By Jeremy Kahn

Last Monday at 9 AM a new series titled “Stitch” premiered. Stitch is of course the title character from “Lilo and Stitch.” Last that we heard from this fluffy, blue, genetically altered creation was from his last movie “Leroy and Stitch” (one of the better of the two DTV videos). But Stitch first appeared in the theatrical movie, “Lilo and Stitch.” Soon after, a TV series was announced. Along with this new series a direct-to-TV (DTV) movie was made to lead into the series called Stitch the Movie. Then a second DTV was made available titled, “Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch,” and finally “Leroy and Stitch.” All three of these DTV releases followed the TV series, expanding on the universe created in the first movie.

The new series that aired this week is actually not new at all. Simply titled “Stitch!”, it lead to two sequel series of it’s own called, “Stitch!: Itazura Alien no Daibōken” and “Stitch!: Zutto Saikō no Tomodachi.” “Stitch!”  is often referred to as the spiritual successor to “Lilo and Stitch” the TV series. It was created by Disney as an anime version of “Lilo and Stitch the Series” and takes place in Ryukyus instead of Hawaii. It was shown in Japan in place of the one we came to see and be familiar with. The new location of Ryukyus (located off the shore of Okinawa) is an example of some changes made to the series for the new audience.

What sets this anime version apart is first, Lilo doesn’t appear in the series. She is referenced as having a boyfriend which sets up the whole storyline for the first episode. Stitch feels lonely that Lilo is not spending time with him so he steals a prototype ship from Jumba and heads off into space (Jumba and galactic forces in pursuit). As Jumba catches up to Stitch they are sucked into a black hole and end up in an alternate universe, and on  an alternate Earth. Stitch crash lands on this new Earth where, after a little conflict, he befriends a girl named Yuna. In a sense it’s a retelling of the entire Lilo and Stich story but designed for a different audience.

Disney has taken the time to dub the series before airing it. Sadly the dubbing is pretty obvious at certain points. Lip movements on certain characters are sometimes out of sync with what’s being said. The good news is this problem is only apparent during the beginning of the first episode. As the episode moves forward, the synchronization starts to fit into place.

That fact that this show aired outside of Japan is a sign that companies are willing to expand their properties beyond the territories that they were designed for. For example, if Disney is willing to bring over this anime version of a beloved series then what’s stopping them from bringing over other series that got similar treatments?

The down side of this is that Disney apparently pulled the series from their time slots after the first four episodes. Whether this is in relation to viewership, or just the quality of the series is unknown at the moment.

Regardless, this series has great potential to add to the Lilo and Stitch universe. The show has actually been dubbed before hand for release in other countries, such as Australia and Asia (both countries received an English dub). Other countries received a dub in Spanish. There was even a version with French subtitles along with the English dub. Whether Disney will put the show back on the air remains to be seen. Be sure to keep an eye out just in case, you won’t be disappointed. Hopefully if those in charge decide to put the series back on the air, viewership won’t be a problem. So check this series out if it returns to the airwaves and hopefully Disney and other companies will see potential in bringing over similar titles.

Apparently there is someone thinking about these things if the series aired in the first place. Let’s just hope that the idea doesn’t get washed away for good.

By Jeremy Kahn

Comic companies are slowly moving towards the digital era. Face it, print is slowly becoming obsolete. As much as we hate to state this, more and more print based companies are making the move to digital, releasing both digital and print based works or just one or the other. Today there are many opportunities out there for comic enthusiasts to get their comic fix. From the popular Comixology, to the dedicated comic company apps (DC has one, Marvel, Archie, IDW, Dark Horse, Blue Water, Archana, Dynamite and so many more). While comic companies have been making this transaction to digital, so have companies releasing the comic’s counterpart, manga. VIZ, Square Enix, and Yen Press have all made their manga digitally available.

As many are aware, compared to the multitude of manga that gets translated and released overseas there are still tons more that never see the light of day outside their native homeland. Those interested in these types of manga usually have to resort to either learning the language the manga was written in, or finding a scanlation of it online. The latter of these two options is more often than not frowned upon. To some though, it is the only way to read some great (and not so great) stories that they might never get a chance to. This is where JManga comes in.

JManga works in a similar vein to JComi. Created by Akamatsu Ken (“Love Hina”, “Negima”), JComi, in participation with other manga artists, collects manga works old and new, making them available to read for free (the whole site is supported by an ad based payment system). Recently there has been a call for people to register and, for those willing, to translate selected manga to other languages.

JManga is an English based site-currently in its beta phase-that provides manga that would normally never be seen outside of Japan. These manga are translated and made available for a monthly fee of $10 (other payment systems available). The way this works is, each manga, or the chapters that make it up, cost points. Every month when you are credited the $10 you are given a set amount of points to spend on any manga or chapters you want. If you run out of points you can add more by buying points in $5 increments. Right now when you sign up you are given extra points as a bonus.

If at any point you wish to stop your charges you can switch over to a free account which lets you read your previously bought manga without being charged the monthly fee. The only down side is you can’t buy anything without being on a monthly charge. Still, switching between the monthly charge and the free account is as easy as clicking one button.

Manga is updated every Tuesday. The only problem is, while the manga is updated, not everything becomes available to purchase. What this means is, when new manga are added a lot of times it is just a preview of a manga. You sometimes have to wait longer for the actual manga to be added. Right now there are tons of previews but not many actual manga. Of course, the site is just in the beta phase right now. What is there does show promise. There is, or looks to eventually be, a lot of variety. The site does require a constant Internet connection, which could turn people off. But for a chance to read some obscure manga we might never had the chance to, this is definitely a good start.

