Japan Style

The british anime distributor Beez Entertainment has announced at it's Amecon panel on Saturday that it licensed The Girl Who Leapt Through Space ( Sora no Kakeru Shoujo ), Sora no Woto, Lucky Star, Outlaw Star television anime series.

Beez Entertainment intends to release Lucky Star in two half season sets with the original video anime (OVA) spinoff also include, and Outlaw Star will be released with the Anime Legends line.

Keyword: Beez Entertainment, Sora Kake, Sora no Woto, Lucky Star, Outlaw Star

The official website for the television anime adaptation of Lim Dal-Young and Kim Kwang-Hyun's Freezing manga has begun steraming it's first promotional video on Monday. The Production company Media Factory ran the same videoat it's booth at Comic in Tokyo this past weekend.

The Story revolves around Kazuya, a boy who lost his sister in humankind's fight against beings from another dimension. He enrolls in Genetics, a military academy for combat training againts the dimension beings. There, a group of girls known as " Pandora " prepare to fight the unknown enemy. The enemy will premiere in Japan next spring.

Keyword: Freezing, TV, Manga, Anime, Stream

The official Twitter account of Bandai Namco's Collectors devision has confirmed on Sunday that a music video (music clip) collection for the Macross Frontier anime franchise will ship in Japan on December 15. The announcement was made at Girasama Carnival, the summer Macross Frontier event which ran at the Pacifico Yokohama on Sunday. The music videos will feature new footage in addition to animation from the Macross Frontier television and film projects.

The Girasama Carnival event also revealed that the second Macross Frotier film (Macross Frontier ~Sayonara no Tsubasa~, will open in Japan on February 26, 2011. A two-night Macross Frontier event will run on December 22 at Tokyo's Nippon Bdoukan, and on December 24 in Kobe's Port Island Hall. Macross Frontier composer Yoko Kanno is presenting the event, and more details will be revealed on September 9 at 9.00 p.m Bandai will release the trasformable DX Chougokin toy version of the VB-6 Kounig Monster bomber and transformable SD infinty toy version of the VF-25 Messiah Valkyrie Fighter in September.

Keyword: Macross Frontire, Music, Video, Anime, Toy, Carnival, Event

Kun Gao, CEO of the Cruchyroll media distribution website, has announced on this week's  ANNCast podcast episode that his company licensed the North American DVD rights to Mokoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second film. This will be the first DVD release by Crunchyroll. Cruchyroll  hopes to ship the new DVD with Bang Zoom! Entertainment's recent English dub in late September or early October.

Byousoku 5 Centimeter - a chain of short stories about their distance. is the second full lenght film from the auteur director and writer Makoto Shinkai ( Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, She and Her Cat. The film is split into three individual segments, and it premiered in Japan in 2007. Shinkai is already working on his next anime feature film with most of his 5 Centimeters Per Second staff, and he posted initial imageboard art from the upcoming project in December.

Crunchyroll is handling the production, promotion, and financing og the new DVD release for 5 centimeters Per Second, While Bandai Entertainment helping to manufacture, package, and distribute the DVD. The Viz Cinema theater in San Francisco's " New People culture entertainment center will screen the film on September 14. Crunchyroll had Streamed the film along with other Shinkai works to mark Global Shinkai Days on February 28 last year and this year. ADV Films had licensed the film and released a DVD with the Company's own dub in 2008. 

Keyword: Crunchyroll, 5 Centimeters per Second, DVD

The offical website of the Freezing franchise has coonfirmed that a television anime of Lim Dal-Young and Kim Kwang-Hyun's manga will premiere in Japan in Spring of 2011. The production company Media Factory also made the announcement at it's Comic Market 78 booth at the Tokyo Big Sight event center on Friday. The story revolves around Kazuya, a boy who lost his sister in humankind's fight against being from another dimension. He enrolls in Genetics, a military academy for combat training against the Dimension beings, There, a group aof girl known as "Pandora" prepare to fight the unknown enemy.

Keyword: Manga, Comic, Spring, Anime

Japanese cosplay retailer COSPATIO is currently selling limited-edition licensed costumes based on the plugsuits worn by character Asuka Langley and Rei Ayanami in the TV Neon Genesin Evangelion. The Costumes are made to order and cost 553,350 yen within a standard realm of measurements. Costumers outside of these measurements may have to pay higher price.

To order the Costume, costumers must fill out a form and either bring it to one of COPATIO's six participating store location, or mail the form in and pay for the costume to be delivered. However, the retailer warns that the costumes are tight and recommends that costumers have the costume fitted.

Keyword: Costume-Fitted, Evangelion,

TBS Holding, the parent company of the Japanese television station TBS, revealed in it's financial results for the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year that it earned 1.8 Billion yen in sales of K-On! anime t-shirt and other tie-in character goods. Home video sales and licensing rights for the anime itself are not counted towards that 1.8 Billion yen total. The financial results cover the three-month period from April 1 to June 30. 

K-on!, The second television anime series based on kakifly's four-panel comedy manga about high school girls who form a rock band, premiered on April 6. Bandi Entertainment announced at Anime Expo in July that it licensed the first K-On! television series, and Yen Press licensed the original manga.

Keyword: K-On!, TBS

The Anime distributor Aniplex of America has announced that it will release R.O.D - The Complete - Blue Ray Box set this winter. The five-disc set will include the original three R.O.D video anime episodes as well as the 26 episodes in the R.O.D - The TV - anime sequel. The set will have Japanese and English Language soundytacks.

Manga Entertainment once released the 2001-2002 R.O.D video anime series in North America, and 2003-2004 Geneon Entertainment.

Keyword: Aniplex, R.O.D, Anime, Blue ray

Grant Miyamura Reel Anime 2010 has listed the location of it's festival screenings in Australia and New Zealand and announced its special guests. Yuko Miyamura, the Japanese voice actess who played the character Asuka, will be present in the Australia premiere of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (Evangeion Shin Gekijouban:Ha) Miyamura also performed as Asuka in Evangelion television series and The End of Evangelion film. Another guest will be Tiffany Grant, Who voiced Asuka in the english dub of the television series. They will appear at the Dendy Newton theater in Sydney on August 5 at 6:30p.m.

Keyword: Japanese, English, Actress, Evangelion:2.0, Series

Jeph Loeb, Executive Vice President, Head of Television of Marvel, has confirmed at the Iron Man Anime Panel in Comic-Con International on friday that the four Marvel Anime Television series wil launch in the United States on The G4 television network in 2011. The four Anime Series
 are Iron man, Wolverine, Blade, and X-Man.

Keyword: Anime, Marvel, U.S, G4 Television

According to a Friday Post on the official Disney Parks Blog , the Japan Pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot theme park has opened a new axhibit called "Spirit Beasts: From Ancient Strories to Anime Stars." The Florida-based exhibit showcase classic creatures from Japanese folktales that have seved as inspiration for modem day anime and manga series.

Among the examples pictured are the kappa, the kitsune, the tsuru, the saru, and the moon rabbit. Project Manager and show producer Wyatt Winter says that exhibit should run for several years. Prior to the Spirit Beasts exhibit, the location housed exhibits on World Heritage Sites of Japan and Tin Toy Stories.

Disney's involvement with anime in North America consists primarily of it's localization and distribution of Studio Ghibli titles. Recently, however, Disney added Naruto to it's Disney XD Television channel's lineup. Disney has alaso been creating original content for the Japanese market, including three television series spinoffs of it's film Lilo and Stitch with anime studios MADHOUSE and Shinei Animation.

Keyword: Walt Disney, Anime, Beasts

The fourth Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume of the Senkō no Night Raid television anime series will ship in Japan on September 22 with two unaired episodes. The volume will contain episode 6 ("Rankai no Yoru" or Ominous Night), which did air on television, and episode 7 ("Jihen" or Incident), which was streamed for free instead of televised. In addition, the volume will add another unaired episode called "Ahenkutsu no Akuma" (Devil of the Opium Den) as well as "Yogen" (Prediction) — the special episode that replaced "Jihen" in the television broadcast.

Like the previous volumes, the fourth volume will also include an alternate "Japanese dubbing" track (in which the original cast dubs the anime entirely in Japanese instead of both Japanese and Chinese) and an audio commentary. The Limited first edition will bundle postcard and booklet extras.

Keyword: Ahenktsu no Akuma, Yogen, DVD, Blue-ray Disc, Japanese

The Japanese Studio Toei Animation announced at a June 16 press conference in Shanghai that it is jointly producing a new Ikkyuu-san anime film with the Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Media Group and SMG's Toonmax channel. Toei animated the original Ikkyū-san historical comedy television series about a young monk-in-training from 1975 to 1982, when the studio was still known as Toei Dōga. The new Ikkyū-san anime film will open in China in February of 2012 — during the traditional Chinese New Year holidays.

The story of Ikkyū-san is loosely inspired by Ikkyū Sōjun, a real-life Buddhist monk who lived in 15th-century Japan. The anime imagines Ikkyū's childhood as a mischievous but clever monk-in-training at Ankokuji Temple. The original television series
already inspired a 1978 Ikkyū-san to Yancha-hime (Ikkyusan and the Mischievous Princess) film. The television series premiered in China in 1983 and became a popular hit among children there.

SMG operates the children's television channel Toonmax, which is popular in China and particularly in the Shanghai area. Another Japanese anime studio, MADHOUSE, is collaborating with China Film Group Corporation, director Yuji Ikeda (Fushigi Yuugi, Monster), and original character designer Naoki Urasawa (Monster, 20th Century Boys) on a film titled Tibetan Dog (Tibet Inu Monogatari).

Keyword: Toei, Shanhai Media Group, Animate, Ikkyuu-san, Film

Not So Daily Link of the Day: Voice actress Aya Hirano ( Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Deathnote, and among many another ) announced on her blog on Tuesday that she will use Twitter for one day only. Her 10th CD single, "Hysteric Barbie," will ship on Wednesday, and to mark the occasion, she is temporarily using the "Hysteric_Barbie" Twitter account. As of Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Japan Time (Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT), she has made three posts and attracted over 4,600 followers.

Keyword: Aya Hirano, Twitter

Aniplex of America will stream the first 22 minutes of Welcome to The Space Show on the YouTube website on Monday at 8:00 a.m. Unlike with another anime which streamed on Youtube, The biginning of Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW will be specifically available to online viewer outside Japan and The same streamed will be available to Japanese viewers on the GyaO! service on Tuesday at midnaight, and the Tokyo MX station already aired on June 13.

Streamed Link: 

GyaO!

YouTube Aniplex of America

Kamichu Box Set

Best Price $30.00
or Buy New $36.99

 

The American video distributor Anchor Bay Entertainment has acquired First Squad - The Moment Of Truth, Yoshiharu Ashinoand Studio 4°C's animated video version of a story by Russian artists Misha Sprits and Aljosha Klimov.

First Squad is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. A group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities has been drafted into a special unit to fight the invading German army. A Schutzstaffel (SS) officer attempts to raise from the dead an army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.

The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival in June and won the Kommersant newspaper's prize. It also played at Locarno, at Cannes in France, at Sitges, and at Waterloo, Canada.

Ashino had previous directed Tweeny Witches, and Studio 4°C animated Tekkonkinkreet, Genius Party, and parts of The Animatrix.

The American video distributor Anchor Bay Entertainment has acquired First Squad - The Moment Of Truth, Yoshiharu Ashinoand Studio 4°C's animated video version of a story by Russian artists Misha Sprits and Aljosha Klimov.

First Squad is set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. A group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities has been drafted into a special unit to fight the invading German army. A Schutzstaffel (SS) officer attempts to raise from the dead an army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.

The film premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival in June and won the Kommersant newspaper's prize. It also played at Locarno, at Cannes in France, at Sitges, and at Waterloo, Canada.

Ashino had previous directed Tweeny Witches, and Studio 4°C animated Tekkonkinkreet, Genius Party, and parts of The Animatrix.

The official website for the television anime adaptation of Tozen Ujiie's Seitokai Yakuindomo slice-of-life comedy manga began streaming a 30-second program announcement commercial and a 15-second one on Saturday. The website is also streaming a promotional video. The anime will premiere in Japan on July 3.

The official website for the television anime adaptation of Takaya Kagami's Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu fantasy light novel franchise is streaming its second, 207-second high-definition promotional video via the YouTube video service. Both the official website and YouTube are still streaming the first promotional video, which premiered at March's Tokyo International Anime Fair. The Legend of the Legendary Heroes anime will premiere in July.

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

Satō was born with the given name Chiyoko, but she adopted the pen name Shio Satō as a wordplay on "sugar salt" (pronounced "Satō Shio" in Japanese). She made her professional debut in 1977 and soon focused on contemplative science-fiction stories such as One Zero and Yume-miru Wakusei.
The North American manga publisher Viz released Satō's The Changeling in its Four Shōjo Stories manga anthology — one of the first attempts to translate and print Shoujo manga into English.