What a wonderful day to wake up and read an academic article that supports fansubs This particular essay in the June 2008 issue of the Boston University Law Review journal has come out in support of some cases of distribution of fansub (fan-subtitle) versions of anime licensed for commercial release in America. “Lost in Translation: Anime, Moral Rights, and Market Failure,” written by law school student Joshua Daniels, argues that heavy editing of Japanese anime series for American release, as was the case with 4Kids Entertainment’s handling of One Piece, is a violation of the moral rights of its creators. The legal concept of moral rights holds, essentially, that the creator of a work of art or media has a right to present it to the public without alterations. Daniels also makes the case the anime fans specifically and the public in general have an interest in access to entertainment and art in its original, unedited form.

The content of the essay also notes that in some cases, heavily edited versions of anime series are the only ones that are available in the American market. However, these versions have frequently been failures from a commercial point of view. To address this apparent market failure, our man Daniels proposes a new rule that would be included in the American laws on copyright. Under the rule, if only an edited version of a foreign film or television program is available commercially in the United States, any individual or group would be allowed to create and distribute versions, such as fansubs, that are unedited. While unlikely to be implemented, the hypothetical rule could either be used by judges, or actually incorporated into the Copyright Act. Well, here’s me raising my cup of win if it DOES get implemented one of these days, not just for the USA, but also worldwide!

Have a read at his law journal here! (PDF version)

Be part of the Animax Youth Festival and have a fun filled weekend!

Artist alley!
Gaming tournament!
Cosplay competition!
Anime screening with special motion sync chairs!
Take home your own magazine cover shot!
Booth from the winners of “I wanna Be An Entrepreneur”!

That’s not all, join Animax/Seventeen model search for a chance to be in Seventeen magazine!

So, celebrate your youth with Animax on 8 - 10 August 2008, 12 noon - 9pm at 1 Utama Shopping Centre (High Street)!

Official Website: http://animaxyouthfestival.thestar.com.my
Discussion: http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=755859

Overall:

Response was lukewarm. The crowd just wasn’t there. The event itself was rather poorly coordinated. Cosplay competition and artwork competition schedules were also changed just one hour before both competitions started. Bad stage lighting made it hard to see what was going onstage. Venue isn’t anything to shout about but the audio equipment was horrible. At times, you could hear the music from the back of the stage, and occassionaly it would be from the front. Even participants for “Guess-the-song” had trouble hearing the song they were supposed to guess.

The crowd was also quite unenthusiastic about the event itself, crowd response was lukewarm until AMV movies were aired, which caught the crowd’s attention. A live band was also in attendance but the guitars were drowned out by the extraordinarily loud drums. There was no bass player as well.
(more…)

If anyone is staying nearby Zushi or Kamakura, head down to the Kamakura Beach now! The Shonen JUMP 40th Anniversary event awaits you! You’ll also be able to join in the stamping contest that is being held for the event

–> More pics

A big shout-out to the Taylor’s University College: Anime Society from Anime Shrine! Don’t miss their ANIME FEST 2008 on this Saturday, 26th July 2008, at the MPH Hall Taylor’s University College, Main Campus, Subang Jaya! Opening at 10am to 7pm, come and join the fun-filled activities featuring exciting on-stage games, cosplay competition, lucky draws, art contest, Step Mania, and much more! Checkout the official website and discussion thread on more info on how to get there! See you there tomorrow!

Venue:MPH Hall Taylor’s University College, Main Campus, Subang Jaya
Date : 26/07/2008(Saturday)
Time : 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Address: Taylor’s University College Main Campus
No. 1, Jalan SS 15/8, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

For futher enquiries: contact ZenAI at ghostmonkey889@hotmail.com or call 012-2020889.

Official website: http://animeintaylors.co.cc/taf08/

Discussion: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/669752

linkinstreet has the inside scoop of the latest anime-to-movie adaptation in development since the announcement of Dragonball movie, and its non other than Faye & the gang for a COWBOY BEBOP: Live-Action Movie! Coming from IGMagazine.com, they reported that film producer Erwin Stoff (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly) is developing the live-action adaptation multi-genre action anime series for Fox. Stoff told the website that the project is “in the really early stages” since the parties “just signed it the other day.” From the creator of CB, Shinichiro Watanabe’s original anime follows the motley crew of the spaceship Bebop as it travels throughout the solar system in search of odd jobs after jobs. Hardcore fans of CB can rejoice because Stoff promised “a real degree of faithfulness,” and included, “When I met with them in Japan, one of the first things that I brought up was the experience that we had on A Scanner Darkly, and how hard we worked to remain faithful to Philip K. Dick, and that was our big concern here.” Stay tune for more on this epic news after the warp-speed jump!

