AnimeNation Anime News Blog

California based New Galaxy Anime has formally announced its entry into America’s anime distribution business. New Galaxy Anime will specialize in licensing family-friendly titles, especially family friendly shoujo titles, and vintage anime with high nostalgic value. New Galaxy will reportedly “avoid altering original dialogue or editing scenes out in their U.S. releases.”

New Galaxy’s first announced title, the 1981 Fantastic Adventures of Unico movie, will be released on bilingual North American DVD with a retail price of $24.95. An exact release date for the movie has not been determined.

Media Blasters has announced a partnership with Japan’s Dex Entertainment to produce an official English language version of the Alteil online collectable card game. The original Japanese Alteil game is Japan’s “number one” online fantasy card game.

Alteil is easy and fun to pick up and play, anytime, anywhere. Alteil has no downloads, no clients and is 100% web-driven, making it playable on any computer with a web browser. Best of all, it’s totally free. Simply sign up for an account and you can choose and customize your own free starter set that will allow you to play immediately. While you can buy additional cards to expand your capabilities, it is not required for a complete experience.

The English language version of Alteil is scheduled to debut next spring.

Source: Japanator

Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki has confirmed that a second Afro Samurai anime television series, continuing the storyline from the first series, is now in production. The second series will air on the American Spike TV network in early 2008.

Source: International Herald Tribune

The official Japanese website for Tatsunoko’s upcoming Yatterman anime television series now hosts a streaming teaser trailer. The new anime is scheduled to premier on January 14th.

Source: Anime News Network

Official confirmation that Shinobu Takayama’s historical fantasy manga series Amatsuki will be adapted into an anime television series by Studio Deen has appeared in the form of an Amatsuki anime homepage.

Source: Moon Phase Message Board

Although Hatenkou Yugi manga author Endou Minari announced last March that Hatenkou Yugi would be adapted into an anime television series, an official website announcement confirming the anime series is now online.

Source: Moon Phase

At this week’s TIFFCOM film trade show in Tokyo earlier this week TOKYOPOP revealed a proposal for an American produced live action film adaptation of Yuji Shiozaki’s Ikkitousen manga series, published in English by TOKYOPOP under the name “Battle Vixens.” TOKYOPOP’s proposal reportedly involves turning the Chinese history infused contemporary action story into an adolescent comedy set on American college campuses.

TOKYOPOP has previously announced plans to develop live action film versions of Kei Toume’s Hitsuji no Uta (”Lament of the Lamb”) manga and the TOKYOPOP original “Princess Ai” franchise.

Source: Anime News Network

Question:
The recent OVA/TV anime Kodomo no Jikan, based on the manga series of the same name, appears to be very controversial in the American fan community because of its lolicon themes and its heavy censorship on Japanese TV. However, many years ago, there was another, different hentai manga/anime named Kodomo no Jikan which seems to have gone by largely unnoticed in America. That series featured young, elementary school boys graphically raping their babysitter. Recently there has also been an ecchi series called Kyou no 5-2 about perverted elementary school boys which has gone on largely unnoticed by American fans. Does this mean Americans approve of perverted young boys but not perverted young girls?

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TOKYOPOP has confirmed that the retail price of yaoi manga published under the “Blu” imprint will increase from a typical $9.99 to $12.99 beginning in January. Reportedly, the increase will make the price of Blu titles comparable to yaoi manga published by other American publishers.

Domestic yaoi manga require slightly higher retail prices to offset their smaller domestic distribution and sales.

Source: ICv2

The Yomiuri Sports Hochi newspaper has reported that a live action film adaptation of Norie Yamada and Kumichi Yoshizuki’s Maho Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~ Someday’s Dreamers manga series is currently filming in Japan with 15-year-old model and actress Rio Yamashita starring and Shun Nakahara directing. The film is tentatively scheduled for Japanese release next summer.

Geneon USA released the Someday’s Dreamers anime television series on American DVD in 2003. TOKYOPOP released an English translation of the original manga series in 2006.

Source: Anime News Network

The 7th annual Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema has announced its programming line-up. This year’s film festival, to be held at the Gig Theatre in downtown Kitchener, Canada, from November 15 – 18, will screen feature-length animation films from 10 countries, including Makoto Shinkai’s “5cm Per Second” and Shinji Takagi’s “SOS Metro Tokyo Explorers.” The full screening line-up consists of:

Aachi and Ssipak
Anna and the Moods
Black Ceiling
Film Noir
Five Centimeters Per Second
Flatland
Free Jimmy
The Killer of Montmartre
One Night In The City
The Pixar Story
RH+
Rocky and Hudson
SOS Metro Tokyo Explorers
The Ugly Duckling and Me
The Vampires of Seville
Wood & Stock: Sex, Oregano and Rock ‘n Roll

The seventh year dialogue of the “Japan-US Regulatory Reform and Competition Policy Initiative” was issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan on October 18th. Page 52 of the 53 page document dealing with multiple aspects of international trade between Japan and the United States includes a single paragraph urging the United States to do more to combat the unauthorized distribution of Japanese animation through internet video-sharing websites and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

Source: AnimeAnime.jp

Question:
What is it about the mangaka group Clamp’s work that makes it special? Personally, I am not very familiar at all about Clamp’s work, having only watched a couple of anime adaptations of their work. But I hear about large numbers of “Clamp devotees” and the “Clamp universe” and “Clamp canon,” and how Tsubasa and xxxHolic are meant to tie all of Clamp’s works together. So what is it that makes Clamp’s works so special? Do the manga exhibit similar themes or visual styles? Do they cross over with one another? Or are they just really good, entertaining, well written manga?

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According to recently released Nielsen VideoScan data, FUNimation’s Witchblade DVD volume 1 has become the best selling anime series debut in America so far this year, based on first week sales. Titles including Afro Samurai and the Dragon Ball Z season boxed sets have sold more first week copies, but are not American debut titles.

Exact sales figures for Witchblade volume 1 have not been released.

Source: ICv2

The Sankei Sports Newspaper has reported that Hinako Ashihara’s romance manga Sunadokei (”Hourglass”) will be adapted into a live action feature film for Japanese theatrical release next April. The 5.7 million copy selling ten volume Sunadokei manga series was adapted into a live action TV drama this past spring.

Source: Tokyograph