According to the usually reliable Anime Daisuki, Japan will get a Rockman.EXE anime TV series in March, and CLAMP’s recent Chobits manga will get a TV series adaptation in April.
Gonzo Studios will produce an anime TV series adaptation of Crazy Cool Age late next year, and a TV series adaptation of Koge Donbo’s (Di-Gi-Charat, Sugar) new work Pita Ten is in the works.
Bandai Entertainment has announced that the three original Mobile Suit Gundam movies will premier on DVD on May 7th, dubbed only, for $24.95 each or $69.98 as a boxed set. It’s odd that the DVDs will be dubbed only as Bandai has previously released these films on subtitled VHS.
The first double disc DVD set of Brain Powered, containing, 9 episodes, will be available on May 21st for $44.98.
Source: Anime on DVD
The Right Stuf has set up of section of their website for regular dairy entries from the producer of the His & Her Circumstances (Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo) English language dub.
Source: Anime on DVD
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi was nominated as best Japanese film of 2001 in the 14th annual Nikkan Sportspaper Awards, and the 26th annual Hochi Newspaper Movie Awards recognized Hayao Miyazaki as best director for Spirited Away.
Source: Ain’t It Cool News
The Magic Box has published the first images of the upcoming Playstation 2 Akira Psychoball game, a pinball game featuring an Akira theme and a constantly changing table. According to The Magic Box, the game is scheduled for release in America early next year.
According to a rumor published by Ain’t It Cool News, director Takeshi Miike has plans to revive the long and immensely popular Zatoichi the blind samurai film franchise with a new movie next year. Zatoichi is a childhood screen legend of Miike, who wants to bring the character back to the screen. 26 Zatoichi films were produced between 1962 and 1989, along with a 50+ episode television series.
Dark Horse Comics has announced plans for a 4 issue comic book series titled Lone Wolf & Cub 2100, based loosely on the classic manga by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. Created mainly by American writer Mike Kennedy with art by comic artist Francisco Ruiz Velasco and enemy character designs provided by Kazuo Koike’s publishing house in Japan, Megahouse, LW&C 2100 will be a futuristic action/adventure story that makes use of the concept of stoic lone warrior accompanied by a child. The first of what may be several miniseries, is being produced “with Koike’s approval” and is scheduled for release sometime next year.
Source: Newsarama
According to the usually reliable Japanese Challenger arcade chain website, Capcom has plans to create a Dragonball vs Capcom fighting game. The upcoming releases list on the Challenger homepage lists, at the bottom of the first column, “Dragonball” as the latest release in the “Vs series” with an undetermined release date. No further information is available.
Source: Madman’s Cafe
Now that the year is at its end, GameSpot has compiled its list of the best console video games of 2001, a list that any readers with an interest in gaming will likely find interesting, informative and gratifying.
Japanese video game site Challenger HP has posted advance demo footage of Sega’s new arcade racing game called Initial D: Arcade Stage. Initial D fans will recognize the cars, characters, locations and even camera angles in the game as lifted directly out of the anime TV series and manga. The video clip is in MPEG 4 AVI format and requires the DivX codec to play correctly.
Madman’s Cafe has reprinted 33 images of Guilty Gear X 2, now known as Guilty Gear XX, originally published by the Japanese Arcadia magazine. The images reveal the first look at two new characters to the Guilty Gear pantheon: Slayer and Bridget. Like its predecessor, Guilty Gear XX will run on Sega’s Naomi arcade hardware and will appear in Japanese arcades next spring.
Source: Madman’s Cafe
Question:
My daughter and I want to know, “What’s a fansub?” We’ve heard a lot about them; we just don’t know what they are.
Mari Iijima, the original voice actress for Lynn Minmei of the Macross anime series and movie, will be performing live and celebrating the holidays with fans at the Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles on December 27 at 8:30 PM. All fans are welcome to attend but should prepare to arrive early, since earlier engagements have been sold out in the past.
Iijima-san was in Tokyo on December 17-23 to record her hour long special for the Folk & Rock Masters Live program broadcast on Sky PerfecTV satellite TV, and record two theme songs for the upcoming Galaxy Angels video game.
More information can be found at Mari Iijima’s Official Site.
Article provided by Gai Daigouji
At France’s premier screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi at the Nouvelles Images du Japon film festival last weekend, Miyazaki was awarded the rank of Officer of Arts and Letters by the government of France (one grade below knighthood), as well as the medal of the city of Paris. David Kessler, director of the Centre National de la Cinématographie, explained that Miyazaki was deserving of the recognition because Miyazaki’s films meet the award’s criterium by acknowledging and celebrating cultural diversity and identity. Kessler added that it was fitting that this award should coincide with a screening of Spirited Away, since the film talks about the dangers of the loss of one’s identity.
Article provided by Michiko Ito
According to The Magic Box, Japanese video game studio Sammy has confirmed plans to release Guilty Gear X 2 to Japanese arcades next spring. However, the voice actor of the character Zato has passed away, therefore rather than find a new voice, Zato simply will not appear in future Guilty Gear games.
It’s common knowledge that DreamWorks Pictures will be producing an American re-make of the seminal Japanese horror film The Ring. Wes Craven has now confirmed for Cinescape that he will be working on an American re-make of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest film, Pulse (”Kairo”), a film about a realm of spirits that are seeping over from the online world of computers and the internet into the world of the living. Kurosawa may be best known for his 1998 atmospheric suspense/horror film Cure, currently in limited American theatrical release.
Source: Anime News Service
