Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane and Yoshiki team up

Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane and X Japan's Yoshiki has teamed up for a comic book series titled Blood Red Dragon. It is set to debut at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 21 with Blood Red Dragon #0. It will star a superhero which is based on Yoshiki himself.

According to Pow! Entertainment, Blood Red Dragon #0 focuses on

"The origin of an ancient and benevolent force, locked in an epic battle with the dark armies of Oblivion. Creative expression and destiny collide, as once in a generation an individual is born with the potential to unlock the awesome might of the Blood Red Dragon, thus channeling a power beyond comprehension and assuming the mantle of Earth's protector. When agents of Oblivion discover that the key to accessing the Blood Red Dragon's energy lays in music—the melodic heart of the human spirit, they launch a series of violent attacks on musicians across the globe.  As he performs in front of a large crowd during the opening show of a massive world tour, drummer and keyboardist Yoshiki comes face-to-face with his destiny, experiencing a transformation that will forever change his life—and possibly the fate of the world."

IGN posted exclusive concept arts for Blood Red Dragon. Check them out here.

Sources: AnimeNewsNetwork, IGN, POW Entertainment

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All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation DS Gameplay Trailer

Previously, we have an entry about an upcoming game for the Nintendo DS called All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation. Well here is the gameplay trailer for it.

All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation will be released in August 4, 2011

Sources:
Official Site

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Anthem, new album "Heraldic Device"

Anthem is known as one of the innovators of Japanese Heavy Metal along with Loudness back in the 80's. Currently, Anthem's lineup consists of vocalist Eizo Sakamoto (EIZO Japan, formerly of Animetal and JAM Project), guitarist Akio Shimizu, bassist Naoto Shibata (of Konami's Naoto Shibata Project) and drummer Hirotsugu Homma (former drummer of Loudness)

After almost 3 years since their 2008 album Black Empire and several DVD's, the band will bring us a new album. It will be titled Heraldic Device and will be out in Japan on July 6, 2011.

Track List:
1. The Sign
2. Contagious
3. Go!
4. Blind Alley
5. Rockbound
6. Wayfaring Man
7. Code Of The Silence
8. In The Dead Of Night
9. Remains
10. Living Proof

Heraldic Device can be pre-ordered through CD Japan: Heraldic Device / ANTHEM

Sources:
Anthem Official Site

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Kamen Rider Fourze

What started as rumors more than a month ago is beginning to have a clearer picture. Before May 2011, word about the upcoming Kamen Rider series started. For the following weeks, a bunch of infos and images showed up around the net. Now the wait is over, take a first good look at the 13th Heisei Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Fourze.

(Wait, I saw a Circle, Triangle, Square and an X. Is that a Playstation button reference?)

The second scan proves his so called "Rocket Punch", his Astronaut/Space themed design and his appearance in the upcoming Kamen Rider OOO movie.

Kamen Rider Fourze will start airing on September 4th.

Sources:
JEFusion (check out their previous entries. this is where I've first heard about the rumors)
Henshin Justice Unlimited

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Gatchaman CGI Movie, Not Gonna Happen

IMAGI Holdings confirmed that the CGI animation movie adaptation of Tatsunoko Productions' classic anime Science Ninja Team Gatchaman has been discontinued.

It started after the 2009 Astroboy film earned less than US$40 million on a US$65 million production budget. As a result, IMAGI Animation Studio closed down. However, IMAGI Holdings remained and could still outsource animation on its adaptation licenses for Astroboy and Tatsunoko Production's Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (also known as G-Force in the Philippines and the US).

Instead, earlier this year IMAGI decided to bet on Chinese characters Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, along with their related consumer goods.

"We choose to buy the copyright of Pleasant Goat because of its influence as a national brand, like Mickey Mouse in the United States and the Japan's Hello Kitty," said Leung Pak To, director and chairman of the company. With the purchase of copyright manager Toon Express, Imagi began as relaunch as a character brand company. The company's 2011 financial results reported a loss of 82.2 million Hong Kong dollars (about US$10.5 million) related to Gatchaman and Astro Boy.

