We ran a similar article a while ago, but keep in mind it was more about the teaser and the reactions it gathered as opposed to an actual piece on the trailer itself. Well, the actual honest to God trailer is finally out and fans have made themselves heard!

I take everything back

I think that I was optimistic at one point during the last article on Dragon Age’s “Dawn of the Seeker” anime; boy has that changed or what? This new trailer did a number on my expectations, and by that I mean that it serves less like a trailer and more as a “how not to do this kind of thing” visual guide.

We have the sped up editing switching wildly from partial fight scene to angry close-ups, the angry shouting that I’m pretty sure at this point looks bad in any anime other than Gurren Lagann, the heroic leaps, gratuitous blood and so many other cliches that we could name the trailer “Anime from the late 90’s in a nutshell.” My only source of solace comes from the fact that it looks nice, yes it might be crazy but I believe it looks good.

It dares to look different…

Cell-shading is a tricky thing, most people either love it or hate it without any middle-ground, but here it looks damn nice. Whoever says it looks like a crappy PS1 cut-scene clearly doesn’t remember the PS1 all that well, and to be honest some of the characters are more akin to what a western audience might like, rather than say, spiky haired teen in belt buckles # 152.

But it still looks bad

Either Ferelden has been flooded by molasses or the animation is painfully slow. It’s hard to tell when it’s made in “Slow-mo” and when it’s just the animation being clunky, not to mention that it’s packed with really poor looking blood and is so over the top that we can only hope it’s cheesy enough to be fun.

Seriously, hoping that this thing turns out to be super cheesy in an “80’s movie kinda way” is its best shot at being anything more than a failed experiment.

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The live-action adaptation of this classic known to many as “Samurai X” has been doing the rounds online. From mere cast and script description to actual photos and even a teases trailer to go with it all, but how is it coming up?

Well, the cast seems fine

This is due to the fact that they picked what seems to be the right guy for Kenshin, a man named Takeru Sato. Sure, he’s 22 and looks like a regular pretty boy, but then you have to consider the fact that he has done a good job of playing the part of a samurai in NHK’s historic film “Ryoma den.” Plus we have to take into account that he is a fan of the original manga, at least going by his original account, so can we rest at ease and give this thing a pass?

No, not yet

Kenshin looks as good as any human being will look playing the role in a serious fashion, but the other characters leave A LOOOOT to wish for, particularly Aoki who will be playing Sanosuke Sagara. We’ll give the guy credit for his acting chops (The Last Message Umizaru, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) but the fact is that when he shows up in the trailer he looks less like Sanosuke, and more like a guy who threw on a robe before the big Halloween party and decided to call it a “Kung fu costume.”

Megumi is being played by Aoi who has shown her worth in Hana & Alice, Honey and Clover and she happens to pull off a very decent looking Megumi if truth be told, which makes it all the more depressing to see that Kaoru is being played by a not-so-similar Emi Takei. But enough of all this, there is one question that needs answering.

How does the teaser look?

Not bad, really. At first it seems like a really crappy cash-in on a beloved franchise that compromises on the violence more than the anime ever did (seriously, the sword play looks bad and Kenshi’s look doesn’t hold up too well) but then we see Kenshin jumping off a wall and everything is okay in the world!

Honestly, I see no real reason not to be excited about this even if it might turn to be a crappy movie.

Go check out the trailer on our FB wall if you wanna see for yourself.

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Greetings, folks! We are just dropping by today to let you know that the English dub trailer for “The secret world of Arrietty” made its way onto Youtube a while ago. The American release is nigh, people!

A little note here

Today’s article was supposed to be about “Dubs vs Subs” but seeing this trailer (on which we planned to make an article way earlier) made me think that it was best to bring it up now, why? Because the trailer itself is a great example of a dubbing job done properly and it serves to point out that many times the difference between languages can be ironed out with good work. And besides, we better do it now before it gets too old.

Now that I said that, let’s get on with the article shall we?

The borrowers

Released in Japan back in July 17, 2010 under the name of “The Borrower Arrietty,” the film deals with a family of “borrowers” (those little fairy like people who steal stuff from you to survive and live inside your walls, etc) and the way they interact with the human world. To be more specific it follows a little borrower by the name of Arrietty who is spotted by a human and finds that she is as fascinated by us as we are by them.

The premise itself is rather original and the movie seems to be fantastic, as it broke the audience record set by Ponyo (another amazing Ghibli film) and also managed to get many great reviews, but could we expect less from something with such a great pedigree?

The actual release

Here is the sad bit, the movie has seen the light of day in Europe (France and the United Kingdom, respectively) but it’s only making the jump across the pond next year on February 17, 2012, so do your best not to spoil it if you feel like enjoying a nice dub for once. Or hey, watch it twice and compare for yourself!

If you want to find out more just head over to our Facebook fan page and check out the spoilerific trailer!

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No, not the craptastic movie by Daniel Sadek released in 2007. We are here to tell you about the anime, or have you forgotten that we are an anime site? This film is going to be hitting theatres in the US and neighbouring Canada pretty soon, so you ought to keep an eye out if you are interested in high production values, fast cars and stylish adrenaline-pumping anime!

Get your engines ready

There is a bit of history behind this title. It began as a project by anime powerhouse Madhouse, which in my personal opinion happens to be one of the better studios out there; a studio with such a great deal of dedication towards quality that they spent around seven years on this film, from the development of the concept to the actual production.

Redline is an interesting concept, not only because it has a rather unique art style, a style that might remind some of you of the game No More Heroes, mixed in with some Gurren Lagann and Speed Racer for good measure. It’s extremely unique, though, and that’s saying a lot for any anime that has come out in the past two years. Not to mention it was mostly done by hand, but what is it all about?

Redline follows a street racer known as JP, who owns a juiced up car and has a flashy retro styling as he enters the “Redline” race. A dangerous and wild event that takes place every five years, and here is the kicker, it’s in SPACE! Well, sort of….The movie is set in the distant future, so the cars and races play like a Hot Wheels fan’s greatest dream. It has explosions, conspiracies, romance and fast cars. What else could you ask for?

How about a release date?

The anime was released in Japan during the Locarno International Film Festival, and will be hitting US shores in Blu-ray and DVD by Anchor Bay around November 14th of this year, but there is more. Those of you lucky enough to be able to head over to the New York Comic Con taking place this October 13 to 16 will be able to find out a more specific and possibly final date.

And those who can’t wait to see an “official” subbed release of this title can assist the Toronto After Dark film festival, where the title will be screened as the only anime amongst eight films. This screening will take place between October 20-27 at the Toronto Underground Cinema, so now you know and are ready to go for next month!

You can look forward to a review of this title to grace our front page soon!

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We would like to remind our readers that the clock is ticking before Fate/Zero’s arrival in Japanese airwaves, which means that we can begin enjoying it by next year once it has been localized. Although, those of you who are impatient can get it just as easily as soon as a subbing team gets to work on it.

Fate/Zero’s ads are running

And that’s why we feel the need to inform you that time is running short before this new anime comes out. The title will be an adaptation of the short novels based on the time period of the 4th Holy Grail war, which means you get to see some “new” servants (keep in mid that this is a prequel). Plus you will be able to experience the birth of the feud between Kotomine Kirei and the Kiritsugu family; a rivalry that extends to their servants, who are now operating in full force and ready to wreak some havoc.

This anime is still cooking, but the teaser trailers have begun rolling and you can go check them out at the official site. Each one of these trailers features a master and their servant, so make sure to watch them all to get up to speed.

There’s not that long to wait

The anime will be amongst us in October, so there’s still time to prepare by going over the light novels and getting to know the story before hand. The volumes are already translated in PDF format and make for a fun read for fans of the show, as it adds a new level of flavour and content. Although, it’s more suited for those who played the original visual novel since it deals with characters and story arcs which were barely touched upon during the anime’s original run.

Here is to hoping that it makes up for the travesty that UBW turned out to be. I am a fan of the universe made by Type-moon, so I’ll give them credit on this one and promise you guys a review as soon as I get my hands on an episode.

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Greetings folks, we hope you’ve been having a good couple of weeks so far. Today we are going to bring your attention to a topic that we may have seemingly avoided: earthquake relief. Being an anime site means we should have reported on this one way or another, whether it was because of its impact on the industry or out of solidarity to Japan. So today we do our part.

It’s about time

Let’s us get this out of the way, we are aware that we have a small (but dedicated readership) and we know we couldn’t have covered the Japanese Earthquake disaster as anything but a footnote. We really don’t have the resources of other bigger sites, so why would we bombard our few loyal readers with repetitive news about Japan’s tragic earthquake?

We are well aware that it was a horrible tragedy, as were our forumites, so we kept going with the regular schedule out of respect rather than out of indifference. We couldn’t have provided adept coverage without looking like we were going for your attention or putting on some SEO on our site. It was all about keeping the status quo and bringing you a bit of anime-related goodness to fill your days, because at the end of the day most of our love for Japan stems from that.

And the fact of the matter is that they still need help.

Isn’t it a little too late for this?

Most sites are pretty much long done with coverage for relief efforts, considering how Japan picked itself up rather fast and was showered with aid within the month. However, they still need a hand. There are people who haven’t been able to return to their home or whose lives were completely devastated by the tragedy.

Relief efforts aren’t like putting on a band-aid and hoping the wounds heal. They are more like intense surgery that takes gradual approaches to fixing the damage. Such work requires extensive funding and supplies.

It may seem too late for some and Japan may have return to a relative state of normality, but it’s never too late to aid those in need.

What if I’m stingy and want something out of it?

Well, other than some positive karma you could go for some of the products that give away profits for relief funds, such as a nice calendar filled with Cosplay! The people at CosplayForACause.com have such an offer going. They put out a very well made calendar, not for profit or to boast, but to serve as an incentive towards donations.

Those of you with a purer heart who don’t care to get swag out of this may simply go ahead and cut out the middle man. The Japanese Red Cross Society is still taking in donations and they could still use your help.

jrc.or.jp

Go ahead and help

There are many organizations out there that claim to be helping the relief effort, but you gotta check them out and make sure that they are either in association with the Red Cross or approved by them.

And as we said before, some swag is being offered as part of the relief effort so even the money-grubbing bastards out there can lend a hand by giving a cut of their money.

Don’t forget that the disaster isn’t over after the earth’s done shaking and the news stops rolling. There’s people in need who could use a hand!

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Those of you who happen to be Haruhi fans and avid readers can safely say you got a nice Christmas present today seeing how the The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya has been officially announced. The light novel is set to debut in two volumes and have a wider release than the norm encompassing around 13 countries.

Surprise!

The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya is set to hit shelves on May 25, 2011, or at least that seems to be the plan for the latest novel in the series. We mentioned above that it would come in two novels, which are set to be released simultaneously for some reason (perhaps to keep each volume down to a size that can be still called a novel) and surprisingly enough, they’ll be readily available in 13 other countries (which one can only hope means there’ll be one in English).

