Otaku, No Video

ANN: Kuroshitsuji fans! Commence with the rejoicing. A second series is planned…and it’ll feature two new protagonists, a new butler and a new master. Will this work as well as it did for R.O.D.?  We’ll find out in July.

ANN: Gundam fans! And non-Gundam fans who want to check it out. We know that Bandai Visual announced they’ll be streaming pretty much all of Gundam for free on the ’net soon.  Well, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam–the second series in the franchise–is now streaming…on Anime News Network!

ANN: Speaking of giant robots: I mentioned earlier that a new Fafner project is in the works. Now I understand: it’s going to be a movie. Here’s hoping it makes a bigger splash than the TV show.

ANN: Another movie in the works: a live-action Ghost in the Shell film. There are now two interviews online with the current incarnation’s screenwriter, Laeta Kalogridis. She promises plenty of action, but also plenty of atmosphere. Cool!

ANN: Here’s an odd bit: Crunchyroll has announced it’ll start streaming Phantom Thief Reinya later this week. It’s a series of 12 anime shorts centering on a whimsical thief, adapting a gag manga. Why should we care? It’s inspired by Reina Tanaka, a member of Morning Musume. It’s got a pretty high-calibre crew, too, including the director of Fullmetal Alchemist and Gundam 00…directing the music.

ANN: Also unexpected: the upcoming finale of the Winter Sonata anime will be film in live-action, using the Korean actors who starred in the 2002 live-action adaptation. Should be very interesting to see what they pull out of their sleeves for that one.

ANN: But that’s not nearly so weird as the website for Ikkitousen, which recently launched a cross-collaboration between that franchise and…Shin Koihime Musou, a similar franchise about fighting girls, both based (very very) loosely on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In one, the girls have their clothes ripped off; in the other, they’re all moe-fests.  There’s stuff on the site promoting the collaboration, with a mini-game “coming soon.”

ANN: But I’ve got weirdness to top even that! Have seen the the ED for Sora no Otoshimono? It’s a quiet song, showing what looks initially like a flock of birds…until you realize it’s actually pairs of panties, flapping gently in the night sky. Yeah. So get this: Housuke Nojiri–a Japanese SF author who wrote the original Rocket Girls novel–had nothing to do with Sora no Otoshimono, but he so loved that ED that he invented an ornithopter that looks like girls’ panties. And they’re being mass-produced.  For a one-day event where they’ll all get launched into the sky.

AnimeNation.net: Strike Witches fans! Another season of your favorite show is coming. There’s a promotional image out there showing what looks like a Strike Witches 2 series coming out in the summer. This looks to be confirmed, thanks to an article in Megami Magazine (source: ANN) in which Kadokawa Shoten mentioned plans for a second Strike Witches series this summer.

AnimeNation.net: K-ON! fans! You should already know there’s a second season of your favorite show coming, but you won’t have long to wait for it; TBS has revealed that season 2 of K-ON! will start airing in April. Wow!

ANN: The New York International Children’s Film Festival has long been known for airing fine anime films for kids (like Hayao Miyazkai’s work), but this year they’re oudoing themselves with a number of American premieres.  Starting February 26, they’ll be showing:

• Summer Wars
• Mai Mai Miracle
• Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror
• Time of Eve [Eve no Jikan]

AnimeNation.net: A bit of gaming news: according to a Nintendo announcement, a new “main-entry” Pokemon game will be released for the Nintendo DS later this year.  It’s been four years now since the release of Diamond and Pearl, so it’s about time, no?

ANN: Some sad news: Keiko Tobe has passed away. She was the author of the manga With the Light, a sensitive portrayal of the struggles of raising an autistic child. She was 52.

