AnimeNation Anime News Blog

As expected, the official homepage for the Working!! anime television series has formally announced the development of a second series/season with a streaming trailer.

The TV Tokyo network has announced that the eighth Duel Masters anime television series, Duel Masters Victory, will premiere tomorrow at 8:30am. The show’s (presumably) fifteen-minute long episodes will share the “Oha Koro-su” (presumably a pun on “cross” and “Koro Koro,” the magazine that publishes the Duel Masters manga) timeslot with episodes of the new live-action Hyper Yo-Yo Burning television series, which is based on Bandai’s line of Hyper Yo-Yo toys.

Source: Anime News Network

Crunchyroll has announced plans to simulcast this month’s new Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, Sengoku Otome ~Momoiro Paradox~, and The World God Only Knows 2nd Season anime television series.

Sengoku Otome ~Momoiro Paradox~ (Sengoku Era Girls ~ Pink Paradox) will premiere in Japan on April 4. The series will premiere on Crunchyroll under the title “Battle Girls – Time Paradox” some time after.

The yaoi romance Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi will premiere in Japan on April 8. Crunchyroll has not announced its streaming premiere date or time.

The World God Only Knows 2nd Season will be available to premium subscribers 30 minutes after its April 11th Japanese premiere, and available for free to all viewers one week later.

FUNimation has informed Anime News Network of plans to release the Shiki vampire horror television series on domestic DVD and Blu-ray next spring. The series is one of six Noitamina series anime titles that FUNimation has simulcast or streamed in America but is the only one so far which FUNimation has announced plans to release on physical media.

On Wednesday, March 30, 4Kids Entertainment filed a Form 8-K report with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission addressing TV Tokyo & Nihon Ad Systems’ (NAS) lawsuit against 4Kids and immediate termination of 4Kids’ license to the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise. In the report, 4Kids asserts that TV Tokyo and NAS’ termination of 4Kids’ license is not valid because the Japanese companies did not respect a contractually obligated ten-day “notice and cure provision.” 4Kids also asserts that it did pay the Japanese companies a one-million dollar “good faith” payment on March 17 in order to arrange a March 18 meeting to discuss the dispute. 4Kids states that despite the one-million dollar payment, TV Tokyo and NAS still filed a lawsuit on March 24. TV Tokyo and NAS claim that 4Kids “abruptly terminated” the March 18 meeting without offering any resolution.

4Kids asserts in the 8-K report that should it lose the domestic rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, the company will take any necessary steps to remain in business, including possibly filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and countersuing TV Tokyo and NAS to recover damages caused by the lawsuit.

Source: Anime News Network

Young Gangan Magazine reports that a live-action adaptation of Hikaru Nakamura’s bizarre gag comedy manga series Arakawa Under the Bridge is now in early development. The project will consist of a live-action television series premiering this summer and a live-action feature film out next year. The manga was adapted into two popular anime television series in 2010.

Source: Anime News Network

The NTV network will air a “Young Black Jack” live-action television special on Saturday, April 23, at 9:00 pm. In the adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga, Masaki Okada (Hana Zakari no Kimitachi e, Maho Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto) will star as the genius surgeon Black Jack during his days in medical school. The special will depict exactly how and why Black Jack became an unlicensed surgeon and the origins of his lifelong rivalry with Dr. Kiriko. Kentaro Otani (live-action NANA movies) directs.

Source: Anime News Network

The TV Asahi network has announced its development of a live-action TV drama based on Motomiya (Salaryman Kintaro) Hiroshi’s manga “Ore no Sora: Keiji-hen” (My Sky: Police Arc). The “Keiji-hen” sequel to the original 1975 “Ore no Sora” manga revolves around business conglomerate heir Yasuda Ippei who decides to become a policeman instead of following in his father’s footsteps. TV Asahi is holding public open auditions for an actor aged 18-30 to play Yasuda Ippei.

Source: Tokyograph

Japanese character goods development and retail company Broccoli has announced plans to exit consumer-level retail to focus on development and manufacturing. On June 1st, retail chain Animate, which obtained 11% ownership of Broccoli in 2008, will take over operation of Broccoli’s mail-order business and Broccoli’s 16 “Gamers” retail stores throughout Japan. The Gamers stores will be renamed “AniBro Gamers” to designate the Animate & Broccoli partnership. Animate currently operates 100 retail stores throughout Japan. Animate will pay Broccoli roughly 250 million yen (about $3.02 million USD) for control of Broccoli’s retail operations.

Anibro? Really?

Source: Anime News Network

After seeing the Thor trailer several times and pondering it a bit, I’ve come to realize precisely what bothers me about the trailer. Thor is a god. He should be superhuman. However, the various trailers never convincingly depict him doing anything particularly awesome and godlike. He throws around some doctors and beats up some soldiers – one at a time. He seems to oppose some supernatural foes, yet they’re not especially imposing antagonists, and Thor seemingly fights them one at a time. Thor opposes the fire-breathing suit of armor, but it only appears to be moderately taller than him. The difference in scale between Thor and the armor suit is like Bruce Lee fighting Kareem Abdul Jabar. That difference is impressive on a normal scale, but it’s certainly not godlike. In the various trailers, Thor does cause a lightning bolt to start an earthquake, but the earthquake doesn’t appear to impact anyone, so its scale and impressiveness are muted. There’s simply nothing at all presented in the Thor trailers that makes Thor seem any more godlike or awesome than Arnie battling a predator. Thor should be on Superman scale, not merely tough-guy scale. Even the Hulk, human that he is, seemed more imposing and powerful in his two movies than the mighty Thor appears to be in his own movie trailers. I want to see Thor taking on armies. I want to see Thor standing up against towering foes. I want to see Thor engaged in epic battles worthy of Norse legend. Not only do I not see that in the trailers, I don’t even get an implication of that.

My point:

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit the opening of the 1997 Buttobi!! CPU OVA series. The opening theme is “Access wa Anata kara,” sung by Mifuyu Hiiragi.

Question:
Why are many Western anime fans so pretentious? It always seems to me that many fans of anime in the West try to over-analyze and make observations of things in shows that aren’t as big of a deal or just plain don’t exist. Is it that Western fans really want to justify their hobby as being mature so they’ll gravitate towards shows that [are] supposedly deep and complex and turn up their noses at shows [that are] immature and shallow?

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