AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Japanese production company Deiz has formally announced development of Shin Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden (True Female Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters), a sequel to Mamoru Oshii’s 2006 “super livemation” (live action and animation) film Tachiguishi Retsuden. Oshii will direct two out of six chapters of the Shin Onna-Tachiguishi Retsuden anthology film. The remaining four segments will be directed by Makoto Kamiya, Kenji Kamiyama, Takanori Tsujimoto, and Hiroaki Yuasa. The film is scheduled to premier in November.

Source: Anime News Network

Question:
Between the recent release of When They Cry, plus the upcoming Shuffle, the harem anime has once again reared it’s ridiculously cliched head. When will this old, tired and overused genre which, in my mind, peaked with Tenchi Muyo! almost 15 years ago, be finally put to rest?

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Japanese publisher Enterbrain has formally announced development of an anime television series adaptation of its popular 2002 “table talk” RPG Night Wizard. The anime will be produced by Hal Filmmaker.

Source: Moon Phase

ImaginAsian has announced that its planned July release of its first “TMS Classics” anime DVDs has been delayed until, tentatively, August 10. The setback is necessary due to an external delay in the establishment of commercial authorization to release recordable DVD media with CSS copy protection. At the current, tentative scheduled, ImaginAsian first and second DVD volumes of Cat’s Eye, Nobody’s Boy Remi, and Superdimensional Century Orguss will be released simultaneously.

Source: Anime on DVD

Question:
Would anime be as popular [in America] if it wasn’t edited? I would to know if you believe that anime (specifically tv series) would be more or less popular today if it was not Americanized and edited for consumption by mainstream viewers. Obviously hardcore and longtime fans are happy with uncut anime, but those less familiar and who have been weaned on edited anime probably cannot relate.

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Buena Vista Japan now hosts a streaming trailer for Studio Ghibli’s OVA adaptation of painter Naohisa Inoue’s illustrations of his fantasy world of Iblard. Inoue’s Iblard art inspired the fantasy sequences in Ghibli’s film Whisper of the Heart. The Iblard Jikan OVA will go on sale in Japan on July 4th.

The trailer is available for 56k, 500k, and 1mb Windows Media viewing and 56k and 500k Real Media format.

Source: Anime News Network

The official Japanese homepage for the upcoming Jyushin Enbu -Hero Tales- anime television series is now online. The original fantasy action series will premier this fall. The anime will be animated by Studio Flag (Naruto, Galaxy Angel), and directed by Teizokurei Daydream OVA series director Osamu Sekita. Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa provides original character designs, and will draw the manga adaptation, which will premier in August.

Source: Anime News Network

Anime News Network has published an English translation of a Japanese transcript of director Mamoru Oshii’s recent press conference about his current work-in-progress anime film The Sky Crawlers.

Anime Expo’s Manga Café will hold its first amateur art contest from June 29th through July 1st. Three winning entries will be chosen, and those winning artists will have their work displayed on the Anime Expo website and the Manga Café Wall of Fame at future conventions. In addition, each winner will receive an import artbook of his/her choice.

Requirements to compete:

• Create two original characters - one bishoujo (beautiful girl) and one bishounen (pretty boy)
• The characters must advertise the Manga Café
• The art must be hand-drawn
• The art must be in color
• The drawing may be no larger than 8 1/2″ X 11″
• The drawing must be created in the Manga Café during the convention

Computer game publisher OnNet USA has announced its “Create-A-Story” contest for the online massively multiplayer game Manga Fighter. Visit the MF Create a Story contest details page for specific participation and prize information.

Intermixi Japan Tours has updated its homepage with information about its guided, pop-culture tours of Japan.

Question:
I read Anime News Network’s interview with John Ledford in which Mr. Ledford stated anime titles with only “B” and “C” levels of popularity just will not sell in America anymore - everyone is buying only the most popular “A” titles. Is this true? If so, why has it happened and what can be done to change it so that a bigger and wider variety of anime becomes available in America?

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The Gonzo produced promotional anime video for Panasonic’s “GLOBARANGE” communication product is now available for online viewing.

Source: Moon Phase

ICv2 has confirmed that AD Vision has acquired domestic distribution rights to director Makoto Shinkai’s latest anime film Byousoku 5 CM (”5cm Per Second: A Chain of Short Stories About Their Distance”). The film will receive a limited American theatrical release prior to its American DVD release in December.

The city of Kobe, Japan, birthplace of late manga creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama, has announced plans to honor Yokoyama with the construction of a 59 foot tall, life-sized, 70 ton statue of the giant robot Tetsujin 28gou (known in America as “Gigantor”). Tetsujin 28 is considered the first “giant robot” in the history of manga and anime. The Kobe Nagata Town Management Organization claims that the planned steel-plated statue will be Japan’s largest monument to a manga character.

Source: Anime News Network