ANN:  Want to watch some anime legally? Like, all the way through? Online? The Anime Network and Funimation have launched separate initiatives to do so, by putting their anime on YouTube…as rentals.  Here are the details:  You pay through Google Checkout, and it’s only available in the U.S.  Anime Network shows are $2 per episode  or $5 for movies for a seven-day rental. Funimation is renting only TV shows and they’re only a buck per episode, but they only last for 24 hours.  Anime Network’s titles are mostly B- and C-list shows; Burn Up! OAV, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, and Funimation has a small but more modern selection: Sands of Destruction, El Cazador de la Bruja, Bamboo Blade, and Spice and Wolf.

ANN: The ASOS Brigade — which is the American publicity branch for Bandai Entertainment’s Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya release, has announced that the contract’s been signed for the second season of Haruhi to be released in the U.S. So, for all of you wondering what the Endless Eight would be like…your wait will soon be over.

ANN: The final Blu-Ray Disc of K-ON! was released this week in Japan. Why is this notable? It sold 31,000 copies in a week, making it the #1 Blu-Ray Disc that week according to Oricon. It was only the second K-ON! Blu-Ray to do so, after volume 1 sold 33,000 copies.

AnimeNation.net: Finally, Gonzo’s not dead yet! The troubled studio has been tapped to produce a bonus OVA for the Japanese Xbox 360 release of Super Street Fighter IV. This after Studio 4ºC did an OAV for the original Street Fighter IV that, according to AnimeNation.net at least, was widely panned. Wow!

ANN: Licenses! Sentai Filmworks has licensed several highly-anticipated titles: comedy series Gintama, slice-of-life comedy Hidamari Sketch x 365, goth loli show Le Portrait de Petite Cossette, and slice-of-life romance series Living for the Day After Tomorrow (Asatte no Houkou).

ANN:  Well, now we know what the next mecha anime will be: SD Gundam Sangokuden, a re-imagining of Romance of the Three Kingdoms using SD Gundams. Because we haven’t had enough retellings of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  Next we’ll have a horror series based on frickin’ Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

ANN: Also in Gundam news: You know how the full-size Gundam statue is moving to Shizuoka? It’s now predicted to bring in over US $400 million to the local economy. See? Gundams are good for mankind! Let’s build more.

ANN:  There’s a new Evangelion manga coming! It’s going to be a comedy about Shinji as a detective. It’ll be called, get this, Shinji Ikari’s Detective Journal. So, basically, Evangelion meets Detective Conan.

ANN: Hayao Miyazaki’s animating a new short for the Ghibli museum. And when I say animating, I mean he’s literally drawing the key frames.

ANN: The Japanese government wanted to promote recycling. So they commissioned a Hatsune Miku music video. Yessssss! Watch it on YouTube.

ANN: The upcoming live-action Priest film, loosely based on the manhwa of the same name, will have a 2D animated prologue. No further details on exactly what kind of 2D animation will be involved.

ANN:  Want to check out Slayers? Funimation’s posted the first four episodes of Slayers Revolution, English dubbed, on their YouTube channel — and this includes the legendary dub cast behind the original Slayers dub.

AnimeNation.net: Wanted to check out Kannagi, but unwilling to spend $35 per disc for it? Bandai Entertainment’s announced it will re-release the entire series for $60 (a $10 savings all told).

ANN: Some interesting numbers from Oricon on DVD/Blu-Ray sales last year in Japan. For example, DVDs outsold Blu-Ray Discs 10 to 1, and anime/special effects titles made up about 60% of the Blu-Ray market. Company with the largest share of the market? Bandai Visual.

ANN: Some manga news: Yuu Watase, creator of legendary shoujo “reverse harem” series Fushigi Yuugi, has ended her other series Sakura-Gari and restarted Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden.

ANN: Finally, after hearing horror stories about librarians clamping down on manga, the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) division has come out with its list of the top ten graphic novels published in 2009 for teens. Three manga made the list: Daisuke Igarashi’s creepy Children of the Sea, Fumi Yoshinaga’s Oozu: The Inner Chamber, and Takashi Nagasaki’s Pluto.

ANN:  Congrats to Nana Mizuki! She’s the first voice actor to get a #1 single on the Oricon charts! In case you’re wondering, the single is Phantom Minds, it sold 54,000 copies in a week, and she’s the VA behind Hinata in Naruto, Fate Testarossa in Nanoha, Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist, and many others.

