AnimeNation Anime News Blog

According to a partially unconfirmed report published by Anime News Network, Digital Manga, the parent company of the Omocha Box anime retail store, internet anime news site Akadot, translating company Synch-Point, and Digital Manga Distribution, formerly the anime subdivision of Books Nippan, is preparing to split into two or more separate new companies.

The Japanese anime producer and merchandising company Broccoli has “poured a large amount of capital into Digital Manga” and reportedly will take over ownership of at least Synch-Point and Omocha Box, which may affect the availability of Synch-Point anime releases including FLCL and I’ll Be An Angel. According to the report, FLCL will be released in America as scheduled, but now that Synch-Point is owned by Broccoli, Cindy Yamauchi of Super Techno Arts has confirmed that Japanese creators Studio A.P.P.P. have withdrawn the distribution rights to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures from Synch-Point and are now searching for a different American company to license and distribute the title.

There has been no word yet on how this corporate fracturing will effect Akadot, Digital Manga distribution (which distributes Synch-Point video releases and other anime merchandise to retailers), Comictones and the tentative American version of Newtype Magazine.

The Tokyo Anime Fair is currently running a poll for fans to vote on the best anime release of 2001. The site includes a Japanese language list of all 202 television, OAV and theatrical anime releases available as new releases in 2001. For Western fans who’ve always wondered how much anime is released in Japan, even assuming that only a fraction of these 202 titles were TV series with 12-26 episodes, the total number of individual anime episodes released in Japan last year reaches into the thousands.

Tsunekaze Ishihara, producer of the Pokemon series for GameBoy in Japan, has announced that the first Gameboy Advance Pokemon game will premier late this year and include over 350 pocket monsters, including new beasts from the upcoming fifth Pokemon movie. The fifth movie and it’s mini-feature will be titled “Pocket Monsters: Guardian God of the Water City Ratiasu & Ratiosu,” and “Starry Sky of Pika Camp” respectively.

Source: The Magic Box

Including international sales, Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy X has become the first Playstation 2 game title to sell over 4 million copies. Probably in order to boost sales figures for the next fiscal year, Squaresoft is not including profits from Final Fantasy X into its anticipated fiscal loss of $133 million for the fiscal year ending March 2002 due to costs associated with the Final Fantasy movie.

Source: Gamespot

Sega has announced that the latest update in the popular Virtual On robot fighting game series, “Virtual On 4 Version 7.6,” will premier in Japanese arcades next month. This latest version will feature some minor gameplay upgrades, new stages, and three new playable mecha.

Source: The Magic Box

Question:
I was looking at the official Cowboy Bebop website and read some of the show descriptions. A lot of them ended with, “Did not air in the original broadcast run,” or “was considered to risque for television- did not air.” Now, I’ve seen Japanese television, so believe me, I’ve seen crazy stuff. Is (or was) Cowboy Bebop popular in Japan like it is in the States? Also, was it more controversial there, or just not as accepted?

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Anime on DVD has published a pair of images of the upcoming standard edition Evangelion DVD boxed set from AD Vision revealing the sides and front.

A new press release issued by Marvel Comics reveals that apparently former founder and CEO of Fanboy Entertainment C.B. Cebulski has taken a position as a full-time editor for Marvel Comics, bringing with him his experience and contacts with the manga industry. Cebulski is currently an associate editor working on the current “Marvel Mangaverse” project. According to the press release, Kia Asamiya will be providing the cover for Iron Man issue 55 in May, and Cebulski’s influence will see Outlaw Star creator Takehito Ito and Blood: The Last Vampire character designer Katsuya Terada also developing projects for Marvel Comics.

While it seems that Fanboy Entertainment’s position as a manga translating and publishing company has been transferred to Marvel Comics, no official word has come out yet on the potential future, or lack thereof, for Fanboy Entertainment.

Source: Anime News Service

Tomorrow, January 31, FUNimation is sponsoring a special anime screening night at the University of North Texas. The Dragon Ball Z movie “Cooler’s Revenge,” volume 1 of Blue Gender, and a sneak preview of the first 4 episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho will all be on the big screen. Event start time is 6 PM and things should end around 10 PM. The screening will be held at the Master Hall Chemistry Building in room 121. The event is free, open to the public, and seats are on a first come first serve basis. FUNimation will be giving away prizes and fans will be able to buy merchandise at discounted prices.

Article provided by Daniel Kurland

Infogrames is planning to release Dragonball Z game titles for GameBoy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and XBox. The GameBoy Advance version will be released first in May, it will be a fighting RPG game. The PlayStation 2 version of Dragonball Z is scheduled for release this fall, which will be an action adventure RPG with over 30 characters from the cartoon series. A GameCube version of Dragonball Z is planned for a 2003 release, which will be similar to the PS2 version, and it will be linkable with the GBA version of the game. Lastly, both XBox and PC will receive an online version of Dragonball Z in 2003.

Source: The Magic Box

Question:
I have recently begun to watch the shounen-ai anime Gravitation and I was surprised at how good it is. I especially like the music of the series. I was just wondering if this series has been licensed yet. I wonder if the fact that because homosexuality is prevalent in the series companies view it as unmarketable.

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After more than a decade of speculation and rumor, Leiji Matsumoto, during his 64th birthday party held January 25th, confirmed production on a Shin Uchuu Senkan Yamato (New Space Cruiser Yamato) TV series. The new television series will be directed by Tomoharu Katsumata, who directed the little known late 1980s theatrical film Future War 198X. Hioshi Mori, a planner on the production of Studio Ghibli’s Nausicaa and Yamada-kun movies, will executive produce. A full Japanese language staff list is available here.

Source: Anime News Service

TOKYOPOP has released a press release announcing a new company policy that should please anime and manga fans. TOKYOPOP has announced that all of their forthcoming manga translations will be published in their authentic Japanese right-to-left format with their original Japanese sound effects intact. This translating policy will leave as much of the original artistic integrity of the manga as possible intact and unaltered, and will allow TOKYOPOP to release their translations much faster than industry standard because the time required to “flip” the manga pages from reading right-to-left to conventional Western left-to-right will be eliminated.

Source: Anime on DVD

AD Vision has issued a new press release that includes detail on the start of production for the Lady Death animated movie. Written and directed by Carl Macek, best known to anime fandom as the writer and director of Robotech and co-writer of Heavy Metal 2000, the feature length film will be digitally animated by Korean animation studio SunMin Image, whose previous work includes Batman: TAS, Gargoyles, Disney’s Hercules, MTV’s The Maxx, and Pearl Jam’s music video “Do The Evolution.” The production is not being produced by a Japanese studio because AD Vision apparently wants to avoid the “clichés” of Japanese animation.

“This is not an attempt to clone anime production techniques,” says executive producer John Ledford. According to Carl Macek, “Over the last 10 years, Japanese animation techniques have become accepted norms around the world… But what is apparent in any survey of anime is that, in many instances, it has become a case of style over substance. Working to take projects out of clichéd design cycles and produce a unique vision based on subject matter and core audience is key to ADV’s plans.”

Source: Anime on DVD

Nausicaa.net has referenced a pair of Japanese links that suggest that Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi will be released on DVD in Japan in June. One link gives a June 19th date. A second link lists a release date of June 5th. Thus far all of the Studio Ghibli films released on Japanese DVD, including Gouche the Cellist and Tonari no Yamada-kun which have never been officially released in America, have included optional English subtitles.