Over a dozen new animes were announced - or rumoured - throughout the last few weeks. But since we couldn't be bothered to point out each of them at the time, I'll just do a quick new year's revision now, and mash them all together in this here newsbit (make sure you're reading the full story for the unabridged list).

- Code Geass 2 - Begins in April (website).

- Da Capo II Second Season - The fourth season based on the D.C. ~Da Capo~ adult visual novel franchise. Begins in April (website).

- Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Legend of the Legendary Hero) - Based on a fantasy novel series, with an official announcement expected to be made in the March 2008 issue of Dragon Magazine.

- Golgo 13 - Yet another adaptation of the assassin manga that's been serializing for over 9000 years, this time as a TV anime. Begins this spring.

- Himitsu - Top Secret - Based on a philosophical sci-fi manga in which "brain scanners have been perfected to the point that the government can retrieve up to five years' worth of memories from people's minds - even if they are dead". Begins this spring. (...)

 Continue reading 'New Animes Abound'...

Still labouring through the holidays, the folks from ANN intercepted a Moon Phase report that heralds the third season of Studio DEEN's pseudo-horror anime, Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl). As announced on the Hell Correspondence website, everyone's favorite loli-from-hell Ai Enma will return with new powers - hopefully in early 2008. Hopefully...

The first two seasons began in October 2005 and October 2006 respectively, so it's a pitty that the producers didn't manage to keep the same pace this year. Oh well, there's plenty of shows to keep us busy through the winter. Ni-pa~!

I can only hope you people are pouring more booze down your throats these days, as I keep postponing my end-of-year drinking orgy (and my liver loves me for doing so). But it's not going to last forever, oh no! So... while I'm still sobre enough to tell the difference between a loli and a married old hag, here's another round of trailers for a couple of upcoming animes - Mnemosyne (looks like a very sick - thus promising horror-show) and Shigofumi (Shinigami no Ballad meets Jigoku Shoujo?) - and for various games made in Japan:

- Mnemosyne trailer
- Shigofumi trailer #2
- Devil May Cry 4 prologue
- Devil May Cry 4 cutscene
- Ninja Gaiden 2 gameplay trailer
- Star Ocean 4 preview trailer
- Yakuza 3 trailer #2


Update: Added some shitty trailers for Neo Angelique Abyss, Kure-nai and Rosario to Vampire.

Aside from 12-hour long naps and triple-sized feasts (drinking orgies to follow), Christmas also brings some cool new game trailers. First off are a couple of clips ripped from some "Cloud DVD" released in Japan, giving us another cinematic glimpse at the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII, and the emo'esque Final Fantasy Versus XIII, both for the PS3. Looking good. Gief moar!


Also for the PS3, there's a debut trailer for the new Naruto game in the works at Namco Bandai and CyberConnect2 - the guys who made the .hack//G.U. games. Same old martial-pew-pew, nothing new to see here, move along...


But the real surprise brought by Namco Bandai during last weekend's Jump Festa event is the announcement of a new fantasy RPG in the "Tales of..." series, called Tales of Vesperia. As shown in the trailer linked below, Production I.G is contributing to the project, and so is Yoshito Higuchi - the director of Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Abyss.


Other recent additions on TVkon that you might want to check include a "final" trailer for Devil May Cry 4 (though I bet we'll see more of it), a bunch of Aion 'class' trailers, some Lineage II 'Kamael' trailers, and best of all, the full, high-res, subbed version of the Candy Boy OVA. Chi chi!

...and we still can’t get enough of it. This weekend, part two will finally be subbed completely, so I can watch it already (in expectance, I’ve been watching the first Higurashi for like... over nine thousand times). Animate.tv hosts an official blog for the entire franchise, which kindly lets us know that the producers have entered Shion-mode Phase 3, and are working like a bunch of little China-men to bring us forth the third installment in this... let’s say, very kind, soft and full of lovu lovu series.