The novel has been delayed for quite some time, but fans who have gotten their hands on the official English translation (up to volume five) read the original Japanese or acquired it from fan translators now have an early Christmas present.

Surprises can sometimes be messy

The novels are meant to be the 10th and 11th volume, which will be kind of a problem seeing how the English one is set to have its fifth one released next year; a bit later than the Surprise launch, which could mean one of two simple things: A) Those in charge made quite a blunder or B) The novels will be disconnected from any over-arching plot. There’s another grim reason, though, it could be that the novel itself won’t see the light of day in English…but that’s a long shot filled with speculation on this author’s part.

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[wordbay]Haruhi[/wordbay]

The Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film, “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya,” have gone to a great reception, ranking highly in the Oricon charts. The film was highly expected by fans and how so! The DVD and Blu-Ray ranking speak great lengths of the film’s success.

More like the disappearance of many allowances…

The film was one of “those” releases fans couldn’t have missed. It was big, flashy, and spectacular when it came to quality animation, voice acting, and a generally awesome (if not bit confusing) plot for fans of the franchise. It went out to several positive reviews and a wonderful reception by fans, which then proceeded to ceremonially gut their wallets in order to appease the Blu-ray release.

The limited edition of the Blu-ray version sold 77,000 copies, securing the number one spot in the Oricon rankings for the week of its release which is amazing in its own right until you factor in the fact that there’s another “regular” Blu-ray edition. Sure, it lacks the nice bonuses bundled in with the big one, but still…that’s a killer sale for a “limited” edition.

The DVD of the same film went on to top at Oricon’s DVD rankings as number four which marks a great streak of dominance for Haruhi and crew over the wallets of many fans.

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[wordbay]Haruhi Suzumiya[/wordbay]

This is probably the biggest piece of news I’ve written and I love the hell out…wait my personal opinion is not supposed to go in here now is it? Oh well. The February issue of Kadokawa’s Young Ace magazine has revealed an anime adaptation of the light novel series, “Fate/Zero,” has been confirmed.

This. Is. Awesome.

Fate/Zero is a series of light novels comprising four volumes of which I’ve personally read three (finishing yesterday…which is kinda creepy). It’s well written and fun, even if it suffers a little for being a sort of “add-on” for the original Fate/Stay Night storyline. The story is set a decade before the Holy Grail War that takes place during the events of FSN, and it serves to fill in the blanks in what could be one of the strongest stories ever to come out of an eroge.
The Fate series is the brainchild of Gen Urobuchi who, in collaboration with Type-Moon, brought to the world one of the best eroges out there. The Fate/Stay Night game hasn’t been “officially” released into English but there are several translations for it available online, such as the magnificently well done one by Mirror Moon.

If you are thinking that such a suggestion goes against our family-friendly policy then you’ll have to think again. The game is available in a “PG version” you can find off some retailers for the PS2, or even better, a patch you can download for the PC one.

It’s worth your time

Fate/Stay Night has an anime title that serves as a good example of plot-oriented animes which is saying it doesn’t suck at all, even if it pales in comparison to the original PC title. Those of you who are too lazy (or busy, give or take) to sit through the massive amounts of reading involved in the “game” would do well to go watch it. The original anime adaptation was released on the year 2006 by Studio DEEN and was licensed by GENEON Entertainment in the USA. Do yourself a favor and rent it out.

The story offered by the game is rather rich. It can get confusing at certain parts, but putting it together is quite a thrill if you are into that sort of thing. Which translates to “it offers good entertainment” and it’s quite actiony and suspenseful at parts.

The news itself

The Fate/Zero adaptation supposedly involves Ei Aoki (of Girls Bravo fame) as the director and the anime studio ufotable. Additional information will come in due time, but you can be sure this is hype worthy until then.

Those craving to learn more can go ahead and check out the eroge, anime, or manga related to Fate/Stay Night. The light novel series based around Fate/Zero is “available” in English if you are one of those individuals that have a set of flexible morals.

Those that are more graphically inclined should know that the manga adaptation of Fate/Zero will tag along the February issue of Young Ace, which will ship on December 29, 2010.

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[wordbay]Fate Zero[/wordbay]

And now we bring you the thrilling conclusion of the “Youth Ordinance Bill” vote…it passed. So hey, read on for what little news it is, since we all knew it was coming since last Friday.

You can’t fight City Hall!

Or the Tokyo Assembly for that matter. The vote went hot this Wednesday and the bill was passed as law. Regulations will take place starting as early as April, making way for the full weight of the law to come on July.

The Anime Industry has pretty much tripped and it’s now bent over the counter waiting for the government to do with it as it pleases. The “self-regulation” aspect of the new law will force the industry to alienate its own members in order to cope with the government’s regulations until they can be fully enforced in July. What this means is that you can basically say goodbye to all the ecchi-oriented titles as they will effectively become Hentai by today’s standards.

So yeah, hard times come by to the Anime and Manga industry. Having their money making ecchi titles grouped up with what most would consider porn is not an easy blow to recuperate from. We can only hope this either inspires a wave of change in modern anime or that the industry mans up a little like Kadokawa…which admittedly would be too little too late, but still.

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We may be a little out of the loop here due to our head (note: only) writer being off for a day, but boy do we have news for you. Bad news too. Well, at least in the long run. Tokyo’s Youth Ordinance Bill, also known as that anti-anime law, has been approved as of yesterday…but what does this mean for us?

Did you see them lay down the law?!

First off we have to mention that the bill is meant to go up for formal voting on Wednesday. This, however, doesn’t mean it will be stopped since this is merely a formality for its approval and any unlikely scenario to see it revised would be shot down by a simple amend. The formal vote will take place on the 15th of the current month and the law will take effect on July of next year.

This topic may be a bit of “old hat” to those of you who keep up with several sites or even our forums, but we can’t call ourselves a responsible anime site if we stop reporting on this, damn it! Those of you who already know what the whole deal with this is can skip right away into our forums to join the on-going discussion, the rest of you just sit back and let us take you in.

What’s the bill about?

The Youth Healthy Development Ordinance is basically a bill which seeks to regulate or even outright ban materials that “are likely to interfere with the healthy development of youth.” This translates to any mangas, animes or videogames that fall under the classification of “harmful publications.” In itself. harmful publications are “materials that are sexually stimulating, encourages cruelty, and/or may compel suicide or criminal behavior” and whose target audience are the people under 18.

The bill originally targeted any harmful publications that “unjustifiably glorify or exaggerate” certain sexual or pseudo sexual acts, including over sexualized depictions of minors, violence against women, rape, torture or any act considered sexually obscene that would be, in their own words, likely to interfere with the healthy development of youth.

This wasn’t such a big deal in itself, due to the simple fact that there’s such a thing as a ratings system to keep minors from getting their hands on most of the things. However, the fact that they included “pseudo sexual” fills in a rather large gap that engulfs the entire “ecchi genre.” Add that to the fact the bill was revised over and over and ended up with a lot of extra stuff piled up and you’ll start to see a grim fate for anime.

The bill went on to add overtime anything deemed harmful to the youth’s healthy development, a rather obscure term that was exemplified with the classic, exaggerated or glorified violence, themes that compel to violence or suicide, etc. The big catch here is that the law seemed to be focused entirely on anime, manga and video games as it fails to make note of works of literature, film or, well, anything that you could consider in the same vein (it even makes a distinction to exclude photography out of the whole thing).

This leads to the general conclusion that it was tailored as a bill to strike deep into the heart of the already badly wounded industries thriving on Otakus as the law also fails to mention any form of regulation or even standard to follow and as such it leaves any form of “harmful publications” to the free whim of the legislators.

So, hold on…are anime and manga banned?

No, they’re just kind of dead, massively restricted, and probably in trouble. See, the thing keeping the industry afloat was the massive amounts of fan service they could pile on shows to censor and then sell as the full deal on the DVD’s. The laws will put an end to that and in turn cut off the cash flow to the industry for a bit. This does not mean it’s banned, though. What it means is whatever form of publication that is considered harmful will be subjected to revisions by censors and possibly banned by the government. The current titles will be able to finish their runs and then the industry will have to find a way out.

As long as they stick to the wildly flexible (from the legislator’s stand point) and vague law, then things should be good. This means the end of ecchi or extremely fan service-y anime as well as any deemed inappropriate. Here’s a little something to put things into perspective to the few that are likely to be happy about it: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gantz, Elfen Lied, School Days and even freaking Chobbits would all have been considered “harmful” if they had been proposed for distribution under the new legislation.

The anime and manga industries will have to go through some heavy self-restructuring in order to cope with the new draconian legislation and avoid collapsing into nothingness, a feat that may very well be out of their grasp considering that they are barely making ends meet as of now.

What does this mean for us?

It means you get to hold on to your ass and wait to see what happens. Not only is this in another country’s jurisdiction and entirely out of reach in both a political and sociological way, but they won’t do much with our opinion. So yeah, back up on classics and hope they can get out of this one boys and girls, hope you enjoy the read!

Tune in July of next year when AnimeMB will be forced to become yet another video game oriented site! Although with the current violent video game situation we face in the west we might be screwed there too… Oh well, there’s always gardening, I guess…

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Trouble has been brewing in the land of the rising sun for a bit now due to the anime industry coming to a clash with the government. Things just got a little more serious. Ten publishers have decided to boycott the Tokyo Anime Fair in direct response to the Tokyo government’s aggression towards them. This extreme measure was first taken by Kadokawa and others have now followed suit.

A little intro…

Those of you in the know with the anime/manga world are aware of the industry’s current situation. It’s being hounded by the government’s narrow sighted attempts to “protect the youth” by way of draconian laws that could lead to the end of freedom of speech for the industry and more importantly could very well be the last nail in the coffin for the already economically-strained anime and manga industries.

Here at AnimeMB we have avoided delving too deeply into the matters of foreign politics, even if they are relevant to anime. So here’s a small break down of what’s going on with this new law:

Japanese legislators, particularly those in Tokyo, have been trying to impose a new set of regulations on the anime and manga industries with the idea of protecting minors. This could be a matter of simply putting a big “Not for sale to those under 18” label on the cover of the more raunchy titles, but that’s not how they roll.

It all started with restricting depictions of sexual or pseudo sexual acts involving minors, or characters that appeared as such, in order to shield the minds of innocents that could be easily corrupted by such things as fictional characters getting it on. This got the ball rolling and the international media caught wind of things. Soon, the world over began reporting on Japan as a nation of deviant pedophiles. The government decided to buckle down right then and there. The anime and manga industry were now to blame for the bad rep they got, rather than say, the government who had failed to contain or even monitor the “issue” when it first emerged and decided to blow it out of proportion.

A mix of factors, including the fact that many politicians seemed to join the cause seemingly to garner more attention or have a shot at taking the spotlight, turned the law into a rope around the anime and manga industries’ necks that threatened to crush what little life remained in them after being caught in dire financial straits.