By Jeremy Kahn

3-D, love it, hate it, accept it, live with it. Like fashion trends, 3-D has made the rounds countless of times. From movies, to television, to computers and video games, you can’t escape this undying trend. In 1953, Universal Studios released their very first 3-D feature film, It Came From Outer Space. A year later saw the release of The Creature From the Black Lagoon (for those that were unaware, this was actually shot with 3-D in mind). Now, the difference among these early movies and say, “Friday the 13th, Part 3, 3-D” or that horrid “Spy Kids 3-D:Game Over” is very simple (and honestly, please don’t just say that the difference is that one set is just worse then the other). The type of 3-D that The Creature From the Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space used were Polarized. This technology is similar to what IMAX used early on when you head to wear those bulky glasses.

The two mentioned later used the more common (or at least common during the 1990s and early 2000s) Anaglyph format. This format relied on red and blue (or cyan depending on how picky you want to be) filters which were viewed through similar companion glasses.

Here is where it strikes a little closer to home. While 3-D has been coming and going in Hollywood (remember trends have cycles), 3-D began to move on to other forms of entertainment. Let’s head to a place where 3-D has apparently died out for the time being. When I was little I remember walking into a comic shop and seeing this amazing comic on display. It promised, guess what, 3-D. Better yet were the contents, The Flintstones. Imagine being amazed at the thought of being able to see one of my favorite cartoons in 3-D (Granted this was around the time the John Goodman version of Fred Flintstone was making the rounds, but I did not care. Honestly, I really like that movie.). I bought it to find out the 3-D sucked (Not sure I should have been disappointed though. As much as I liked the movie, a 3D John Goodman version of Fred Flintstone popping off the page now seems kind of disturbing, especially a saturated red/blue one.). What I’m mostly getting at is over the years 3D has been applied haphazardly (as I’m sure most of you have noticed, specifically when viewing all these movies that aren’t filmed in 3-D but are just converted afterwards). I’m not trying to bash 3D (then again maybe I am). My point is, 3-D has not exactly been used in an appropriate way yet. Rather, so far it seems that it is being applied as an afterthought. This is what is killing it, and what leaves a bad after taste. Good-luck finding any comic that uses such a technique in today’s world (granted, one or two may pop up here or there. DC had a Superman issue a year or two ago, but they are pretty much extinct in that medium.).

Let us move on to video games. This is an interesting area to observe. Gamers are often considered test subjects for new types of technology. Believe it or not, a lot of items that hit the market started out as game products (that or military). Recently of course there’s motion technology, which became big due to, guess who, gamers (I’m not going to say any specific company was the cause as this technology since it can be traced very far back. For example there is Sega’s Activator, Nintendo’s Power Glove, and way before these two DataSoft’s Le Stick). This motion technology went on to be used in hospitals and science labs and many other areas. Gamers proved the technology worked, from there it took off. 3-D is no different to this.

Sony say it was going to rely heavily on gamers to help push 3-D technology during a previous E3 speech. From there they introduced that 3-D gaming was coming to the PS3. This was to help drive the sales of 3-D TVs. Obviously they were planning to rely on gamers to create demand for this technology as more 3D compatible games came out (again, gamers help push new technology). Then came word of Nintendo’s new handheld which would be 3-D, just without the need for 3D glasses. This new technology in Nintendo’s handheld is already being used in televisions by Toshiba, which they are starting to sell in Japan.

This is just the recent trend of 3-D. Let’s go back some more to the 80s. In the 80s, 3-D gaming was already making a nudge to become mainstream (it just failed). One example of this is Sega’s SegaScope 3-D for the Sega Master System. This item relied on shutter glasses, again similar to early IMAX technology. One main problem was the lack of games (granted you had titles like Space Harrier 3-D), the other was the fact the while the 3D worked, half the time the effects looked like cardboard cut outs. This never took off. Nintendo also had their own 3D system in place. Games like 3-D World Runner shipped with glasses that were used to give the game a 3-D affect.

Then you have computers. I’m not going to go into detail as there is so much to cover here, it would take to long. The main thing here is that there are video cards that when installed allow 3-D to be enabled for certain games. There are even compatibility modes for games running on certain versions of Direct X, which allow older games to run in 3-D.

There are also converter boxes you can buy that you can hook up to your TV, or any video output. This box converts (or splits) the signal to 3-D, allowing you to watch what’s on TV through 3-D glasses (these boxes range from polarized, to red/cyan or blue, to shutter glasses versions).

After all this, here is my main point. 3-D has come and gone over the years. Like a bad rash it keeps coming back stronger than before. The thing is, this is just how trends are. 3-D isn’t a fad or a new gimmick. It has been here all along, and will continue to be here for years and years. What we have to do is quit pushing it away so suddenly. The fact that we don’t embrace it as we do (or did) color or sound, just leads to this technology not evolving. If it doesn’t evolve right, then we may never learn how to properly use 3-D or apply it in a suitable way. When we eventually learn to use this technology correctly, only then can we truly say it is here to stay. Until then, it will continue to be that rash, coming and going, growing stronger and weaker with each return. So come on, let us learn to use this right. The sooner we do, the sooner we can have those holodecks up and running.