Last night, ANN and Giapet were both quick to report the announcement of a second season for Nodame Cantabile, last year's highly regarded melomanic anime. The sequel will be known as Nodame Cantabile: Pari-Hen (or Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter), leaving little doubt as to the story's main location.

Other than the fact that it will be broadcast in a late-night timeslot in Japan, the only other known thing about the Paris Chapter is that it will start airing this October. Conveniently leaving us plenty of time to catch up with the first season. Yeah, shame on us...

Guess they were right about FUNimation going on a licensing spree before next weekend's Anime Central convention, now that the first new license seems to have been announced in a very unique way: "by sending a press release with a Whirly Pop Lollipop via UPS". Unfortunately, it's nothing big, just a funny little anime from 2006 called Mamotte! Lollipop (not "Momotte" as the original story reports).

FUNimation will will release all 13 episodes in one complete DVD release in late 2008, under the title Save Me! Lollipop. The following typo-stained synopsis was included with the announcement:

"Nina was just another girl who dreamed of finding a prince to defend her honor and protect her from harm. Little did she know, two such boys would fall from the sky! Zero and Ichii are sorcerers from another world taking part in a test. The only way to pass the curious quiz? Find the coveted Crystal Pearl.

It's going to be tough - other examiness seek the jewel as well, and some will stop at nothing to capture the prize. Oh, and Nina ate the Crystal Pearl after mistaking it for a piece of candy! Ichii and Zero vow to protect her until the coveted bauble can be reclaimned.

Nina's fantasy of a devoted guardian has come to life... but with danger at every turn, there's a chance this dream come true might end up a nightmare!"

- This Monday, May 12, ADV Films and LDMS (their new publishing partner in the UK) will release the following three anime DVDs: Utawarerumono volume 5: The Beast Within, 009-1 volume 3 (the final DVD), and The Wallflower Lesson 1: My Fair Bishonen (the first DVD from a 6-part series).

- The Majodou eroge has reached Gold status, and is on track for its May 30 release. The game's website was enriched with two new screenshots, a new ero-event animation, and the third Majodou trailer. Need I put a NSFW warning?

- On the subject of eroge, HD also warns that "Lilith Soft affiliate brand Pixy is in danger of financial collapse within the year, and that other major brands may soon follow".

- And there's some more ero-news today on HD, topped by the not-so-fresh announcement of a Shoujo Sect OVA (based on a hit yuri eromanga), whose first volume will be released by MS Pictures on July 25.

Update: The Bandai Entertainment website is going through a complete redesign, and they even have a blog now. All they're missing are some actualy news on it.

Hmm, I wonder how much truth this story holds... According to Anime District (via Giapet), publisher FUNimation tipped them off yesterday, saying that "they are announcing some acquisitions next week". And by "some", they mean one new license every day, leading up to the Anime Central convention (May 16-18). That's like five anime licenses. I'll admit, I'm intrigued as to which ones they picked up...

Looking for any hints in this regard on FUNimation's website, the only thing I found was a press release heralding another critical victory for Vexille - the Appleseed Ex Machina killer GC movie from last year. Ya rly. This time, Vexille was named the Best Animated Feature at the 17th Philadelphia Film Festival, in its newly added animation category. Nothing about new licenses, though.

- New info on Suzumiya Haruhi 2 should be revealed in the July issue of the Newtype magazine (out in June), Zepy hears. This is starting to get irritating. Well, at least the Haruhi website changed its age-old front page, prompting the disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the appearance Yuki Nagato. Yum! Director Tatsuya Ishihara and assistant director Yasuhiro Takemoto are returning, Giapet notes.


- Archaic Smile is the next manga to be released by Evangelion manga artist and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (and his mangaka wife Mako Takaha). It will be a two-installment manga serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Comic Charge magazine this month, and the story is described as a "warm, comforting romantic comedy" revolving around a couple and a... umm... Buddha statue.

- A manga based on Luminous Arc 2 Will - the Nintendo DS game which Atlus will be releasing in Japan this May 15 - has launched in the Comic Dragon Age magazine.

- 3 more file-sharers were busted in Japan for illegally spreading anime, this time via the peer-to-peer program Share (Winny's clearly-unsecure successor). Zepy points out that these were "popular anime encoders that have encoded huge amounts of anime for p2p for a long time", so there might be a shortage of raw episodes for a while, if others will be scared shitless by these arrests.