Kadokawa strikes back

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Kadokawa took action by announcing that it would not take part of the Tokyo Anime Fair of next year, which in turn means that the fair will miss out on any titles subscribed to it (some of the most famous ones include .hack//Legend of the Twilight, Highschool of the Dead, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Neon Genesis Evangelion). This came as a response to the constant pressure of the Tokyo government towards mangakas and mangas in general. Needless to say, things got worse for TAF once other companies followed suit after seeing one of the biggest take a stand.

The other publishers to join Kadokawa’s cause include, Shogakukan, Akita Shoten, Hakusensha, Kodansha, Shinchosha, Shonen Gahousha, Futabasha, and LEED Publishing Co., Ltd, Shueisha.

The reason behind this boycott is simple enough to understand once you realize that the Tokyo Regional Government (the same body of Government pushing the bill) is part of TAF’s executive committee, and so the big names of the manga industry wouldn’t stand for such hypocrisy as becoming part of a fair lead by their “enemy.”

More on this matter or any updates will be reported on the site, for any discussions or opinions on the topic feel free to go to the forums or if you are too shy for that just leave a comment here.

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The man behind the musical score of such titles as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya has reported that he’ll be on an indefinite break due to health issues; this information comes by way of his mixi profile.

A bit under the weather

Satoru Kousaki announced that he isn’t feeling all that well and so he’s forced to take a break from work. Said break will last indefinitely as he didn’t specify a date to return to his job as a composer. It’s very logical to expect his break won’t last longer than his current bad health; we hope to hear from him soon as he’s credited with work in Channel and Hourou Musuko, which are yet to be released.

You would do well with knowing that this man has some nice cred behind his career, as he has worked in several major animes including Bakemonogatari, Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto, Kannagi, Oreimo and the already mentioned Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

We hope to hear back from him with good news, tune in for any updates on the matter.

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The first release of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st (a proud member of the ‘long and somewhat confusing title club’) has managed to pull some really good numbers on its first two weeks out in the market, conquering the number one spot twice in a row.

There’s magic in their wallets

The first volume of the movie has been a success, taking the top stop of the Blu-ray sales chart with an impressive 58,000 copies during its first week and a substantially lesser, but not any less solid, 7,000 copies on its second week. These sales figures have made it possible for the title to reach the number one spot on the Blu-ray sales chart for two weeks in a row, which as far as marketing and anime go means we’ll be bound for a licensing deal soon enough… Or well, hello there fan subs! The DVD version pulled in some big numbers, ranking at number 28 with a total of 26,609.

The DVD version may not seem like a big hit, but considering this was a two pronged assault on the market you could safely say it sold very well. The movie did well in its original theatrical run, summing up a solid four million dollars. A sum that will be added upon by its equally lengthy titled sequel, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A’s coming out in Japan by 2012.

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[wordbay]Nanoha[/wordbay]

We are truly sorry for the week long hiatus but we are now back and ready to bring you a set of news from the past week. We have an article quota to fill and we’ll more than gladly do that for you, our beloved fans (all three of you)! So sit tight and enjoy this week’s ” highlights” (otherwise known as the articles we should have put up).

Soul Eater to Get a New Manga

Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan will count a new title within its pages, that of Soul Eater Not! And yeah, that’s not a badly executed joke from the 90’s there folks, that’s the actual title. The new manga is the brainchild of Atsushi Ohkubo and it’ll be featured alongside the original Soul Eater starting January 12, 2011.

Spice and Wolf to End in February

We had mentioned way back that Spice and Wolf was coming to an end, well it definitely is. The 15th volume brought with it a message saying that it was the beginning of the end for the story (as we reported back then); this message could not have been any more literal. The 16th volume, which is to be released on February 10, 2011, will deal with the final half of the final story arc. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire of the Spice and Wolf universe will never be heard of again, though. Chances are we still have plenty left from the manga and other animes or maybe even some short stories.

The light novel series is slowly being published in English and you really pick it up if you are not one to pirate, or if you as many other western otaku don’t know Japanese. It’s quite an interesting read and totally worth your time. The third volume will be published this month by Yen Press.

Battleship Yamato Sets the Box Office Ablaze

The live action adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto’s “Space Battleship Yamato” (known as Starblazers to those old enough to remember it) has done amazingly well in the box office, raking in a steady 943,995,550 yen (about US$11.4 million, yeah it doesn’t like much but it’s a somewhat limited release) in the first five days since its opening.

The film secured the top spot in Japan’s box office during its release weekend. Fans of the classic space opera can safely say that this film delivers, or at least seems it does since the reception for it has been good so far (special praise has been given to the special effects and they look awesome as far as the trailer goes).

This goes to show that Japan can handle a movie adaptation of anime, unlike Hollywood. And no, this is not a japanophile style comment; it’s simply due to the fact that who else could get a better grasp on their country’s culture than their own people?

Also…

Type-Moon, the animation studio Ufotable and Newtype will announce a joint project that is as of yet unknown. What could it be? We really won’t know until the next issue of the magazine, we can always get excited to see “Type-Moon” up there, though.

And finally, the reason behind our hiatus comes by way of a small binge of gaming related to Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Wii and my ever increasing urge not to pawn my stuff to buy World of Warcraft: Cataclysm tomorrow. In all seriousness, though, it was a matter of having a frantic week and not being able to log long enough to keep up but hey, we’re back!

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We’ll tell you right now that this week hasn’t been “big” so far, but that’s no reason to stop reporting at all. We hereby bring you little news-worthy announcement and a bit of commentary that’s sure to interest more than just one of you (out of our, like, three readers.)

Gintama ain’t Dead Yet

The 53rd edition of Weekly Shonen Jump brings news of Gintama’s second wind. The anime had ended back in March, but it seems it still has a way to go and will come back soon enough. This was said by Shinji Takamatsu, one of the main staff members behind the show’s original run. He was very enthusiastic about the show returning to the air and went as far as to say there’s plenty left to go for it.

There’s no information available on when it will return, though, so we can expect more news on this matter to come next year.

Adaptations Galore

It says a lot about the current state of the anime world when you see mangas being adapted into anime faster than they can be published. It’s a good thing until we all sit down to think about it for a second; out of a thousand animes to see daylight only a hundred will feel fresh and new.

We are not saying that the anime industry should stop producing any new titles. It’s just that seeing how it has fallen on hard times and seems to be stagnating a little bit, it just sounds like a bad idea to have so many new releases at the same time.

Innovation is good, that’s a fact. The problem is that many new anime titles lack the edginess and innovation of the past; it all has come down to companies that make safe bets with clichéd and stereotypical titles. Companies have to make money and it’s understandable that they copy each other, but it all has come down to a basic palette swap.

Modern Otakus find themselves stuck at a crossroad, the vast majority seem to like the excessively fan service-laden shows of today while some yearn for the old ones. Sure, fan service has always been there but it used to mean something. It wasn’t delivered to us 24/7 and on a dozen different shows.

The anime industry is heading down the same slippery slope as the video game market back in the 80’s. We are up to our ears in bland repetition with a few outstanding titles that serve to say “It ain’t over yet,” but the bubble burst and now it seems that more and more companies fall into the bandwagon of bland stereotypes in the quest for more money.

I might be talking out of my ass here, just keep in mind that anime is still good and fun and it’s varied enough to have a gem of unexploited greatness lying buried in mount panties and school drama.

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Fans of Gantz can rejoice as the Washington Post has given confirmation that we are bound to see the English dubbed film adaptation. The Japanese film is will no longer restricted to shady websites and crappy subtitles as of January 20, 2011; it will come to theaters near you (or well, far away from you depending on where you read us from).

A Summary isn’t Necessary

Gantz is so massively popular that a summary of the story is hardly needed; just know that it’s gruesome and very adult. It deals with a heavy subject matter such as sex, romance, death, the value of life, human nature and other classic staples of dark storylines in a great way, not feeling hamfisted or over done at every turn like most would…And it does it all in the middle of a plot involving alien and futuristic looking weapons, which says a lot about the quality of the story writing since it never falls on clichés.

Truth be told, a movie adaption of an anime is mostly bad. That’s a rule pretty much set on stone, though it has exceptions just like every other rule, “unless it’s from Japan”. So guess what? It shouldn’t suck!

The Hollywood Laws of Film Making Don’t Apply

This bit of good news is all thanks to Viz Pictures’ New People unit and the digital theater distributor NCM Fathom, who will be behind the distribution of the first film out of two to be made after Gantz. The movie will be dubbed over in English and its world premiere will count with the unique appearance of the film’s stars, anime film adaptation fans will be familiar with one such star, Matsuyama known for his roles in Death Note, Detroit Metal City and The Legend of Kamui.

The film’s being premiered in the US as part of a one-night event, although it’s reported that around 300 other cinemas will be lucky to be graced by the film. The schedule for the screenings can be found on NCM’s site (on the overwhelmingly blank piece of it dedicated to Gantz) but the hours for the premiere are already set, starting at 8:00 p.m. EST, 7:00 p.m. CST, 6:00 p.m. MST, and 8:30 p.m. PST.

The Japanese original won’t be massively released into theatres until January 29. The second film will be released on April 23, so it’s fair to say that there shouldn’t be much of a delay between the two releases.

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K-ON! Has s managed to sell over 500,000 DVD’s and BD’s in a shocking turn of events that no one could ever foresee. All sarcasm aside, though. K-ON! Has made it big and fans showed their love by propelling the show’s sales high into the stratosphere, we all know the show was big but now we can begin to grasp just how much.

Let’s get specific

The K-ON franchise has managed to push a surprisingly good amount of digital media, coming up to an impressive 424,000 Blu-rays and 81,000 DVD’s as of November 21. This is a really good performance for any anime franchise, particularly one that’s relatively short.

It’s worth noting that the sales themselves help to make a definitive statement on the DVD’s dawn. The fifth volume of K-ON!! (The second one, note the exclamations) has moved a around a total of 30,000 on Blu-ray and 4,106 copies on DVD. Such a feat has set K-ON’s name on Oricon’s weekly top chart. The first-ever releases of K-ON! (The first one, the marks should be a clue) sold nearly the same amount of discs, staying strong at 29,000 and 28,000 as a show of the franchise’s stability.

These numbers are of-course set to grow, as fans will more than likely gut their wallets to get their hands on the discs.

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Those of you way deep into the 3D gimmick who also happen to like anime can get really happy, seeing how Ghost in the Shell and One Piece are jumping into cinema’s latest bandwagon!. The two films are admittedly different and cater to different audiences, yet both of them have been announced close to each other and even in the same month.

Take a deep breath before reading the name out loud

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society 3D (how’s that for a mouthful?) will be done in stereoscopic 3D, which some of you may know as the good kind of 3D animation. It’s far from a new movie, though. Think of good old Ghost in the Shell, with a new intro sequence and some nice 3D thrown in for good measure.

