If you thought that a cell phone girl or a right-hand girlfriend was a disturbed idea, think again. Word from the Japanese blogosquid is that Akikan! - a light novel series with one of the most absurd scenarios ever - will be getting an anime adaptation. What may seem like a generic romantic comedy story at first, soon turns out to be... well, not much more, really; other than its ludicrous theme of soda cans transforming into hawt girls, called "akikan" ("empty can"), who "need to be infused with carbon dioxide from kissing to survive" (the mind boggles...). Needless to say, the awkward task of blowing these canned lolis is assigned to the most typical loser dude possible.

The official announcement is expected to come with the fifth volume of the Akikan! light novels, which will be released this Friday, April 25, by publisher Shueisha - who has already hinted at a "big news" on that day. Looking at them hypo-carbonated cover lolis below... yep, I'd say it's big enough to stir our derranged interest.

The legal saga of one of the anime uploaders busted back in January - the one who was charged with uploading around 5,700 episodes over a four years time frame - seems to have come to an end. At least for now. Picking up an article from the Japanese publication Kyoto Shimbun, ANN reports that the unlucky uploader was sentenced to 1 year in prison (plus a 3 years suspended sentence), for his copyright-infringing crimes against humanity.

"Judge Kouji Shibata [of Japan's Kyoto District Court] said he considered the criminal liability of the defendant to be high since Sakai [the uploader] was distributing unauthorized videos on a daily basis. Judge Shibata explained his stiff sentence (...) by saying that the crime was "terrible" since the copyright infringements "cannot be reversed"."

In other anti-news, Japan's Copyright Law is still allowing people to download pirated animes for private use. And, let's not forget, to posses any kind of virtual child porn. And my obaa-san still can't figure out why I'm dying to move there.

Some 2050 years after the Haruhism wave had long since swept over the otaku world, the Americans finally got their hands on the licenses for the original manga and light novels which spawned the better-known anime Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya). The Japanese publisher Kadokawa Shoten entrusted the manga license to Yen Press, and the novels license to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (both of them imprints of Hachette Book Group USA, whoever they are).

You can find the press release with all the PR blah-blah on ANN, but suffice to say that Volume 1 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya manga (priced at $10.99) will be released in October 2008, and that the novels will debut in April 2009 with the first title, from a total of nine volumes. Frankly, though, I'd rather have an update on that Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu 2 anime sequel...

Somebody, somewhere in Japan must have had way too much free time on his sticky hands, when he decided to scorn through these numbers (via Canned Dogs). It's an interesting, but otherwise simplistic statistic, showing the total number of eroge released each year, for the past 25 years. And I'm obviously not that busy, either, since I went through the trouble of re-formatting the chart below:


As you can see, there's been a pretty huge boom starting from 1997, and Zepy attributes this mainly to the release of the first visual novels - Shizuku, Kizuato, and To Heart - just before that, followed by several other big releases in 1998 (ONE), 1999 (Kana: Littul Sistur), and 2000 (Kanon). Lately, however, the numbers seem to be stalling below 600 eroge titles per year - which, oddly enough, is almost twice the number of "normal" console games released in 2007 (around 360 titles). So... yeah, there's a lot of sick people in this world. And we couldn't be happier about it.

All that web drama surrounding the Code Geass R2 leak from a few days ago ended with good news, eventually. As you may or may not know, the final 6 minutes of episode 3 were spilled all over the streaming-webs on April 15, though they were quickly removed from YouTube, several times, at the request of Sunrise Inc. The leak, fueled by the delusion of a 2ch poster, has led to the wildest kinds of speculations - from "OH NOES episode 3 won't be airing this Sunday!", to "ZOMG they're remaking episode 3!", and even "WTF they arrested the inside leaker!".

Fortunately, none of those rumours are true, at least according to the statement posted on the Code Geass website. The official story is that the leak was the result of an accident, when a Bandai Channel employee (who may or may not have lost his job in the process) screwed up while implementing a system to prevent unauthorized postings. Leaked by the anti-leaker, the irony... Oh, and by the way, episode 3 of Code Geass R2 will be airing as intended in Japan this Sunday, April 20. So expect a full and properly fansubbed leak soon after.

Getting over the silly description given to this project (kind of hard to imagine a 2D live-action movie), Variety broke the news that the Ghost in the Shell manga / anime series will be adaptated into a live-action movie by Steven Spielberg's company DreamWorks. A movie which, obviously enough, will feature a certain amount of CG imagery, which would explain the pleonastic association of "3D" and "live-action".

