Saw this earlier on Giapet, but on a very off-the-record tone and with no links or anything, so I was waiting for a more official confirmation to surface. Well, the wait is now over thanks to ANN (who actually bothered digging in the webs, unlike yours truly), therefore here's the deal: the anime series Gurren Lagann will be airing on the Sci Fi channel, starting from July 28. The first two episodes will be shown that day at 11:00 PM and 11:30 PM (ET/PT).

By no coincidence, July is also the month when Bandai will begin releasing the first season on DVD, in a "bare-bones" format (English subs only), at 9 episodes per DVD - after snagging the Gurren Lagann license away from ADV. So now we're in the middle of another unexpected turn of events, considering that Adult Swim used to be the prime candidate for hosting this series. Talk about TV drama...

Given all the interest surrounding this renewed series, we might as well allocate an entire post for this tiny newsbit. Word on Moonphase, via Sankaku Complex, is that Slayers Revolution will begin on July 2. Aaand... that's about all.

As mentioned earlier this month, it will be airing on TV Tokyo (TV Tokyo 5, to be more precise), in a late-night spot - from 1:20 AM, every Wednesday. Tired of waiting yet?

- The girlish fantasy light novel series Hakushaku to Yousei (Count and Fairy) will also become a manga, after an anime adaptation was announced back in February. The manga will begin at the end of August in the The Margaret magazine.

- In some random Mainichi news, Japan's loli-Princess Aiko was seen visiting a park in Tokyo (backup) on Monday, on her first school excursion. Meanwhile, a police officer from Fukuoka was arrested (backup) for involvement in child prostitution. "I was told she was 18 years old", he told investigators. Lol 18.

- The Luminous Arc 2 lolis have received a highly academic classification, based on the size of their brain boobs. In Akiba, where else! Still, some of the characters are missing from this hastily researched study, so I advise you to check them all on the official website - or better yet in our Luminous Arc 2 gallery, if you'd rather skip the gay ones. This DS game was released in Japan last week, by the way.


Update: Added a Bleach movie event trailer, promoting the upcoming screening of Bleach: Memories of Nobody in the US for two nights, on June 11 and 12.

- Long Dream, the 58-minute live-action film adapted from the psychological horror manga Nagai Yume (by Uzumaki creator Junji Ito) will be released stateside by Tidepoint Pictures on June 24, as an English-subbed DVD.

- Bandai is keeping busy these days, even though they had jack shit to announce at Anime Central. Their website, on the other hand, is counting down to... something, which will happen on May 23 (which just so happens to be the first day of FanimeCon).

- Also from Bandai's continually-changing website, we got a trailer for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time; it's not really new, just properly subbed, so we updated our old one accordingly. Aside from the venues announced so far (in LA, NY and Seattle), at ACEN it was said that Tokikake will also be screening in 7-10 other theaters, which may or may not be located in other cities. I was going to get the other trailers they have there, too, but I just got struck by a sudden lazyness attack.

The final (?) two of FUNimation's new anime licenses this week have been revealed, more or less officially: as some had already guessed, they are Romeo x Juliet, Gonzo's romantic action anime series that originally aired last year, and the ongoing D.Gray-Man anime.

Being a 24-episode series, Romeo x Juliet will be coming out on two DVDs, in the spring and summer of 2009, respectively. The announcement was made at FUNimation's Anime Central panel, and while that was taking place, they also opened a teaser page for their next big announcement - where, by typing in "D.Gray-Man", we are led to FUNimation's official website for D.Gray-Man. Obviously enough.

I haven't seen any press release for this one, but the website alone is enough to inform us that they will begin releasing the D.Gray-Man anime during 2009. Standing at over 80 episodes today, since its Japanese debut in October 2006, this is going to be a damn long one... Good thing they provided this trailer to ease the wait.

At last, a useful post on Bandai's shiny new blog. Actually, make that the second one, since they also posted a pic with what appears to be the finalized Volume 1 DVD of Gurren Lagann. Not very interesting, though, so... where was I?

Oh, right, the AIKa R-16 trailer. They posted it "by special request" after flooding their Anime Central panel with a bunch of trailers, "some of which were still being edited" (as obnoxiously obvious in this one, too). They fitted the entire 3-episode super-ecchi OVA AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission on a single DVD, which is now available, by the way, uncensored and uncut. And stuffed with various other extras.

