To remind our readers about the UK 8th July release of Sky Blue (the English name for Korean animation Wonderful Days), we're hosting a little eCard for you to feast your eyes on.
Read More... | Souce: Sky Blue UK Movie Website
Planet Tokyo have posted an interesting article called Talking Anime Business Blues, it covers the current concern about the boom on anime in the USA, and the double edge sword that is fansubbing, which both creates a hype for a series and also takes away DVD sales since fans would already have it on fansub (this is a long running debate in anime fandom and most fans operate on the policy that if they have the fansub and like it, they'll buy the DVD, otherwise they'll delete it).
Souce: Planet Tokyo
Category > Anime
The new live-action film Initial D opened last weekend in five Asian Markets and was number one in three of them. In Hong Kong it was shown on 99 screens, China-450 screens and Malaysia.
Based on the Japanese manga, Initial D began shooting on the 2nd June 2004 and it was directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, who also co-directed Infernal Affairs. The film was shot in locations in China and Japan and features Edison Chen as Takumi, the delivery boy who becomes a street racing legend.
Initial D was also the top Chinese-Language film in Taiwan and Singapore and was the top opening of the year in all three markets. No word was said yet on the U.S release and its Japanese Release is scheduled for September.
Souce: ICv2
Central Park Media has announced that it will be re-releasing a select number of its classic titles at the lower, more affordable price of $9.95 Suggested Retail Price. CPM joins fellow distributors ADV Films and U.S. Manga Corps in offering anime titles at such prices.
Read More... | Souce: Central Park Media
Category > Anime
According to the Mainichi Daily News on Tuesday the Supreme Court ordered Japan's largest animation production company to pay royalties to voice actors and actresses for the sales of videotapes of animated films in which they acted.
Read More... | Souce: Mainichi Daily News
Category > Anime
Following on from several stories about Satsuki's and Mei's House, Anime News Network cite Yahoo! News Japan, stating that the popular attraction at the World Expo 2005 In Aichi, Japan will stay in Aichi. Previously several other groups and cities all took a keen interest in hosting the replica house from My Neighbor Totoro.
Apparently the house will be transferred to the Aichi prefecture in September, they will not have to pay to buy the house, however they have been concerned about it's high cost to maintain. The Otaku News Crew believe that the building must attract a lot of soot sprites!
Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Anime
According to ICv2 FUNimation has given the rights to Southern Island LLC. of Phoenix Arizona to create action figures for Case-Closed, Full-Metal Alchemist, Blue Gender and Fruits Basket.
The four-year licenses will allow Southern Island to develop highly articulated 6" to 8" action figures for all four popular anime series as well as deluxe 10" to 12" action figures, plus busts and statues for Fruits Basket and Blue Gender. Action figures from all four properties should be available in 2006, with prototypes exhibited as early as the American International Fall Toy Show in October.
Souce: ICv2
Category > Anime
According to Anime News Network, chinese director Jeff Lau is planning to produce a film based on Leiji Matsumoto’s Galaxy Express 999 manga. The film will be titled "Galaxy Princess" and it will be a loose adaptation of the actual manga. It will star Sammo Hung, Gordon Liu, Yuen Wah, Bruce Leung, Stephen Fung, Gillian Chung and, Charlene Choi. The Live-Action is scheduled to be released early next year and production will start this coming August.
Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Events
Popular UK Anime convention AyaCon are now down to their last 49 places. The convention always proves a hit and once it has sold out getting a ticket to the event is very hard, normally people have to wait for registered members to cancel.
AyaCon 5 is set to be the biggest UK anime convention to date with 1200 fans in attendance. Currently hosting an anime convention of this size is tricky and it's always nice to know that the people running the convention have experience and a proven track record at organising anime conventions. So book now to avoid disappointment.
What will be interesting to see is where will anime conventions go after this. Anime and manga is getting increasingly popular in the UK and more events are being held all the time. Surely more people will want to go to anime conventions run by anime fans like AmeCon, AyaCon and MinamiCon, however there are a only a limited number of venues that can cater for a fan run anime convention in the UK larger than 1200 people, anything bigger and all sorts of logistical factors kick in making organising an event a lot more complex. The Otaku News Crew wonder what will happen next, will these conventions continue with the same capacity, or will they be able to find even bigger venues to hold larger events? Whatever happens we certainly look forward to future fan run anime conventions.
