| There might be something or nothing in this, but the Vietnamese press is reporting strong rumours of romance for Hinako Sano with Japanese movie idol Ryunosuke Kamiki. The couple have been spotted wearing matching t-shirt and caps, hanging out together frequently at Kamiki's house (pictured right). Though when asked, both parties claim a close friendship over anything more romantically inclined. Hinako Sano is known to us as Misa Amane in the TV drama adaptation of Death Note (2015). Award-winning Japanese actor Ryunosuke swept the board in accolades during 2013 for his 'best supporting actor' role as Shin'ichi Numata in Kazoku Game. More recently, and more relevant to us, he starred as Akito Takagi in the 2015 movie Bakuman, written by Death Note creator's Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. |  |
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 Bakuman at 2015Japanese Film Festival Tickets are being sold for the 2015 Japanese Film Festival, which will tour Australia and New Zealand over the next two months. Though Death Note isn't on the programme, creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata still get a showing. Bakuman will play for the Japanese culture loving Antipodean hordes. Their semi-autobiographical tale chronicles the adventures of author Akito and artist Moritaka, as they attempt to break into the Japanese manga industry. This was Ohba and Obata's second collaboration, which came after Death Note had completed its run. Their live action movie Bakuman will be the version screened during the 2015 Japanese Film Festival. Bakuman at 2015 Japanese Film Festival  Bakuman will open in Brisbane on October 21st 2015, at 7pm, in the Event Cinemas, Brisbane City Myer Centre. Further showings there will be:
It then moves to Perth, where showings will be at Hoyts Carousel, Westfield Carousel, 1382 Albany Highway, Carousel. Those dates and times are:
In the meantime, Bakuman is off to Adelaide, where the movie will be shown at the Mercury Cinema, 13 Morphett Street, on:
Next it's off to Sydney, where the venue is the Event Cinemas in George Street. There Bakuman will be screened on:
In the midst of that, the Japanese Film Festival 2015 also squeezes in an airing of the movie at another Event Cinemas, in Church Street, Parramatta. That happens on:
Then it's the ACMI Cinema in Federation Square, Melbourne, for a showing on:
Before Bakuman's final Film Festival screening location at Hoyts Melbourne Central, at Melbourne Central Shopping Centre. They occur on:
Not much going on there for Bakuman in New Zealand then. Though, by necessity of staying on topic here, the focus has only been on Ohba and Obata's work. There's plenty more going on in the schedule of the 2015 Japanese Film Festival in both Australia and New Zealand. Japanese Film Festival 2015 Trailer Check out the Japanese Film Festival 2015 website for more details about what is going on in the Antipodes, and where you might purchase tickets to join in.
 Platinum End artworkby Takeshi Obata An English language version of Platinum End - the new manga by Death Note writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata - will be released in the US, Viz Media have announced.