Anyway, there's no point in getting over-hyped about this just yet, even if Spielberg himself would direct the movie adaptation (which is in no way official, at this time); and even though he claims that "Ghost in the Shell is one of [his] favorite stories". Keep in mind that we are talking about Hollywood here, and I seriously doubt that anyone there can adapt a Japanese franchise into anything other than a 3D pile of live-action crap. Like that future Akira movie announced a couple of months ago, most probably.

We always knew that the people who create such perfectly sane anime / manga / games as Higurashi (or FLCL, or... Eiken) have to be perfectly sane individuals themselves. And this here news perfectly supports that belief.

As it turns out, Ishii Meguru, a developer on the Higurashi visual novel game based on one of our all-time favorite animes, has been arrested for having committed "indecent acts" with a 15-year-old loli (artworks taken from his website, by the way). And not just once or twice, but for a total of four times, during November and December 2007. gg!

According to Canned Dogs' report of the original article, Ishii Meguru also "got a female fan who posted on his blog last September to give him money if she really liked him, and called her to a hotel and collected 150,000 yen (US$1500) from her". So like... any loli fans out there who want to express their feelings through a generous donation? And in return, we wouldn't mind expressing ours through various "indecent acts".

P.S. In other Higurashi gaming news scooped from Canned Puppies, it was revealed that Higurashi Daybreak is being developed / ported on the PSP, probably based on the doujin game of the same name. Famitsu has some pics from the PSP version.

*yawn*... Ohayo~... While I'm indulging myself in some relatively-early-morning drinking (for a very cheerful reason, I can assure you), let's finish up the spring cleaning with the rest of the anime-related announcements from the past week or so.

New animes

- Cobra the Space Pirate OVA - a second video series (comprised of 4 episodes), not to be confused with the Cobra remake announced back in January. Begins on August 29.

- Dragonball movie sequel - even though we won't see Chi Chi's chi-chi in the first Dragonball live-action movie until April 2009, plans for a sequel are already underway. Which kind of makes sense, since it will be a trilogy.

- Eureka Seven movie - a new "mythos" featuring the original characters Eureka (yay!) and Renton (boo!).

- Hero Man - an animated series in the works at studio Bones, co-produced by Spider-Man and X-Men co-creator Stan Lee. To be ignored.

- Yume Miru Kikai (Dreaming Machine) - the next animation film directed by Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue), announced by Madhouse at the Tokyo International Anime Fair.

Trailers (and full episodes)

- Batman: Gotham Knight trailer #3
- ef - the latter tale trailer - Win!
- Eve no Jikan trailer
- Fireball episode 1
- Genius Party Beyond trailer
- Kara no Kyoukai movie 4 trailer
- Megumi anime (English dub)
- Nijuu-Mensou no Musume trailer #2
- Sekirei trailer
- Strait Jacket episode 3 trailer

- Blassreiter episode 1 (free on BOST TV, once you register) - sucks
- The Tower of Druaga episode 1 (free on BOST TV, once you register) - not only does it not suck, but - surprisingly - it's pretty fun

Stuff of questionable importance

- The third Ani-Kuri 15 season, comprising the last five mini-productions from some of the top Japanese anime creators, is now streaming online on the official website. You'll see some short and sweet animations again, including Makoto Shinkai's "Neko no Shuukai".

- Clannad, Shuffle! and D.C. II: Da Capo II will each get a "virtual island" where horny fans can interact with the lolis from the original games. All these islands will be connected by a tentatively called "Akihabara Island", and reunited under a 3D virtual world called "ai sp@ce" (website), developed by Headlock with the support of the three games' developers - Visual Art's (Clannad), Omegavision (Shuffle!), and CIRCUS (D.C. II: Da Capo II). More about this on ANN. And, by the way, last month there was also a story linking Clannad to a couple of other no-name MMORPGs...

- The first image from Ponyo has surfaced. Apparently the-other-first image didn't qualify as... whatever.

- Rewrite is the next visual-novel game developed by Key (Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters!). It was announced on April 1, but it's no joke. No, sir!

- Speaking of games, Type-Moon's next PC game was finally unveiled this month - Mahou Tsukai no Yoru: Witch on the Holy Night. More about it on Akihabara Channel, via HD.

- To Love-Ru uncensored in the upcoming DVD version? Maybe. Lala's nipples are clearly visible in these alleged production artworks, so... yeah, time to restock on tissues.

- Naruto Shippuuden: Kizuna (Bonds) is the official title annouced for the upcoming second Naruto movie, which will premiere on August 2.

- The Gurren Lagann animation film remake announced last month now also has an official title - Gekijouban Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Guren-hen (Crimson Chapter) - and also an official release date: September 6.

Enough is enough! Our self-indulged WoW abuse extended break has been going on for far too long, so it's time to do some spring cleaing around here, and get back to our usual lolicon program. Since our last update a couple of centuries ago, there's been enough anime news to stuff a life-size plush pedobear, so you'll have to pardon me if I miss a thing or two, as I'll be trying to catch up with all the new anime announcements, trailurz, and various other novelties of questionable importance (e.g. licenses). Right then, here goes nothing...

