Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Latest in Anime

Lets start the ball rolling with Aniplex USA:

  Aniplex USA announced Friday, at it's Otakon Panel, that it is slated to release the Oreimo series DVD Box Set in October. Amongst the extras included will be a 16 postcard set, and a 24 page booklet. As far as episodes go, there will be the 12-TV epsiodes, as well as four English subtitle only.

   Aniplex also has obtained the rights to translate the hugely popular magical girl series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica.  Aniplex also announced this Friday.

  Aniplex also announced that Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Crackle will begin to streaming an English-subtitled version of Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto, on August 17. The 1st two episodes will air then, and will be followed by weekly episodes aired every Wednesday. http://www.star-driver.net/ (Japanese)


(Image is copyrighted to BONES/Star Driver Production Committee.)

Moving away from Aniplex, the Another horror novel's anime adaption launched an official website preview. It confirmed that the show will begin airing sometime next year, and that Noizi Ito, known for his work on Haruhi Suzumiya, is responsible for the original character designs.

The novel, 1st released in 2009, centers on a school class that has fallen subject to some strange curse, which results in a string of unavoidable deaths.

The official website for Negima, and Hayate the Combat Butler, negihaya.com, began to stream trailers for the two at midnight this morning. The two films are set to be released together on August 27th.
Monday, July 25, 2011

μ's New Single Streamed

Lantis, Bandai's music label, began to stream a new animated music video from idol group, μ (pronounced Muse.). The group's third single, and animated music video, "Natsu-iro Egao de 1, 2, Jump!" will ship on August 24th. Costing 2,000¥, or roughly 25$ U.S. The album will include a DVD with the music video, voice dramas,  song, and karaoke tracks. 


Friday, July 22, 2011

JManga Launches August 17

JManga, a legal place for reading online manga, will launch on August 17th. When the website launches, it will host Naruto, Manga Science, Crayon Shin-chan, Dragon Girl, Kekkaishi, and more.  The website will also have mangaka interviews, and social networking features, so fans can keep in touch.  Behind the site is Digital Comics Association, an industry group of 39 Japanese publishers. After a limited beta test, they opened up a public beta test, where anyone could sign up to get a advance look at JManga.
"Oki" a Japanese sushi chef, living in Osaka, runs a website, My Sushi World, where he displays his various cooking and sushi masterpieces. Recently, he updated the blog with some Pokemon Sushi. His creations, created with vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes, and food coloring. He brought these to his daughter's kindergarten class as a surprise. Characters from the Star Wars series also appear.

For the rest of the images here:
http://sushichefjapan.blogspot.com/2011/07/pokemon-carving.html
Tuesday, July 19, 2011

1934 Tank Tankuro English Preview

Predating anime legends and pioneering manga/anime such as Astro Boy,  Gajo Sakamoto's 1934 Tank Tankuro has been translated into English by Japan's PopPress. The Comics Journal published an 8-page preview, along with a detailed description of what will be included in the 1st volume- 240 pages of comics, and extensive papers,essays and biographical materials. The TCJ also inquired into the reasoning behind PopPress' decision to delve into Pre WWII manga.

PopPress representative Yasutaka Minegishi included this in his response:
"Looking at the variety of Japanese manga published in English up till now, from mainstream manga, alternative manga, shojo-manga, to the genre of “gekiga,” I felt that in these past few years, the English-speaking audience became ready for manga that could bring them one step further into the real history of Japanese comics."---http://www.tcj.com/preview-tank-tankuro/
 Tank Tankuro follows the struggles of Tank Tankuro, lovable robot, and his counterpart, the villain Kuro Kabuto, or Black Helmet, in a pre-war era.  

The 1st volume ships tomorrow, July 20th, while the 8 page preview can be viewed here:
http://www.tcj.com/preview-tank-tankuro/2/

Sources:
ANN
http://www.tcj.com/preview-tank-tankuro/
Today, actor Yoshi Harada passed away in Tokyo, at 71. He died around 9:35am, of pneumonia.
Harada was known for his roles in Azumi (Gessai), Dororo, Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengance, among others. His final film, Oshika-mura Sōdōki, opened three days, Saturday,  before his death. His last public appearance was a press conference on July 11th, held to help promote the film.
Saturday, July 16, 2011

Le Chevalier d'Eon (OT 16+)

Le Chevalier d'Eon is very graphic, and rated OT 16+ for a reason. The pages are covered in gore, and it delves into some very touchy subjects-such as religion and crime. For this reason, this post will remain imageless, and while I thoroughly recommend it,  I also advise caution. If you know you have problems with graphic images, this IS NOT for you.
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Paris is terrorized by night, young women, virgins specifically, are disappearing. Every now and then, the police catch up-almost. When they arrive,  they find mutilated bodies, decapitated heads, and other gruesome images. Blood and instruments of torture lie everywhere. And into their hands have been carved the words psalms and palms. Who is behind these bizarre and twisted murders? A string of mad disciples of Christ who call themselves the "poet". As one is caught, another appears. The only person in Paris who can fight these creatures- for as they become more and more possessed, they turn into monsters worthy of Anne Rice, or H.P Lovecraft- is Le Chevalier d'Eon, the Sphinx, or Lia de Beaumont,  a spirit killed by the Poet, who when the time to fight comes, inhabits the body of her brother, d'Eon de Beaumont.  d'Eon works for his Majesty, the King of France. Whenever a new Poet appears, the Poems of the revolution appear in a  mirror image on the body of Princess Sophie, by far the most charming and innocent character in the series, Princess Sophie has lost her ability to speak except for the word "Palm". She communicates through word games.  d'Eon is assisted in his endeavors by a cat, Nell,  and a young man, named Robin.