Not only that, but it will keep pace with the Japanese Jump SQ serialisation of the manga. The US Platinum End manga series will run in Viz Media's digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, matching each new edition with English translations available on-line at the same time. However, chapters are going to be individually published, with readers paying 99c a time to follow the unfolding tale. Platinum End appears to be closer to Death Note's plot than the creative duo's interim collaboration Bakuman. Ohba and Obata's new manga follows the fortunes of a boy named Mirai Kakehashi, who 'does not seek hope in order to keep on living'. While Light Yagami's worldly frustrations found vent in a shinigami's deadly notebook, we don't yet know what happens to Mirai. But a supernatural entity is also lurking, as may be assumed by the tale being about 'a human and an angel'. How that encounter plays out is yet to be seen.  Platinum End manga announcement in Weekly Shonen Jump No 44 This should be of interest to Death Note fans - Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata are teaming up again, and the bare hint from the tag-line implies the plot will be right up our alley. PLATINUM END Well, we all seemed quite taken last time, when it was a human and a shinigami! The announcement will appear in the next edition of Weekly Shonen Jump, issue 44, due out on September 28th 2015. It will be followed by a Platinum End première feature the following week, in the October 5th Weekly Shonen Jump No 45. However, it will be another Shueisha title - Jump Square - wherein the actual serialisation will begin. Our Death Note creators' brand new manga Platinum End launches on November 4th 2015, dated the Jump SQ December 2015 edition - thus is the way of the world. Tsugumi Ohba: Angels and Humans  Angels featured subtly in Death Note too I don't know about you, but I'm quite excited about this! Given Ohba's propensity to mess around with angels - vis-a-vis Light's lifting of Lucifer quotations from Paradise Lost and Mello's alignment (made explicit in the recent televised Death Note drama) with the archangel Michael - I feel that the groundwork has already been forged. And that was quite fabulous. What are your thoughts on the matter? Please do leave your comments below in the usual manner, but I'm also going to insert a poll about this. Mostly because I've only just noticed I've got a pre-coded poll module that I can insert, and I want to find out what it does.  Weekly Shonen Jump No 43 September 21st 2015 Only tenuously Death Note related, it's all about Bakuman in their creators' world this week. While we might consider Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata in terms of OUR manga, they have collaborated much more recently than that on the semi-autobiographical Bakuman. It's a series which chronicles the rise of an author and writer within the manga industry. The current edition of Weekly Shonen Jump (September 21st 2015) includes the first in a special two-parter prequel to the main Bakuman chapters. It tells what happened with main characters Moritaka Mashiro - pen name Saikō - and Akito Takagi - later known as Shūjin - before the pair joined forces to produce a wildly popular manga series. Like, you know, Ohba and Obata did in real life with Death Note. Spanning 23 chapters, the first part of this Bakuman prequel has boosted the manga magazine to a hefty 315 pages! Featured as an added bonus is a full colour Bakuman centrespread. The original Bakuman manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2008-2012. Those chapters were collected into twenty volumes published by Shueisha, which have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. An anime based upon the story was televised over three seasons, aired in Japanese television between 2010-2013. Viz Media and Media Blasters reproduced English language versions of the manga and anime respectively, primarily for North American audiences. A live action Bakuman movie is due to be released on October 3rd 2015, hence the two part prequel beginning in Weekly Shonen Jump this week. It acts as a tie-in special event and incidentally helps boost publicity for the film. Fictional Bakuman Manga Becomes Real In the story, Muto Ashirogi's third manga is entitled PCP -Kanzen Hanzaitō- (trans. PCP - Perfect Crime Party). Now that fictional manga is due for release as a real world novel. It will bear Ashirogi's name as the first author, though his co-author Sei Hatsuno (HaruChika) probably did much of the work here. Another blatant tie-in, the novel will hit bookshelves on October 2nd 2015, one day ahead on the Bakuman movie. New Takeshi Obata Artwork for Bakuman OST  Takeshi Obata draws the artwork for Bakuman's soundtrack CD A new live-action Bakuman film means an original soundtrack to accompany it. For fans of Takeshi Obata's art, this is an unexpected avenue in which to discover some.
Obata has created the artwork for the Bakuman CD soundtrack, including that for a CD single Shin Takarajima (pictured above) lifted from the OST. Due to be released in a limited edition format, the song has been recorded by rock band Sakanaction and features in the movie. A DVD of the Bakuman OST is also scheduled.