New animes

- Blade of the Immortal (Mugen no Juunin) - based on a manga about "a ronin swordsman condemned to immortality unless he kills a thousand evil men for all the good men he killed". Begins this summer (website).

- Bounen no Xamdou - confirmed to be the title of studio Bones' new anime series, from the animators of Fullmetal Alchemist and Eureka Seven. Looks totally "WTF", in a totally good way (website).

- Casshern - based on the Shinzo Ningen Casshan sci-fi robotronic classic, in the works at animation studio Madhouse. Begins this autumn.

- Clannad After Story - self-explanatory sequel. And a damn great news! Too bad the debut trailer is so brief...

- Hayate no Gotoku! 2nd season - self-explanatory.

- Hyakko - based on a slapstick school comedy manga.

- Kodomo no Jikan 2nd season - talk about great news! The Kojikan lolis will return in a "second term" series, and a promo video is expected to surface in July.

- Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Mahou (Maimai Shinko and the Millennium-Old Magic) - an animated film in the works at Madhouse, from the director of Black Lagoon and Princess Arete.

- Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: Juuryoku Sensen (Gravity's Warfront) - a 3D CG mecha anime series, sequel to The Hidden One Year War film series (website, with a not-so-bad artwork).

- Negima OVAs - aye, more of them incoming, for a total of three episodes. Each one will be bundled and released with a volume of the ongoing Negima! manga: the first one on July 17, the second one on October 17, and the third one on January 17, 2009.

- Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin - based on a slice-of-life manga set in the 1950s, about 6 junior delinquents (or 7, ANN doesn't seem too sure, and I can't be arsed to look it up). Begins in spring 2009.

- Rosario + Vampire Capu2 - the second season of Rosario to Vampire, which pretty much says it all. Begins this October.

- Seto no Hanayome OVA - self-explanatory. And another great news, by the way.

- Someday's Dreamers sequel - this time focusing on "a character named Sora, a budding mage learning to use her powers in Tokyo". Begins this summer.

- Toradora! - based on a light novel series about the love-hate relationship between "a sweet, ordinary boy shunned by others because his face looks like a troublemaker's", and "a tiny but ferocious girl also shunned - even by her own family - as the Handheld Tiger".

- Ultraviolet: Code 044 - confirmed to be based on the 2006 movie starring Milla Jovovich. Begins on July 1, and here's the debut trailer.

- Yozakura Quartet - based on a supernatural action manga about a quartet of teenage heroes. Make that a trio, since the fourth member is a powerless loser-type dude.

Trailers

- Amatsuki trailer
- Blassreiter trailer #3
- Blassreiter trailer #4
- Clannad After Story trailer
- Kyouran Kazoku Nikki trailer - Win!
- Library War trailer
- Library War trailer #2
- Michiko to Hatchin trailer
- Mission-E trailer
- Monochrome Factor trailer #2
- Real Drive trailer #2
- To Love-Ru trailer #2
- True Tears preview #3
- Ultraviolet: Code 044 trailer
- Winter Sonata anime trailer

Stuff of questionable importance

- Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody - licensed by Viz Media in the Americas, Europe and Oceania.
- Kiba - licensed by ADV Films in North America.
- Rocket Girls - licensed by Bandai Entertainment in North America.
- Seirei no Moribito - licensed by Media Blasters in North America.

- Two 90-year-old anime films (from 1917 and 1918) were discovered in an antique shop in Osaka. Animes are so last century!

No more "Ganbatte, Bandai-kun!", cause this time they blew it. I mean really blew it. Barely had they given us a reason of joy by licensing three top-notch animes for release in North America - Shigofumi, True Tears and sola (the first two of which are still ongoing in Japan) - and now they're taking all that joy away, by delaying all three of them. Indefinitely!

Anime on DVD has the press release with the announcement, and Bandai Visual USA's ex-president (he's going back to Japan) Tatsunori Konno also addressed this issue on his blog, claiming that the decision was made in light of the recent ending of the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, and the need for a change in the currently sinking anime market.

"Bandai Visual (Japan) and Bandai Visual USA are now rushing to reschedule all future releases, focusing on Blu-Ray. Due to the recent quiet market, we will postpone standard single DVDs for TV series. We are assuming that the market does not prefer that format. (...)

[Shigofumi, True Tears and sola] will be released in the future in some format, but not this summer for sure."

You heard the man: crack your piggy bank open, Higurashi-style, and go spend those savings on figures or something. There's absolutely no point in waiting for these animes to be released delayed once again, potentially.