R.I.P Michael Turner.

This past friday, June 27th the comic book world lost one of its best. 37 year old Michael Turner lost his 8 year long battle with bone cancer. Mr. Turner was one of my favorite artists....i own everything he has ever done including all sketchbooks and con exclusives.

Its so hard to believe that hes gone....i really thought he was going to beat his cancer. I had the pleasure of meeting Mike at Wizard World Texas 2006. I got a couple of books signed and shook his hand and im glad i did...he was one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. He truly loved his fans and loved meeting them. He was a real champ. Even with the pain, he would make appearances and meet and greet his fans.

I cant believe he is gone. the comic book world will never be the same. The image below is from next months Uncanny X-men #500. Its one of the last covers that Mike did before he died.



thanks for all the great books and art, mike. You will be missed. Where ever you are, im sure you are cranking out some awesome art.

bloggers block is one strong demon.

yeah, i know.

I'm over 2 weeks behind in my "a movie a week" time wasting plan...not much i can do about it. Ive been working overtime and double overtime at work due to some lay-offs and "internal re-arranging". I still find time to get down to the bookstore and read travel books but by the time i get home, i just don't have the energy to watch a movie. All the extra work has taken all remaining energy out of me so the last thing i have been able to do is sit down with my laptop and blog...last Saturdays blog about Ayako Miyake was written during a 10min break from cooking.

I'm doing pretty well with the whole learning Japanese thing...i ordered some flashcards from J-List.com and just graduated to 2nd grade kanji with help from The Kanji Site.com and About.com/Japan. I'm not worried about not being able to read any signs or menus in japan considering pretty much everything in Tokyo is in english as well as Japanese...I just want to be able to chat with the ladies.

The Best Buy down the road from me is having a great sale on Asian cinema right now. I just picked up the new Tokyo Shock! movie called The Machine Girl as well as Takeshi Miike's "Izo" and Ryuhei Kitamura's classic "Skyhigh"

I'm not sure which one i will watch tonight but I'm looking forward to some downtime and a movie so any of the 3 will do.

The most beautiful ninja ever.

This is Ayako Miyake. She is one of the athletes that takes part in the Women of Ninja Warrior tournaments. Her first tournament was Kunoichi 4 and she won. Not only did she win the 4th tournament, she went on to win Kunoichi 5 and 6. She is the only woman to complete all stages of the Kunoichi tournament.

Unfortunatly, she fell in the second stage of the newest tournament...#7 but its ok...she will be back for #8 and she is gonna kick ass.

Kuchisake Onna

Lately I have been re-reading a lot of my books that are about Japanese urban legends and ghost stories. Japanese ghost stories are fascinating. No other country has the ability to scare the hell out of you with a story like Japan. One of the more well known stories is called Kuchisake Onna, which means "split mouth woman".

As far as Japanese urban legends go, this one is fairly new. Stories of this woman first started surfacing in the 1970's. According to the legend, a beautiful woman wearing a surgical mask follows groups of young school children and stops them and asks "Am I beautiful"? The child usually says yes because at first glance, she is beautiful but then she takes off her surgical mask revealing a very deep ear to ear slice. The she asks "How about now"?

When the child screams in terror and flees, the woman follows them and begins to butcher them with a scalpel while screaming "AM I BEAUTIFUL, AM I BEAUTIFUL...AM I...AM I... If the victim is female, she is turned into a disfigured woman as well. Some versions of this story have the woman attacking with a Scythe but i think the scalpel version is more fitting considering she is wearing a surgical mask and is apparently the victim of a botched plastic surgery job or a murderous husband who is tired of his wife's vanity.

Recently there was an accident in Japan. A woman was seen chasing a group of children down a busy road and was hit by a car. When police and bystanders went over to her to see if she was OK or if she was killed, they turned her over to see her face and her face was slit from ear to ear. True story. It was in all the major Japanese papers and on the Japanese news channels. Authorities said that the slice on her face was a result of the car accident but the pathologist said that it was an old wound and was not caused by the car accident.

Last year there was a movie made in Japan about this legend. The movie is called Kuchisake Onna, just like the legend. If you can find it, I highly recommend it. Its a great film.

Sasuke 20! Part 2

Well, Sasuke 20 is over and it was nothing short of amazing. Most of the Ninja Warrior all-stars showed up for this epic event. Olympic athlete Shunsuke Nagasake was absent due to his training for the Beijing games, Government worker Bunpei Shiratori was absent as well...I'm not sure where he was, Comedian turned athlete Kinnikun Nakayama was absent as well but the rest of the big guns were all present. Yamada, Nagano, Akiyama, Takeda, Yamamoto, Yamada(yes, i meant to type Yamada twice...there are two Yamada's) Iketani...all showed up. Trampolinist Daisuke Nakata was absent as well but due to his injuries from a hit and run a few years back, its understandable.