Those that love Production I.G’s work on the anime have a valid excuse to revisit it, as do those who need to watch it for the first time. The movie’s set to be released in Japan come March 26, 2011. Chances of it hitting western theatres are slim to say the least but one can only hope, if not you can always count on a set of 3D glasses accompanying a pricey imported Blu-ray later on.

Get ready for stuff to come flying at you

One Piece’s 3D movie not only is on the other side of the anime spectrum, it also happens to place itself deep in the uncanny valley of animation. It’s a CG film and boy does it love shoving things in your face? The trailer is readily available in youtube and shows off a level of animation that doesn’t do justice to the popularity of the show. Not to mention it’s one of those films where they emphasize the “3D” aspect by throwing stuff at the screen.

Needless to say, fans of One Piece will probably look forward to it and shonen anime fans in general now have something fun to add to their schedule.

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[wordbay]Ghost In The Shell[/wordbay]

Fan of Summer Wars? The dates and places have recently been announced at Anime USA and the dates start as soon as the beginning of December and go all the way to the beginning of February. So continue on to find the city nearest to you!

Dates and Places

Dec 3-8 Chicago,IL- Siskel Film Center
Dec 10-16 Los Angeles, CA – AMC Covina 30
Dec 24-30 San Francisco, CA- Landmark Bridge Theater
Dec 29-Jan 4 New York, NY- IFC Center
Jan 5-12 Boston, MA- Museum of Fine Arts
Jan 7-13 Denver, CO- Starz Film Center
Jan 7-13 Santa Fe, NM- CCA Cinematheque
Jan 14-20 Los Angeles, CA- Laemmle Sunset
Jan 21-27 Philadelphia, PA- Landmark Ritz at the Bourse
Jan 23-Feb 3 Honolulu, HI- Academy of Arts,
Jan 28-Feb 3 Seattle, WA- Landmark Varsity

Mark your calendar if you plan on catching the theatrical premier!

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AnimeMB experienced some down time due to our writer’s internet being off for the weekend, but we are back baby! Today’s article has some little bits and pieces to keep you up to date on the Anime world’s latest developments., plus a little extra for the site’s fans! (we know you are there)

Hatsune Miku may come to us in English

Miku creators Hiroyuki Ito and Wataru Sasaki, the creative minds behind Hatsune Miku, have given fans in the US a pleasant announcement. New York Comic Con/New York Anime Festival 2010 came with the good word, if Miku’s Facebook page reaches 39, 390 “likes” they’ll begin work on an English version of her software…Erm, voice! The company responsible for the diva’s success has been in talks for an English version since 2008, such publicity stunt is likely to have been made for the simple purpose of drawing in the hype.

Miku has been a rousing success beyond many expectations, to the point of being featured around the globe and having several fans through the entire face of the earth! (Hell, a cosplayer dressed like her even showed up at a Con here, which we covered!).

It’ll be a matter of time to see if Crypton’s vocaloid phenomenon manages to go into the western market as strongly as it did in Japan. In all honesty, though, we all know Miku and many of her western fans have gone as far as importing her software, so this is nothing short of a blessing for some!

Get on that Facebook and remember to check us out after giving Miku a little hand!

Summer Wars is heading for the Oscars!

That’s right, Summer Wars has been submitted as a nominee to the Oscars to run for best Best Animated Feature, it still has to run in California for at least a week and make it through a simple selection process to fall into the final runner ups. There is some rough competition but chances are it’ll make it pretty far, if not fall into the Oscar nominations themselves. We’ll keep you up to day on all the details!

Also, the title of the snippet is kinda misleading but hey…we needed to build some slight hype.

And there’s more…

AnimeMB would like to inform is faithful readership (all three of you) that we are starting up a little video experiment known as the First Five! Head up onto my personal Youtube channel and check it out, we need the feedback on it to see whether or not we put it out of its misery!

So hey, like us on Facebook and keep in touch with us will you? We are here for you people!

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Sega’s upcoming PSP game “Valkyria Chronicles 3: Unrecorded Chronicles” is due for an anime adaptation. The game itself has been dated for a Japanese release date of January 27, 2011; the anime should come around a bit later in spring. The project will be in the form of two OAV’s by the name of “Senjō no Valkyria 3 “Ta ga Tame no Jūsō”

Don’t get awfully excited

Valkria Chronicles’ a franchise that has already been adapted into an anime (and manga) before, it was a 26 episode strong production helmed by Aniplex’s A-1 Pictures and directed by Yasutaka Yamamoto. This one won’t be nearly as long or as heavily distributed (at least for its initial release). The anime is due to be adapted into two OAV’s rather than a full series, set to be released over the PS3’s Playstation Network.

Sure, things like this always end up in a collector’s edition DVD or BD, but the first few fans that will catch a glimpse of it in Japan will be those that decide to pick it up from their PS3. Way to keep a PS3 exclusive, huh?

As always everything is subjected to change, so keep an eye for any updates on the matter.

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A new shonen anime by the name of Kuiba is soon to hit the international market. China may not be well known for its original anime, but this could prove to be an exception. The title in question is set to be produced exclusively for the international market (being the first Chinese anime to be distributed in Japan). The anime is to be distributed in late 2011, as of now let’s take a look at what we have.

Made in…

Kuiba is a Chinese anime meant for the international market as stated by publisher Vasoon. The anime promises to be an original production. Character designs are based around “Journey to the West”, which is apparently the main source of inspiration to come out of China since most stories based on Chinese mythology are more often than not based on it (hell, even Dragon Ball is). However, the story is reported to be disconnected from the old tale.

The producers of the anime have stated that they studied successful Japanese shonen, such as One Piece and Naruto, in order to identify and replicate the factors that made them such successes. This goes as far as influencing the artistic style, which needless to say looks fairly anime-ish.

This title could prove to be big and even different, seeing how it’s being made by a group of people with different cultural values and morals that may present a somewhat unique storyline that differs from the usual shonen formula. And in all honesty that could very well be the only real chance of success for this new title, it has to stick out from the crowd and show itself to be good enough not to flop miserably.

We should also mention that the title itself is supposed to be a multi-media one, receiving tie-ins for video games and a manga adaptation. That’s nothing but hopeful expectations until it finally lands on Japanese shores, it could very well fall flat on its face and fail miserably…oh well, go to the forums to check out the embedded video (and maybe stick around) be warned, though. We can only describe the videos with a resounding “Meh”.

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This one of those articles so short and scarce in detail that we can pretty much encapsulate it in the excerpt since it’s too short. So we are forced to
shamelessly stuff it like an insecure girl’s bra before prom. The title says it all, Strike Witches is going to get a movie!

So, What Am I Reading This For?

Well, Strike Witches is a fairly popular franchise (pachinko subsidiary non-withstanding) and so it’s likely that many of our regular readers (don’t let the lack of comments misguide you, the forums are lively and Alexa says we get hits) probably like it. The anime has been a gigantic marketing blast in Japan so a movie was more of a “Oh okay, that’s sweet” than a surprise.

All good things come with a little price, though. The second season came to a wrap and there’s not a third. Not because the show is doing bad or anything, it’s simply because the movie is going to take the third season’s place and go straight to cause some sort of singularity from the sheer amount of cash it’s likely to drag from Japanese Otaku’s pockets.

We’ll keep you all up to speed on any details that may surface, for now know that there’s a movie coming.

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Bb Kuroda’s manga “A channel” is now headed towards the small screen in yet another round of the anime industry’s life cycle. The short four panel manga will be brought to life through an anime adaption. Confirmation and additional details are set to appear on the December issue of Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Carat magazine.

It’s a Small Fish in a Big Ocean

A channel is a seinen manga that falls under the slice of life category, it’s a relatively obscure title (many of you have probably never seen it before while browsing casually) but this doesn’t mean it lacks potential. The manga’s done in a four-panel format (also known as 4koma) and counts with a single volume release from last December.

The manga itself has a rather simple plot, following the lives of four high school girls with different personalities as they go about their daily lives, this of course presents opportunities for some light hearted comedy.

The anime adaptation will count with the collaboration of animator Satoshi Kubo, known for his work in Eureka Seven, Fullmetal Alchemist, Guin Saga and
Angel Beats! This is currently the second project on his table after Mitsudomoe.

More information regarding the anime should become available with the upcoming edition of Manga Time Kirara Carat.

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The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFFCOM from now on) served as the stage for Micott & Basara to reveal new information on Appleseed’s upcoming anime incarnation. The anime will be presented in 13 direct to video episodes, each being 22 minutes long, that will later be compiled in two feature films.

Brought to You by TIFFCOM

We reported earlier that Masamune Shirow’s manga “Appleseed” was bound for yet another adaptation and now we have some extra details on Jinni’s Animation Studios and Production I.G’s project. Amongst which we can count the summary of the plot by Micott & Basara, which will seem fairly familiar to readers of the manga or those of you that already have a semblance of the general dealio of the main story-line:

“Following a world war that killed half the world’s population, the city-nation of Olympus stands as a beacon of hope in a world of chaos and conflict. The utopian metropolis is governed by Gaia, a vast artificial intelligence, and administered by a genetically engineered humanoids known as Bioroids.

Although Olympus seems like a peaceful city on the surface, racial (human vs. bioroids vs. cyborgs), religious, and political conflicts lurk underneath — threatening to overturn the delicately balanced “peace.” Security threats such as terrorists and anti-government criminals abound, so the use of force becomes a necessary evil even in this so-called “utopia.”

Deunan, a young female warrior, and Briareos, a veteran cyborg-soldier, are both partners and lovers, as well as members of E.S.W.A.T., the elite special forces serving Olympus. They are deployed wherever trouble strikes.

Conspiracy, terrorism, deadly military weapons technology, greedy corporations, and power-hungry politicians — these are just some of the threats that Deunan and Briareos must contend with as they fight to protect Olympus and save mankind from plunging into another war.”

Truth be told, you could copy paste that summary onto the internet and see it linked to the other Appleseed films (comas, periods and everything y’all) which were good, if not a little too different from the source manga. It was reported that Masamune Shirow would be more heavily involved and one can only hope for such a thing, seeing how the story has been retold several times and yet it has been summarized without much a change. It’ll be fresh and exciting to those who don’t know the franchise and (hopefully) not to stale for the old fans to sink their fangs into it.

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Manga Masamune Shirow’s classic manga “Appleseed” is bound to receive a new anime adaptation. Followers of the manga or fans of CGI anime may already know that there’s a pair of movie adaptations, which will have in the continuity of the new project. Appleseed’s newest incarnation is to take the form of a 13 episode-strong anime.

Hit the Reset Button

Appleseed is a classic and has been on the shelves from 1985 to 1989. The manga has proven itself popular enough to receive a small eponymous OVA, produced by Bandai Entertainment during the manga’s prime in 1988. It wouldn’t be until 2004 when fans would hear back from the manga, that was now adapted into a feature film that used some very impressive CGI animation and was directed by Shinji Aramaki. The CGI take on the characters and plot proved to be popular to spawn a direct sequel by the name of “Appleseed Ex Machina”, which was produced by John Woo.