- Soul Eater will get two anime specials, airing in Japan in a couple of weeks: "Clip! Clap!" on May 28, and "Ninki Bakuhatsu! Soul Eater Oitsuke! Oikose! Saki made Misemasu!" on June 1.

- Giapet has word from this weekend's internets-challenged Anime Central convention that ADV has cancelled their panel entirely, and apparently Viz didn't show up, either. So FUNimation pretty much ruled the show.

- Tales of Vesperia, the awesome-looking RPG known to be in development for the Xbox 360, was temporarily confirmed for PS3, as well... Until, that is, Namco Bandai fixed their bureaucratic blunder.

- "A most comprehensive comparison of the differences between Lucky Star's Tsukasa, as drawn by each animator of the series, as well as Haruhi's characters" can be thoroughly analyzed, via Sankaku Complex. Cool stuff, if only I wasn't so tired for playing "spot the difference" at this hour.

The solution for the new puzzling license hinted today on FUNimation's website comes from AnimeOnDVD, who uncontestedly matched it to a DVD cover for Shigurui - last year's samurai anime created by studio Madhouse. Although how exactly this qualifies as "OMG NO WAY"... is beyond me. Once again, since the anime is only 12-episode long, they will likely release it as a single DVD, during 2009. We'll get back after they make the official announcement later on today.

In the meantime, AnimeOnDVD also caught word that FUNimation will be "talking about all their new acquisitions at Anime Central at their panel this weekend at 4:30pm Central Time and that they still have a whole lot more to talk about in the... days ahead". Giapet says that the final new license will be revealed on Saturday at the Anime Central convention, but that FUNi also has another announcement reserved for Monday. More hints for it will be given at their panel on Saturday. Confused yet?

Update: Giapet thinks that Monday's license announcement will be Romeo x Juliet, based on some new hints sent by FUNi.

Update #2: The confirmation arrived (complete with a high-res poster art), and indeed it's coming in 2009 on a single DVD, under the title Shigurui: Death Frenzy. The press release claims there's a video on the newly opened website, but hell if I can find it.

We're going to go with ANN's decryption of the latest hint posted on FUNimation's website, and confidently say that their licensing spree will continue with the announcement of Soukou no Strain later on today. And when that happens, we'll return with any relevant details, such as the format (a single DVD comprising all 13 episodes, most likely) and its American release date (I'm guessing 2009, given the progression so far).

We're still carrying the promo trailer for this loli-infused mecha anime, and until FUNi brings their own synopsis to the table, here's the classic one:

"In the distant future, the mankind is divided into two powers; Union and Deague. They have continued long war that no one is sure when it began. Union uses manned weapons, Strain, as the main military power, while Deague uses unmmand weapons Tumoru.

Sara Viereck, a daughter of a good family, is a Union's 16-year-old girl who goes to Grapera Space Armed Soldier Academy locates in Cranial Solar System in order to become a full-fledged Reasoner (a pilot of Strain)."

Update: Indeed, FUNi confirmed the acquisition from Happinet, announcing its plans to release all 13 episodes on a single DVD in March 2009, under the title Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry. They're also offering a new trailer on their Strain website, which we have now added locally.

As annouced not too long ago, Right Stuf and their product division Nozomi Entertainment will be bringing the Maria-sama ga Miteru anime series to North America, in the shape and form of 3 DVDs - one for each season aired so far in Japan (the fourth one being still in production). Last night they sent along a newsletter pointing us to Right Stuf's website for Maria-sama (or MariMite, if you prefer), where they are showing a trailer for the Season 1 DVD collection - also viewable locally.


Stateside, this yuri'esque slice-of-life catholic-school anime will be published under the title Maria Watches Over Us, and the Season 1 DVD should be released on July 29. It will include all 13 episodes, plus the 7 "Season 1 Specials", with Japanese audio, two English subtitle tracks (regular dialogue subtitles, plus a special subtitle track that includes Japanese honorifics) and English on-screen translations.

Seeing how the original series of light novels has been going on and on for the past decade - and still is, after 32 volumes - the question arises: will it ever end?