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Publishing Information:
Le Chevalier d'Eon
Story by Tou Ubukata
Art by: Kiriko Yumeji
Publisher: Del Ray Manga (www.delraymanga.com)
Age Rating: OT 16+

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The Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Website has aired 78 seconds of footage from the new Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Fullmetal Alchemist: Sacred Star of Milos. The footage revolves around Julia, the pivotal character in the film. The film opened in Japan on July 2nd.
Zero no Tsukaima creator Noboru Yamaguchi confirmed Friday, on the Media Factory website, that he has an advanced form of cancer. While a diagnosis in February considered surgery on the rapidly growing  cancer futile, a more recent exam, brought around after gallstone surgery unrelated to the cancer, has changed the report. Apparently the growth has shrunk, which makes surgery possible. Yamaguchi intends to have this surgery in August of this year.
On Friday, the Doraemon official website launched a new page for the upcoming Doraemon movie, with a trailer. Doraemon: Nobita to Kiseki no Shima ~Animal Adventure~ (Doraemon: Nobita and the Island of Miracles ~Animal Adventure~) is set to air in Japan in March of next year, following the line  of a new Doraemon movie in time for spring break every year.  Doraemon, Dorami and Nobita traveling to a sort of lost world or "last paradise" where all the extinct animals and creatures still live on. On a side note, 2012 will mark 100 years before Doraemon's creation, which according to the story occurred on September 3, 2112.

Movie Website (Japanese):http://doraeiga.com/2012/
Game creator Imageepoch has released promotional videos for the new BLACK★ROCK SHOOTER PSP game, Black Rock Shooter The Game. The video is a "world" introduction style promo, while Imageepoch has already released videos for character designs. Various characters include Black Rock Shooter herself, Grey, and White Rock Shooter. The opening animation has been done by ufotable.

The game will ship in Japan on August 25th, 2011.

For the game's official website (Japanese Only) go:
http://brs.jrpg.jp/


For more promotional videos:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2011-07-07/black-rock-shooter-psp-white-rock-shooter-promo-posted



This second  video has some subtitling:
Saturday, July 9, 2011

No.6 Episode 1 Review

No.6 starts out captivating enough, with a boy running through what appears to be sewers, with two other men chasing him and bullets flying past his head.  Suddenly, after he reaches a dead end, the scene changes completely.  Now, a high-rise classroom and a brown haired boy stare back at us.  As the teacher drones on, his attention wanders to the window, and the forest outside. Suddenly, he's suspended in air- floating, with leaves being whipped passed him, and the wind's force growing.  As the clouds grey over, in preparation for a storm, his body begins to dissolve. His arms and legs rapidly turn to sakura blossoms.

And then the dream is shattered. The classroom returns, two students are fighting with another student who has been in the middle of a presentation. They had apparently been talking, and she became annoyed. The shouting match progresses to a physical assault until two teachers arrive to restore order.

Later, on a ferry, the girl, Safu,  and the brown haired boy, whose name we discover is Shion, discuss the incident. This is the 1st time the truly thought provoking side of this anime comes into focus, as Shion goes into a very brief discussion of mankind's limitations and those we impose on ourself-
 Mankind only recognizes itself as such by the conception of self placed upon it by society.
And so he continues, until the boat reaches it's moorings. From there the two briefly talk about a typhoon that passed through sector six that day.
Safu and Shion go and visit their grandmother, who presents Shion with a birthday present- a sweater that matches the one Safu wears but with introverted colors.  After a small party, as Shion is leaving, he and Safu are outside, when the "Moondrop Cries".  The Moondrop seems to be a large building with a net like framework around it and antenna.

Then, after a quick flashback to the boy being shot at (when are we going to find out why?!), we change to Shion's house.  Shion throws open the windows, and along with rain and wind, comes the Moondrop's cry.  Then something inside the house rings, and Shion goes in to answer. Using a bracelet that seems to control most everything in their world, he turns the alarm off. When he turns back around, the boy, gunshot wound and all, is standing in his open doorway.

Immediately, he attempts to strangle Shion, warning him not to move. Shion is only released after offering to help him treat the wound on his left arm. The strangle hold returns when the phone rings again. Using the bracelet to answer, Shion begins a conversation with his mother. Using a report as his excuse, Shion hangs up.

While he is treating the wound, their topic of conversation turns to Shion's education. At age 2, Shion apparently passed his IQ tests with astounding scores, entered a prestigious academy, and now, at age twelve, he will be entering a Special Course class.

Nedzumi, or Rat as it translates, reveals that he had been shot as part of a "hunting club". There's a catch; this club hunts humans. As Rat is changing, we see that he has something like burns on his back.

Later that day, an escaped prisoner report comes in. The subject escaped in the Lost Town area while being transferred. It is thought he fled toward Chronos. And of course, our dear friend Rat is the same escaped prisoner.
 
Rat has a VC chip inside him, it's basically a tracker, so the search system should be easily able to track him down.  Rat tenses to fight when he is confronted with his true identity, VC103221, but instead, Shion hands him some soup and cherry cake.  Shion asks him about the VC chip, which Rat claims has long since stopped working. He equates all of Sector No. 6 to a toy.  Rat tells him most of what he heard in the safety report was a lie, and then warns him of the dangers of housing a criminal.

So naturally a police car shows up at their house the next morning. And that's where the episode cuts off. Even though No.6 had a slow start, things seem to be picking up. The next episode will be worth watching, I think.
 
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