If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t written one of these posts in about three weeks, it’s because I’ve been in the middle of a move and haven’t had much time to do anything extra over the shows I’m blogging regularly. Things haven’t quite settled down yet, so my schedule’s still in a bit of a flux, but I didn’t want to put this off any further since there’s so many new series announcements, PVs, etc piling up. Unfortunately all this also means that I won’t have time to continue keeping up with Tetsuwan Birdy like I wanted to, so I had to drop that.
Remember that show Dragonaut from earlier this year that was heavily panned? The show’s official website has posted a preview for the DVD episode 26 that’s due to be released in September. I feel like I should watch it if for no other reason than to make fun of it.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Macross Frontier artwork - yes you read that right - at left courtesy of ulti on pixiv (account needed to access)
It was announced in Megami Magazine that there is a Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha movie coming early next year. The movie will not be a reedit of the first series but will instead be an alternate retelling.
And finally, here’s an odd story: Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal front-paged an article about Lucky Star and how it’s affecting the Washinomiya Shrine area. You may remember this topic from various sources all throughout last year when Lucky Star popularity was at its peak. Now, I understand that the WSJ editors like to use non-standard stories that relate to businesses and people making money, and it’s cool to see something from our neck of the woods make it into the mainstream, but I still have to question the newsworthiness of this article for their front page, never mind the fact that they also included pictures of crossplayers. Perhaps I’m just holding the Wall Street Journal to too high a standard. Thanks Keith for the heads-up.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Original artwork at left courtesy of 計算 on pixiv (account needed to access)
Upcoming fall series Kuroshitsuji has a website now, and on it is a 2-minute promo video. It requires Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player though, so I’ve uploaded it for those of you who have troubles getting it to play.
You may remember that last year around this time NTV aired a three-hour Death Note special that covered the entire L arc. Well they’ve announced that they’ll be airing another one on August 22nd, this time covering the Near/Mello arc.
The Macross Frontier Superlive was last night, and mainichi.jp has pictures and a report from the event. Pretty much all the songs from the series were performed, including Kanno Yoko herself playing a piano/ballad version of Triangular to Sakamoto Maaya’s singing. Nakajima Megumi and May’n finished the concert by performing the new OP Lion together. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the new OP will premiere on this upcoming week’s episode.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Image at left courtesy of あさの on pixiv (account needed to access)
You may remember last month that I mentioned that there’s a CODE GEASS themed laptop being sold. Well now you can buy a USB memory stick in the shape of the key to the Lancelot. It’s horrendously expensive though at a price of 9240 yen (approx. $86 US) for a 2GB memory stick. Still, it’s bright and shiny, so I’m sure it’ll be popular.
And finally, I got caught up on the Bleach manga last night. I had previously stopped right before the Turn Back the Pendulum arc, and now that I’ve read that, I just have to say that Kubo Tite is 100 times better at creating an exciting and gripping plot than the writers for the anime original arcs. It’s probably not even the best part of the Bleach story, but the comparison is just that stark. Hopefully the upcoming grand battle will be just as good.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Image at left courtesy of 西原いさお on pixiv (account needed to access)
Both Tsubasa Chronicle and xxxHOLiC are getting Original Animation DVD (OAD) releases with upcoming volumes of their respective manga in a new CLAMP and Production I.G project. The first one, an xxxHOLiC episode, will come out with volume 14 of the xxxHOLiC manga in January of 2009, and the subsequent Tsubasa Chronicle episode will come out in February 2009 with volume 26 of the Tsubasa Chronicle manga. After Tokyo Revelations turned out so good, I’m glad to hear that there’ll be more by Production I.G. Thanks Julie for the heads up.
The School Rumble manga has ended. I hear a lot of people aren’t too happy about the way it ended, and there is a follow-up called School Rumble Z coming.
It’s now official that Xam’d Lost Memories will premiere in Japan via the Playstation Store in September. It will get a weekly release for 26 total episodes. The first episode is already available in the US Playstation Store, and I wrote about it here.
The Gurren Lagann movie website is now hosting a trailer, though it requires Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player to watch. If for whatever reason you can’t watch it, don’t feel too bad because there’s nothing new in it other than some music.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Image at left courtesy of ゴリ松 on pixiv (account needed to access)
After nearly a one-month hiatus because of the new season, I’m back to doing Daily Doses. This particular post is a bit of a backlog post for the big items from the past few weeks.
If you watched the first Gundam 00 series and haven’t yet been spoiled about a certain something, I urge you NOT to go to the official site. I made the mistake of doing so after I saw the commercial that aired after this weekend’s episode of CODE GEASS, and I got spoiled when I checked out the details on the list of Mobile Suits.
New Anime Announcements (list almost entirely courtesy of MOON PHASE)
• BLACK LAGOON is getting a third series.
• Kyou no Go no Ni is also getting a television anime (instead of more OVAs).
• ef - a tale of melodies anime has been announced for this Fall season.
• Umineko no Naku Koro ni is getting an anime.
• Shounen manga Kuroshitsuji is getting an anime.
• Mystery/supernatural novel series Mouryou no Hako is getting an anime that’ll be produced by Madhouse and will have character designs done by CLAMP.
• Love adventure game Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka will be getting an anime this Fall. This series is going to have a truckload of voice talent, including the likes of Hirano Aya, Kugimiya Rie, Inoue Marina, and Tanaka Rie.
The Tales of the Abyss anime adaptation will air this Fall on MBS, meaning it has a good chance of taking Macross F’s Thursday timeslot since Gundam 00 is likely replacing CODE GEASS R2.
The White Album anime adaptation has a website now with news that the series will start January of 2009. It will feature Hirano Aya and Mizuki Nana in two of the lead roles.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Image at left courtesy of サツキ on pixiv (account needed to access)….and yes, I have been reading Toradora! recently
Just a few meta items to mention before I go to bed:
Thanks to everyone who offered a temporary place to put images. I think we’re now set until we move to the new server.
Divine just returned home from Japan yesterday, so he’s still in catch-up mode for several of his shows, plus whatever new ones he’s thinking of picking up.
For this summer season in particular, I think it’s worth saying that just because a first episode isn’t blogged right away doesn’t mean that it’s not being considered. I’ll use World Destruction as an example. I thought the first episode was okay, did well with its strong voice cast, and had some decent story potential, but I’m not exactly leaping to blog it, especially since I’m already following SOUL EATER on Mondays and two shows on Sundays. I’d reconsider though if none of the other series airing this week that I’m interested in (Koihime Musou, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, or even the new j-drama Yasuko to Kenji) turn out to be any more compelling than World Destruction, and in that case, I’d tweak my schedule a bit so that I can fit World Destruction in. One of the problems this season (and it’s more of an issue for Divine than it is for me) is that most of the shows we’re interested in watching are stacked on a few days of the week - Wednesdays and Thursdays for example - whereas days like Tuesdays and Saturdays are unusually light. That’s why it’ll probably take a little longer than usual for us to settle into a normal blogging schedule.
Also, I haven’t forgotten about Daily Doses. They will return as soon as things settle down and I figure out what I want to follow. And a quick thanks to all the people who emailed me about the new ef series.
Image at left courtesy of ，on pixiv (account needed to access).
I apologize for the lack of Daily Doses recently. The Summer 2008 Preview is taking a lot longer than I thought to write because I have quite a bit to say about some of the series. I’m compiling this Daily Dose because I don’t want to fall too far behind on the news, and because I want to point people to the newest Parallel Works video.
This week’s Gurren Lagann Parallel Works belongs to artist SUEZEN, and it combines the instrumental track BafBaf! Sonna ni Moeru no ga…Suki Kai? with video of Viral and the others playing a Gurren Lagann themed pachinko machine. It’s an amusing watch, though I still like last week’s more, both in song and in accompanying video. It’s hard to beat “raw! raw! fight the power!”
The website for upcoming summer anime Koihime Musou has (finally) updated with new information.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Unless there’s some big news, I likely won’t be posting any Daily Doses over the next few days so that I can work on the Summer 2008 Preview instead. There’s only half as many new shows as the spring, but it still takes a lot of time to research and write up.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
Image at left courtesy of ゆりこ on pixiv (account needed to access).
The first Gurren Lagann Parallel Works video, which you can see at left, is out. For those of you who haven’t heard about this, various members of GAINAX’s staff are pairing Gurren Lagann music with new, alternate world animations. This first one is animator Watanabe Keisuke’s, and it combines the song Rap wa Kan no Tamashii da! with a fantasy setting. In it, Simon, Kamina, and Viral are attacking a fortress to free Nia, and they run into Yoko and the woman who was in Viral’s dream sequence from episode 26. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and it’s rekindled my memories of how much I liked the Gurren Lagann OST (i.e. I’ve got it on my playlist now). The next one video is set to be released June 23rd. Thanks konart
In more Macross Frontier news, it was announced yesterday on the staff blog that there is a special short movie in store for purchasers of the first volume BD/DVD. It’s called ALL THAT VF and will feature many of the Valkyries from the Macross series in commemoration of its 25th anniversary. The first volume is set to be released on July 25th.
If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line.
