Toei has announced tentative plans to produce an anime adaptation of George Akiyama’s 1970-1971 manga series Ashura. The 3 volume manga series is a grim drama detailing a young boy’s struggle to survive during a famine in medieval Japan.
Akiyama’s historical drama manga Haguregumo was adapted into an anime feature film in 1982. His Koiko no Mainichi yakuza manga was adapted into an OVA in 1989.
Source: Anime News Network
Anime studio Satelight (Basquash, Aquarion, Fairy Tail) has announced that its planned Mini-skirt Space Pirates (Mini-skir Uchuu Kaizoku) anime TV series will now be titled “Mouretsu Space Pirates.” The adaptation of Yuichi Sasamoto’s light novel series was first announced in March 2009. The series is scheduled to premiere next year.
Source: Anime News Network
Starchild Records has revealed word that the upcoming Mardock Scramble anime film will actually be three theatrical features animated by studio GoHands (Princess Lover) and directed by Susumu Kudo (Dear Boys, Mirage of Blaze). The anime adaptation of Tow Ubukata’s sci-fi novel series about a girl transformed into a human weapon will premiere in Japanese theaters this fall.
Source: Anime News Network
Crunchyroll has announced that Japanese television network TV Tokyo has contributed $750,000 to acquire a minority stake of the video streaming company. TV Tokyo President and Co-CEO Masayuki Shimada said, “This investment fits with our three ‘challenge goals’ of cultivating new hits, developing our rights business, and discovering new revenue areas. Through Crunchyroll now more than ever before, we will be able to cultivate new programs to a worldwide audience, strategically plan a global rights business, and leverage Crunchyroll’s innovation to discover new ways to generate revenue.”
Director Wolfgang Petersen (Troy, Poseidon) has confirmed for the MTV Splash Page that he is developing a live action film adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1993 sci-fi novel Paprika. Rumors of Petersen’s interest in the story first appeared in August 2009. Petersen told MTV, “We have a young writer on it, and he just delivered a very specific and detailed treatment… If that’s a go then he will write the screenplay and that will go very fast because the treatment is already very detailed. So I’m very excited about that. I would say it’s on the fast track.”
Petersen revealed that he was introduced to the story concept by director Satoshi Kon’s 2006 anime film adaptation. Petersen envision his adaptation of Paprika as a psychological sci-fi film with a “Matrix feel” in terms of scope and accessibility.
Source: Anime News Network
The homepage for next month’s B-gata H-kei anime television series has added a streaming trailer. The comedy about a virgin schoolgirl who aspires to have an especially active sex life will premiere on April 1st.
Source: Moon Phase
An official website has launched to announce the development of an anime based on Lily Hoshino’s alternate history fantasy manga series Otome Youkai Zakuro (Monster Girl Zakuro). The ongoing series is set in a historical alternate Japan and focuses on a government bureau of yokai (traditional Japanese monsters) charged with mediating relations between humans and monsters/spirits.
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese online specialty retailer Mangaoh Club reports that Suu Minazuki’s Sora no Otoshimono and Sakae Esuno’s Mirai Nikki (“Future Diary”) manga series will both be getting OADs.
The ninth volume of Suu Minazuki’s Sora no Otoshimono will reportedly go on sale September 9th in a limited edition that includes a DVD containing an unbroadcast episode of the television series based on the manga. The Sora no Otoshimono anime series homepage did announce earlier this month that an unbroadcast episode scheduled for release on the series’ 7th DVD volume had been rescheduled for release at a different time, through a different medium.
The eleventh volume of Sakae Esuno’s Mirai Nikki manga will also go on sale on September 9th in a limited edition that includes a “pilot anime” on DVD.
Source: Anime News Network
The homepage for the upcoming Black Rock Shooter OVA has announced that the 50 minute long anime will be streamed online for free in conjunction with a promotional campaign scheduled to run from June 25 until August 31. The promotional campaign will also include a bonus DVD inserted into an upcoming issue of Hobby Japan Magazine.
