School Rumble: Third Term Anime Promo Video Streamed
May 21, 2008
The official Japanese website for the School Rumble anime franchise is streaming a promotional video for School Rumble: Third Term, the newest anime adaptation of Jin Kobayashi’s slice-of-life manga. The mini-series will ship in Japan with limited editions of the manga’s 21st and 22nd compiled manga volumes, which will be released on July 17 and September 17, respectively. The page linked above normally has the broadcast previews for School Rumble, but it is streaming the promotional video since there is no television broadcast planned.
Funimation has been releasing the first two anime series on DVD in North America, and Del Rey has been releasing the manga series in North America.
Shogakukan Considers Ending Weekly Young Sunday Mag
May 21, 2008
The Mainichi Shimbun paper reported on Monday that the Japanese publisher Shogakukan is considering ending its Weekly Young Sunday magazine. The seinen magazine premiered in April of 1987 as a biweekly publication, but moved to a weekly schedule in November of 1995. In the past, it published Rumiko Takahashi’s One-Pound Gospel, Hideo Yamamoto’s Ichi the Killer, and Shuho Sato’s Umizaru. It currently publishes Masami Yuuki’s Birdy the Mighty, Takatoshi Yamada’s Dr. Koto’s Clinic, Kuromaru’s Kurosagi, and other popular titles. According to Mainichi, Shogakukan’s public relations staff confirmed that the magazine’s fate is under review, but also emphasized that absolutely no final decision has been made.
The Japan Magazine Publishing Association reported that Young Sunday had a verified circulation of 202,541 copies in 2007. Two of its rivals, Kodansha’s Young Magazine and Shueisha’s Weekly Young Jump, had verified circulations of 981,229 and 967,250 during the same time.
Gurren Lagann Listed on America’s Sci Fi Channel on July 28
May 20, 2008
The Sci Fi Channel in the United States lists two episodes of the Gurren Lagann science-fiction anime series on July 28 at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT during the first hour of the Ani-Monday programmng block. Bandai Entertainment announced in April that it had acquired Hiroyuki Imaishi and Gainax’s anime, after ADV Films had announced Gurren Lagann last July but then removed the anime from its catalog. Both Bandai Entertainment itself and its newly hired producer Toshifumi Yoshida had indicated that he would be working on the localization for this anime on an accelerated schedule for July.
Bandai Entertainment Posts English AIKa R-16 Trailer
May 20, 2008
The North American distributor Bandai Entertainment has posted the trailer for its June 3 DVD release of the AIKa R-16 anime. The three-episode project is a prequel to the risque AIKa comedy anime that Central Park Media once released and Bandai Entertainment re-issued earlier this year. The trailer reflects the anime’s suggested age rating of 17 years old and up.
Film of Junji Ito’s Long Dream Gets English-Subbed DVD
May 20, 2008
Tidepoint Pictures, the American film distributor that specializes in Japanese horror and other cult cinema, will release an English-subtitled DVD of Long Dream, a 58-minute live-action adaptation of Junji Ito’s psychological horror manga short story Nagai Yume, on June 24. The manga was originally published in Ito’s 1998 collection The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel.
Higuchinsky, the man who was also behind the live-action version of Ito’s Uzumaki manga, directed Long Dream for Japanese television in 2000. The story of the film deals with a mental hospital patient who feels that every night when he sleeps, his dreams cover spans of years and then decades — and he ages as if those dreams were actually happening. In addition to the film, the Tidepoint DVD will contain interviews with Higuchinsky, Ito, and Shuuji Kawashibara (the actor who plays one of the main characters).
Funimation Acquires Romeo x Juliet, D. Gray-Man
May 20, 2008
At its Anime Central industry panel on Saturday evening, FUNimation Entertainment announced its acquisition of Romeo X Juliet, Gonzo’s 24-episode science-fiction take on the William Shakespeare play. It will be released in two half-season boxes, with the first due out sometime in the spring of 2009. Funimation also confirmed that the release date for Ouran High School Host Club will be revealed during a special event on May 30.
At the same time as the panel was taking place, the Funimation.com website was updated with a splash page for another new license: D.Gray-man, which is also on track for a 2009 release.
Philippines’ Animax Award Finalist LaMB Gets Animated
May 17, 2008
Animax-asia, the international animation television channel owned by Sony, has announced that it is animating the LaMB script by Animax Award finalist Carmelo S. J. Juinio. Juinio submitted his 50-page Laminated Woman: To the Sand Planet Cerra script to the 6th Animax Award competition last year, which was the first time that the contest officially accepted international entries. Another entrant, Hayato Takamaga’s Takane no Jitensha (Takane’s Bike), won the opportunity to be animated by Sony’s A-1 Pictures studio for release on the Animax channel in Japan.
Despite not winning the grand prize, Juinio’s script impressed the judges enough to win the Pan-Asia Award. Animax is now planning to animate Juinio’s script as well, and release it on television, the Internet, and mobile devices. Animax-asia’s press release does not indicate where the high-definition project will be animated; in recent years, several Japanese productions have outsourced some animation tasks to the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.
Funimation Confirms Shigurui: Death Frenzy License
May 17, 2008
The North American distributor Funimation has confirmed that it acquired the DVD, digital, and broadcast rights for Shigurui: Death Frenzy, the 12-episode anime adaptation of Takayuki Yamaguchi’s historical fighting manga. Yamaguchi’s manga itself adapted part of Norio Nanjo’s Suruga-jo Gozen Jiai (The Tournament at Suruga Castle) novel, which is set in Edo-era Japan. In the story, The one-armed Fujiki and blind Seigen Irako fight a tournament match to determine the true successor to Kogan Iwamoto, Japan’s greatest swordsman.
Director Hirotsugu Hamazaki (Texhnolyze) and the studio Madhouse produced the anime. Funimation has not announced its release plans for this project. The company had hinted at the announcement with a teaser image on its website yesterday.
English-Subbed Maria Watches Over Us Trailer Streamed
May 17, 2008
Right Stuf is streaming the first trailer for its English-subtitled release of the Maria Watches Over Us (Maria-sama ga Miteru) anime series. The anime adapts Oyuki Konno and Reine Hibiki’s light novels about the subtle interplay within the student body of Lillian Girls’ Academy. Right Stuf also announced that its release will include the seven “Special” video extras of the first season, character bios, and liner notes.
Clannad Malware Creator Gets Two Years in Prison
May 17, 2008
On Friday, the Kyoto District Court found Masato Nakatsuji guilty of hiding a malicious program within Clannad anime images on the Winny file-sharing network and sentenced him to two years in prison along with a three-year suspended sentence. Since there is no law in Japan against the creation of malware (”Trojan horses,” viruses, and other malicious computer software), the 24-year-old former Osaka Electro-Communication University graduate student was actually charged with violating Clannad’s copyrights and defaming another student. Nakatsuji admitted that he had also distributed his program with pictures of the other student to mislead the authorities.
Two years was the length of prison time for which the prosecutors had asked, while the defense has asked for a suspended sentence only. This was the first criminal prosecution of an alleged malware creator in Japan.
A 39-year-old man named Sh?ji Sakai was arrested on the same day in January as Nakatsuji was. Unlike Nakatsuji though, Sakai was not involved with the creation of the malware. Instead, Sakai was charged with uploading about 5,700 episodes from about 230 titles, including Idolmaster Xenoglossia, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, and Kimikiss pure rouge, and sentenced to one year in prison (with a three-year suspended sentence) in April.
