Archive for the ‘Feature’ Category
More Anime on Film4 Thanks to the Queen?
Posted by Ian | Filed under Feature, Portfolio
The head of the monarchy has a huge role to play in the UK, although a lot of what our Queen does today is ceremonial, a huge amount of ultimate power rests in the hands of her office. However, when Parliament returns from their break and the Queen’s Annual Speech is made, it’s normally just a piece of prescripted literature by the government in power at the time, outlining their vision for the future. Or in election years, as we will soon be facing, their campaign agenda.
What makes this year slightly different to the usual hollow campaign agendas is something very specific to broadcasting. Broadcasting in the UK has been suffering heavily since the turn of the year, with the recession hitting advertising revenues hard, thus impacting the profitability of ITV, Channel 4, Five and the rest of the digital channels. The BBC have managed to escape seemingly OK, with the exception of the weekly Daily Mail article that attacks their “overpaid” talent or “there’s too much management and middle management and none of them should be paid more than the Prime Minister; who, incidentally, we don’t like anyway” – this is due to the fact that the BBC is entirely paid for by the license fee. BBC Worldwide, World Service and America are all private companies funded by advertising or with the World Service actually funded by the Government directly.
ITV are private and have been hit hard with some bad investments and hit even harder with the fall in advertising revenue, although this year’s X-Factor and Katie Price appearing in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here will help their viewing figures and by extension their bank balances greatly. Channel 4, on the other hand, is in a very unique position.
Channel 4 has advertisements on its station, that’s clear to see. Anyone who switches over to Channel 4, or any of the digital stations such as Film4, More4 and 4Music all have advertising. This is what a commercial station has to do to survive in this cutthroat world; however, Channel 4 is also partially funded by the License Fee as part of the Channel 4 charter is to provide “Public Service” programs. This year the Queen’s speech extended this remit to include film and importantly they need to back film and potentially have even more to do with the UK Film Council.
The UK Film Council are incredibly influential for British Films and are also incredibly influential about what films get additional marketing budgets, by their own definition they are:
The UK Film Council (UKFC) was set up in 2000 by the Labour Government as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It is constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and is funded through sources including the National Lottery.
Sophie, The Witch of the Wste, Markl and HeenTo many this still means nothing and even less relevance on a UK Anime and Manga website; however, the UKFC have been supporting the anime and asian cinema scene in the UK since it’s creation in 2000, which can be seen by the table below:
Anime and Western Animation:
| Title | Distributor | Fund | Total allocated |
| Waltz With Bashir | Artificial Eye Film Company Ltd | National Lottery | £250,000.00 |
| Persepolis | Optimum Releasing | National Lottery | £180,000.00 |
| Howl’s Moving Castle | Optimum Releasing | National Lottery | £150,000.00 |
| Belleville Rendez-vous | Metro Tartan | National Lottery | £80,000.00 |
| Spirited Away | Optimum Releasing | National Lottery | £40,000.00 |
Japanese/Chinese live action:
| Film | Distributor | Fund | Total Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curse of the Golden Flower | Universal Pictures International UK & Eire Ltd | National Lottery | £300,000 |
| Lust Caution | Universal Pictures International UK & Eire Ltd | National Lottery | £200,000 |
| Mongol | The Works UK Distribution Ltd | National Lottery | £150,000 |
| House of Flying Daggers | Pathe Distribution Ltd | National Lottery | £100,000 |
| 2046 | Tartan Film Distribution Ltd | National Lottery | £80,923 |
| Zatoichi | Artificial Eye Film Co Ltd | National Lottery | £70,000 |
| I’m A Cyborg | Tartan Film Distribution Ltd | National Lottery | £20,000 |
Any anime fan will immediately see that without the help of the UKFC that the likes of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle may not have received a UK airing, or only had a very limited run. For Asian Cinema fans, The Curse of the Golden Flower, Mongol, House of Flying Daggers and Zatoichi are all amazing films and Curse of the Golden Flower would simply not have made it across to the UK without their help.
Gong Li as the Empress in Curse of the Golden FlowerChannel4 and specifically Film4 being legally required to have more to do with film and by extension more to do with the UK Film Council has untold benefits for the British film scene, but will also greatly benefit the distribution and mainstream appeal of anime and Japanese cinema in the UK. In comparison to many of the European countries, anime in the UK is tiny; it’s fans overly fussy and release timescales fairly prompt. Yet, aside from the odd murder where anime and manga is blamed, anime is virtually unknown in the UK, there are the children’s TV shows which are just orange ninjas or mystical pets attacking each other. There’s no mainstream acceptance.
Now that Film4 are legally required to have more to do with film, it’s a good bet to say that they will have influence over the UKFC. Film4 have backed many great British films and are already firmly behind Anime and the Asian Cinema. Which can be seen as recently as last week with their Asian Cinema Season and Grave of the Fireflies being aired in a few weeks time. With Film4 on board we will surely start to see an increased trickle of Japanese films. With much potential for anime films (such as Angel’s Egg, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and if we’re lucky some of the Tenchi Muyo films) to receive real cinema releases and more TV timeslots, rather than the same tried and tested Studio Ghibli fare.
Thanks to Andrew’s blog for the figures above and for Film4’s Twitter Feed for pointing out the new law.
Tags: Anime, Feature, News-Anime.com
Jade Screen Volume 6 Issue 2
Posted by Ian | Filed under Feature, Interview, Portfolio
Tags: Anime, Feature, Interview, Jade Screen Magazine
Jade Screen Magazine – Volume 6 Issue 1
Posted by Ian | Filed under Anime, Feature, Portfolio
The below two scans are from my column at Jade Screen.
*Please click for full size
Tags: Anime, Feature, Jade Screen Magazine
20 Years of Gameboy
Posted by Ian | Filed under Feature, Portfolio
With all of these riches and changes the growing Nintendo company released what was to become one of the best selling consoles of all-time and create a legacy that to this day has floated the company in times of peril – the Gameboy. Originally released in Japan on the 21st April, 1989 it became a worldwide success within weeks, selling over 118 million units (including the GBC) in twelve years. Which amounts to over 15,400 units per day over the twelve-year worldwide history of the Gameboy.
The 8-bit system fended off many attacks during the early years from various competitors in the industry at the time. When the Gameboy was originally being released Atari was still a player in the console market and had recently introduced the Atari Lynx to the world – which had many of the features that are now standard from the Gameboy Advance such as backlit screen, decent colour graphics and networking capabilities. When comparing the two consoles directly, it’s a wonder the Gameboy managed to survive.
Although Lynx wasn’t alone in it’s attack of the Nintendo Gameboy. Sega tried to get in on the action in the early 90s as well with the Sega Gamegear, which again had a colour display, great games and connectivity with the Sega console of the time – the Sega Mega Drive. Unfortunately the launch price was $150, which was nearly $100 more than it’s closest competitor. Unfortunately for Sega the system sold only one third of what Tetris alone managed on the Gameboy and the system was dropped in 1997.
Let’s hope for another 20 years of greatness from the handheld market by Nintendo!
Best UK Games of 2008
Posted by Ian | Filed under Feature, Portfolio
By Ian Brown
Before we enter the New Year, with the traditional sound of Big Ben bringing the UK into 2009, it’s time to reflect upon the top games that we’re going to be leaving behind from 2008. This year for UK gaming has been pretty good, with some more unique titles such as Etrian Odyssey and Baroque being licensed as well as the good old fashioned AAA games from Nintendo.
Unfortunately, the latter is so niche that it can’t possibly be included in a list of games to be remember – although I wish I could let myself do that! However, there were plenty of other fantastic games that need to be remembered and replayed in the early parts of 2009, and in no real order those games are:
Translated by Atlus USA and then released and distributed in the UK by none other that Nintendo UK, Etrian Odyssey is one of those games that you’ll either love or hate. It doesn’t hold your hand at all, and is the epitome of dungeon crawler to the oldest sense. With only a few save points and a lot of backtracking to get further on in the game, it’s made for gamers who have many hours to spend gaming their days away.
See our review of Etrian Odyssey here.
LostWinds came out very early in 2008, or at least it feels like a very long time ago now! With one of the finest uses of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to date on any platform, this WiiWare game entered the gaming realm with much fanfare and press activity.
A short and enjoyable game where you control both the wind and the main character at the same time with the use of both the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck, although it sounds hard it really isn’t. The controls are intuitive and fluid. A must have on the WiiWare.
