A twitter update last night has finally narrowed down the North American release timeframe for Final Fantasy XIII-2 to January 2012 - just a short month after the game's Japanese release, planned for this December. Both its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions are expected to be out at that time, so as the update concludes: "Be excited!"... or else!



Personally, I can do without the excitement. But for those of you who happen to be (...)

 Continue reading 'Final Fantasy XIII-2 In January 2012, In North America'...

After much trouble for manga creator Eri Takenashi, who for the past couple of years has been recovering from a nasty illness and surgery (made even worse by all those absurd emo-rages from some of her fans, over a certain heavenly loli's questionable purity...), here's some good news, at last! Her defining manga Kannagi - which had been on hold since January 2009, after being made into a TV anime series that ran from October 2008 - is finally ready to resume publication this month, in the September issue of Monthly Comic Rex magazine - out in Japan on July 27.



Granted, this news has been around for a while, but now we can finally see (...)

 Continue reading 'Kannagi Manga Resumes This July 27'...

Last update - 11:04 GMT (06:04 EST, 03:04 PST)

A "Hatsune Miku Vision" DVD, packing 20 of the most popular Vocaloid videos, is being released in Japan this Wednesday, July 20, under the Pony Canyon label. These classic Miku clips are said to total over 13,730,000 views on video websites such as Nico Nico Douga and YouTube, as advertised on the official website - where the below picture and promo trailer were blatantly ripped from, for your local pleasure.



Although the trailer is indeed quite lengthy, as it previews a short version of each of the 20 clips, there's still the option of watching them in full online (...)

 Continue reading 'Hatsune Miku Vision DVD, 20 Vocaloid Videos'...

Just as it happened in the previous three years, this autumn, too, will bring a new Battle Spirits TV anime adaptation of Bandai's homonymous card game. It will be called Battle Spirits Heroes, and one might expect it to start airing in September (instead of the regular October debut dates for Fall anime titles) - if the prior chapters' release dates pattern will be maintained.



There's an official website up for it, featuring nothing but (...)

 Continue reading 'Battle Spirits Gets 4th TV Anime'...

This year's anime film Onigamiden (Legend of the Millennium Dragon) will be extended with 19 minutes of extra footage in its "Director's Cut" version, when it releases on Blu-ray this September 28 - complete with an exclusive conceptual art gallery, as well. A DVD edition will also be available at that time, but that one will only feature the movie's regular theatrical version that initially premiered in Japan this past April 29. Furthermore, a North American release of Legend of the Millennium Dragon is currently planned for October 4, 2011.




A new Minami-ke "big project" will be revealed this autumn, according to this scan from the Monthly Young Magazine. Expectations weigh heavily towards a new TV anime series, to follow the earlier TV anime adaptations (three seasons so far) and the Valentine's Day-themed OVA from two years ago (...)

 Continue reading 'Checkpoint: Onigamiden, Minami-ke, Saimoe 2011'...

A Holy Knight OVA adaptation was announced to be in the making, as the first anime project created by Cammot (whoever they are), based on Maya Miyazaki's vampire-hunting manga. As summarized on ANN, "the "dramatic school (romantic) fantasy" centers around an ordinary orphan named Mizumura, who goes to a missionary school in Tokyo. His seemingly normal life changes when a beautiful half-Romanian girl named Lilith suddenly transfers into his school. This timid boy is actually a vampire hunter and the successor of the Romyuarudo lineage". No release date yet, but it sure looks promising...



A Brave10 TV anime series is in the works, based on Kairi Shimotsuki's manga sequel Brave10 S (Spiral). "The story reimagines the legendary adventures of the 10 brave warriors assembled by the warlord Sanada Yukimura in the year 1600, in the middle of Japan's tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era", ANN explains, though without mentioning a release date at this time. (...)

 Continue reading 'Checkpoint: Holy Knight, Brave10, High Score, Akira'...

5 years already?! And still not that much to show for... Ah well, the website's still here, and although its news section is still suffering from an extreme lack of activity (damn that RL!), I did at least find the time to get the Summer 2011 Anime Season titles up-to-date, in time for this month's debut of some notable new series - complete with their latest trailers and the occasional gallery, here and there...



There's also a new loli of the month who's gladly been taking in your... votes, for the past couple of weeks, at long last taking the "flat office" from Gosick's equally bookworm'ish Victorique. It's Dalian from the new anime series Dantalian no Shoka - the last new TV title to begin airing this month, next Friday on the 15th (now that Last Exile 2 is officially pushed back to October).

And and and... mye, wish I could sit here and ramble on for a while longer, were it not for this RL that keeps pulling me back. Well, enjoy, and let us not go down for at least another 5 years!

Last update - 14:27 GMT (09:27 EST, 06:27 PST)

Through a series of reports that began emerging earlier this month, a new Gundam anime project has quickly been revealing itself, as a co-production between the series' traditional studio Sunrise and... game developer Level-5, whose president Akihiro Hino is in charge of the story for this 8th incarnation of the long-running Gundam franchise. The project - titled Mobile Suit Gundam AGE - is being created as a TV anime series that's set to begin airing in Japan from October 2011.



Today's latest novelties about the project are twofold. First, it turns out that Level-5 is not only creating the story for the anime, but also a Gundam AGE RPG of some sort. (...)

 Continue reading 'Gundam AGE Anime and RPG Announced [Update]'...

Testing, testing... is this rusty text editor still working?...

All right then! So for our first news story in nearly four months, I just have to recall that Dengeki Bunko Magazine scan from last week, at long last revealing an official premiere timeframe for the third Shakugan no Shana TV anime series: Fall 2011. In other words, the new season will begin airing in Japan from this October, bearing the fatalistically terminal title Shakugan no Shana III (Final).



Like the first two anime seasons and the complementary movie and OVA, this latest anime is once again being created by (...)

 Continue reading 'Shakugan no Shana III (Final) Dated (Finally)'...

One particular "old news is so exciting" that still deserves a mentioning here, late as it may be, was last month's announcement of several new Aquaplus games. The three most prominent of them being the Utawarerumono 2 and Tears to Tiara 2 sequels - both for the PlayStation 3 - and a certain game called Jasmine, with an original story written by Yuuichi Suzumoto (scenario writer for Air, Clannad and Planetarian).



Regarding those tentatively titled sequels, ANN reports that both of them will take place in the same world as their respective predecessors. Utawarerumono 2 is being designed and directed by Tatsuki Amazuyu (ToHeart2 artist), while Tears to Tiara 2 will feature new main characters designed by doujinshi artist Tatami Honjou. You can see an initial artwork (...)

 Continue reading 'Utawareru' 2, Tears to Tiara 2, Jasmine, More'...