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Japanese rock band amazarashi posted a music video for their ninth CD single song, "Tsukaku" ("Sense of Pain"), on their official YouTube channel . The song is now featured as the opening theme for Blue Exorcist -The Blue Night Saga- , the latest arc of the Blue Exorcist TV anime series. The music video uses footage from the TV anime and combines amazarashi's lyrics with the story of the protagonist, Rin Okumura, and his twin brother Yukio, from their breakup to Rin going back in time to learn about the secret of their birth in the past. amazarashi "Tsukaku" Blue Exorcist Edition Music Video Blue Exorcist -The Blue Night Saga- Creditless Opening Video Amazarashi was formed in Aomori Prefecture in 2007, led by guitarist and vocalist Hiromu Akita. They made their major label debut in 2010 on Sony Music Associated Records, and are known for their theme song works for My Hero Academia...

The official Blue Exorcist anime stage event at Jump Festa 2025 today revealed a main trailer introducing a new opening and ending theme songs for the upcoming new arc, -The Blue Night Saga- , which is set to premiere in Japan on January 4, 2025 . Crunchyroll will also stream teh new arc as part of the winter 2025 anime simulcast lineup . The trailer also introduces four new characters and cast members: Yuri Egin voiced by Megumi Hayashibara , Shiro Fujimoto in his childhood voiced by Daisuke Namikawa , Rick Lincoln voiced by Miyu Irino , and Jenny Kal by Ryo Hirohashi . Blue Exorcist -The Blue Night Saga- Trailer Related: Blue Exorcist -The Blue Night Saga- Anime Debuts on January 4, 2025 The new opening "Tsukaku" ("Sense of Pain") is performed by Japanese rock band amazarashi , known for theme songs featured in My Hero Academia (2017), 86 Eighty-six (2021) and NieR:Automata Ver1.1a (2023). The song will be available digitally on the anime's premiere day in Japan,...

Set against the vibrant backdrop of Mexico in 1986, Mexico 86 shines a light on one woman’s battle between revolutionary zeal and maternal love. From acclaimed director Cesar Diaz comes this intimate portrait of Maria, a rebel activist forced to flee her home country of Guatemala amidst that nation’s brutal civil war. Living in exile a decade later, Maria juggles secret missions against the dictatorship with her newly reunited role as mother to young son Marco.

Based closely on Diaz’s own experiences growing up, the film transports us to a time and place that shaped his life. As a child in war-torn Guatemala, Diaz knew both the thrill and pain of political upheaval through his mother’s courageous yet conflicting path. Now a filmmaker, he honors her memory with this deeply felt drama exploring what it means to be a mother in the midst of revolution. With sensitivity and care,...

Bérénice Bejo on her role in Mexico 86: 'It was very intense because the character was mixing with my mother’s' Photo: Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival Bérénice Bejo has had a busy year, featuring in sci-fi drama Another End, before taking on sharks in Under Paris and now she plays a Guatemalan revolutionary, trying to balance motherhood with her fight for her country’s freedom in Mexico 86. The film premiered at Locarno Film Festival and saw writer/director César Diaz draw partially on his relationship with his own mother. Talking about the film during a roundtable in Locarno, Bejo, too, says she felt a strong connection to the film because her parents fled the dictatorship in Argentina for France, when she was a child.

She says: “Sometimes, I don’t know why, I felt I was my mother, not César’s mother. I was imagining my mother in a similar situation,...

Coup de Madre: Díaz Revisits Violent Turmoils with Intimate Familial Drama

Director César Díaz continues his cinematic exploration of Guatemala’s brutal civil war, considered the bloodiest Latin American conflict in the Cold War era in his sophomore narrative feature, Mexico 86. As the title suggests, time and place format the specific realities of traumatic histories often conveniently ignored, despite the significant ripple effects which shaped the country and its citizens. Like his 2019 debut Our Mothers (which won the Camera d’or at the Cannes Film Festival), and two previous documentaries specifically grappling with Guatemala’s history, both then and now, Díaz focuses on the emotional impact of such histories with another example of children estranged from their parents thanks to violent, political contexts.…...

Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) plays a Guatemalan rebel fighting against the military dictatorship in Mexico 86 from Guatemalan director César Díaz (Our Mothers), whose world premiere on the Swiss town’s Piazza Grande is among the highlights of the Locarno Film Festival schedule on Saturday.

