Japan Style

T-shirt featuring Black Butler lead appears in retail clothing chain
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: Retail clothing chain Hot Topic has added merchandise from Yana Toboso's manga Black Butler to its lineup. The merchandise currently consists of a t-shirt featuring the series' titular butler, Sebastien Michaelis, in red on a black background. The shirts are available in sizes ranging from extra-small to XXXL.
The Black Butler manga launched in Japan in September 2006 in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy shounen manga anthology. Yen Press licensed the manga for North American release and began serializing it in its Yen Plus anthology in July of 2009. In October 2008 a TV anime was produced based on the manga, and Funimation licensed it for North America. A follow-up anime series will air in Japan starting this July. The anime inspired a fashion show in Tokyo in 2008.

Keyword: Black Butler, Merchandise, Toboso's Manga, T-shirt

The Oricon entertainment news source reports that a second stage play and an anime adaptation are in the works for Gakuen Hakkenden, Kō Amami and Aki Kuruwa's fantasy romance boys-love manga. In this multimedia project, scriptwriter Amami re-imagines Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, Kyokutei Bakin's famous epic novel about eight samurai who serve the Satomi clan during Japan's tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era.
Just as in traditional kabuki plays, male actors are auditioning for all of the roles in the second play — including all of the female characters. Already casted in the first play are several veterans of The Prince of Tennis musical, such as Kenn (Miracle Train ~Ōedo-sen e Yōkoso~, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monster GX), Yuki Tsujimoto, and Ryuko Isogai.
STC Jimukyoku collaborated on a stage musical adaptation of Idea Factory's female-oriented Hiiro no Kakera visual novel game before working on the stage versions of Gakuen Hakkenden. Masatsugu Takase (The Last Samurai) is serving as the plays' action director. The first play will run in Tokyo's Ikebukuro Theater Green from July 14 to July 19, while the second play will run in Tokyo's Shinagawa Rikkōkai Hall.
The original Hakkenden novel already inspired the Hakkenden: Legend of the Dog Warriors video anime series (Geneon Entertainment) and the 1999 science-fiction television anime re-imagining, Shin Hakkenden.
The original manga just launched in Kobunsha's Purial magazine this past April, and the first compiled book volume is slated for next year.

Keyword: Oricon, Anime, Boys-Love, Gakkuen Hakkenden

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.

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.