Well, there goes our chance to have a Gatchaman revival. All that we'll have is the trailer.

Sources: Anime News Network and Crunchyroll via Orends: Range

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Space Pirate Captain Harlock Movie

It's been a while since I first heard about this project from Toei. It's a 3D adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's Space Pirate Captain Harlock. As of now, still, no new trailers or promotional images are surfacing the net.

Here's the first trailer:

Space Pirate Captain Harlock follows the struggles of the titular Captain as he led a crew of outcasts aboard his starship Arcadia to undertake daring raids against Earth's oppressors. Thus, turning him into an outlaw.

Info about the project here.

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Power Rangers Samurai Game

In relation to my previous entry about an upcoming Super Sentai Game, the first trailer of the newest Power Rangers game to hit the Nintendo Wii and DS, Power Rangers Samurai has just been released! The game is set to be released this holiday season and will be published by Bandai Namco games.

It will be based on the current Power Rangers season. The gameplay will focus mostly on individual and team based battles and the Megazord battles against the forces of Nighlok

Sources:
Gamasutra
JEFusion

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X Japan Single "Jade" to be released June 28th

Since being performed for the first time back in May 2009, we'll finally get to hear the first track from the band's English debut album in it's finished studio version.

I'm talking about the song titled "Jade".

Written and produced by Yoshiki (the band's leader/producer/songwriter/drummer/pianist), "Jade" was recorded in Japan and at Yoshiki's own Los Angeles studio (the same studio where Metallica recorded its Black album). Also, according to his twitter post, the cover art was shot by Yoshiki himself.

"Jade" will be released as a single worldwide on June 28, 2011. Almost three years since X released their last single "I.V."

So for now, let's enjoy their first performance of this song.

Sources:
X Japan Official Website
AnimeNewsNetwork
JaME U.K.

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Gundam AGE Anime Trailer

Well time really flies because it seems only yesterday that we are so excited about the new Gundam series back then which was Gundam 00.

Here is the trailer for the new addition to the Gundam anime franchise, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE. This anime is produced by Sunrise and gaming company Level-5.

 

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE takes place over the course of a new timeline, the Advanced Generation era, during a "One Hundred Year War" where an Unknown Enemy appears and starts to attack Earth and colonies starting a full-scale war. The three main characters: Furitto, Asemu and Kio Asuno, pilots the Gundam AGE-1 to defend the Earth against the attacks.

So far, I can see some references to the previous Gundam series.

Kinda looks like RX-78, doesn't it?

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE will start this October 2011.

Oh, and a game is being developed for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE as well.

Check more details about it here.

Sources:
Gundam AGE Official Website
Gundam Wiki

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ToshI: Samurai Japan mini-album Review.

Samurai Japan is the last solo release from X Japan's vocalist Toshi. It is a mini-album with 4 songs. All written and produced by Toshi himself. Samurai Japan also features X Japan's Pata and Sugizo on guitars.

The first song "Airport" sounds like an X ballad without Yoshiki's keyboard-mashing piano riffs. The song shows that Toshi's voice is still in good shape. "Airport" focuses on the topic of memories... painful memories. Ideal for my playlist for sentimental days.

The second song, "Amaoto" (translated "Sound of Rain"), is a very slow ballad and is nine minutes long. Fit for an ending of a drama movie. This shows the influence of Toshi's healing music career. The violin pieces are done by Sugizo as well.

The third song, "Samurai Japan", attempts a sort of hard rock sound. We hear Pata in action on this one. It's upbeat, the audience can sing along and jump in it's melody but nothing fancy.

The final song "Haru no Ibuki" (translated "Breath of Spring") has nice acoustic riffs done by Sugizo. Still, it demonstrates the power of Toshi's voice. Consisting of just vocals and an acoustic guitar, this song turned out to be a very nice finale.

Overall, Samurai Japan is a mini album containing a set of very simple songs, It's not as showy as the materials from X which is a good thing. The songs are calm and can be relaxing. It is also a nice way for Toshi to say goodbye to his solo career (He did mention that he will be focusing on X Japan projects)

ToshI Official Website

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