TVSquad

Being the award for Excellence in Animation, this was easily the widest ranging category, and you all really came through in your nomination suggestions (sorry The Venture Brothers doesn't qualify). With animation owning several channels all to itself and still appearing everywhere else, you've got kid's shows, very much adult only series (did I mention The Venture Brothers can't get nominated?), gag cartoons, sci-fi cartoons and even gothic horror.

With your help from my Adam Finley Award call for nominations post last week where you tried to trick me into nominating The Venture Brothers, even though I can't, we've managed to narrow down the field of contenders to what we feel were the five strongest entries into the wide world of television animation in the past season. Don't forget to check out the Reader's Choice at the bottom where you can vote for which of the five you think are deserving to win. Next week, we'll be revealing both your winner and ours.

With the writers strike pulling a black cloud over our collective television set, have you been feeling super-sad? Do you feel lost, without a sense of direction, now that your favorite show has run out of new episodes? Do empty pints of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and fresh receipts from the video game store litter your home, serving as a constant reminder that you love TV, you breathe TV, and you need TV to fill your life? I certainly hope not, because that would be kind of pathetic.

What's weird is that before the invention of television, there was this thing called "books". People used their eyes, just as they use them for watching television, to "read" these books. Books are hard to come by these days, but if you visit the library, they might have one or two, hidden in the back room. Please note you may have to slip an Alexander Hamilton or wear a low-cut shirt to gain access to the book room. Anyway, books are a great way to escape reality (TV). If you manage to track a few down, why don't you pick up a book or two while the writers strike is in effect? If the idea of straying so far away from television terrifies you, here are some books that aren't too far off point, so you can join in nice and easy.

As you may have been able to tell from my last name, I am Asian. Anime was a big part of my childhood, especially when I lived overseas in those early years. I even went through that awkward Sailor Moon phase in third grade. However, by the time the anime craze hit America, I was over it. So while my classmates traded Pokemon cards and donned cat ears, I quietly filled my heart with loathing and silently complained about the newer animes that everyone else seemed to love so much. In my eyes, nothing seemed to deliver.

But just this summer, not only did I manage to tolerate an anime show, I fell in love with it. Enter Death Note, an incredibly engaging anime that just wrapped up its run in Japan three months ago.

I'll blame my relative indifference toward the anime series itself, but it was only recently that I had heard anything about a live-action Dragon Ball Z flick.

Last month, IGN had a brief write-up about the alleged adaptation, but didn't have much other than speculation. Now, however, comes word that the movie will begin shooting in Montreal sometime in the near future, with plans to wrap production by next July. There has been no official word on who will star in it, or who will make it, though Roland Emmerich's name was tossed around.

Today I did an interview with a radio station in British Columbia and we took some calls from listeners asking me all sorts of questions. One listener asked me about an animated show called Star Blazers. He wanted to know the name of the starship that was featured on the show. Well, I'm sure all you anime fans remember that the original title of the show in Japan was Star Ship Yamato.

It's 'toon news time. Here's some stuff my fellow animation freaks might find interesting:

• First off, thanks to reader Ytoabn for telling us about the Frederator Films, a new animation studio (spun off from Frederator Studios) that has a Samurai Jack feature film slated as one of its first projects. Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky will write and direct the movie.
• The Onion's AV Club has two cool interviews with fans of new and not-so-new 'toons: Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi and Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants (and many other voices).

When I heard Speed Racer was coming to Nicktoons, I figured it was the original cartoon, but no such luck. Instead, a newer version is being created to (not) coincide with the upcoming live-action film version from the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), although having both debuting around the same time will definitely result in the kind of synergy studios crave.

The new Speed Racer 'toon is being produced through Lionsgate and Animation Collective, the studio behind Kappa Mikey, an anime-inspired comedy that also airs on Nicktoons.

Remember when I told y'all that Perfect Hair Forever was coming back, but that it would be online only? Well, that time has come, so click here and enjoy parts one and two of "Return to Balding Victory."

The last time we left our hero, he was on a quest to Tuna Mountain. Also, there was a hamburger necklace, and some dude and a talking giraffe in a hole. If you were wondering what all of that stuff meant, you can rest assured that absolutely none of that is explained in these new episodes. Why? Because as one character explains: it's all just a big anime mindf**k. So inject LSD directly into your eyeballs, sit back in your computer chair, and enjoy the ride.

