AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Oricon reports that in anticipation for the 2012 broadcast of the new 30th anniversary Fairy Princess Minky Momo TV anime, a Minky Momo live stage musical will premiere during the 2010 Golden Week Japanese holiday. The musical’s producers are seeking child actors able to sing and dance to perform in the play. Public applications will be accepted until September 15.

Meanwhile, the 1991 Mahou no Princess Minky Momo: Yume wo Dakishimete anime TV series will be re-broadcast on the Kids Station network beginning July 28th.

Source: Moon Phase Diary

The USA Today newspaper has published an article ostensibly covering Imagi Studios’ upcoming Astro Boy movie that also delves into Astro Boy’s iconic place in American pop culture and hits of a mainstream Astro Boy revival in America.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

Question:
I was just joining the online anime community, especially the fansubbing community, around the launch of Hand Maid May many years ago. I remember a few weeks after said show concluded, artwork and websites for a show called G-On Riders hit the internet. I followed the show through fansubs and enjoyed it greatly as a mix of harem anime and sentai superhero comedy along with other assorted weirdness. It definitely had its tongue planted firmly in the moe cheek, maybe even to its detriment, a few years ahead of the curve.

My question is your thoughts on why this show has never received a US license or release. I would have thought the style of comedy this show had would have been a natural fit on Pioneer/Geneon up until it closed down. Was it due to lackluster sales of Hand Maid May in the US? Or is it more complicated, being associated with the troubled and eventual canceled production of the Hand Maid Mai OAV sequel?

(more…)

Beverly Hills & Asia (Hong Kong?) based film production company Convergence Entertainment has optioned live action film development rights to Red Entertainment’s 2002 Playstation 2 shooting game Gungrave. The Gungrave franchise, co-created and designed by Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow, spawned a 2003 anime TV series and a 2004 sequel PS2 game. Convergence plans to develop a $30 to $35 million live action Gungrave feature with Convergence CEO Tim Kwok producing and Red Entertainment’s Yasuaki Nagoshi serving as executive producer.

The Convergence Entertainment produced live action King of Fighters movie is current in post-production. Convergence is also now prepping production of a feature adaptation of Capcom’s horror game franchise Clocktower.

2002′s sci-fi gunplay classic Equilibrium was shot for only $20 mil, so it ought to be easily possible to develop a great Gungrave movie on $30-$35 million. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if possibility gets borne out by reality in this case.

Source: Variety Magazine

DreamLink Entertainment has added a 3:34 trailer for its first Utsurun Desu OVA to YouTube. The first episode of the three episode adaptation of Sensha Yoshida’s nonsense gag manga will go on sale August 21.

Source: Moon Phase

The official website for director Fumihiko (Vexille) Sori’s latest CG anime project, TO, has added a streaming trailer. The trailer reveals that the TO anime will be a pair of OVAs adapting the “Symbiotic Planet” and “Elliptical Orbit” chapters of Yukinobu Hoshino’s 2001 Nights (2001 Ya Monotogari) manga. The two TO OVAs will premiere on rental DVD on October 2nd.

Source: Quiet Earth

Japanese animator resource site Anido reports that influential veteran animator Yoshinori Kanada died of a heart attack on the evening of July 21. He was 57. Kaneda was a prominent animator from the 1970s through the 1990s, especially well known for his mastery of animating action and fluid movement. Some of Kanada’s prominent work includes providing key animation on Studio Ghibli’s Laputa, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke; animating the opening credits sequences of Genesis Climber Mospeada, Ginga Senpu Braiger, Makyo Densetsu Acrobunch, and Fushigi Yuugi; serving as character designer, animation director, and main animator on the 1984 OVA Birth; and animating the opening anime sequence of Square Enix’s action game Musashiden II: Blade Master (seen below).

Yoshinori Kanada is credited with pioneering the “Kanda style” animation now used by animators including Hiroyuki Imaishi (FLCL, Gurren Lagann), Takeshi Koike (Dead Leaves, Samurai Champloo), Kenichi Shimizu (Roujin Z, Afro Samurai Resurrection), Shinya Hasegawa (Evangelion, Utena), and Masahito Yamashita (Ghost in the Shell 2, Spriggan).

Source: Anime News Network

China Radio International reports that Beijing Glorious Animation and Future Planet’s co-produced Chinese/Japanese 52 episode Sangokushi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) television anime will premiere on China’s CCTV8 network on August 1st and on Japan’s NHK network in October. Reportedly 40 TV networks in 20 countries have expressed interest in broadcasting the series.

Source: Moon Phase Diary

The LA Weekly newspaper has published its recommended five vampire themed anime & manga alternatives to Twilight.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

VIZ Pictures has announced its acquisition of distribution rights to the six NEW PEOPLE Artist Series documentary films profiling important contemporary Japanese modern artists. The films will be screened at the new VIZ Cinema in San Francisco as part of the fall program titled LIFE ≈ ART. DVD releases will follow this fall and into 2010.

(more…)

Last December Mamoru Oshii confirmed tentative plans to cast Rinko Kikuchi in a feature length installment of his “Assault Girl” series of short live action movies. Japanese movie news site Hollywood Channel reports that the Assault Girls feature is now scheduled for theatrical release on December 19, 2009. Rinko Kikuchi (Assault Girl 2), Hinako Saeki (Assault Girl: Kentucky no Hinako), and Meisa Kuroki will star in the sci-fi/action flick as heavily armed warriors who battle giant “sand whales.”

Assault Girl: Kentucky no Hinako, the first “Assault Girl” short, was a segment of the Oshii supervised 2007 anthology film Shin Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden. The second short was part of the 2008 anthology film “Kill.”

Source: Anime News Network

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Japanese cult director Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus, Midnight Meat Train) will direct an American film adaptation of Top Cow Productions’ bad girl comic book series Magdalena. Geek goddess Gale Anne Hurd and Platinum Studios’ Scott Mitchell Rosenberg will produce. Top Cow’s Marc Silvestri will co-executive produce. Holly Brix, who wrote the script for The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations, will write the screenplay. Jenna Dewan (Step Up) and Luke Goss (Hellboy II: The Golden Army) will star.

Magdalena is the story of a present day descendant of Mary Magdalene who wields the Spear Of Destiny to defend the Catholic Church.

Say what you want about his films, I still like Ryuhei Kitamura movies.

Ain’t It Cool News first learned, and Variety has confirmed, that Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-man) will helm the live action World of Warcraft movie for Legendary Pictures, in partnership with Warner Bros. Ain’t It Cool reports that the film is anticipated to develop with a budget over $100 million. The film will start shooting after Raimi films Spider-man 4 next year.

The English language version of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine website now offers free English translated chapters of Yasuki Tanaka’s post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure manga series Kagijin and Mizuki Kawashita’s (Ichigo 100%, Hatsukoi Limited) latest romantic comedy Anedoki. Neither title has been licensed for official English language publication by any American based distributor.

Access to the online manga is free, but does require installation of XP or Vista compatible proprietary browser software.

Source: Nebs Blog

The official homepage for the recently concluded K-On TV series has announced that the series’ final home video volume will include a new, bonus episode. The seventh Japanese K-On DVD and Blu-ray disc will be released on January 20, 2010.

Source: Anime News Network