We’ve overcome some unanticipated delays to finally deliver our first AnimeNation News Podcast of the new year. Come listen to our discussion of new Sentai Filmworks acquisitions, Daphne’s adoration of yaoi, and discussion of what could be done to make the live action Cowboy Bebop movie not suck.
The homepage for the upcoming anime television series Working!! has released its third character trailer, this one focusing on Wagnaria restaurant manager Shirafuji Kyoko. The show is scheduled to premiere in April.
Source: Moon Phase
Weekly Shounen Magazine has announced that the current Mahou Sensei Negima: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai OAD series will be extended by a fifth bonus episode adapting the manga’s “Ariadne” story arc starring character Ayase Yue.
Source: Moon Phase Comments
The TBS television network has revealed the surprising announcement that the second season of the cult hit K-On television series will premiere in April. The main staff and cast of the 2009 series will return.
“Surprising” because the second season is coming so soon.
Source: Rakugakidou
Keiko Tobe, creator of the acclaimed manga series With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (Hikari to Tomo ni… ~Jiheisho-ji wo Kakaete~), passed away on Thursday at the age of 52 following a lengthy battle with an unspecified illness. Tobe’s dramatic manga about a mother struggling to raise her autistic son debuted in 2001 and won an Excellence Prize in the Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2004. The manga series was also adapted into a live action television series in 2004. Tobe placed the continuing manga story on hiatus in January 2009 to deal with her illness. Yen Press publishes the now unfinished manga story in English.
Keiko Tobe (left) in 2005
Source: Anime News Network
This year’s New York International Children’s Film Festival will host the U.S. theatrical premieres of Madhouse’s Summer Wars and Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Maho) feature films, Production I.G’s Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (Hottarake no Shima – Haruka to Maho no Kagami) feature film, and Studio Rikka’s web anime series The Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan). The film festival will run from February 26 through March 21.
Japanese animators Iwaisawa Kenji’s 5-minute short Man in the Tunnel Alley and Motohiro Shirakawa’s 3-minute short Mr. Shape will also debut during the film festival.
Source: Anime News Network
Nintendo today announced that a new “main entry” game in the Pocket Monster franchise will debut later this year for the Nintendo DS. The game will be the first new installment in the core series of Pokemon games since the paired Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl games were released in 2006.
Source: IGN
Question:
What’s your opinion of anime/manga that have anti-war themes like Azumi/Barefoot Gen/Grave of Fireflies and what titles of the latest generation continue their tradition?
The March issue of Ciel magazine, which goes on sale in Japan this weekend, will reportedly announce the development of an anime TV series based on Shungiku Nakamura’s yaoi manga series Sekaiichi Hatsukoi ~Onodera Ritsu no Baai~ (World’s Best First Love ~The Case of Ritsu Onodera~). The boy-love story about a rookie manga editor and his bossy editor-in-chief who were a romantic couple years before occurs in the same continuity as Nakamura’s Junjo Romantica manga that was adapted into two anime television series in 2008.
The Junjo Romantica first season DVD collection will hit American stores on May 4th courtesy of Nozomi Entertainment.
Source: Anime News Network
Reportedly the first Japanese DVD volume of the current Nodame Cantabile: Finale anime television series will include the show’s first two broadcast episodes plus an unaired bonus episode. The first Nodame Cantabile: Finale DVD will hit Japanese stores on April 7.
Getting an unaired episode as a bonus on the last home video volume isn’t uncommon, but getting one on the first DVD volume seems quite unusual.
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese music label Lantis has officially uploaded the full length music video for Minori Chihara’s new single “Yasashii Bokyaku” (“Kind Forgetfulness”) to YouTube. The song is the theme for next month’s Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoshitsu (The Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya) anime motion picture. The movie will hit Japanese theaters on February 6th. The “Yasashii Bokyaku” CD single will be released on February 24.
This is a nice song, so I hope that the movie lives up to it.
Source: Anime News Network
An unconfirmed Japanese promotional image that’s just surfaced states that the Strike Witches 2 television series will premiere this summer.
Source: Moon Phase
The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan has announced that box office revenue for domestically produced Japanese films hit an all-time high in 2009. More interesting to manga & anime fans may be the fact that 8 out of last year’s top ten grossing Japanese films were anime movies or adaptations of anime/manga.
01. ROOKIES -Sotsugyo- (8.55 billion yen)
02. Pokemon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (4.67 billion yen)
03. 20th Century Boys: The Last Chapter – Our Flag (4.41 billion yen)
04. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (4.00 billion yen)
05. Amalfi: Megami no Hoshu (3.65 billion yen)
06. Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser (3.50 billion yen)
07. Gokusen: The Movie (3.50 billion yen)
08. Yomei Ikkagetsu no Hanayome (3.15 billion yen)
09. Yatterman (3.14 billion yen)
10. Crows ZERO II (3.02 billion yen)
Amalfi: Megami no Hoshu (Amalfi: The Goddess’ Toll) and Yomei Ikkagetsu no Hanayome (April Bride) do not have connections to manga or anime. Rookies, 20th Century Boys, Gokusen, and Crows Zero are live action adaptations of manga. Yatterman is a live action adaptation of an anime.
The otaku are getting ever closer to taking over!
Source: Tokyograph
The Kyoto High-Tech Crime Task Force yesterday arrested a Japanese man suspected of uploading anime episodes, including episodes of the current Fullmetal Alchemist television series, to the internet without authorization via the Perfect Dark peer-to-peer file sharing program. The arrest represents the first suspect accused of illegally uploading via the Perfect Dark program. The Perfect Dark file sharing program was launched in early 2007 as a successor to earlier Japanese peer-to-peer file sharing programs Winny and Share, which had been discovered to have security vulnerabilities.
Japanese copyright law has long criminalized the unauthorized upload of copyrighted material to the internet. A new Japanese law criminalizing the knowing download of copyrighted material took effect on January 1, 2010.
Source: Anime News Network
Hong Kong-based animation studio Imagi Animation laid off approximately 100 of its 450 employees last month. Now the company has announced the closure of its Los Angeles office and the layoff of approximately 30 additional employees in order to “safeguard working capital.” However “a small number of key staff” have been retained as consultants.
Imagi produced last year’s Astro Boy animated film, based on Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga, and is reportedly still developing a 3D animated film based on Tatsunoko’s Gatchaman anime franchise.
Source: Anime News Network
