8BitKid: Living Bit by Bit

There has been a spat of announcements in the past several months about anime rights being bought up by U.S. companies so they can get the film treatment stateside. Leo Dio picked up Akira and Dreamworks will be working on Ghost in the Shell.  The latest claim comes from Vertigo Entertainment, who has procured the rights to Death Note, a psychological supernatural thriller series.  I just devoured this 12-volume manga series, and will probably post a review later.  The print version has been suceeded by an anime series (currently airing on Adult Swim) and also live-action movies.

Vertigo Entertainment isn’t new to the adaptation space, having already worked on remakes of Asian works that became the films The Grudge, Dark Water, The Departed, and others.

I believe that anime and manga remakes will become increasingly common as a source of content for american studios.  In the same way that we have seen a flurry of comic book adaptations, I think that this trend complements the increasing number of films stemming from graphic novels (V for Vendetta, Sin City, The 300, Watchmen).  It could be incredibly cool to see many of my favorite works come to life, but I think I will also be in for my fair share of disappointment.

- story courtesy of Anime News Network

Upon the recommendation of my friend, I have begun reading the Death Note manga series, and have been voraciously tearing my way through the volumes. After scouring Santa Monica in search of the right volume numbers and having a tough time of it, I decided to place an order for a bunch of volumes on Amazon.

I was elated to discover that they qualify for a special where you can pick up four books for the price of three. Perhaps this has been available for a while and I just haven’t been buying enough books, but I’ll definitely be taking advantage of it now. This is a great way to flesh out your manga collection, and I’m going to be giving Amazon Prime some exercise as a result.