Souce: AyaCon
Category > Anime
Bad news for anime and action film fans. Anime News Network, on a report from "Hollywood Reporter", has announced that the live action film adaptation of "Battle Angel", to be directed by Hollywood heavy-hitter James Cameron, may be delayed. The only reason being given by Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment at this time is that the story’s script is proving difficult to adapt. Despite rumors to the contrary, there has been no mention of any potential to cancel the project.
Read More... | Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Fandom
Here at Otaku News, not only do we cover anime news, manga news and news for fans of Japan, but we also like to run stories on otaku! We have to, otherwise we would have to search for another name! ^_-
The Mainichi Daily News are currently running a story about Female Otaku in Japan and fandom from their perspective. It certainly makes an interesting read. You'll also learn that Ikebukuro is the otaku girls paradise, while Akihabara is the guys (but everyone probably already knows about Akihabara, the electronic district in Tokyo).
Souce: Mainichi Daily News
Category > Anime
Gonzo has announced that GINIRO NO KAMI NO AGITO (Agito with Silver Hair) will be released New Years 2006.
The wasteland that Agito lives in is 300 years in the future. Failed DNA manipulation experiments have lead to a state of aggression between the "forest" and humans. One day, Agito meets Tula, a girl from the past. It is up to Tula to restore civilization, and to help her, Agito makes a contract with the "forest," obtaining forbidden powers. With his newfound powers, Agito's hair has become silver - where will Tula's "mission" and Agito's forbidden power take the story?
This is the first original full-length feature film by Gonzo and the trailer can be seen on Gonzo’s official website: http://www.gin-iro.jp
Souce: Akadot
Category > Anime
The Highlander is back. And this time, he’s anime. Anime News Network announced that a 43-second trailer for a new anime film based on the cult sci-fi classic is available at Highlander-official.com. The 80-minute film, entitled "Highlander: Vengeance", is animated by Madhouse and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. It is expected to come out in spring of 2006.
Read More... | Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Anime
According to Anime News Service, the second Mobile Suit Gundam Zeta film "Lovers", will be released in theatres across Japan on Saturday October 29th. Advance tickets have already began selling and the number of theaters selling such tickets has increased after the proven success of the first movie.
Souce: Anime News Service
Category > Anime
Manga Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing the two movies based on the hit anime series "Neon Genesis Evangelion", "Death & Rebirth" and "The End of Evangelion", in a special edition box set. The set is set to be released on July 26, 2005 with a suggested retail price of $49.98.
Read More... | Souce: Manga Entertainment
Category > Anime
Central Park Media just announced on their website that will be slightly altering its plans for the upcoming release of the final DVD volume of "Patlabor: The Mobile Police-The TV Series". The DVD collection for volumes 9-11, set for release on August 9, will be reduced in price from $49.95 SRP (suggested retail price) to $29.95 SRP.
Read More... | Souce: Central Park Media
Category > Anime
Central Park Media announced on their website that will be releasing the final DVD volume to their long running series, "Patlabor: The Mobile Police - The Series". The August release will see the final episodes featuring the adventures of the SV2 Squad, the special section of the police that handles crimes committed using Labors, humanoid robots used in heavy construction in a near-future Tokyo.
Read More... | Souce: Central Park Media website
Category > Gaming
According to the Anime News Network, Bandai has released screenshots from the upcoming PS2 game: Inuyasha Feudal Combat.
Read More... | Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Anime
Those alert people at UKAnime.com (who seem unable to hyperlink to us correctly when mentioning our articles) have discovered an article on the BBC Birmingham Website which reports on the talented Asia Alfasi, winner of the Kids Character Design in the IMAF 2004 competition, who drew on her heritage to create Monir a feisty young Arabian. Details of the other winners can be found on this previous Otaku News article.
Souce: BBC Birmingham
Category > Events
The popular UK anime convention AyaCon have announced that their guests for this year will be visual kei band Blood. The last AyaCon had MegaTokyo artist Fred Gallagher who proved to be an excellent choice (a detailed report can be found here).
This seems like an interesting choice for guests, since Blood do not have a direct connection to Anime fandom, unlike MegaTokyo which is read by many anime fans. The Otaku News Crew wonder if more Visual Kei, J-Pop and J-Rock fans will register for the convention, who have no real interested in anime, with just over 300 places left at the time of writing this article AyaCon is selling out fast normally the last 200 or so places tend to go very quickly. We also wonder if the popular J-Pop/Rock party at AmeCon last year had any influence on the committee members.
