Awesome Anime

Netflix is readying an anime based on the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. What’s truly special is that they assembled the original cast from Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World to voice their characters. Japan’s Science Saru is animating the series, with Wright and author Bryan Lee O’Malley as executive producers.

One of the simplest but most entertaining games out there is Rock, Paper, Scissors. We think it can be pretty intense with the right participants, but the guys from Corridor amped up the drama by turning it into the storyline for an original anime. Who will reign supreme in this epic clash?

We weren’t familiar with the Japanese manga and anime Jujutsu Kaisen, but now that we’ve seen that one character wields a sword with a human hand for a handle, we want to know more. Bladesmith and prop maker Tetrahymena created a knife inspired by the unusual weapon, and we’d like to shake his hand for a job well done.

Controversial or not, AI technology like Midjourney is creating amazing digital art with the correct prompts. TheArtofAI used the generative image technology to imagine what Star Wars: A New Hope might have looked like as a 1980s anime, from young Luke sipping his blue milk to the Death Star exploding. (Thanks, Rob!)

Eclectic Method is known for his creative music remixes and video edits. Now, he’s started to experiment with AI-generated imagery. In this animated music video, you’ll spot scenes from films like Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing, Pulp Fiction, and Footloose, only with digitally-created characters performing the choreography.

This short science fiction film from anime director Akihiko Orikasa follows the story of an astronaut exploring the surface of Mars who stumbles onto the wreckage of a long-lost commercial vessel. While searching the site for survivors, he encounters something unexpected. Will he let his fears get the best of him?

We’ve been Rickrolled countless times by Never Gonna Give You Up, but what happens when you speed up Rick Astley’s 1987 hit track might surprise you. As Twitter user Muscle Man pointed out, it basically turns into the perfect theme song for a magical anime girl. Someone needs to do this with the Japanese version now.

Animist creates some of the smoothest stop-motion animations we’ve seen. In this clip, they recreated Shotaro Kaneda’s classic motorcycle scene from AKIRA, complete with lightning bolts and smoke. Though Kaneda’s quick moves have a different motivation here. The behind-the-scenes footage is worth a watch too.

An anime adaptation of Mark Millar and Leinil Yu’s Super Crooks comic books is coming to Netflix. The story about a group of supervillains is like Oceans Eleven, but the heist crew has superpowers. Premieres 11.25.2021 spanning thirteen 30-minute episodes.

We’ve heard Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up at least 1000 times. But this version posted by Christya mixes things up by transforming Rick’s sound into something straight out of a Japanese anime, minus the actual animation. Vocals by MOM0KI, annapantsu, LilyPichu, and LizzRobinett

After our first look, here’s another selection of beautiful and eye-popping footage from the upcoming Star Wars animated series. It features seven original stories as told through the eyes of some of Japan’s greatest anime studios. The series premieres on Disney+ on 9.22.2021, and we can’t wait to watch it.

The music video for DJ/producer Salvatore Ganacci’s track Fight Dirty features an awesome anime style and storyline about a girl who befriends a gigantic hand monster and uses it to help defeat her tormentors. Fantastic work by directors Will Goodfellow, Tom Noakes and Greg Sharp, Studio Goono, and Truba Animation.

The Star Wars franchise has paid homage to Japanese cinema and folklore throughout the years. Now Disney+ repays the debt by inviting seven of Japan’s top animation studios to create unique anime stories that take place in the Star Wars universe. The series premieres 9.22.2021.

Dave Ardito makes short videos inspired by anime. There are lots of fun and energetic clips on his TikTok feed, but this is one of the best examples, a real-life version of Speed-o’Sound Sonic from One Punch Man zooming and ricocheting around a room thanks to some slick editing and VFX.

Artist Cao Shengge created this amazing sculpture inspired by Eren Yaeger’s monstrous Attack Titan form in Attack on Titan. He built the creation by wrapping sections of car and bike tires onto a metal structure, then painted the interleaved rubber to look like the Titan’s exposed muscles.

The Mandalorian is a pretty damned fine series as-is. But it’s still fun to envision variants of the show, like this fun anime style opening put together by Malec, Martial Coulon, Antoine Bertrand, KronoMuzik, and Kenny dozo. Kawaii Baby Yoda is just as adorable as his live-action inspiration.

After the gods of Olympus defeat the titans, a group of terrifying giants rises in their place. Can Heron, the half-human son of Zeus, help save humanity? Its man versus monster in this upcoming Netflix anime series, inspired by ancient Greek mythology. Drops 10.27.2020.

Based on the manga by Daisuke Igarashi, Children of the Sea tells the story of a girl who feels drawn to the waters at the aquarium where her dad works. As she meets two other children with similar experiences, they come to find that fish are mysteriously disappearing from oceans around the world. Drops 8.31.20.

Mamoru Oshii’s anime classic Ghost in the Shell gets remastered in ultra high-definition, with a release on 4K UHD disc, along with Blu-ray and digital copies. The 25th anniversary SteelBook includes both Japanese and English audio tracks in Dolby Atmos, as well as Dolby Vision HDR support. Drops 9.8.2020.

In this awesome anime short, the council of Ricks sends Morty on an adventure to Tokyo, where he must defeat one of the greatest threats in the multiverse. Naturally, things take an unexpected turn or two. Created by Tower of God director Takashi Sano, and TMS, the animation studio behind Akira among other things.

The official music video for “Snowchild” pairs cinematic, anime imagery with The Weeknd’s autobiographical track about his quick rise to fame and fortune, his struggles with drugs, and the challenges that come with celebrity life. Directed by Arthell Isom of D’ART Shtajio.

Disproportionately big eyes, a sailor’s outfit, brightly-colored hair… these are but a few of the trademark characteristics of girls in anime. Over at MakeGirlsMoe, machine learning algorithms can generate a seemingly endless set of anime characters, as seen in the video here.

(PG-13: Gore) Rick and Morty star in this bloodsoaked anime about a group of angry Ninja Ricks who think Rick WTM-72 has kidnapped Shogun Morty, and will do anything to stop him. Directed and written by Kaichi Sato, and produced by Studio DEEN. In Japanese, with English subtitles.