Bloom Reviews

Welcome back to another installment of “Last Week in Geekdom” where I comb the internet for all the news you need to know so you don’t have to. I know I’m a little late this week, but it’s just too nice outside right now to stay inside all day writing. I hope you all are having similarly nice weather this weekend especially those of you in the US who have tomorrow off like I do. Anyways, highlights for this week’s news are as follows: Warner Bros has released more information and a release date for the live action Akira movie; Controversy is brewing on twitter among the Unionize Comics crowd over the recently deceased Marvel colorist Justin Ponsor; and tons of new anime are coming to Netflix next month including the second season of Aggretsuko. Make sure you also check below for a ton of cool articles and videos from this week, and, as always, have a great rest of your Sunday!

Top Anime and Manga News

Warner Brothers has announced that the live action movie adaptation of Akira will be hitting theaters on May 21, 2021. Taika Waititi who directed Thor: Ragnarok will be directing this film and has said in past interviews that he plans to adapt from the manga rather than the anime.

Funimation has announced that it will be streaming the Ghost in the Shell, Psycho Pass, and Steins;Gate movies on its platform, FunimationNow. They will be available with both English dubs and subtitles.

Netflix will be adding multiple new anime series to its streaming platform in June including: Kakeguruixx, March comes in like a lion seasons 1 and 2, Anohana, and A Silent Voice among others.

Anime Announcements:

• Aggretsuko season 2 coming June 14th
• Weathering with You film gets 2020 worldwide theatrical screenings

Manga Announcements:

• Say I Love You mangaka launches new manga in June
• Happy Sugar Life ends in June
• Devil’s Line mangaka to launch new title in September

Top Comics News

Bleeding Cool recently released an article on the rumour that Tom King would be taken off of the current Batman run. The rumour has been apparently confirmed by some industry insiders and speculation as to the cause may be that King previously announced he would take the character in a completely new direction for the last 15 issues. Recently King posted this status on his Twitter, leading many to believe the rumour is true.

Controversy is brewing in the comics world following the passing of colorist Justin Ponsor who recently lost his battle with cancer. Ponsor had previously posted a photo of himself working on his deadlines from his hospital bed, sparking controversy and more calls to unionize the comic industry. Combined with the fact that Ponsor had to kickstart his treatment for 50k, outrage has been spreading on Twitter.

Marvel has announced Falcon and the Winter Soldier mini-series will be coming to Disney+ in 2020. The series will be six parts and stars Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Kari Skogland is also set to direct these episodes.

DC’s Deathstroke will be getting an animated series on CW Seed. It is likely that Manu Bennett will reprise his role as Deathstroke for this series after playing the role in the previous series Arrow.

Featured Articles and Interviews

• Sketchd takes a look at the shifting nature of the comics industry and comic creators, interviewing creators on how they see it changing and how they “broke into” the industry.
• Frog-kun writes for Anime Feminist on Sword Art Online’s representation of female characters and Reki Kawahara’s statements  on how he wants to change the series.
• Women Write About Comics talks the technicalities of printing black characters back at the beginning years of the comic book industry and how limitations in printing technologies became a detriment to black representation in comics.
• Anime News Network covers the interview between Academic Akiko Mizoguchi and BL creators Rakugo Shinju’s Haruko Kumota and Momo to Manji’s Sawa Sakura on LGBT awareness and its impact on BL stories.
• The Cartoon Cipher sits down with Team Fourstar voice actor, writer, and editor KaiserNeko on the history of abridged shows and the changes he’s seeing in the genre.
• The Comics Beat Podcast Graphic Novel TK talks with teen librarian Robin Brenner on how libraries support comics and graphic novels.

Featured Videos

• Strip Panel Naked digs deep into the pages of Desolation Jones and how JH Williams III creates extra time with his panel design.
• Get in the Robot discusses the history and development of BL and Yaoi anime and manga, looking back on its influences and formative creators.
• Breadsword continues their multi-part series examining the works of Satoshi Kohn with the third episode in the series on Tokyo Godfathers.

Featured WordPress Post

• Irina discusses the side character Karma from Bungo Stray Dogs this week and how his short life on the show had a larger meaning for the plot and characterization of more important characters.

~~Thanks for Reading!~~

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