The new project will follow in the footsteps of the last two films, using CGI animation provided by Jinni’s Animation Studios in cooperation with Production IG.
It’s possible to say that we can rest at ease knowing it will look good but the real question is if it’ll be worth looking at. The man behind the manga (Masamune Shirow for those of you with a short attention span) is said to be more involved in the production, which will have a new plot completely disconnected from the previous two films,

“Appleseed XIII” will count with some talented staff members and will have the man behind the source material on board, so we can only hope it’s good, right? Only time will tell and we have up to next spring until it even begins production.

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Good news, everyone! Well, everyone who likes Maria Holic, that is. The second season of the anime has been confirmed by way of an announcement at the end of the manga’s seventh volume. The project will be helmed by director Akiyuki Shinbo and animated by studio SHAFT, so fans can rest at ease knowing the first season’s staff will not only be on call, it will be the actual staff for this one.

It’s a Trap!

Maria Holic is a manga and anime well suited for several kinds of people. Fans of Yuri will be pleased to know that the main focus of the story line is the life of Kanako, a girl who suffers a terrible aversion of men to the point of having nervous breakdowns and having her skin break out. This leads her to enroll in all girls school as to find her one and true love. It’s a funny and original way to present the perverted lead. She’s a lewd girl who fantasizes and day dreams so much that if her head contained any more air she would probably float away.

The counter of Kanako’s shy and introverted attitude is Mariya, the most popular and beautiful girl in the school. Kind…sweet…and also a dude. That’s right, he’s a trap. The whole reason behind this is that he wishes to be the superior student in his family’s schools and he already took care of the all male one. The reason why he wants to do this would be too much of a spoiler, so it’s enough to say that you’ll have figuring it out.

Both main characters have different personalities, “Mariya” being the most obvious one as he is not only pretending to be a girl but he’s a sadistic ass to Kanako, the only one that has figured out his secret. Between two there exists a deal, she will not tell he’s a dude and he’ll keep quiet over her perverted lesbian persona (which is more of a funny thing to see, not necessarily erotic).

There’s a little bit of everything, from Yuri to traps to gothic Lolita in the form of Matsurika, Mariya’s maid. So hey, let’s see how it goes since the first season wasn’t all that bad at all!

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In a somewhat refreshing change of pace this week, we bring you news of yet another manga soon to make the rounds as an anime adaptation. Many may have raised an eyebrow (our apologies to those with a unibrow) at the title since it’s not something you would be likely to stumble upon if you are a “mainstream” reader, but let’s take a look shall we?

It Ain’t About Dancing

Saying that the manga isn’t mainstream is a tough call, one that we may be pulling out of our rear end at that. It’s serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump and won the 55th annual Shogakukan Manga Award for being the best shōnen of 2009. So yeah, that pretty much means this one is kind of a big title, which lends credit to its upcoming anime adaptation to air around next year’s spring. More details on the anime adaptation will come alongside the new edition of the weekly magazine, hitting shelves October 25th, 2010.

So If They Don’t Dance…

Kenta Shinohara’s manga is already on is 15th volume as of last month, it tells the story of a group of three friends that form the “Sket-Dan”, a group dedicated to solving problems around their school campus that range from the common to somewhat unique issues related to the cast itself. The story is formatted in an episodic manner, with each case serving as an individual plot line that serves to guide the reader through the cast’s lives and allows for original stories to take place without worrying much for continuity, since this is basically taken care of by the fact that the ensemble is showcased through most of the manga and some of the characters from former cases make a cameo.

Even though they take on “cases” and solve other people’s problems for the sake of making their campus a better place, they are all treated like a bunch of lowly handymen. So you are sure to enjoy it if you like the sort of story based around unlikely or quirky characters.

The manga itself is worth of a read so let’s hope the anime does well and helps to add something new to the current face of the anime world.

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Fate/Stay Night’s Unlimited Bladeworks has reached the top of the Oricon ranks. Selling over 44,000 copies and taking the number one spot, the film has been a roaring success as its sales figure indicates. Western fans with “morals” (or those that can’t find a decent torrent) can only hope that this leads to a sooner than later localization deal.

I am the bone of my sword…

Japanese fans have proven their loyalty towards a good story driven and action packed franchise. The film was reported to have made the equivalent of 3.2 million dollars after its limited release on January 23, 2010. Now the BD and DVD’s came in for the kill, selling a bit over 44,000 (for the BD) and nearly 11,000 (for the DVD’s).

At this point, it should be noted that the main influx of cash for anime films is not the theatrical run, rather the DVD and BR disk sales. Many can think of the theatrical showing as a publicity stunt to draw attention towards the film and lure in fans with the promises of added content in the form of goodies such as a soundtrack, deleted scenes and maybe a collectors’ edition later down the road.

Fate/Stay is a franchise of which many are quite fond of and that you’ll be more than glad to check out. So either hit up an online retailer such as J-list (you can go straight from here) or well..you know..yaar.

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To Love-Ru’s new spinoff title launched last week in Japan. Fans of the “old” version may want to pick this one up quickly since it’s basically the same with a huge overhaul in the fan service department. Wait what? That’s right, a manga as full of erotic fan service as To Love-Ru still has a ways to go. The newest rendition shows just how.

If you liked the original…

Right off the bat, we’ll go ahead and say it: this is a “family friendly site”. So sadly, we can’t host some of the early leaks of the manga’s pages, or go too deep into details. What we can and will tell you is that the “exposure” quota went up so fast and so high that it makes the original To Love-Ru look like a church sanctioned work.

Story wise it comes down to the same basics, wacky antics from the cast that lead towards risqué situation and a gratuitous amount of female nudity (note that it’s nothing too extreme nor tasteful, it’s sort of in the middle ground.) It remains so far as the good ol’ To-Love Ru fans liked, and besides, most of the readers didn’t go to the manga expecting to flip from page to page thinking “The storyline is so rich! I MUST IGNORE THE ART AND READ THROUGH IT!”

One could easily pin the amounts of fan service on the “WOW” factor a first release would need to get. For now, fans will have to wait for a new release and now that the increased level of mild erotic content will push sales well beyond the mark to justify its continuity.

Tune in a later edition to hear more about “To Love-Ru Darkness” and its performance with the fans.

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Good news everyone! A new anime adaptation of Kentaro Miura’s master piece “Berserk” has been announced on the newest release of the manga. Details are scarce and barely even there, but its news nonetheless, and we are here to report them to our faithful readers. So jump on it.

Here’s What We Know

Berserk is awesome. The original anime and manga are well known for their violent content and their take on the dark fantasy genre. It’s an epic that follows “Guts”, an orphaned mercenary looking for his place in the world (or more like his foot’s place in someone’s ass) who joins “Griffith”, the leader of a band of mercenaries, as they go on several glorious adventures on a setting derived from Medieval Europe.

The manga itself has delivered over 300 chapters since it was first publish in December of 1990, whereas the anime adaptation that followed the first story arc came up to 25 episodes around 1997. The younger generations now may have a chance to see some old fashioned ass kicking, 80’s style (The manga was published in 1990, but the original concept came to be round 1988) so far it’s unknown whether it’ll be an OVA or a full blown show, but time will tell so hold on to your seats. If you love dark fantasy and epic amounts of manliness then you’ll do yourself a favor by getting hyped up now.

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Well, looks like we jinxed something somehow with our last Strike Witches related piece of news. The studio responsible for bring the anime into the world “Anime International Company” (AIC) has been bought by Oizumi Corporation, a pachinko company. If you think this is a mere tie in for advertisement then read on, because it might be more than just that.

Pachinko!

Oizumi Corporation has obtained total control, and thus ownership, of the studio responsible for classics as Bubblegum Crisis, Burn Up!, Legend of Lemnear, Bastard!!, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and MANY more. But more recently they were the ones in charge of producing Strike Witches 2. One can only wonder why a company with such a successful background (it was founded back in 1982) finds itself as a subsidiary for a pachinko corporation, one that’s connected to the medium through nothing but the odd tie-in in the form of a design or theme on a machine.

AIC was bought piece by piece, until the Oizumi Corporation got its hands on the totality of its shares, and so AIC became a subsidiary which means one of several things. Either pachinko machines are about to get freaking awesome, or anime is going to start to include a lot more product placement. Hell, for all we know it’s only a business decision that will result in tie-in pachinko machines and an anime studio with a different parent company.

So, does it mean anything at this point? Probably, but we can only speculate until more light is shed on the matter. Until now just know this, AIC now belongs to a pachinko company.

(Also, we spared details on explaining just what the hell “pachinko” is because, well…you guys probably already know)

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Strike Witches’ second season has come to a close. Loyal fans of cutesy girl on girl interaction and excessive fan-service would do well to take one good look at the show one last time. At least until it shows up on DVD or Blu-ray and you can get your hands on it legally (we are not saying there are other means, though.)

Wait…What!?

Strike Witches is one of those shows that doesn’t really have much to say but a lot to see. The first season has already made its way into the western world in the form of a fully licensed DVD set. Japan has just gotten out of a long awaited second season, which sadly seems to end in a bleak note for fans both new and old, why? Simply put it’s a wrap that leaves little to say from a third season of the show.

The problem with a fan-service based show such as Strike Witches is that it can only justify the cast’s (sexy) antics for so long. It could be argued that it’s more of a matter of striking when the iron’s hot and keep up the freshness. As of now the second season has passed and the western world can only wait for Funimation Entertainment to get working on the second DVD sets (or well, use the internet I guess.)

Is This It?

One can hardly think so. Shows like this are bound to get a spin-off or extra episodes such as K-ON!! The Strike Witches canon still has a pretty decent deal of characters to draw from and it’s not like the storylines would be hard to adapt from the light novels, so let’s just see where this goes shall we? Until then, prepare for a second season on the war against pants.

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It was almost a year ago when we first caught wind of Japan’s take on Marvel’s Iron Man, a superhero known by many especially now that the movies were such a big hit. Sadly, this won’t be a super-sentai kinda deal, just an anime, but can you really complain about that? I very much doubt it.

Titanium Alloy-Man

Fans of anime in general and Marvel are probably getting flashbacks of the trailer for the anime adaptation. Lots of flying around while shooting missiles and fighting off a legion of robots. The trailer didn’t only feel like a sweet deal for mecha, sci-fi and action fans (or anime in general) but for fans of the original too. I grew up on Marvel alongside anime and seeing the two together seemed off for a little, eventually getting a bit better and ending in a “Wow dude that was sweet!” moment. The show could either manage to create a good timeless example of west and east coming together or fail horribly, only time will tell…and it will soon!

The anime is being produced by MADHOUSE and its set for a premiere October 1st, 2010 on Animax. The plot for the show was put together by Warren Ellis, a man known for his many additions to the world of printed media due to his work on many Marvel and DC comics, the character design will come from the hand of Takahiro Umehara, whose work you can appreciate on the readily available Tenjho Tenge, Claymore and One Outs series.

