The Japanese sponsored anime streaming site Anime Sols has officially opened. The site presently offers subtitled episodes of anime series never previously available in America, or never available uncut and unaltered, including Ninja Robot Tobikage, Black Jack, Aoi Blink, Space Knight Tekkaman, and Magical Angel Creamy Mami. Anime Sols is now also acepting pledges for limited edition home video releases of select titles.

Just pledged $300: the “core” level to support DVD sets for each of the 8 DVD collections tentatively available right now.

Japanese anime studio Sunrise has announced plans to finish the American DVD release of the 7-episode Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn DVD release that was started by Bandai Visual. The first two bilingual DVDs were originally released domestically at $29.98 each in June 2011 and February 2012. Sunrise will re-release the first two DVD volumes on August 20 at $29.99 each. The third DVD containing episodes 5 & 6, which was never previously released domestically, will tentatively debut this fall. The fourth DVD volume containing episode 7 & bonus features will tentatively be released next spring to coincide with the Japanese release of the episode. The DVD re-release will be distributed domestically through Right Stuf Entertainment.

The 22nd collected volume of Yuki Suetsugu’s karuta hobby/shoujo manga Chihayafuru will be released in Japan on September 13 in a regular edition and a limited edition that includes an exclusive OAD. The manga spun off a 25-episode anime TV series adaptation in 2011. The second season of the anime is airing now.

Source: Anime News Network

Question:
What exactly is the difference between Shoujo-ai and Yuri and Shonen-ai and Yaoi? I’ve always been told that Shonen-ai and Shoujo-ai deal with crushes and romances between characters of the same sex and that Yuri and Yaoi deal with pornography and erotica between characters of the same sex. But, some sources say that the terms are interchangeable, Shoujo-ai with Yuri and Shonen-ai with Yaoi, what the real truth here?

Answer:
According to experts including Kanagawa University professor James Welker, “shounen ai” originated in early 1970′s manga as a version of shoujo manga focused on male characters. Like shoujo manga, original shounen ai manga focused on character relationships and emotions and depicted young men developing strong, intimate friendships with each other. As these manga stories became more popular, they got parodied in amateur fan comics that took the platonic “bromance” stories to the next stage, depicting homosexual sex. These fan-fiction stories that just focused on the sex, jettisoning the emotional drama became known as “Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi” (“No peak, no fall, no meaning) or “yaoi.” These stories had no dramatic build-up or story resolution; they were just supplemental fan-fiction pornography designed to show what the original dramatic manga stories didn’t. The concept of “shoujo ai” and “yuri,” however, has a less distinct separation because traditionally shoujo ai and yuri have referred to the same thing. Mid-1970s manga artists such as Ryoko Ikeda published manga stories about deeply affectionate and respectful relationships between young women. These stories about platonic “shoujo ai” came to be referred to as “Yuri” after the given name common to many characters in these stories. Traditionally shoujo ai stories were platonic manga created by female artists. While some underground amateur-produced manga of the 1980s dealt with pornographic lesbianism, many of the girl-girl lesbian stories that emerged in the 1980s came from male creators and anime. Typically, since the mid-1970s when the “Yuri” trope emerged, genuine “shoujo ai” and “yuri” stories by female creators for female readers have been shoujo-esque with a heavy focus on emotional and narrative development. The vast majority of pornographic lesbian depictions in Japanese manga and anime have actually come from male creators targeting male readers and viewers, so although these stories may be called “yuri” or “shounen ai,” they actually have relatively little in common with true shoujo-esque yuri manga.

In simple summation, traditionally “Shounen ai” refers to platonic or “softcore” romance stories between men while “yaoi” refers to homosexual pornography. The terms “shoujo ai” and “yuri” are interchangeable. Contemporary pornographic lesbian stories including the Cream Lemon “Escalation” and “Pop-Chaser” stories, Torajiro Kishi’s Maka-Maka, Shinichiro Sano’s Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo, and Ken Kurogane’s Shoujo Sect have all been hentai stories created by male creators and published or marketed for male consumers rather than created and distributed in the traditional “yuri” channels.

The first five minutes of director Makoto Shinkai’s latest short film Kotonoha no Niwa has appeared on YouTube after being broadcast on Japanese television two days ago. The 46-minute-long romance film will premiere in Japanese theaters on the 31st. Sentai Filmworks has announced plans to release the film on bilingual domestic home video later this year.

Source: Anime News Network

Production IG has released a 90-second theatrical trailer for the upcoming Ghost in the Shell Arise: border:1 Ghost Pain short film. The first of four 50-minute prequel films that detail how Motoko Kusanagi, employed by the 501st Secret Unit, transitioned to employment with Public Security Section 9. The first movie will hit Japanese theaters on June 22 before being released to home video on July 26. Veteran animation director Kazuchika Kise is serving as the film series’ chief director and character designer. Tow Ubukata (Le Chevalier D’Eon, Mardock Scramble) is composing the screenplays.

