I just found out that, on July 31, some lucky bastards got to watch a dry run screening of Appleseed Ex Machina, at the Alamo Drafthouse in Houston, Texas. This seemed to have happened as a follow-up to an announcement held at Comic Con International, where ADV Films confessed that they will be in charge of the dubbing process. So, when 100 fans showed up at the Alamo Drafthouse, they were so fucking surprised to bare witness to this (we strongly hope) awesome John Woo production.

The fans positive reaction was tremendous and gave the ADV staff and cast and crew of the movie something to smile about. Luci Christian, who was selected by the Japanese production company to play the role of Deunan Knute attended the screening. She was superb as the female protagonist, as she gives life to her character with her diverse vocal range. John Gremillion, whose voice eluded me by showing his own variety of vocal range, played the antagonist and scheming Dr. Kestner in the film. Other voice actors that attended the screening are Alison Sumrall (Athena), Hillary Haag (Hitomi), and Melissa Davis. ADR Director Steven Foster, who did a phenomenal job directing this high profile film, proves that ADV Films can dub as good or better as anyone in Hollywood. Other notable voice actors in the show are Dave Mantranga as Briarios and Illich Guardiola as Triarios.

So, it seems they liked it.

If you are one of those interested in Blue Drop, then you should know that the Japanese website Goo now hosts the first screenies from this upcoming drama thinghie, screenies that we have cleverly hosted ourselves, below. Blue Drop, originally some post apocalyptic manga full of aliens and tentacles, created by Akihito Yoshitomi, is supposed to air starting this October, bringing us no more, no less, than 13 episodes. Let’s wait and see what the future holds.

So, ANN is reporting that Digital Manga plans to release a book entitled Pop Japan Travel: Essential Otaku Guide, specially designed for those of us who plan on visiting Japan’s most important, reliable and lolicious places. The said guide will include maps, tours, plus a lot of strange features (that only a true Disciple of Win will understand) made to ease our soon-to-be Japanese trip. 200 pages of goodies, sounds… refreshing. I always wanted to know the exact location of all those teen prostitutes.

Some say it's still just a rumour floating around on Japanese forums, while others are firmly convinced that the announcement is official: the To-LOVE-Ru manga (or simply Toloveru, a crazy Japanese pun for "trouble") is being made into an anime series.

Why should you care? Well, other than it being a generic ecchi comedy, here's one reason (a 1280x960 picture is worth over nine thousand words). And if that's not flat enough for you, the manga also features an imouto called Mikan - who some say would make a perfect twin-sister for Puchiko, from Winter Garden (and we all know Puchiko is made of win).

Last, and pretty much least, fans of Black Cat might also consider setting their alarm clocks for April 2008 - when the Toloveru anime will supposedly start airing - since both bear the graphic signature of Kentaro Yabuki.

Various raw versions of the full Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5cm per Second) have been roaming around freely over the past couple of weeks, and, finally, the subbed version has also found its way onto the internets this week - putting an end to our long stretched waiting. Or at least my long stretched waiting, since my pessimistic comrade-in-loli-arms bets that "it's teh gay suxxorz", end quote. Well I sure hope not, not after Makoto Shinkai's previous animation movie - Beyond the Clouds (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho) - which we both have come to praise.

If 5cm is still not licensed in your neighbourhood, I suggest you download it first, doubt its greatness later. Besides, how could an anime with pink umbrellas be anything but great?!


Later edit: Well... having just watched the ending credits of Byousoku 5cm scroll by a minute ago, I can see why some might find it less gratifying, and certainly less intense than Beyond the Clouds. It's perhaps somewhere between that, and Voices of a Distant Star (Hoshi no Koe) - from a multitude of reasons, in fact. I don't wish to go into detail, but rest assured that 5cm is yet another great work of mr. Shinkai, quite moving and superbly illustrated, as expected. And needless to say, a "must-watch".

Update: One final edit, to point out this latest - and longest - preview trailer for 5cm, even including some scenes that seem to be missing from the final cut.

It's no doubt about it, people from all over the world are expecting The Rebuild. Another short commercial has found it's way to Youtube, depicting 15 seconds of sheer boredom mecha action. Suzumiya Haruhi fans can still enjoy their minutes of fame until this comes out, after that, it's going to be "OMG I R ROBOT" all over again. Add that to the global warming, and you've got yourself a pretty nice apocalyptic setting.

We all know how Japanese people tend to censor certain NSFW scenes, be it in movies or in animated shows. Well, it seems like the TV Aichi network let loose upon the unsuspecting crowd of anime fans some Moetan episodes, in which the transformation scenes (you know, the classical „HI, I’m a little girl that’s going to get naked really soon and turn into a magical princess with random useless superpowers”) were showing off the lolis’ full, undressed, potential. Due to this, a certain fan site called Sazanami Kaihen decided to host a thorough and professional comparison between those screenshots, and the ones from the other, censored (and totally not cool) versions.

What’s the point of a Magical Girl show without naked transformation scenes?

The guys at ADV Films have decided to stream the first episode of Innocent Venus for free, via IGN.com. I sense some otakus gathering in the depths of this once_an_objective gaming site...

I highly recomend this show, as it features one of the cutest lolis in the history of cute lolis (and, of course, some of the most retarded male characters in the history of cute lolis).

Less coding for me, means more trailers up on TVkon. Moetan, Sky Girls, Potemayo, Zero no Tsukaima 2, Umisho, hell, even Baccano! looks pretty decent (for a loliless anime), and they're all showing themselves in various clips, along with these others listed below:

- Zero no Tsukaima 2 promo (HD)
- Moetan OP
- Moetan promo
- Umisho promo
- Sky Girls promo
- Potemayo promo
- Higurashi 2 trailer (updated) (HD)
- Doujin Work promo
- Baccano! promo long
- Baccano! promo short (HD)
- Sky Girls preview trailer
- Nanatsuiro Drops preview trailer
- Code-E preview trailer
- Tetsuko no Tabi preview trailer
- Doujin Work preview trailer
- Masaru 2 erogame trailer

Update: Also added the Appleseed Ex OP, though it's only for the PS2 game, not the upcoming CG movie, Ex Machina.

Previously, the Internetz was infested with low-quality trailers for Rebuild of Evangelion. Some of you may have seen them, some of you may have not. If you are a fan of this - and I expect lots of folks to be - you may want to check Gainax' latest “good quality” version of the trailer, that can be hunted down on Youtube.

I really *HATE* this series. Dunno why, I just do.


Plus, a trailer with no loli is an epic fail.