Source: Anime News Network
Toei Animation has released four promotional images for its planned CG anime features based on the classic Captain Harlock and Gaiking anime franchises. A pilot animation for the CG Captain Harlock has been produced by Sega Sammy Visual Entertainment and staff including writer Harutoshi Fukui (Gundam Unicorn), director/designer Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Bubblegum Crisis), mecha designer Atsushi Takeuchi (Appleseed movie, Reideen), and character designer Yutaka Minowa (Jubei Ninpucho, Highlander: Search for Vengeance).
A pilot animation for the CG Gaiking has been produced by American digital animation studio Light Stage. The award winning studio has previously worked on films including Avatar, Spider-Man 2 & 3, and Hancock.
The feature length CG Harlock & Gaiking films are tentatively scheduled for global release in 2012 or later.
Sure, I can make out the Gaiking robot, but it doesn’t feel like Gaiking when it’s not bright yellow.
Source: Anime News Network
A new advertising flyer for Shueisha’s Cobalt Bunko line of light novels has revealed the development of a live action movie adaptation of Oyuki Konno’s best selling Maria-sama ga Miteru (Maria Watches Over Us) novel series. The movie will tentatively premiere this fall. The novel series detailing the lives of students at a elite all-girl high school has inspired four anime series.
Source: Anime News Network
A friend in Japan sent me this summary of the Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2: Light of Hope – Protect the Rainbow Jewel! motion picture:
Went to the theatre to catch the Precure All Stars Deluxe 2 movie. I haven’t really watched PreCure past the first 26 episodes of the first series, but I was able to keep up and enjoy the film. It does feature every Precure girl and every mascot character, and the mascot characters from the movies make cameo appearances. The new Heartcatch girls are the main characters and though everyone gets their moment to shine, and the Fresh girls get the lion’s share of the supporting casts’ screen time. I was disappointed Cure White and Black don’t get to kick much a*s and when they finally appear to fight, they’re reduced to a few repeating cels of hand-to-hand combat (a la minimal DBZ style) whereas the Fresh girls enjoyed complex, stylized combats. There’s a lot of dialogue from the mascot characters and a couple of scenes in which most of them have converged and exchange high-pitched dialogue with their slew of annoying sentence ender words – mapple. The movie did not reinvent the wheel but it was an entertaining “battle for the fate of the world” franchise movie.
Question:
To the best of your knowledge, is there a male version of the “ojou-sama” archetype anime character – irrespective of what name is used to define such a character – and, if there is, can you give any examples?
4Kids Entertainment has announced its acquisition of worldwide (excluding Asia) translation and distribution rights to the Korean/Japanese animated series Tai Chi Chasers (Tai Chi Senjimon). The 39 episode series was co-produced by the the Korean Broadcasting System television network and Japan’s Toei Animation. It aired on Korean television in 2007. The card battle adventure series stars Rai, a young orphan descendant of the ancient “Tigeroid” race who must collect 500 lost tai chi symbol cards that grant ultimate power. He’s opposed in his quest by the Dragonoids who also seek the cards.
4Kids expects to begin distribution of the series in late 2011.
I wish 4Kids the best of luck with this acquisition, but it’s hard for me, personally, to get excited about a Korean card battle show.
Source: Animation World Network
The Nikkei Newspaper reports that Toei Animation is planning new CG anime feature films in the Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Demon King of the Heavens Gaiking franchises. Both films will be big budget productions released globally in 2012 or later.
The Nikkei News explains that the move toward globally distributed CG anime is an effort to expand the audience for anime in response to declining anime DVD sales in Japan and a gradual decrease in television anime productions. Production I.G, in collaboration with Singapore based Storm Lion Pictures, is similarly developing the CG anime film Titan Rain with international distribution in mind.
I’m all for new Harlock and Gaiking anime, and I can understand the reasons for declines in DVD sales. However, I’m still not convinced of the impending demise of television anime. The number of annual TV productions has been decreasing marginally, but not dramatically. Did Japan’s anime industry actually think that the number of annual TV anime productions was just going to continue increasing perpetually?
Source: Anime News Network
