AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Beginning next month, NicoNico, the English langauge version of Japan’s Nico Nico Douga video streaming site, will simulcast weekly episodes of the Blood-C & Uta no Prince-sama ~ Maji Love 1000% television series. English subtitled weekly episodes will be accessible to viewers in the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa for one week starting immediately after the Japanese TV broadcast. After the initial week, access to episodes will be limited to NicoNico subscribers. During the site’s ongoing beta phase, NicoNico subscription membership is only 25 cents.

Source: Anime News Network

Viz Media will simulcast next month’s Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyo television series beginning July 3, streaming episodes on Hulu two hours after their Japanese broadcast premiere. Viz also distributes Hiroshi Shiibashi’s original manga and simulcast the anime’s first TV series last year.

Source: Anime News Network

Popular Japanese vocalist GACKT makes his English language acting debut in director Guy Moshe’s upcoming action/fantasy film Bunraku. The samurai western starring Gackt, Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman, and Demi Moore will premiere at the AM2 convention in Los Angeles, California, this weekend.

Source: Twitch

Kadokawa has released a selection of teasers for next month’s Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise television series. The show will premiere on July 4.

Source: Moon Phase

The homepage for creator/director Kunihiko Ikuhara’s upcoming anime television series Mawaru Penguindrum has added a half-dozen streaming teasers. The series will be Ikuhara’s first series directing work since 1997′s Shoujo Kakumei Utena. The show will premiere on July 7.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for next month’s Natsume Yujin-Cho San television series has added a streaming teaser. Most of the primary staff of the series’ 2008 & 2009 television series return for this third series that’s scheduled to premiere in July 4.

Can’t wait!

Source: Anime News Network

A second trailer for next month’s iDOLM@STER television series has surfaced, this one revealing much more personality and humor in just a few seconds than the entire first trailer did. The TV series based on Namco’s popular simulation game franchise will premiere on July 7.

I love the shot of Miki Hoshii sleeping in the van at 9 seconds into the trailer.

Source: Anime News Network

Media Blasters has formally announced its acquisition of this year’s Bakuman anime television series. The high-school drama from the creators of Death Note, Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata, will premiere domestically on bilingual DVD in November.

Is this actually the “big title” that John Sirabella was promising?

Sony Pictures has announced plans to release Studio Pierrot’s new historical fantasy feature film Onigamiden on American DVD & Blu-ray on October 4 under the title “Legend of the Millennium Dragon.” The film will be released in a BD/DVD combo retailing at $45.99 and standard DVD. Unfortunately, early specs report that although the domestic release will be multi-lingual, it will include English closed-captions for the hearing-impared but not conventional English subtitles.

Sadly, I was really excited by this news until I noticed that the release seemingly isn’t including standard English subtitles.

Source: Anime News Network

The Sankei Sports newspaper reports that Japanese film production company Studio Swan (Paradise Kiss) is developing a live-action feature adaptation of Nobuhiro Watsuki’s 1994-1999 samurai adventure manga Rurouni Kenshin. Keishi Otomo, who directed actor Takeru Satoh in last year’s historical drama TV series Ryomaden, will direct the film with Satoh starring as Himura Kenshin. Satoh was reportedly Nobuhiro Watsuki’s ideal actor to portray Kenshin. Shooting will begin next month for a tentative international release. The film is expected to launch a live-action film franchise. Warner Brothers Pictures Japan will distribute the picture.

I’m not even an especially big RuroKen fan, and I still think this is pretty neat.

Source: Anime News Network

Last week Marvel Comics & G4 issued a joint press release announcing the July 29 American television premiere of the Madhouse produced Iron Man & Wolverine anime television series. The press announcement credited Madhouse’s Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade anime series as “guided by New York Times best-selling author Warren Ellis.” British comic writer Warren Ellis has now publicly revealed that he had minimal involvement in Madhouse’s anime productions and wasn’t even aware, prior to Marvel’s press release, that he’d ever been a New York Times bestselling author. Ellis’ hardcover graphic novel Absolute Planetary 2 charted once on the New York Times bestseller list during the week of August 8, 2010.

Sounds like Marvel is desperately trying to generate buzz for its four Marvel Anime series that have been widely regarded as mediocre at best. The Blade anime television series will premiere in Japan on July 1.

Source: Anime News Network

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit the opening of 2008′s Michiko to Hatchin TV series. The opening theme is “Paraiso” performed by SOIL & “PIMP” SESSIONS.

Question:
What it up with anime and Jupiter? Gunbuster, GaoGaiGar and Heroic Age all featured important events that somehow revolved around that planet, two of the shows resulting in Jupiter’s destruction. Are there other anime where the Roman God of Thunder’s world gets a prominent role and, if so, why is that particular planet such a hot-spot in our solar system?

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The first trailer for next month’s iDOLM@STER anime television series has appeared on YouTube. The adaptation of the popular Xbox 360 idol singer management simulation game will premiere on July 7.

iDOLM@STER has had two previous anime adaptations. The 2007 iDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia sci-fi/action series had little to do with the games it was based on. A short iDOLM@STER: Live For You! OVA was released in 2008.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for next month’s Uta no Prince-sama ~ Maji Love 1000% television series has begun streaming a 60 second trailer. The adaptation of Broccoli’s 2010 PSP romance game is a reverse-harem story about a teen girl surrounded by attractive male classmates at her performing arts school. Yuu Kou (Loveless, Monochrome Factor) is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures.

Source: Anime News Network