- Shin Chan free full episode streaming on IGN. Be warned, there be English dub!

- Zwei II screenshots posted on Falcom's website, along with word that the game is coming out this summer. In 3D, huh?...

Update: A Flash-animated adaptation of the Inu-Gaisha manga started to be published online, ANN reports. The manga's author, Kenji Sonishi is better known for his Neko Rahmen manga, which was also made into a web-anime, and soon a live-action movie.

Although the culminating episode 3 of the Strait Jacket OVA was already released on April 30, there's still more shooting and dark-fantasy / cvasi-mecha action in store. As it turns out, a 75-minute long movie version combining all three episodes will be screened in Japan, starting from June 28, and this "international version" will presumably be the format in which Strait Jacket will be released outside of Japan. Its North-American licensor, by the way, is Manga Entertainment.

The announcement was made on the official website, where after poking around for a while, I decided to grab all the old trailers that we were missing, and add them locally for your streaming pleasure. You'll find them in the anime's section. Looking good.

I must say, I'm surprised that so few votes have gone for Kanokon in our current poll so far, considering it's arguably the most ecchi anime series this season (although To Love-Ru ain't too shabby, either). But that may change once the DVD edition of Kanokon starts coming out this summer, as it's said to be even naughtier than the ongonig TV and Internet versions - at least according to this Dengeki Online story picked up by AnimeNation.

The first Kanokon DVD, containing the first two episodes, will be released in Japan on June 25, a few days after the TV broadcast will come to an end with episode 12.


Below are the covers of Volume 1, alongside some random surprise-sex screenshots. Oh, and we also added a big pink Kanokon wallpaper in our gallery. (...)

 Continue reading 'Kanokon Even More Ecchi On DVD'...

It's not too clear where said details are emerging from, since the original report from Moon Phase (via Giapet) doesn't seem to mention the source, but I'm not feeling particularly paranoid tonight, so let's go with it.

They say that the new Slayers Revolution anime will start airing this July on TV Tokyo, in a late-night spot. And as for the plot, well, here's Giapet's exact interpretation:

"Apparently the plot at least begins as a search for a replacement for Gourry's Sword of Light. Characters that I think haven't been seen in the anime before (but who are known in the novels) will appear, including Rook and Mirina. Some more familiar faces, as well: Prince Phil returns, as does Sylphiel. And apparently some kind of mascot character called Pokota, as well... no clue there."

While on the subject, as briefly mentioned a couple of days ago, the OP and ED songs for Slayers Revolution will be sung by singer / voice actress Megumi Hayashibara, who will also return as the main lead Lina.

Oh, hai! The Lucky Star lolis will make a playful - albeit brief - return in a Lucky Star OVA, as reported by ANN. The first details about it are expected to explode with joy this Saturday, May 10, within the pages of Kadokawa Shoten's COMPTIQ magazine. This is the same publication in which the original Lucky Star manga has been running - a manga sold in 1.8 million copies so far, as noted in yesterday's checkpoint.

Well then... let's get busy waiting for those details...

Update: Disecting some Japanese scans, Zepy reports that the Lucky Star OVA will begin this summer, and will once again be animated by Kyoto Animation. "Haruhi in 2009 sounds more real with each passing day!", he adds. No shit.

- A trailer for episode 2 of Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro - releasing on June 27 - was posted on Getchu (it's way too super duper NSFW to host here, even for our perverted selves). The first episode of this hentai OVA (also known as Color of Sky, Color of Water) appeared almost two years ago, but I still have a very, very vivid recollection of it...

- Bandai Visual USA announced that it will stream Super Robot Wars: OG - Divine Wars episode 1, followed by Galaxy Angel Rune episode 1, on its dot-anime website. "In just a few more weeks".

- This week marked the terminal edition of World Hobby Festival Ariake 18 Final, "the last WHF ever" as HD bluntly puts it. What's left behind is a looong string of photos and articles detailing the impressive figures shown at the event. As usual, HD did a great job chronicling it, so feel free to peruse his list of posts tagged 'WHF Ariake 18' (more to follow, presumably). Great stuff! Below is just a random sample... more flat than random, actually. And hardly safe for work, mind you.