All Hail to the new King! ANN reports that Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex director Kenji Kamiyama will personally re-edit the eleven aired episodes of Eden of the East into a compilation movie called Air Communication that will open in selected Japanese theaters on September 26. Normally this would be really good or newsworthy event, but the existence of this compilation movie implies (at least in my eyes) that the already announced Eden of the East films The King of Eden (opens November 28th) and Paradise Lost (January 9th) will continue the story of the TV series!

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Another year has passed in the Affenheimtheater. Not an easy year for me as I’m no longer a student but bound to a full-time job that eats up most of my daytime. This is the main reason for the decreased posting frequency and length but I hope you didn’t notice this change in the quality of my articles.
If you’re reading this version, you probably didn’t know but the Affenheimtheater went bilingual just this February so translating my articles into (some weird kind of) English is another time consuming factor when writing new articles. But I think that being able to reach a much bigger audience with my content is worth this extra effort. Especially since this allowed me to meet so many new people that could really help me to improve this site for all readers.
The site also went through a small redesign in April which didn’t make everyone happy, but I hope that the new features added back then (and later on) did improve the usability and value of the site.
As every year, I’d like to thank everyone of you who visited the site in the last year and especially those of you who took their time and left over 3100 comments on the almost 600 new articles. I know it’s hard to comment when there are already comments in a language you don’t understand, but please feel free to speak your mind anyway. Trust me, no one will talk back at you if write something that has already been mentioned.
So thanks again and I hope you’ll keep on visiting this site for at least four more years!

An because some of you complained that there weren’t any prizes on the last anniversary, I thought of your shopping addiction this time. Everyone that leaves a comment naming four good (=creative) reasons why you should keep on visiting the Affenheimtheater takes part in a drawing for one of four vouchers each worth 20€ for Amazon.*, YesAsia, CDJapan or Play-Asia (your choice). Closing date is August 3rd at 23:59 (server time).

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The Japanese animation studio Picograph has released not one, but two new trailers for their new project Tailenders that’s currently under production helmed by Anime Innovation Tokyo (who also helped to jump-start Cencoroll). Judging from the trailers, this looks like a mixture of Redline/Red Line and Basquash! but reading the synopsis (stolen from the English website) makes me think that this could be a bit weirder:

The destiny of Tomoe Shiro, a formidable racer with a very promising career, experiments an U-turn when a serious accident puts his life at stake. He recovers miraculously, though, when his heart is replaced with the engine of his own racing car.
However, because of that very reason, race regulations demote him to the category of a mere mechanical part of the vehicle and is deprived from the right to participate as a pilot in regular races. Only in a far away colonial planet, along with a multitude of other charismatic pilots also vetoed from participating in regular competitions, he will be given the opportunity to race for his pride and the money of the prize. And so this exciting rally starts!

[via Manganimation]

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Bandai Visual has released the first pictures of the first (of four) Blu-ray Disc collections for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Blu-ray Disc Box that just break my poor little tachikoma-loving heart.
While the last Blu-ray Disc collection with the Laughing Man and Individual Eleven compilation movies, and Solid State Society was pretty much ugly as hell but included English subtitles, this one (coming from Honneamise on August 29th) would actually look great in my (and probably everone’s) collection but sadly won’t include English subtitles.
Oddly enough the English dub will be included (even if it’s only in lossy DD 5.1) again, so the sad lack of subtitles probably isn’t because of the usual licensee hullabaloo but because BV hates me and doesn’t want my money…

[via AV Watch & Bandai Visual]

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First details for Joseph Kosinski’s (director for Tron (2): Legacy) upcoming sci-fi project have popped up at ComingSoon.net and TheMovingPicture.net. While both sources agree on the title Oblivion (not related to the Bethesda role playing game) and the fact that the film will be accompanied by a comic graphic novel, the summaries on both sites are quite different:
ComingSoon.net:

The story is set in post-apocalyptic Earth, where civilization lives above the clouds and scavengers illegally collect artifacts from the polluted and destroyed surface below. When one young scavenger discovers a crashed spacecraft planetside–and a beautiful women within–he rejoices at the find. Little does he realize that his discovery will lead him to a journey filled with romance, adventure and unimaginable danger.

TheMovingPicture.net:

The story centers on a battle-damaged soldier who, assigned to a desolate planet after a court-martial, patrols the bleak landscape in an effort to destroy the last vestiges of a primitive alien race. When a mysterious traveler arrives unexpectedly, their lives become inextricably linked as they are forced to question everything they know about this world and themselves.

They both sound pretty interesting especially after seeing the Comic Con footage for Tron: Legacy and with the mentioning of David Fincher as one of the producers.

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Still feeling lost in the virtual world of OZ in Mamoru Hosoda and Satoko Okudera’s Summer Wars?
Fear not, as the Japanese marketing machine has brought us an almost five minutes long tour or rather tutorial just a few days before the theatrical opening on August 1st. If you listen closely, you can even hear the original English (I guess OZ is pretty international) narrator over the Japanese voice over. The clip also shows a few new scenes from the “real” world, but nothing too spectacular.

[via Manganimation]
Update: According to ANN, the video above shows the first five minutes of the film!

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On this years New York Asian Film Festival, director Sion Sono presented his four hour epic Love Exposure and after that offered himself for an Q&A session with the audience.
Luckily for us, the New York Japan Society captured the session and uploaded it on their Youtube Channel.

[via Wildgrounds]

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After the first details, release date and screenshots from the very first trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls, here’s the short film that started the soon to be trilogy. Assault Girl ~Hineko The Kentucky~ is Oshii’s contribution to the 2007 short film omnibus True Female Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (Shin-Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden) [IMDb] which should explain all the KFC references. Assault Girls love chicken!

[via Quiet Earth]

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Welcome to another ride in the Akira rumor carousel! After the live-action adaptation of Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s Akira manga has been declared dead back in June, Japanator reports that Warner is indeed still actively working on the script.
At least this is what producer Andrew Lazar let slip during the Comic Con panel for the comic adaptation Jonah Hex starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox.

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The first trailer for the Chinese historical comedy Panda Express (Xiong Mao Da Xia) has popped up at MTime. I couldn’t find any summary or description but it looks like this is some kind of parody of martial-arts classics with some guys wearing panda hats…

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