I have been ranting long ago about Americans not wanting foreign stuff to win their crappy awards. Well, it’s easy to do that – delay the title long enough so that it may not join the fight. Since it has been some time now since Advent Children (mmmm, children) has been released in Japan (and carefully avoided by most over-the-seas publishers), Wise Ass Uncle Sam has decided to finally release it. In Texas, too. Sony, a.k.a. the guys who got owned by Nintendo and who screwed up their next-gen thinghie by releasing an overpriced console (which DOES NOT have a Wiimote controller, hence you can’t run around bus stations, chasing little girls), will release, by popular demand, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Limited Edition Collector’s Set (I wonder how they will be able to stick this awfully long title on the DVD cover) on February 6, for only 49.95 USD. That’s the price of Twilight Princess. This piece of Japanese animation will include the short anime Final Fantasy VII: Last Order, ten postcards, an English movie script (what the hell for? Wanking?), a booklet with the main characters, and your average content from the Advent Children disc. Now now, where is my God damned Aeris poster? I need it next to my Miu-chan poster. And my Miharu poster. And my Hinata poster. And my *cough* Lady Aribeth poster *cough*.

Oh yes, I remember this show. I remember it because I said then, and I quote myself in a very profesional manner, “a little girl of not even 16 years old”. With bold characters. GONZO is making me wait too much for this, really. I still have one question though – why in the Nine Hells of Faerun, in almost every anime, the main plot-related chick must have red hair? I mean look at this. Mai Hime. Mai Otome. Freaking Kanon. And the list can continue up to the not-so-important (and with a shitty ending) Munto. All of them have red hair. What’s wrong with black? Or, more importantly, what’s wrong with pink?

After careful considerations (and tons of anime sessions complemented by tons of vodka), I have came to the conclusion that pink is starting to fade away from the anime scene. We used to have not one, but even two pink haired characters per show (Elfen Lied comes in mind, in a very sick and perverted way), and now all we get is some random little girl with a dash of pink in her hair, that usually dies of cancer, gets eaten by hungry tentacles (which firstly do sono kono ano to her), or decides to sign up for some american college in Texas. Where they have cows. And pigs. And other random animals.

Eh, well, enough ranting about that, back to Romeo Screws Juliet, GONZO is giving us some teasers. On the show’s official website, we can spot a pretty long trailer, depicting several characters, swords, clashes, and, of course, a white pony with wings. And a horn. Since my pedo comrade is asleep, as usual, having wet dreams about his beloved Chi-chan, you might want to check it out from the original source. Once he has awaken, I shall molest him until he can put the trailer on imouto-web-chan. Though I doubt it is possible, it’s just a Flash thinghie.

Update: Check the full-res trailer on TVkon.

The related TV series has had more episodes than I can actually count. And I can’t really count past sixteen, what lies beyond that (in age, especially) is none of my concern. One Piece loosely competes with The Young and The Restless for the title of Best Soap Opera ever. Well, since these things tend to be imortal, the producers have opened a new website for the 8th One Piece animated movie, entitled Episodo obu Arabasuta (Episode of Alabasta, for lazy people not learning Japanese with their imouto-chans), and it is bound for release on March 3, 2007. The story takes place, according to certain internet loud voices, during the Alabasta arc of the TV Series (beats me, I haven’t seen any piece of One Piece yet). Toei Animation, the big bad-ass guru of young anime girls, lets us know that viewers all over the world will shed rivers of tears upon watching this. Heh. If it ain’t Air, Kanon or Saikano, no rivers of tears from my behalf, no sir. ANS also has some insight about the staff breaking their backs to put this on the screen:

Original story by Eiichiro Oda, Director: Takahiro Imamura. Production by the 2007 One Piece Production Committee composed of Toei Animation, Shueisha, Fuji Television, and Bandai.

Paprika is hot! Especially the smoked hot paprika powder, that our neighbours from the West are using to spice up their kick-ass goulash. Mmm… Anyway, I’m not here to talk about Hungarian cuisine (though my stomach urges me otherwise), but about one of this year’s most hyped anime movies.

I’m sure that Madhouse’s Paprika needs no more introduction. But if it does, AniDB and the official website would be more than happy to introduce it to you. The critics love it, the fans love it, our imouto-web-chan loves it,… but for some reason, I doubt that uncle Oscar will love it as much as everyone else does (uncle Oscar has been known to love all kinds of zoophilic animations, but he’s not very attracted to Japanese animes; in other words, uncle Oscar has issues).

As the hype escalates, people are beginning to wonder when they might get their hands on Paprika. Well, fortunately for those of you living in the UK, Anime UK News has word that one online retailer is already listing the Paprika DVD with a release date set for March 5, 2007. This should be great news for the Brits who have been waiting for this release. And if it’s not - hey, don’t blame me! I’m just here to post pretty pictures and stuff.

Wait, wasn’t something like this already announced last month? AnimeNation previously mentioned a “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gaiden: Neko Koroshi Hen” OVA, as some sort of bonus DVD that Japanese consumers who purchase the entire TV series on DVD would be eligible to receive. But now they’re the same ones informing us that a second series has formally been announced on the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (When Cicadas Cry) anime website. If this is indeed a full-fledged TV series, and plans are still on for the OVA, it means that next year we might have two new Higurashi animes to drool over.

You can imagine that details about the new series are scarce to say the least, so for now I’ll just leave you with a little something that should make you wanna watch the first Higurashi, if you haven’t already. I think my pedo comrade might be doing just that right now… Don’t really know for sure, last time I saw him he was running away with three DVDs stuffed full of sono kono ano, and this was also on them.

