In high school I developed an interest in anime.  I didn’t travel the country going to conventions or buy a Sailor Moon costume, but some of the series were fun and interesting (anime is like any fan-genre: the movies and TV shows may be great, but the fandom can get on your nerves).  My favorite series was Rurouni Kenshin (also known as “Samurai X” in the US).  It’s an incredibly simple yet enjoyable premise: a ronin with a bloody past tries to find peace living with a local kendo instructor, an orphaned boy, and a cavalier ex-soldier.  There are colorful characters and creative action scenes, and I can understand why it’s been adapted in a live-action Japanese film (I’m actually surprised it took this long).  The trailer has gone online and it looks like a faithful and fun flick.  Between this and Takashi Miike’s Phoenix Wright, it may be time to cue my gigantic-eyed enthusiasm.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film opens in Japan on August 25, 2012.

Though the franchise pretty much died off with Blade Trinity, one of your favorite vampire slayers is making a return, albeit in an animated form. Over in Japan, a Blade anime series will debut on July 1st, and Comics Alliance has stumbled upon the first images and a quick teaser trailer for the Marvel adaptation. Though we still don’t know when/if the series will make its way to the United States, this still looks like a pretty killer animated take on the vampire slayer. Story details are sparse due to some spotty translation from the Japanese site for the series, but the series will apparently have Blade teaming up with a young vampire hunter from Japan, Noah Van Helsing and his dog Razor against the evil Deacon Frost and his minions in Asia. Here’s hoping the series makes it overseas sometime soon. Check out the images and trailer after the jump.

Sam Raimi has kept himself quite busy on the feature film side of things, but at the end of September, the writer/director/producer had sold three different TV series to three different networks. Now it looks like we can add another one onto the list as THR reports Starz, the company behind the recent successful epic series Spartacus: Blood & Sand, just picked up a live-action series remake of the Japanese anime Noir.  Continued after the jump:

Right off the top, this is not an action/anime/bloodfest, so if that’s what you were hoping for, then you are barking up the wrong tree.  This is a “thinking man’s” anime about war and peace and the expendable youth that takes part in it.  I was actually pretty blown away by how deep a “cartoon” could be, but that’s maybe because the only anime I typically watch involves vampires getting chopped to bits or non-stop gunfights with an unstoppable hitman or awkward animated nudity, haven’t really found much depth before.  But that’s what happens when you wander into Mamoru Oshii’s territory.  He shows with this film that he is not afraid to tell a story and let it breath, the action is there too, but highly secondary. Continued after the jump:

Imagine if San Diego Comic-Con had a younger teenage sister and she liked to play dress up. That would be my best analogy for what I witnessed today at the Los Angeles Convention Center as I attended my first Anime Convention. Also, unlike Comic-Con, which is now impossible to walk around on the convention floor, today’s anime convention was easy to navigate.

The first thing that struck me was the enthusiasm of everyone there. I’d say thirty to forty percent were wearing costumes. And not just attendees, as dealers were also wearing and selling costumes. If you’re into anime and live in Los Angeles, I’d definitely stop by and look around (if you’re not there already).

More pictures and info after the jump: