Otaku Crave

Funimation Confirms Shigurui: Death Frenzy License

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

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

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.

Cameron Not Planning on Battle Angel after Avatar Film

The Hollywood Reporter trade newspaper reports that Titanic director James Cameron wants “to do something a lot smaller” after he finishes his current Avatar action film project. He indicated that he wants to work on The Dive, a biographic romance about Cuban free diver Francisco “Pipin” Ferreras and Frenchwoman Audrey Mestre. Cameron told MTV in June of 2006 that he was working on both Avatar and an adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel manga as potential future franchises, but has not elaborated on his Battle Angel plans since then.

Spider-Man’s Stan Lee Interviewed about Ultimo Manga

The Japan Times newspaper has published an interview with Spider-Man and X-Men co-creator Stan Lee about the world of manga and his Ultimo collaboration with Shaman King co-creator Hiroyuki Takei. The interviewer, Otaku USA magazine editor-in-chief Patrick Macias, talked with Stan Lee about Ultimo and other comic topics in a separate podcast he posted last month. Ultimo premiered in Japan in Shueisha’s Jump SQ.II inaugural magazine issue on April 18, and Viz Entertainment plans to publish Ultimo in North America in a format that has yet to be decided.

Funimations Adds Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry

The North American distributor Funimation has announced that it has acquired the Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry (Soukou no Strain) anime series. As it has for other title announcements this week, the company hinted at this license with a teaser image yesterday. The 13-episode military robot anime series will ship in English in March of 2009.

Director Tetsuya Watanabe (Rumbling Hearts, Zone of the Enders) and Studio Fantasia (Rumbling Hearts, Stratos 4) animated this series which aired in Japan from November of 2006 to February of 2007. The series loosely adapts Frances Hogson Burnett’s A Little Princess novel about a rich daughter named Sarah Crewe who suddenly loses her father and her family fortune and must work as a common servant. The anime resets the plot in space in the distant future. It centers around a 16-year-old girl named Sarah Werec who loses her military status when her brother seemingly becomes a traitor to her government. Sarah struggles back up the ranks as a common pilot in hopes of confronting her brother.

Funimation Hints at Soukou no Strain Anime

The North American distributor FUNimation Entertainment’s website features darkened-out silhouettes of the Sara Werec and Emily characters (as well as the STRAIN RAM-DASS unit) from the Soukou no Strain anime. Funimation plans to make an announcement of a new title tomorrow. The silhouettes can be seen by clicking on the “CHECK BACK TOMORROW” icon on the website.

Soukou no Strain  is a military robot anime series from Studio Fantasia that aired in Japan from November of 2006 to February of 2007. The series nominally borrows from Frances Hogson Burnett’s A Little Princess novel about a rich daughter named Sarah Crewe who suddenly loses her father and her family fortune and must work as a common servant. The anime centers around a 16-year-old girl named Sarah Werec who loses her military status when her brother seemingly becomes a traitor to her government. Sarah works back up the ranks as a common pilot to confront her brother.

Funimation has not officially announced the acquisition or release of this series.

Funimation Licenses Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-

Gundam MS Igloo 2 Confirmed for OVA Release in October

The official Japanese website of the Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: J?ryoku Sensen anime has confirmed that the 3D computer-graphics project will be an OVA series that will start on October 24. For the first time in the Gundam robot war franchise, the first volume?”Ano Shinigami o Ute!” (”Attack the God of Death!”), will ship simultaneously on both Blu-ray Disc and DVD. Bandai will display promotional footage at its booth in the 47th Shizuoka Hobby Show (a trade show primarily for model kits) on May 17 and 18. This sequel to the Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War film series and Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079 video series was first announced in March.

Funimation Gets Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple Anime