- FUNimation once again dominates the anime licensing scene, with the fresh acquisition of Kaze no Stigma, Gonzo's 24-episode supernatural action series from 2007. On the downside, the localized DVD release won't happen anytime sooner than summer 2009. But on the bright side, FUNi has claimed 32.7% of North American anime sales in the first half of 2008, compared to Viz Media's 15.9%, ADV Films' 10.5%, Bandai's 7.7%, and Media Blasters' 5% for the same period.

- ADV Films UK has announced 4 "complete collection" anime packs, most of which have already been released by now, though the press release has only just popped up on ANN a few days ago. The first 2 DVD packs - containing the full series This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, and Yugo the Negotiator - were released on August 25, and this week E's Otherwise also hit UK stores. I wish I could say that they saved the best for last, but... Next up, on September 22, will be RahXephon: Grand Cannon Collection, a pack including the original mecha series, along with the RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio anime film.


- Right Stuf & Nozomi Entertainment are the next in line, at least chronologically. On November 25, they will release the "genre classic" Toward the Terra anime film on DVD, featuring remastered video footage from its 2007 Japanese DVD release, Japanese audio and English-language subtitles. And also on November 25, the second season of Maria-sama ga Miteru will get its North American DVD release.

- Viz Pictures also earned a place for itself in this round-up, even if for a live-action movie license. In just a week, on September 16, they will release the first Death Note movie on DVD in North America, featuring a newly dubbed English soundtrack, along with the original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles, and some other goodies. Death Note / L / Kira fans freaks, rejoice.

If you fail in Italy, try the U.S. - this is something that the Nazis should've seriously done back in WWII. That way, at least, we could've had a laugh about how history repeats itself in the case of Ponyo and Sky Crawlers - two of this year's better known anime films - not to mention have a laugh, period.

As you may, or may not know, both Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (Hayao Miyazaki - Ghibli stuff), and The Sky Crawlers (Mamoru Oshii - Ghost in the Shell stuff) were in the race for the big-bad-juried awards at this month's Venice Film Festival. But, as it turns out, they both failed. Relatively. To be fair and square, they did win something, even if less important: The Sky Crawlers took the Future Film Festival Digital Award, and Ponyo got a "collateral" award for showing "a firm connection with the arts". Which probably means we won't enjoy it.

Propelled by these lukewarm critical acclaims, the two films are now headed for America and other Engrish-speaking territories. Ponyo has already been confirmed for a 2009 realease in the U.S. from Disney, and now Sony has licensed the rights to distribute The Sky Crawlers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. No release date yet, but you can also expect it next year.

Hmm, what do we have here? Looks like another Street Fighter anime project, and if I had to guess, I'd say it's something totally different from those animated sequences we wrote about a few months ago. At the time, those were being made for the latest Street Fighter IV game, but now Capcom is teaming up with Eagle One Media to produce "a line of animated comic DVD" based on their ass-kicking franchise, and in particular on some Street Fighter comics published by Udon Studios.

I can't quite picture this in my mind, but Capcom's announcement comes to the arguable rescue, with this awe-uninspiring explanation.

"An Eagle One Media animated comic production utilizes the actual artwork and story content from a series of published comic books and with the addition of animation, motion-style techniques, character voice-over, music, and special effects, creates a fact-paced, content production that can be watched on any DVD device or made available for download. Each entertaining animated comic production DVD has a run time of 70 to 80 minutes and can be found at your local DVD store or on-line retailer."

The first such animated comic DVD will be titled Street Fighter: Round One - FIGHT!, and it's set for a February 3, 2009 release. Just in time for the live action movie, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, which will premiere worldwide on February 27. If only it would look as lolicious as the pic below...

The folks from AnimeNation noticed that the latest entry in the Kite Liberator blog hints at the next chapter in the series. From what Yasuomi Umetsu (Kite creator / director) writes, he is currently writing the plot for the sequel to Kite Liberator - which itself was sort-of-a sequel to the decade-old, sci-fi, sexually-tensed Kite OVA.