North American fans with a hefty set of morals will have to wait for the show to appear on G4 next year. Until then, just keep your fingers crossed and hope it doesn’t crash and burn. If all else fails, Wolverine shouldn’t be too far down the road. And in all honesty the original work is good enough to be appreciated by fans of any given medium; I personally will sit down and watch every episode no matter what.

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The end has finally come for Kyoto Animation’s smash hit “K-ON!” The final episode comes with tears from sweet little Azunyan as well as those from many a fan. Those who keep up with the show (and the site) will know that the show’s ending has been coming for a while, it just knocked on our doors.

It’s Time To Face The Music

The anime is now officially over, giving us a sad look on the young Azunyan’s face as well as a graduation ceremony for her senior band members. The show proved itself to be a gigantic blast with fans of schoolgirls and excessive amounts of moe, the plot of the show has already come to a close not dissimilar to the one from the original manga.

The general tone of the episode is more nostalgic rather than sad, so you are in luck if you count yourself as a fan (a teary one at that) because the episode won’t be tugging at your heartstring too hard.

Look forward to hearing from the DVD’s and Blu-rays as they punch through the sales charts so fast they catch on fire. We may find ourselves in an eventual spin-off, but that’s just hopeful thinking.

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Fans of the Resident Evil game series are sure to have enjoyed the last CGI installment. The reason for that being that it didn’t butcher the games as badly as the live-action films. Those left craving for more “decent” or even “good” Resident Evil movies are in luck. A sequel to the amazing (by comparison to the other films) “Resident Evil: Degeneration” has been green-lit.

Degeneratively Good

Fans of the Resident Evil canon are sure to cringe awkwardly during the live-actions films, which for a time where our only real source for movies outside of the games’ cut scenes. All of this changed on December 26, 2008. That date marked the day when Resident Evil: Degeneration made its debut on Japanese cinemas, and was met with enough success to be carried ‘round the world for all the fans of the series to enjoy its CGI goodness.

Degeneration was set within the same universe as the games and followed Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield through what’s probably the best adaptation of the franchise to date. But now there may be a contender in the way. No, it’s not the newest live-action film since hell would have to freeze over before those were anything more than campy-fun, (and, hell may very well be a ski-resort since Duke Nukem forever was announced) we are talking about a new film in the same vein as Degeneration.

Damn Good?

The new CGI film in question has been christened “Resident Evil: Damnation” and so far it has been confirmed to star Leon S. Kennedy and to open in Japanese theaters in full 3D sometime around 2012.

If its predecessor’s success is of any indication, we can be sure to look forward to a 2013 release of the film in the western world. Unless the Mayans were right, in which case getting to watch a movie would be the least of your worries.

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Chances are that readers of our site have a great deal of love for samurai and zombies. If this applies to you then you are in for a treat! Capcom has done some extensive promotion work for its new Dead Rising game and has brought forward a new kind of advertisement in the form of animated shorts now streaming on their Youtube channel.

Samurai Of The Dead

Capcom has enlisted the aid of character designer Norio Shioyama to create three animated shorts which will be streaming both on their site and on Youtube. This is all part of a final publicity push before the release of their newest Dead Rising game at the end of this month.

The publicity drawn towards the game could also help launch the animated adaptation Capcom announced back in January of this year, which was said to be produced by Digital Frontier (the ones behind Appleseed and Resident Evil: Degeneration).

The short films themselves present a rather stylized and artistic interpretation of the zombie apocalypse, observed from the point of view of the classical Japanese plays based in the era of the samurai.

Those than want to check this out should look no further than Capcom’s Youtube channel or their Japanese site if you are feeling more adventurous.

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Fans of Spice and Wolf will be delighted (or saddened) to know that the 15th volume of the light novel series, to be released this week in Japan, will open the final story arc. The volume in question will not be the final part of the story, though. It will merely the beginning of the end. Read on for more info on this series.

Of Wheat And Coin

Spice and Wolf is a unique tale of fantasy. It takes us to a land where war is waged by merchants against one another and where the value of a coin is enough of a reason to take to the roads and head into an adventure.

The story deals with a medieval setting that proves itself to be fantastically efficient in mixing elements of classic history and fantasy, the towns and villages seem to have jumped out of early renaissance books and set a lively tone to the background as we are taken through markets and inns learning of a merchant’s trade. But it wouldn’t be half as interesting if it wasn’t for Horo, a harvest deity that takes on the form of young girl with wolf ears and a tail, and her human companion Lawrence, a merchant that travels the land in hopes of making enough of a fortune to settle down and open a shop.

The story revolves around the relationship that grows between the two once Lawrence takes Horo away from the village she used to watch over, her only wish is to return to her home in the north now that the farmers have all but forgotten her importance to the harvest. Their journey takes us deep into this world’s views of religion, morality and commerce, the plot itself may seen bland to fans of action but there’s enough suspense and emotion to go around and it’s definitely a must read for the romantics.

The Book Itself

The light novels for “Spice and Wolf” where originally published in Japan February 10, 2006 to be later licensed by Yen press and published in English in September of 2008. The 15th volume of the saga will make its debut in Japan this week. Western fans of the novels will have quite a wait ahead of them unless they can import it seeing how the English release is currently on its third volume.

Those who consider their interest picked should go check out the two seasons of the anime adaptation, or take a look at the manga since they are both great in their own right.

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The wildly popular and successful manga by Daisuke Satō and Shoji Sato will be coming back in its seventh volume next year. Those lucky enough to have a shot at importing or buying it directly inside of Japan will do well in knowing that there’s a special edition that will be available through pre-orders only. Follow after the jump for details.

Limited Availability

Highschool of the Dead is sure to be popular amongst most of our readers as it has a little bit of everything. Busty schoolgirls and plenty of fan service for the ecchi aficionados, action and gore to make the fans of the darker genres feel right at home and last but not least, zombies the ever popular geek and otaku favorite. Sure, it also has a great story and nice direction when it comes to the anime, but we can all agree that the universal appeal of the zombie apocalypse is strong with this one.

Fans of the manga and the anime will note that the latter still has a while before catching up with the main source of the story and running into filler. Luckily for all of the show’s followers, the manga will follow up with a seventh volume next spring and tag along a goodie in the form of a Blu-ray Disk. If it’s true that the Japanese fans will be their primary target, there’s still room for avid collectors to get their hands on an imported copy. If it all fails, there’s always eBay.

The pre-orders for the special edition will be open until February 10, 2011. The BD will contain a side story that will run for an estimate of 20 minutes (20 minutes seem to defeat the point of a BD but hey, collectibles!)

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Followers of our site may recall that we mentioned the ending of “K-ON!” was planned to happen in September. Well, now we have confirmation by way of the inner workings of 2chan’s rumor mill. Fans of the show or the Manga would do well in knowing that spoilers are ahead and should simply skip this article (or avoid looking at the thumbnail) if they wish to be surprised by the time of its official release.

Is This Really News?

We admit that posting spoilers of an upcoming manga may not classify as news by many a reader’s definition but in any case, we are here to bring you the scoop and give “K-ON!” fans a look at the amazingly predictable ending. The image in question is hosted in our forums within the thread corresponding to this article as to not have it compressed into a thumbnail that reduces it to a few pixels of squinty-eyed shock.

The ending of the manga comes before that of the show, which will follow in its footsteps soon enough by way of the traditional graduation ceremony that every high school anime is forced by law to include in its plot at some point. Those that follow the show know that Azunyan was the younger of the group and thus the one doomed to be left behind by one year after the graduation of the rest of the cast.

If it’s true that this ending could be seen from space, it’s still not known whether they’ll use it as a mechanic for a spin-off or follow up with a one shot manga that continues the tale of the girls.

Nothing is official at this point as the sources are far from reliable and we may very well be contributing to spreading a rumor. In which case….whoops! But if not, hey, we told you so.

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Gundam and Mecha fans in generals can now look forward to the New York Anime Festival even more, for it’ll bring the premiere of the film “Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer” on October 10th. The film will be in Japanese with English subtitles and will serve as a sequel to the Television Anime of the same name (save everything after “The Movie” in the title, but that’s obvious.)

Mecha Fans Can’t Miss Out

The film in question will premiere sooner in Japan, in about 17 days to be more precise but that’s no reason why those fans living in New York or its immediate area, that are planning to visit the Anime Festival, should spoil it by watching it online when you very well can wait for little less than a month to watch it in its full glory and show just how much of a fan you are by being there.

The project will be animated by Studio Sunrise and helmed by director Seiji Mizushima, the man behind the TV anime the movie will take after as well as the director of titles such as Full Metal Alchemist (including the very successful movie), Slayers Next, Shaman King and episode nine of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

So those of you who haven’t seen the show but are still paying the festival a visit should still check out this film since its packing some quality behind its name.

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The anime world has been hit hard by the reaper who saw fit to remove three legendary gentlemen from this world in a matter of a few days. Some say the great ones go in pairs but that may not be true this time around.

Trilogy Of Death

Classic anime fans as well as fans of the industry’s golden age have been hit hard this week. Three legends have passed away in an almost sequential manner leaving behind a legacy that we can only hope serves to inspire the younger generations. Kihachiro Kawamoto died at the age of 85 from pneumonia this past Monday, August 23. His death was confirmed today by way of Sakichi Sato, who announced on his twitter that Kihachiro Kawamoto was the other legendary director that had passed away.

This man’s original work is probably something many haven’t heard of since he was a puppet master, admittedly a career that not many western anime fans are familiar with. But his was still a name that carried great renown. He entered the industry in 1946 by joining the TOHO animation department to later journey to Czechoslovakia as a free-lancer to perfect his trade, bringing back home his unique set of skills that helped him propel the domestic puppet-theatre.

He was in charge of bringing to life adaptations of classic tales such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1982-1984) and Heike Monogatari (1993-1995), but he gave the anime world a great contribution by way of his work in Japanese Media Arts Festival Grand Prize winner, Winter Days and Shijin no Shougai. He also occupied the position of chairman for the Japan Animation Association, a lasting sign of his love of the arts.

Confirmation of his death marks a sad week for the anime world, bringing to end the lives of three great men that helped the medium grow and gain renown through their own means and work.

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So far, this week seems like a bad one for the anime world with the passing of Satoshi Kon and now the confirmation of Shojuro Yamauchi’s passing. The information comes to us by way of Akitaro Daichi’s twitter account, where he mentioned that a legendary animator had passed on alongside Satoshi Kon.

Another One Bites The Dust

Shojuro Yamauchi was a key animator for many big projects, such as Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away and Grave of the Fireflies as well as in Conan, The Boy in Future, Dagger of Kamui, Lupin III: The legend of the Gold of Babylon, Lupin III: The Secret of Mamo, and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. He had quite a spectacular run and a nice resume on his hands, cementing a legend that would be marked by the tragedy of his passing alongside other big name such as Satoshi Kon.

