Japanese multimedia site Gyao is now streaming a trailer for the Eve no Jikan motion picture. The film, scheduled to open on March 6, combines the 6 web anime episodes with a small amount of new footage and the new theme song “I have a dream,” performed by Kalafina.
Unfortunately, I don’t spy any new footage in this trailer.
Source: Moon Phase
Florida based anime event production company Green Mustard Entertainment has launched a campaign inviting anime fans to vote for the “Top 10 Greatest Anime EVER!” “This isn’t a project for money – just a labor of love for a bunch of anime fans just looking to do something for fun on the Internet.” Polling is open now. The survey will end on Tuesday, June 1st at noon Eastern time. The results will be posted on the Green Mustard site on July 1.
Question:
My roomate recently told me that Lucky Star was a lot more popular in Japan then The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was. Is this true? If it is, do you think that it means that they might later on down the road make a season 2 to Lucky Star?
The homepage for Sunrise’s feature film adaptation of Yuji Iwahara’s sci-fi survival horror manga King of Thorn now hosts a second theatrical trailer. The movie will hit Japanese theaters on May 1st.
I must say that I’m a bit surprised and impressed as this trailer certainly suggests that the movie manages to cover the entire six volume manga story. Hopefully the movie does it well instead of feeling rushed or choppy.
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese rock band Galileo Galilei has announced that its original anime series, “Galileo Galilei no Inu-Kurai Ryu,” will air as a series of shorts broadcast within the Monster Rock program on the Space Shower TV music channel. The first anime episode will premiere tomorrow. Galileo Galilei vocalist and guitarist Yuuki Ozaki contributed to the writing and art of the show about a dog whose mother tells him to meet a dragon.
Galileo Galilei formed in Hokkaido in 2007. The band’s major label debut album, Hamanasu no Hana, goes on sale in Japan on the 24th.
Source: Anime News Network
After laying off nearly all of the remaining staff of the Imagi Animation Studios subsidiary last week, Imagi International Holdings Ltd. has now announced that the animation production studio will be liquidated. Imagi International will continue to operate by developing film ideas and outsourcing the physical production work to mainland China and other countries instead of producing the animation itself. Imagi lost $93.4 million USD during the six months prior to the release of its 2009 feature film Astro Boy. The Astro Boy movie cost $60 million USD to produce but earned only $23 million. Imagi also owes $4.6 million USD to 350 former employees.
Imagi Animation was to produce a feature film adaptation of Tatsunoko’s Gatchaman anime franchise as its next project. The fate of that project is uncertain, but seems grim.
Source: Yahoo! Movies
The tenth annual Nippon Connection film festival – the world’s largest Japanese cinema film festival – is scheduled for April 14-18 in Frankfurt, Germany. Among the more than 150 features and shorts scheduled to be screened are Production I.G & Transarts’ 2009 anime film Chocolate Underground, and live action features including Takeshi Miike’s Crows II, Toshiaki Toyoda’s The Blood of Rebirth, Miwa Nishikawa’s Dear Doctor, Tomorowo Taguchi’s Oh, My Buddha, Koji Yakusho’s Toad’s Oil, Isshin Inudou’s Zero Focus, and Michael Arias’ Heaven’s Door. The film festival’s complete program will be announced in early March.
24-year-old Australian James Burt has agreed to pay Nintendo 1.5 million Australian dollars ($1.3 million USD) plus Nintendo’s $100,000 in legal expenses in a legal settlement stemming from Burt’s illegal upload of the New Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Wii six days before its global release. Nintendo charges that it lost thousands of sales as a result of the game being available for free online without authorization. “Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise our industry by using all means available to it under the law,” the company said.
Source: Yahoo News
Article provided by Daniel Zelter
The first teaser trailer for Studio Ghibli’s next film, Karigurashi no Arrietty (The Borrower Arrietty), has appeared, along with the video for Cecile Corbel’s performance of the movie’s theme, “Arrietty’s Song.” The adaptation of Mary Norton’s classic novel The Borrowers is directed by first time feature director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. The movie will hit Japanese theaters on July 17.
Source: Manganimation
Marvelous Entertainment’s website for the upcoming Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao (Number One Behind the Devil King) television series has added a streaming Flash trailer. Note: the trailer includes mild nudity. The adaptation of Shotaro Mizuki’s light novel series stars Akuto Sai, a normal boy attending a magic high school who aptitude test predicts him most likely to become a future devil king. The show is scheduled to premiere in April.
The production values look good. Hopefully this will skew closer to the fun BakaTest than the bland RosaVam.
Source: Anime News Network
The fan favorite mecha action anime series Armored Trooper Votoms will reportedly be getting three more OVA series in addition to the upcoming “Gen-ei Hen” (Phantom Arc) video series.
Armored Trooper Votoms Case;Irvine will introduce AT (Armored Trooper) mechanic Irvin Lester to the Votoms universe. Shisho Igarashi will direct with Hirokazu Hisayuki (My Hime) providing character designs and Takuya Sato (Fate/stay night) composing the script.
Votoms Finder will star Aki Tesuno, a pilot of an “altro” mecha who serves as a guard for scrap sclvagers. Votoms: Pailsen Files director Atsushi Shigeta will direct the Votoms Finder animation. Junichi Hayama (Hokuto no Ken: Toki-den) will provide character designs while Mayori Sekijima (Jyushin Enbu) will provide the scripts.
Votoms series creator Ryousuke Takahashi will personally direct the Armored Trooper Votoms: Alone Again (Soko Kihei Votoms: Koei Futatabi) OVA series with script writer Fuyunori Gobu, character designer Norio Shioyama, and mecha designer Kunio Okawara all returning in their respective staff roles from the original 1983 television series. The “Alone Again” series will reunite original Votoms protagonist Chirico Cuvie with his old friend Gotho and other characters 32 years later.
The first episode of the six episode Armored Trooper Votoms: Ginei Hen OVA series, described as the final story in the Votoms saga, will hit Japanese home video on March 26.
Source: Anime News Network
The official website for the Isshoni Sleeping ~ Sleeping With Hinako OVA is now online. The sequel to the April 2009 Isshoni Training OVA will allow viewers to watch Japanese teen girl magically turned anime character Hinako prepare for bed, sleep, and wake up. The OVA will hit DVD and Blu-ray this Thursday.
Spanish language fan site celuloidemutante has compiled a selection of promotional images (more here) for director Shinsuke Sato’s currently filming live action pair of movies based on Hiroya Oku’s sci-fi action manga Gantz. Please note, the images contain mild nudity.
The Oriental Daily News Chinese language newspaper reports that Hong Kong based animation studio IMAGI has laid off nearly all of its remaining staff. Around 100 of the company’s 400+ employees were laid off on December 11, 2009. The company has now laid off an additional 300+ employees, leaving the company open with a skeleton staff while its seeks new investors. Reportedly Imagi will re-hire its laid-off employees if new operating capital is secured. The company did that in January 2009. However, Imagi is also considering liquidation should new investments not materialize soon.
Imagi most recently spent $60 million USD on the production of the 2009 Astro Boy animated movie that earned $23 million USD globally. The studio’s next feature will tentatively be an adaptation of Tatsunoko’s Science Ninja Team Gatchaman anime franchise.
Source: Anime News Network
Kitsune Robot, one of the world’s first anime cover bands, will perform at this year’s Phoenix Comicon, scheduled for May 27-30 at the Phoenix Convention Center and Hyatt Regency in Phoenix, Arizona. Formed in 2006, Kitsune Robot is devoted to playing covers of the most popular anime, video game, J-pop, and J-rock songs.
