Source: the ever-brilliant Jim Herd at the Anime Costume Parade. more ›

When we heard about a "live-action" version of Death Note, the manga/anime series, we were skeptical. The elements of anime that makes it, well, anime are the fantasy behind the whole genre: scary, grotesque creatures, futuristic buildings and cars, supernatural events. Anime just doesn't seem to lend itself well to "live-action." It's difficult to imagine all of the imagery of anime coming together in a live-action version, at least in a believable way. To be truthful, we were scared mostly of the cheeseball potential this movie has -- in order to prepare for the movie, we didn't. We went in cold turkey: no looking at movie trailers, no imdb.com'ing the actors, no re-reading the synopsis, nothing. more ›