As usual, with things like these, details refuse to emerge too early, all we know so far is that it will air somewhere in 2008. Ah well, all I can say is that I am really looking forward to this. And for some hawt Rika-Satoko naked action.

Via ANN

Studio 4°C, Production I.G and Madhouse - the three Japanese strudios that worked with Warner Bros. on The Animatrix - are once again fraternizing with the enemy, according to a report from the Wizard Magazine intercepted by ANN. Their new co-production will be known as Batman: Gotham Knight, and it's planned as a collection of six animated shorts, to be launched in the summer of 2008.

The folks from ANN also mention that "although the Gotham Knight shorts are compatible with storyline of the Batman Begins and The Dark Knight films (...), they are also standalone stories". So hopefully we'll be able to enjoy some quality animation, without wasting any time on some boring old stuff.


Update: Found a scan of that article from the Wizard Magazine.

Looks like there's already another Kite Liberator trailer out there, probably to compensate for the indefinite delay it suffered last month. We still have no clue when this short OVA will finally calm the horny mob of Kite fans out there, so just sit back and watch this clip. Update: There's also an older trailer on YouTube with English subs, posted by US licensor Media Blasters.


As for the Persona: Trinity Soul trailer added today on TVkon, the original version from the official website had a nasty DRM shit-lock, which I congratulate myself for managing to circumcise circumvent. The anime is starting on January 5, and so far it looks boring enough to make you flush your sleeping pills down the toilet.


Update #2: Bandai Visual also offers this subbed trailer for Super Robot Wars OG we snagged from the series' new English website, anticipating their nearing release of the DVD Volume 1, "very soon". More mecha?! Ugh, no, thanks.

I knew I was forgetting something from that trailers invasion a couple of days ago: the Rosario to Vampire website was previously hosting the first clip introducing the female characters of this new vampire-school-comedy anime, lined up by Gonzo for January 2008. New this week are a couple of trailers for Tokyo Marble Chocolate - an animation split into two parts, with each one telling the same love story of a couple's Christmas adventure in Tokyo, but from a different perspective; next, a footageless clip (however bizarre that may sound) for some anime called Allison to Lillia, based on a couple of light novels and coming in April 2008; and finally the trailer for the fourth - and final - volume of the Tales of Symphonia OVA. Check them all below.

- Allison to Lillia trailer
- Rosario to Vampire trailer
- Tales of Symphonia OVA 4 trailer
- Tokyo Marble Chocolate trailer #1, #2

Depending on the success of the new Appleseed: Ex Machina GC movie, there may very well be a third one coming at some point in space and time. The intention is clearly there, as confessed by producer Joseph Chou in an interview with ANN:

"Is there talk yet of a third Appleseed film?
It might be too early to say... but the answer is 'Yes we are in discussions'!
Sony Imageworks, the folks behind the '3D' version of Beowulf did a 3D test on Ex Machina which turned out beautifully - so perhaps that's one direction we can take the film to. But one thing I can say for sure is that our fans’ continued support will allow us to deliver the next Appleseed film that can be another breakthrough in Japanese anime history."

The rest of the interview recalls how this pseudo-sequel came to be from an idea originating about five years ago, and how famed director John Woo was persuaded to get behind Saga Ex Machina, as chief producer. Nice marketing trick!

Just in case you're worried about the English dubs, don't. They seem to be quite well done, judging by this latest Appleseed: Ex Machina trailer - though at the price of some discrepancy in dialog bewteend the dubbed and subbed versions... Not that we give a damn, really, since we pretty much hate English dubs.

Just a quick note to let you know that the Code Geass sequel is indeed coming, in the form of a new TV anime that will start airing in Japan during spring 2008. The information was hijacked from the January issue of Kadokawa's Newtype magazine (via ANN), who apparently have no further intel on the upcoming military robot anime. So now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to collecting more pictures of Jamie Chung, for... uhh... for a very important research I'm doing on... uhh... on the relation between animated and live-action movies. And... stuff.