An association from the town of Ochi has come out with an anime directly dealing with the fate of a figure in the late twelfth century Gempei War.
The Gempei War was an epic war fought between the Taira and Minamoto clans. Both wanted different candidates for the throne to be installed and had to eventually fight for ultimate imperial and shogunal control of Japan. The war resulted in the ultimate unification of Japan, establishing the national colors (red for Taira, white for Minamoto), creating legends in both the warrior Minamoto Yoshitsune and the bad-ass monk Saito Musashio Benkei and propels Japan into the Kamakura Period (complete with Kamakura Bakufu).
The naval battle of Dan-no-Ura was fought just off the coast of the current Yamaguchi Prefecture in Shimonoseki Strait. The Taira-supported emperor, six-year-old Antoku, was reportedly thrown overboard and drowned near the end of the Taira's last crushing defeat, most likely to save him from the agony of seppuku or a sword-based execution.
In the town of Ochi, it has long been rumored that Antoku actually survived being thrown into the sea and went to Shikoku to live a life of solitude in the hills. He even supposedly established a hidden imperial refuge there. The first part of the anime is a forty-minute chapter about Antoku's seclusion and the last sixty is about his coming-of-age in a legendary "remote capital". Many locals have pitched in, helping with the 3.2-million-yen (about US$31,000)budget and had about 30 citizens and elementary schoolchildren volunteering to voice the character roles. The anime premiered April 29 during the Emperor Antoku's 808th Anniversary Festival at the town.
Silly thought: Now if the anime is true to my Japanese culture teacher's take on history, a Spongebob flag will mark Antoku's boat. Since we all know that could never happen, I guess we all have to watch the film and find out exactly what was going on... according to legend... meaning it might have happened... maybe... yeah.
Sources
Anime News Network
The Wikipedia
My Class Notes
Hello everyone Fallenangel here with my take on the news.
Library Bars 43-Year-Old from Manga Club Meeting
An adult resident of Bluffton, South Carolina is considering a lawsuit against his local public library after its employeees barred him from attending a manga club meeting that the library had organized. 43-year-old C.J. Palmer planned to share old anime and manga from his personal collection at the meeting. Flyers for the club did not indicate an age limit, but according to the library, it was meant for teenagers only. Palmer has filed a complaint with the library and has contacted the local American Civil Liberties Union branch to discuss a possible age discrimination lawsuit. The director of the local county library system has apologized for what he called a "slip-up on our part" and mentioned that if there is sufficent interest, he would look into starting a manga club that would be open to adults.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-04-30/library-bars-43-year-old-from-manga-club-meeting
Megumi Hayashibara to Sing Slayers Revolution's Themes
Singer/voice actress Megumi Hayashibara's official page on the Starchild website has announced on Monday that she will sing both the opening and ending theme songs for the Slayers Revolution fantasy comedy television anime. She is already confirmed to return as the main lead Lina, along with most of the main original cast. Hayashibara had sung songs for all the previous Slayers anime incarnations, including the first Slayers series and the last two television sequels (Slayers Next and Slayers Try).
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-04-28/megumi-hayashibara-to-sing-slayers-revolution-themes
National Public Radio Profiles Death Note
National Public Radio's Fresh Air program is currently running a feature on Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note manga and anime series. In his six-minute piece, pop-culture and film critic John Powers introduces the plot of the series (calling it a "wonderful piece of pop storytelling") and talks about Death Note's "infinitely seductive premise." He compares the main character Light to Harry Potter and The Matrix's Neo, but calls him a "rebel with a cause that is misguided."
Fresh Air can be heard weekly on over 450 NPR stations around the country, and his review is also streaming online.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-04-29/national-public-radio-profiles-death-note
To listen to the review go to
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89999028
Emmy Award Winning Show Attends the Nation’s Largest Anime/Manga Convention
Anaheim, California (April 18, 2008) —The Emmy Award winning and popular stop-motion animation sketch comedy show, Robot Chicken, which airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is slated to appear at this year’s Anime Expo® 2008 held from July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org. The following are conformed Cameron Baity, Mike Fasolo, Chris McKay, Jeanette Moffat, Tom Root
Fallenangel random thought: why is Seth Green not going 
www.anime-expo.org
Anyways thats the news for this week on my part I hope it was helpful.
