Anime News / CLANNAD / Daily Dose / FMP! The Second Raid / Honey & Clover / NANA

The Daily Dose

  • The title of Rumiko Takahashi‘s brand spanking new manga is Kyōkai no Rinne and it follows a girl named Sakura Mamiya. She has the ability to see ghosts after something happens to her when she was younger. It’s not exactly what you’d call original, but I hope this is in the vein of Takahashi’s darker Mermaid Forest manga. The series will premiere in Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine and in North America through Viz Media on TheRumicWorld.com on April 22nd.
  • Good news for those of us who’ve started the Zac Efron as Sousuke Sagara bandwagon; the young actor told the MTV Splash Page that discussions for the live action Full Metal Panic! are still “very early” and that the film is “to the point where it’s more than likely not going to happen.” I’m assuming that after the disaster known as Dragonball Evolution I’d be a bit reluctant to jump on board too.
  • It’s been announced that the eighth and final DVD installment of the Clannad After Story anime will include a special episode that is an alternate world arc about Kyou Fujibayashi. The episode is titled, “Another World: Kyou Arc” and the DVD will be released in Japan on July 1st.
  • A second season has been green-lit for the Hetalia – Axis Powers anime and will premiere this summer on the internet and mobile phones (in Japan only.) The series re-imagines various historical eras where its characters are archetypes of their countries.
  • For those of you who have been waiting for the English reiteration of Honey And Clover and NANA can finally get excited about something. Viz Media announced that they have set up websites for both anime where viewers will be able to buy, download-to-own, and/or stream the two series in the near future.
  • It was announced in the EVA-EXTRA01 paper magazine that Maaya Sakamoto is set to play a brand new character in the second film in the Rebuild Of Evangelion quadrilogy. The character’s name is Makinami Mari Illustrious and she shares the EVA tradition of having parts of her name to be named after World War II ships. It was also confirmed that Yuko Miyamura will reprise her role of Asuka, however with the new name of Shikinami Asuka Langley instead of Sohryu.
  • If you haven’t already seen it then head on over to TMS Entertainment‘s new Youtube page to watch the anime classic, Sherlock Hound. The series features Sherlock Holmes, his assistant Watson, and the housemaid Mrs. Hudson re-imagined as animals solving mysteries. The first six episodes are directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
  • If any of you out there played “Typing Mania 4“, it appears that “Typing Mania 5” is now up. Play at your own risk! (Thanks to David for the link.)
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    Ulquiorra Cifer artwork courtesy of 餅和 on pixiv (account needed to access)

    First Impressions / NANA

    NANA – 21.5

    Bleh, another Junko’s room – in other words, another recap episode. This time, they had appearances by Satou Kouichi (the guy who works at Jackson Hole) and Sakagami (Hachi’s supervisor at the editing job she got fired from), along with Junko, Kyousuke, and Shouji. But other than some idle banter, this episode just recounted all the important stuff that happened in the past 10 weeks with some music thrown in at good places. I just really hope they don’t have one of these planned for every ten episodes.

    Bleach / Kamisama Kazoku / Miscellaneous / NANA / Random Musings

    Random Musings – Brand New Morning Edition

    A few random news bits/things I have to say:
    -With the release of the KamiKazo DVDs, I’m finally able to listen to the full Kamisama Kazoku OP and ED (creditless OP/ED sequences are nice too). Given that I haven’t liked a lot of the past season’s theme songs, I’m glad that I can now put on repeat some songs I really do enjoy.
    -This week has been a bit frustrating in the sense that it seems like every post has someone asking about the episodes I skipped last week. For the final time: I will not be making up the episodes that aired during my break. I realize some of you folks aren’t happy with the jump in continuity, but you have to realize how much time it takes to blog everything – time which I just don’t have. The only exceptions are the series that are now being covered by the other writers.
    –NANA is getting a new OP next week, another Reira/OLIVIA song called Wish.
    -Newsweek is running a story about the popularity of YouTube in Japan. Of particular note is the fact that it mentions The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as an example in the final paragraph. That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that mentioned in print media.
    -There are A LOT of series coming next season, so I’m starting planning early (especially since I won’t be able to take on nearly as many series this time as I normally do). Series I’ve got marked right now include (in no particular order) Sumomomo Momomo, Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na Crescent Love, Kanon, Ayakashi Ayashi, and Death Note. That’s only a small fraction of the total number of shows, and it’s even still a bit early since some shows don’t have airdates yet. As usual, I won’t be making final decisions on what to follow until well into the next season, and I’ll likely watch the first episode of pretty much everything. Hopefully I’ll be able to write a fall preview sometime soon (I love my spreadsheets)
    -Oh yea, I almost forgot (very old news): Bleach is moving to Wednesday nights come October.