Asgard

Dublin’s Irish Film Institute is to show Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance and Summer Wars (Eva 2.0). The two-day festival in March will feature Evangelion 2.0 on 20 March, and Summer Wars on 21 March.

Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance is the second film in the remake of the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV anime series. A group of 14-year-olds with giant biomechanical units protect Earth from mysterious Angels. It originally opened June 2009 in Japan.

Summer Wars features a modern family on a midsummer adventure in a light-hearted story of “action entertainment”, which originally opened August 2009 in Japan.

Taiwan. Fans of Rie Kugimiya have been lining up in the Taipei streets since 3rd January. Some have endured more than 25 days of cold nights, to see Rie at her scheduled appearance at the 2010 International Book Exhibition and to try and secure one of just 89 remaining signed ceramic plates.

Fans almost brought down the server when 50 autographed plates were made available to pre-order online. Over 80,000 order attempts were made with the 50 sold within 30 seconds of opening. Another 89 plates will be available from the Exhibition.

Rie Kugimiya is a voice actress known for her characters in Shakugan no Shana, Louise (Zero no Tsukaima), Taiga (Tiger x Dragon), and Nagi (Hayate the Combat Butler).

The highly acclaimed Mamoru Oshii (Director of Ghost in the Shell etc) announced on Friday in Tokyo that his new film will be an adaptation of Yokoyama’s Tetsujin 28-go. This pioneering work is best known for inspiring a 1963 anime that was adapted as Gigantor. Oshii revealed the news during a discussion on the opening of his latest film, Assault Girls.

Look out for the trailer for the new Detective Conan film. Based on  Gosho Aoyama’s Detective Conan manga, this 14th film in the series opens on 17th April in Japan.

Conan, the genius detective trapped inside a child’s body, faces his big rival Kid The Phantom Thief. Kid is after “Lady of the Sky” jewel onboard Bell 3, the world’s largest airship. But the airship has been hijacked by a mysterious terrorist group called Red Shamu-neko.