comic-con 2002

adam, jonathan, sumir, and vince on 08/09/2002 12:19:50 -0700

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Lady Death: The Anime project was conceived nearly 2 years ago, but ran into a lot of red tape during production.  Carl Macek and Andy Orjuela of ADV Films discussed their adaptation of the popular Chaos!Comics character.  The movie is due out next year in the late summer.  It will be approximately 72 minutes long in letterbox (widescreen, 16:9) format.  They hope to have it show on TV, but there will be no theater release.  It will definitely be out on DVD and VHS formats.  If it is released on TV, then they hope that the DVD is out around Halloween.

Macek and Orjuela described the work as an "American anime" (so it will still have self-trace shadow lines, angled shapes, but without the ethnic gestures that American audiences do not understand).  In doing so, Macek and Orjuela simplified line work without sacrificing detail.  Both men seemed very confident that such a unique style would work well.

Orjuela, the lead artist, mentioned the choice of toned-down colors for his vision of Hell.  Macek discussed the difference between comics and animation - readers in comic books are drawn to panels and aggressive storyline.  In animation, the story progresses linearly; you can't turn back the page to re-read something, so it is important that the viewer feel a sense of continuity and understands the subtleties as they take place.

The panelists revealed that while the animation portion is well on its way to completion, the voice-acting has not been worked on extensively.  ADV has used placeholder voice actors (3 males and one female) to get their animation timing right, but the actual voice-actors have not been cast yet.

Plot-wise, the anime seems to be a retelling of The Reckoning; that is, the origins of Lady Death.  Initially, there was a conflict of interest in relation to the storyline, but that has been resolved.  Popular characters like Evil Ernie and Lady Demon will not appear.  Instead, the anime will focus on the transformation of Hope into Lady Death.  In addition, many hanging ends in the comic book will be resolved here.

- Sumir

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