Yeah, I know– me? Up late? Posting? NEVER! But I just got back from seeing Speed Racer (my thoughts will appear in the next post) and heard some most excellent news of an entirely different sort: Moon Phase is now reporting that a second season of Nodame Cantabile is set to start airing in October in the Noitamina block (as did the first season, if I remember correctly).

That’s all. Speed next!

While I was busy getting my bigass suitcase repaired for my Acen trip and getting tickets to see Speed Racer tonight (I know, slowpoke.jpg, amiright?) those clever ANN kids checked out Radical Comics’ official website, which notes that Yoshitaka Amano will also be directing an anime version of his Magic Flute.

Now, I’m not necessarily Amano’s biggest fan– I think his work is beautiful, but it doesn’t especially draw me in –but I absolutely love The Magic Flute. I actually just saw a really nice production if it when I was in California on my birthday, coincidentally with a lot of Japan-inspired visuals. The Queen of the Night and her team wore gi-like tops and hakama with vinyl waist cinchers, for example…I couldn’t find a shot of that, unfortunately, but the one decent picture I could find is pictured above, left. The picture on the right is from the promo poster for Amano’s Magic Flute.

On the speculation front, I expect that the anime would be in a single movie format, not an episodic TV anime…although that’s possible too! Now, the book was originally published in 2001 by Asahi Sonorama, who have been involved in a handful of works adapted into anime, from Vampire Hunter D to Andromeda Stories to To Terra. I looked into them and there was no one anime production company that they especially seemed to deal with, so anyone could be doing the adaptation. Hmm.

But, yeah, I’m pretty excited about this project, especially if they incorporate Mozart’s music (Queen of the Night Aria ftw!). ♥

Remember how I talked a while back about Neko Rahmen, a 4koma comic strip whose anime had been released subtitled on VUZE a while back and which is now getting a live-action adaptation? Yes/no (circle one and return to me in 5th period!)

Well, it’s once again appeared in the news, tangentially anyway: anime!anime! reports that another work of Sonishi’s, a similar gag manga called Inu Gaisha that features dogs working in an office, is getting made into an anime as well. (It was also made into a live-action series in 2007.

Like Neko Rahmen, it’s going to be a Flash anime; unlike it, the production companies are different. Neko Rahmen was developed as part of THINK Corporation, but Inu Gaisha (literally “Dog Company,” btw) is being developed by indeprox. You can watch a mini-episode-thinger (or maybe a full episode is going to be like that?) at the official website.

So since his works keep coming up these days, I spent a small amount of spare time which I don’t have to look into him, only to find…not a lot of information! What I did find is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, yes, roundup-tastic– I’m back working on more database stuff for the new site, so a bit less time for the lengthy posts (though there’s always time for more CPM/Libre speculation!).

Anime:
- Man, we do a Spoiler-san for Haruhi on Japanator, and suddenly the Haruhi news just keeps popping up. First the Wii game, and now Canned Dogs reports that details on The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, aka Haruhi Second Season, are due in the July issue of Newtype. Huzzah!

- A video for the Mashura remake is up.

- This one’s a day or two old now, but I sucked at getting it up (Golden Week makes me lazy!): Zune is going to carry some FUNimation titles, including Afro Samurai and Witchblade.

- Meanwhile, Bandai Visual USA plans to stream Super Robot Wars and Galaxy Angel Rune– just the first episodes –within the next few weeks.

- The Higurashi no Naku Koro ni third season OVA has been confirmed and will start being released this winter. (Via Moon Phase.)

Movies:
- ICv2 has details on the DVD release of Naruto the Movie 2.

- Ain’t It Cool News has a few reader reviews of the Speed Racer film. Here’s another and another and more and more and more…

Games:
- The Wii Fit is a bad, bad person machine. Seriously.

- Meanwhile, Japanator reports on a board game featuring characters from anime romcoms– and Project A-Kon and Dominion Tank Police. Sounds like someone got a little too wacky with their copy of BESM one night…

Misc:
- Various website updates: apparently ADV is now outsourcing its online shop to Right Stuf in yet another cost-cutting move (though FUNimation did it first). Meanwhile, Bandai Entertainment’s temporary site promises a new website at 5pm PST tomorrow, or else a firing.
- And in a final bit of “awww!” news, FUNimation has been visited by a very special VIP: Jay Dunn, a 15-year-old who visited FUNimation with assistance from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The image above is some of Jay’s art. How’s that for a warm-and-fuzzy way to sign off?

