Ashiaraiyashiki no Jūnin-tachi. Manga to Bundle Anime
posted on 2010-01-31 00:14 EST
"Battle fantasy" about human & non-human residents of unusual apartment
A limited first edition for the 10th volume of Tokuichi Minagi's Ashiaraiyashiki no Jūnin-tachi. (The Residents of Ashiaraiyashiki.) manga will ship with an original anime DVD on March 25. According to the January 26 announcement on the official website for Wani Book's Monthly Comic Gum magazine, the DVD will contain an anime short.
The "battle fantasy" story follows the humans, mythical creatures, and demons that live together in a mysterious apartment called Ashiaraiyashiki. The manga has been running in Monthly Comic Gum for over eight years.
Last year's animated adaptation of Suu Minazuki's Sora no Otoshimono modern fantasy manga created a stir with its ending animation footage, which featured a flock of flying panties in formation. Nojiri wrote the novel inspiration of the Rocket Girls anime, but he was not directly involved with the Sora no Otoshimono anime. Nevertheless, he was inspired by Sora no Otoshimono to supervise the mass production of model ornithopters (flapping-wing airplanes) shaped like flying panties. The ornithopters will launch at Sora Fes! for 1,000 yen (about US$11), but each 2,000-yen (about US$22) ticket to the event will include one ornithopter.
Besides Nojiri, the event will host the other creators of the flying panties ornithopter, Kazuhiko Hachiya (the artist best known for developing OpenSky's life-size jet-assisted glider inspired by Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind), and TBS television announcer Jun Suzuki. There will be a workshop for building ornithopter kits and a discussion panel with Nojiri, Hachiya, and Suzuki.
Crunchyroll is streaming the Sora no Otoshimono anime in North America and other regions. Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint published Nojiri's Usurper of the Sun novel last year, and it will publish Nojiri's Rocket Girls novel this July. Bandai Entertainmentreleased the Rocket Girls anime in 2008.
The official staff blog of the Eden of The East anime franchise has begun streaming the second "Paradise Resort" video — a two-minute weekly behind-the-scenes look at the production of the second film — on Friday. (The first video is still available at the same link.) A new "Paradise Resort" video is scheduled to be released every Friday. The film itself, Eden of The East the Movie II: Paradise Lost, will open in Japan in March.
The official website for the television anime adaptation of Karino Takatsu's Working!! four-panel manga has posted a 31-second Kyōko "character trailer" on Friday. The video focuses on Kyōko Shirafuji, the 28-year-old manager of the restaurant that serves as the backdrop for the story. The previous Comic Market promotional video and character trailers are still available from the same page.
The story is set in a family restaurant named Wagnaria in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido. A high school freshman named Sōta Takanashi works part-time among the restaurant's high-spirited, mysterious, yet cool staffers.
promoting the collaboration, a promotional video for Ikkitousen: Xtreme Xecutor, and a Flash anime commercial for Shin Koihime†Musō: Otome Tairan. (In the linked page, select the icons in the bottom menu.) The website is also planning to open a mini-game "soon."
Winter Sonata Anime's Ending Scene to Be Live-Action
posted on 2010-01-29 17:25 EST
Original stars to film new sequence that was not in original Korean TV drama
The Nikkan Sports newspaper is reporting on Saturday that the ending scene for the ongoing Winter Sonata anime television series will be filmed in live-action. Yong Joon Bae and Ji Woo Choi, the stars of the 2002 live-action Korean television drama that inspired the anime, will appear in the new live-action footage when it runs on April 24. The new ending in the 26th episode will cover a part of the story that was not in original Korean drama.
Both the original drama and the 26-episode anime follow a girl named Yu Jin Jung (Choi) and her male classmate Joon Sang Kang (Bae) as tragedy and angst befalls them and those around them in the years between high school and young adulthood. The 2004 Japanese broadcast of the drama triggered the ongoing "Korean wave" of pop culture in Japan and turned Bae into a superstar among Japanese female viewers. The Japanese publisher Ohzora Publishing Co. eventually imported and translated the drama's manhwa adaptation under the title Winter Love Song.