Shunsuke Nagasake wasn't able to make it to the event but he was able to train the 3 American G4 viewers who won the American Ninja contest...one of whom got farther than any other competitor...he made it to the Cliff Hanger in Stage 3. Grand Champion Makoto Nagano made it to Stage 2 but lost his grip on the updated Chain Reaction...the first obstacle in Stage 2. Levi had to go to Stage 3 alone.

Out of the 100 competitors only 3 made it to stage 2 and one of those made it to stage 3. Unfortunately, all of the All-Stars except Nagano were taken out in the first round. Japan's most famous Firefighter..Toshihiro Takeda was thwarted by the warped wall, Katsumi Yamada lost his grip on the Spider Jump, Superstar Shingo Yamamoto mis-judged his landing on the half pipe attack, 1st Grand Champion Kazuhiko Akiyama lost his grip on the half pipe attack and as for Yasushi Yamada...i just cant remember how he was taken out.

Along with the all-stars there were the usual faces...Hang Glider man, Mr. Octopus, the guy that makes the plastic models, the rather rotund comedian Choshu, garbageman Shinji Kobayashi...all taken out within the first few obstacles. For those of you who missed it, Sasuke 20 will air again today starting at 4pm EST on G4TV.

Usually the Sasuke tournaments are every 6 months so I believe Sasuke 21 will be in September, and I cant wait.

Mr. Sasuke, Katsumi Yamada has dedicated his entire life to Ninja Warrior, he has built a replica training course at his home where the rest of the all-stars join him to train. No man has suffered the heartbreak that Yamada has. He has made it to the final stages quite a few times but has never gone all the way although he was the favorite for several years in a row. Katsumi Yamada is what Ninja Warrior is all about. The man has heart, spirit, drive...everything. I really hope he will make it to the top of Mt. Midoriyama one day. His best friend, all-star and Grand Champion Makoto Nagano constantly pushes Yamada to train harder so that he can one day enjoy the view from the top of the giant metal tower.

here's hoping that all the all-stars show up for Sasuke 21.

Sasuke 20! Ninja Warrior is back!

Tomorrow, the 20th Sasuke (muscle ranking) tournament will air in the US. It aired in Japan back in March. The shows original Japanese name is Sasuke: Muscle Ranking but here in the US its called Ninja Warrior.

For those of you not familiar with Ninja Warrior, the best way to describe it is "the hardest obstacle course in the universe" Athletes from all over Japan and a few athletes from outside of Japan compete in 4 stages of the most brutal, bone crushing, skull splitting obstacle course known to man. Sasuke has it all...water pits, rope swings, salmon ladders, chains, fire, free fall, log rolls, barrel rolls, wall lifts, warped walls...you name it, Sasuke has it. Ninja Warrior is without a doubt one of the greatest TV shows ever.

Some of Japan's best athletes take part in the Sasuke challenges, some of the more notable ones are: Katsumi Yamada, Makoto Nagano, Toshihiro Takeda, Yasushi Yamada, Shingo Yamamoto, Naoki Iketani, Daisuke Nakata, Bunpei Shiratori, Kinnikun Nakayama, Shunsuke Nagasake Akira Omori and Kazuhiko Akiyama. Akiyama and Nagano are the only 2 athletes to complete the entire course, and Sasuke has been going on for 10 years now...that goes to show how hard this course actually is. The athletes mentioned above are considered to be the "Ninja Warrior All-Stars" They all compete in most if not all of the tournaments and Shingo Yamamoto is the only man that has been in all the Sasuke competitions...#1-#20.

Ninja Warrior is one of the few shows on TV that is worth watching.

best. show. ever.

another week down...only 46 left.

i have to admit...this little plan is actually working. Watching a movie every Tuesday and reading a chapter or 2 in a travel book about japan every Wednesday is really helping pass the time. Every week I find myself really looking forward to the coming Tuesday's and Wednesday's so I can watch a movie and read a travel book and add to my list of things that I want to see and do while in japan...right now I have about 3 full notebook pages full of stuff to see and do.

Tonight's feature:

Ryuhei Kitamura's violent, blood soaked action/horror masterpiece "Versus"

This film is great. It has tons of violence, gore, blood, swordplay, samurai flashbacks, revenge and resurrection. Its fantastic.

If you have not yet seen Versus, go out immediately and watch it. If you have seen it, watch it again.