"The Stupid Robot Contest is an annual show held by Meiwa Electronics to determine whose robot is the silliest. There are just three criteria that a robot must meet in order to be entered in this contest:
1. It must be mechanical
2. It must be completely useless from a societal point of view.
3. It must make people laugh.
Pictured above is Papa Robopucho, a disfigured little box bot that plays the red-flag-white-flag game by himself, and then occasionally topples over and cries for help.
Some of the other contestants last year were a chorus of pregnant wife robots, a child robot that did push-ups, and and a "moe" robot dressed like a maid from a maid cafe."
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/the-annual-stup.html
It's Silly News Time!
Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple held it's annual "crying sumo" contest recently, pitting baby against baby in a match of the diaphrams. Amatuer sumo wrestlers hold the infants until one screams. Whichever child screams first, or the loudest in case of a tie, is the winner.
Eighty-four children participated this year. There also seems like there is a similar competition in Shizuoka Prefecture. Let the best baby win!
Source: JapanProbe
*Bows* Sorry for not updating in such a long time. School deadlines and assignments have been cracking the whip upon me. Any who, that leaves a lot of news to catch up on for April, so this week will be a series of “Ketchup” articles with themes such as this one, which is about the intelligent decisions people make.
Soccer Star gets charged for stealing woman’s panties from seven years ago
A member of the J-League soccer team Kashiwa Reysol was arrested this week for sneaking into a 21-year old woman's home and stealing her panties seven years ago, after DNA from another incident matched him to the crime.
On September 11, 2001, he snuck into the woman's house in Kobe and stole her panties and cell phone. He was 19 at the time—a minor in Japan—so his name hasn't been disclosed to the press.
In March 2006, while the player was at Kawasaki Frontale, he was arrested for breaking into a Kawasaki home, but later released without charges. DNA he left behind at the scene of this incident matched DNA found at the scene of the Kobe case and led to his arrest.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080426p2a00m0sp012000c.html & http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/soccer-star-arr.html
RAWR! Man Angry, Man Beats Tulips!!
"Police on Thursday released images from a security camera showing a man chopping down tulips with his umbrella alongside a road here, following a spate of similar attacks in the city.
Police have launched a search for the man, who appears to be aged between his 40s and 50s.
The suspect, dressed in a suit and tie, was captured swinging his umbrella violently to lop the tops off tulips in planters near the Gunma Prefectural Government headquarters in Maebashi late on April 18.
At about 12 a.m. the following day, about 65 tulips from 18 planters were found to have been chopped down.
Altogether, roughly 1,900 tulips were cut down in attacks in Maebashi on April 9, 14 and 19."
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080424p2a00m0na017000c.html & http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/caught-on-tape.html
Bleach Fetish?
Nope, I’m not taking about the series but about a man who has a fetish of throwing bleach onto inspecting woman’s crotches.
“In Sapporo, a mystery man has been spraying liquid bleach onto women's crotch areas in subways and shopping centers, leaving them befuddled with embarrassed in public. In the last month, there have been 15 attacks--last year around this time, there were several dozen which came to an abrupt halt when the media started reporting on it.
One woman noticed a strange guy putting a spray can into his pocket at the train station, then discovered a white stain on her pants minutes later”
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2008/04/odd-fetishist-s.html
Weirdo Arrested
"A man has been arrested in Hokkaido for putting on some make-up and a blouse and hanging out in a women’s public toilet:
Tsukasa Okazaki, 45, the banker from Monbetsu, Hokkaido, was arrested for trespassing. He admits to the allegations.
“I wanted people to see me as some sort of weirdo,” he told the police.
......Nuff said...there are too many puns that I could use for this statement....."
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4443
Thanks for stopping by! Tune in for Bootleg Ketchup!-Maid Cafés.