“1976. Death threats force Maria, a Guatemalan rebel activist fighting against the corrupt military dictatorship, to flee to Mexico, leaving behind her son,” a plot description explains. “10 years later, when he comes to live with her, she is forced to choose between her duties as a mother and continuing her revolutionary activism.”

The film’s title refers to the 1986 soccer World Cup in Mexico, even though it is only briefly referred to in a few scenes.

During a Locarno press conference for the film on Saturday, Bejo shared how making the film helped her better understand her family history and her parents who left Argentina under the dictatorship to settle in France.

Since No Game No Life went off the air in 2014, anime fans (and the author himself) have been waiting for a decade for a Season 2 announcement. Now, a viral social media post falsely claims that a new season of No Game No Life has already been "officially" confirmed and will be announced very soon, along with other highly anticipated anime series -- one of which just came true.

An anime Facebook account called Zeethou is claiming that a Season 2 announcement for No Game No Life will be announced by Aniplex and Kadokawa on Aug. 2, 2024. According to the fake 'leak,' in addition to No Game No Life, new seasons for Lycoris Recoil, 86 and Kaguya-sama: Love Is War will also supposedly be announced, as well as an original Sword Art Online anime project, a new anime adaptation, and a Genshin Impact anime. While Aniplex and Kadokawa have indeed officially revealed...

The Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland has unveiled an eclectic lineup for its 77th edition, taking place Aug. 7-17. The fest will screen 225 total films, including 104 world premieres, five international premieres and some debut features, including new films from such directors as Hong Sang-soo, Spanish actress Paz Vega and Radu Jude. Gianluca Jodice’s Le Déluge, starring Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet, will also world premiere and open the fest, with Locarno on Wednesday unveiling that the two French stars will receive the Excellence Award Davide Campari on the fest’s opening night.

Beyond new fare, some of this season’s film festival favorites and classics will screen in Locarno’s main Piazza Grande section, taking place on the town’s main square set up with 8,000 seats. Films to be screened include Cannes hits such as Laetitia Dosch’s Dog on Trial, Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

The official YouTube channel for the three-piece Japanese rock band hitorie began streaming a music video for their seventh CD single song "On The Frontline." The rock tune is now featured as the opening theme for the ongoing Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Cour 2 TV anime. hitorie "One The Frontline" music video Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Cour 2 creditless opening movie Hitorie made their major debut from Sony Music Associated Records in 2014, providing theme songs for Divine Gate (2016), Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (2018), 86 Eighty-six (2021), and Dance Dance Danseur (2022). "On The Frontline" is their latest song, first released digitally on April 15. As a double A-side single that also includes "Sense-less Wonder [ReREC] released for download in January, the CD single will release in Japan on June 5 to commemorate their major debut's 10th anniversary. The music video is directed by shun murakami , who also directed hitorie's "Juggernaut" in 2023, and features spectacular CG images...

New York, NY (4/26/24) – Along with the news of two upcoming audiobook adaptations, Yen Press, LLC, announced the release of fifteen new titles, including nine manga, five novels, and a box set (Toilet-bound Hanako-kun: Second Stall). These fifteen titles are set to release in October 2024.

Toilet-bound Hanako-kun: Second Stall

By AidaIro

A new deluxe collection of Volumes 11 through 20 of Toilet-bound Hanako-kun wrapped in one frightful package! Pick up where the first box set left off and follow Hanako, Nene, Kou, and company on their adventures, all the way until the beginning of the school festival. Don't “stall” any longer and make room on your shelf for this supernatural selection!

Horimiya, Vol. 17: A Piece of Memories

Story by Hero, Art by Daisuke Hagiwara

School may have finished, but there is no end to the sweet “awww”-inspiring tale of Hori and Miyamura! Snapshots of Hori, Miyamura, and the gang's lives; a...

New York, NY (3/29/24) – Along with its acquisition announcement of an award-winning manhua at Sakura-Con 2024 in Seattle, Yen Press, LLC announced the upcoming release of ten new titles, including six manga and four novels (86—Eighty-Six Alter; Hero Syndrome; Even a Replica Can Fall in Love; Victoria of Many Faces). With a variety of genres and books from beloved authors such as Mitsubachi Miyuki, these ten titles are set to release in September 2024.

