Due to our slow start this month, a round-up of recently announced animes is once again in order (blame the whistling coder who would rather work on our next website, than dedicate himself to a life full of virtual lolis)... *whistles*... Here we go then.

- Batman: Gotham Knight - the website is live, with a new trailer (Update: now also available here on Animekon), and a solid date announced for the DVD and Blu-ray release: July 8.

- Blue Dragon 2 - or formally Blue Dragon: Tenkai no Shichi Ryuu (The Seven Dragons of the Heavens), will be the second series to follow last year's (and still ongoing) Blue Dragon anime. Begins on April 5.

- Fireball - a 3D CG anime developed and produced for Disney Japan. "The gag comedy takes place in the near future on another planet and centers on Rosselle, the daughter of the Duke of Flugel, and her two steward robots."

- Kara no Kyoukai - the DVD release dates of the animation movie's three chapters were finally announced: May 21, June 25 and June 23, respectively.

- Michiko to Hatchin - an original anime in the works at studio manglobe (Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy). "The title's Michiko is a free-willed "sexy diva" who destroys a supposedly inescapable prison fortress, while Hatchin is a girl fleeing her strict foster parents. The two join forces on an improbable escape to freedom". Begins in 2008 (website - I smell a Gurren Lagann clone).

- N.Y. Salad 2 - more veggies. Begins on March 31.

- Onegai My Melody Kirara! - the fourth Onegai My Melody anime based on... whatever. Begins on April 6. To be ignored.

- Penguin Musume - after last month's announcement, here comes a website, some flowers (?!), and a broadcast starting date: April 19.

- Sekirei - the anime version of the ecchi Sekirei manga (first 38 pages sample) was confirmed to be in development, as rumoured earlier this year. Begins this summer (website, new wallpaper).

- Shimajiro - yet another season for the children's anime Shima Shima Tora no Shimajiro. It's only been going on since 1993, so you'll pardon me if I'm not excited. Begins on April 7.

- Stitch! - based on Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" animation film, in the works at Madhouse. The first footage is supposed to be shown at this month's Tokyo International Anime Fair.

- Sugar Bunnies 2 - uhh, whatever. Begins this April. To be ignored.

- The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk - based on the ancient arcade game The Tower of Druaga from the '80s, and produced by Gonzo K.K. for simultaneous broadcasting on TV and the Internets via GayO GyaO. Begins on April 4 (website).

- Titania - based on a series of space opera novels, "about a soldier who flees the spacefaring Titania empire and seeks refuge with a rebellion force". This month's confirmation comes quite a few years after a Titania anime was first revealed at Anime Expo 2003. A manga adaptation of Titania is also in the works.

Appleseed? Hell yeah! Ex Machina? Mmmm… maybe. Just maybe. I haven’t had the chance to bask in awe at Warner Brothers’ latest creation (though Warner + Japanese animation may sound weird to some), but I sure will, when it will be licked leaked to the beautiful world of illegal torrents. I mean, when it comes up for sale in Romania.

This is probably not news to some, but an Appleseed television series was announced back in 2005, with a release date set for 2006, but people went silent since then, with their mouths probably full of other bullshit waiting to be spread.

The real news just came in, thanks to the girls at ANN, it seems that on March, 30, at the Tokyo International Fair, we will witness a stage event called “Appleseed Genesis”, where companies involved in the Appleseed production will share with us some spicy details regarding a future television series. Well, what can I say, good news, it will (finally) come true.

So far, we know that the show will be directed by Romanov Higa, the guy behind stuff like Catblue “Hawt” Dynamite, and various other animations. So far so good. The said event will also be an endless rant about the story involved, character designs and, obviously, voice casting. Good enough for me.

ANN scoop.

Well, Gurren Lagann certainly proved to be an… interesting anime. At least, for some episodes. It looked good, I’ll give him that, it had a nice cast of characters, one loli, one big breasted chick that usually goes on a rampage with her sniper rifle, plus one male character that was insane enough to be funny. Too bad this one dies pretty fast, leaving us with a main “hero” that is gruesomely copy-pasted from Eureka 7. Which is a bad thing, since the kid was such a crybaby, that I couldn’t stand him beginning with episode one.

Not to go into details regarding Gurren Lagann’s (ridiculously boring) plot and the fact that each episode looks exactly like the previous one story-wise, I’ll just let you know that the April issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype Magazine will reveal the development of a Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann motion picture. Well, that’s a good thing: the shorter, the better; I don’t really want to spend 27 more episodes just to find out the obvious.

AnimeNation scoop.

Update: ANN's report also gives a release timeframe for the Gurren Lagann movie - autumn 2008 - as announced on its official website.

Watching Vexille last week may have satiated my thirst for CG hotness and pew-pew, for now (great film, by the way), but I'm still looking forward to the release of Appleseed: Ex Machina this March 11. Aside from the usual DVD, Blu-ray and supposedly HD-DVD versions (wasn't the HD-DVD format dead by now?), it's being reported on ANN that Ex Machina will also be available on Xbox Live, on the same day.

The story lists two more animes releasing online soon: Afro Samurai (in high-definition) on Xbox Live next month, and the first episode of the pokemon'ish anime Bakugan on Apple's iTunes store next week.

