Evangelion 2.0 Film Set for Early Summer of 2009
The official Japanese website for the theatrical Neon Genesis Evangelion anime remake has re-launched — thus confirming the tentative release window and English title of the second movie in the project. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance will open in Japan in early summer of 2009. The first movie, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone, opened in September 2007, earned over 2 billion yen (about US$20 million), and sold over 600,000 copies on DVD.
The website promises that the second movie will feature the fan-favorite character Asuka, the EVA-02 unit, “new Evangelions,” “added items previously unknown to anyone,” “a shocking new story, and new visuals.”
Tai Seng to Release Live-Action Take on Shamo Manga


On November 25, Tai Seng Entertainment will release Hong Kong film director Cheang Pou-soi’s adaptation of the 25-volume Shamo manga series. The manga was originally created by Akira and TO-Y’s Izô Hashimoto and Meisou-Ou Border’s Akio Tanaka. Shamo is the story of a promising young student who suffers a mental breakdown, murders his parents, and while in prison, trains to become a professional martial artists. The film has already been shown at various film festivals around the United States, such as the summer’s New York Asian Film Festival and Montreal’s Fantasia. Initial D and Infernal Affairs’ Shawn Yue plays the main character, with Francis Ng, Bruce Leung (Kung Fu Hustle), Ryo Ishibashi (The Grudge) and kickboxer/actor Masato Kobayashi cast in supporting roles.
Shamo was most recently in the news in June, when Tanaka claimed to have also created the story and characters, and sued Hashimoto for copyright violations.
Promo Image from I.G’s Hottarake no Shima Revealed
Production I.G. has revealed a promotional image for Hottarake no Shima – Haruka to Maho no Kagami, the computer-animated feature film that the anime studio is producing with Fuji Television Network. The tentative English title for the film is Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror. I.G and Fuji TV have also revealed that Hirotaka Adachi, the author better known under the pen name Otsuichi for writing the novel inspirations of the Goth live-action film and the Calling you manga, is co-writing the screenplay. Naoyoshi Shiotani (Tokyo Marble Chocolate) has joined the project with director and co-writer Shinsuke Sato. The distribution company TOHO will release the film in Japan next summer.
According to I.G and Fuji TV, the movie will follow a girl named Haruka as she discovers where all of our childhood keepsakes and memorabilia go. “In this story, we meet fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood. These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten ‘treasures’ into their world. Here, they use their booty to build their own city, a fairy-tale like place called…Oblivion Island!”