86—Eighty-six Alter

Story by Asato Asato

Illustration by Shirabii

They were in the midst of youth, even on the battlefield…Shin, Lena, and their friends experience brief moments of peace and happiness while facing certain death, enjoying a short break, plunging into battle once again, and setting foot in the frigid United Kingdom for the first time—sharing these moments with their comrades, friends, lovers, and family. Glimpse another side of 86—Eighty-six that will leave you wishing against...

‘Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,’ the documentary executive produced and narrated by Matin Scorsese, has been acquired by Mubi ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

The arthouse streamer, distributor and production company has bought all rights for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latin America, Turkey and India.

Directed by two-time BAFTA and Emmy winner David Hinton, ‘Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger’ is described as “Scorsese’s personal and moving look at two of British cinema’s greatest filmmakers.”

Powell and Pressburger created some of the great classics of the British golden age, including “The Red Shoes,” “Black Narcissus,” “A Matter of Life and Death” and “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.” In the words of Scorsese, their films were “grand, poetic, wise, adventurous, headstrong, enraptured by beauty, deeply romantic, and completely uncompromising.

Asato Asato has revealed that her war drama light novel series, 86, is set to enter its final arc with the upcoming volume.

This development was revealed in the 13th volume of the series released on Jan 10, 2024, where Asato disclosed that the upcoming volume would mark the commencement of the final arc titled ‘District 86‘.

86 -Eighty Six- is a Japanese science fiction light novel series written by Asato Asato and illustrated by Shirabii. It began publication by Ascii Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint in February 2017. The series is licensed in North America by Yen Press.

A manga adaptation illustrated by Motoki Yoshihara was serialized in Square Enix’s seinen manga magazine Young Gangan from February 2018 to June 2021, with two spin-off manga series—86: Operation High School by Suzume Somemiya and 86: Fragmental Neoteny—being serialized in Media Factory’s seinen manga magazine Monthly Comic Alive from June...

The day has finally come. The series finale of the epic anime “Attack on Titan” has landed on anime streaming service Crunchyroll.

“Attack on Titan” Season 4, Part 4, or “Attack on Titan” Final Season: The Final Chapters Special 2 arrived on Crunchyroll Nov. 4. The series finale marks the end of Eren Yeager’s saga that was a decade in the making. It is available in more than 200 countries and territories, including New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

“Attack on Titan” Season 4, Part 4 was directed by Yuichiro Hayashi (“Dorohedoro”) and produced by studio Mappa (“Jujutsu Kaisen”).

The series composition was done by Hiroshi Seko (“Chainsaw Man”), with character design provided by Tomohiro Kishi (“Dorohedoro”) and chief animation direction by Daisuke Niinuma (“Days”) and Manabu Akita (“Kakegurui”). Kuniaki Nemoto served as art director (Futakoi Alternative), editing was done by Masato Yoshitake (“Chainsaw Man”) and music composed by Kohta Yamamoto (“86 Eighty-six”) and Hiroyuki Sawano (“Blue Exorcist...

The best part of loving mecha anime is the high-octane battle scenes. The sound of metal clinking, heavy-duty weapons, emotions running high, and a classic finale fusion are all that make mecha anime popular. One of the defining moments for any well-perceived mecha show is the quality and level of action portrayed in it.

No matter how well the plot has been executed or how good the characters are, a mecha anime with mediocre tech or dull battle scenes can tick the audience off almost immediately. Cult classics like Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Mobile Suit Gundam have featured some of anime’s most breathtaking battle scenes that the fans still haven’t gotten over.

Related:10 Best Mecha Romance Anime For Beginners

Macross Frontier

Macross Frontier is a mecha classic with exceptional animation and features some of the most blood-pumping mechanical machine fights. In the Macross universe, humanity has...

The fantasy-action manga Chained Soldier is being adapted into an anime that's set to release early next year, and in anticipation of its release, the first character trailer featuring protagonist Yuki Wakura has been revealed.

The trailer, which was posted by entertainment company Pony Canyon on YouTube, provides a first look of the series' main character. Yuki is a third-year student at Kaminoge High School, but he also joins forces with the chief of the Anti-Demon Corps to fight evil. The trailer displays the animation and soundtrack for the anime, which will be primarily directed by Junji Nishimura and Goro Kuji at studio Seven Arcs, with series composition by Yasuhiro Nakanishi, character designs by Hiroyuki Yoshii and music by Kohta Yamamoto.