ANN: Some licensing news: Hulu has started streaming the recent supernatural action anime Kekkaishi. They’ve already put up a sub of episodes 1, 2, and 5. No, that’s not a Monty Python and the Holy Grail joke. (“Three, sir!”)

ANN:  Fantasy manga Descendants of Darkness is returning after a hiatus of 8 years. No word on exactly why it’s taken that long.

ANN:  In manga and censorship news, Yoshiyuki Kazumi has revealed on his blog that his editor’s told him to tone down the erotic content in his manga Konohana.  The magazine it’s being published in is an all-ages magazine, which kinda explains that. I haven’t been able to track down a copy of it, so I’ve no idea how racy it actually is.  But not exactly a surprise, is it?

iPhone fans, rejoice!  There’s now a Crunchyroll app for your iPhone, as well as an Anime Network app, each of which offers free, streaming anime straight to your iPhone.  Both require the latest version of the iPhone OS software, and while the Crunchyroll app is free, the Anime Network app will set you back US $7.

ANN: AnimeNewsNetwork.com has a nice round-up of the various ways in which anime showed up on American TV shows this week, from the short-lived otaku on American Idol to the body pillow subplot on 30 Rock, the hentai mention on Scrubs, and the cosplay reference on Archer.

ANN: The Japanese Manga Publishers Society has released 2009 circulation numbers for a slew of manga magazines. The winner by a mile: Weekly Shonen Jump, with over 2.8 million copies sold last year. Overall, the big names saw increased circulation, but almost all the others saw lower sales (there was a recession on, don’tcha know).

Finally, must end on a sad note: we’ve had two deaths this week. Daisuke Gouri, voice actor best known as Mr. Satan in Dragonball Z, Bask Om in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Dozle Zabi in Mobile Suit Gundam, and Hiromi Yamazaki in Patlabor, passed away on Sunday at the age of 57.  And Takumi Shibanois gone, too; he founded the first science fiction fan magazine in Japan, which was a starting point for many Japanese SF authors. He also translated a number of SF books into Japanese, including E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series and Larry Niven’s Ringworld, which would greatly inspire Japanese SF fandom and, ultimately, manga and anime.  He also consulted on the SF aspects of several classic anime series, including Tekkaman, Gatchaman F, and Casshan. He was 83.

© Osamu Tezuka, Vertical Inc.

ANN:  Looks like Media Blasters has licensed Kanokon, a recent ecchi series, with volume 1 landing some time in April.

Kuriosity:  The identity of Vertical’s next manga license has also leaked: Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako, a heavy drama about a Japanese family torn apart by World War II.

AnimeNation.net: The first volume of the upcoming Gundam Unicorn series is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Exclusively (for Americans, at least). Which is interesting, considering that it’s apparently not available via Bandai America. It’s going to be Amazon-exclusive. Should be interesting to see how this turns out. You can pre-order it now for US$35, and it’ll ship March 12th.

AnimeNation.net:  Avatar fans — and I mean fans of the blue-people movie — listen up!  According to Yahoo! Movies, James Cameron’s next film really will be an adaptation of Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm). Yaaaaay! More…depressing stuff.

ANN:  Finally, just to prove that fans are nuts everywhere: Rie Kugumiya, an A-list voice actress known for her tsundere characters like Shana in Shakugan no Shana, Louise in Zero no Tsukaima, Taiga in Toradora!, and Nagi in Hayate the Combat Butler, recently appeared in Taipei, offering a limited number of autographs.  Fans started lining up.  25 days in advance.  In winter.

© 2010 Yoko Kamio, Shueisha

ANN: Manga news — Yoko Kamio, creator of Boys Over Flowers, will launch a new manga on February 13th.  Tora no Ookami will be a love triangle featuring a girl working in a family-owned restaurant and the two cute boys who frequent it.