Source: http://www.ifmagazine.com/new.asp?article=6571

Discussion: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/749312

Absolutely an outstanding success for the recent ACGC 2008 (Animation. Comic.Game.Convention) at Gurney Plaza, Penang! Held on last 27th June - 29th June 2008, local crowds flocked the main entrance of the Gurney Plaza ground floor right from the morning itself! There were lots of exciting events and fun-filled activities for the Northern Malaysia convention:

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Game Challenge
• Hotlink Warriors Performance
• Presentation about DIGICOM 6 Animation Competition in Japan
• Presentation on the making of Namco Bandai’s TEKKEN 6 and a sneak preview of Soul Caliber 4 (Summer 2008)
• ACGC Cosplay Competition
• High Street 5 Online Dancing Game (Eagle Game)
• IPCC Competition Promotion (MDEC)
• Lineage II Online MMORPG
• MOL & MYCNX Games and Freedom Credit Card Promotion
• Showcase of Granado Espada (Sendi Mutiara)
• Showcase of Intel’s Latest Processor Super PC (Warmart)
• ACS’s Original Box PC & Console Games
• A big shout-out to AMCG Penang Community members for helping out the ACGC (you guys roxx!)
• And thanks a big bunch to Hotlink Maxis (ACGC Main Sponsor) for the cool goodie bags!

Last but not least, thanks to all the 25,000 crowds that attended the whole 3-days event! You guys are the main stars! Checkout the pics of the Penang event from the official ACGC website!

And for those that missed out on both these ACGC events in Berjaya Times Square (KL) and in Gurney Plaza (Penang), do not fret — for there will be a finale ACGC 2008 planned out in September 2008! Details will be updated at the official ACGC website, so be sure not to missed it this time! As for those who had attended before, hope to see you again this September 2008!

Official ACGC Website: http://www.acgc.com.my/

Summer! Fun in da sun baby!

1. Wonfes (Summer): 3/8/2008
Sauce: http://www.kaiyodo.co.jp/wf/

2. Comiket 74: 15/8/2008 - 17/8/2008
Sauce: http://www.comiket.co.jp/index_e.html

3. Japanese Characters and Hobby 2008: 30/8/2008 - 31/8/2008
Sauce: http://www.chara-hobby.com/

4. 2008 JUMP Super Anime Tour: 21/9/2008 - 23/11/2008
Sauce: http://www.jumpfesta.com/anime/

5. Tokyo Game Show 2008: 9/10/2008 - 12/10/2008
Sauce: http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/

Book your flight tickets early!

Or express how much you hate me for being in Tokyo here:

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/748979

Who doesn’t know Pikachu, the world’s most famous lightning-powered Pokemon? The chibi yellow pocket monster is so famous, that recently a newly discovered protein is named after him! The “Pikachurin” protein plays a role in the efficient transmission of kinetic vision information from the eyes to the brain, so the researchers named the protein after the Pokémon character known for its fast moves. The researchers expect that the discovery will help advance the treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, a major hereditary cause of blindness. Now if there is such a thing as a Pokemon periodic table of elements, Pikachu would be #001 (science joke lol)

Source: Daily Yomiuri

Started from 20th July to 21st July, the event was filled with lots of awesome programs such as a chance to meet the legendary Hiroshi Fujioka (Takeshi Hongo of Kamen Rider series), exclusive featurette of the anticipated 13th September 2008’s latest Ultraman movie entitled The Great Decisive Battle - 8the Super Ultra Brothers (Daikessen! Cho Urutora Hachi Urutora Kyodai), a Guilala Festival for the new Monster X Strikes Again movie, live stage performance by the great Akira Kushida (credited for singing the theme songs of Sun Vulcan and All Kamen Rider Unite!), live stage performance by Koji Moritsugu (Dan Moroboshi @ Ultra Seven), Bear Bricks Special Booth, Kung Fu Panda showing, and many many more! Not forgetting, the tonnes and tonnes of toys and figurines selling (the main attraction was Transformers, and yes… yours truly can’t help himself from buying some of it haha! :D) as well as kawaii cosplayers running around the event! Its been a while since a big anime event is held, and summer had just kicked off pretty good, glad I was there when it happened! Click below for more pics!

(more…)