Today’s Moon Phase diary has some details on Slayers REVOLUTION, although it’s unclear where it came from (though other information has been hitting the web from Newtype and other mags today, so I’m guessing it’s one of the primary anime ‘zines). Moon Phase is generally spot-on, so take it as you will.

Anyway, they report that the anime will air in July on TV Tokyo in a late-night spot. Apparently the plot at least begins as a search for a replacement for Gourry’s Sword of Light. Characters that I think haven’t been seen in the anime before (but who are known in the novels) will appear, including Rook and Mirina. Some more familiar faces, as well: Prince Phil returns, as does Sylphiel. And apparently some kind of mascot character called Pokota, as well…no clue there.

Once again, no source cited on the blog, but it’s Moon Phase, so it’s up to you what to think.

Moon Phase has the word on an anime adaptation of Kurozuka, Baku Yumemakura and Takashi Noguchi’s 2002 manga about a pair of immortals named Kurou and Kuromitsu who fall in love and, over the course of a thousand years, fall apart again. (Apparently the manga is an adaptation of Yumemakura’s novel; he also wrote the Onmyouji series, about Abe no Seimei.)

The announcement was made on Animax’s website, which also mentions a date for Kurozuka and for the previously announced Ultraviolet: Code 044 anime: July 1st.

Aaaaaaaand in this corner, we have Slayers REVOLUTION! Moon Phase’s link has an image that tells us nothing about the new series (at first I was like, “Sylphiel’s coming back? Shit!”). The images are actually the first few covers for a re-release of the Slayers novels by Hajime Kanzaka. Do want! *scours Amazon for the Tpop releases in the meantime*

So the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni live-action film is coming out on May 10th, and a sequel has already been announced. So what are they going to do with Higurashi next? Are they going to let it lay low for a bit, or maybe even put the series to rest to work on something new?

HELL NO! They’re (tentatively) going to make a third season OVA-style, according to Moon Phase. It looks like more details are going to be available in the June issue of Megami, but it’s going to be called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei.

In unrelated news: happy birthday to Japanator’s John Martone! Aaaand I’ll be back later today. I have to go to the DMV and update my driver’s license ’cause I moved. God only knows how long it’ll take. @_@ But I have a giant round-up coming after that, so stick around. ♥

The novel Bakemonogatari– written by NisiOisiN, who wrote the xxxHOLiC and Death Note novels as well as the Zaregoto series, which is part of Del Rey’s Faust project, and who I’ve heard 2ch’ers suspect is merely a pen name of Death Note creator Tsugumi Ohba –may be snagging an anime adaptation, according to Moon Phase.

The novel is actually a two-volume series of five short stories that apparently feature a lot of otaku in-jokes, although of a more classic nature than, say, Lucky Star’s constant Haruhi references. The general plot is that a nice guy meets a tsundere, hinjinks ensue, etc, but with a few twists…he’s apparently an ex-vampire, for example.

The title, by the way, is a play on words– “bakemono” being monster and “monogatari” being story, they’ve been fused to translate roughly, I suppose, to “Monster Story.” (Perhaps more appropriately…MonStory?) Anyway, apparently the second printing of the second volume included a seal announcing the anime.

I kind of like “DigiDistro” as a shortened form of “Digital Distribution.” What do you think?

Anyway, GDH/GONZO issued another press release today announcing that they’re going to adapt the 90s dark comedy Hennako-chan, about a weird kid (”hen” => weird, “ko” => child, or can also be used to girl-ify a name, a la “Kyonko,” so the name could literally be “Weirdgirl-chan” or “Weird kid-chan”) into an anime consisting of six 3-minute episodes.

The series is going to be released online on GONZO’s YouTube channel, and it’ll also be offered with both English and Chinese subtitles simultaneously with the Japanese release, via YouTube and a service created by a company called Fujiyama that offers multilingual subtitle software.

Well, that’s what the Mainichi reports: in an anime, a blog, and a picture book with the theme “LOVE OUR PLANET,” Gackt’s dog Ener– a long-coat chihuahua –will be the main character. I’m not making this up. The project is known as Ener’s Big Adventure and the official website is online here.

So take THAT, Paris Hilton and Tinkerbell!