Okay, I know Bandai Visual USA’s DVDs are, for many of us, prohibitively expensive. But isn’t it a little over the top to actually treat them licensing a series as a bad thing, as Anime on DVD does (wondering who will “dodge the bullet” this time)?

…Then again, maybe not. Well, anyway, here’s the actual hint that was left in the dot-anime newsletter:

Bandai Visual USA New Title Announcement?! Coming soon?

Along with the special products, we do believe they have something up their sleeves to announce really soon. We see them working, but they’re sooo secretive. We also wonder what it is…

Since it’s not a very hint-tastic hint, I’ve got no guesses this time around.

Claymore!

So do I get to pull one of those balloon-dropping “I WAS RIGHT!” things now, a la Stephen Colbert?

But yeah, see the announcement page for a cute viralish video with the announcement.

If you’re looking for a series with a bunch of attractive people (particularly guys) designed by a prominent yaoi mangaka and don’t want to watch Gundam 00*, good news! Anime on DVD reports that Media Blasters has licensed Night Head Genesis, which is about a pair of brothers with psychic powers and, uh…some other things.

…I can’t say I recommend the show. I watched the first five or six episodes and had no idea what was going on (in the bad way), and the two brothers just sat around (or ran around) and bitched a lot. They were very very pretty though. It’s actually a retelling of a live-action series called Night Head that I never saw. But yeah, I thought the show was impressively mediocre, personally.

But if you like supernatural mysteries and hot guys, well…maybe you’ll like it better than I did?

(* Yes, I know that most of Gundam 00 character designer Yun Kouga’s work isn’t officially “yaoi,” but she HAS done yaoi doujinshi and clearly aims for that market with many of her mainstream work, so nyah. The yaoi mangaka who designed the characters of Night Head Genesis is You Higuri, of Gakuen Heaven / Gorgeous Carat fame.)

I was too busy cramming for my Japanese midterm to notice this for myself (and tut-tut, FUNimation, for not shipping me a press release), but AoD did: the new FUNimation Countdown promises an announcement on Friday at 12pm PST, the company’s first acquisition of 2008. It links to a thread on the FUNimation forums where speculation bounds.

So! Let’s analyze. Red blotchy, kinda violent/messy looking font for the numbers. Archaic script for “days”/”hours”/”minutes.”

Because of the red font I’d be kind of tempted to guess Black Lagoon or Hellsing, but I kinda doubt they managed to negotiate either with Geneon THAT fast. It could conceivably be Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, but the font is considerably darker-looking than the show. Perhaps Production I.G’s Shinrei Kari/Ghost Hound? But the archaic font doesn’t quite fit. The Gunslinger Girl sequel season might be a possibility since FUNi has the first one, but…eh. Hakaba Kitarou? Mnemosyne? Persona -trinity soul-? Surely not Zetsubou! Could it be Kaze no Stigma? (Ehhh, I’d figure a blue, or something that invoked wind (kaze) would be a better choice than red, then.)

Someone on the forum thread suggested Claymore, a distinct possibility, especially since the show was rumored to have been licensed by FUNi back in December, so I think that’s my official guess.

Another possibility is D.Gray-Man, but VIZ has the manga, so it seems likely that they’d get first crack at the anime. (I’m always a little surprised it hasn’t been brought to the US yet; but then, it’s a second-tier show compared to Bleach, Naruto, etc. in terms of popularity in Japan.)

Well, there you have it. Ponder away, folks.

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.

That title doesn’t really mean anything, by the way, it’s just a tie-in with a manga title.

Anyway, MangaBlog spotted an unannounced license of Broccoli Books USA: Honoka Lv. Up!, and they even got an editorial blurb about it:

Honoka, a lonely young student, loves to doodle and draw. But her casual love of art is transformed when her uncle hires her to work as a character developer at his new video gaming company. Honoka has no idea how to negotiate the complex corporate world, and as she begins to learn the basics of the video game industry, she finds herself getting caught up in the confusing politics, crushing responsibilities, and difficult developmental aspects of her newfound calling. Overwhelmed by the challenges, Honoka realizes that she’ll have to give it her all if she wants to succeed.

Just when I thought it was safe to run to the gym and the store, ANN snatches this piece of news: FUNimation has licensed Baldr Force EXE Resolution, an anime based on a popular game for the Sega Dreamcast (how long has it been since you heard about THAT system?).

The OVAs were announced separately from the con, for reasons unbeknownst to me. (Yeah, those few of you who seem to think that I know everything about the inside workings of FUNimation? Not so much. In fact, not at all.)

That said, I dunno much about it, never watched it, etc. So I can’t say I’m too excited, but hey, whatever.

Current Mood:  Disappointed

ADV just licensed Gurren Lagann, so I can’t wear my Yoko gear. Which I hadn’t even gotten the chance to try and convince my boss to let me wear. *pout*

By the way - I was right.

Current Mood:  Tired

…But not much! I picked up some manga at the Go! Comi booth (Train + Train volume two, After School Nightmare volume four), and then I headed to Hen Da Ne! for some doujinshi ♥

I would like to note, for the record, that as usual I bought more het than yaoi. Two yaoi Geass doujinshi (and one’s just gag, not smut), two het Geass doujinshi (one CC, one Viletta), and two het Gurren Lagann doujinshi (one Yoko, one Nia - yay for Hen Da Ne being fast, even if that guy who does all the yelling about the yaoi is a complete asshole).

I have a friend of mine keeping a watch out for my Geass figure that I want, though I don’t hold a ton of hope that he’ll be able to find it, but beyond that, all I have left to buy is…a big stack of manga. I should make a list of stuff so I actually know what to look for. *grumble*

Anyway. I’ve covered VIZ, Seven Seas, Bandai Visual USA, and the Haruhi seiyuu panels so far, and I’m hanging around waiting for the Aurora Publishing panel, after which I will meet my boss (and, quite possibly, my coworker Dale, who I have yet to actually meet in person).

No really major news so far; VIZ didn’t announce a single new license, amazingly. It looks like they’re saving up for Otakon. 7S is broadening their ranges to include both yaoi and children’s books - go figure. BVU snagged Super Robot Wars and a CG Gundam spinoff called MS Igloo. They SAY they’re not going to start taking over the Gundam franchise from Bandai Entertainment, but we’ll see.

Alrighty, just a few minutes until Aurora. I’ve declined to wait in line for a raffle ticket and swag bag. (Hopefully I can get the swag later, and I’m not sure I’m even allowed to enter raffles. I’m so well-behaved I can hardly stand myself!)