potential physical release of the series.
Other than those announcements, Madman shed some light on the situation regarding Sword Art Online and Guilty Crown. Many fans have speculated that both series have been delayed. However we now have some clarity on these releases.
Madman have confirmed now that Sword Art Online will start being released in early 2014 with the first of four volume releases. Each volume will feature dual audio and roughly 6-7 episodes a pop. Sword Art Online will be available in both DVD and Blu-Ray releases, on top of that there will be some extras included with the releases such as a collector’s box with the first volume.
As for Guilty Crown, it will be released in much the same way as Sword Art Online, in volumes for both DVD and Blu-Ray, bundled with some lovely extras. It will also feature dual audio. The first volume for Guilty Crown is slated for release in November.
Finally Madman revealed plans to release a new line of Kids manga which will begin with Pokemon Adventures and The Legend of Zelda box set manga in September.
All in all it was a great showing for Madman and it was definitely good to get some clarity on the releases of Sword Art Online and Guilty Crown. Stay tuned for further updates on the release plans of the newly acquired titles as they come to light.
Today during Otakon Viz Media announced that they are planning on releasing Ranma ½ on Blu-ray and DVD. While the company previously released the series on VHS and DVD many years ago, this is the first time that the series will ever be available on Blu-ray in North America.
We have known for some time now that the 
