Continuing with our regular Rob Watch, check out one of his latest. Apparently the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Phillippines is starting a “Bible Anime” program, but it also apparently doesn’t know what “anime” means, since they will be producing a line of manga-esque comics about Biblical characters and passages.
OLD NEWS ROB. This is what, like, the 86th manga version of the Bible? (Okay, fine, third or so, whatever.)
What’s way more fun about his post is his list of manga Bible scenes he’d like to see. I’ll tease you with one, but you’ll have to visit him to get the rest:
David using the Fist of the North Star technique on Goliath
So apparently it took ADV until a few hours ago to come up with this excuse for the removal of major titles (Gurren Lagann, Kanon, etc) from their website: “short-term challenges.” But they still claim that they intend to release all of ‘em, so here’s hoping.
So I was going through and updating a bunch of bookmarks, during which time I went on over to Square Enix’s site for the first time in a long time. There I discovered an announcement that reports that in spite of reports of the contrary, there IS no official release date for Final Fantasy XIII yet.
Now, I haven’t heard anything about an FFXIII release date yet (and I’ve been sitting here muck, so it can’t be all THAT widespread a rumor yet. But, there you have it.
Just got a press release from TRSI, whose sub-only release of Victorian Romance Emma will be previewed in the final issue of Newtype USA (the February issue). And allow me to point out, for those of you still reeling from BVU’s prices, that Emma is coming out in two 12-episode box sets (one for each season), and the first one is $49.99. Go TRSI!
They did want to point out, though, that although the Newtype USA DVD will feature a letterbox (4:3 aspect ratio) early cut of the first episode of Emma, the actual DVD set will have widescreen (16:9) video.
Allow me to also note that Emma is a fantastic show, even if (like me) you’re not usually all that in to romance. It’s a beautifully animated period piece with spectacular character development and I highly recommend it.
Odex: Some of you may remember a (longish) while back that Odex’s attempt to sue PacNet for the right to get user information to go along with the IP addresses of anime downloaders was stalled when a judge determined that Odex, being a licensor instead of a copyright owner, could not sue. Odex then added six Japanese companies (Gonzo, Kadokawa, Showgate, Sunrise, TV Tokyo, and Yomiuri) to the suit and PacNet has now agreed to give up the names. Odex continues to be reviled, and PacNet and Justice Woo Bih Li are no longer heroes of the anime community. If Odex sues all the downloaders and gets money from them, they could be up $9 million. Blech. Source:TorrentFreak
ADV: ANN has an update on ADV’s title removal, including MORE titles that have been removed from the website. They also stumbled upon what was supposed to be an unpublished article on ICv2 (thanks, Google) that talked of financial problems between ADV and ARM Corp., a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment (JCI), which has also invested in ADV. The article, according to ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp, is not correct as it’s currently written, though it’s possible that ADV’s issues will turn out to be related– which is, of course, something no one knows for sure just now. ADV has still not commented officially, but ANN also notes that various anime retailers say they have NOT received any cancellation notices for these titles from ADV. Source:ANN
Bandai Visual USA: Those prices are still crazy. Just thought I’d let you know.
Well, kudos to BVU on speed: they’ve licensed both Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed and True Tears, according to Anime on DVD. Both shows are currently airing in Japan, having started in early January, and their first discs are both do out in the US in May. That means they won’t be out before their runs in Japan are over (each show is 13 episodes), but that’s still pretty quick turnaround for a full DVD release– as AoD points out, the North American DVDs will come out only a couple of months after the Japanese counterpart DVDs.
However, it’s Bandai Visual USA, so each 13-ep series will come out on 7 discs. Shigofumi will have 2 eps per disc except for the final disc, which will only have one; True Tears will have 2 eps per disc except for the FIRST disc, which will only have one– I guess BVU is experimenting. 1-episode discs will cost $29.99 and 2-episode discs will cost $39.99. For those of you counting, that means each series will cost about $270, or about $20.75 per episode. Yowch.
If you want my First Date reviews for these series, Shigofumi is here and True Tears is here.
Man, I jump on a plane to California and what does FUNimation go and do? They put the ENTIRE anime of Black Blood Brothers on their website as download-to-own files for $1.99 an ep (it’s a 12-ep series).
And then Kadokawa teams up with Google/YouTube, announcing that they will set up an official YouTube site where they’ll share videos from Japanese artist. No word on exactly what sorts of videos we’ll see, but they’ll be selling their own ad space on the site and sharing revenues with the artists.
Should be interesting to see what they come up with, eh?
Everyone thank roryo for the following news tip, which I just got here at work: Nausicaa.net picked up on word from Variety Asia that Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s newest flick, Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo On a Cliff) has been slated to hit theaters in Japan in mid-July, probably July 19th, which would be a holiday weekend in Japan. Huzzah!
About goddamn time! MangaCast spotted some new VIZ licenses on Amazon.com, including the fantastically badass smuggler dramedy Black Lagoon, as well as another work by Vampire Knight’s Matsuri Hino called WANTED, two Arina Tanemura manga– Time Stranger Kyoko and one called Kanshaku Tamano Yuuutsu (no relation to Haruhi; “Short-Tempered Melancholy”) and the manga of Rosario to Vampire. Oh, and another Akira Toriyama work: Cowa!
Also licensed: Ayumi Komura’s Mixed Vegetables, Hisaya Nakajo’s Sugar Princess, and Youzabara Kanari and Kuroko Yabuguchi’s Gimmick!. MangaCast also has covers for previously-announced (I think) titles Cat Eyed Boy, One Pound Gospel, and of course, Slam Dunk.