Second XXXHolic Rou OAD in the works!

Kodansha announced that a second XXXHolic Rou OAD is currently in production and is currently scheduled to be released next year.

The first OAD was launched in April with limited edition copies of this great Clamp novel by Nisio Isin.

xxxHolic has been continually published since 2003 in Kodansha's Young Magazine, but its serialization moved to Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in June of this year.

The anime began airing its first season in April 2006 with 24 episodes, and the second season aired in 2008.The current OADs form part of a third anime adaptation of this manga.

Naruto Shippuden anime September schedule!

The Pain saga ended with an interesting twist and it was awesome as we finally saw Naruto being recognized by his village.

Looks like we are going to deal with fillers and one week delay without our favorite series due to a Pokemon Black and White special airing in the same slot.

But they're pre-time skip fillers related to what just happened in the last episodes, developing Iruka-sensei's character, so they will be great this time, bringing back the nostalgia of the good ol' Naruto days!

September 2 - Iruka the Novice Teacher

September 9 - Iruka's trials

September 16 - Iruka's determination

September 23 - no episode

September 30 - Jounin in charge Hatake Kakashi

Thanks to Niko^ from Narutofan forums ^_^

Milky Holmes: when too much moe is....well, too much!

Even a source such as AnimeNation didn't refrain to make such a comment regarding the trailer of this upcoming Tantei Opera anime that will premiere on October 7. "Haters gonna hate", the site says.



See it for yourself!

Director: Makoto Moriwaki
Series Composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Music: Satoru Kousaki
Character Design: Seiya Numata
Animation Production: J.C. Staff

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes originally started as a PSP game created by Bushiroad that mixes mecha with detective mistery, and yes, it's about four Lucky Star loli detectives looking to solve diverse cases in an imaginary world based on the Era of Detectives, divided between ghost thieves and private detectives.

O_O

Artists passing away

This has been quite a mourning week for the industry as animator Shojuro Yamauchi, animator and director Satoshi Kon and the acclaimed puppeteer Kihachiro Kawamoto passed away.

Yamauchi was best known for his work in the Movie 'Spirited Away', which won an Oscar.

Director Satoshi Kon, known for his participation in series that featured alternative realities and altered states of the conscience, was working in a project for Madhouse titled Yume-Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine) when he passed away on August 24th, at 6:20 am, due to pancreatic cancer at 46 years of age. Madhouse will still continue the project.

And acclaimed puppermaster Kihachiro Kawamoto passed away at 85 due to pneumonia. He was known to fans worldwide as the director of the movie Shisha no Sho (The Book of the Dead), which was a puppet animated feature that striked for its originality.

R.I.P

Baka to Test OVA teaser trailer!

Following the previous announcement of an OVA for fall/ next year, Enterbrain publisher has released a new teaser trailer on their website that you can see here!

Great way to throw us a bone so we don't have to wait that much!

New Baka to Test OVA in the works

Shonen Ace magazine has announced that an OVA of this awesome series, adapted from the light novels by Kenji Inoue, is currently in production titled as 'Baka to Test to Shokanjyu' and it will come out next year along with the second season.

This is an amusing high school tale about a boy named Akihisa Yoshii, the 'idiot' (baka) of Fumizuki Academy, a rigid institution that separates and classifies their students by their rankings and qualifications. All students have the ability to summon a being called Shokanju, or Avatar, in order to battle to get the facilities of other classrooms.

The classes are divided from A to F, and while Class A is filled with the best students and their classroom has air conditioners, fancy seats, and such privileges, etc, the state of Class F is the complete opposite of that, leaving much to be desired.

Yoshii meets a girl named Mizuki Himeji, who suffered from a fever before an important test, which got her a zero and demoted inmediately to class F. They elaborate a plan together to take over the high ranks.

This week's featured AMV! (9)

I can't believe that I forgot to put the best amv of the week on Sunday, as I always do. Oh well, I definitely think that the content of this blog should be more versatile ;-)

This outstanding Kuroshitsuji AMV in HD quality surpasses by far everything I have seen in efforts of making a good video that conveys the right emotion, excitement and feelings of your favorite series.



It was done by ShionSuou of Youtube.

Saint Seiya: is Kagaho of Bennu the previous encarnation of Ikki of Phoenix?

With the great success of The Lost Canvas, the prequel series of Saint Seiya with an original spin has continued to gather the excitement of fans, old and new alike.

There has been quite a controversy over the web on the matter of the coincidences and similarities between Kagaho and Ikki.

The imagery is obvious and speaks for itself:

Having almost the same armor, the same looks, their renegade and reckless attitude.

