CODE GEASS – Stage 24 & 25 Special Commercial

At the end of last night’s episode of Nanatsuiro Drops on MBS, there was a commercial broadcast for the CODE GEASS Stage 24 & 25 Special with some very interesting shots.
Note: The above images are relatively non-spoiler, but the images in the post most probably are, and I’ll be doing some speculation, so continue on at your own risk.

Random Musings – Suzumiya Haruhi S2 and CODE GEASS Finale Airdate

  • The August issue of Newtype that will soon be hitting newsstands is reporting that Suzumiya Haruhi’s second season has finally been confirmed. The official announcement is set to be made on July 7th, 2007, which also happens to be the day of the Japanese Tanabata festival. That might be significant because certain events in the Suzumiya Haruhi novel storyline occur on that day. As of yet, there are no confirmed airdates, but MOON PHASE’s diary entry says that, according to an industry announcement from back in March, Kyoto Animation’s schedule will be Suzumiya Haruhi in Fall/Winter 2007 and a light novel adaptation in Spring 2008, so CLANNAD seems to have been pushed back until Fall 2008. We probably won’t know anything more definitive until the official announcement is made. But, regardless of what airs when, this Fall season is going to be chock-full of sequels and potential blockbusters (Konata certainly seems happy about this announcement).
  • I mentioned yesterday that there will be a one-hour special for CODE GEASS airing on the night of July 28th. That same August issue Newtype has also confirmed that that date will indeed be when the final two episodes of CODE GEASS are airing. For those of you marking your calendars, that’s a Saturday, and I can’t wait to have Gurren Lagann and CODE GEASS together on the same blogging day (even if it’s only once).
  • Speaking of Gurren Lagann, some scans have also popped up of the future versions of the main characters. They’re a little spoilerish, so click at your own peril.
  • Random Musings – Two Year Anniversary Edition

    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.
  • FreezeFrame: I’m Looking At Her Ankles

    From some deep, dark corner in the back of jaalin’s mind…

    Anime girls are the best. Unlike those found in 3d-land, anime girls were created for the sole purpose of entertaining me – decades in the making, the science of creating an anime girl has been perfected down to the little personality quirks, the glimmer in their eyes, and the nuances in their voice (Aisia lisp, anyone?) I thank these artists from the bottom of my heart, cuz man oh man do they do their job well.

    Random Musings – GEASS Updates and Tsubasa OVA Edition

  • There will be a new theme song for episodes 24 and 25 of CODE GEASS called Hitomi no Tsubasa by access. The song is already being played on the airwaves in Japan, so copies of the full version are floating around the Internet. If you have a Nico Nico account, you can listen to it here, and someone has also put a fan-made opening sequence with that song onto Youtube. I’ve listened to the song several dozen times now and although it started off sounding like an average T.M.Revolution song, I really like it now. The song goes on sale July 4th as part of access’ binary engine album.
  • Despite the special premieres announcement from last month, there is still no official television air-date for episodes 24 and 25. I believe speculation and sources place the time in early August, but again, no official word. There have been, however, quite a lot of spoilers, much of the former courtesy of anime magazines. According to Celiss Galvea, the confirmed spoilers are:
    Show Spoiler ▼

  • Speaking of which, the latest batch of magazines – Newtype, Hobby Japan, Animedia – have some very nice covers. The one pictured above is the spread from July’s edition of Newtype, and you can find scans of the others here. I especially liked the CLAMP-drawn cover of Newtype and the one of C.C. from the July edition of Hobby Japan.
  • And finally, some other CLAMP related news. A lot of people have been asking me about what happened to the next season of Tsubasa Chronicle since this spring season passed us by without the third series. There’s been a lot of speculation about whether it was because the next part of the story was too violent or because CLAMP was unhappy with the production or whatnot. In any case, it was announced today (sort of) that Tsubasa will be getting a special OVA called Tsubasa TOKYO REVELATIONS. I say “sort of” because publisher Kodansha originally posted the image of the manga’s volume 19 cover on their website with the announcement attached, but they have since taken that image down. Based on what was seen before the image was removed, the OVA will supposedly be available through purchasing volumes 21 to 23 of the manga, but details are still sketchy and will probably become clearer once there is an official announcement.