Part of me thinks that this looks like smart, exciting entertainment. My conflicting reaction is that I would have been entirely happy to never see a younger, impulsive, unconfident Motoko Kusanagi.

Source: Anime News Network

The homepage for creator/director Hiroyuki Imaishi’s next anime television series, Kill la Kill, has added a new, second teaser trailer. The schoolgirl battle action anime will be the first original series developed by Imaishi’s animation studio Trigger. Kill la Kill director & screenwriter Hiroyuki Imaishi & Kazuki Nakashima previously worked together on Gainax’s 2007 television series Gurren Lagann.

Source: Anime News Network

Shout! Factory has announced plans to release a double-disc “Starzinger: The Movie Collection” DVD set on August 20 at a $19.93 retail price. The DVDs will contain an English dubbed American edit of Leiji Matsumoto’s 1978-79 sci-fi space adventure television series SF Saiyuki Starzinger. The original anime series about three guards escorting a future queen across the galaxy was inspired by the classic Chinese Saiyuki folk tale. The three Starzinger “movies” were edited & dubbed by William Winckler Productions. The Starzinger television series was previously edited, dubbed, and broadcast on American television by Jim Terry Productions in 1980 under the name “Spaceketeers.”

Shout! Factory’s delayed release of the English dubbed Gaiking: The Movie Collection will hit stores this month, on the 21st.

Source: Anime News Network

Answer:
I’m not actually certain that all-girls school settings have a significant meaning in anime apart from being a reminder of the sort of subtle cultural differences that distinguish anime from American pop-culture entertainment. Unlike America, which now has few if any gender-exclusive schools, all-boys and all-girls school are relatively commonplace in Japan. And these institutions have been prominent settings for anime for decades. Anime including the 1984 Cream Lemon: Escalation series, and 90′s and later productions including Oniisama E…, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Strawberry Panic, and Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, in addition to productions like the current Yuyushiki, have been set in and around all-girls schools. Anime series including Gakuen Heaven, Princess Princess, Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shoganai, and Danchi Kokosei no Nichijo are set in boys-only schools. Anime including Sukeban Boy, Ai Mai Mii Strawberry Eggs, Mariaholic, and Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru use the setting to create fish-out-of-water situational comedies by putting a disguised boy in an all-girls school. The Seitokai Yakuindomo and Asa Made Jugyou Chu anime play with the trope by setting their stories in schools that have just switched from all-girls to co-ed, making male students a tiny minority of the student body.

In the case of anime series like the “Escalation” series and Oniisama E…, and Gakuen Heaven and Sukisho, the gender-exclusive setting allows anime to concentrate on the dramatic and sexual conflicts and relationships that emerge within gender-exclusive communities. The “Escalation” series, Strawberry Panic, Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke o, and Aoi Hana focus on lesbian relationships that develop at all-girls schools. Oniisama E… and Joshikousei deal with the cattiness, rivalry, and adolescent insecurity naturally evoked and propogated by an all-female environment. Gakuen Heaven and Sukisho depict homosexuality emerging due, in part, to exclusive male closeness. Princess Princess depicts boys at a gender-exclusive school devising a novel way to introduce a female presence into their school. In very recent years, the gender-exclusive school setting has been used primarily as a convenient narrative shortcut. Shows including K-On, Yuyushiki, and Danchi Kokosei no Nichijo can focus entirely on cute girls or quirky boys because the story setting eliminates the necessity of representing the opposite gender. In effect, exploiting the gender-exclusive school setting allows for greater fan service.

Discotek has announced plans to re-release the two-episode Oira Uchu no Tankofu (“Mighty Space Miners”) OVA series from 1994. AD Vision released the two episodes on domestic VHS in 1998. The sci-fi drama from studio Triangle Staff and late director Umanosuke Iida (Gundam MS 08th Team, Towa no Quon) was originally planned to be six-episodes but was canceled after only two episodes were produced.

Regrettably, while this series had a lot of potential, the first two episodes do little more than introduce the characters, making the existing episodes pretty pointless and forgettable.

Discotek has announced plans to release the 1981 Fantastic Adventures of Unico and 1983 Unico in the Island of Magic movies on a double-feature Blu-ray later this year. Discotek released the two films on bilingual DVD last year. The bilingual Japanese Blu-ray is scheduled for release on July 23.

Source: Anime News Network

The current issue of Comic Earth Star magazine includes a formal announcement that Masato Hisa’s sci-fi action manga Nobunagun will be getting an anime adaptation. The unique characteristic of the schoolgirls versus monsters action manga is the fact that the girls use weapons infused with the spirits of great historical figures. For example, the passive resistance proponent Mahatma Gandhi powers a shield generator while Japanese warlord Nobunaga Oda is reincarnated as the protagonist’s machine gun.

Source: Anime News Network

An official website has launched to announce the anime adaptation of Yuji Terajima’s baseball manga Ace of Diamond (Daiya no Ace). The Kodansha Manga Award-winning serial about a high school baseball team aiming for the national championship premiered in 2006. The anime will tentatively premiere this fall.

Source: Anime News Network