On April 21st, 2006, UNiSONSHIFT BLOSSOM published in Japan a little naughty bishoujo video game for the PS2, called Nanatsuiro Drops. And, what do you know, the guy person behind Suzumiya Haruhi and Shakugan no Shana novels, Noiji Ito-sensei, worked very hard to create and procreate with several characters in that title. It seems that people really enjoyed it (for some reason or another, namely for not living in Japan, I couldn’t get my hands on the game, so I don’t know how good it is), because God is going to adapt it into an anime TV series, which will start airing sometime in 2007. If this wasn’t enough, a new PS2 title, based on these here series, has been announced. Named Nanatsuiro Drops Pure!!, the game will provide art, designs, panties and young girls to adjust themselves to the entirely new loli twists. The confirmed staff include, as they say at ANS:

Original Idea: @Peace, Original Character Concepts: Noiji Ito, Director: Yamamoto Takashi (Final Approach), Series Composition: Shimada Mitsuru (Koi suru Tenshi Angelique), Character Design: Ibe Yukiko (Final Approach), Animation Studio: Studio Barcelona (Dai Mahou Touge), Production: Nanatsuiro Drops Production Committee.

This forthcoming TV Series, Saint October (of all the silly names one could choose for his show, they had to pick this), has had it’s website updated, while more and more info regarding it’s most inner, secret and pure details are slowly coming to the surface, after being stranded in the land of “We are big producers, we won’t tell you shit” for a while. Let’s see… We are dealing with a neo-gothic action story, in which three very adorable (and, by any sane man’s standards, very young) girl-detectives are daily confronted with mysteries beyond belief and certain strange pheromones phenomenons. Like strawberry pudding turning yellow all of the sudden, or like six hundred naked grandpas dancing Lambada on the ruins of World Trade Center. Being a goth-oriented show, Saint October will focus mainly on the main characters’ costumes, so that each and every one of them gets a hittable neo-crappy-victorian dress. Main role: Hayama Kotono, a girl with issues in the past, thinks she was abandoned by her parents for not delivering enough Moe. She deals with this auful trauma by fingering bad guys and solving paranormal activities. Alongside her, Misaki-chan and Natsuki-chan help complete the loli trio. Fascinating.


Mite mite, that midori-haired imouto-chan has neko ears. Kawaii!

While casually browsing ANS for my daily dose of narcotics anime related news, I have came upon this little piece here:

News out of the Japanese Language SOS email magazine indicates an unspecified announcement regarding the franchise (Haruhi Suzumiya - n.r.) will be made at year’s end.

My twisted mind instantly started to google it’s synopsis for several related structures that hot little missy Suzumiya (and of course, the even hotter young Mikuru) can perform in. What could it be? A sequel? Too soon, I presume, though this show has had it’s hype and is now considered, on many sites, one of the candidates for best anime overall in 2006. To do a sequel, they should let the testosterone of all those horny young boys thinking perverted things about Yuki-chan (my pedo comrade included) chill out a bit, take a rest, a good night’s sleep and two or three pills for not being eternally deported to a mental institute. Yes, I know the show was good, but not THAT good. Sort of. Or they could make a nice little hentai game. For the Wii, of course, and not only for Japan (damn that regional restriction bullshit) – mostly because I will get my Wii sooner than expected. We already know about the porn live action film, so that ain’t really a surprise announcement. Or they can tell us Kyon has died or something. Or that Mikuru-chan has entered a rentless rage, searching desperate for two romanian guys that keep up a certain Animekon blog. Choices, choices…

I haven’t got a clue what the Kamichama Karin manga is like, but just by looking at the pictures below, I’d be willing to take a wildly perverted guess… Actually, I’d better save myself for next year, when the manga will be made into an anime series, as announced on Koge Donbo’s website (who you might know from his work on Pita Ten, another cute little anime from a while back).


This is all pretty much all there is to say about the Kamichama Karin anime for now, since not even ANN had any other details to share with the rest of us sinners. But taking a look at their description for the original manga, it’s at least worth mentioning what the story behind the lolies is:

Orphan Hanazono Karin is a below-average girl who just lost another person dear to her; her best friend and loyal cat, Shi-chan. While visiting Shi-chan’s grave, she meets Kujyou Kazune, a smart prettyboy who insults her right after meeting her. She runs away from him, hoping to never see his face again, but fate seems to have other ideas - the girl she bumps into the very next day is none other than Himeka, Kazune’s cousin. During her second meeting with Kazune, something strange happens to her ring, the last thing she has to remember her mother by. Afterwards, strange events happen all day around her, with no explaination. The fourth meeting with Kazune explains quite a bit; her ring has the power to turn her into a goddess. With Himeka’s support and Kazune’s guidance, Karin begins her training to become one of the divine.

How come imouto-chans are even more hot when they’re orphan?

Speaking of pink umbrellas (and old news), we somehow failed to report earlier that a certain game called Clannad is going to be animated as a movie in 2007.

Animation work for the Clannad movie will be done by TOEI, whose most recent productions include Kamisama Kazoku (”God Family”) and Binbou Shimai Monogatari (which loosely translates to “A couple of poor orphan sisters I’d hit on a daily basis”). And if that doesn’t ring a bell, I’m sure you at least heard about some other animations they did - such as the original Kanon or the AIR movie.

As for Clannad, you can view some cuteness samples below, and you can also drool over more characters (from the game) right about here and here.