Fans of the films mentioned above have much to thank the late Shojuro Yamauchi for. Being the key animator, he was the one in charge of creating the main frames on which the animation teams would base their own work. So in a way, he was amongst the first to give life to the characters in those films.
It’s a shame to see two of the big names of the industry leave so suddenly and so close to one another, but we can only hope that their work serves to inspire future directors and animators that will honor their memories by producing quality anime.

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Award winning director Satoshi Kon has been reported dead by way of a statement released via Otakorp’s Board of Directors and confirmed by Masao Maruyama, co-founder of Madhouse, who had written on his twitter about the death of one the studio’s Directors without clarifying as to which. He later confirmed that the sudden departure was that of none other than Satoshi Kon.

In Homage

Satoshi Kon’s a name that probably doesn’t ring much a bell to many a young otaku, but it’s nonetheless a big name when it comes to anime Directors. He first jumped into the spot-light with his feature film “Perfect Blue”, a rich psychological thriller, that in all honesty was rough around the edges and had a couple of flaws but still managed to tell a story and engage the viewer in such a way that it drew international attention towards this man.

He later on went to work on critically acclaimed films such as Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers (a personal favorite), Paranoia Agent, Paprika and he had begun to work on Yume-Miru Kikai shortly before his death. Satoshi Kon’s films were amazing. They delivered a strong message by the time the titles rolled and he clearly reached the pinnacle of his excellent career in 2003 with Tokyo Godfathers, which is not to say that his previous hadn’t been great in their own regard.

We would like to extend a message to any otakus out there with a knack for the classic and unique, go ahead and do yourselves a favor by watching any of this man’s great works and you’ll find yourself fully satisfied and understanding just how much of an impact his death really is.

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There seems to be a recent surge in manga coming back from the grave. Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina will not be one to miss out on the newest trend and so it will be back, although briefly, it will be a one-shot special in full color to celebrate the 300th of Akamatsu’s other work (Negima!) The special volume will be released within the pages of the 40th Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine.

September Seems Promising

The one shot special will be published on the first week of September (the very first of the month to be more specific) The chapter will come out in full color and feature the main characters of the story, Keitaro and Naru. The chapter is not going to be a very long one for it will only stretch out as far as six fully colored pages. The magazine will also feature Negima!’s latest chapter and offer a limited edition T-shirt in honor of its 300th chapter.

Love Hina is probably the most well known harem-manga. It has been adapted from OVA’s to an anime and ran for three years (1998-2001) In Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine it deals with the story of a guy by the name of Keitaro Urashima who moves in to take care of an all-girls boarding house. Over the story all the girls fall in love with him for no apparent reason and this leads to massive shenanigans and a tormented love story between him and Naru Narusegawa.

The manga is a comedy with romantic undertones, but it manages to go crazy and put together a set of stories going as far as discovering ancient ruins and lost civilizations, so it should include many an interesting chapter for those willing to muscle through all 14 volumes released by Tokyopop.

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Blockbuster Director James Cameron spoke to the movie website “Coming Soon” in an interview, where he revealed his interest in pursuing a live action adaptation of the popular classic “Battle Angel Alita”, whether or not this is good news is subjective to most, but stay after the jump for more.

He’s A Good Director

James Cameron is a well known director with a long trajectory of good to excellent movies, but for most, the news of yet another Anime/Manga adaptation made in the west may not sit too well. Mr. Cameron spoke to Coming Soon about how he loved the story of Battle Angel Alita, to the point of having written the script before production began on Avatar. The main concern he has with the project is not one of interest (budget shouldn’t be an issue either, he’s James Cameron) but of time. He needs to evaluate where the project would fit and perhaps someday we would get some confirmation on it.

James Cameron first mentioned the project’s existence back in 2003, up to this day the status on it has switched from a mere schedule change to reports on production time. It seems the film depends completely on Cameron’s own scheduling whims, since the film has been moved back and forth in-between others, perhaps it could be on its way to theaters within the next five years or stay in development hell, you can never tell with these things.

What’s An Alita?

Those of you too young or out of touch to know about Battle Angel Alita should take a second to read this. Also…Shame on you! Anyways, Battle Angel Alita (known as Gunnm in Japan) began as a Manga by Yukito Kishiro. The story takes us to the town of Scrapyard, where Daisuke Ido comes across a badly damaged female cyborg who he then decided to repair, he later names her Alita once fully repaired due to the fact that she lost all her memories, save for an instinctual knowledge of combat.

The manga depicts a dystopian society based around scavengers that have built a home for themselves from scrap. The themes go from oppression and freedom to humanity’s darkest aspects, showing a brutal and gritty world where dog eats dog and where cyborgs have become the norm.

The manga itself has been serialized in the west over the years and the most recent edition, Battle Alita: Last Order, has been sitting on a hiatus born from differences between the mangaka and the publisher (Shueisha’s Ultra Jump) based on a ridiculous change in some words the mangazine seeks to impose as censorship.

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The virtual Idol and Vocaloid superstar Hatsune Miku will now be gracing the pages of Weekly Young Jump. Her most recent incursion into manga-land will take up four panels a week to bring her fans a bit of joy with each edition of the magazine. Starting on September 2, Kentarō Hayashi will begin his work on this particular release.

A Brief Bit Of History

Hatsune Miku is well known to all otaku whether it’s because of her musical talent or because of the many fan renditions of her. But who is she anyways? She’s a Vocaloid, a character created to serve as a mascot to represent Crypton Future Media’s music synthesizing software, which has the remarkable ability of bringing words to life in the form of songs interpreted by the ”voice” of the Vocaloid that accompanies each release, thus giving all of them a different personality and beat.

Hatsune Miku went so far as to become an idol, one that’s more immediately recognizable than many of her flesh and blood counterparts. She has voiced hundreds if not thousands of songs, has been the star of many a videogame and manga and it’s even poised to have one of her alter-egos come to life in a OAV, Blackrock Shooter, that’s right Miku’s so big that she even has more than one persona. Perhaps more remarkable of all is how she and her fellow Vocaloids starred on their massively successful concert (they were shown as holograms).

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It’s been a year since word first got out on the street of this anime adaptation, but it has been nothing but awkward silence ever since, at least until now. An announcement has been made as of yesterday, reporting next year as the title’s tentative release date, so read on for the details.

2011: New Anime But Still No Flying Cars

Deadman Wonderland is a manga that has been sitting on its hands waiting for an adaptation to come its way and this may come to be next year. The original story comes from Jinsei Kataoka and while the art is Kazuma Kondou’s handy work, some of you may recognize Kondou’s name as he’s the one responsible for writing and illustrating the Eureka Seven manga. The anime will apparently involve these two into its planning, so fans of the original may rest at ease over its fidelity. The animation itself will come by way of Manglobe.

Those who are not familiar with the manga and are expecting some sort of zombie retelling of Alice in Wonderland should read on because you may be disappointed in a good way. The story takes us 10 years after a great earthquake shatters Tokyo, leaving Japan in disarray and leading the authorities to allow the construction of “Deadman Wonderland”, a prison ran like a twisted amusement park meant to attract tourists and revitalize the local economy. But, there’s a catch, as it often happens with these things.

Enter Ganta Igarashi, a 14 year old high school student who finds himself wrongly accused of the gruesome murder of his entire class and is sentenced to death inside of Deadman Wonderland. His death sentence is to wear a heavy collar that slowly injects poison into his veins and the only way for him to survive is to eat a candy-like antidote. But in order to get it, he must fight for the entertainment of a shady crowd in an underground section of the prison, where he and the other death row inmates must make use of an odd ability acquired during their stay in the prison. The winner receives the antidote and lives another day, while the loser, if he survives, will go through a cruel game of chance where they’ll have a part of their body removed.

The announcement for this anime comes by way of the manga, so those fans of the dark side of anime now have something new to add to their lists.

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The past two days have brought forth interesting (if not somewhat disappointing) revelations. Fans of the Macross saga can now look forward to a somewhat definitive release date for the new film, as well as some goodies to tag along with it.

Better Late Than Never

This past Sunday, August 15th, Bandai Namco gave followers of its official Twitter account the slip on the new release date for “Sayonara no Tsubasa”. The company followed through with the new release date the next day during the Macross F Girasama Carnival, confirming February 26th as the official release date in Japan.

The film will follow after “Itsuwari no Utahime”, which was released last November. Fans of the Macross universe may also look forward to a new release of musical themes; the compilation is to take the shape of both Blu-ray and DVD sets. Those that are fans of the show but not necessarily of its music can look forward to “Merry Christmas Macross”, an event taking place this December 22th in Tokyo and the 24th in Kobe. Hopefully the event will bring forth several new developments regarding Macross as well as a complete confirmation on the date for the next film.

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Those of you with nothing better to do this summer should go now in search for a newspaper because Ghibli’s Earthsea hit theatres this Friday, and so far it’s going strong. Read on for a list of theatres in case you feel like catching it yourself, and a short review for those who feel like getting the DVD and checking it out.

C’mon, It’s Ghibli!

Studio Ghibli is pretty much like the Pixar of anime (more like Pixar being the Ghibli of CGI) they never screw up and all of their films are memorable blockbusters. They somehow manage to integrate everything that makes an animated film great, art, good story-telling, direction, a strong plot and an amazing cast, all without ever coming short with one of these elements. The final product of studio Ghibli’s films is always great and you don’t even have to be into anime to appreciate it, just as Earthsea has proven with its opening weekend.

Earthsea opened Friday the 13th (yeah, we know) on a very limited release of five theatres located in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Honolulu and San Francisco. The film managed to draw in around $20,500 on its opening weekend, which may seem a little disappointing considering that the rest of studio Ghibli’s films have raked in truck-full’s of cash even with a limited release. Truth be told, this one may seem like the financial black-sheep. But it’s not bad, oh boy, it’s completely far from that.

The film’s relatively weak (by Ghibli’s standards) opening weekend can be easily attributed to several factors such as having been released deep in the digital era and being available on the internet (not a matter of piracy folks, some very “official” sites have it up) as well as having a widely released DVD. Earthsea comes to us by the hands Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Myizaki, the man responsible for many of studio Ghibli’s greatest films. The question here is, does the apple fall far from the tree? The answer is a simple: no, it doesn’t.

Tales of Earthsea, or Gedo Senki as it’s known in Japanese, is an adaptation of a series of fantasy novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. So you can be sure that the film is in line with the likes of Princess Mononoke, having huge mythological creatures and some violence here and there for good measure (the film is the first animated film distributed by Disney to receive a PG-13 rating.)

Those of you living in the cities mentioned above should check the following theaters:

New York (Angelika/Manhattan)

Honolulu (Victoria Ward)

San Francisco (The Kabuki)

Seattle (Harvard Exit)

Los Angeles (The Landmark)

The rest of you should think of going to the DVD store to pick it up and here’s the reason why you should spend your money; Earthsea is from studio Ghibli, so you know it at least deserves a rental but it can be taken as a good movie in its own right as it presents to you an unique yet familiar story. The parallels with Princess Mononoke are plentiful, the styling and feel of Earthsea makes it seem like it would be at home in the same world where the events of Princess Mononoke take place. The visuals are warm and colorful, even when showing off such sights as a stormy sky or a slave market.

