Today, the Fourth of July, happens to not only be a national holiday in the US, but it also marks the two-year anniversary of this site. I actually started writing on this blog a little earlier than that, but it wasn’t until I moved here to AnimeBlogger in July of 2005 that I consider the site to have really started. Since then, the site has accumulated 1,646 posts and 45,172 comments, and it’s gotten almost ten and a half million hits. As always, I want to thank all the readers and everyone who’s helped out with the site, and hopefully we’ll have more years of blogging to come.
Now, on to some miscellaneous newsworthy notes:

  • As you can see in the image above, the cast for the live action Mahou Sensei Negima! drama has been decided. The official site has profiles for each of the girls, and I was kind of surprised by some of the choices, stemming mostly from how the ages of the actresses range from 12 to 24 years old (for easier comparison if you don’t know their names, refer to the Wikipedia pages that list the characters in the same order). Although Asuna and Nodoka’s actresses look about right for their characters, who the heck decided that Kaede should be played by a 13 year old? Anyway, the drama starts in the fall of this year, and you can find some magazine scans of the actresses here.
  • For the guy who specially requested it, here’s the download link (mirror) for the new ED to D.Gray-man, Antoinette Blue by Kitade Nana. However, I still don’t have any plans to blog show again despite the story seeming to pick up.
  • There’s been a bunch of rumors flying about in the recent week about a one-hour CODE GEASS special that’s supposed to be airing on the night of July 28th. Although nothing about it has been confirmed, speculation is that it’s either the highly-anticipated episodes 24 and 25 or it’s a recap special. Given that that’s a week after the premiere screenings, the possibility is certainly there, but I wouldn’t get my hopes quite just yet until there’s been an official announcement. On a related note, ANIMAX’s schedules now state that they will be airing those final two episodes on August 30th and 31st. Whether or not the other channels will get broadcasts before then remains to be seen.
  • 53 Comments

    1. Wow, congrats on 2 years, and the amazing amount of comments! As for live action Negima… it could be a groan-fest, but I bet a lot of people will watch it for the girls. Will it have as much fanservice as the manga?

    2. ps.
      Chachamaru doesnt look like a robot at all.
      I thought Kaede was supposed to be part of the breasts club being well endowed, i don’t think many 13 year olds are well endowed hmmm.
      Chizuru looks excedingly old.
      Fuka and fumika dont look like twins…
      Chisame isnt a maganeko?
      Nodoka face isnt covered?
      and how come zazie’s face isnt painted?

      i wonder if this live action can actually pull off the character uniqueness of each girl.

      Julius
    3. Is it just me thinking hair coloring would really help in this cast? Ayaka and Evangeline being non-blonde is just… not right. And yeah, LOL @ Kaede being played by such a small girl

      I’ll probably end up watching this anyways when it comes out -_-

      Rogue
    4. congratulations on the anniversary, and i really hope there’ll be years of blogging still to come 🙂

      i really do wonder how this live-action piece will deliver…

      hmm…i guess i ll have an interesting week in tokyo then… i can see both the geass finale and the 1st rebuild of evangelion movie in the same week ^^;;; i do hope the geass finale airs earlier tho >.>

      mewmew
    5. First, congrats on two years. I’ve been here since November 2005 and got introduced to all that SHUFFLE! and Shana stuff back then. Since then, I’ve been a regular contributor to your view counter. Keep up the blogging!

      Second, I label a big giant DO NOT WANT on live-action Negima. So let’s watch it become a trainwreck on TV!

      pakxenon
    6. Congrats and happy anniversary!

      I can’t believe they’re really gonna do a live action for Negima. -_- I totally don’t approve of this, but I sorta hope it turns out well so that Negima can FINALLY have a good adaptation, but I won’t hold my breath. Anyway, it’s pretty easy to see who’s playing who from the picture (I think). I can pick out Kaede and the twins, the sports girls, Setsuna, Konoka and Asuna, the library trio, Asakura and Sayo, the cheerleaders and Hakase, but I’m not too sure about the others. I could probably pick a few more out if I sat down and tried to figure out who I haven’t found yet, but I won’t. XD

      Neo Horizon
    7. Wow Omni! Uh…thanks a lot! I was just about to e-mail you too ^^. I like the new ED, its a shame that you’re not blogging it anymore. Though the ED is nice i think Bleach beats it out. Now the wait for Gintama’s ED tomorrow and this week will be complete for me.

      …Thanks again!

      Bomber D Rufi
    8. For what it’s worth, I think the chances of Negima getting a good adaptation from a live action series is next to nothing. I fully expect some poor young boy to play Negi and Kamo to be a stuffed animal.

    9. I agree with most of the other comments. Seriously this is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. It may seem cool but you know it will be disastrous.

      My rants on the characters:
      Saya does not look like a ghost. (wonder how thats gonna work)
      Eva and Ayaka aren’t white XD
      Setsuna looks…brrrrr…..
      Chiu no wear glasses?!??
      Nodoka’s hair isn’t down over her eyes
      Mana looks way off
      What did they do to Yue?!?
      The hair styles of the girls seem okay…for the most part
      They better add those robot antenna for Chachamaru
      Ku fei somewhat scares me…
      I think Haruna’s (paru’s) glasses are fake…
      Makie looks weird
      Hakase’s hair could be longer

      yeah my eyes are starting to hurt looking at it so…ima stop there…

      hey are these red tears blood?

      Harouki
    10. Congratulations Onmi…

      Wait… you have more than 2 years right? That mean I almost found this blog at the very beginning of it’s existence… WOW.

      Keep it up!

