Manga translator Ryan Sands has revealed that Last Gasp Books will release an official English language version of Yusaku Hanakuma’s horror comedy manga series Tokyo Zombie on September 18th. Last Gasp Books presently distributes translated manga by artists including Keiji Nakazawa and Junko Mizuno.
Source: Anime News Network
The Animation Co-Op Defense League (ACDL), a consortium of adult animation distributors & studios including Adult Source Media and Critical Mass, has announced that the organization has, so far, eliminated 10,738 instances of adult anime illegally shared online, consisting of 5006 video file-sharing links, 2123 image file-sharing links and 3609 blog posts direted toward illegally sharing copyrighted adult anime.
Speaking on behalf of the international erotic anime creation and distribution industry, ACDL Director Wendy Crawford explains, “We as a group are all losing out, which in turn impedes all of our ability to produce new material for the fans.” “We have already taken immediate legal action against those who are deriving revenue from our materials without a license. We all want to address this serious situation so we can continue to deliver programming to the legion of fans who deserve the best entertainment available.”
Source: Anime on DVD
Active Anime now hosts an interview with Aki Tsunaki, director of the 2004 “Haruka – Beyond the Stream of Time – A Tale of the Eight Guardians” (Harukanaru Toki no Naka de ~Hachiyosho~) anime television series.
Question:
Seeing how more companies are starting to go towards doing more straight-to-boxset or sub-only releases, is it possible that more niche and vintage anime could have a better chance at getting licensed now? A number of the titles I want to see licensed are niche or vintage, so even if it’s sub-only or straight-to-boxset I’d be fully supportive of more niche and vintage anime coming over.
Let’s see if it’s possible to easily get all of this straight, shall we? The brief overview includes the acquisition of Gurren Lagann, Gundam OO, and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, along with a variety of new DVD release strategies.
Both seasons of Code Geass: Lelouche of the Rebellion will be released on domestic DVD. The first series will hit DVD in three different release formats:
Ayakashi Ayashi, to be titled “Ghost Slayers Ayashi” for its American release, will hit domestic DVD on September 2nd in three different flavors:
Gurren Lagann will initially be released on American DVD in subtitled-only “bare-bones” double-disc DVD sets retailing at $29.98 each in July, August and September. A conventional bilingual version featuring a freshly produced English dub will debut in early 2009.
Bandai Entertainment will be re-releasing Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence on bilingual DVD and Blu-ray. The new American dub will be consistent with the English dubs of previous Ghost in the Shell anime.
Gundam OO will be coming to America, but previous Gundam series including Gundam X and Turn A Gundam are presently not licensed for American release.
Source: Anime on DVD & Anime News Network
After years of anxious speculation and hand-wringing from fans, Viz Media has finally announced plans to release the 1999 Hunter x Hunter (it’s pronounced “Hunter Hunter”) anime on American DVD in multi-disc DVD “season” sets beginning this winter.
At this past weekend’s New York Comic Con, Viz also announced plans to begin releasing the Blue Dragon anime on American DVD in September. However, the continuing domestic DVD releases of Mar, Full Moon wo Sagashite, Hikaru no Go, and Prince of Tennis are “on hold.”
Viz will publish the English language translation of “Ultimo,” the manga story co-created by Stan Lee and Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei.
Source: Anime News Network, Anime on DVD, and ICv2
This week’s issue of the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump reportedly reveals that this year’s “Jump Super Anime Tour” will visit 9 Japanese cities and screen exclusive new short anime films of Dragon Ball and One Piece.
Source: Anime News Network
An announcement has come to light that the Akikan! romantic comedy light novel series by author Riku Ranjo and illustrator Hiro Suzuhira will be adapted into anime.
Akikan (“Empty Can”) is the unlikely story of high school boy Kakeru Daichi, whose can of melon juice soda magically transforms into a human girl. Naturally, more “akikan” girls begin appearing, each of them needing to be infused with carbon dioxide from kissing to survive.
Source: Anime News Network
At this past weekend’s New York Comic Con, Yen Press revealed its acquisition of translation & distribution rights to the:
All five titles will premier within the Yen Plus anthology magazine, scheduled to premier on July 29, before getting individual graphic novel collections beginning early next year.