Takeshi Obata has also teamed up with writer Nobuaki Enoki to produce a new manga serial of Gakkyū Hōtei for Weekly Shonen Jump. We gave you the heads up about this in November, when it was due to begin its run in the Japanese edition of the respected manga magazine. But English readers get to discover the delights too. The publishers have promised that all stories will be released in the US on the same day as in Japan. Obviously give or take RKD-EK9...  Takeshi Obata's artwork in manga one shot RKD-EK9 This means that I'm woefully behind on telling you that the slightly renamed Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment is running in the US version of Weekly Shonen Jump. It actually began on December 1st 2014 (issue No. 1). By the manga's very nature as a serial, Gakkyu Hotei continued on through every edition thereon, and will do until the tale is told. Though the special edition on the 29th didn't feature a chapter. All of the serials paused for that one.  Takeshi Obata's artwork in Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment
 Do you ever look at Misa and think 'badly drawn and not at all girly cute'? Nope, nor me. On the contrary, she seems to be the epitome of all that's cute, practically unto the point of annoyance. Give or take the murderous gaze and scribbling. That's not so cute. It just makes for a great story. Neither do I consider the likes of Hal or Naomi to be particularly conceptualized on the page. Yet their artist doesn't share our view. Takeshi Obata gave an interview to Juliet Kahn of Comic Alliance, during his recent trek to the United States. There's not a great deal of focus upon Death Note, so I'll not wax too lyrical about it here. But there was an intriguing comment about his art. CA: Is there anything you especially love or hate to draw? What do you think? Do you agree that Obata is better at drawing the male of the species than its ladies? Or are you as dismissive as I am about the self-effacing criticism?
There's much more in the interview, though it's mostly about All You Need is Kill and Bakuman. Visit Comic Alliance for the full low down. Guest Blogger Orangepunch brings us a round-up of all the Death Note news and gossip from Takeshi Obata's appearance at New York ComicCon 2014.  The New York ComicCon was held from October 9 through October 12th in New York City, and Takeshi Obata was invited to host two different question and answer panels. Both had crowds of people wanting to participate, many of whom had to be turned away after the room had filled. On top of the two Q and A panels, Obata had two signings in which the few lucky fans who were able to get one of the few tickets to attend before they sold out were able to meet Obata, and get something signed by him. For those who missed out, one fan recorded the panel and posted it to YouTube for fans to watch. (Skip to the below to view it.) During the panels, Obata discussed his art in his past and present manga and answered questions about his art style, what it was like to work on manga like Death Note, Bakuman, and his others, and how he designed certain characters. He ended by doing a live drawing of Ryuk and L from Death Note. Obata and Death Note Related Announcements Released at NYCC“…He made playing Go look exciting. And then he made a person writing in a book look cool. And then he made people drawing pictures look amazing. He is a legend in the manga industry, and probably the reason you’re at this panel. Introducing the one, the only: Takeshi Obata!” The Shonen Jump panel had many announcements for their fans, including several exciting ones for Death Note Fans. A new program from Shonen Jump called Jump Start - which will release internationally the first three chapters of every new series simultaneous with them coming out in Japan - hopes to identify what fans abroad my be interested in reading. At the same time, they are also launching Jump Back, which will highlight classic hits from Shonen Jump manga. October's focus is upon Death Note! We will have lots of free previews and fun things to see that are Death Note related on their website. As previously highlighted on Death Note News, the panel also announced that Viz Manga is having a big sale on all manga related to Obata and they are also running a sweepstakes to win exclusive posters and manga signed by Obata. Check out the website to enter. Takeshi Obata Discussing his Art and Working on Death NoteDeath Note is undeniably Obata’s first and greatest success in manga so far. There’s no doubt that the brilliant artistic minds of Ohba and Obata were meant to work together. We have all our thanks for this pair meeting up due to the editor of Death Note, Koji Yoshida. Yoshida was familiar with Obata’s art style, and after first meeting with Ohba and seeing Death Note, he had a feeling Obata’s “Gothic aesthetic” would make him a good artist for the story. Obata talked about what it was like when he first met Ohba, and described him as mysterious and cool, and remembers thinking, 'Yeah, he seems like the kind of person I’d be able to come up with a story like this.'  New York ComicCon: Takeshi Obata on Drawing Death NoteObata’s inspirations for Death Note characters initially came from Ohba’s writing. But, he also drew inspiration from the personality he seemed to get from them. He described L as weird, eccentric, and strange, yet still cool, and those attributes really intrigued him, so he really wanted that to come across in the drawing of the character as well. When Obata went about drawing and designing the character of Ryuk, he wanted a true representation of a shinigami, but he also to have fun with it. As he first drew Ryuk, he decided it would be fun to make his costume look like someone who was trying to wear “high fashion for the Milan collection.” And because he gave Ryuk a human face, the artist commented that it was important to pay attention to “not make him too scary or too cute.“ Obata said that, in the end, his design for Ryuk ended up strongly influencing the personality of the character when Ohba wrote him. And this is true across the board. Of course the initial written design of a character by Ohba influenced how Obata brought them to life in a drawing, but the details, quirks, traits that Obata put into the drawings of characters then influenced how Ohba went on to write them and their behavior in the manga. I think it is interesting how the duo came to work together so perfectly; not only ended up with a captivating story, but characters who were so real, interesting, and had so much personality and depth that it left readers obsessed, to the point where we are still talking about them over a decade on. Death Note Editor Koji Yoshida Talks about Takeshi Obata As with any artist, you have to know that the things in their lives which affect and influence them will eventually make it into their art, even if only subtly. A particularly cute moment from the panel is when it was pointed out during questions about character design that Yoshida, the editor of Death Note, eventually made his way into one of Obata’s later works - Bakuman. The character himself was even named Yoshida! When Obata was asked how he came up for the design of Yoshida-san, Obata turned and looked at his former editor sitting beside him, and the crowd attending the panel erupted in laughter. Obata commented, “That’s how I see him in real life.” Yoshida seemed to disagree, declaring that he didn’t actually look much like the character. Though he was impressed with Obata’s ability to bring that character to life. The editor mentioned that several years back, when they were working on Death Note together, he used to wear a square watch every day. Even though they no longer worked together when Obata was doing Bakuman, Yoshida did notice that his namesake character sported a wristwatch exactly like the one he used to wear. He believes that it’s Obata’s ability to remember and include such small details like that, which makes him so good at depicting people. The Artistic Link Between Death Note and Sherlock HolmesConsidering that, I was entirely amused when the crowd had a chance to pose questions and one person asked who Obata’s heroes are. Obata described his first heroes being the characters of manga he read when he was a child. He named Sherlock Holmes, because of “how he would solve the most unbelievable mysteries.” Death Note is described in the panel as Obata’s first global hit. I think it is great that Obata, as a manga artist, declares Sherlock Holmes as one of his first and standing heroes. When you consider how much it must have influenced him in every moment he was working on Death Note, you can really see how he was able to bring each and every character, no matter how minor, to life on the pages. Ready to watch it all for yourself? Spot the Takeshi Obata's live drawing of Ryuk and then L, which you can watch in the video (starting at 4:00 and 8:33 in the YouTube videos linked below). With much thanks to Orangepunch for writing this report for us! If you'd like to guest blog here, just ask. Assuming it's relevant and interesting, I'll probably say yes.
 With Takeshi Obata now in the USA, Viz Media have launched a promotion of his works.
Between October 6th and 31st 2014, prices are slashed on Death Note, Bakuman, All You Need is Kill, Hikaru No Go and RAL Ω GRAD. Just visit the Viz Media Obata webpage to take advantage of these deals - and to register your email for the Takeshi Obata competition. Up for grabs are:
Entrants in the sweepstake must be thirteen years or over, and have to be within the USA. In fact the rest of the world can't even see the webpage! We get redirected to the Viz Media iTunes site instead. Also ComiXology have launched sales on all their Takeshi Obata titles. Though again this is ONLY for US customers. The rest of the globe get a blank screen. (If you're wondering how I know what they're seeing in the US: have proxy - see what I damn well want to online with or without the permission of US retailers, thank you very much.) Enjoy the promotions, American people!
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