      Syaoran Li
    11. Congratulations on the two year anniversary. Like many others, you introduced me to anime blogs back in ’05 and I’ve been reading (and now writing) every since. Many respects to you Omni :).

      The Negima live action looks ok. I’ll probably watch it xD.

    12. Oh this whole thing makes my head hurt….. about half the casting is visually passable and it may be that the unusual ones (Chach, Zazie, etc) will get some SFX/makeup…. but obviously they’ve completely tossed Kaede’s character attributes out the window.

      I can probably conclude now that Ken has sold out his little franchise just so he can eat lunch with the cast…. back to the manga.

      vexx
    13. Congrats for two years excellent blogging!
      Wish you, your team and your site the best for the future and much success!

      Geass end of August? You are kidding..
      Wonder about the Negima live action. Maybe I’ll take a look, but just out of curiosity how they’ll manage this show.

    14. WOW! you know what? my bad OMNI i didnt even give you your proper respect which i should have in my earlier comment.. HONESTLY fo real my nigga, i really appreciate your blog site, fuck! IT’S THE ONLY BLOG I CHECK AND POST ON. “except fo one time on evil genius site,” but yeah dude i usually work nights/early mornings at this hospital gig and i swear i love checking your site and indulging my otaku-ness “in between listening to patients fart in their sleep”, ..sometimes when one of the finer nurses come to the station to have a word, i flip the site window down, BUT MOST OF THE TIME I DON’T GIVE A DAMN AND LET MY FREAK FLAG FLY, I LOVE ANIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and yeah i think i’ve been checking u since the begining. ever since you had the banner with that curiose girl who finds adventure in everything” forgot her name” THANKS OMNI, AND CREW

      BROOKLYN otaku
    15. Live-action Negima….aaahhh….well…..I’m speechless. Some of the girls look great but its just plain weird. Are they gonna follow the original manga story and introduce magic and stuffs? Or is it just a normal high school love drama? I just don’t know what to expect for this. And is it just me or this seriously reminds me of the live action sailormoon? I mean…magic and transformation….WTH!!!!???

      dward
    16. OK, no way. What the hell. All of the actors were chosen so badly.. the personalities that are shown through the characters expressions are all totally wrong. Just compare the Ayaka picture of the actor to the anime pic and you’ll see that they give off entirely different airs. The actor doesn’t look like she’s giving a sincere smile at all.. Nodoka was cast well but just look at Fumika, Evangeline, Chizuru(!?), Mana, Sakurako, Makie, Konoka, Setsuna… (plus most of the others) they can only screw up the casting so far in my opinion and if I watch it, it’ll only be to see how badly it does. Although, I guess it is to be expected since both anime screwed up/messed with the original in their own way.

      Sorry, it just really got to me how, a 12 year old girl I saw at a crappy Tokyopop ReCon the other day made a much better Setsuna in cosplay than the live-action actor (since when is Setsuna the type to go around with huge smiles plastered onto her face?)when anime/manga related events and fans hardly exist here in England. Rant over.

      Also, congrats on the anniversary~

      Mark
    17. We can make all the predictions we want on how this Live-Action Negima adaptation will turn out, but basing it on a couple of photographs is not really well-founded.

      When the first few photographs of the X-Men movie came out, people were complaining about Hugh Jackman – how his sideburns were too ridiculous and why he wasn’t wearing the standard (yellow) Wolverine outfit, or how Storm (Halle Berry’s) white hair looked so fake, etc.

      In addition, if you’re just looking at the “attendance book pictures,” that’s fairly inaccurate. You should really look at the magazine scans, since it has several “cosplay” shots, with the actresses displaying themselves more in character (and grouped in the same cliques as depicted in Negima). More than likely, the actresses were instructed to smile for the attendance book pictures, probably to gain more appeal to people who DON’T know the Negima characters. IIRC, the manga attendance book pictures has very few of the students smiling.

      As for the hair color, do you want them to pull a “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon?” all the time? At least those actresses only wore those wigs when they transformed. It’s not THAT hard to tell them apart once you start watching the show and seeing how they talk and interact. I do like the subtle hair styles to differentiate them…

      I can also easily imagine this adaptation trying to do a more GTO story with school drama and teen angst, instead of focusing on the supernatural magic. I’m sure most die-hard fans would cry bloody mary if this were done, but I try to keep an open mind.

      This sort of adaptation will always piss off someone. The die-hard fans will want everything to be pure and EXACTLY the same as the manga (which, especially for live-action, is difficult, if not impossible, ridiculous, and maybe even boring). If the adaptation was made purely, then casual fans will find it ridiculous, since many of the events wouldn’t translate well into live-action medium. Can you really imagine them pulling off the sneeze-gag that blows a gust of wind to pull up skirts and/or rip off clothes in live-action?

      I’m reserving judgement until I see and hear Negi….

      Nutty
    18. CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STILL BEST AND UNBEATABLE BLOG OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!

      I still cant see how would they make a negime live action…guess it still trips me out…

      timerswing
    19. Thanks for your hard work OMNI! JAALIN!! And everyone else who contributed. I look forward to many more years of “great” anime bloggings!

      That’s a big cast of girls, lets hope the show is really worth that many actress’!

      Typer
    20. I see it this way, it doesn’t matter if it’s good or not, i think one should enjoy it for what it is. Even if it is a disaster, then so be it, it won’t hurt anyone. Personally i think it’s going to be really fun to see what they will come up with, and how the magic will look like and so on. And if it’s crappy then it’s crappy, still fun though in a way.

      And of course, congrats! this is the best blog in the world.

      RM

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