Source: Anime News Network
At this past weekend’s New York Comic Con, Del Rey revealed its acquisition of translation & distribution rights to the:
Gakuen Prince manga, by Jun Yuzuki
Samurai 7 manga adaptation, by Mizutaka Zuhou
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei manga, by Koji Kumeta
The Case of the Dragon Slayer novel, by Kouhei Kadono
Source: Anime News Network
At this past weekend’s New York Comic Con, Digital Manga revealed its acquisition of translation & distribution rights to Osamu Tezuka’s 1968 manga series “Swallowing the Earth,” described as one of Tezuka’s earliest manga for mature readers.
Swallowing the Earth tells the tale of Zefilth, a woman so beautiful that anyone who sees her instantly falls in love with her. But actually, there are seven identical clones of Zefilth in the world, all devoted to punishing the male gender for its countless sins.
Source: Anime News Network
ICv2 reports that domestic translated manga sales rose 5% from $200 million in 2006 to $210 million in 2007 – the smallest year-to-year growth for manga since ICv2 began keeping record of annual manga sales. While mainstream bookstore manga sales increased incrementally, comic book store sales of manga declined by 5-10%.
The decline may be partially caused by increasing market saturation. There were 1513 new manga releases in 2007, up by 25% from 2006′s 1208 new releases.
I’m no mathmatician, but a 25% increase in product versus a 5% increase in sales does not seem to add up to a positive future.
Question:
What is the proper way to compare an anime with a another anime? Once I tried to compare Naruto and One Piece, and my friends started to tell me that you can’t compare them to each other because Naruto is all about ninja and One Piece is about pirates and they said that there’s nothing to compare because they are different. But, in my opinion, a person must compare from looking at the genre and the reason I compared Naruto and One Piece is that they are both long running series and both are shounen anime. So, is my idea the right way to compare between two anime or not?
It feels like Christmas every two weeks here at AnimeNation when new shipments from our suppliers in Tokyo arrive. It’s always fun to see what neat new products turn up which we haven’t ever had in stock before. Our latest shipment arrived a few days ago; a smaller than normal one, but still one with some neat stuff.
The May issues of Megami and Asuka magazines are here. Megami includes an exclusive double-sided Fate/stay night & Nanoha StrikerS shitajiki and a double-sided Clannad/Shana II wall poster! The May issue of Asuka includes a great looking, exclusive Code Geass clear file!
The double disc Devil May Cry 4 OST and Negima Best Album CDs turned up. I don’t think we’ve seen them before. And one new ero manga came in, but every copy that arrived went right back out to fill customer pre-orders. A bunch of the Appleseed Ex Machina OST with DVD combos came in and went out also, so if you’ve had one of them on order, it’s probably on its way to you now.
All of our new import stuff should turn up on the retail section of the site shortly.
Not being the creative type, my title for this (my first) blog may be somewhat lame. However, I will do my best and be hopeful that someone will read it and let me know what they think. Constructively, I hope! I will be posting in installments, though I don’t know how many yet. Not that you care, but this was a trip planned by three best friends, though only Jax and I were actually able to go.
3 squares and a cot
We stayed at the Keio Plaza in Shinjuku. Highly, highly recommended. There are less expensive places to stay, but the location is a short walk to the JR station as well as the subway lines, with lots of places to eat close by. It’s really expensive to eat at the hotel ($25 for breakfast, $50 for dinner), though the Poppins Bakery has great food for cheap like croissant-wrapped sausage, bacon bread, and almond croissant. I recommend checking out the basement of Odakyu or Keio department stores (they sit on top of Shikjuku station) for a great selection of Japanese food, from dumplings to tempura to sushi…YUM! And the huge selection of sweets was fabulous, too. Close by is Yoshinoya on the main road south of the station. Awesome beef bowls and really inexpensive if you need to eat on the cheap to save money for other stuff.
Day 1…Explore!
Due to severe jet lag (13 hour difference, Tampa to Tokyo), we were up very early our first morning there. Our room faced east in the direction of Shinjuku Station right on the pedestrian street.
Since it was so clear, we went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building first. It’s located directly west of the hotel and has observation decks in both towers for free. We went up the south tower and got a great view of Mt. Fuji and Tokyo overall.
From the TMG building, we went exploring east and west Shinjuku. We also attempted to find Nakano Broadway, and though we walked for a couple of hours, we never found it. Yeah, wrong station, not once but twice! I will be posting detailed directions in my next installment.
Well, that’s it for this posting, I hope y’all like what you see. Please stay tuned for my next installment early next week…thanks!
