Random Curiosity

Wizard Entertainment ended its anime and manga magazine, Anime Insider, after eight years of publication. R.I.P. Anime Insider (2001-2009.) A flyer announced new manga for Shin Strike Witches, CANAAN, Shin Koihime†Musō, G-Senjō no Maō, Summer Wars Gaiden, Angel Magister, and Valkyrie Complex premiering this July in Kadokawa Shoten’s Comp Ace. Studio Fantasia made an announcement on their blog that their next anime project was green-lit. There are no further details. Someone call it! A promotional video is streaming for Sora no Manimani on the official website. The anime series is based on the manga of the same name by Mami Kashiwabara. The anime adaptation for Natsume Ono’s Ristorante Paradiso’s promotional video is being streamed at its official website. A second promotional video is up at the official website for Saki, a high-school mahjong anime. The mangaka creator of The Law Of Ueki is launching a new ping pong manga series called Takkoku!!! in Shogakukan’s monthly Shonen Sunday Super Zōkan spinoff magazine in April. My Sweet Sunday, a one-shot collaboration between popular mangaka creators Rumiko Takahashi and Mitsuru Adachi, was posted on Shogakukan’s website to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine. A promotional video is streaming on the website for Hayate The Combat Butler!!’s second season and it premieres April 3rd.

Ryuuji and Taiga artwork courtesy of 美月めいあ on pixiv (account needed to access)

…And causes a storm for that matter. A few days ago, Nakajima Megumi (中島 愛) of Macross Fronter/Ranka Lee fame got the attention of a lot of Nico Nico Douga viewers with the release of the video above — a choreographed dance to her new “Be MYSELF” song. While my initial reaction was that Megumi is coming off more and more like a real-life Ranka with her “cuteness appeal” (moe?), evidently that’s not the case with people who love trolling anything and everything in cyberspace. Mixed in with the supportive comments on Nico Nico were a lot of slanderous ones, which got out of hand to the point that Nico Nico’s management intervened and started removing comments themselves. This (ridiculous) incident even made headlines on some Japanese sites. The original video found here (account required) now has over 285,000 views and 28,000 comments, which probably makes it one of the fastest videos to achieve such popularity. As for the song itself, I heard it earlier from her Akihabara performance and didn’t think too much of it then, but it’s grown on me after listening to it for a while. Megumi also has another new song, “Tenshi ni Naritai” 「天使になりたい」 (lit. “I want to become an angel”), and both are available for sale on the iTunes store (Japan only). ~Kira*

-divine
…is still hoping to get a hold of some May’n and Nakajima Megumi duet performance videos.

Summary:
With Alto’s Valkyrie destroyed and one of the Vajra capital ships about to fire its main cannon at the Battle Frontier, the situation looks bleak for Sheryl and the Frontier fleet.

Summary:
Many years ago, Ranka had been singing Aimo when a swarm of Vajra suddenly defolded and decimated the 117th research fleet.

While this performance is several weeks old now, I didn’t have time to check it out until now. Given how much I’ve been enjoying Macross Frontier’s music for the past couple of seasons, I guess it’s only natural that Northern Cross grew on me fairly quickly. My favorite song to date is still “What ’bout my star? @Formo” (which I would absolutely love to see a live duet performance of), but I really like this song because it’s a lot more upbeat and very unlike the songs typically written for anime. I’m sure most Macross fans have listened to it to death by now (myself included), yet somehow I find that I’m still not sick of it in the slightest.

Anyway, I’ve seen May’n’s performances before, but I’m still impressed by how well she sings live, especially with the dance choreography that goes along with this performance. Granted, the choreography isn’t overly strenuous being mostly Para Para-like movements and she is a J-pop artist first and foremost; however, I’m sure we’re all aware that not a lot of artists can sing studio-like quality live. For those wondering, her stage name “May’n” is a contraction of her full name, Nakabayashi May (中林 芽依). For whatever reason, she decided to change it to this at the beginning of the year.

Finally, I should mention that I was a bit surprised to find out that she’s only 18 years old. Judging by her appearance (which comes off a bit mature), I figured May’n was in her earlier twenties already. In any case, enjoy the video!

Summary:
Many years ago, when Ranka was still young, she had been in a lab when her mother and Grace had been arguing about Grace’s plan to sacrifice something.

Summary:
As the new Frontier President, Leon receives a report from the Environmental Sustainability Agency saying that the Macross Frontier has only three more months in the current wartime regulations mode.

For those familiar with Macross Plus, you’re probably aware that the ever-so-talented composer, Kanno Youko, has always been one of the reasons why its music has been so memorable. For a longtime Macross fan such as myself, I was extremely happy when I heard that she would be doing the music for Macross Frontier as well. Reading this, you might be wondering what any of it has to do with Sakamoto Maaya, who performs the first opening song to the series. Well, this actually dates back to Maaya’s debut as a seiyuu back in 1996, when she starred as Kanzaki Hitomi in Tenkuu no Escalfowne, better known in English as The Vision of Escaflowne, which led to her working together with Youko on “Yakusoku wa Iranai” 「約束はいらない」 (No Need for Promises), the opening theme for the series. After working together with Youko to release numerous singles and albums featuring songs for series such as Record of Lodoss War (TV series), Cardcaptor Sakura, RahXephon, and Wolf’s Rain, the two parted ways on Maaya’s fifth single release, Loop, the first ending theme to Tsubasa Chronicle. It’s been three years since then, and the two have reunited to work on Macross Frontier with this song—Triangular.

More after the jump…

Summary:
Pretending that Howard Glass was killed in the Vajra attack, Leon takes control of the military and orders the launch of the Battle Frontier.