It's good to see that UK anime conventions are experimenting with the type of guests they have and also take the standard anime convention in a new direction. This is the fifth AyaCon, and based on our previous experiences there the convention is normally very well run and certainlly well worth attending.
Read More... | Souce: AyaCon
Category > Anime
FUNimation Productions, Ltd, which has brought numerous anime titles such as Dragonball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho and most recently Fullmetal Alchemist to American audiences, announced on its website earlier this month that they will be changing their name, following the recent purchase of the company by the Navarre Corporation. "Nothing major," according to the announcement, "just a name that more accurately reflects our company's evolution."
Read More... | Souce: FUNimation
Category > Anime
Notable Future Releases on CD Japan will include various anime goodies ranging from Action Figures to Movie and Special Anime Soundtracks to limited addition DVD's of anime series.
Read More... | Souce: CD japan
Category > Anime
With the London Expo this weekend, the anime village is beginning to sound more exciting the more we hear about it. Sweatdrop will be there, and ADV Films UK have just revealed that they will screening some of their titles in exclusive first showings! This includes Gravion, DNAngel and Mezzo.
Read More... | Souce: ADV Films UK
Category > Anime
According to ICv2 12" and 7" collectible Dolls of the famous series Princess Ai will be available for sale this summer. Bleeding Edge and LA Based Collectible Manufacturer will be manufacturing the line of collectible dolls.
Read More... | Souce: ICv2
Category > Anime
Anime News Network are currently highlighting a story on Modojo.com about anime on Sony's PSP Handheld system, Geneon Entertainment plan to release Appleseed and Samurai Champloo on UMD on July 5 in North America. Appleseed will be priced at $19.95 only a few cents less than the DVD version, while Samurai Champloo will be $14.98, with the DVD version around $23. It should be noted that the UMD versions will not have the extras that the full DVD versions will have. For more details check a full report on Video Business Online
Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Retail
Japanese ministry of posts and telecommunications will release a set of stamps dedicated to the 'Anime Hero and Heroine' series of stamps during 2005 with the 1st to the 3rd print run designed already.
Read More... | Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Fandom
We've had news from Miki Dennis who is currently organising an international costume display at Worldcon 2005. Currently she is looking for top quality anime costumes, only one or two will be selected, with no money, or prizes involved, but plenty of prestige. She promises transport and secure safe display for the costumes. If you want to take part, e-mail one full length photo per costume to Miki Dennis. The winners costumes will be seen by thousands of people, so cosplayers get submitting! ^_^
Souce: Miki Dennis
Category > Freaky Things
Anime and manga fans in the UK have always dreamed of their favourite hobby becoming more mainstream, without doubt over the last year or so this has happened. What key indicators are we using for this? Sales figures in highstreet retailers? Availability of manga in bookshops? No, we're using hair products. Anime and manga characters have always been noted for having very distinct hairstyles and beauty products company Garnier have just released Fructis Style Manga Head styling putty in the UK. It seems that either their marketing department are cool and hip or Garnier have found a niche market of otaku who want to emulate their favourite characters.
Read More... | Souce: Garnier Beauty Bar
Category > Fandom
Following on from our coverage of Satsuki's and Mei's House and how lots of local Japanese governments want to get the house moved into their area, it seems that some of these groups are actually now campaigning on the internet targeting English speaking anime fans!
Tokozawa Junior Chamber Inc Sent us an e-mail, which basically says the same as this page on their site. This is interesting because to our knowledge it's the first time a Japanese organisation has directly targeted anime fans for a political matter like this. The e-mail and webpage want people to fill out an on-line petition, here at Otaku News, we're always cynical of such things, since they don't often carry much weight in the real world and because it's so easy to automatically generate fake results.
Read More... | Souce: Tokozawa Junior Chamber Inc
Toonami UK will be premiering new Dragon Ball Z movies from Monday 30th May. Also starting will be Pokemon Chronicles and Code Lyoko. Toonami also say that we’ll get a new series of Rave Master later in the year. HiHi Puffy Ami Yumi is also set to start on Monday April 9th at 4pm on Cartoon Network.
Souce: Toonami
Category > Anime
A new Rock Musical based on the popular Anime Series Bleach by Taito Kubo will be launched later this summer. Takuya Hiramitsu known for directing the Hunter x Hunter series and Morning Museme Musicals will take care of directing this project.
