Anime News / Daily Dose

The Daily Dose

  • The big story of the day, which made it all the way into the English mainstream media, is that a man went on a killing spree today in Akihabara, killing seven and wounding seventeen, by plowing a truck into the crowds and stabbing people. CNN has the report. Divine writes, “kind of glad i didn’t go to akiba today.”
  • The upcoming Ga-Rei-Zero anime has opened its website with some staff listings. These are the same ones that were announced back in April: Aoki Ei as director, Takayama Katsuhiko on series composition, and animation production by asread and AIC Spirits.
  • Variety Japan reports that the updated 3-D CG Ghost in the Shell movie will open in five cities across Japan on July 12th.
  • It was officially announced that the new Katekyo Hitman Reborn! ending song starting in July will be CYCLE by CHERRYBLOSSOM. As those of you who watch the series might remember, CHERRYBLOSSOM also performed the third opening song.
  • 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 みはら on pixiv (account needed to access).
    Anime News / Daily Dose / Negima!?

    The Daily Dose

  • MOON PHASE has the first promotional image of the recently announced To Aru Majutsu no Index series. It’s going to be animated by J.C.Staff and directed by Nishikiori Hiroshi (he’s also directed Azumanga Daioh, Jyu Oh Sei, and The Melody of Oblivion).
  • presepe has a post-recording interview with Akamatsu Ken and the voice actresses of the Negima anime in advance of the Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba OVA due out in August. Even if you can’t read Japanese, you can marvel at the picture of Akamatsu Ken surrounded by his harem the voice actresses.
  • Neo Angelique is going to continue under the name Neo Angelique Abyss Second Ag starting in July. Source: MOON PHASE
  • New manga Saber Marionette i ~Neo Gene~ is slated to begin serialization in Dragon Age magazine. Source: MOON PHASE
  • New anime Kannagi is going to start this October. Source: MOON PHASE
  • MOON PHASE also has the updated airing times for many of the upcoming summer series, including Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and Sekirei.
  • As a side note, I know this is a lot of MOON PHASE links, but that’s sometimes all there is to go with on a relatively slow news day.
  • 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 みき on pixiv (account needed to access).
    Anime News / CLANNAD / CODE GEASS / Daily Dose / Suzumiya Haruhi

    The Daily Dose

  • Welcome to the first edition of the Daily Dose! One of the things I’ve always wanted Random Curiosity to be is a reliable source of news. I’ve tried to do this a little in the past with my Random Musings posts, but that hasn’t really been consistent, and hopefully this will be. The goal is for this to be a daily news digest of what’s going on in the anime world. I’ll be pulling from a lot of sources, and with luck, there’ll be stuff here that you won’t necessarily find from other places (though admittedly that can be hard in this day and age). So without further ado…
  • The 2nd CODE GEASS R2 opening song has been officially announced to be FLOW’s WORLD END. As most of you may remember, FLOW sang the first OP to the original CODE GEASS series, so it’s nice to see this come full circle, especially since ALI PROJECT is also doing R2’s new ED. The WORLD END single is due out August 13th, 2008.
  • The official CLANNAD site is now hosting a short preview video for the Tomoyo-centric episode 24 of CLANNAD. If you listen until the end, you can hear Mr. Ubiquitous Fukuyama Jun. In any case, the episode takes place in an alternate universe where Tomoya and Tomoyo are dating and will be released on July 16th with the eighth DVD. eggplant has a spoiler-filled report of the special screening from last week.
  • Canned Dogs has compiled together some images from the newest issue of Newtype that features Suzumiya Haruhi.
  • Amazon.co.jp is streaming the first five-minute episode of the animated version of Detroit Metal City. This comedy story involves a shy guy who becomes the lead singer of a death metal band, and there’s a live-action movie version coming out in August.
  • Oh and I almost forgot to mention: 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 Ixy on pixiv (account needed to access).
    Anime News / First Impressions / Macross / Random Musings

    Random Musings – Raindrops on Roses

  • I’ve been listening to the Macross Frontier soundtrack, and it’s every bit as wonderful as I hoped it’d be. I’m loving the tracks What ’bout my star (both versions), Big Boys (reminds me a lot of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme), and Innocent green. Oh and the Nyan Nyan song is as cute as ever. It’s going to be hard at the end of the year deciding whether this OST is better or the true tears one is – probably this because of all the vocal music (which isn’t to say that Yoko Kanno’s instrumentals aren’t great too). And that’s assuming the next Macross Frontier OST won’t be better.
  • I also managed to scrape together some time this weekend to watch a few episodes of the currently-running drama Zettai Kareshi. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s about a girl who gets a robot as her ideal boyfriend, and the love triangle and troubles that this leads to. That might sound silly, but it’s actually really entertaining. I was curious about this adaptation because I read the manga a long time ago, and though a lot of things have changed in the story, it’s still very very good. It has that same spark that I found in the Hana Yori Dango and Yamada Tarou Monogatari dramas – the perfect mix of comedy and romance drama. It can be very funny at times (especially the actor who plays Namikiri), and the romance and drama elements are slightly over the top – just the way I like it. I wish I were blogging it, but sadly I just can’t make the time commitment for a drama series right now (though I may try to next season or the season after that). On a side note, I had the theme song of this series, Okaeri by ayaka in my head all the way until today…when I started listening to the Macross Frontier soundtrack.
  • Also in the news, the official Mai-HiME/Otome website announced a new project. No details about it other than the name and character design of the new heroine, Mao (see the link). While I do wish Sunrise would develop more new original properties, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious what this one will be like, especially since S.ifr’s first episode was better than expected. Speaking of which, the second volume of S.ifr is due out July 25th.
    • Anime News / CODE GEASS / Miscellaneous / Random Musings

    Random Musings – The Hot Sheets

  • It’s with great reluctance that I’ve had to make the decision to drop Kyouran Kazoku Nikki. It’s absolutely nothing against the series – which I’ve enjoyed quite a bit – but rather due to my new job keeping me from being able to spare the time. Unfortunately, I had to cut something, and this was it.
  • I put up the current Kanokon poll because of the news yesterday that streaming site GyaO will no longer be showing Kanokon due to ethical regulations. You’d think that they’d have gotten a clue after the hardcore spanking in episode three, but maybe it was the practically exposed breasts in episode seven that led to this. Or perhaps whatever is in the hot springs for episode eight is even more outrageous than anything else so far. Either way, some are speculating that this has to do with Kanokon being #1 a couple of weeks ago on GyaO’s rankings for both the elementary school boys and girls demographics.
  • In CODE GEASS news, episode nine has reportedly been delayed a week. Episode eight will still air this weekend, but episode nine will NOT be airing on June 1st as it had originally been scheduled. Instead there will be some sort of emergency filler show. I haven’t found an official reason, but others have speculated that it’s because of the Chinese earthquake tragedy, and that’d make sense since episode nine involves the Chinese Federation.
  • Finally, and perhaps the most important item in this post: I am currently seeking an editorialist for Random Curiosity. Ideally, such a person would be able to present opinion on the news topic of the day (such as the Kanokon and Geass items mentioned above) or on whatever other current topics they think are relevant to the anime community/industry/etc. This does not require any Japanese language ability, but it does require good English and good writing ability. If you’re interested, please send me an email and include two sample writings, the first addressing the question of “Should anime adaptations strictly follow the manga?” and, the other is any topic of your choice. You could talk about ankles for all I care – the more creative the better, as long as there’s some relation to anime/manga/culture.

    • Image at left courtesy of ism on pixiv (account needed to access). It has nothing to do with anything in this post, but I’m a sucker for good art.