japanamerica

Last week in Tokyo I had a nice chat with Takeshi Koike. Koike directed "World Record" for The Animatrix, and has worked feverishly on his first feature film, Redline . (Contrary to many published reports, Redline will NOT be premiering at the Annecy Festival next month in France.) I reference some of our conversation in my latest column for the Daily Yomiuri , but will use more, together with a review of the forthcoming film and comments from noted screenwriter Katsuhito Ishii in a U.S. magazine feature due out this summer. Methinks Redline will be something special, and Meknows that MIT professor Ian Condry's visit to Tokyo later this month, with his live anime show , will be spectacular. More soon. SOFT POWER, HARD TRUTHS / 'Redline' director Koike's otherworldly ecstasy Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri At this year's edition of the Tokyo International Anime Fair, Tohokushinsha Film Corp. devoted nearly its entire booth to Madhouse's

Click above for a video podcast (or click here if it looks wonky and incomplete) featuring interviews with cosplayers and a bloke named Kelts at Sakura Con 2009 (the Pacific Northwest's largest anime/manga/J-Pop convention) last month, courtesy of the fine folks at Backroom Comics.  Admittedly, it's not my finest hour (or 30 minutes, to be more precise), as I was exhausted by travel and a talk I had moderated moments earlier, but the questions were pleasantly probing and I managed to cleave my tongue from my palette long enough to answer a few.  And below is my latest column for the Daily Yomiuri,  reflecting on the crowds and the cash infusion in Seattle as a direct result of this year's Sakura Con.  Couple of quick caveats: the 20,000 attendee figure was based upon an estimate available at the time I was writing the column (as I note); the official figures I've seen more recently peg the tally at 16,500-plus per day -- still a record-breaker. Also, the $13 million i