Checkpoint: Pokemon, JAniCA, Beezlebub, Moe

Last update - Jan 17, 12:42 GMT (07:42 EST, 04:42 PST)

A new Pokemon manga (or Pocket Monsters if you prefer) has been announced to begin serialization this March, in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine. The manga's new printed home is aimed at older readers than its previous one - the same publisher's Monthly Corocoro Comic magazine (which fared better in 2010 than Shonen Sunday, to some surprise). The currently airing anime in this franchise is Pokemon: Best Wishes!, and the next Pokemon anime film will be the first one based on the "Best Wishes" saga, when it premieres in Japan this July 16.




JAniCA, as in the Japan Animation Creators Association, is being split in two by an internal power struggle of sorts, fueled by the root of all evil. It all began with last year's government-funded "Young Animator Training Project", which consisted of a 214 million yen ($2.26 million) investment from the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan. These funds were supposed to be used for the production of 4 original anime by the end of this January, with young animators trained by professional anime creators. But once it came to distributing the budget among the studios representing JAniCA's leadership, all hell broke loose.

The two conflicting factions that have since formed are polarized around Ashida Toyoo (JAniCA founder) and Okeda Daisuke (chief auditor) respectively, who are accusing each other of funneling funds for their own interests. The dispute is now about to be brought into the court, and meanwhile the Agency for Cultural Affairs has suspend its support of the project... *sigh*... Louis, I don't think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


The first DVD volume of Beelzebub's anime series that began this month will include an exclusive video short titled "Hashire! Beru-bou Keiji!!" ("Run! Detective Beel-Bou!!"), when it goes on sale this April 20.


The winners of Moe Game Award 2010 are up! Tasogare no Sinsemilla was awarded the grand prize (and was also voted by users as the best game), followed by Ikusa Megami Verita and Subarashiki Hibi. You can check out omochikaeri for the list of winners in individual categories - such as best scenario, best graphics, best music etc.

Sadly I've been slacking with eroge updates here on Animekon last year, so I can't even link any local galleries or trailers for the top 3 games above :(


Speaking of awards - the Manga Taisho 2010 awards ("Cartoon Grand Prize" awards) will be chosen from a list of 13 manga titles that have just been nominated today, for this year's 4th edition. You can find a more intelligible list over on ANN; or you can just wait for the final winners, which will be announced at the end of March.




Update: Konami's latest love-sim game, Hyaku Kano (100 Girls) was released today in Japan for mobile phones. Whereas their previous hit Love Plus had you chasing one single girl for... eons on end, the goal in HyakuKano is to make 100 girlfriends - from among friends, classmates and random encounters - one or several at a time.


Update #2: A survey conducted on 6,399 Japanese, regarding Tokyo's recently passed cvasi-ban on "harmful" anime and manga, revealed that 80% of them oppose it, and 81% of them agreed that Tokyo's amended Youth Healthy Development Ordinance "constitutes a restriction on freedom of expression".

There is also an 82% chance the survey is highly biased, and an 83% chance that the local government doesn't give a flying fart.


Update #3: The previously-promised demo version of Catherine has finally been confirmed to hit the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace this January 27 (or February 3 for Silver Members on XBLM). The demo will offer a slice of the game's opening part, including event movies, anime movies and action parts. The final game will be released by Atlus for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 17, 2011. Until then, the Catherine trailers released so far are quite revealing.