In the first comic of the series, young hero Mitsu's father dies. Unable to live without his father's meager income, Mitsu takes over his father's old job: washing the windows of the orbital so that the rich can have lovely views of Earth below. Of course, washing windows in space is even more dangerous than washing them on Earthly skyscrapers. The art in the comic book is amazing: There are incredible vistas, amazing giant tech, and then lonely little people inhabiting these vast spaces. You can see the entire first book here. I can't wait to see the movie.

Dosei Mansion manga gets live action film [Anime News Network]

In Transformers, the Megatron toy can transform into a Walther P38 gun, a model popular with the Nazis in World War II. This transformation gives him a giant trigger in his crotch (you can see here in the toy). It allows him to deliver focused energy beam blasts. But if we look at the actual capabilities of the Walther P38, we can see it's a semi-automatic but not really any more powerful than the typical hand gun. Obviously a giant-sized one would deliver more oomph. However, I think we can safely say this isn't the biggest or hardest of the crotch weapons.

Astro Boy deploys a machine gun from his butt. This is his main weapon, aside from super-strength and jet-powered flight. He can gun down bad guys, but the fact that these guns sprout from his ass makes them unwieldy.

The infamous cock and ball gun featured in the psycho-vampire flick from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, From Dusk Til Dawn, is a gooder. It can slay a vampire from yards away, and it just looks plain cool. It's hard; it has those semi-automatic testicles attached; and it's really everything a good crotch weapon should be. But is it really big enough?

Kekko Kamen uses her pussy as her finishing weapon in the eponymously-titled manga by hentai auteur Go Nagai. She uses the notorious headscissors takedown to mash her crotch into the bad guy's face and get him good. Nobody survives this ninja lady's crotch. Great weapon for close-range combat.

The main character in recent film Teeth is a mutant who has razor-sharp teeth embedded in her vagina. She uses her super-crotch to defeat a rapist and mangle two guys who have treated her horribly but nevertheless want to stick their junk in the toothy place. This is a great surprise weapon, because our heroine looks like a sweet little teenager who goes to church and eats oatmeal. Points on this one for viciousness and power of surprise.

The Codpiece is a character from occasionally bizarre comic Doom Patrol who basically has a cock-shaped crotch weapon that does everything: it shoots fire, it drills, it slaps people around, and it even grows a weird plunger-looking apparatus. Plus, it looks as spiffy as it could possibly be (see image up top). In terms of versatility and firepower, plus sheer audacity, I'd say the Codpiece is a standout.

In the aptly-named Cannon Crotch flash game, you are Cannoncrotch, a hero who fights the Nazis with your crazy firepowering crotch. Not only is this game one of the most intensely-satisfying flash game experiences you'll ever have, it also wins points for not making any bones (heh) about what it's really about. You play this naked xkcd-looking guy who is basically jizzing bullets. Nice. Get your crotch on with this game here.

Robot Jox has a lovely giant robot transformation scene which is clearly a tip of the hat to our pal Megatron's trigger crotch. When one of the big robots is injured, it fights back by opening up its enormous crotchal region, and releasing a massive chainsaw that slowly and hilariously extends into many-toothed, killer erection. See the scene here if you don't believe me. All those spammers should put that clip into their emails if they really want to sell us their expando-pills.

I'm going to have to go with Codpiece as the winner here, since his weapon is so versatile. But the girl in Teeth makes a close second. I hereby declare Codpiece the WINNER OF THE CROTCHIES.

The manga follows two story lines that later converge forming one giant question mark. First, readers meet a little Japanese boy named Kishin who is mercilessly bullied and beaten. The second story takes place off the coast of Japan where a Tagruato ship possibly awakens the Cloverfield monster and becomes its first victim.

Kishin's family history is a bit muddled, but we discover that his beloved mother and distant father are both closely connected to Tagruato and to the monster. So much so, his mother had Tagruato's prized secret, a pod discovered next to the monster on the sea floor, implanted inside Kishin. He is later kidnapped by a crazy group of masked cult members that want to slice him open and use the pod to become gods. Even Kishin's own father wants to take his life. Meanwhile the monster is ripping up Tokyo and shedding his nasty little parasites everywhere.

