AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Yuricon founder Erica Friedman has published an exclusive interview with Nakamura Ching, creator of the ongoing “non-moe Yuri manga” series Gunjo.

Source: Anime News Network

The Japanese Disney Channel Blog has announced an August 19th release of a limited edition Fireball Omoshiro Appendix DVD. The super cool collector’s edition set includes the TV series on DVD, a papercraft Gedächtnis, and a plastic model of robot monkey Schadenfreude – both in scale with the figma Drossel.

Source: Rakugakidou

Question:
I was wondering how do the Japanese and Western view of succubi differ/resemble each other?

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An official web page for Kadokawa Pictures and director Kazuyoshi Katayama’s (The Big O) King of Thorn anime feature film has launched, featuring an English friendly trailer promising a 2010 worldwide release.

The spectacular trailer looks exceptionally faithful to Yuji Iwahara’s original manga, and the narrative nature of the story should make it particularly well suited for international distribution since it’s a speculative sci-fi action story not specifically tied to Japanese culture. Honestly, this trailer is so good that it gives me goosebumps.

Source: Anime News Network

Toei Animation has revealed its development of Thriller Restaurant ~ Kaidan Restaurant, an anime TV series based on the best selling Kaidan Restaurant line of ghost storie anthologies by Miyoko Matsutani & illustrators Yoshikazu Takai and Kumiko Kato. Each episode will contain three short stories, an “appetizer,” “entree,” and “desert.” The first two “dishes” of each episode will depict the ghostly events that revolve around sixth-grade schoolgirl Ako Ozora. The closing chapter of each episode will be a ghost story told by Ako and her classmates.

Publisher Doshinsha has released over 50 volumes of the Kaiden Restaurant book series since 1996, selling over 7 million copies so far.

Source: Anime News Network

Last Friday, at the 62nd annual Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, Studio Ghibli co-founder and veteran anime director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko) revealed that his next anime film will be an adaptation of the Japanese fairy tale Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), also known as Kaguya Hime no Monogatari (Tale of Princess Kaguya). The 10th century folktale, said to be Japan’s oldest fiction story, tells the tale of Kaguya, a moon princess found inside a glowing bamboo shoot on earth. Kaguya is raised on Earth, but eventually tearfully returning to her true home on the moon.

Takahata was at the film festival to accept the celebrated “Leopard of Honour” award for lifetime achievement. As seen below, Takahata depicted Kaguya-hime in a scene in his most recent directorial work, 1999′s Tonari no Yamada-kun (My Neighbors the Yamadas).

Source: GhibliWorld

TV Asahi has announced that the Stitch! ~Itazura Alien no Daibouken~ (Stitch! Great Adventure of Lightning Alien) TV anime will premiere in October. This will be the third original Japanese Stitch anime TV series spin-off from Disney’s 2002 film Lilo & Stitch. This also looks like it will be an entirely new continuity series unrelated to the October 2008 “Stitch!” TV anime and the currently airing series that premiered in April 2009.

Source: Moon Phase

To promote the upcoming live-action film Onnanoko Monogatari, a loose adaptation of manga-ka Rieko Saibara’s manga autobiography, Japanese mobile phone video provider BeeTV will stream a 10 episode Flash anime Onnanoko Monogatari series to cel phones beginning on the 15th. The live action Onnanoko Monogatari movie hits Japanese theaters on the 29th.

Source: Anime News Network

Maho Sensei Negima creator Ken Akamatsu’s August 10 & 11 online diary entries thank readers for strong sales of the recent Negima OAD anime episodes and vaguely hint at a major announcement, possibly to be made on September 17th when the next Negima manga volume with bonus DVD goes on sale. The Canned Dogs blog has interpreted Akamatsu’s veiled suggestion as a confirmation that a Negima anime feature film has been green-lit but not publicly announced yet.

Shueisha’s You Magazine has announced that a Real Clothes live action TV drama, based on Satoru Makimura’s best selling manga, will premiere in October. The manga was adapted into a live action TV special that aired on the Fuji TV network in September 2008. That adaptation starred model & actress Karina Nose as department store clerk Kinue Amano. Details about the cast of this year’s regular series have not been revealed yet.

Source: Anime News Network

Question:
Recently some U.S. distributors have been licensing some anime series that are 100+ episodes and are still being aired in Japan with no end in site. Companies like Funimation have licensed One Piece, Detective Conan, Keroro Gunso, and Crayon Shin Chan. Viz will be releasing Naruto Shippuden in September. While I have no problem with companies licensing long series that are still in production, I worry because these shows have almost no way of gaining a wider exposure in the US anime market, outside of people who were already fans of the series before it became licensed, mainly relying on word of mouth. With no televised broadcast of these series, it could mean slower release dates for these series. While Naruto may have been Cartoon Network’s ratings juggernaut in the past, it has been taken off of CN’s schedule and there seems to be no plans to air it in the near future. Series like Dragonball that have had a full run on US TV can be guaranteed to have good sales, even if the series have been off of TV for years. I was wondering what your opinions are on distributors that license series that are 100+ episodes.

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Following up on this week’s web announcement that the primary staff and cast of the 2008 Sekirei bishoujo fighting anime would reunite for the Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~ TV anime, the series’ official site has launched a streaming trailer for the new series.

It would be sort of nice if “Pure Engagement” meant “exclusive concentration on engaging in combat,” but I’m sure it’s actually got just as much, if not more romantic implications.

Source: Anime News Network

Anime production company Aniplex has revealed that the “Sora no Woto Project” will be a TV anime co-developed by Aniplex and the TV Tokyo broadcast network. The production will be the first project from Aniplex and TV Tokyo’s “Anime no Chikara” (The Strength of Anime) development partnership established last month. The Sora no Woto (Sounds of the Skies) anime will be animated by studio A-1 Pictures (Kannagi) with an all-star staff including director Mamoru Kanbe (Elfen Lied, Denpa Teki na Kanojo) and screenwriter Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross F, Denpa Teki na Kanojo). Key animator for Kannagi Toshifumi Akai will deliver animation character designs based on original designs from illustrator Mel Kishida. The series’ music, which is expected to play a significant role in the show, will be composed by Michiru Oshima (Kannagi, Fullmetal Alchemist). The series revolves around 15 year-old Kanata Kumika, an eager new army enlistee assigned to join a unit of four other girls who defend a fortress in a desolate, war-torn land.

The series’ official site now hosts a streaming trailer. The show will premiere in January 2010.

Looks like the viewers that wanted Strike Witches without all the fan service may now be getting what they were looking for. That’s not a complaint. The trailer is promising. I just hope the show either lives up to expectations, or expectations don’t get overblown.

Source: Anime News Network

Following up on the announcement that Sora no Woto will be the first production from the “Anime no Chikara” (The Strength of Anime) development partnership between Aniplex & TV Tokyo, the partnership has announced two additional TV anime projects.

Creator Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood: The Last Vampire, Robot Carnival) will be developing a school horror comedy entitled Zaidanhoujin Occult Designer Gakuin (Occult Designer School, Incorporated).

Persona -Trinity Soul- director Jun Matsumoto will helm the spy action show Senko no Night Raid (Flash Night Raid).

Both shows are scheduled to air next year.

Source: Anime News Network

The Daily Yomiuri newspaper has published an interview with Barefoot Gen manga creator and Hiroshima bombing survivor Keiji Nakazawa. The article discusses Nakazawa’s approach to his manga and the effort to adapt the manga into English.

The manga series is currently being published in America by Last Gasp.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter