AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Gonzo has produced a promotional 4 episode Flash anime based on Ruffian Games’s Xbox 360 action game Crackdown 2, known in Japan as “Riot Act 2.” The first of the four short episodes is streaming now. Episodes 2-4 will be released weekly.

The dialogue-based comedy anime features design and direction from Trigun character designer Takahiro Yoshimatsu. Shinichi Niizeki and Masato Nunome composed the series’ story concept and provide the voices of first episode protagonists Sam and Eric. Comedian/professional wrestler Yoshihiro “Muscle” Sakai makes his voice-acting debut as the “Agent” that joins Sam & Eric.

“Riot Act 2″ goes on sale in Japan on July 8.

This is interesting, Gonzo, but where’s the Super Street Fighter IV anime?

Source: Anime News Network

A gorgeous minute of new footage from Studio Ghibli’s upcoming film Karigurashi no Arrietty has appeared on YouTube. Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s first feature hits Japanese theaters on July 17th.

Source: Nausicaa.net

Limited first edition copies of the ninth volume of Masayuki Ishikawa’s lighthearted drama manga series Moyashimon will ship in Japan next month with a bonus six minute CG anime DVD. Shirogumi, Inc., the studio behind the 2007 Moyashimon anime TV series adaptation, animates the new OAD that stars the story’s bacteria characters. Shirogumi will also animate the CG germs for next month’s live action Moyashimon TV series.

It’s a little bit bizarre that this book is scheduled for release on July 6, less than a month away, yet no Japanese retailer seems to have a cover image yet.

Source: Anime News Network

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit to you the opening of 1997′s Maze Bakunetsu Jikuu television series. The rockin’ theme song is Seikima II’s “Kokuu no Meikyuu.”

The 36 member companies of Japan’s Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TOKYOPOP, Vertical, Inc., the Tuttle-Mori Agency, and Yen Press have formed an international coalition intended to combat unauthorized online manga distribution. “Scanlations,” unauthorized translations of scanned pages of manga or scanned and uploaded pages of commercially published translated manga, undermine “foreign licensing opportunities and unlawfully cannibalizing legitimate sales.” The publisher coalition will initially specifically target 30 “scanlation aggregator” websites that “host thousands of pirated titles, earning ad revenue and/or membership dues at creators’ expense.” The coalition will pursue legal action – including injunctions, statutory damages, and reporting offending sites to federal anti-piracy authorities – against sites deemed guilty of intellectual property theft that do not voluntarily cease their illegal distribution.

Source: Viz Media

Anchor Bay Entertainment has acquired the domestic distribution rights to Molot Films and Studio 4°C’s 2009 historical mock documentary live-action & anime film First Squad – The Moment Of Truth. The award winning film details the (fictional) historical effort by a Soviet military agency to utilize supernatural techniques to counter supernatural military efforts by the German Nazi war effort during WWII. Anchor Bay will release the film on DVD and BD later this summer.

Just for reference, the “director’s cut” of First Squad intersperses the anime footage with live action interviews of Russian & German “war veterans” and “historians” commenting on the events dramatized in the anime footage. The shorter “theatrical” cut of the movie excludes the live action interviews.

Source: Mania

The Anime Network has acquired streaming distribution rights to the current Kaichou wa Maid-sama! romantic comedy television series. Anime Network premium subscribers will have access to the first episode on June 15. Registered users will be able to access the episode on June 17. The second episode will begin streaming on June 24. Following episodes will be released weekly. The presently ongoing series premiered in Japan last April.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for next month’s Mitsudomoe television series has added a new, second streaming trailer.

Source: Moon Phase

The July issue of Monthly CoroCoro Comic Magazine that goes on sale in Japan next week will formally announce the first Inazuma Eleven theatrical feature. The spin-off from the current popular soccer anime television series is itself based on Level 5′s Nintendo DS simulation game. The movie will hit Japanese theaters this winter.

Source: Anime News Network

Twitch now hosts an official English subtitled trailer for the upcoming Japanese live action sci-fi/historical action movie Alien Versus Ninja and the previously unreleased “splatter” version trailer for director’s Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, and Tak Sakaguchi’s Mutant Girls Squad. Both trailers contain grotesque graphic violence and gore.

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit to you the opening of the 1963 television series Okami Shonen Ken. Ansanburu Bibo performs the opening theme song “Okami Shounen Ken.”

Question:
WTF is wrong with Katanagatari??? Great art, good story but with no real fights!!! Why??? It is an anime about 12 swords, without real sword fighting. Also, in the end [of] episode 3 they preview an epic fight, but they did not show it in episode 4!!! WTF!!!! Why they bother to draw a fight that they won’t show??? Please, John, tell me what is wrong with anime these days??? Is it me only that love to see fights and action in anime??!!!

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Last year’s award-winning and highly popular live action television series Jin will get a concluding second season early next year. The historical drama is based on Motoka Murakami’s manga about a contemporary brain surgeon who gets transported back in time to the Bakumatsu era. The final episode of the 2009 drama earned a 25.3% viewer percentage, making it the most watched drama single episode of 2009.

Source: Tokyograph

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit to you the opening of the award winning 1998 television series Serial Experiments Lain. Bôa’s “Duvet” was used as the series’ opening theme.

Electronic Arts has announced that its subsidiary BioWare will develop an animated film adaptation of its popular Dragon Age RPG in collaboration with FUNimation. The production is described as an “anime feature film” scheduled for domestic home video release next year. BioWare’s Executive Producer Mark Darrah and Creative Director Mike Laidlaw and FUNimation’s president and CEO Gen Fukunaga and Director of Original Entertainment Chris Moujaes will serve as executive producers for the film. Production is scheduled to begin this month, but where the production is being animated and by whom have not been revealed.

Dragon Age will be the first original co-production from FUNimation’s Original Entertainment initiative that was established in November 2009.

Source: Ain’t It Cool News