Bae had already agreed to reprise his role for the anime's voice cast, as part of the 2007-2008 deal that gave his Key East company's production credit for the anime. Choi agreed to join the voice cast shortly thereafter.
The Japanese publisher Kodansha had announced the Mahō Sensei Negima! ~Mō Hitotsu no Sekai~ project last February as the second DVD series to be bundled with volumes of the manga. The first of the four originally planned volumes shipped with the 27th manga volume last September, and the fourth volume will ship with the 31st volume on August 20.
Funimationreleased the earlier Negima and Negima television series, as well as some of the video spinoff projects, in North America. Del Rey will publish the 25th volume of the manga next month.
Murata Not Involved in Revived Mardock Scramble Anime
posted on 2010-01-29 12:08 EST
Former staffer on Gonzo version says that different company is animating
Character designer Range Murata (Blue Submarine No. 6, Last Exile) has revealed at the Taipei International Book Exhibition 2010 on Friday that he is not involved in the revivedanime adaptation of Tow Ubukata's Mardock Scramble science fiction novel series. He added that the new Mardock Scramble project will be animated by a different company; he had been involved in Gonzo's 2005 effort to adapt the project as a video anime, before it was cancelled in December of 2006 for "various reasons."
A website announced earlier this month that there will be a new theatrical animated adaptation of Mardock Scramble from the Japanese media production company King Records. Ubukata has written six volumes of the science-fiction novel series — three in the original Mardock Scramble arc, and three in the Mardock Velocity prequel — since 2003. Ubukata also created the stories behind Le Chevalier D'Eon, Fafner, Heroic Age, and Pilgrim Jäger. Katsuya Terada (Blood: The Last Vampire, Yona Yona Penguin) drew the illustrations in the original novel volumes.
ANN posted an interview with Murata in 2006 regarding his work on Gonzo's version. As Murata describes it, "the main character is a girl, and her body is burned by the bad guy, and she dies, but then she's resurrected. So she's out for revenge."
Murata is currently working on art books after finishing his design and illustration work for Gonzo's Shangri-La anime series.
With the Light Manga Creator Keiko Tobe Passes Away
posted on 2010-01-29 05:06 EST
52-year-old was best known for award-winning story about autistic boy's mother
Keiko Tobe, the creator of the With the Light manga, passed away on Thursday. She was 52. A private service will be held for close family members only.
In the story of With the Light which she launched in 2001, Tobe dealt with a mother's struggles to raise an autistic son. In 2004, the manga won an Excellence Prize in the Japan Media Arts Festival Awards from the Japanese government's Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The manga had been on hiatus since January of last year due to Tobe's unspecified illness.
The manga inspired a 2004 television drama which starred Ryoko Shinohara. Yen Press has been publishing With the Light in North America.
The New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF) will host the American premieres of three anime features and several shorts, including the Summer Wars family anime film from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time director Mamoru Hosoda. The light-hearted "action entertainment" story of Summer Wars revolves around a modern-day family on a midsummer adventure. The project reunites many of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's staffers, including scriptwriter Satoko Okudera (Angel, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Miyori no Mori) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, FLCL). The Summer Wars film opened in Japan on August 1, 2009.
Summer Wars will open the month-long festival with a one-night-only showing on February 26, followed by an opening night gala party.
NYICFF will also host the U.S. premiere of MADHOUSE's Mai Mai Miracle anime film. Sunao Katabuchi (Black Lagoon) directed this adaptation of Nobuko Takagi's Mai Mai Miracle (Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Mahō) novel. The story is set in 1955 in a town in southwestern Japan, where a nine-year-old girl named Shinko has an ancient family connection to a thousand-year-old province known as Suō. Shinko joins Kiiko, a new transfer student from her school, on a magical adventure. The film opened in Japan on November 21.
Mai Mai Miracle will premiere on February 27 with a repeat showing on March 6.
