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!). ♥

Posted by gia in Anime, JP News, Music, New Series, News • Comments (1)

So Digital Manga Publishing is bringing Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi and the artist for the new VHD manga, Saiko Takaki, to Anime Expo this year. Unfortunately, they’ll just miss crossing paths with another Vampire Hunter D name– Yoshitaka Amano, who illustrated the original VHD novels (and, yes, did character designs for Final Fantasy, and that one volume of Sandman, blah blah blah). Amano is a guest of Radical Comics at the convention. Radical is publishing Mateki: The Magic Flute, Amano’s take on Mozart’s popular opera; apparently they’re opening up a new line of comics created for the Asian market.

Meanwhile, Anime Expo just announced a new guest: Masahiro Ando, who’ll be there to pimp Bones’ new movie Stranger(/Sword of the Stranger/Mukoh Hadan), which we can probably presume will be announced for a US release at the con. Ando is also known for his work as animation director on Sailor Moon and various roles in Fullmetal Alchemist.

Posted by gia in Anime, Cons, News, Western News • Comments (3)

So according to Manga Jouhou, a Korean drama adaptation of the Nodame Cantabile manga picked up three awards at the Seoul Drama Awards this year, including Best Miniseries.

TokyoGraph also notes the winners of the Seiun Awards, a prestigious award for sci-fi writers– Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo won the award for the “Media” category, and it’s also worth noting that Yoshitaka Amano (of Vampire Hunter D and Final Fantasy fame, you heathen!) picked up the Art award.