The September issues of Dengeki Daioh and Comic Alive magazines have announced that Nitroplus and 5pb.’s psychological suspense visual novel game Chaos;Head will be adapted into an anime television series for broadcast this fall.
The anime will be produced by Madhouse, under the supervision of director Ishiyama Takaaki (Viewtiful Joe, Sakura Taisen ~Ouka Kenran~ OVA series).
Source: Anime News Network & Moon Phase Diary
Reportedly the September issue of Megami Magazine reveals the development of “Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st,” a feature film based on the cult hit Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha television series franchise.
Source: Moon Phase Diary & Canned Dogs
A second season of the Junjo Romantica anime television series has been scheduled to premier in October. The first season concluded its Japanese television broadcast last month.
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese television network NTV has announced that the “Death Note Rewrite 2: L wo Tsugu Mono” (Death Note: Rewrite 2: L’s Successors) TV special will air on August 22. The special will summarize the storyline of the roughly final 10 episodes of the 2006 Death Note television series.
Source: Anime News Network
The official Japanese homepage for the Queen’s Blade anime television series has opened.
The Nagoya TV network has launched its official website for the upcoming Battle Spirits ~ Shounen Toppa Bashin television series.
TOKYOPOP has formally announced a partnership with Japanese manga publisher Gentosha Comics. TOKYOPOP will provide worldwide (excluding Asia, France, and Italy) sublicensing agency services for Gentosha properties. And the two companies will “pursue… co-development opportunities in the digital, film, and merchandising” fields.
While Gentosha is not one of the bigger manga publishers in Japan (it published about 100 volumes of manga in 2005), it does have a number of excellent titles including Gravitation, Lament of the Lambs, Arm of Kannon, and Category Freaks. For the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2008 sales of the Comics Division of Gentosha amounted to approximately $17.3 million (down from $20.6 million for the previous year).
Source: Anime News Network & ICv2
Young Magazine has announced that Korean director Tae-Gyun Kim (Volcano High School) will direct a live action feature adaptation of Koji Matsumoto’s Higanjima supernatural horror manga. Tetsuya Oishi, screenwriter of the live action Death Note films, will write the Higanjima movie screenplay. The film is tentatively scheduled for Japanese release next summer.
Source: Anime News Network
Reportedly Sakichi Sato will write, direct, and star in a feature film adaptation of female manga creator “George Asakura’s” romantic crime comedy manga series “Heibon Punch.” The film is scheduled to premier later this year.
Source: Tokyograph
ICv2 reports that Radical Pictures & Bad Hat Harry Productions have signed an agreement to develop a feature film adaptation of Edmund Shearn’s upcoming 5 issue comic book mini-series Freedom Formula. Calling the mecha action/drama series Freedom Formula “anime inspired” may be presumptuous, but the comic series, scheduled to premier next month from Radical Comics, has a story similar to the 1987 OVA Dead Heat and Production IG’s more recent IGPX anime franchise, and a mechanical design aesthetic reminiscent of Masamune Shirow and Shoji Kawamori’s work on Kissdum ~ Engage Planet.
The Spike television network has officially announced that Afro Samurai: Resurrection will premier on the network in January 2009. Samuel L. Jackson reprises his starring role as “Afro” while Yuri Lowenthal will again play Afro’s nemesis “Kuma.” Emmy Award-nominated actress Lucy Liu joins the cast as new antagonist “Sio” while Mark Hamill will play “Bin,” Sio’s manservant and protector. Renowned rap artist RZA again provides the musical score.
The Afro Samurai: Resurrection trailer (viewer discretion advised) is now online on the official Afro Samurai homepage and in a larger version on the Spike homepage.
FUNimation has announced plans to release the movie on DVD in February 2009.
At the current San Diego Comic Con, Del Rey has announced its acquisition of translation rights to:
Negima!? Neo manga, by Ken Akamatsu & Takuya Fujima
Orange Planet manga, by Haruka Fukushima
Yokai Doctor manga (possibly Yuuki Satou’s Youkai no Oisha-san)
Yoshiki Tanaka’s Sohryuden fantasy novel series that began in 1987
Del Rey reportedly also has plans to assemble and publish a retrospective book entitled “CLAMP in America.”
Source: Anime News Network
At the current San Diego Comic Con, Bandai Entertainment announced its acquisition of translation rights to Yoshimizu Kagami’s Lucky Star manga series, the basis for the popular anime adaptation.
Source: Anime News Network
It’s not science fiction. UK newspaper The Times reports that 62,000 communities throughout Japan are in danger of becoming extinct because their populations are mostly or entirely elderly citizens. As a result of Japan’s low birth rate (a majority of contemporary Japanese women are uninterested in motherhood, and according to the 2007-2008 Durex Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey, Japan has the world’s lowest rate of sexual activity) and young Japanese citizens migrating to metropolitan areas, small towns and villages in rural Japan are literally dying because they have no young residents.
Question:
What are some of the most rarest OVA ever?
Media Blasters has apparently revealed its acquisition of the 4 episode Dai Mahou Touge OVA series from 2006, director Mizushima Tsutomu’s violent magical girl parody follow-up to his similarly violent magical girl parody series Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, also licensed by Media Blasters. The entire Dai Mahou Touge series will be released on a single subtitled DVD under the name “Magical Witch Punie-chan” on October 21.
Source: Anime News Network