Wired has news that tomorrow the South Park episode "Good Times with Weapons" will be made available exclusively in HD on XBox Live Marketplace. "Good Times with Weapons" is the episode from season eight in which the boys purchase ninja weapons and are transformed through the power of their own imagination into anime warriors. Unfortunately for Butters/Professor Chaos, reality starts to seep in when he takes a throwing star in the eye. In true form, the boys don't try too hard to help Butters, though they do dress him as a dog so at least he can receive veterinarian care. Hey, it's better than nothing.

Also, if you buy an XBox 360 between March 20 and April 3, you'll get a free DVD copy of this HD episode. And don't forget that season eleven kicks off Wednesday night with the episode "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson."

More information can be found here on one of our sister sites. Thanks, Tucker.

I love animation, but I have to admit my knowledge of anime is rather limited. There's a lot of anime I enjoy and admire, but what I've seen doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this popular animation style.

If you love anime, or you just want to start at the very beginning of this art form, Digital Meme is releasing a DVD titled "Classic Japanese Anime." Don't expect stuff like AstroBoy, Speed Racer or Gigantor in this set. Instead, think silent animation from the '20s and '30s. Some of the works contained in this DVD set were originally shown in theaters with a separate audio track played on a gramophone record. If your interest in anime goes far beyond casual admiration, this is something worth spending $110.00 on. Also, every one of the fifty-five cartoons is subtitled, so there's none of that gaudy American dubbing to ruin it.

The set releases on April 30.

[via Cartoon Brew]

The deviantARTist known as Space Coyote recently received copius praise and accolades for her anime-renditions of characters from The Simpsons and Futurama. Now, it seems her drawings have also captured the attention of both Bongo Comics and 20th Century Fox. According to a message on her deviantART page, Space Coyote has been hired to draw for a one-off Simpsons comic in manga style for Bongo Comics. She further writes that 20th Century Fox has also contacted her about doing work, possibly for the newly-resurrected Futurama.

She also writes on her Live Journal that the details are still being hammered out, but needless to say, this is a great example of a relatively unknown artist getting some decent exposure through this crazy thing called the Web. She has also worked on the Web comic Saturnalia since 2002, which is also worth checking out.

[via Digg]

(S01E01) Afro Samurai is Samuel L. Jackson's latest venture. It's a captivating mini series that's something of an americanized cross between Tarantino violence and high quality anime. Aside from providing his voice for two characters, he's also co/executive producing it.

"Revenge" begins in the past with the death of the boys father at the hands of Justice, a cackling creepy character, over posession of the #1 headband. I had to watch the fight a couple of times, but I still don't know just how Justice defeated #1. (A weaponized eyeball maybe?)

Quite contrary to the stereotype associated with my nationality, I'm not a big fan of anime. That two year phase came and went while I was still in elementary school, thanks very much. Nowadays, I find the "anime look" a little boring, so when an artist actually does something fun and exciting with it, I sit up and take notice. I also love it when people re-interpret cartoons in different artistic styles (for example, the realistic sketches of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny on South Park a few months ago)

So, when I found this artist's group shots of The Simpsons' and Futurama's ensembles, I was pretty amazed. Each character looks totally different, but it's still easy to tell who's who (a most important element in good fan-art). I think it's fantastic, but, I must admit, I'm a little disturbed by Lisa's striking resemblance to the characters of Dragon Ball. It must be a hair thing.

[via Neatorama]

If you missed the premiere of the new Spike cartoon Afro Samurai, you can watch the full episode on Spike's Web site. Samuel L. Jackson voices the lead character and also executive produces the program, which is geared towards mature audiences. Ron Pearlman voices Justice, the evil villain who killed the samurai's father. Kelly Hu plays Okiku, a friend from the samurai's past. Jackson also voices the comic relief character, Ninja Ninja. Music for the series was composed by The RZA.

The new series is based on a graphic novel by Takashi Okazaki, who has also worked on the manga series Evangelion, among many other projects, including the artwork for the Spider-Man 2 DVD.

Speed Racer only lasted one year? That's what IMDb seems to indicate. The Japanese import is so much a part of popular culture I assumed it had lasted longer than that. Regardless, the popular cartoon was around before my time, so I know very little about it, save for little bits of information I've picked up here and there. If you're older than myself, however, or you fell in love with the show while watching it in reruns, you may have already heard that a live-action film versions of the cartoon is in the works. Larry and Andy Wachowski, the brothers behind the Matrix movies, will write and direct the project, which is slated for a 2008 release. The brothers apparently have big plans for the racing sequences, and given the ever-duplicated special effects of the Matrix trilogy, I'm more than a little curious to see what they have up their sleeves. I'm a little bummed out that it's live-action rather than animation, but The Matrix was essentially a live-action cartoon in many ways, so maybe this could work.

[via Toon Zone]