With everyone clamoring for the death of little Kishin, there only seems to be one way out: ride the Cloverfield monster to safety, of course. Who knew that Kishin had the power to use Cloverfieldy as his personal steed? The final panel of part three, with Kishin standing on the monster's head, proves otherwise. But still leaves this question, if this is the prequel to Cloverfield, what's Kishin got against New York? The final installment is coming out sometime this month. [Dada Is Everyhere via IllusionTV]

The four issue series - the first issue of which is due in stores on April 9th - brings a serial killer with connections to Bruce Wayne's Japanese training to become Batman to Gotham City, as well as bringing Togari and Kurozakuro creator Natsume (who's also worked on Konami's Metal Gear Solid games) to an American audience sure to shun him because he doesn't draw like Jim Lee.

Preview the Dark Knight's new manga look [MySpace]

• Speed Racer was originally a manga series called Mach GoGoGo (which might actually be a catchier title) in the 1960s.
• Creator Tatsuo Yoshida was inspired to make the series after he saw Goldfinger and Viva Las Vegas, so you can thank James Bond and Elvis.
• Speed inherited Elvis' neckerchief and black hairdo from Viva, and all the car gadgetry and espionage from Goldfinger.
• Yoshida also created Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman, or Battle of the Planets in 1972.
• Speed's name is actually Go Mifune, and the giant red M on the hood of the car stands for Mifune Motors, not Mach 5.
• The name Mifune was an homage to Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, who appeared in over 170 films, including Seven Samurai and Hidden Fortress.
• The name Go in Japanese is also a homophone for the number five, and it's also why Speed has a G embroidered on his shirt.
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  Speed first appeared on television in 1967, and was also quickly snapped up by American producers. In fact, producer Peter Fernandez provided the voices for Speed and Racer X.

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  The buttons on the Mach 5's steering wheel each have a specific function: A fires the autojacks, which can make the car leap over obstacles, B deploys the belt tires for extra traction on slippery terrain, C makes the ginormous saw blades pop out of the side of the car, D extends a deflector over the cockpit, allowing it to go underwater, E activates the "Evening Eyes" which lets Speed see in the dark, F turns the car into "Frogger mode" which allows the vehicle to submerge and has 30 minutes of oxygen, G fires the "gizmo rocket," (at sort of bird-shaped homing robot) and H sends the robot back home.
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• Trixie's original name was Michi Shimura, which explains the M on her own shirt. In fact, she came from a family of rich auto-racing rivals, and was initially sent to spy on Speed in her chopper. However, she fell in love with him and started flying support over Speed's races and giving him advice on the radio.
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• In the original series, Speed's brother Ken'ichi Mifune (Rex Racer) crashes the families first car while waving to Pops in the stands. After his father chews his ass out, he runs away from home and later reappears as the Mysterious Racer X.
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• TV Guide called the episode where Racer X reveals his identity as one of the most memorable moments in television history.
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• When the animated series aired in Germany in 1971, they had to take it off the air after only three episodes because parents hated it. Newspapers called it "horror comic" and "blood and collision racket." Maybe they didn't want supercars hopping up and down the autobahn.
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• Speed Racer has been parodied on Dexter's Laboratory, Family Guy, and in the Fairly Oddparents movie, each aping the hyperspeed that Speed and crew talk in.
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• There have been several attempts to revive Speed Racer, but they've each been yanked off the air fairly quickly. A new series will begin airing on Nicktoons after the live-action film airs later this year. However, it's doubtful anyone can recapture the camp of the original.
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  Check out the megalame introduction from The New Adventures of Speed Racer. Ouch.

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  Here's the much better looking introduction from 1997's Mach GoGoGo, which adopted a much more hardcore anime look and feel.

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• Check out these two Speed Racer parody commercials. In one, Speed is given a Volkswagen GTI after the Mach 5 is mysteriously sabotaged, and uses it to knock other drivers off the course where they careen to their death. In the Geico one, he tells Trixie "Not now, bitch!" when she calls him from her chopper to tell him the bridge is out, then gapes when he realizes how much he's fucked.

  

  

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Murakami seems determined to remind us that cartoony characters aren't innocent. His massive sculptures Disney-esque characters include a sculpture of a woman with enormous breasts squirting streams of milk from fist-sized nipples and a man who looks like Cloud from Final Fantasy shooting a swirling plume of jizz into the heavens. But you'll also find Murakami's tamer t-shirt designs, wallpapers, animation (including a Kanye West video), and the Louis Vuitton bags he designed. One massive wall contains a stunning piece called Tan Tan Bo Puking (pictured up top), which features the dying moments of a bizarre Japanime god as he voids his stomach and bowels during death.