Related: Why Anime Like Jjk And AoT Should Deviate From The Source Material

The manga, known as Mato Seihei no Slave in Japan, has been running since 2019 and published...

The popular manhwa series Solo Leveling is receiving a new adaptation in live-action form.

As revealed through an interview with French website Linternaute, a Korean drama version of the Solo Leveling franchise is in the works. This information was relayed by Heaeun Kwak and Wangho Lee, the respective creative director and CEO of D&c Webtoon Biz. Beyond this, no further information has yet been provided about the upcoming series or how it will be related to the broader franchise. A pure live-action adaptation of the Solo Leveling Webtoon series seems likely, although the interview's wording (noting a drama "based around" Solo Leveling) may also suggest a looser adaptation.

Related: Webtoon Announces its New York Comic Con Lineup

It was also announced in this interview that the sequel novel series Solo Leveling: Ragnarok -- which serves as a followup to the original story -- will be getting a Webtoon adaptation in...

To Be Hero X represents the co-production between Aniplex and Chinese streaming giant Bilibili. The anime debuts a brand-new trailer and visuals ahead of its Tba release date.

The trailer unveils the titular character, X, in his 3D form, spotlighting his ability to change the very art style of the anime with a click. Fans may remember fellow Chinese and Bilibili production The Daily Life of The Immortal King 2nd Season similarly experimenting with this effect. To Be Hero X's new trailer explores a motif of the heroism that exists in everyone, dotting scenes with the rallying words, "Where heroes rise... where commoners shine... born in ashes... Heroes I shall redefine." The official X (formerly Twitter) post leaves the words, "Everybody is ordinary, and precisely because of that — anybody can be a hero."

Related: Link Click: Season 2 Is Missing Its Most Vital Element

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Hey, "So Help Me Todd" fans. We are back on here to inform you that CBS is indeed dropping another new episode of So Help Me Todd tonight, May 4, 2023. That's right, guys. This next, new episode will be the 19th one for So Help Me Todd's current, premiere season 1, and we've got some new spoiler intel for it. We were able to gather up a couple of new, official teaser spoilers for this new episode 19 straight from CBS' official episode 19 press release synopsis. So, we're going to dig into it, right now, and see what's up with it. Let's go. Right off the bat, we've got an official title for this new episode 19 of So Help Me Todd season 1. It's called, "86'd." It sounds like episode 19 will feature some very scandalous, intense, dramatic, interesting and possible action-filled scenes as a hostile work environment lawsuit goes down. An undercover mission takes place and more.

Marcia Gay Harden as Margaret and Skylar Astin as Todd in ‘So Help Me Todd’ episode 19

Jamie Chung (Dexter: New Blood) guest stars as a murder suspect on CBS’s So Help Me Todd season one episode 19, “86’d.” Directed by Larry Teng from a script by Lisa Kyonga Parsons, episode 19 will air on Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 9pm Et/Pt.

Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden stars as Margaret Wright, Skylar Astin plays Todd Wright, and Tristen J. Winger is Lyle. Madeline Wise plays Allison, Inga Schlingmann is Susan, and Rosa Arredondo stars as Francey.

Jordan McGraw guest stars.

“86’d” Plot: Margaret represents Lauren (Chung), Susan’s good friend, in a hostile work environment lawsuit after she quits her job at a Michelin-starred restaurant, but it unexpectedly turns into a murder trial when the head chef is found dead. Also, when Todd gets sick, Margaret must go undercover as a...

James Corden has broken his silence on the Balthazar restaurant row, saying he feels “zen” about the whole incident as he hasn’t done anything wrong.

The Late Late Show host was called “the most abusive customer” and a “tiny cretin of a man” by Keith McNally, the owner of French eatery Balthazar, who banned him from the New York eatery on Monday. But the restaurateur later lifted the ban, saying the actor and TV host “apologised profusely”.

On Thursday, Corden told the New York Times in an interview: “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this [interview]?”

“I was there. I get it. I feel so Zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so silly. I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication,” he added.

The British entertainer...