The film takes us to a land where pestilence and disease are wreaking havoc amongst the populace, and where bad crops are forcing farmers away from their homes and slavers are running rampant, but there’s more to it than that. The balance of life in the land seems to be breaking as a consequence of direct human interference, so we join Ged, an Archmage traveling the land to find the reason behind it and Arren, a young prince who fled his homeland and wanders alongside Ged to escape from his past, as well as a dark presence that lurks within him.

The plot itself is very basic but it still manages to draw the viewer in, save for a couple of moments where everything comes to a halt and we are taken into some plot exposition. There’s a peculiar point where the main characters become awkward and seem to get out of place with what was previously established about their personalities. But this gets integrated later on in a way that makes sense. In a way, this movie is one of those were you can’t stop watching it halfway through or it’ll seem bland and boring, but once you watch the whole thing and the little bits and pieces come together you can be sure to say “Wow” just as the credits roll.

The English dub manages to be far from cringe-worthy. I would even dare say it’s good, since there are times when it seems like Earthsea was made in English instead of simply dubbed. The voice actors really put some work into it this time around and if you look at the back and see the voice cast you’ll understand why.

Earthsea is good. It may not be the greatest from Ghibli (not that you can judge a film in such a view, since all preferences are subjective) but it sure stands out on its own two legs. The movie has some unresolved plot points that kind of sit there picking at the back of your head, some simply linger too long through the film to be treated quickly and taken out of the story in an awkward fashion, but others just remain sitting there. But at the end of the day this is a decent movie, not exactly action-packed but not too slow, perfect for a date or a calm, lazy day.

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This one comes out straight from the rumor mill; both the manga and anime are to reach a conclusion soon. The announcement came out of the blue and little more than the words printed on it are known to us. What it’s clear is that this can’t remain in mystery for long.

The Music Ends

Fans of the show will undoubtedly be shocked to hear this news but it comes to the otaku world through the latest Manga Time Kirara, home to the original manga and so a reliable source of information on this matter. The fact is that nothing can be said for sure just yet, though the announcement points out to September being the last month for the series. Many other shows have come to such an end only to be brought back from the grave.

Today sure seems like an odd day. First Full Metal Alchemist coming back and now K-ON leaving, surely causing a bout of bipolarity in those of you who are fans of both. If FMA serves as a cautionary tale, then we might as well expect to hear back from the girls of K-ON sometime soon. We’ll know for sure once September 9th comes around (two days before FMA comes back, how’s that for odd?) and brings news of the girls’ fate.

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Those of you following the manga to its conclusion have a new reason to be cautiously excited; a new side story coming to us from Shonen Gangan is set to bring some new life into the title. The side story will be helmed by Hiromu Arakawa, the man behind the original. Read on for the known details.

Back For More

Full Metal Alchemist is one of those franchises that doesn’t seem to get enough, going from a popular manga to two successful anime adaptations, the second of which follows the manga more closely, and it also gave way to an excellent movie adaptation. Fans have seen every single side of the characters so far but there is still more to look forward to.

Why is that? Simply put, the manga and the animes may have come to an end this year, but we could very well be looking not at the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.

The September edition of Square Enix’s Shonen Gangan will introduce readers to a new side-story of the FMA license. Whether said side story will be a one shot or a completely new spin-off is yet to be seen but what’s known for sure is that Japanese manga fans that missed out on the last chapter (since it sold out all across Japan pretty darn fast) will get to read the exciting conclusion as it will be sharing the pages of the magazine with its newest incarnation.

Western fans can either hope for Viz Media to keep on releasing the manga, or go ahead and dwell into the shady corners of the internet for a sneak peek.

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It wasn’t too long ago that a new anime take on the title was announced and now it seems that the manga is to be brought back in the form of a new edition. The title is to be considered a spin-off, whether or not this will bring mayor changes to the plot is unknown. Read on for the known facts.

Back With A Vengeance (and hopefully a conclusion!)

The spin-off will be illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki and written by Saki Hasemi, fans of the original will notice that these two are the ones who originally brought it to the world, as well as the ones whose differences are accredited by many a rumor-mongering fan as the reason it was canned. Whatever the cause for the original’s abrupt, inconclusive, lackluster and crushingly disappointing ending (you can tell it was that bad) fans may now begin to build up cautious expectations, for the manga will begin serialization this October on “Jump Square”, alongside Kentaro Yabuki’s other manga Mayoi Neko Overrun.

Just like with the anime, it’s unknown what this manga’s direction will be. The fact that it’s referred to as a “spin-off” serves as a warning to those awaiting a sequel, if it’s true that nothing is clear at this point, the general consensus with “spin-offs” is to reboot the franchise and move towards a new untapped segment of the story.

So keep those fingers crossed!

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As much as this anime has yet to grace the western shores of the world in an official manner, it would be a pretty big oversight on our part not to report of this new project by SHAFT. It’s safe to assume that our readers also follow Bakemonogatari…this being the era of the internet and all. So stay tuned for news on a different side of the story.

Prepare To Get Shafted

Bakemonogatari is an anime that has gained a significant following in Japan to the point where the novels that served as a prequel to the main story are now on their way to become an anime themselves. Those waiting for a legal and cleanly subtitled or dubbed version of the anime will have a long wait ahead of them, because if the first one didn’t get to us yet, then how could we expect its prequel?

The anime will follow the story of Oshino Shinobu before the events of the main show, and so far it seems to be as though the popular crab-lady (that sounds wrong now that I think about it) Hitagi Senjougahara will not make much of an appearance, as the novels focus heavily on the little lady of the night (she’s a vampire, but then again it does sound wrong.)

Those of you wondering what the hell is this Bakemonogatari thing, and why it’s news worthy, should look forward to a review of this title in the near future if we decide to go against the general norm of “watch it live or wait for a dvd” in case we do then it’ll be entirely for journalistic purposes.

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Many Otakus without the means, or the possibility to get their hands on paperback manga found their way to One Manga. Many others sought out the freely and speedily updated volumes, or the comfort of reading it in more than a single format. But this has all, sadly, come to an end. So, we bring to you the bad news in case you hadn’t planned on paying your respects yet.

Abandon Ship!

As much as one cannot advocate for piracy without getting into either a heaping amount of legal trouble, or sounding like an avid thief to conservatives, One Manga provided a free service to many but some may be saying that it doesn’t matter, for many other sites stand on its wake.

Those also many grow thinner by the minute, increasing legal pressure by manga publisher are forcing these sites off the net. So those of you who depend on scanlated manga, whether it’s because of your financial circumstances or your country’s lack of a given volume (In which case, hey welcome to my world) chances are that your favored site will soon face a similar fate.

Actions such as these don’t stop with one site. Mangafox was recently censored and deprived of its “Adult” manga (although they are quietly being updated and re-added) and MangaToshokan was given similar treatment, prompting them to switch over to Korean and Chinese manga.

Taken from the popup when visiting the main site:

“There is an end to everything, to good things as well.”

It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July 2010).

We are not here to give a stance on freedom of expression and copyright laws in the light of internet piracy. No, what we are here for is to report on a familiar and well known site that provided a somewhat necessary service. So go check out their library, read the rest of their notice and do your thing. We will be here to bring you the relevant news.

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On account of this week being somewhat slow anime news wise, we present to you yet another mecha related extravaganza! Evangelion is not to be outdone when it comes to mecha. So prepare to behold a purple behemoth and stare deep into the eyes of the beast.

Heads Up

Starting July 23, also known as two days from now, the Neon Genesis Evangelion attraction located inside the confinements of Fuji-Q Highland will open to the public. The press has already taken a good look at it as well as many avid publicists. The attraction is quite literally a big deal! Why? It houses a 1 : 1 replica of Unit 01’s head (so yeah, it’s a bust.) As much as this may not seem like a big deal for many, it’s as good as it gets for now.

The exhibition is meant to recreate the scene when Shinji comes face to face with the Eva in its cage and seeing how the Evas are gigantic; this is one big mean mug staring you down. The Evangelion Race Car will accompany the bust, as well as the busts of the cosplaying models they more than sure will have tagging along (Hiyooo!)

It seems that Japan is picking up their legendary love for mecha and taking it to new heights. So, here’s to seeing a scale model of the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (it’s only a matter of time before someone is insane enough to try that!)

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Those of you that keep up with the site will remember the announcement made to report on To Love-Ru’s new anime incarnation. You will also remember that the announcement was sketchy enough as to not clarify what form the animation would take. Read on for that.

“A Second Seasons Coming”

It has been confirmed that the newest take on To Love-Ru will be in the form of a TV anime. The animation will take the name of “Motto To Love-Ru” airing during this year’s fall season. So expect to hear news about its development and reception around October (if the release date doesn’t get pushed back).

It’s still largely unknown whether or not the anime will take things from where it left off during its first season, thus animating the many chapters not shown during its original run nor the OVA’s, or if it will go beyond the manga’s open-ended conclusion.

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Here’s some good news coming from the anime world’s rumor mill: prepare yourselves for some flashy big robot action in the nearby future! Super Robot Wars is getting another anime adaptation, read on to get in on the scoop.

Satoshi Kubo, the man behind shows such as Fullmetal Alchemist and Eureka Seven, has let his tongue slip on Mixi (a Japanese social networking site) about his decision not to join the staff behind a new anime rendition of the Super Robot Wars franchise. The reason why? The participation of a certain staff member. Kubo later clarified that he was indeed referring to a new anime adaptation, due to the fact that the comment section on his Mixi profile was filled with inquires regarding this matter.

Here is a little background information for those unfamiliar with Super Robot Wars (shame on you!) Super Robot Wars consists of a 19 year old franchise that began as a tactical RPG. The games were brought to us by Banpresto, a division of Namco Bandai, and it’s worth noting that the franchise’s rise to fame is due to the fact that it brings together various Mechs from popular anime and manga (such as Gundam and Evangelion). The games became as popular as to spawn various anime adaptations over the years including (in a way) the 90’s anime Cybuster.

Fans of Mechs now have something good to look forward to in the nearby future if the show ever gets released in the west!

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Remember how we nodded towards our mechanical friend in the paper craft article? Well, he can now nod at you! He’s back in top shape (movable head and all) and casting a shadow in the city of Shizuoka.
It’s A Gundam!

The city of Shizuoka has been graced by the fully functional 1:1 Gundam RX-78-2 statue, which now has a mighty Beam Saber by its side. The saber glows in the dark (as do many of the Gundam’s components) and it’s up to scale like the statue. The display is set to last from now until the end of March 2011, so we expect to see many weddings or major events being held under its watchful gaze as it happened when the Gundam made its debut in Tokyo.

The statue looks as impressive as ever; it’s located north of the Shizuoka Station and so it’s standing tall right next to enough buildings to give a true sense of its scale and carry the vibe of the anime.

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