GEN Manga has released the complete 156-page collected edition of Kosuke Kabaya’s mixture of charming and morose speculative romantic sci-fi manga Android Angels. The “doujin” manga depicts a future world in which consumers can easily rent android companions, but only for a three-year span, leading to questions about the morality of erasing the memories of artificial humans and what happens to human relationships abruptly broken off every three years. The book is available to subscribers or available to non-subscribers for $2.99 as a permanent download.
FUNimation has announced its acquisition of domestic distribution rights to the upcoming four-part Ghost in the Shell: Arise OVA series. FUNimation will initially release the series in a [presumably series of] limited-edition of 2,500 imported copies of the English subtitled Japanese Blu-ray, with an English translated booklet, before later producing a conventional domestic home video release for the series. FUNimation also plans a limited theatrical release for the first two short films later this year. The first movie will get a limited Japanese theatrical release beginning on the 22nd before hitting Japanese DVD & Blu-ray on July 26.
The first film’s first eight-minutes is available online with selectable English subtitles until June 28:
Canadian animation producer/distributor Nelvana has announced plans to sponsor the production of an additional two made-for-North-America Beyblade television series. The 13-episode “BeyRaiderz Shogun” will tentatively premiere next spring. “BeyWarriors Cyborg” will follow in fall 2014 with 26-episodes and two hour-long specials. Production of the new series will be supervised in Japan by d-rights. The new North American-exclusive series will follow the broadcast of “Beyblade Shogun Steel,” an English language adaptation of Japan’s 2013 series Metal Fight Beyblade Zero-G.
Nelvana previously comissioned the production of the Japanese-animated North-American-broadcast 2012 television series BeyWheelz.
A film print of the nearly nine-minute-long color anime TV special Mogura no Aventure (Mole’s Adventure) was discovered last February in a warehouse in NTV’s Ikuta Studio in Kawasaki City. The short anime was originally broadcast on the NTV network on October 15, 1958. The first ever color anime feature film, Toei’s Hakujaden, also premiered in Japanese theaters that same month. The first regularly-scheduled ongoing weekly anime TV series, Otogi Manga Calendar, didn’t premiere until June 1962. Prior to this year’s discovery of the Mogura no Adventure print, Japanese historians knew of the TV special, but no remaining print was known to exist. The BS Animax satellite TV network will re-broadcast the special as part of the TV Anime 50-nen no Kinjito special on July 21.
The advertising obi found on new copies of the seventh collected volume of Adachitoka’s supernatural romantic adventure manga Noragami reveals that the series will be getting an anime television series adaptation. The manga that premiered in 2011 revolves around a lowly, insignificant god who rescues a human high-school girl, thereby indebting her to become his assistant. Adachitoka previously illustrated the 2003 Alive: Saishu Shinka Teki Shounen manga written by Tadashi Kawashima.
During last weekend’s “Love Live! μ’s 3rd Anniversary Love Live!” publicity event, a second season of the Love Live! television anime was announced for broadcast next spring. The 13-episode high-school-girl-idol-singers series aired from January to April of this year.
The homepage for the Space Pirate Captain Harlock feature film has released a full trailer. Toei Animation & director Shinji (Appleseed) Aramaki’s CG feature adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto’s 1978 anime television series is scheduled to hit Japanese theaters on September 7.
A teaser trailer has revealed that the fourth Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume (Secret Society Eagle Talon) feature film will premiere this fall. Flash animation studio DLE Inc. is animating Taka no Tsume GO ~Yoshida, Himitsu Kessha Yameru tte yo~ (Eagle Talon GO ~Yoshida Said He’s Going to Quit the Secret Society~). The “Eagle Talon” gag comedy television series premiered in 2006. The character Yoshida got his own spin-off television series, Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume Gaiden Mukashi no Yoshida-kun, in January 2012.
Personally, I still don’t comprehend why this series is supposedly funny.
Card game developer Bushiroad has announced that an anime based on its upcoming Future Card Buddyfight trading card game will premiere next spring. The CCG will be released simultaneously in Japan and North America next January.
Amusement machine company Daiichi has announced that its new Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Itadaki pachinko machine will display the original “Matsuri Bayashi” and “Yoigoshi” anime stories. The “Yoigoshi” (Beyond Midnight) story in particular will be the first Higurashi no Naku Koro ni anime to be set in the Heisei era. The anime, based on the manga story serialized from 2006-2007, is set in Hinamizawa village in 2006, twenty-years after the events in the original “Higurashi” anime.
009-1: The End of the Beginning, a live-action adaptation of the late Shotaro Ishinomori’s 1967 sci-fi espionage action manga, will hit Japanese theaters on September 7. Koichi Sakamoto (Daikaiju Battle: Ultra Ginga Densetsu the Movie) directs Mayuko Iwasa (Detective Conan, Nodame Cantabile) playing Mylene Hoffman, the cyborg secret agent 009-1. The manga was previously adapted into a 13-episode anime television series in 2006.
I’m a little disappointed that the movie didn’t try to emulate Mylene Hoffman’s hairstyle from the original manga.
Question:
I know it’s probably not wise to speculate, but what are your hopes or expectations, if any, for the upcoming Ghost in the Shell: Arise prequel/reboot? As a franchise that set both Japanese and international fans on edge before achieving new greats when it expanded to become a two-season TV series and with the film sequel, I feel it will easily survive the worst of mishandlings, but also trust things won’t be that bad. However, there’s been a good deal of negative reaction to the redesign of the characters for GitS: Arise. Since the franchise is so well known, it’s bound to get a lot of attention. I also don’t really know how to put this prequel/reboot into context as a fairly casual consumer of anime. What’s your perspective?
FUNimation has formally announced its domestic distribution rights to last year’s Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo feature film. FUNimation already distributes the first two films in Studio Khara’s four-film reboot of studio Gainax’s 1995 Shinseiki Evangelion television series.
Variety reports that Japan’s Tezuka Productions is considering the viability of developing a variety of remakes of Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy localized specifically for target countries. Tezuka Pro has confirmed that it is already negotiating with Nigeria’s Channel TV for an Astro Boy remake and Nigerian broadcast of Tezuka Pro animation. The studio may collaborate with foreign counties interested in their own version of Astro Boy, and may receive funding from the Japanese government’s “Cool Japan” cultural export initiative to produce “Astro Boy” animation for foreign countries.
The homepage for Atlus’ Nintendo 3DS remake of Etrian Odyssey, Shin Sekaiju no Meikyuu ~ Millennium no Shoujo, has added the game’s opening animation sequence. The game’s anime sequences were animated by Madhouse. The game is scheduled for Japanese release on the 27th.
