To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit to you the first opening of the presently ongoing Anymal Tantei Kiruminzoo television series. (You get the first opening because the current second opening includes a big spoiler.) The catchy opening theme is “Poo,” sung in Thai by Neko Jump.
The homepage for next month’s Asobi ni Ikuyo! (Let’s Go Play!) television series has added a streaming trailer. The adaptation of writer Okina Kamino & illustrator Hoden Eizo’s light novels about a cat-girl alien on Earth will premiere on July 10.
Production values look good, and this trailer makes evident what the shows’ goals are.
Source: Moon Phase Comments
Digital Manga Publishing (DMP) President and CEO Hikaru Sasahara has informed Anime News Network of his company’s plan to launch commercial distribution of officially sanctioned fan translated manga. The program will tentatively launch with as many as “several thousand” manga titles – most of them in the yaoi genre – translated by amateur anime fans with permission from legal Japanese copyright owners & publishers. Digital Manga will host the scanlations online and split revenue with the Japanese publishers. Fan translators will be credited and may possibly receive a percentage of sales revenue. Tentatively, scanlations will premiere online and may expand to television broadcast, advertising, and print. DMP’s plan has been in development for over a year, and, according to Sasahara, “a few” Japanese copyright owners have tentatively agreed to accept the plan.
Domestic digital distributor Manganovel launched in October 2007 with this business model, and ceased operations in February 2009. The MangaHelpers fan site has announced plans to evolve itself into the commercial digital manga distribution platform OpenManga.
Tadashi Kawashima, best known to Americans as the writer behind the Alive: The Final Evolution manga series, passed away on Tuesday, June 15. Kawashima suffered from liver cancer and died at age 42.
Monthly Shonen Magazine editors now reveal that Kawashima completed the Alive manga this past February from his sickbed, and even started writing a new series shortly before his death.
Source: Anime News Network
To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit to you the opening of the tremendously under appreciated 1999 Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko television series. The great opening theme is Masami Okui’s “Tenshi no Kyuusoku.” An especially nice aspect of this opening is the fact that the more the viewer knows about the show, the better this opening gets.
Question:
Akiyuki Shinbo is an anime director with a fair sized body of work. Do you think he qualifies as an auteur – someone with his own recognizable “voice,” visual style, and/or themes, as, say, Mamoru Oshii does? If so, what do you think of his corpus?
The homepage for the upcoming Aki Sora ~Yume no Naka~ OVA series has added a 35 second streaming trailer. The first episode of the 2 episode series will premiere on July 30. Please note that the trailer for this incestuous romance drama includes shots of sex and brief nudity.
Source: Rakugakidou
The cover of the August issue of Shounen Sirius Magazine reveals the development of a Kaibutsu Oujo ~ Princess Resurrection OAD. Madhouse adapted Yasunori Mitsunaga’s Kaibutsu Oujo manga into a 26 episode television series that aired in 2007. The ongoing manga celebrates its fifth anniversary this month.
This is a bit of an unexpected announcement because I’ve never been under the impression that the original anime was successful enough to warrant a revival (no pun intended). I suppose this new production may be predicated on the popularity of the manga alone.
Source: Anime News Network
The Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA), which received a 214.5 million yen ($2.27 million USD) grant from the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs earlier this year, has announced plans to alot an initial 152 million yen to giving new Japanese animators practical training. JAniCA selected the Ascension, P.A. Works, Production I.G, and Telecom Animation Film studios from among 16 applicants for funding to produce original short anime works. Each of the four studios will receive 38 million yen ($400,000 USD) to fund the production of a 30 minute anime. Experienced Japanese directors and producers will lead production teams of new, inexperienced Japanese artists in order to pass on knowledge and experience to new talent.
Production studio Ascension will animate the tentatively titled short “Kizuna Ichigeki” with Mitsuru Hongo (Outlaw Star, IGPX) directing and Hitoshi Mogi (Crayon Shin-chan movies, Haré+Guu) producing.
Telecom Animation Film will animate the tentatively titled short “Ojiisan no Lamp” with Tekkon Kinkreet & Pom Poko key animator Teiichi Takiguchi directing and Koji Takeuchi (Mujin Wakusei Survive, Cybersix) producing.
P.A. Works will animate the tentatively titled short “Banno Yasai Ninninman” with Higashi no Eden & Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex episode director Masayuki Yoshihara directing and Kenji Horikawa (Angel Beats!, true tears) producing.
Production I.G will animate the tentatively titled short “Tansuwarashi” with Blue Seed & Evangelion 1.0 animation director Kazuchika Kise directing and Hidekazu Terakawa (IGPX, Jin-Roh) producing.
Source: Anime News Network
Domestic home video distributor Well Go USA will release director Mamoru Oshii’s Avalon spin-off live action movie Assault Girls on bilingual domestic DVD on October 19. The sci-fi action film starring Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi, and Hinako Saeki depicts three players in the “Avalon-F” computer game who have to work together to defeat the game’s final boss monster, the “Madara Sunakujira.”
Source: Nippon Cinema
To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit to you the opening of the current Arakawa Under the Bridge television series. The opening theme is “Venus to Jesus” performed by Yakushimaru Etsuko.
Independent anime production studio Primastea, which launched with the Isshoni Training: Training with Hinako OVA and its sequel Isshoni Sleeping: Sleeping with Hinako, will release its third anime production on August 16. Advance copies will be sold at the Comic Market 78 convention on August 13-15. The 21 minute long Kuttsukiboshi yuri OVA was written, animated, and directed by Naoya Ishikawa (Docchimo Maid). Since the production’s voice actors haven’t been selected yet, Primastea has just released a dialogue-free trailer. A second episode is tentatively scheduled for release in summer 2011.
Source: Anime News Network
The Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Official Visual Book scheduled for Japanese release on July 24 will include a bonus DVD containing series episode 13′ (presumably pronounced “13 dash”). The episode title, “Entenka no Satsuei Model mo Raku Ja Arimasen wa ne” (Being a Photo Shoot Model Under the Hot Sun Isn’t Easy, Is It?), suggests that it will be a parallel to broadcast episode 13, “Bikini wa Mesen ga Jouge ni Wakaremasu kedo One-piece wa Karada no Rain ga Demasu kara Hosoi Kata Shika Niawanai desu yo” (“A bikini divides one’s attention between the upper and lower body, but a one-piece outfit accentuates the body’s curves, so it’s only suitable for slim people, you know”).
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese online content distributor Bitway has made a made a $750,000 USD strategic investment in San Francisco based video streaming site Crunchyroll. This is the third major cash infusion Crunchyroll has received since 2008. Venture capital firm Venrock invested $4.05 million USD into Crunchyroll in early 2008. TV Tokyo acquired a $750,000 USD minority ownership of the company in March 2010. Bitway is a major Japanese distributor of digital books and manga and may plan to utilize Crunchyroll as a platform for English language digital distribution of Japanese print media.
Source: Anime News Network