And while we're at it, we might as well tell you about the U.S. debut of the Blue Dragon anime, based on Mistwalker's RPG for the Xbox 360. As announced by Viz Media, the anime will start airing on Cartoon Network this spring - "only" one year later than in Japan. But no harm done, it's just a Narutarded anime anyway.

The only new anime announced today is one we will most certainly NOT look forward to: Antique Bakery (Seiyou Kotto Yougashiten - website), a 12-episode series starting in July, based on a girly romantic comedy manga about "four somewhat gay quirky men who run Antique, a gay quaint cafe that celebrates the small joys of life such as cake". Pancakes would actually sound better, but still I'd rather celebrate other small joys of life...

Next up, ANN compiled a list of new anime websites opened or updated, for Golgo 13, Himitsu: Top Secret, Zettai Karen Children and xxxHOLiC: Kei - all of which will begin airing in April.

And finally, we have a new trailer previewing the second episode of Mnemosyne, Xebec and Genco's sick and twisted horror anime that premiered this month. Episode 2 will be aired on March 2 and... oh, hai purpul-haired loli!

It's been more than six years since the last Slayers animation chronicled on AniDB, and although we didn't really feel the need for a comeback, it seems like it's going to happen anyway. In another AnimeSuki update based on a Japanese blog, it's said that a new Slayers TV anime is being announced in the April issue of light novel magazine Dragon Magazine - hitting stores this Friday. Guess we'll just have to wait a few more days for the confirmation of this story, and perhaps some scant details.

Update: Zanpakuto writes that "the news has been officially confirmed by the Hajima Kanzaka Fan Club who add that the series will be split between two seasons of three months". Mostly correct, except that it's Hajime Kanzaka (the writer of the original light novels), and the animation studio was confirmed to remain J.C. Staff, under Watanabe Takashi's direction.

While eroge retailers in Japan are gearing up for the over-hyped release of ToHeart2: AnotherDays this Friday, February 29, a nasty rumor is getting more and more likely to become a disappointing reality. It seems that one of the lolis from the latest ToHeart2 eroge - namely Ikuno Komaki (Manaka's handicapped younger sister) - will not have a playable route as expected. Which, if true, will certainly piss off a lot of horny otakus... Sounds like Garden all over again.



Handicapped lolis don't say no.

Warning #1: SPOILERS ahead. Warning #2: HUGE SPOILERS ahead! So if you haven't watched School Days yet, I strongly suggest you go do that before reading any further, or especially clicking this super-spoilerific link to AkibaBlog - where they herald the release of the final School Days anime DVD. What's so special about it? Well, it's the "director's cut" version of the 11th story, which means that it's a lot more grotesque than what was shown on TV (and by extension on torrents), without any nice boat, but with buckets of nice blood!

Despite the warning on its cover advising that "this DVD has some abusive scenes or grotesque expressions", retailers didn't shy away from playing the scene with Makoto being hacked and slashed, again and again. Sadists will be happy to know that the black "blood" is now red as intended, and apparently the knife used in the TV version was also replaced with a more Higurashi'esque butchering tool.

I guess it's safe to assume that this "director's cut" version (pun probably intended) won't make its way to English-speaking territories, so feel free to look for the torrent - yep, it's already out.

Update: Just checked, there's actually no change of butchering tools (my bad), and only a couple of shots are slightly different between the TV and DVD versions. So unless this wasn't the genuine "director's cut" (the blood was red, though), there's absolutely no point in getting excited over it. The TV version is just as brutal, really.

So... Many... Lolis! Count them well, there's nearly thirty plenty of them, some more flat-chested than others, but (hopefully) all of them coming in a new anime - and manga - based on last year's eroge KoiHime†Musou ~Doki☆Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi~... or simply KoiHime Musou. The game was developed by BaseSon, and these screenshots should be pretty self-explanatory as to its highly NSFW nature... By the way, there's also a trailer on Getchu's page, and a bunch of wallpapers freshly added in our KoiHime Musou gallery.

According to this AnimeSuki post where we spotted the announcement, the anime will be produced by Dogakobo, a studio usually hired for in-between animations on various kick-ass titles. As for the manga adaptation, it will be serialized in the seinen manga magazine Dengeki G's Festival! Comic. No date or further details were given for the KoiHime Musou anime, so for now just enjoy the pics. Yummy.

Although no longer a secret, considering that the Trigun animated movie was first announced a couple of years ago (but we'll play dumb, since we weren't around the webs back then), the first details about it appeared just now on the cover of volume 14 of the Trigun Maximum manga (thanks Heisei Democracy). For starters, here are some of the names working on this Trigun movie, as scribbled by HD.

"It will feature an original story developed by manga author Yasuhiro Nightow and director Nishimura Satoshi who collaborated with Nightow on the Trigun TV series and is also known for his work on the Hajime no Ippo anime. The script will be helmed by veteran anime writer Kobayashi Yasuko, with character designs from Yoshimura Takahiro."

Trigun The Movie is being animated by Madhouse (who also created the Trigun anime from... oh, about ten years ago), and it should see the light of the silver screen at some point in 2009, driven by the tagline "Vash vs. Wolfwood?! The familiar characters erupt on screen in an all-original Trigun story!". *Yawn*