AnimeNation Anime News Blog

PC game developer Circus has announced that the upcoming PSP port of D.C. I & II will be released in a limited edition that includes a new, exclusive Da Capo anime OVA. It’s not clear if the PSP game bonus anime will be the previously announced “Mahou Shoujo Sakura” spin-off OVA announced last February or a different, previously unrevealed production. The “Platinum” version of the PSP D.C. I & II release that includes the bonus OVA will be limited to 5,000 units only available for purchase directly from the Circus website.

Source: Anime News Network

The official homepage of the current Senko no Night Raid historical fantasy television series has announced that the series’ seventh episode will stream online from May 18-30 but will not be broadcast on television. The episode depicts a Japanese perspective on the events leading up to the 1931 “Mukden Incident” in Northern China that served as the catalyst for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Instead of airing episode 7, television networks carrying the series will air a recap special episode.

This is quite baffling. Senko no Night Raid has been in development and production since summer 2009, if not earlier, so it seems odd that someone would only now, a week before broadcast, deem an episode potentially controversial and inappropriate for broadcast. So far, rather than cause outrage, all this show as seemed to evoke is yawns.

Source: Anime News Network

The advertising obi on new copies of the eighth volume of Kaworu Watashiya’s comedy manga series Kodomo no Jikan has announced that the “Kojika” anime will be returning. Presumably this means new Kodomo no Jikan anime and not a re-broadcast or re-release of any of the previous anime.

Source: Anime News Network

Actress Haruka Ayase and actor Naohito Fujiki will reprise their starring roles from the 2007 Hotaru no Hikari television series in a new live action series premiering in July. The adaptation of Satoru Hiura’s manga tells the story of an office-lady uninterested in romance who ends up living with her boss while developing a romantic relationship with one of her younger co-workers. Ayase played series’ protagonist Hotaru. Fujiki played Hotaru’s boss, Seiichi Takano.

Source: Tokyograph

Question:
Is Samurai anime slowly dying away? I’ve recently dusted off my old samurai anime such as Ninja Scroll (original) the superb Samurai X OAV and TV series and hoping to watch the recently released Sword of the Stranger. During all this i wondered “why aren’t there more samurai anime being produced now like there was in the past?”. Is there a lower demand for it now than there was in the 90′s?

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Gainax has formally announced the development of its next anime series. Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, nicknamed “Pantsu to” (“Panties &”) will be an adventure starring the attractive blond angel Panty and the black-haired goth-loli angel Stocking who are ordered to Earth to battle “ghosts.” Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Dead Leaves) will direct, with Atsushi Nishigori (Gurren Lagann) providing character design and Yoh Yoshinari (Gurren Lagann) providing conceptual art design.

This ought to be quite interesting in numerous respects. With Imaishi directing and much of the core Gurren Lagann staff on board, it’s certain to look unusual and promises to have an equally unusual kinetic style. It’s also been a couple of years since Gainax’s last bishoujo service anime, so this is due, although it’ll probably rile much of the fan community that expects “better” from the studio the created the “Gainax jiggle” and animated Oruchuban Ebichu, Re: Cutie Honey, and He is My Master.

Source: Anime News Network

Last year Japanese animation producer Studio Anima released a promotional pilot video for its full CG adaptation of Motofumi Kobayashi’s Vietnam War action/drama manga Cat Shit One (known in America as “Apocalypse Meow”). The proposed anime adaptation updated the original manga’s setting from Vietnam to the Middle East, but retained the original manga’s depiction of soldiers as animals. In early 2009 Studio Anima stated that it hoped to move forward on production of a 12 episode series that would premiere in early 2010.

Now director Kazuya Sasahara has confirmed that the series’ first episode is in production and is scheduled for completion this August. No release date has been decided yet. Production of subsequent episodes is also still tentative.

Although this is limited news, it’s still good news. One episode is better than none. And hopefully this marks the beginning of the production of the entire planned anime series. Although, wouldn’t this be awesome as a feature film?

Source: Ain’t It Cool News

The The Mainichi Newspaper reports that an anime television series adaptation of Ohba-Kai’s 4-panel gag manga Tono to Issho (“Go With the Feudal Lord”) will premiere in July. Furthermore, the anime franchise’s homepage has announced that the manga’s fifth collected volume will be released on August 23 in a limited edition containing a bonus “Volume 1.5″ OAD. An initial OVA adaptation of the manga went on sale in Japan last March.

The popular manga series that premiered in 2006 is a parody of of Japan’s historical warring states era.

Source: Anime News Network

The Capcom sanctioned short fan film Street Fighter: Legacy is now available for viewing. Co-directors Joey Ansah & Owen Trevor have put together and admirable 3 minute film that’s tremendously more faithful to its inspiration and more exciting than either of Hollywood’s multi-million dollar Street Fighter movies. Short “Designing the Fights” and “Costume Design” documentary vignettes follow below.

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Question:
Ever notice how even though anime is supposedly more lax in nudity then American animation, both refuse to expose the male genitalia unless for a specific adult audience? Unless it’s a small child, the penis is always covered and it’s kind of odd considering how brazen anime is with the female body. Is it because the anime audience is primarily made up of men?

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FUNimation has announced its acquisition of distribution rights to the Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations and Tsubasa: Thunder Spring Chronicles (Tsubasa: Shunraiki) OADs. The three episode “Tokyo Revelations” anime series was originally released in Japan in 2007-2008 on DVDs packaged with limited edition copies of CLAMP’s Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- manga volumes 21-23. The two episode Tsubasa: Shunraiki OAD series followed last year, originally bundled with Japanese manga volumes 26 & 27.

FUNimation has not announced a domestic release date for either series yet.

Source: Anime News Network

Tokyopop has confirmed plans to release the first English translated volume of Hidekaz Himaruya’s historical fiction gag manga Hetalia: Axis Powers. The first book will hit stores on September 10. The popular Hetalia manga personifies countries and nationalistic regions as humans – mostly young men with various anxieties and personality quirks.

Source: Anime News Network

Nippon Animation has announced that its Akage no Anne: Green Gables e no Michi (Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables) movie will open theatrically in Japan on July 17. The anime adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic children’s novel originally aired as a 50 episode television series in 1979. Series director Isao Takahata (Pom Poko, Only Yesterday) compiled six of the TV episodes into a feature film in 1989, but the film was never officially released, until now. The official Akage no Anne movie website hosts a streaming trailer. Click the button above the “ENTER” button on the site’s main page to watch the trailer.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for this summer’s Kaidan Restaurant ~ Thriller Restaurant motion pictue has added a streaming teaser trailer. 2009 All-Japan National Young Beauty Contest (Zen-Nihon Kokumin-teki Bishoujo Contest) winner Ayano Kudo, will star in the hybrid anime/live action film spin-off from the popular anime TV series, which itself is based on a popular series of horror storybooks. The movie will hit Japanese theaters on August 21.

Source: Anime News Network