Anime News / CODE GEASS / Daily Dose / Macross

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).
    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.
    • Macross / PV

    Sheryl Nome starring May’n Live R-Zero Appearance

    For all you Macross Frontier and Japanese music fans out there, Nakabayashi May (Sheryl’s voice in all the songs) made an appearance last night on TBS’s Live R-Zero program and sang Diamond Crevasse in its entirety. Even after listening to her CD ad nauseum, I still really like the song, so it was cool to hear the live version. She did a fairly good job with it too – much better than I’ve heard some more popular artists do (SMAP and Ayumi come to mind) anyway. My main complaint is that the audience and host Izumiya Shigeru didn’t really seem all that into it, and that kind of took away from the atmosphere. Then again, this is an anime song appearing on a normal music program, so it might be somewhat understandable. Regardless, the video is definitely still worth a watch, if for just the song alone. Hopefully it’ll be able to hold me over until the first Macross Frontier soundtrack is released next Wednesday (June 4th).