Read More... | Souce: Akadot
Category > Anime
At the End of June new Inuyasha figures will be available in Japan. These figures include Kagome, Inuyasha and Shippou.
Read More... | Souce: CD Japan
Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated film Howl's Moving Castle, is set to debut in the US on June 10th in L.A, New York and San Francisco and is set to expand to 60 cities by June 17th. Howl's Moving Castle was released nearly a year ago in Japan, bringing in $100 million at the box office.
Read More... | Souce: ICv2
Category > Production > Production I.G.
UK animation magazine Skwigly features a brief interview with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa producer of Ghost in the Shell 2 in it's print edition (with the Valiant cover page 15). Among other things it discusses Production IG’s international ambitions and Ishikawa’s strong thoughts on 'British Anime'. The magazine is available from the website.
Souce: Skwigly
Category > Events
The International Manga and Anime Festival have just announced the winners of their first international competition. The London based event started last year as a trial run and has proved very successful indeed. The entrants work was displayed in London County Hall in December. This was a very high profile event, located near the famous London Eye, with a $75,000 prize fund which even ran adverts in national newspapers. We covered the story originally here.
The Otaku News Crew would like to congratulate all the winners in this competition, especially talented artist Wing Yun Man, who is well known in UK anime fandom as part of the Sweatdrop Team, she is also a member of the Otaku News Crew and finds time post the occasional story and draw lovely artwork for us!
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
Category > Anime
The folks running Connichi an anime convention being held in Kassel, Germany have sent us their press release for their 2005 convention which will run from Friday the 16th to Sunday the 18th of September.
Last year they had over 7,500 visitors. They plan to have competitions, cosplay, trading card games, an eating contest (yum), a dealers room and even a Go Tournament too! Otaku News have also discovered that like many other European conventions the video programme will have English subbtitles, with one video room in German only. This convention is well worth visiting, so you can even stick around for a week before or afterwards and check out out some of the local tourist sites. The convention will be held in the luxurious Kongress Palais, which quite frankely looks like one of the best venues to host an anime event!
Read More... | Souce: Connichi 2005
Category > Production > Studio Ghibli
According to the Daily Yomiuri On-Line the Totoro House at the Aichi World Expo 2005 has many local Japanese governments staking their claim to the property.
Many local authorities are keen to get Satsuki's and Mei's 1950's style house from the anime classic Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) moved to their prefecture, not only will it prove a big hit with locals, but it will surely make a major tourist attraction too. The house is already one of the most popular features at the Expo and has been covered on Otaku News before. The Youmiuri article has more details such as "The wooden house was built using joints, not nails, and the glass used in the windows is not new, as the panes were all salvaged from old buildings."
The Otaku News Crew are currently considering collecting signatures so they'll let us live in it! ^_^
Souce: Daily Yomiuri On-Line
Category > Anime
News of a Powerpuff Girls anime was announced at the Tokyo International Animation Fair recently. Based on the popular cartoon by Craig McCracken, the anime will be a collaborative effort between Cartoon Network, Toei Animation (Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Digimon) and Aniplex (Ojamajo Doremi, Full Metal Alchemist). The new anime project will be called "Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z" (tentative title). The 'Z' is a possible parody of the Dragonball Z logo, as it is styled in the same way. More info, images and video clips can be seen at this fansite here.
Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Anime
One Piece starts today on Toonami UK, fans might want to take note that it starts at 5pm with Rave Master following. One Piece has been dubbed by 4kids the people behind the Pokemon dub.
Souce: Toonami UK
Category > Anime
Those nice people over at Anime News Network have just published an interview with Yoshitoshi ABe and Yasuyuki Ueda. ABe is best known for Serial Experiments Lain and Haibane Renmei, while Ueda the producer has been involved in everyone of ABe's shows.
Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Anime
Those nice folks from Newtype USA have sent us the details of their April Issue, which has features on Fearless Females (including the cute and shocking Elfen Lied and Gunslinger Girl), along an with interview from Seiji Mizushima the director of Fullmetal Alchemist. The free DVD includes the first episodes of Maburaho and Gravion Zwei.