We can only assume that the next one won't take another 10 years to complete, but you never know... For the time being, I'm not aware of any other details about it, nor can I be arsed to search for them. Too busy checking and re-checking our latest gallery update featuring Primula at her loli'est.

While doing my daily gallery browsing on Sankaku Complex, I came upon this here piece of news: Yet another Haruhi game is set for release, for the almighty Nintendo platform that some of us call Wii. And that some of us actually use. Sometimes.

So, what will we get this time? An adventure game. In which the girls will be... adventuring. In various places. Probably not as many places as the Haruhi dance game, which will, hopefully, feature lots and lots of Haruhi dancing, but hey, they say that this one will feature 3D characters. Which we, here at Animekon, DO NOT approve. 2D girls are much, much better.

Sega is planning to ship the game in the early stages of 2009. And we hope that it comes with a Wii controller shaped like an artificial pussy.

Seeing how the next best thing after fifth grade lolis are high school girls, we can only rejoice at the thought of another comedy / ecchi / school anime coming our way. This brand new instrument of pleasure shall be known as Hatsukoi Limited (First Love Limited), a title which has so far been indicative of a manga from the Weekly Shonen Jump mangazine, serialized between October 2007 and May 2008.

Aside from an anime, said manga will also get a drama CD, and both adaptations will show the first loves of a high school girl named Ayumi, as well as other middle school and high school girls. All dressed in pink.

"I love the smell of pink in the morning. Smells like... victory."

- Death Note II: The Last Name, the second live-action movie that is, is to be screened in U.S. theatres this October 15 and 16. You can thank (or curse) Viz Media for the English dubs it will feature, and for this Death Note 2 movie trailer we grabbed from the official website. At least the trailer is also available with the original Japanese voices.

- Hells Angels, some OVA adapted by Madhouse from a dark fantasy manga, will finally be screened this October at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), thus making its late world debut. It was supposed to be screened at last year's edition, but was "withdrawn due to various issues". Pantsu?

- Ghibli's veteran director Hayao Miyazaki thinks that, after this year's Ponyo hand-drawn film, his next anime project will see the light of the silver screen at least 3 years from now. By that time he will be over 70. Or dead.

- Tonari no 801-chan, that anime adaptation based on the 801-chan (Yaoi-chan) 4-koma comedy manga announced not so long ago, has been cancelled. It was just a dream, as the manga's creator puts it.

- Asakiyumemishi: The Tale of Genji, some historical shoujo manga from... over 9000 years ago, will be getting an anime adaptation. The manga itself is based on a classic Japanese story about the lives of a motherless prince and his descendants. The anime series will have 11 episodes, and will start airing from January 2009 (website).

- Kozue Amano, the creator of the Aria and Aqua manga series, will launch a new manga in the Comic Blade magazine's January issue (out on November 30). No title was given so far.

- And finally, Square Enix will launch a free web magazine called Gangan Online in October, packed full of manga and light novels. ANN has the "launch titles" announced so far from various manga creators, if you can be arsed to check them out.

If being a samurai that runs around hacking people for a living is your thing, then be on the lookout for Negibozu no Asataro, Toei Animation's latest anime adaptation that is set to premier on October 12th. This thing here seems to be inspired from Kazuyoshi Ino's picture books with the same name, books where the samurai in question, Asataro, who also seems to have a freaking onion instead of his head, wonders the land in search for adventure.

Onion rings, delicious. Can I have some, pl0x.

Within the pages of the latest Jump Square magazine we have an interesting announcement, according to which the light novel series Denpa teki na Kanojo will soon be magically transformed into an anime series. The author, Kentaro Katayama, is also the one responsable for Kurenai, another light novel that touched our TV screens in the early days of 2008.

From what we gather, Denpa teki na Kanojo (literally meaning "electromagnetic girlfriend") is set somewhere in the same uiverse with Kurenai and, according to the folks over at AnimeNation, will also benefit from special appearences of Kurenai characters. Hmm, that Kurenai chick was pretty hot...