MISC. MANGA, *Sharknife

Taking into account the genre-crossing that Scott Pilgrim pulled of by bringing together elements of video games, anime, manga, and American comics, Sharknife is a bad-ass kung-fu superhero for the Nintendo generation! Think, Viewtiful Joe meets Kung-Pow: Enter The Fist. Creator Corey Lewis has worked on projects like this before with the American comic adaptation of the Rival Schools game, or his own comic of Peng.

Gung-ho busboy Caesar Hallelujah works at the Guangdong Factory which is a multi-layered restaurant that is constantly being attacked by his adopted brother Ombra Ravenga who keeps sending wave after wave of "monster-of-the-week" to topple the competition. Win evil monsters show up, Caesar gets a fortune cookie from his sexy fly love interest Chieko, and transforms into the superhero Sharknife to stop the daily terror. Caesar was granted his power by a strange ancient shark god, while Ombra was also given the powers of an orca. Once Caesar eventually defeats a hundred monsters, he is given the powers of Double Z, although Ombra uses this power to level up too.

This is a profoundly unexpected surprise for otaku and video games alike. The story is engaging enough, even though it has a bunch of stereotypes thrown in that actually make it work. You'll catch some crossing over with Lewis' Peng comic too as both stories take place in the same universe. BTW, there are two versions of the first volume, the second one is a reprint titled Stage First features additional material, including stuff from Oni Press' Free Comic Book Day specials. If Street Fighter consumed your Saturday nights as a teen, then you will be all fired up for this one!

ANI-MOVIES, *Golgo 13: The Professional

Probably the best action-crime anime movies ever done is this, the first animated outlet for one of the longest running(and still is!)manga titles ever, Golgo 13. The manga is about Duke Togo(aka: Golgo 13), who is pretty much the world's greatest assassin-for-hire. Prior to this 1983 movie, there was a live-action one from the 70s starring Sonny Chiba as Golgo.

The Professional sees Golgo hired to take out the son of a gazillionaire oil dealer, Leonard Dawson, who was going to inherit the business from his father just as Golgo kills him. Dawson then sets out to terminate Golgo for the death of his son. He sends out everything from the mafia, the CIA, the U.S. military, and inhuman killers to do it. Having survived ambushes, insane car chases, and nearly entire cities blown up around him, Golgo eventually makes his way to Dawson's skyscraper stronghold. He tangles with a duo of cold-blooded murders(whose backstory is almost its own movie), and then crosses the freakish Snake. Dawson gets his in the end, but in the most over-the-top anime fashion.

The movie was directed by anime pioneer Osamu Dezaki, whose prior works included Astro Boy, Lupin, and Space Adventure Cobra. His vision turns this film into a gritty, almost grindhouse-like action flick. There's some amazing animation in it for its time, and if you're just a fan of great splatterific films like The Transporter or Dirty Harry, this is totally one you gotta look up. The movie was on VHS by Streamline Pictures in the 90s, and is now on DVD through Urban Vision. This was followed by an OVA one-shot titled Golgo 13: Queen Bee, and was recently turned into an anime TV series.

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 8: Page 8

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Serena Paccagani.

ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: Gotham Knight

While Marvel had its own various "anime" TV series, the Caped Crusader beat them to the punch by a few years. Granted, anime-styled features like The Animatrix have come out before this, but Batman: Gotham Knight(which was the third DC Universe animated movie)acted like Dark Fury and Clone Wars which bridges the gap between two chapters of a franchise. It's supposed to happen after Batman Begin, and just before The Dark Knight, although it doesn't 100% fit into the given continuity of both films.

This movie is broken up into six segments, each one directed by an actual Japanese anime director. The first one shows some kids each telling their own version of running into Batman. Second has two Gotham City cops running into a gang war. Next is a very bishounen-looking Bruce Wayne donning a costume strait out of Gatchaman to test his own personal forcefield. Following that is a slight 2-parter of sorts where Batman heads into the sewers to take on Scarecrow and their own version of Killer Croc, which later has Bruce Wayne flashing back to when he was travelling the world and training. In the finale, Batman clashes with the sniper-for-hire, Deadshot.

Gotham Knight has some great comics writing from Brian Azzrello, Greg Rucka, and Bruce Timm. Some of the anime studios behind it were Production I.G.(Ghost In The Shell) and Madhouse(Vampire Hunter D). There is some very fine animation in this movie, and mostly worth getting for that alone. It's also bound to satisfy the average Bat-fan. The only real drawbacks to it are like the previous DC Universe movies is that it was too short. I felt they could've added some more to each of the chapters, or at least maybe left out some of the chapters while making the others longer. It gives a good insight into the way the citizens of Gotham each view having a masked vigilante in their town, while at the same time showing how it is for Bruce Wayne to be Batman. It isn't necassary to see this in order to enjoy any of the Christopher Nolan trilogy, but you'd still have a thrillride at Bat-Time!

Dammit Krillan! You said there's be cosplay sluts here!

ANI-MOVIES, *Lupin The 3rd: Castle Of Cagliostro

One of the very first anime TV series to get it's own theatrical spinoff was Lupin The Third(or Lupin III). Although this was the third film of anime's favorite thief(the second one to be animated)it is considered to be the best feature ever of him, mostly due to the fact it was directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

Lupin and his partner Jigen begin pulling off a daring casino heist, but realize all the bills they stole are counterfiet. So they decide to go to the source of the funny money, an un-named small European country run by the devious Count Cagliostro. When they arrive, Lupin rescues a teenage girl from some hoods, although she goes with them in order to keep him safe. Lupin learn that she is the Princess Clarisse who is betrothed to the Count, although he's only doing it to find an ancient buried royal treasure. So, Lupin plans to get her from the Count's castle, by calling in Goemon, and then sneaking into the castle disguised as Zenigata who's arrived with his own Interpol squad. Once there, Lupin is sent down into the castle's dungeon, along eventually with Zenigata, although they both escape, but Lupin ends up getting shot. Thinking that Lupin is dead, Cagliostro goes on with his wedding, but Lupin & Co.(along with Fujiko)crash the party. Lupin and Cagliostro have a swashbuckling duel, which leads to the reveal that the lost treasure which is actually a sunken Roman city. Lupin then heads for the hills with the Zenigata Force in hot pursuit.

Cagliostro has been viewed by many as a true anime icon. This was in fact Miyazaki's very first animated movie that he worked on prior to him forming Studio Ghibli. It has exceptionally detailed animation, plus some wonderfully original action sequences, such as elaborate fight in the clocktower, and the best non-Speed Racer car chase of the 70s. There have been two releases of this movie in America. The first was in the 90s on dubbed VHS by Streamline Pictures, and the other was on DVD a few years ago from Manga Entertainment. I'd personally say that the Streamline dub had better casting and dialogue, but the Manga version has a Japanese track and better quality. Oh, and you old school arcade kings might recognize some of the footage from this which was used for the laserdisc video game, Cliff Hanger

JESI THE GENIE, *Part 8: Page 7

Story by Jer Alford. Art by Serena Paccagani.