NYICFF will host the U.S. premiere of Production I.G's Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (Hottarake no Shima - Haruka to Mahō no Kagami) fantasy film. The computer-animated feature follows a girl named Haruka as she discovers where all of our childhood keepsakes and memorabilia go. Creatures from a different dimension gather these trinkets and forgotten treasures as their owners grow up. With their booty, the creatures have built their own city called Oblivion Island. The film opened in Japan on August 22.
Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror will also premiere on February 27 with a repeat showing on March 6.
On February 27 and March 13, NYICFF will show the U.S. theatrical premiere of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan) net anime series. The festival will show one 15-minute episode of the series, and it will compete with other short films in the "Flicker Lounge: For Teens & Adults Only" category. Yoshiura and Studio Rikka — the creators of the Mizu no Kotoba and Pale Cocoon anime — developed this "non-hard science-fiction" story about everyday life in a future Japan populated by robots and life-like androids.
Also competing in two other categories are two other short films by Japanese artists. In the "Heebie Jeebies: Spooky, Freaky and Bizarre" category, Iwaisawa Kenji's 5-minute short "Man in the Tunnel Alley" is nominated, and in the "Shorts for Tots" category, the world premiere of Motohiro Shirakawa's 3-minute short "Mr. Shape" is nominated.
Nodame Cantabile: Finale DVD to Have Unaired Episode
posted on 2010-01-28 11:42 EST
1st DVD volume with 2 TV episodes, unaired episode to ship in April
The first DVD for Nodame Cantabile: Finale, the third and final television anime series based on Tomoko Ninomiya's Nodame Cantabile manga, will ship on April 7 with an unaired episode. Besides the unaired episode, the first volume will feature the first two television episodes, credit-less opening and ending animation footage, and promotional videos.
The story of the original manga and its animated and live-action adaptations centers on two music prodigies who find themselves on parallel paths in Japan and later Europe. A Nodame Cantabile side story manga series launchedKodansha's biweekly Kiss magazine in December, after the main Nodame Cantabile manga series ended in the same magazine in October. The first of two live action Nodame Cantabile Saishū Gakushō (Nodame Cantabile: The Final Score) filmsopened in Japan on December 19, and the final television anime series premiered this month. Del Rey is publishing the 17th volume of the manga in North America this month.
The official website for the Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-Hen (Gintama: Benizakura Arc — A New Retelling) anime movie has begun streaming three television commercials on Thursday. (In the linked page, select the "本当のラスト," "TVスポット(15秒)," "はじまりは(30秒)," or "はじまりは(15秒)" video.) The first video teases that the "true last scene" of the anime is in the film.
Sunrise's film adaptation of Hideaki Sorachi's Gintama alternate-history gag manga will open on April 24. The manga's first 31 volumes have sold 29 million copies in Japan, and Viz Media publishes the manga and releases the anime in North America.
Diamond Comic Distributors Revise Minimum Order Policy
posted on 2010-01-28 11:22 EST
Initial orders for a title will still be shipped, even if minimum is not met
Diamond Comic Distributors announced in Wednesday's Diamond Daily newsletter that it has made a slight change to its minimum purchase order policy, which was last updated in January 2009. Diamond Comic Distributors is the main distributor that manga and other comic publishers use to distribute their products to comic book stores and any other retailers that do not return unsold items.
In the 2009 modifications, Diamond raised its purchase order minimum from US$1,500 to US$2,500. Publishers had to then demonstrate that an item could recoup US$2,500 in Diamond's costs in a month for the item to be included in Diamond's system.
However, under the new policy, even if an initial release offered to retailers in the Diamond magazine Previews does not meet the minimum purchase order threshold, Diamond will still honor all orders for that first release. According to Diamond's announcement, it will then "address our need to avoid unprofitable SKUs by not listing subsequent issues or like products" if they do not meet the minimum requirement. This new policy will take effect in the January issue of Diamond's Previews catalog.
In June 2009, Digital Manga Publishingcreated an online store to sell items returned from Diamond directly to retailers, completely separate from DMP's online store used to sell products directly to consumers. The new policy also affected "offered agains" or relistings of a product. In January, right before Diamond announced the initial modification, Diamond released a list of items that would not be available for back order or reorder from Diamond once Diamond ran out of stock. Included on this list were 1,018 items from the manga and anime publisher Viz Media, although those items are still readily available from regular bookstores and other retailers outside Diamond's distribution system.