See our review of LostWinds here.
The first Sonic game in a long time not to be made by the internal Sonic Team at SEGA but by BioWare, which alone generated a fair bit of press for our little blue friend. Fortunately the press was all positive and rightly so.
Taking Sonic away from the super speed that we are accustomed to, Sonic became more of an RPG with turn-based battles, a large, interchangeable team and various characters from across the franchise. Sonic Chronicles was met with some criticism from the anti-Sonic factions of the world, but on the whole this was a great game. In fact, one the first few levels have been passed Sonic is a fabulous game.
See our review of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood here.
After causing a little controversy with the multiple reviews from our US team, Super Smash Bros Brawl came out in the UK – but far too late. Even so, it managed to gather the attention of all core-gamers of the Wii in the UK and sold incredibly well.
Continuing on from previous iterations of the Smash Bros. Franchise, Super Smash Bros. Brawl contains dozens of unseen characters in the past, and for the second time in the same year did the once unforgivable – merged Sonic and Mario in one game.
See our Super Smash Bros. Brawl review here.
When Nintendo released Brain Age a few years ago, it was the start of the casual game influx that’s existed on all formats ever since. Professor Layton was an attempt to try and pacify core-gamers whilst maintaining the forward thinking of the casual titles. Fortunately this worked and Professor Layton combines Brain Age type puzzles in a very story rich environment with traditional goals for core-gamers.
Owing to this, it’s been marketed at core-gamers and casual gamers alike and has achieved a fair amount of success – showing a “left of centre” game can be for everyone and be good.
See our review for Professor Layton and the Curious Village here.
Created by Koei, Opoona is a RPG that’s aimed a slightly younger audience initially. With its very unique look, addictive storyline and simple gameplay, Opoona was criticised for being “too easy” for older RPG player. Fortunately this is all erroneous as once players actually get into the game, the difficulty does increase and you’ll want to save Opoona’s sister and get them off the planet they crash-landed on.
The only negative side to this game is that it’s not been translated particularly well. However, that does not detract from its brilliant gameplay.
See our review for Opoona here.
Kudos to SEGA for bringing back a title that was much loved on the fan-favourite Dreamcast. A game that’s entire purpose is to shake the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in time to the beat, it’s DDR with your hands. Naturally this means that it’s a lot of work involved, and people have developed exercise programs around a videogame, but that’s not what makes this game great.
The sheer fact of watching other people play this game, and the Latino music is great alone. It’s pure, unadulterated fun at it’s finest.
See our review of Samba de Amigo here.
Another game from SEGA! Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer is a title that will bemuse many people. It’s a remake of an old classic originally on the SNES, SEGA remade it for the Nintendo DS and hoped that this roguelike would sell well. Rumour has it, that the sequel will not make it to our shores for popularity reasons, so if you like roguelike games, but want something a little more forgiving than Etrian Odyssey give Shiren the Wanderer a try.
See our review of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer here.
The latest iteration in Nintendo’s second best selling franchise – Mario. Mario Kart Wii takes all of the good things for Mario Kart Double Dash!! Of the Gamecube, and the best of the online functions of Mario Kart DS and merges them into Mario Kart Wii. With the option of purchasing a plastic accessory to make the Wii Remote a Car Wheel, or just using the classic options, Nintendo has catered to all with this game.
It also introduced something entirely new – motorcycles. You are now able to play with motorcycles instead of karts, and they’re really easy to use. Of course the normal impossible AI remains, but it’s worth buying and playing lots.
See our review of Mario Kart Wii here.
Made by Stephen Spielberg and distributed by Electronic Arts, Boom Blox had two powerful names to help sell this title to casual gamers, and it turned core-gamers off immediately by being made by EA. This stigma is starting to dissolve now, but not early enough for Boom Blox, which is a fantastic game.
A brainteaser at least, and an addictive game of skills at best Boom Blox requires the player to destroy lots of things. This is done by using the minimum amount of destructive instruments, such as bombs, or removing structural walls, but causing the maximum destruction. The fact that players are given medals encourages them to go back and try and beat their previous score, and this carrot works very well.
It’s always on sale these days, so pick it up immediately.
See our review of Boom Blox here.
Please note all images were created by me.
Tags: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, WiiWare, Zentendo