AnimeNation Anime News Blog

The Sunrise anime production studio and the primary staff behind the 2004 Kakurenbo OVA will reunite to produce a “super science-fiction romantic comedy” OVA titled Koisento. In brief, the anime will be set in Nara, Japan in the year 2710 and star teens Shinichi and Toto, who end up inadvertently join each other on a spontaneous tour of Nara landmarks. Kakurenbo staffers Shuei Morita, Daisuke Sajiki, and Reiji Kitazato will respectively write & direct, character design, and score the Koisento OVA. The OVA will initially (exclusively?) screen as part of Bandai Visual’s Anime Fes. “VS” publicity event that will hit Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nagoya starting on November 27.

Source: Anime News Network

Reportedly the highly anticipated second season of Disney & Toei Animation’s cult hit anime television series Fireball will premiere next year. The first series of 13 two-minute long episodes written and directed by Arakawa Wataru aired in 2008.

Source: Canned Dogs

Bandai Namco Games has announced that its upcoming Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 fighting game will include 30 minutes of newly created anime footage. The game will be a remake of the 1993 Famicon game Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku (Dragon Ball Z Side Story: Plan to Destroy the Saiyajin) and its 1994 interactive anime movie game for the Playdia. The Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 game will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Japan on November 11.

Source: Anime News Network

This week’s issue of Weekly Shonen Jump has formally announced the development of a new live action feature film adaptation of Osamu Akimoto’s long-running police comedy manga “Kochikame” (Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo). The ongoing manga premiered in 1976 and has spun off a 1977 live-action film, a 1985 anime TV special, a 367 episode anime television series, two anime feature films, and a 2009 live-action TV series. The tentatively titled Kochikame the Movie: Kachidoki-bashi o Fusase yo! (Kochikame the Movie: Blockade Kachidoki Bridge!) will open next summer.

Actually, it’s a little hard to imagine why this series doesn’t have an annual live action movie like the Tsuri Baka Nishi series did.

Source: Anime News Network

This week’s new issue of Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine has announced the development of a live action TV series adaptation of Shohei Manabe’s acclaimed dramatic manga series Ushijima the Loan Shark (Yamikin Ushijima-kun). The television series will premiere in October.

Source: Anime News Network

While countless English speaking anime & manga otaku are struggling to learn Japanese, the Wall Street Journal reports that Japan’s largest online retailer, Rakuten, considers English the necessity of the future and has announced that the company and all of its 6,000 employees will be entirely English only by 2012. Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani predicts that the Japanese corporate world will have to adopt English in order to compete in the future global marketplace.

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I offer the exceptional opening of the Freedom OVA series. The theme song is Hikaru Utada’s “This Is Love.”

Our own Phil N. was at yesterday’s first American concert performance by X Japan held at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. He sent us back some pics.

A friend of mine presently living in Japan sent me this e-mail.

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The homepage for the upcoming IS ~Infinite Stratos~ anime television series has added a streaming 92 second trailer. The adaptation of Izuru Yumizuru’s sci-fi light novel series revolves around Ichika Orimura, the only boy in the world capable of using the “IS System” battle frames normally used by girls.

Kodansha has released a new two-minute trailer for the upcoming Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi OAD. The anime episode will be released with limited edition copies of the 9th collected volume of Suzuhito Yasuda’s manga on October 8.

I’ve got to admit that this trailer makes the anime look a lot better than the last trailer did. And some of the footage in this trailer is really impressive. You’ll know it when you see it.

Source: Moon Phase

The homepage for the To Love-ru ~Trouble~ anime franchise has released its first trailer for this October’s Motto To Love-ru television series. The influence of director Atsushi Oostuki (Kanokon, Ladies vs Butlers!) is very evident.

Source: Moon Phase

The homepage for this fall’s new Pocket Monster: Best Wishes television series has added a 30 second streaming teaser that reveals the show’s new human characters.

Source: Moon Phase

Warner Bros. has released a teaser trailer for Madhouse’s 22 episode Supernatural OVA series based on the live action American television series. The series’ first 12 episodes will be released in a Japanese DVD and BD boxed set on on January 12, 2011. The remaining ten episodes will be released in a second boxed set on April 6, 2011. Yuya Uchida (Matsukichi in Saraiya Goyou, Dr. Franken Stein in Soul Eater) will play Sam, and Hiroki Touchi (Abel Nightroad in Trinity Blood, Adam Arclight in Needless) will play Dean. The American actors Jared Padalecki & Jensen Ackles that play Sam and Dean respectively in the live action television series have confirmed plans to dub two episodes out of the final ten.

No plans for an American release have been announced yet.

Source: Anime News Network

The September issue of Newtype Magazine, which officially goes on sale in Japan next week, will formally announce the development of an OVA series based on the 2007 Megane na Kanojo (“Girlfriend With Glasses”) romantic comedy manga by Tobi. The original manga is a collection of eight stories about girls with glasses. The anime will adapt the manga’s first two stories about a girl in a high school literature club and a popular idol. Koji Ito (Bush Baby animation director, Tactical Roar mecha director) will write and direct the four-episode series animated by AIC Takarazuka (in-between animation on shows including Kannagi, Gurren Lagann, Sora no Manimani, and Fairy Tail).

Source: Anime News Network