Tomohiro Katō Apologizes in Court for Akiba Killings
posted on 2010-01-28 06:29 EST
7 killed, 10 injured when man ran over, stabbed pedestrians at Tokyo intersection
Tomohiro Katō has admitted responsibility and apologized in court on Thursday for killing seven and injuring 10 in a 2008 hit-and-run and stabbing rampage in Tokyo's otaku shopping district of Akihabara (Akiba).
According to the Mainichi Daily News paper, the 27-year-old man said during the first day of his trial in the Tokyo Disrict Court, "Although there are some points in the indictment I have no recollection of, there is no doubt that I am the criminal and that I committed the crime." He added during his plea, "I first would like to use this opportunity to offer an apology. I am deeply sorry to the people who died, those who were injured, and to the bereaved family members."
Katō faces the death penalty for the worst mass murder case in Japan in seven years. The man reportedly struck five individuals with a truck at an intersection near the main Japan Railways station of Akihabara at around 12:35 p.m. on June 8, 2008. He then allegedly proceeded to leave the vehicle and stab 12 people on the streets. Police apprehended the suspect on a side street shortly after the incident.
According to the police and Jiji Press, a message, titled "I will kill people in Akihabara," was posted on a mobile phone bulletin board about seven hours before the incident. The message reportedly read:
I Will Kill People in Akihabara
06/08 05:21
I will come barging in with a vehicle, and if I can't use the vehicle, I will use a knife. Farewell, everyone.
Kato was born in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan, but lived in Shizuoka Prefecture's Susono City in central Japan before the incident. He sent an apology letter to one of the victims, 56-year-old taxi driver Hiroshi Yuasa, in November. Katō wrote, "However much I repent, however much I apologize will never be enough to make things right, and since my crime deserves death 10,000 times I think I will be sentenced to death." He added that the victims' pain "must be something like the uncontrollable anger I felt when my online self was killed on the forum I spent all my time on by trolls."
The March issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Ciel magazine is announcing on Saturday that plans for a television anime adaptation of Shungiku Nakamura's Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi boys-love manga are in the works. The story follows the tension between a newly recruited manga editor and his tyrannical editor-in-chief — who happen to share a common past.
Nakamura also created the Junjo Romantica manga, which was previously adapted into two television anime seasons in 2008. Tokyopop published the Junjo Romantica manga in North America, while The Right Stuf Internationallicensed both of its television anime seasons. Nakamura inserted some characters from Junjo Romantica into Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi.
The media publisher Tokuma Japan has also posted a 40-second music video excerpt for the "Tsubasa o Kudasai" song by Beckii Cruel, the British girl who rose to Internet fame in Japan by dancing to anime songs in net videos. The "Beckii Cruel feat. Cruel Angels" musical act includes a French female college student named "Sara Cruel" and a British female high school student named "Gemma Cruel." Tokuma Japan will release the song's CD on February 10. In addition, Beckii Cruel will be on the cover of this year's 10th issue of Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion magazine, which ships on February 4.
The anime studio Sunrise has announced on Wednesday that it will hold the world premiere of the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn anime series on February 6 in Hong Kong. The preview screening will feature the director Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Harutoshi Fukui (the author of the original Gundam Unicorn novels), and "special Hong Kong guest Ekin Cheng." Application for tickets will be available in the following magazines and newspapers: Ani-Wave, Milk Magazine, Face Magazine, TVB Weekly, Ezone, Game 2000, G-Zone, PC Game Weekly, Gamania.com, CoCo, HK Walker, Apple Daily, Singtao Daily, and HKET.
The first anime episode, "Unicorn no Hi" (The Day of the Unicorn), will start a two-week "premiere review" run in theaters in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Sapporo on February 20. Also on February 20, Sony Computer Entertainment will begin distributing the anime on its online PlayStation Store for its PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles in Japan.
