AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Question:
Why can’t I get more “artsy” stuff in America? Examples: Mind Game, Kaiba, Genius Party, pretty much all Studio 4°C’s output.

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Anchor Bay Entertainment has revealed word that its subsidiary Manga Entertainment will domestically distribute Madhouse & director Takeshi Koike’s sci-fi racing anime movie Redline. The film will open in Japanese theatrical wide release on October 9.

It’s great to hear that this highly anticipated film already has a US licensor, and nice to know that Manga isn’t out of the game yet.

Source: Anime News Network

Seven Seas Entertainment has formally announced its acquisition of translation rights to three new manga titles.

Amnesia Labyrinth, from Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya creator Nagaru Tanigawa, is an “offbeat tale of murder and demented love.” The first volume will premiere in February 2011.

The Toradora! manga series by “Zekkyo” is an adaptation of Yuyuko Takemiya’s popular romantic comedy light novel series that spawned a 2008 television series. The first English translated volume will premiere in March 2011.

Motoi Fuyukawa’s A Certain Scientific Railgun manga is a spin-off from Kazuma Kamachi’s A Certain Magic Index (Toaru Majutsu no Index) light novel series. It was adapted into a popular anime television series last year. The first volume will go on sale in June 2011.

The homepage for the hybrid anime & live action Kaidan Restaurant motion picture has added a 1:14 full trailer. The movie spin-off from the current anime television series will open theatrically on August 21.

Source: Anime News Network

Limited editions of the tenth compiled volume of Kanan Minami’s shoujo romance manga series Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu (Today Love Begins) will include the series’ second OAD. Like the first OAD released with the series’ ninth manga volume last month, J.C. Staff (Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover) will again animate.

Source: Anime News Network

Visual novel game development studio minori has formally announced that it is presently negotiating with English language fan translation group No Name Losers (NNL) about the possibility of an authorized English language release of its “ef” series of visual novel games.

Minori initially formally requested that NNL cease unauthorized translation and possible public distribution of the ef series games, then suggested its willingness to discuss legally authorizing NNL to produce and distribute English translations of minori produced PC games.

Few people know what this may lead to, if anything, but this is, at least, a positive sign of willingness to communicate and collaborate between the Japanese production industry and the English language fan community.

Source: encubed

The homepage for last season’s Angel Beats television series has added the full length 5 minute music video for Girls Dead Monster starring LiSA’s song “Day Game.”

Source: Moon Phase

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I offer the opening of the 1998 gag comedy Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo! Masaru-san. The theme song is Penicillin’s “Romance.”

The homepage for the Tezuka Osamu no Buddha -Akai Sabaku yo! Utsukushiku- (Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha -The Red Desert! It’s Beautiful-) anime movie trilogy has added a streaming teaser trailer. Click the button in the center of the site’s main page to access the trailer. The first of three movies adapting the late Osamu Tezuka’s 1972 manga story will premiere on May 28, 2011.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for the Heartcatch Precure! Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show … Desu ka!? (Heartcatch Pretty Cure: It’s Miyako’s Flower Fashion Show!?) motion picture has added a streaming trailer. Click the right-hand button under the video to watch the full trailer. The movie will be the first Heartcatch Precure movie and the ninth film in the Pretty Cure franchise (although the Heartcatch girls starred in the Pretty Cure All Stars DX 2 movie released this past March). The Heartcatch Precure movie will hit Japanese theaters on October 30.

The trailer is difficult to judge, but it looks like it includes some nice action animation, and I’m glad to see that it’s not another Pretty Cure in Clock/Mirror/Toy/Candy land situation.

Source: Anime News Network

The Electromagnetic Wave independent artist group has announced that its 2008 OVA Kowarekake no Orgel (Half-Broken Music Box) will screen theatrically in Tokyo and Osaka on September 11 and 18, respectively, in an extended version that adds six minutes of footage and includes a separate, previously unreleased seven-and-a-half-minute side-story short film.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for director Shinsuke Sato’s (Princess Blade, Oblivion Island) two live action Gantz movies is now streaming a teaser trailer. The first of the two film adaptations of Hiroya Oku’s sci-fi action manga will hit Japanese theaters next January.

Source: Anime News Network

French fan site Cobraworld reports that French director Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension, Mirrors, The Hills Have Eyes) plans to start work on a live action film adaptation of Buichi Terasawa’s Space Adventure Cobra following his present work on Piranha 3D. Reportedly Aja and his frequent collaborator, Haute Tension & Mirrors screenwriter Gregory Levasseur, will co-direct the Cobra movie with visual effects expert Don Pennington (Ghostbusters, Titanic) handling effects work. Terasawa’s Cobra manga was originally serialized from 1978 to 1984. Its most recent anime adaptation was the Cobra the Animation television series that aired earlier this year.

Source: Twitch

Takeshi Arashida and Eiji Hashimoto’s manga series TOKYO23 is getting a five episode live action television series adaptation. “Tokyo23: Survival City” will star 20 year old actor Yuya Yagira and air on the WOWOW network beginning at midnight on September 4.

The manga story revolves around a shadowy “X Game” played in Tokyo’s 23 wards. Game participants who manage to continue wearing a special bracelet until the end of the game may win 100 million yen. Players that lose their bracelet end up dead.

Source: Tokyograph

A Wall Street Journal article about America’s seeming lack of concern over unlicensed distribution of copyrighted Japanese manga in America is especially interesting because of its revelation that “until very recently” the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry believed that manga piracy in the United States was a “minor issue.” A spokesman for the Japanese government’s Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters states, “We want owners of individual rights to appeal directly to the websites… The government… hasn’t determined enough about copyright infringement in the U.S. to make advances.”

Source: Anime News Network