Japan Style

Boys Over Flowers' Group 8 to adapt shōjo classic for this fallA live-action Korean television series adaptation of Kaoru Tada's classic shōjo manga Itazura na Kiss is in production for airing this fall. Group 8, the production company behind the live-action Korean version of Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango), is producing the new project. Hwang In-Roe (Palace) is slated to direct.

In the original romantic comedy manga, a high school girl named KOTOKO finally tells a fellow senior named Naoki (Ren Yagami) that she has loved him from afar since she saw him on their first day of high school. However Naoki, a haughty "super-ikemen" (handsome male) with smarts and sports talent, rejects her offhand. Fate intervenes when a mild earthquake ruins KOTOKO's family house. While the house gets rebuilt, KOTOKO and her dad stay at the home of her dad's childhood friend...whose son is Naoki. The manga's story follows Naoki and KOTOKO through high school and beyond, but it never ended because Tada lost her life in an accident in 1999.

The manga was already adapted as a television drama series in Japan (1996), another drama series with a sequel in Taiwan under the name It started with a kiss (2005), and a television anime series (2008). The 23 manga volumes have sold 27 million copies just in Japan alone.

Digital Manga Publishing published the second volume of the manga in North America earlier this month

Keyword : Itazura na Kiss, Manga, Korean, Live Action

The series "tells the saga of The Shadow Lord, an evil sorcerer who has taken over the kingdom of Deltora by destroying a magical object known as The Belt of Deltora. Throughout the course of the series, young warrior Lief, his mentor Barda and young Jasmine travel around the land of Deltora to return the seven gems to the belt and save the kingdom."

DCI Los Angeles, the U.S. division of Dentsu, Inc., had already announced in February that it is running the series on the Cartoon Network in Australia and New Zealand this spring. The anime ran in Japan from 2007 to 2008.
Discovery Communicatuons and Hasbro will launch The Hub on October 10 in 60 million homes.

Having read and owned the Hagakure, which is a collection of prose and writings by samurai warrior Yamamoto Tsunetomo that were collected near the end of his life that detail the Bushido honor code while telling the story of a young samurai eager to learn from an old former warrior turned Zen monk; I always wondered why the book had not been adapted into a manga anthology, as much of the descriptive prose lends itself to lush visuals.
It seems the newly formed Kodansha International has done just that, with the forthcoming release of the manga adaptation based off of William Scott Wilson’s English translation. Sean Michael Wilson (no relation to the aforementioned translator) adapted the prose for the manga layout while illustrator Chie Kutsuwada provided the illustrations and translator Wilson also provided the afterword for the adaptation.The 145 page manga is slated to be released in January of 2011 for $14.95.

The North America anime distributor Funimation has announced at its Anime Central panel on Saturday that it has licensed the Rosario + Vampire, Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Chaos;HEAd, Chrome Shelled Regios, Rideback, Heaven's Lost Property (Sora no Otoshimono), and GUNxSWORD anime series. All of the new titles will ship in 2011 — except for GUNxSWORD and Regios, which will ship in late 2010

Funimation has also announced the English dubbing casts for Eden of The East, Casshern Sins, and Shikabane Hime. The company is offering a "free ride" to Comic-Con International in San Diego this July to the most ardent Fullmetal Alchemist fan; fans can enter by posting their video pleas on YouTube and http://www.fullmetalalchemist.com/comiccon/.

Takayuki Inagaki (Desert Punk, Indian Summer) and Gonzo's 2008 Rosario + Vampire television series and its Rosario + Vampire Capu2 sequel adapt Akihisa Ikeda's supernatural school comedy manga of the same name. The story follows an ordinary high school boy who fails to get into any private academy except one — which happens to be populated by supernatural creatures (yōkai) disguised as humans. To survive, Tsukune Aono has to pretend that he is also a yōkai and blend in. Viz Media publishes the manga in North America

Earlier this year, the NYICFF hosted the U.S. premieres of three anime features and several shorts, including the Summer Wars family anime film from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time director Mamoru Hosoda, MADHOUSE's Mai Mai Miracle anime film, and Production I.G's Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror fantasy film.

The official website and blog of the Tono to Issho anime franchise has announced on Thursday that the fifth volume of Ohba-Kai's original 4-panel gag manga will bundle a new anime DVD "volume 1.5" on August 23. The manga follows the humorous exploits of generals during Japan's tumultuous sengoku (Era of the Warring States) period. The anime DVD's voice cast remains largely unchanged from the one used in the previous drama CD, but the character Honda Tadakatsu (pictured at right, played by Raikō Sakamoto) will debut on the anime DVD.
A video anime adaptation had already shipped in March, and the official website has also announced that a television anime series adaptation will premiere in July. Mankyuu is directing, scripting, and storyboarding the "volume 1.5" anime DVD, just as he did for the earlier video anime. Frontier Works is producing the music, and Gathering is producing the animation.