The author, Masami Kurumada, and the co-author of the Lost Canvas series, Shiori Teshirogi, have neither confirmed or denied if Kagaho is in fact, Ikki's previous life.The constelation of Bennu represents the Egyptian myth version of the Phoenix, the celestial star of Violence, need I say more??

But as we know, mangakas will always prefer to leave things open.

Goulart Knights will have an OVA in December

This great and limited-edition series by sion and Takumi Miyajima will have an straight to DVD OVA based on the first volume, and it is tentatively titled "Goulart Knights Evoked the Beginning Black".

The premise is pretty much like D-Grayman and they're alike, sharing similar Victorian aesthetics, but with differences as always.

The story begins after mysterious creatures named "Archons" suddenly appear in the world. Humanity faces the threat of annihilation from these creatures. Only the "Chalice," the source of humanity, can defeat the powerful Archons. So, the humans assemble an Archon-slaying unit from fighters who have the ability to bring forth the Chalice to fight. The ones chosen to fight the Archons with the Chalice as their weapon are called Goulart Knghts.

So, if you loved (and miss) D-Grayman, this is THE series to watch out for in December 25th, the date the DVD will be shipped.

Natsu no Arashi! manga will end this September

The creator, Jin Kobayashi, has announced in the latest edition of Monthly Gangan Joker magazine that the final chapter of this great science fiction and romance story will come out on September 22.

The author, also known for School Rumble, will work on another story for Kodansha, but hasn't specified details yet, there's not even information on the name or the theme.

Natsu no Arashi! is the story of a boy named Hajime Yasaka, who meets an older high school girl named Sayoko, in a coffee shop. The girl, whose surname is "Arashi", reveals her secret during one fateful summer vacation.

The manga chapter started to come out on 2006, with an ongoing series that had its 2009 anime being simulcasted on Crunchyroll for audiences worldwide.

Bokkuko (tomboy) characters in anime

These types of characters can be quite common in some shonen manga. Bokkuko girls are basically tomboys that serve as sidekicks and can also play the role of the female heroine along with their hero counterpart.

They can be physically slim, with short hair, skinny and flat chested, yet also have particular skills that you would normally expect from their male counterpart. (Shonen manga can be a bit mysoginistic when it comes to delimiting specific roles by gender, so don't shoot the messenger here XD)

At least we know that these delimitations by gender are changing.

Good examples would be Tatsuki Arisawa from Bleach, or Tenten and Sakura from Naruto.

These type of characters have evolved into strong female characters that don't necessarilly have to be the less appealing, quite the contrary, in fact.

Look at Yuzuriha from Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas. In the original manga, she would have just been another side character as Marin and Shaina with little to almost no development. But she has a key role in helping her friends to achieve all the misions through Hades' Inferno.

Studio Pierrot: behind the scenes

This is a tour video of the offices responsible for the majority of the great anime we see today (except when they have their 'awful' team days, of course!)

Provided by Anime News Network, check the video here!

(opens in a new window)

Download Vector Girl Free Best Windows XP-VISTA-7 Wallpapers

Click to download wallpaper

Download vector girl Free Best Windows XP-VISTA Wallpapers

Download Vector girl Free Best Windows XP-VISTA-7 Wallpapers

Who is Tsugumi Ohba?: the possible origins of L Lawliet

It is believed that writer Tsugumi Ohba is no one other than Hiroshi Gamou, known by manga series such as Tottemo Luckyman, which had a popular anime in the 90's.

Another possibility is that it's Yuuko Asami, a Shonen Jump artist with titles such as Wild Half, Romancers and Jump Run. Given that Death Note was her first written manga, working with a pseudonym can be understandable.

And of course, there's also especulation on the possible idea that the L character is based on the physique and the personality of this mangaka, taking into account some elements such as:

-They use a pseudonym.
-Never been seen in public before.
-A snacks lover
-Thinking about things day and night.
-And the posture of sitting in a chair, hugging her (or his) knees.

In fact, he, (or she?) only communicates with the press through an avatar like this:

It's even hard to tell if it's a man or a woman.

Isn't this amusing? The fact that L could really exist in this world??? O_O

If she's actually a woman I can finally understand the whole yaoi KiraL going on XD

Now you can watch Black Rock Shooter streamed!

The Nico Nico Douga website has just begun yesterday to stream all the video anime of Black Rock Shooter in order to promote the upcoming OVA. These videos will be streamed until August 31.

Here's the link:
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/channel/ch961

Although you can also get the trailers and previews here:

The soundtrack is one of the most badass things I've ever heard:




Looks friggin' sweet! :-)

Download free best girl vector wallpapers

Click to Download free best girl vector wallpapers

Download free best girl vector wallpaper 1

Download free best girl vector wallpaper 2

New Tamayura OVA trailer

This is the new preview trailer for the anime adaptation by creator/director Junichi Sato.

Tamayura is a 'healing' type of anime that started initially as a game by Honami Yukine and will come out in DVD in September.

'Healing' is a sub-genre of the Magical Girl genre that we know such as Sailor Moon.

Black Butler author is vehemently against illegal copies and downloads of her work

This is quite amusing as Yana Toboso, the author of this manga, also known as Kuroshitsuji, felt like she didn't want to preach, but she finds herself very annoyed when fans write her something in the lines of: "I read them (the manga) from ROMs I borrowed from a friend. LOL", or
"I found and watched all of them (the anime) on an overseas video site!", or
"I became a fan with the second season, and then I watched the entire first season on an overseas video site. lol It was very amusing!" 

For Toboso, downloading illegal copies of the Black Butler manga and its anime adaptation "is the same as shoplifting or leaving a restaurant without paying the bill.(...) we creators and voice actors will not eat; this is no joke, we will starve and die. This is not 'lol.'"

She then added that this goes against the Law of Equivalent Exchange, and that if this trend continued, she wouldn't have a job anymore. "Unauthorized videos + downloads are wrong, absolutely!" 

Could she be overreacting or does she have a point? If I put myself in her position, I find that I would be pretty F**cking pissed if too many people just downloaded my work like that, but then again, I would also be campaigning for people to support and buy my work.

After all, it's not like everyone can afford money to simply buy a book when they need to eat or pay the rent.
I know for a fact I can't pay $300 to have a legal Windows 7, so that's why I downloaded it, so that'd be a matter of each one's conscience, I guess.

Preliminary designs of the Saiyuki Gaiden OVA!

This just got me courtesy of saiani.net, and it's the preliminary designs of the characters for the upcoming Sayuki Gaiden OVA that was announced last year:

You can find more here:
http://www.saiani.net/article/159357349.html

Tite Kubo: "it's common to hate the female antiheroine or heroine"

This is what the author of Bleach said in an interview regarding Orihime Inoue, the second most impopular character in the Bleach fandom, and added that if people don't like his story and how things are developing around the character, then they can choose to not read it.

This is the link to original interview by 2ch, although it is in Japanese and translation is always difficult.

http://toki.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/moeplus/1281968273/

What do you think? I really have nothing against Inoue-san, it's just that they pumped her too much in the anime, pairing her with Ichigo, in a sort of 'princess and the prince' way.

This week's featured AMV! (8)

This amv is dedicated to the always awesome fights between Mifune and Black Star of Soul Eater.

Mifune is probably one of the most badass characters ever with his serious stance and samurai code.



Video done by Starwindz85 of Youtube.

Enjoy!

Funimation will license and distribute Ga-Rei: Zero anime!!

This prequel adaptation of the original manga by Hajime Segawa will be officially licensed and distributed in the United States, as it will come out in DVD in 2011 with all 12 episodes..

The story revolves around Kagura and Yomi, two highschool girls that are members of the special force called the Paranormal Disaster Countermeasure Headquarters (PDCH), an organization that responds directly to Japan's Ministry of Defense and it deals with all paranormal fenomena and disasters.

Can't wait to see when the actual Ga-rei story gets made into an anime too!!

Funimation will also stream the first two episodes in Youtube, just as it's been doing with Soul Eater lately.

Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls will premiere in Japan on October

This great series started as a multimedia web manga by Churuwo Kazahana, which adapted the original light novel series by Akira Suzuki.

The story revolves around an imaginary modern-day Japan that is still ruled by a shogunate and still maintains the isolation-from-the-rest-of-the-world policy.

The protagonists are Yukimura Sanada and Matabei Goto, who must fight against the female heads of the student council, Sen Tokugawa and Hanzo Hattori (note that all characters are the female versions of these historic figures).

There are also lots of bishounen there! XD

The six ovas will come to DVD-BlueRay starting on November 25, 2010, through April 27, 2011 and will include the web manga in an special enhanced edition.

Here is the trailer, the premise is spectacular!:



It has this 'Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X' feel to it, just that with girls!

New OreImo trailer!!!

OreImo stands for Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai! (this is the week of long names, I swear), meaning My Little Sister isn't that cute!

This anime adaptation will start airing on October, and the main site of this anime has already streamed a 63-second trailer that can be seen here.

The original story by authors Tsukasa Fushimi and Hiro Kanzaki revolves around a boy named Kyosuke Kosaka, a high school student that discovers that his sister is secretly a moé otaku, despite her serious and aloof appearance. 

The art is quite beautiful so it's definitely worth to check it out!

Kodansha will publish a manga adaptation of Yakuza Moon

Writer and editor Sean Michael Wilson revealed in an interview that he is working in four new manga that will be licensed in English, and one of them is Yakuza Moon (Yakuza na Tsuki), a manga adaptation of Shoko Tendo's autobiography as the daughter of a yakuza, with all that she's been through.

The book will be published first in Japan and then the international release will follow.

New Kochikame live action movie announced

This manga that has lasted over 30 years and 170 volumes will get a new live action adaptation, as we will have to see yet more adventures and funny situations in the daily life of police officer Ryōtsu Kankichi.

This classic police comedy series by Osamu Akimoto has been running since 1976, has gotten two live adaptations in both cinema and television, an anime series (from 1996 to 2004) and two anime films.

 Kochikame also stands for Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo (quite long, huh?), and it's definitely the longest running manga series in history, selling 135 million copies around the world.

The plot is simple and takes place in present day, despite that the backgrounds have changed from 70's Japan to 00's Japan. The protagonist, Ryo-san, is a thirty-six year old police officer with the personality of a twelve-year old. His laziness when it comes to work is matched only by his zeal and cleverness in hatching money-making schemes, the fruits of which are invariably squandered on toys, gadgets, and cheap entertainment.

The second season of Fireball (Flügel) would premiere on 2011!

According to honeykicker.com and Canned Dogs, there is a high posibility that a second season of this cult status series by TOEI and Disney animation will premiere next year.

The innovation around this series is that is 100% CGI animated, with no cel-shading, meaning that the figures are not meant to appear hand-drawn.

There's not much context information available, but the plot takes place in the distant future of the 49th millennium, and revolves around the happenings inside a giant robot city manor, named 'Tempest Tower', inhabited by two robots; the gynoid duchess Drossel von Flügel, and her massive cyclopian servant, Gedächtnis.

Who is Tsugumi Ohba? (Introduction)

For Death Note and manga fans in general, Tsugumi Ohba is the co-author of the classic, cult, and legendary story of Death Note.

The interesting and fascinating thing about mangakas is that few things are known about them, and even those things are known because they choose to be known to the public. They don't appear on TV, they are far from being celebrities or academically acclaimed official artists that win Nobel or Pulitzer prizes for that matter.

In fact, a mangaka's life is to remain a mistery, or something that apparently doesn't call anyone's attention. And it's not because it should be irrelevant, it's just that we know that mangakas are people like us, there's not this 'Hollywood and media' approach that we see with actors, or movie directors and writers, and that's perfect, in fact.

It would be horrible to see an artist like Kubo Tite get the same celebrity treatment as, say, J.K Rowling or Stephenie Meyer. You know there's something not right about it....

This week's featured AMV! (7)

Saint Seiya will remain a classic in anime culture and the Tenkai Hen movie is an undeniable proof of that. The outstanding quality of that movie provides plenty of material for really neat and inspired AMVs such as this one:



Enjoy!

New trailer for the upcoming Mazinkaizer SKL OVA!

It's been quite a while since we have seen a good classic mecha anime making the rounds, aside from Gundam.




Oh, the nostalgia days of Mazinger Z.

MazinKaiser is itself a spinoff of Go Nagai's Mazinger Z series, and it will probably air on November, at the Bandai Visual's Anime Fes "VS" event.

Megane na Kanojo will get its anime series!

September's issue of japanese magazine Newtype announced that this series by Tobi will have its anime series in the form of OVAS. There's still no information on when it will get released, but initially there will be four OVAS that will adapt the first two stories.

This story is sort of a compilation of 8 romantic and comedic stories about girls that share one trait in common: they all have glasses.  It must be a dream come true for all glasses fetichists XD

With Koji Ito as a writer and director, and AIC no Takarazuka team behind it, this project looks experimental but can turn out great!

The new trailer for Supernatural anime, with release dates!

Madhouse and Warner Bros. have finally released a 35 second teaser trailer for the anime version of this live-action series by the CW. It will come out in DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on January 12, 2011 with the first 12 episodes. The remaining 10 will be released on April 6 of that same year.

Both actors Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles will do the English dub for at least two episodes, and the date of the American release is still unknown.

Looks great! It has that Death Note feel!

New trailer of Infinite Stratos!

It's always good to see anything new of this great series by Izuru Yumizuru that got an anime greenlit for this year. In their official site here you can see a new 92 second trailer with scenes and goodies!

