The Daily Dose

  • According to MOON PHASE and a listing on studio ingresA’s website, a Tales of the Abyss anime is in the works by Sunrise with Kodama Kenji as the director and Hishinuma Yoshihito as character designer.
  • Also according to MOON PHASE, Nagai Gou‘s Z Mazinger (a retelling of the classic Mazinger Z) is getting a 26-episode anime produced by Palm Studio and directed by Imagawa Yasuhiro.
  • Next week’s finale of The Tower of Druaga ~the Aegis of Uruk~ will be accompanied by a simultaneous broadcast of a live chat with the main staff members. The special one-hour GyaO program starts at 1AM JST Friday night/Saturday morning, 15 minutes before the episode begins airing on tvk.
  • This technically isn’t news, but worth seeing if you haven’t already: NEC Direct is selling customizable CODE GEASS-themed laptops.
  • For ARIA fans, the ARIA The ORIGINATION PS2 game’s website has uploaded a two-minute video of the game’s fully animated OP (YouTube link here). The game goes on sale June 26th.
  • The Japanese blog MUSIC ROOM has put together a list of the top selling anime song singles for the first half of 2008 (stretching from mid-December of last year to last week). Number one on the list is the Shion no Ou ED, My dear friend by Aoyama Thelma, in part because Soba ni Iru ne, a song featuring popular artist SoulJa is also on the CD. Number two is CODE GEASS‘s OP, O2 by ORANGE RANGE, and number three is Macross Frontier‘s ED, Diamond Crevasse by Nakabayashi May. You can find the entire top 20 list here.
  • 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 maca on pixiv (account needed to access).

    The Daily Dose

  • The Macross Frontier website has updated with information about the Ranka Lee/Nakajima Megumi mini-live occurring this weekend at the Odaiba VenusFort. The website also now features a video showing Ranka’s moves while singing her debut song, Seikan Hikou.
  • On the topic of Macross music (mainly because this news came out before I started doing Daily Doses, and I’ve neglected to mention it till now), the second OP starting in July will be the song Lion, performed by both Nakajima Megumi and Nakabayashi May, and the new ED will be Sheryl Nome/Nakabayashi May’s Northern Cross.
  • Famitsu has a preview of Bounen no Xamdou, the upcoming BONES series. Still no official word on which season it’ll be airing in, though I would guess this Fall since it’s not going to be Summer.
  • Popular singer Ayaka‘s song Konya mo Hoshi ni Dakarete will be used as the theme song to the upcoming Oshii Mamoru movie, The Sky Crawlers.
  • The website for the upcoming Sekirei series has updated with airdates, a new 3-minute trailer (requires Internet Explorer), and the advance screenings times at various Comic Toranoana shops across Japan on June 28th. Sekirei is now set to premiere on TOKYO MX on Wednesday, July 2nd.
  • The Hidamari Sketch x 365 website has updated with airdates and opening/ending song previews. Hidamari Sketch x 365 is set to premiere on TV Tokyo on Thursday, July 3rd.
  • 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 瀬奈 on pixiv (account needed to access).

    The Daily Dose

  • Reminder: There is no new episode of Macross Frontier this week. Episode 11 airs next Thursday, June 19th.
  • GAINAX has now officially announced that Shikabane Hime is getting an anime.
  • GARNET CROW will sing the new ending song, Yume no Hitotsu, for Golgo 13 starting in July. The CD goes on sale August 13th.
  • presepe and famitsu have previews of the third Zero no Tsukaima series, Princesses no Rondo, coming in July. Oh and how about a Tiffania pillow cover
  • 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 国重慶一 on pixiv (account needed to access).

    The Daily Dose

  • Weekly Shounen Sunday has confirmed that, after nearly 12 years, the InuYasha manga will be ending in next week’s issue.
  • I’ve seen a lot of discussion recently about CODE GEASS R2‘s relatively poor television ratings. Apparently it’s on the upswing, as episode nine got a 3.3%, the highest of any R2 episode so far. The previous high was a 3.0% for the premiere episode, and the low was 1.4% for episode four. In comparison, Gundam 00’s episode nine got 4.5% last year, but the caveat is that Gundam 00 had an arguably superior time slot. The Japanese blog AAA~Yuukyuu no Kaze~ has the full numbers for last week along with a handy chart comparing the ratings of every major Saturday/6PM series so far with R2.
  • The Macross Frontier soundtrack is not only good, but it’s also been selling quite well, having moved over 72,000 copies and staying in the #2 or #3 spot for the past week. As the Mainichi article notes, no anime soundtrack has done this well since the End of Evangelion one almost 11 years ago.
  • The website for the upcoming Hakushaku to Yousei series has updated with staff and cast listings. Notables include Mizuki Nana and Sugita Tomokazu.
  • The website for the upcoming Strike Witches series has updated its staff and airdates listings. (Note: this is the new television series starting in July, not the OVA from last year)
  • The Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu website has been redesigned.
  • TV Tokyo has posted its preliminary website for the upcoming World Destruction series. The show is set to premiere on TV Tokyo on the night of July 7th.
  • 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 ゆうや on pixiv (account needed to access).