Reverse Thieves: Are you at all interested in those awesome manga released by Vertical, Reverse Thieves has an excellent interview with Ed Chavez of Vertical. Includes lots of interesting stuff about how Vertical does business.

AnimeNation.net: Bad news for all of you waiting for Halo Legends. It’s been delayed a week, back to February 16th.

ANN: More bad news for 4Kids. The company’s currently up for sale, and its CEO Alfred Kahn will take a 15% pay cut.  He’ll go all the way down to US$765,000 this year.  Poor guy.

ANN: Even worse news for Anime Expo — most of its division managers have resigned, and it looks like they’ll take about 80% of the staff with them, as part of ongoing frustrations over the way AX is run.  ANN has a long article explaining the situation.

ANN: Finally, a bit of wacky news: January 9th saw the 9th annual Japan Otaku Awards. It’s basically a very low-key, chatty thing where a couple of fairly notable Japanese authors and such get together, chat with an audience, and decide on a few winners.  The Grand Prix award for 2009 went to the Nintendo DS dating sim Love Plus, with other awards going to the full-size Gundam statue, Final Fantasy XIII, and anime studio SHAFT.

(c) Hidekaz Himaruya, Studio DEEN

Big news of the week: Funimation’s announced a bunch of licenses. They’ve now got Hetalia: Axis Powers, The Sacred Blacksmith, FLCL (including the original dub), Hero Tales, and Master of Martial Hearts.  They also licensed a number of live-action movies, including RoboGeisha and a bunch of Shaw Brothers kung fu flicks.  In sadder news, they also revealed that Big Windup! has sold poorly, and so they won’t be licensing any more of it.

Crunchyroll is also simulcasting several new shows for the current Japanese season: Chu-Bra, Cobra: The Animation, Durarara, Omamori Himari, Hanamaru Kindergarten, and So Ra No Wo To.

ANN: There’s going to be a new anime season of the odd, very shiny mecha series Fafner. Looks like the original cast will be re-united for the project.

ANN: Head over to beck-movie.jp (since taken down) for a sneak peak at the upcoming live-action adaptation of Beck!  Looks…pretty much exactly right, surprisingly.  Meanwhile, over on AnimeNation.net, you can see a teaser for the upcoming live-action Space Battleship Yamato movie, and a teaser for the upcoming Gantz live-action movie.

ANN: Kimi ni Todoke, the recent romantic comedy about a girl who struggles for looking like Sawako from The Ring, is being turned into a live-action movie!  Which seems fitting, really; it’s based on a live-action movie premise as it is.

AnimeNation.net: There’s an upcoming mecha cartoon being made in China, Astro Plan. And it looks like the pilots fly Valkyries, and launch from Gundam SEED’s Archangel.

ANN:  Boys’ Love fans!  You’ll soon have to shell out a bit more dough to get your man-on-man action. Tokyopop’s BLU line will be raising its prices from US $13 to $15 (CAN $17 to $19) next month.  However, you’ll get more color pages, they promise, with the more expensive editions.  This follows a price increase from US $10 a year ago.

ANN: The incredibly long-running samurai epic manga Vagabond will end sometime in 2010, its creator has revealed on his website.

ANN: The not-so-incredibly-long-running but much-beloved light novel series Full Metal Panic will be ending soon, too.  Shoji Gatoh is now writing the final light novel in the series.  (Frantic rumors: Gatoh hasn’t ruled out writing more short stories in the franchise, and I’ve heard that Kyoto Animation is waiting on the completion of the series to make the next, and presumably final, Full Metal Panic anime. Here’s hoping!)

ANN: The shrine that’s home to the two characters from Lucky Star have been a popular New Year’s destination for otaku several years running, and this past New Year’s broke records: 450,000 people went to Washinomiya Shrine.

ANN: AKB48, the Japanese girl band created as a more fan-friendly version of superpop idol groups like Morning Musume, is proving a popular concept.  Six different countries are now looking to spin off their own versions of the group using a similar model (school uniform clothing, 48 members, etc.).