AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Author and anime critic Robert Aldrich has published a thorough treatise exploring the characteristics that make anime unique. Check out his article, DEFINING ANIME.

Pop Japan Travel is now accepting reservations for participation in its Jump Festa 2010 tour of Japan. This vacation features admission to the Jump Festa 2010 promotional event that hosts exclusive short anime movie screenings, guest appearances by celebrity manga-ka, and participation from numerous major Japanese manga, anime, and video game companies.

The DC Anime Club in collaboration with Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan, will host a free public screening of the Evangelion 1.0 motion picture on Wednesday September 9, 2009, at 6:30 pm. The screening will be held at the Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington D.C. The event is free and open to the public but reservations are required.

Kadokawa’s Newtype Magazine, in association with Bandai Channel, have now launched Japanese streaming distribution of the 12 episode Fight Ippatsu! Jyuden-chan television anime. The online episodes are the “uncensored” version episodes currently airing on the AT-X satellite network. The show’s official website now reveals that Japanese terrestrial broadcast will begin on October 5.

The risqué show has been airing “uncensored” exclusively on the AT-X network since June 25th. In early July Crunchyroll began streaming the censored version episodes that will begin airing on Japanese network TV in October.

An official website has launched for the currently filming live action feature film adaptation of Saori Oguri’s autobiographical manga Darling wa Gaikokujin (My Darling is a Foreigner). The best selling manga chronicles Oguri’s married life with American journalist Tony Laszlo and the cultural differences they encounter and overcome. Live action Hana Yori Dango star Mao Inoue will co-star with actor Jonathan Sherr in the film, which is scheduled to open next spring.

I don’t wish to criticize the original manga nor the people it’s based on, but doesn’t this provide another example of Japan’s isolationist tendency to perceive the world consisting of Japan and “strange foreigners”? I just can’t envision an average American’s story about being married to a foreigner becoming a best selling series that gets adapted into a feature film. In America, cross-cultural marriage is common enough to ordinary.

Source: Japan Today & Tokyograph

Toro Kitao’s manga series “Saibancho! Koko wa Choeki 4 Nen de, Dousuka?” (Judge! Here are 4 Years of Imprisonment, Understand?) will serve as the basis for a live action TV drama tentatively titled “Bouchou Mania 09″ (Attendance Mania 09). Rising actor Osamu Mukai will star as a man who makes a hobby of attending courtroom cases to observe people’s interactions. The drama will premiere on the NTV network on October 22.

Source: Tokyograph

Question:
What anime are there with characters eating pizza?

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Studio A-1 Pictures has released a 4:14 behind-the-scenes video for its upcoming Tonari no 801-chan R anime promotional video. The original opening anime will be included in limited edition copies of Ajiko Kojima’s Tonari no 801-chan manga volume 4 that go on sale September 10.

This video clip really reveals exactly how toilsome producing anime really is!

Source: Rakugakidou

The official website for the upcoming Anime Fuyu no Sonata television series has added an assortment of streaming trailers. The anime is an adaptation of the popular 2002 Korean live action romantic drama Winter Sonata (Gyeoul Yeonga). Original actors Bae Yong Jun and Choi Ji Woo will reprise their roles from the live action drama in the anime adaptation, so it does look like the series will air on Japanese television with Korean dialogue and Japanese subtitles. The anime series will premiere on October 17.

Source: Moon Phase

The KIDS STATION television network has scheduled the first two episodes of an Usaru-san anime television series for broadcast on October 3. The Media Factory mascot character franchise revolves around a male rabbit that transforms into Usaru-san by wearing a monkey costume and eating bananas. The title “Usaru-san” is a portmanteau of “usagi” (rabbit) and “saru” (monkey). AKB48 members Sayaka Nakaya and Amina Sato will star in the series as voice actors.

“Banana de henshin!”

Source: Anime News Network

A press conference was held in Tokyo yesterday to announce Abashiri Ikka The Movie, a live action film adaptation of Go Nagai’s Abashiri Family (Abashiri Ikka) action/comedy manga. Teruyoshi Ishii (Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna) directs star Erika Tonooka (of the girl pop group Idoling!!!) in her role as Kikunosuke, the heir of a mafia family who tries to live a “normal” schoolgirl life in a high school filled with thugs and killers. The film will hit Japanese theaters on November 21.

Go Nagai’s 1969 manga series was adapted into a 4 episode anime OVA series in 1992.

Source: Anime News Network

Question:
As I understand it, Harmony Gold’s death grip on the rights to Macross is preventing the domestic release of series like Macross 7, Zero, and Frontier. But that leaves me wondering, how on Earth did Macross II and Macross Plus make it to the R1 market? If they could be released in the US, why not the other Macross installments? Is there any hope at all that the companies involved could reach an agreement for the benefit of anime fans?

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Game developer Level-5 has revealed that its upcoming PSP & moble device RPG Danboru Senki (Cardboard Wars) will be simultaneously developed as a manga and TV anime. The “near-future plastic model building RPG” (kinmirai plamo craft RPG) is about players that construct small model robots that battle within cardboard dioramas. A manga adaptation will be serialized in Monthly CoroCoro Comic Magazine. The game will debut for mobile devices this winter. Anime studio OLM, the studio behind the other anime adaptations of Level-5 games Inazuma Eleven and Professor Layton, will produce the anime.

Just a little bit disappointed that it’s not an Azumanga Daioh spin off about Miura & Ena’s cardboard robot, but this is okay too.

Source: Anime News Network

Game developer Level-5 has announced that the currently airing Inazuma Eleven shounen soccer anime TV series based on the Level-5 Nintendo DS game, will continue past 52 episodes.

The Toranoana bookstore chain has also revealed that the current Shugo Chara!! Doki TV anime will change its title to Shugo Chara!! Party! on October 3rd and continue airing new episodes. The anime series began as “Shugo Chara!!” in 2007 and changed its title to “Shugo Chara!! Doki” in 2008.

Source: Anime News Network Article 1, Article 2

As part of his promotional effort for his new Amano Galaxy exhibition, acclaimed illustrator Yoshitaka Amano is making two live appearances on Japanese video hosting site Nico Nico Douga in which he’ll draw original interpretations of two ASCII characters determined by NicoDou user votes. Last night Amano made his first guest appearance, drawing his own version of “Yaruo.” The Yaruo character is a dim-witted instructor mascot frequently added to user posts in the “Newsflash” section of Japanese message board 2channel.

A recording of Amano’s entire 40 minute live appearance is available on NicoDou in two parts: first half, second half. The 5 minutes of Amano drawing Yaruo is also isolated in a third recording. Access to NicoDou video is free, but requires registration.

Amano’s second live appearance will be this evening. Judging by yesterday’s polling numbers, Kuma has the second highest number of votes by a strong margin over Tall Mona, which has a small lead over Jinsei Owata.

Image from Canned Dogs