‘Ghost in the Shell’ Live Action Movie

Remember all the great Japanese animations that have had rumors of being turned into a Hollywood live-action movie? For example: Cowboy BebopEvangelion, and Dragon Ball Z?  (Oh wait, that last one was made into a laughably bad film.)

Well, you can add Ghost in the Shell to that list. According to Variety, DreamWorks owns the rights to the movie and has just signed on Scarlett Johansson to star as Major Motoko Kusanagi, the main character. It will be very hard to top the original Ghost in the Shell animated film. But I’ll be honest, if it gets made I will probably watch it just to see Scarlett Johansson in some of Major Kusanagi’s  outfits.

Speaking of a live-action Evangelion movie – there were rumors a few months ago that Michael Bay was interested in directing a Hollywood production of the franchise. Fortunately for any fans of Evangelion, he later squashed those rumors as completely made up.

 

End of Inuyasha (Finally)

Inuyasha - The Final ActFor any long-time Adult Swim fans out there, you probably remember in 2002 when Adult Swim expanded from a single block of Sunday night programming to include a second Saturday block dedicated to anime. And one of the first shows on the new Saturday anime block was Inuyasha.

Inuyasha, which originally aired 167 episodes in Japan, was a mainstay of the Adult Swim anime lineup through 2006. But despite its long run, the series ended abruptly without any conclusion to the major story arcs that had been in place for nearly the entire series.

In Japan, a new Inuyasha series was created and aired in fall 2009 through early 2010 that wrapped up the story, aptly named Inuyasha – The Final Act. It follows the last chapters of the manga, finally concluding the main story lines involving Naraku. Or so I hope, anyway – I have not read any of the manga or seen any plot information about the series.

But finally, after years of waiting, Adult Swim will begin airing Inuyasha – The Final Act on Saturday nights, starting this coming Saturday. But be warned: some of the voice actors have changed, most notably those that voice Kagome and Sesshomaru.

Even though I’m worried about Sesshomaru’s new voice, my DVR is already set for Saturday’s first episode!

Cowboy Bebop Returns to Adult Swim

Back in October, Adult Swim/Toonami lost the rights to air Cowboy Bebop (my favorite anime). Fortunately, that little problem was only temporary. Toonami announced that Cowboy Bebop will return in July, although they have not said the exact date (DirecTV does not list it next weekend).

Unfortunately, they are still expected to air the old standard definition version of the series (the HD version was released in Japan on Blu-ray last year).  That means they will probably continue to air the show without the regular end credits, which is a shame because the song, The Real Folk Blues, is a fantastic one. And the scenes shown behind the credits add important details about Spike’s past. Maybe one day Toonami will air the HD version and include the end credits again.