Infinite Stratos, or IS, is the story of Ichika Orimura, a blonde bishounen that enters the IS academy, a school that trains pilots to handle the Infinite Stratos system, a job that is only reserved for girls. But it turns out that Orimura is the only male that can manage that system successfully.



It's a romantic comedy mixed with the high speed and emotions of a mecha series.

PS: I'm already in love with the main character.

Nyaruko-san tendrá su serie de anime!

Esta historia, inspirada en las novelas de H.P Lovecraft, narra las peripecias del dios del cosmos Nyarlathotep, quien se convierte en una hermosa joven de pelo plateado(se hace llamar Nyaruko) cuando llega a la tierra y conoce a un joven llamado Yasaka Mahiro, a quien salva de unos aliens que lo persiguen.

El autor es Aisora Manta, quien lo define como una comedia caótica de alto suspenso. Debutó como una serie de novelas ligeras el año pasado y ha tenido tambien unos cortos de anime en flash que salieron en marzo de este año.

Aquí una muestra:



Aun no se ha determinado cuando saldrá el anime, pero es posible que sea para finales de este año, o el que viene!

Trailer for Avatar: the last airbender

Will Hollywood go wrong again with live-action adaptations?

This is the last trailer for the 'Avatar: the last airbender' movie by M. Nigh Shyamalan (haven't liked his work except for those two movies with Bruce Willis) that just hit the screens the last month.



So far, it looks like it will be another case on 'why Hollywood fails' archive. But at least the effects and the technical aspect of the movies looks greatly done, yet again there's no heart to the story and no empathy for the main character whatsoever.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami will be licensed by Sentai Filmworks

This anime dates from 1993-1994, and despite its moderate success, it was a great adaptation of of Takashi Shiina's manga of the same name.

Sentai Filmworks just announced that it will license this anime and its 45 episodes will be dubbed to English.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami is a comedy and supernatural themed story about Reiko Mikami, a ghost hunter with an insatiable love for money and gambling.

Now fans worldwide will enjoy this anime along with the film, the latter only being dubbed to English in the 90's.

(Source: ANN)

Crunchyroll transmitirá más capitulos y series gratis

Este es el calendario de la semana que corre desde el 1 hasta el 7 de agosto, Naruto Shippuden estara disponible y tendra mas acceso a los usuarios no premium:

El domingo se transmitió GIANT KILLING episodio 18 y URABOKU,  episodio 17, mientras que el lunes se transmitió FAIRY TAIL 40 y OCCULT ACADEMY 5.


Hoy veremos Bleach 282 y Tono To Issho 5
.
Miercoles: STRIKE WITCHES 2, episodio 5; ASOBI NI IKUYO episodio 4; y KAASAN-MOM'S LIFE episodio 65.

Jueves: HEROMAN episodio 19 y NARUTO SHIPPUDEN episodio 172, continuando con la saga de Pain.

Viernes: MITSUDOMOE episodio 6 y  REBORN episodio 196.

y el Sábado tendremos: YUMEIRO PATISSERIE episodio 44 and LILPRI episodio 19.

Crunchyroll es un servicio que pone a la disposicion de sus usuarios sus series anime favoritas por una mensualidad de $6,95 al mes o $59,95 al año, un formato de calidad y transmision casi inmediata despues de salir al aire en las televisoras japonesas.

What will be future of reading manga online for free? (a random rambling)

With the closing of key sites such as Onemanga and Mangafox, among others, one is left to wonder what to do next?

Last week I looked for Naruto 504 and Bleach and it was a nightmare struggling on sites that want to charge you $$$ for subscribing, not to mention tons of annoying pop up ads.

Either I succumb to that new site Openmanga.com, or get my scanlations on torrentz and private forums.

:-/

Ninja Scroll director working in new web anime based on samurais!

This is indeed great news. The president and founder of Madhouse, Masao Maruyama, has revealed that Ninja Scroll director, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, is working in the production of a new web anime called Ninja Ten Battles. It is said that this series will be the stepping stone for a possible film.

There's not much details right now but the story goes around a cross-dressing swordsman that fights ninja.

If you enjoyed the art and raw violence of Ninja Scroll, this is it for you! And when it comes to Madhouse, nothing fails! XD

This week's featured AMV! (6)

Do you remember those good old days in which some anime movies and series took their licenses to be very crude and violent to prove their point? Such was the case with Akira and Ninja Scroll.

That's why the AMV of the week is this Ninja Scroll video to the song Aerial by System of a Down. The animation was perfect and reckless to show what it needed to show. Being a ninja wasn't such a glamorous or cute/funny thing to be.



Congrats to auaiomrn for this excellent video!