The Gundam Unicorn anime adapts Fukui's 10 novel volumes of the same name, which are set in the same Universal Century (UC) timeline as Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise's first Gundam science-fiction television anime series and its sequels. Bandai Visual's first Blu-ray Disc volume for the series will have a simultaneous international release with Japanese and English dubbing, as well as Japanese, English, French, Spanish, and Chinese subtitles. The first of six DVD volumes will ship on the same day with Japanese dubbing as well as Japanese and English subtitles.
Gokujō!! Mecha Mote Iinchō Shōjo Anime Gets 2nd Year
posted on 2010-01-27 20:45 EST
2nd TV year based on Tomoko Nishimura's high school manga to start in April
The March issue of Shogakukan's Ciao magazine is announcing on February 3 that the second year of the Gokujō!! Mecha Mote Iinchō (The Best!! Extremely Cool Student Council President) shōjotelevision anime series has been green-lit. The second year will begin this April.
In the original manga by Tomoko Nishimura, Mimi Kitagami is a kind, level-headed girl who aims to be the best, coolest student council president of her high school class. However, three trouble-making boys are always causing her grief — and she has a one-sided crush on one of the boys, Ushio Tōjō.
Gokujō!! Mecha Mote Iinchō has been running in Ciao since its January 2006 issue, and the 10th compiled book volume shipped in August. The series is broken down into six story arcs, with the latter ones distinguished by prefixes added to the title: "Motto" (Even More), "Yappa" (Of Course), "Datte" (Still), "Gutto" (Totally), and "Gu-gutto" (T-totally). There is also a one-shot side story published in Shogakukan's Ciao Deluxe magazine spinoff, as well as a Nintendo DS video game and card game released by Konami.
Male Arrested in Japan for Uploading via Perfect Dark (Updated)
posted on 2010-01-27 19:07 EST
1st arrest of anime file-sharer who used software that promised better anonymity
Kyodo News and other news sources report that Kyoto's High-Tech Crime Task Force has arrested a male suspect on Wednesday for allegedly uploading anime online, without the copyright holders' permission, using the Perfect Dark file-sharing software. Other people have been arrested for uploading anime online, but not for using Perfect Dark, a "next-generation" program which was intended to maintain its users' anonymity better than its predecessors. (The Perfect Dark file-sharing program has no relation to the Nintendo 64/Xbox Live Arcade game of the same name.)
According to the High-Tech Crime Task Force, the suspect uploaded the televised Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime in January. The suspect is accused of uploading over ten works in one day.
People Arrested for Using Earlier Share Program
Last November, police in Japan arrested 11 people for allegedly sharing films, music, anime, games, and other content using an earlier program called Share. The uploaded anime reportedly included Ranma ½, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Dragon Ball Kai, Fresh Precure!, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Lucky Star. The first three people accused of using the Share file-sharing program were arrested in May of 2008 in three different prefectures. These three suspects reportedly shared anime from the Gundamfranchise.
History of Winny, Share, and Perfect Dark
An even earlier peer-to-peer file-sharing software called Winny was developed in 2002 by a then anonymous computer engineering research assistant known as "47-shi" ("Mr. 47"). The software promised anonymity for its users, but the High-Tech Crime Task Force found flaws in its integrated forum feature. After two users were arrested for sharing copyrighted material using Winny in 2003, the developer was identified as Isamu Kaneko of the University of Tokyo and was also arrested. He was convicted and sentenced with a 1.5-million-yen (about US$12,000) fine, but was then acquitted last October.
During Kaneko's arrest and trial, another anonymous developer created the Share program which promised better protection of users' anonymity on Winny's file-sharing network. Since security researchers also found flaws in Share in 2006, other successor applications such as Perfect Dark have been developed.
Japan's Copyright Law prohibits unauthorized uploaders but expressly allowed people to download
for private use until this month. In June, the Japanese parliament passed an amendment that will make it illegal to knowingly download copyrighted material without authorization for the first time. The new law went into effect on January 1, 2010.