However, what really caught our eye was his Second Mission Project ko2 Advanced (Human Type) piece. It consists of three different sculptures, each one of a female mecha in the stages of transforming from a humanoid into a fighter jet. It's nearly life-sized and contains a ton of stunning detail. If there's any way you can get to this exhibit I'd highly recommend it, even if it's for this piece alone. Watch Murakami discuss it in the video below, and you can check out the other parts of his video tour here.

The MOCA didn't allow photography, but that didn't stop some people (including us) from sneaking a few camera phone photos, which you can see in the gallery above along with some NSFW images. You can also check out Eric Nakamura's Flickr set, which documents almost the entire exhibit. Just as a bit of a tip, though... the museums sell the book/catalog of the exhibit for $65, and it's tempting to walk home with it while you try to digest all the art you've just seen. However, you can snag it for only $40 at Amazon, with free shipping. If you can't make it, or the exhibit won't be traveling anywhere near you, it's the next best thing.

Top image is Tan Tan Bo Puking - a.k.a. Gero Tan, 2002 ©2002 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

This amazing artwork was created by Canadian artist Brendan Tang, who loves to explore the cross-cultural weirdness of Asian pop with his mecha vases.

Find out more about Tang's work, and read his artist statement, on his site. You gotta love a guy who can talk about the history of cultural imperialism and the coolness of manga in the same paragraph.

Apollo's Song was originally serialized in a weekly comic magazine back in 1970. This was during the transition phase of Tezuka's career—his production company had just tanked, and he was skeptical of the anime industry, which insisted on censoring his work. It was the same year that he wrote Alabaster, a story about a homicidal, partly invisible ex-athlete intent on destroying all the beauty in the world.

For Tezuka, science fiction was never a goal; it was the medium through which he chose to explore complex, often taboo issues of his time, like love and hate and promiscuous sex. By addressing these issues via animated fictional characters living in a surreal future, he avoided controversy and criticism in the real world.

Apollo's Song is a coming-of-age story that starts in the present and warps back and forth into the past and future. The ambiguous protagonist is a boy named Shogo, who learned to despise the idea of love during a childhood mired in his mom's promiscuous affairs with his many papas. He hates it so much that he obsessively murders any living thing showing even the slightest hint of passion. These killing sprees land him in a mental hospital, where a mysterious doctor puts him through electroshock therapy and transports him into different roles, each in extreme imagined environments—an island where dozens of zoo animals procreate, an isolated house in the mountains, and Nazi Germany. Through his adventures, Shogo finally learns to love. Hypnosis takes him to his final destination—Tokyo in the year 2030, where super-humanoid clones called Synthians rule a cold, heartless world. There, Shogo is caught between two tasks he's been ordered to perform—to kill the Synthian queen, but also to teach her how to love.

The inner lives of animals, reproduction, twisted sexuality, reincarnation, and the inevitable war between humans and their creations—clones and robots—are themes that arise repeatedly in Tezuka's manga. Even today, a lot of Japanese people don't talk that openly about love and sex. Manga is often a prime medium for understanding these issues—sex ed is often taught in comic strips, and almost every male magazine has pornographic graphic novels tacked into its end pages.

Nearly 20 years after his death and over half a century past his heyday, only twelve of Tezuka's titles have been published in English. But with the Asian Art Museum's recent exhibit on Tezuka and other titles being worked on by publishers like Vertical and Viz, we should be seeing a greater rollout in the years to come. If you're going to start somewhere with Tezuka's science fiction works, Apollo is the place to go.

Famous names: Hark Tsui, Tai Kit Mak

Sight you'll never unsee: One of the evil spirits is a shape-changing woman who transforms herself into a man-eating elevator, and then a deadly motorcycle whose headlight has been replaced by the spirit's screaming face. Visually bizarre in the best possible way.

Life lesson: Don't have sex with a giant spider woman.

Design breakthrough: Hong Kong action director Tsui Hark brings the frenetic pace of the shoot-em-up gangster flick together with the tropes of science fiction and horror to create what Hong Kong movie mavens will recognize as perhaps the only hopping vampire cyberpunk movie ever made.

Crunchy goodness: 4

Wicked City Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.