Heavens to betsy, lookit all that news!

TV Anime:
- ANN has confirmed that Bandai Visual (that’s the Japanese one) is going to be releasing some of its titles globally on Blu-Ray, i.e. with subtitles in English and other languages.
- Meanwhile, Slayers REVOLUTION just looks better and better: Megumi Hayashibara has announced on her official site that she’ll be singing both the OP and ED themes.

Manga:
- ICv2 has released its Anime/Manga Guide, and Naruto remained the top property while anime sales continue to decline (although box sets seem to be doing well).
- An absolute must-read: Christopher Butcher goes way in-depth with VIZ’s original content line.
- God help us all, the 48-person girl group AKB48 is getting its own manga.
- A mysteriously unnamed set of “anime artists” (I can only assume they actually draw manga?) took part in a breast cancer fundraiser.

Movies/OVAs:
- An official trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Sky Crawlers is up at the official website. Score!

Music:
- Anime on DVD has a press release from Jpop group Budo Grape, with two Texas appearances (including A-kon) and one in New York City.

Toys/Swag:
- Kotobukiya is a Japanese company, and Batman is getting made into an anime, so I can call this anime-ish news, right? ‘Cause it’s absolutely badass.
- In other toy news, Japan is working on a line of eco-friendly toys.

Misc:
- I finally have a good reason to hunt down a copy of Otaku USA– Japanator’s Zac Bentz is in the new issue.
- If my preview of Manga Cafe Mika wasn’t enough for you, here’s Deb Aoki’s coverage of the grand opening over at manga.about.com.

Weehaw!

Posted by gia in Features, Roundups • Comments (5)

Hey man, I can’t hit up EVERY panel/event @_@

IGN reports on and has a trailer for the newest project of guest of honor Kobun Shizuno (co-director of Evangeliwon 1.0: You Are [Not] Alone). It’s called Cross Climb, the tale of a heartbroken young woman who joins a virtual reality game / MMORPG type deal called, naturally, Cross Climb. Here’s the website and you can also catch the trailer on YouTube. Interesting art style; it looks like an American cartoon/anime hybrid. I’m not yet sure if it’s going to be a movie, TV series, OVA, or what; the trailer doesn’t say.

And then this isn’t a NYAF item, but very cool nonetheless: the new Batman project (a DVD featuring six animated shorts, a la the Animatrix collection) will feature works by Madhouse, Studio 4°C, and Production I.G, according to TokyoGraph. Rumor has it that Paprika director Satoshi Kon may be involved as well.

Just a quick couple…