Update: In a separate case, the Cyber Crime Task Force of the Chiba Prefectural Police and the Ichikawa Municipal Police searched four Manga Land Internet cafes on Tuesday on suspicion that they displayed anime without the copyright holders' permission. According to Japan's Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCS), the accused infringed on copyrights by showing the first episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam, Major, and Dragon Ball to two customers between January 13 and 15. The three anime are owned by Sunrise, Shogakukan Shueisha Production, and Toei Animation, respectively.
ACCS alleged that the accused stored animation and other content on in-house servers, and allowed the content to be accessed from personal computers that were installed for customers to use without restrictions. The police confiscated three personal computers, seven servers, and 26 hard drives from the Motoyawata branch store. ACCS further alleged that the accused obtained the animation content via Share, Perfect Dark, and other file-sharing software. Source: animeanime.biz
Konami Style, the Japanese online store of the Konami game studio, has posted an introductory video to the Quiz Magic Academy: The Original Animation 2 anime. The anime will be included as an extra with Konami Style's limited editions of the Quiz Magic Academy DS ~Futatsu no Jikū-Seki~ trivia videogame when they ship on February 11, 2010. As their names imply, the Quiz Magic Academy games are set within a magical academy and test players on trivia. AIC PLUSanimated the first Quiz Magic Academy video anime, which shipped last year.
CG Astro Boy's studio restructures as it seeks new investors, plans Gatchaman film
Imagi International Holdings Limited, the Hong Kong-based parent company of the IMAGI animation studio, has announced that it withdrew "funding support from its United States subsidiaries in order to safeguard working capital" on Monday. As part of its ongoing restructuring, it has laid off 30 staffers and closed its United States office in Los Angeles. However, it is retaining "a small number of key staff" as consultants and subcontracting some of the office's previous work. IMAGI has been in discussions with potential investors to continue its business operations.
IMAGI laid off approximately 100 — most of whom were animators — out of its 450 employees in December. IMAGI produced the 2007 computer-animated film adaptation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book franchise and the 2009 computer-animated film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga. IMAGI announced that it is working on a planned film adaptation of Tatsunoko Production's Gatchaman anime series. According to its December 17 interim results report, the Gatchaman project will be "delivered in 100% Stereoscopic 3D."
Media Blasters Hints at Live-Action Bible Black Trailer
posted on 2010-01-27 00:14 EST
Japanese adult horror game already adapted into 4 video anime projects
Media Blasters CEO John Sirabellasaid on the AnimeOnDVD Forum on January 17 that a "Bible Black Live Action trailer" is getting made. Bible Black was originally an adult horror game that was adapted into a video anime series from 2001 to 2003. A Bible Black Origins prequel followed in 2002, as well as a 2004-2007 Bible Black: New Testament sequel and a 2005-2006 Black Black Only side-story anime. Media Blasters released all of the anime projects on DVD in North America.
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day:Zoids manga creator Michiro Ueyama has posted a parody manga that combines the iconic manga cat Doraemon with the hit Nintendo DS "virtual girlfriend" simulation software, Loveplus, on Tuesday.
In the "Jittai Loveplus" ("Real Loveplus") manga, the future robot cat Doraemon tells his modern master Nobita of a "solitaire game that lets unpopular boys get a taste of what interacting with girls is like." Unlike the current Nintendo DS game, this fictional future version creates a physical being to emulate a girlfriend for Nobita. However, chaos ensues when Nobita makes two more copies of the "Jittai Loveplus" game, and three virtual girlfriends appear simultaneously.
Viz Mediapublished Ueyama's Zoids manga in North America. In 1990, Ueyama won the Fujiko Fujio Award, which the Japanese publisher Shogakukan gives to the most promising new artist in the children's manga category. The award was named after Doraemon's creators.
Update: Another artist, under the pen name "Yasue T. Tajima," wrote his own unauthorized ending to the Doraemon story in 1998 and turned it into a manga in 2005. He sold at least 13,300 copies of his manga before issuing to an apology to Shogakukan and the copyright holder Fujiko Pro. He also agreed to shared the profits from the sales of his "conclusion" of the Doraemon series with the two companies.
Update 2: Link updated with creator's own blog. Thanks, dormcat.
