AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Crunchyroll has formally announced that its distribution partnership with Japanese broadcastor TV Tokyo will include the current Shugo Chara! & Skip Beat! shoujo anime series. Shugo Chara! made its television premiere in October 2007 and is currently ongoing. The Skip Beat! television series premiered in Japan last month. Subtitled episodes of both series, along with Naruto Shippuden, will premiere on Crunchyroll on January 8th.

An official website has launched to announced the February 13th release of a Flash anime OVA adaptation of Mangatarou’s 1996 manga series Jigoku Koshien (Hell Baseball Tournament). The site features a streaming trailer for the upcoming OVA. Business Jump magazine announced last August that Mangatarou’s Yo Nimo Kimyo na Mangatarou gag manga series would be adapted into video format.

Jigoku Koshien was adapted into the live action feature film “Battlefield Baseball” in 2003 by director Yudai Yamaguchi, who also directed the 2003 live action adaptation of Mangatarou’s “Babaa Zone” gag manga.

Source: Anime News Network

Moviefone now hosts the first teaser trailer for Imagi Entertainment’s full CG Astro Boy motion picture. The film is scheduled for theatrical release on October 23, 2009.

Source: Twitch

An official Japanese website for the spring 2009 Pretty Cure motion picture has launched, confirming that the “Precure All Stars” motion picture will feature all three sets of Pretty Cure heroines.

Source: Saishin Anime Jouhou

The Moon Phase diary reports that Gonzo is tentatively planned to develop an anime adaptation of Ritz Kobayashi’s manga series Saki, the story of a high school girl with a unique talent for playing mahjong. Japanese producer/distribution company Pony Canyon has registered the website domain saki-anime.com.

+D Games now hosts four new screenshots of the upcoming Street Fighter ~Aratanaru Kizuna~ (Street Fighter: Renewed Bonds) OVA scheduled for Japanese release with the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. The screenshots appear to reveal that new Street Fighter IV characters will appear in the 60 minute long anime. The home version of the Street Fighter IV fighting game is scheduled for Japanese release on February 12, 2009.

Source: Rakugakidou

Film School Rejects reports that actor Will Smith has confirmed that he has plans to star in director Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Garon Tsuchiya & Nobuaki Minegishi manga series Oldboy. Contrary to speculation that surfaced two weeks ago, the Spileberg & Smith production will not be a re-make of director Chan-wook Park’s 2003 Korean film based on the Japanese manga. Will Smith stated about the planned American film project, “We’re looking at that right now. Not the film though, it’s the original source material. There’s the original comics of Oldboy that they made the first film from. And that’s what we’re working from, not an adaptation of the film.”

Question:
Which series do the best job at portraying Japanese society as it is? (Not an escapist wish-fulfillment or idealized version of Japan.)

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Japanese media company Broccoli has announced that its board of directors has decided to shut down the company’s American distribution subsidiary, Broccoli International USA. Broccoli USA was launched in Los Angeles, California in March 2002. Broccoli’s American anime distribution subsidiary, Synch-Point, has distributed anime titles including FLCL, Aquarian Age, and Di Gi Charat on domestic DVD. Broccoli Books has published English translations of manga titles including Di Gi Charat, Galaxy Angel, Aquarian Age: Juvenile Orion, Disgaea, and the Cosmode USA photo book.

The closure of Broccoli USA comes as a result of sharply decreasing profits caused by increased domestic retail and distribution competition. The remaining four employees of Broccoli International USA will end operations by December 31, and the complete liquidation of Broccoli USA will be completed by February 2009.

Source: a geek by any other name

Japanese broadcast network NTV, in association with entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo and advertising company Dentsu, have announced plans to distribute 35 hours of Japanese programming online internationally through the Joost website beginning next month. The 105 total episodes of content will include English subtitled episodes of the Ultimate Survivor Kaiji and Buzzer Beater anime television series and four comedy and variety programs.

Source: Anime News Network

Japanese retailers including 7&Y, Byakuya, and e-hon report that an Ad Lib Ouji (Ad Lib Prince) “Gokufu Box” will be released on December 20th containing the first volume of Keiichi Akatsuki’s 2001 manga and a 60 minute long anime DVD featuring four adaptations of protagonist Ouji’s slot machine matches against his primary rivals: Hokuro, Okashi, Yurie, and Ginbuchi.

The best selling manga about professional “pachi-slot” (slot machines found in pachinko parlors) player Ouji is, according to manga publisher publisher Byakuya Shobo and Ad Lib Ouji slot machine manufacturer Sanyo Bussan, Japan’s most popular pachi-slot manga series.

The official website for the Ad Lib Ouji slot machine hosts a lengthy Flash animation trailer that introduces the game and the manga characters.

Source: Anime News Network

The official website for the upcoming Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari television series, a spin-off from Tenchi Muyo, now hosts a 67 second long teaser trailer. The trailer features extensive pre-production background art, but no characters or animation.

Source: Anime News Network

Japanese entertainment news site Oricon reports that Riko Miyagi’s 2006 and ongoing shoujo manga Mei-chan no Shitsuji (Mei-chan’s Butler) will be adapted into a live action television series. The story about Mei, a young girl who inherits a vast fortune and employs a handsome butler who happened to have helped her years before, will debut on the Fuji TV network in January.

Looks like handsome butler stories really are developing into a new Japanese pop trend

Source: Anime News Network

The Moon Phase Diary reports that the next issue of Dragon Magazine will include a major announcement regarding Sekina Aoi & Kira Inugami Seitokai no Ichizon light novel series. The novel series has already been announced for adaptation into manga, suggesting that next month’s announcement may be of an anime adaptation.

Question:
Why don’t we have anime in syndication? I like to know.

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