His windswept, airbrushed canvases have given shape to landmark films for decades, from Solaris to Dances With Wolves. Now 86, the designer looks back at his highlights

Now 86, Renato Casaro is one of the world’s most influential poster designers, best known for his classical, windswept, airbrushed canvases: heady reminders of the pre-digital era. His style turns matinee idols into Michelangelos, from Stallone to Schwarzenegger, Costner to DiCaprio. His posters are unabashed theatrics, stuffed with sweaty biceps and heaving bosoms, which transport the punter outside the picturehouse to a thrilling third reel.

Born in Treviso, Italy, in 1935, as a boy Casaro would visit his local cinema every day in the hope of taking home posters of films whose runs had ended, so he could try to reproduce them. In his teens, he struck deals with the owners: free tickets in exchange for painting their walls with huge original posters. At 18, he joined Studio Favalli,...

Beginning as a science fiction novel written by Asato Asato and illustrated by Shirabii, “86” eventually became a manga and then an anime by A-1 pictures, airing from April 2021 to March 2022. Although in premise it is a mecha/sci-fi title, the action is not exactly on the forefront here, at least not for the majority of the 23 episodes, as the focus is actually on context.

The Republic of San Magnolia has been at war with the Empire of Giad for nine years. Though it initially suffered devastating losses to the Empire’s autonomous mechanized Legions, the Republic has since developed its own autonomous units, called Juggernauts, which are directed remotely by a Handler. The Republic is stating that due to this choice, there have not been any casualties for years, but that is actually propaganda. While the silver-haired Alba of the Republic’s eighty-five sectors live safely behind protective walls,...

German Films, an agency that promotes German cinema worldwide, has announced the talent who will feature in its 7th annual Face to Face With German Films campaign. The high-profile platform sets out to bring international visibility to the wealth of ground-breaking talent working in film and TV in Germany, and shaping the future of the industry.

This year’s selected talent are documentary writer-director Sarah Noa Bozenhardt (“Among Us Women”), actor-producer-writer Sara Fazilat (“Nico”), actor-director Jerry Hoffmann (“Shahada”), film editor Julia Kovalenko (“System Crasher”), writer-director Matthias Luthardt (“Pingpong”), cinematographer and director Zamarin Wahdat (“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)”) and actor Anne Zander (“For Jojo”).

After spotlighting well-known actors, writers and directors such as Saskia Rosendahl (“Lore”), Alexander Fehling, Burhan Qurbani (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”) and Jonas Nay in its first five years, last year’s Face to Face With German Films – The Filmmakers campaign broadened its...

86 is an anime series that began in 2021 and is based on a light novel series of the same name. The anime follows Major Vladilena "Lena" Milizé, an Alba military officer who commands a squadron of Juggernauts, and the Spearhead Squadron, which is made up of people referred to as the Eighty-Six.

Related: 10 Obscure But Fun Anime Clubs Every Fan Wants To Join

While the show is relatively young, 86 has garnered enough attention for fans to express their love for the show via user ratings on IMDb. Fans in particular praise the story, and as the series is in its second season, it is appropriate to look back at the content that gripped audiences and made them fall in love with the anime in the first season.

Possibly the worst anime ever to watch while you're sad, 86 follows Lena, a soldier in the Republic of San Magnolia, as she ascends the ranks and becomes handler of the 86, a squadron of conscripted children that pilot robotic Juggernauts. The 86 fight against the Legion, an army of autonomous robots, as Lena deals with the corruption in her government and fights against the treatment of the conscripted soldiers.

Related: Anime's 10 Best War Stories

The anime shows the bleakest sides of war, including propaganda and corruption, through its complex and beautifully animated characters. There are many likable characters in 86 such as Raiden and Lena, who help to make the story world a rich and interesting place to explore.

German distributor Der Filmverleih in Stuttgart has boarded Berlin-based Films in Motion’s World War II trilogy penned by American writer J. Frank James.

The films, in various stages of development, include “The Face,” produced with Leipzig-based Departures Film and starring Ludwig Trepte (“Deutschland 86”). The story turns on a traumatized Jewish survivor and an army deserter posing as a priest who are bonded together into a friendship while reconstructing a bombed out church. Markus Imboden (“The Foster Boy”) is set to direct.

In “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes,” directed by veteran helmer Jo Baier and produced with Amsterdam-based Nl Film and Hupe Film in Cologne, a former SS concentration camp guard in danger of being apprehended for his brutal past faces horrors beyond his imagination. Herbert Knaup and Matthias Habich star in the haunting drama.

“Bones of the Wise Men,” currently in development, is set in the...