Funimation CEO Discusses Anime’s Future with Variety
March 31, 2008
Variety.com, the website affiliated with the Daily Variety entertainment trade paper, discusses the future of the anime industry with CEO Gen Fukunaga of the distributor Funimation in a March 28 article. Fukunaga describes how his company attained its 27% anime DVD marketshare through market research and a willingness to adapt. “We look at Japanese ratings, sales of the manga (Japanese comics) and the DVD; fan polls in the various magazines. On the U.S. side, we look at the Internet chatter anecdotally, but there are ways of counting what people are downloading illegally. There are sites that’ll rank the counts of downloads, and then we look at fan polls. So there’s lots of data.”
According to Variety.com, DVDs are still the biggest slice of the anime business, but Fukunaga expects that legal download sales will overshadow Funimation’s sales of apparel, toys, and other merchandise. The article also quotes IFC channel’s executive vice-president Evan Shapiro, who notes that anime companies offer their titles to television companies for relatively inexpensive rates, since television exposure boost DVD sales. CEO Milton Griepp of the ICv2 retail news source adds that anime is becoming more mainstream even as rapid industry changes are causing DVD sales to drop and smaller companies to totter financially. All three agree that the anime’s relatively tech-savvy audience are pointing the way for the rest of the entertainment industry.
New Videocast - Apocalypse Zero
March 31, 2008
A review of the series “Apocalypse Zero” done by Douglas. Enjoy and please comment.
Apocalypse Zero
Blue Dragon, Moribito to Run on America’s Cartoon Network
March 29, 2008
America’s Cartoon Network is previewing the Blue Dragon fantasy anime series at 11:30 a.m. (ET/PT) on March 28 and at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on March 29. The anime adapts an Xbox 360 roleplaying game that was co-created by Final Fantasy’s Hironobu Sakaguchi and designed by Dragon Ball creator and Dragon Quest game designer Akira Toriyama. It tells the story of Shu, a boy who protects his village from an ancient enemy by invoking the Blue Dragon from his own shadow.
On the AnimeOnDVD.com forums, CEO John Sirabella of the North American distributor Media Blaster has reveale that Cartoon Network already negotiated the right to run the Seirei no Moribito (also known as Moribito - Guardian of the Spirt) fantasy adventure anime. The network had negotiated before Media Blasters itself acquired the right to distribute the television series. Sirabella also stated that it acquired the series from Dentsu instead of d-rights. The ICv2 retail news source notes that Arthur E. Levine/Scholastic Books is publishing on June 1 the first volume in Nahoko Uehashi’s original children’s novel series that inspired the anime.
Finally, 26 new episodes of Shin Chan (known as Crayon Shin Chan in Japan) will debut on America’s Adult Swim network on April 4 at 12:30 a.m. and 3:30 am ET/PT (or effectively, early morning on April 5). Adult Swim has been running earlier episodes about the irrepressible five-year-old boy since 2006.
New Videocast - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
March 27, 2008
A review of the series “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” done by Douglas. Enjoy and please comment.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
U.S. iTunes Store Adds 4 Manga Entertainment Titles
March 26, 2008
The media company Starz has begun offering television episodes on Apple’s iTunes Store in the United States, including four series from Starz’ anime unit Manga Entertainment Those four series are Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Season 1), Tokko, Noein, and Tactics. Apple iTunes Store video purchases are 640 by 480 in resolution and play only on personal computers (with Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows), video-capable iPod players, and the AppleTV media player.
Manga Entertainment offers these same titles and other series (as well as movies) on Amazon’s Unbox, IGN’s Direct2Drive, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live services. Manga Entertainment is planning to expand its offerings on iTunes beyond the initial four series. Manga Entertainment told ANN that it is also looking at a number of ways to deliver high-definition content, “ranging from Blu-ray Disc to other forms of delivery.” It is also in discussions with digital distributors in the United Kingdom and expects “to announce some deals certainly by the end of the year.”
BOST to Offer Downloads without Digital Restrictions
March 26, 2008
The online anime distributor BOST TV has announced today that it will offer downloadable copies of anime episodes, in addition to streaming. Each episode will still cost 100 BOST points (the equivalent of US$1.99) to stream online for a two-week period. However, under the new system, the same 100-point fee will now pay for both the stream and an unrestricted downloadable version. According to BOST, the downloadable version will have no digital rights management (DRM), so users can play the download on video-capable Apple iPod media players, the Sony PlayStation Portable game console, or a personal computer.
To promote its new system, BOST is offering the first two episodes of both The Tower of Druaga: The Ageis of Uruk and Blassreiter for free to all users who are registered by April 2 (Japan Standard Time). (Druaga will premiere on April 4, and Blassreiter will premiere on April 5.) BOST has not announced the resolution and specific file format of its downloadable episodes, or whether the new download system is retroactively available to people who streamed episodes before today.
Viz Licenses Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody
March 25, 2008
The North American distributor Viz Media has announced that it has licensed Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody, the first theatrical anime spinoff from the Bleach television series, in the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. The television series itself is an adaptation of Kubotite’s Bleach manga about Soul Reapers (Shinigami or Gods of Death) who protect humans from the “Hollow” spirits that prey on them. Viz plans to release the film in theaters in major North American cities this summer and on DVD in the winter of 2008. Viz released Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, another movie based on a Shonen Jump manga franchise, in a similar fashion.
Like the Naruto movie, Memories of Nobody is an original story not seen in the earlier Bleach television series or manga. It ran in Japan in December of 2006, and a second movie, Bleach: The Diamonddust Rebellion - Mo Hitotsu no Hyorinmaru, has since opened in Japan last December. Memories of Nobody centers around previously unseen “Blank” entities that also threaten mankind.
Details of Japanese Gundam 00 Blu-ray Release Posted
March 25, 2008
The official Japanese website for the Mobile Suit Gundamm 00 robot anime television series has posted details on the upcoming Blu-Ray Disc release. Gundam 00 is the first Gundam series broadcasted in high definition. The first volume with two episodes and the second volume with four episodes will sell on August 22 for 5,040 yen (about US$50.00) and 7,350 yen (US$73.00), respectively. The remaining monthly, 7,350-yen volumes will have four episodes, except the last volume with three episodes. Every volume will have 1080p resolution, eight pages of liner notes, and a “Tactical Outlook” promotional video for the next volume. The first pressing of the final volume will have a deluxe box for the entire set.
Live-Action Dragonball Film Wraps Shooting in Mexico
March 23, 2008
The personal blog of actress Emmy Rossum confirms that principal photography on James Wong’s live-action Dragon Ball movie ended in Mexico on Friday. Rossum plays the heroine Bulma in this adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s fighting manga. The official website of James Marsters (Piccolo)
had announced his work wrapped in mid-March, but he left earlier than Rossum to attend a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion in Los Angeles on Thursday evening. Twentieth Century Fox initially scheduled the film for an August 15 opening, but it has reportedly delayed the opening.
ADV Picks Up Upper Deck Japan’s Kiba TV Anime
March 23, 2008
At his company’s Anime Boston 2008 panel, David L. Williams of ADV Films announced that his company has acquired the North American distribution rights to Kiba. This 51-episode alternate-world adventure television series, with animation produced by Madhouse, was sponsored by the Japanese division of the trading card company Upper Deck. Williams was not able to make any comments about ADV’s plans for the Gurren Lagann anime.