Read More... | Souce: Newtype USA
Category > Fandom
Asahi.com have a very interesting article about the Japanese tourist industry and western otaku who are willing to go to all sorts of lengths to go to the home of anime and manga. Tour companies are now featuring things to please hardcore fans with their primary packages and even local governments in Tokyo are keen to promote anime attractions. Studio’s Pierrot and Ghibli are mentioned in the article.
Souce: Asahi.com
Category > Events
We've been sent details from renowned anime author Helen McCarthy and journalist Ake Sasaki about the World Expo 2005 In Aichi, Japan, it looks like a dreamland for otaku!
For anime fans the highlight has to be Satsuki's and Mei's House, a replica of the house featured in Studio Ghibli's landmark My Neighbour Totoro. Just like the Ghibli Museum, entry to the house is limited to a set number of special ticket holders each day. Expo attendees must enter a lottery in advance to win the privilege of entering the house. As a result some lucky winners have taken to auctioning their tickets on-line, currently the free tickets are going for around $100 USD.
Read More... | Souce: World Expo 2005 In Aichi, Japan
Category > Anime
The Anime News Network have brought to our attention problems caused by a saturated anime market, this may be good for otaku with plenty to choose from and more anime than you can possibly buy in a month (unless you've got a very big disposable income), according to Publisher's Weekly ADV's manga unit has had to make some cuts. Rumours are that as many as 40 employees have been either transferred to their publishing division (which also produces Newtype USA) or made redundant.
Read More... | Souce: Publisher\'s Weekly
Category > Freaky Things
The keen eyes over at BritAnime have found out that NASA have teamed up with the Pokemon Trading Card Game to develop an in-school education tool! The new Deoxys cards are designed to explore viruses, metorites, DNA and the ozone layer.
Read More... | Souce: NASA
Category > Anime
The Otaku News Crew have teamed up with the nice people from ADV Films UK who have kindly offered our UK readers the chance to win the complete series of RahXephon on DVD, along with the movie. Two runners up will also get a copy of the movie on DVD!
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Anime
Tucked away on a news item on Anime News Service is the news that Naruto could be heading to the UK! According to ANS ‘Besides the USA the animation's debut in the EU sphere also advances with telecasts planned for Britain and Italy’. This means that Naruto isn’t confirmed for UK and Italian fans but talks are underway. It also appears that merchandise and other Naruto franchises including the incredibly popular Naruto games might be heading this way far sooner than we thought! What’s interesting is that it’s TV Tokyo that made the announcement and not a European or American company. This may mean that the Japanese have finally sat up and started to take note of the way their titles are handled abroad. It’s thought that the very reason Naruto took so long to get licenced was Japanese awareness of it's popularity abroad.
Read More... | Souce: Anime News Service
Category > Press Releases
The folks at Newtype USA have sent us the details about the March 2005 Issue of their magazine.
They've got some Madlax artwork on the cover that has been exclusively drawn for the Newtype USA, they've also got more coverage of Fullmetal Alchemist and Samurai Champloo, along with Maburaho and Scrapped Princess. The cover DVD has both dub and sub versions of Cromartie High School and Divergence Eve.
Newtype USA Vol. 4, Issue 3 will be available March 1, 2005.
Read More... | Souce: Newtype USA
Category > Anime
Media Blasters has announced several new titles at their Katsucon panel; Oh! My Goddess TV series, Genshiken, Hinotori, and Phantom. This goes to show that anime is being licensed at an increasingly fast rate, Oh My Goddess TV has only recently been premiered on Japanese TV.
Souce: Anime News Network
Category > Anime
Following on from our story last year about Channel 4 viewers voting for their 100 greatest cartoons, the TV programme this vote was taken for will be aired on Sunday 22nd February at 8pm. Channel 4 run shows like this every so often and the last greatest cartoon show had the Simpson's coming in first place. It will be interesting to see where UK voters placed the anime titles.
These shows often interview cast members, production teams and relevant experts, so it will also be good to discover if they actually interviewed an anime expert to talk about the titles in question or if they just used a C-list celebrity.
Souce: Channel 4
Category > Events
Florida anime convention Metrocon are currently seeking Cosplayer volunteers to participate in their Anime Human Chess Match. So if meet all their terms and conditions and can cosplay as one of the characters listed on their site why not give it a shot? It's also interesting to note that they've got ninja and pirate pawns.
The Otaku News Crew are pondering which anime characters are going to be which pieces, we suspect that Gendo Ikari will be a king for one side, while Rosette Christopher will be a bishop!
Souce: Metrocon