AnimeNation Anime News Blog

Animation studio Khara, the studio that creator/director Hideaki Anno founded to produce the Rebuild of Evangelion movies, has produced an original CG music video for virtual pop idol duo Meaw‘s (pronounced like “may you”) song “pair*”. The song was used as the first ending theme for the Honto ni Atta! Reibai-sensei anime segments of the currently airing Yuruani? television series. Meaw’s official website hosts a “Factory Mix” sample clip from the video. Although scheduled for release on August 10, the delayed “pair*” maxi-single with music video will go on sale in Japan this Wednesday.

Source: Anime News Network

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit the opening of this year’s [C] TV series. The opening theme is “Matoryoshika” performed by NICO Touches the Walls.

Question:
Is Redline being toted as the next Akira by Western anime fans (mostly U.S. and UK ones)? Despite bombing in Japan, I’ve seen many posts on blogs and anime message boards treating the movie Redline as the thing that’ll revitalize the Western fanbase and in fact, the anime industry itself.

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The Fuji TV network has announced that a Black Rock Shooter television series will air in the Noitamina timeslot next January. Evidently studio Ordet will animate the production, as the studio produced the 2010 Black Rock Shooter OVA. However, OVA director Yutaka Yamamoto has announced that he is not directing the TV series.

This production was easy to see coming, but airing this as a Noitamina series seems to outright contradict the original purpose and theme of Noitamina programming. The Noitamina block was launched to feature anime targeted at non-otaku viewers. BRS is about as hardcore otaku-oriented as anything gets.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for the forthcoming Nintendo DS action game Senran Kagura: Shoujotachi no Shinei is now streaming the game’s anime opening sequence. The game will hit Japanese stores on September 22.

Source: Rakugakidou

Weekly Shonen Magazine will formally announce next week that Suzuka creator Kouji Seo’s current romantic comedy manga series Kimi no Iru Machi will get an OAD next spring. Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Eve no Jikan) will serve as chief director with Hiroshi Kobayashi (Yozakura Quartet) directing the animation at Tatsunoko Productions.

Source: Anime News Network

Toei has released a two-minute teaser for “Rebellions,” a live-action post-apocalyptic girl-power sci-fi/action film. Koichi Sakamoto directed the short that stars Nao Nagasawa (Ninpu Sentai Hurricaneger) & Minami Tsukui (Kamen Rider Den-O). Acclaimed monster designer Yasushi Nirasawa provided the character design concepts. The short is designed to interest investors into backing Rebellions as a full-length work.

Sure, this is easy to criticize. But it’s also pretty fun.

Source: Anime News Network

ICv2 has published a two-part interview with Viz Media’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Alvin Lu.

Director Ridley Scott has agreed to direct another film expanding the world first depicted in his seminal 1982 film Blade Runner. Alcon Entertainment (The Blind Side) will produce.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Source: Deadline

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit the opening of the 1989 City Hunter 3 TV series. The opening theme is “Running to Horizon” performed by Tetsuya Komuro.

Question:
Saint Young Men seems like a very popular manga in Japan. It sells very well and in 2009 received the Osamu Tezuka cultural prize for short work manga. The manga-ka Hikaru Nakamura’s other work “Arakawa Under the Bridge” has done well, having been made into animated and live-action works. So do you think Saint Young Men will be animated in the future? Do you think any U.S. company will release the manga in English in the near future? One has to wonder, even though it’s a comedy, of it receiving a U.S. release since the subject matter is a bit controversial (Jesus and Buddha living in modern-day Tokyo while taking a vacation on Earth).

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FUNimation spokesperson Sophie McNutt has formally confirmed that FUNimation’s domestic distribution licenses for Kamichu!, Kyo Kara Maoh!, The Law of Ueki, Paradise Kiss, and The Story of Saiunkoku have now expired. FUNimation has no foreseeable plans to reacquire any of these titles. FUNimation’s licenses for The Familiar of Zero and When They Cry expired earlier this summer.

FUNimation’s distribution licenses to titles including Elemental Gelade, Fate/stay night, Karin, Lyrical Nanoha, Rozen Maiden, Shakugan no Shana (first TV series), Shonen Onmyouji, and Tales of Phantasia also appear to have expired some time ago. FUNimation presumably allowed these titles to expire because despite being good shows, none of them were ever big selling titles domestically.

Worth noting for collectors, several of these titles now command high (or inflated) after-market prices. Collectors may also want to keep in mind that the Shakugan no Shana thinpack included the OVA which was not included on the individual DVD volumes, and the Law of Ueki Complete Collection included the series’ final 11 episodes that were not released on individual DVD volumes.

I’m still looking for cheap/affordable copies of Shonen Onmyouji discs 5 & 6, myself.

Source: The Fandom Post

The Jmanga digital manga distribution site run by Japan’s Digital Comic Association launched yesterday. The site currently offers 48 different manga titles for digital purchase, including several titles otherwise never previously released in America. Jmanga expects to increase its title offerings to reach 10,000 different titles by 2013. The Digital Comic Association represents 39 Japanese publishers.

Writer & director Yuji Uchiyama has announced that his series of Kami-Usagi Rope (pronounced “Kami-Usagi Ropei”) theatrical shorts will be expanded into a feature film. The shorts depict conversations between a rabbit named Ropé and his friend, the squirrel Akira-sensei. The shorts screened before features in Toho chain cinemas. The shorts were animated by the Oscar-winning production studio Robot (La Maison en Petits Cubes).

Source: Anime News Network

To refresh your memory or introduce you to an interesting opening animation sequence, I submit the sweet opening of the 2006 Binbou Shimai Monogatari TV series. The opening theme is “Shinkokyuu” performed by Splash Candy.