AnimeNation Anime News Blog

The official homepage for the Yasai no Yousei – N.Y. Salad anime television series has announced that a 3D feature film will hit Japanese theaters next spring. The series created and illustrated by acclaimed artist Yoshitaka Amano depicts the interactions and adventures of vegetable fairies in a New York kitchen. The award winning series of five-minute episodes premiered in 2007 and had a second TV series in 2008.

Source: Anime News Network

Animage Magazine reports that the planned True Tears Blu-ray boxed set will include an exclusive, original 3 minute epilogue sequence. However, the new footage and the entire Blu-ray collection will only be produced and released on March 26, 2010 if the collection receives at least 2,000 consumer pre-orders.

Source: Anime News Network

The British Museum yesterday opened its “Manga: Professor Munakata’s British Museum Adventure” exhibit. The exhibit primarily consists of an original “life size” (wall size) manga story by artist Hoshino Yukinobu depicting his globe-trotting folklore & history professor Munakata character visiting the British Museum. The exhibit also offers a selection of sample manga that visitors can read. Hoshino personally visited the museum last month to research and create the original manga story. Hoshino’s “Professor Munakata” manga series has been ongoing since 1995, with a hiatus from mid-1999 to mid-2004. The exhibition will remain open until January 3.

Source: Anime News Network

The Wall Street Journal now hosts a short but incisive interview with FUNimation Senior Events Manager Adam Sheehan.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

Warner Home Video has scheduled the DVD & BD release of the Halo Legends anime anthology film for February 9. The omnibus film contains seven short anime segments ranging from 10 to 17 minutes in length from production studios Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G, Studio 4°C, and Toei. The PG-13 rated film will be released in a standard $19.95 DVD edition; a $29.98 double-disc special edition DVD; and a $34.98 Blu-ray edition that contains all of the content of the special edition DVD plus an exclusive “Halo: The Story So Far” summary of the Halo story through the events of the Halo 3 game.

Source: ICv2

The first six English dubbed episodes of the Monster anime television series are now available for download from the Playstation Network at $1.99 per episode.

Lately I just can’t get enough of Stereopony’s new single, “Tsukiakari no Michishirube,” the opening theme for the current Darker Than Black: Ryusei no Gemini TV anime.

Question:
What are some of the best “girls with guns” series?

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The datacomp fan blog has published a lengthy English translated exerpt from manga/anime scholar Kaoru Kumi’s 2008 book The Age of Hayao Miyazaki. The exerpt proposes a very specific and detailed examination of precisely why Miyazaki’s manga series Nausicaa is considered “cinematic.” Although written in a rather informal tone, this is heavy and highly academic manga criticism very rarely seen in English language.

Media Blasters CEO John Sirabella has revealed his company’s acquisition of translation & distribution rights to the Queen’s Blade & Ikkitousen: Great Guardians (Ikkitousen third series) TV anime series. Sirabella adds that both series will be released with an English dub. Both series were animated by the ARMS production studio, and both series share much of their production staff.

Source: Anime News Network

The official website for Nami Adachi & Hiroyuki Aihara’s picture book series The Bears’ School (Kuma no Gakkou) has announced that an anime film adaptation will open next spring. The best selling children’s book series premiered in August 2002. It’s 12 books have, so far, sold 1.39 million copies. The film about 12 bear cubs living in a mountaintop school dormitory will be animated by Flash animation studio Fanworks. The movie will hit Japanese theaters as a double feature with the stop-motion animated Cheburashka movie.

Source: Anime News Network

Merchandise solicitations to Japanese retailers from Bandai’s toy division have confirmed a 2010 premiere of a seventh Pretty Cure anime series titled “Heartcatch Precure!” The scant information states that the new show will feature a new heroine and another main character. In effect, it’s not clear if Heartcatch Precure will expand the cast of the current Fresh Precure television series or introduce an entirely new cast. The cast of the third Pretty Cure television series had only one TV series, although all three prior Precure teams have been kept current through their appearances in the Precure All Stars DX move & game franchise.

Source: Anime News Network

Japan’s Sega Sammy corporation has spent 1 billion yen ($11 million USD) to launch the Bakugan LLP subsidiary that will exclusively handle the hot Bakugan franchise. Initially launched in 2006, the Bakugan franchise has grown into an internationally successful franchise that includes collectible card games, video games, toys, and animation. The Bakugan franchise remains profitable while the remainder of Sega Sammy’s business has been slipping. Reportedly Sega Sammy revenue for the six-month period that ended September 30 was down 23% compared to 2008. On the positive side, the company posted losses of only 6.32 billion yen ($69.7 million USD) during the period, compared to a 9.55 billion yen ($105 million USD) loss during the same period last year.

Source: Gamespot

Article provided by Daniel Zelter

Sony has released its lists of the most popular anime available on the PlayStation Network last month.

Top 10 Anime Movie downloads for October:
01. Bleach the Movie 2: The Diamond Dust Rebellion
02. Afro Samurai Resurrection
03. Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom
04. Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody
05. Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel
06. Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow
07. Origin: Spirits of the Past
08. Ghost In The Shell
09. Blood: The Last Vampire
10. Vexille

Top 10 Anime Series Episode downloads for October:
01. Devil May Cry episode 1
02. Devil May Cry episode 2
03. Naruto episode 220
04. Afro Samurai episode 1
05. Devil May Cry episode
06. Devil May Cry episode
07. Xam’d: Lost Memories episode 1
08. Afro Samurai episode 2
09. Samurai Champloo episode 1
10. Devil May Cry episode 4

ComingSoon has secured a first look at the sales flyer for Crystal Sky Pictures’ planned film adaptation of Namco’s Tekken fighting game franchise. The film, first announced in 2007, is set to be directed by Dwight Little (Anacondas, Murder at 1600) from a script by Alan McElroy (Spawn, The Marine).

This art is certainly better than the baffling teaser poster image hosted on Crystal Sky’s homepage. What is that? That teaser poster looks like some sort of bloody farm equipment. This is Tekken, not Children of the Corn.

Article provided by Daniel Zelter