I don’t usually write about anime, but I’ll make an exception this time. This is for Lucky Star, and it looks pretty interesting, if you ask me.

This June 8, 2011, Animax laughs up the our TV screens with the premiere of Lucky Star, a series about a motley crew of teen girls who find themselves in silly situations and hilarious misadventures more often than not. Anime fans will especially enjoy the series which is peppered with humorous references and parodies to the prevailing anime, manga and Japanese pop culture.

Based on the very real setting of Kasukabe city in Saitama Prefecture, Lucky Star follows the amusing antics and lively activities of four Japanese high school girls through their seemingly ordinary day-to-day lives in and out of school.Konata, an athletic and intelligent girl too dedicated to her favourite anime shows to excel in anything but being an anime ‘otaku’ (obsessive fan).

There is Miyuki, the bespectacled living example of ‘moe’ (cuteness) who has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all subjects. And Kagami is a ‘bitter-sweet’ character who is tough but shy to Konata’s teases and pranks; and her younger fraternal twin sister, Tsukasa, a kind but air-headed simpleton. The popularity of the Lucky Star has brought more than 470,000 fans from across Japan over the 2011 New Year holidays to pay ‘pilgrimage’ to the Washinomiya Shrine.

As Tokyo area’s oldest shrine and real-life backdrop of the anime series, the shrine is where Kagami and Tsukasa work as miko (shrine maidens).  The influx of anime fans over the years has brought more than 1 billion yen to the town of Washimiya town where the shrine is situated.

Catch Lucky Star on Animax every Monday to Friday at 7:30pm, beginning on June 8!

We all know what kind of horrible abortions of cinema the original Batman movie franchise turned out when Joel Schumacher took over the series. But Batman Forever and Batman & Robin weren’t all that bad though – if there was one bright spot in those horrible excuses to sell gaudy toys, it’s Michael Gough’s portrayal of Batman’s ever-loyal butler, Alfred Pennyworth.

I’m afraid I’m not familiar with Michael Gough’s other works, but he remains to be one of my favorite interpretations of Alfred. Sure, he may not be as awesome as Michael Caine’s version, but for a guy to come out of the two horrible Schumacher Batman movies and come out dignified is an amazing feat by itself.

Good night, sweet prince. You will be missed.

Remember when everybody went crazy when Emma Stone was announced as Gwen Stacy for the new Spider-Man movie? Yeah, I remember that. People were saying that she was more of a Mary Jane Parker than a Gwen. I dunno, honestly. I was just glad that they’re going to do justice to Peter Parker’s first (and dead) girlfriend in the new Spider-Man series. Remember Gwen Stacy from Spider-Man 3 and how it totally felt like a cameo? Yeah. Anyway, Emma Stone’s a natural blonde, but everyone’s seen her as a redhead since like forever. I guess this is why people wanted her cast as MJ. If you want to see how Emma Stone looks like now that she’s preparing for her role as Gwen Stacy, check out the picture after the jump! (continue reading…)

Well, not exactly. One of my new favorite writers, Paul Cornell, is indeed taking over from Grant Morrison after he finishes his tenure on the totally fun and Dick Grayson-centric Batman and Robin. But it’s not like Cornell’s going to be the regular writer of the series, though- he’s just writing a 3-issue arc starting with #17 on November 24, basically filling in until Pete Tomasi is ready to take over the title. I don’t have any complaints though – Cornell and Tomasi have proven to be great writers, although I feel that Cornell fits the “60′s-Batman-on-recreational-drugs” feel of Batman and Robin better.

So what can we expect from Cornell’s very unfortunately short run on Batman and Robin? Here are a couple of paragraphs taken from his interview with IGN, just to give us an idea of what’s going to happen: (continue reading…)

So Fred Van Lente is going to write a new Avengers series to add to the current batch of Avenger titles that are going out monthly. Seriously, Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers (which is awesome), Avengers Prime (which would be awesome if Tony Stark stopped acting like a man-child) and Mighty Avengers – it’s like the X-Men, you guys.

It was speculated that Fred Van Lente’s going to write a “Space Avengers” book, led by Nova – and we all know how awesome that would sound. But then Marvel actually took an interesting, albeit head-scratching decision, to make Dead Avengers.

Basically, the three-issue Chaos War tie-in sees The Vision, Captain Mar-Vell, Yellowjacket, Swordsman, Deathcry and Dr. Druid back to life as they fight one of the Chaos king’s allies, who is an Avengers villain.

Okay, the timing of this book couldn’t be more terrible because at DC, Geoff Johns and company is rolling out the uneven Brightest Day, which has a similar concept – heroes coming back to life. Which is a shame, though, because I’m pretty sure Marvel can outdo DC in this.

All in all, Dead Avengers looks like it’s going to be a fun book – I mean dead non-zombie heroes come the fuck on – but I’m wondering why they had to put out this series now.

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