AnimeNation Anime News Blog

The winners of the 54th annual Shogakukan Manga Award were announced yesterday. The winners will be presented with a bronze statuette and a 1 million yen prize at a formal ceremony on March 3. The annual award is open to manga from all publishers, and titles from publishers besides Shogakukan have previously won the award. This year’s winners, though, are all Shogakukan publications.

Yu Yabuuchi’s Naisho no Tsubomi won the award for best children’s manga.

Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game has been recognized as best manga for boys.

Kanoko Sakurakoji’s Black Bird won the award for best girls’ manga.

Shinichi Ishizuka’s Gaku – Minna no Yama was recognized as the best manga for general readers.

Source: Anime News Network

Tokyo’s Kawasaki district has announced plans to build a museum devoted to the late manga creator Fujiko F. Fujio, who was born in Kawasaki in 1933, and passed away in 1996. Fujio F. Fujio (real name Hiroshi Fujimoto) is best known as half of the “Fujiko Fujio” duo that created the Doraemon manga in 1969. Fujio is also remembered as the creator of popular manga titles including 21 Emon, Chinpui, ESPer Mami, Kiteretsu Daihyakka, and Paaman – all of which were also adapted into successful anime.

Plans for the museum include an exhibit of about 50,000 original drawings, a recreation of Fujio’s room, a theater, a reading gallery, an outdoor playground, a restaurant and a shopping area. The museum is tentatively planned for a September 2011 opening.

Source: Anime News Network

The Sci-Fi Channel’s Ani-Monday program has scheduled a variety of anime titles for late evening broadcast over the next several weeks.

The Appleseed OVA will air at 11:30pm on February 9.

The X motion picture will air at 11pm on February 16.

Street Fighter Alpha will air on February 23.

Strait Jacket will air on March 2.

The Ninja Scroll motion picture will air on March 9.

The Rave Master television series will begin airing on March 16.

Source: Anime News Network

Question:
I recently heard that since voice actors are so important in Japan, if a voice actor has to leave an anime for one reason or another, their character will actually be written out of the show rather than being replaced as they would in English animation and dubbed anime. Supposedly, this was why the character Shigeru/Gary in the Pokemon anime stopped appearing in the series save for one episode before the Diamond/Pearl series. Is there any truth behind this, or are actors replaced just as they are in the US?

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The advertising “obi” found on copies of the just released fourth volume of Miura Isao’s bishoujo fantasy novel series Seiken no Blacksmith (written “Seiken no Katanakaji” but pronounced “Seiken no Blacksmith”) reveals that an anime adaptation of the novel series is in development.

Source: Moon Phase Diary

Reportedly the freshly released March issue of Manga Time Kirara Max magazine has announced plans for an anime adaptation of Shoko Iwami’s 2007 and ongoing light (and reportedly lightly yuri themed) drama 4-koma manga Kanamemo. The story revolves around the daily life of Kana Nakamichi, an orphaned middle-school girl who begins living and working at a newspaper delivery office staffed exclusively by cute young girls.

Source: Anime News Network

Hiroyuki Aihara and Nami Adachi’s Franny & Melanie children’s picture book series will get two anime television specials next month. Both programs will animate scenes from the original picture books about the daily lives of two rabbit sisters, adding music, sound effects, and narration provided by TV announcer Tomoyo Shibata.

KIDS STATION network will broadcast the Franny & Melanie Mori no Soup-ya-san (Franny & Melanie: Soup Restaurateurs of the Forest) special on February 1, 7, and 28. The Franny & Melanie: Suteki na Ongaku-kai (Franny & Melanie: The Wonderful Concert) special will air on February 7 and 28.

Source: Anime News Network

Adult Swim has evidently canceled its scheduled broadcast of the Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit television series throughout the next three months. The network has twice broadcast the first 10 episodes of the 26 episode series. Moribito has been replaced by re-broadcast Inuyasha episodes.

Media Blasters CEO John Sirabella has informed Mania.com that Media Blasters has no affiliation with the Cartoon Network broadcast. Media Blasters acquired American DVD distribution rights to the series after the Cartoon Network had already negotiated its broadcast deal with the series’ Japanese licensor.

It’s a terrible shame, and hopefully not a true reflection of the state of the American anime viewing audience that one of America’s most significant anime distributors has canceled its broadcast of one of the finest anime productions available.

Source: Anime News Network

The TV Tokyo network has announced that a live action television series adaptation of Yuho Hijikata and Tadashi Matsumori’s 1998 to 2004 suspense manga Yukemuri Sniper (Steam Sniper) will premiere in April. Hitoshi Ohne, director of the Akihabara @ DEEP live action TV drama, will write and direct the late night Yukemuri Sniper series about a former contract killer trying to peacefully live out his retirement as a hot spring inn proprietor.

Original manga series writer Yuho Hijikata is rumored to a pseudonym for Old Boy creator Garon Tsuchiya.

Source: Anime News Network

Square Enix has formally announced that its Blu-ray edition of the 2005 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children motion picture will be released on April 16th. The Blu-ray “Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete” will feature 30 minutes of new and revised footage not found in prior releases.

Source: Saishin Anime Jouho

Question:
With the new live-action City Hunter TV series being in prodcution now, could this [be] the perfect time for an anime distributor to license rescue and release the City Hunter anime? ADV released all but the last special back in 2003, but all has since gone out of print and the last two seasons of the TV series go for $100+ online now. Could the new live-action show help renew interest in this excellent franchise?

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The official homepage for the upcoming Yoku Wakaru Gendai Maho (Properly Learned Modern Magic) television series, based on the light novel series by author Hiroshi Sakurazaka, now hosts a streaming Flash trailer. Click the circular button on the main page’s bottom right corner to access the trailer.

The story about a freshman high school girl selected to become the apprentice of one of the modern world’s most powerful magicians is scheduled to premiere this summer.

Source: Anime News Network

Confirming speculation from last November, the advertising “obi” of the recently published fourth volume of author Sekina Aoi’s Hekiyo Gakuen Seitokaigi Jiroku (“Records of the Hekiyo Academy Student Council’s Activities”) light novel series has announced that the series will be adapted into an anime television series. The lighthearted novel series about a single boy elected to join his school’s all female student council premiered in January 2008 with the publication of the series’ first novel, “Hekiyo Gakuen Seitokaigi Jiroku: Seitokai no Ichizon” (“Student Council’s Discretion”).

A manga adaptation of the novel series debuted last August.

Source: Anime News Network

Japan’s Kids Station television network has officially canceled its planned broadcast of the Hetalia Axis Powers anime series “due to various circumstances.” The series will still be distributed, beginning late this month, by Japanese retail anime chain Animate, via cel phone delivery and internet streaming.

Hidekaz Himaruya’s Hetalia gag manga has recently been the focus of controversy in Korea. An online petition protesting the depiction of a character in the manga series who represents the nation of Korea has accumulated over 16,000 unverified signatures. Earlier this week the Kids Station television network told the Yomiuri Newspaper that it was “unaware of the criticism in Korea. However, a Korean character does not appear in the anime version.”

Source: Anime News Network

From the 21st through the 25th, the Cafe With Cat theme restaurant located in the main branch of the Toranoana anime specialty shop in Akihabara will sponsor a “Toradora x Kinshou” (“Toradora x Prohibited Books”) themed menu based on the current Toradora! and Toaru Majutsu no Index anime television series.

Source: Basic Channel blog