Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
“The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) announced on Friday that it published an English-language ‘Japan Anime Map’ that highlights the locales in the country with ties to anime.” Today, you can have a souvenir of Japan without leaving the comfort of your workspace or leisurely environs. The JNTO, which promotes tourism on behalf of the Japanese government, has created and made available for download a really cool map which lists real-life locations of famous fictional anime action, as well as where to find some of the famous hot spots of otaku culture throughout the country. So, if you’ve been dying to find out where “Summer Wars” takes place, or are planning a tip to Nakano Broadway or Miyazaki’s Ghibli Museum, you really should get yourself a copy of this map. (Anime News Network – Japan Anime Map) The best way to get a hard copy of the anime map, and other useful Japan tourism info, is probably to contact the JNTO office nearest to you. Here’s how: JNTO Regional Offices.
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“The 56-year-old said the project had been delayed until after he finishes the two planned sequels to box-office smash ‘Avatar’.” In case you had not heard, James Cameron is a big fan of Japanese manga series “Battle Angel Alita”. As it was with “Avatar”, Cameron waited to begin planning a live-action film of “Alita” until he felt the technology existed to do the sweeping, post-apocalyptic story justice. Well, the success of “Avatar” has apparently put those plans on hold. On Friday, the blockbuster director announced that he wants to finish the two sequels to “Avatar” before he commits fully to bringing the “Alita” movie to the big screen. When he does start helming the live-action manga movie, it will be based upon the first three volumes, and it will be the first of an “Alita” trilogy if successful. Sure, the “Avatar” sequels are something to look forward to, but we think it will be very exciting to see how Hollywood’s biggest big-budget director and the world of Japanese manga science fiction stories mesh. (Belfast [Ireland] Telegraph – Cameron Delays “Battle Angel Alita”)
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“The animations and St. Amand’s statements served as probable cause to find the aforementioned images, which were photographs of real children.” We freely admit this isn’t the most pleasant story Giant Robot news has brought you in the last couple of weeks. But it does touch on important issues about the gray areas in which animated or virtual pornography exists, and how some people give legal adult entertainment a bad name. Seems the wife of a 24-year-old man in Slidell, Louisiana caught him looking at anime porn, which is legal in that state, on a shared family computer. After the wife alerted local police, who were able to use the anime porn as probable cause for a prosecutable crime, authorities found a damning compilation of pornographic images of real female children between the ages of four and five. The man was immediately arrested, and may be prosecuted further on actual child molestation charges. Clearly, the Slidell man’s possession of anime porn is peripheral to his actual sick interests, but we can’t help being concerned that legal adult anime entertainment will continue to have negative associations because of stories like this. (Anime News Network – Louisiana Anime Porn)
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