So... Many... Lolis! Count them well, there's nearly thirty plenty of them, some more flat-chested than others, but (hopefully) all of them coming in a new anime - and manga - based on last year's eroge KoiHime†Musou ~Doki☆Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi~... or simply KoiHime Musou. The game was developed by BaseSon, and these screenshots should be pretty self-explanatory as to its highly NSFW nature... By the way, there's also a trailer on Getchu's page, and a bunch of wallpapers freshly added in our KoiHime Musou gallery.

According to this AnimeSuki post where we spotted the announcement, the anime will be produced by Dogakobo, a studio usually hired for in-between animations on various kick-ass titles. As for the manga adaptation, it will be serialized in the seinen manga magazine Dengeki G's Festival! Comic. No date or further details were given for the KoiHime Musou anime, so for now just enjoy the pics. Yummy.

Aye, we don't usually cover any licensing crap, but I happen to have an hour to kill, and this concerns one of the most enjoyable animes from 2007 - sola - so what the hell. Via Anime on DVD, it's become apparent that the anime sola ("sora" meaning "sky" in Japanese) is Bandai Visual's latest acquisition for North America, where they plan to launch the first DVD volume on June 10, 2008.

On Bandai's sola website (more like a static image, really), we are informed that the sola graphic novel will also be released this summer, by Broccoli Books. In case you're not familiar with this title, a brief description can be found on the publisher's products page:

"Once there was a girl who yearned to see the blue sky.
-But someone has to pay the price before it can come true.
Conceived by the creators of two Japanese blockbuster PC games, Naoki Hisaya (Kanon) and Naru Nanao (D.C. ~ Da Capo~), sola is a mysterious and fantastic story of Yorito Morimiya, a high school student who loves to take photos of the sky. One night, he meets a mysterious girl, Matsuri Shihou, who is what one calls a "Yaka", an immortal, ageless existence. Their chance meeting unravels a story that stood still for hundreds of years...

Lately, Bandai's licensing deals seem to be improving a lot, as they recently acquired the rights for bringing two other promising animes to North America - True Tears and the slightly-censored Shigofumi - both of which are currently being aired in Japan. Ganbatte, Bandai-kun!


Update: Bandai Visual USA has just issued a press release restating the above, along with more about the story, theme and creators of sola... plus a link to Broccoli Book's sola page, where the first graphic novel volume is listed for release on June 18, 2008. Oh and don't worry about dubbing if you're after the anime: it will only have Japanese audio with optional English subtitles.

Moar Clannad? By all means! "Official Another Story" is the title of the new Clannad manga that went on sale this week in Japan, a few days earlier than expected (thanks to some shops apparently breaking the street date of February 21). AkibaBlog reports that this is a new "comicalized" manga published by Broccoli, and the first volume describes its story as seen below - in a rather broken Engrish translation.

"it is a short another story, and its main heroines are from Clannad. Heroines can't help changing due to the flow of the school and the environment. Every heroin experiences the time of 'changing' that everybody faces, and everybody gets worried about. Why don't you experience the another story of Clannad?"

"Heroin experiences"? By all means!

Among the more exciting reports from AkibaBlog these days is one concerning Circle Raijinkai's recently released "Wolf Road" adult doujinshi, based on Ookami to Koushinryou (Spicy Wolf, or Spice and Wolf if you prefer). With its most revealing front and back cover, and some equally not-safe-for-work content, this fan-made manga is quickly rising in hawtness, capturing the wet tissues dreams of otakus all over Akihabara.

"This is hell good outdoor sex & zoophilia!" - one of the stores ranking it as #1 describes the doujinshi. Well, zoophilia may not be our main area of expertise, but the rest sure sounds tempting. If you feel like getting you paws on it, try looking for a certain torrent released today... It's in there somewhere, along with a couple of even better Ookami doujins, if you ask me.



In more official news, the 7th volume of the one true Ookami to Koushinryou light novel series was released earlier this month by Dengeki. Meanwhile, the anime carries on, with the 7th episode airing this week in Japan. So far, so spicy.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to join the likes of Del Rey, surprising their grumpy officials with your astonishing creative talent, then search no more, because the company decided to open its doors for some of them unsolicited submissions.

In other words, Del Ray is avidly scanning the otaku suburbs for cheap labor, be it manga would-be specialists, be it open minded figures who can come up with some viable scenario for, let’s say, graphic novel. A good opportunity, indeed, which any unknown, yet better than mediocre artist should try. Who knows? Maybe you’ll get up on the ladder and score some huge amounts cash.

If my drawing techniques, currently non-existent, would be good enough for something like this, I would unleash hell on earth. Loli hell, that is. So, here’s the deal:

We are interested in reviewing:
1) Proposals for original, manga-style graphic novels.
2) Portfolios for artists who are proficient at drawing in the manga style.
Because manga is such a rich, diverse, and unpredictable medium, with so many styles and genres—and so many possibilities for cross-genre experiments and fresh new styles—we'd rather not limit your imagination by telling you exactly what kinds of stories to submit.

Poke here for more details, and eventually a submission.

Working my ass off in the gaming industry, I am quite used to seeing all sorts of weekly or monthly charts regarding game sales. There is always a pattern to be followed, especially in the United States, and especially when it comes to PC gizmos - all the damn charts are infested with tons of Sims. Be it Sims 2, be it the various add-ons that followed, EA’s addictive extravaganza managed to hypnotize millions. Mostly, retarded people and would-be kami-sama’s who probably suck in real life.

Taking a look at the French manga charts, I had a strange feeling of deja-vu. Same pattern, different names, with the mention that, yet again, the crappiest things sell the most. Here, take a look for yourself and bask in awe.

1. Naruto (33)
2. Death Note (7)
3. Naruto (32)
4. Samourai Deeper Kyo (36)
5. Naruto (1)
6. Naruto (31)
7. Naruto (2)
8. Lanfeust Quest (1)
9. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (16)
10. Naruto (3)
11. Death Note (1)
12. Naruto (4)
13. Naruto (5)
14. Naruto (6)
15. Death Note (6)

The only thing that stops me from saying some naughty things about the French people and their absolute non-existent tastes when it comes to anything, is the fact that Laetitia Casta is French and that she was a loli at one time.

ComiPress scoop.

Del Rey have posted a 25-page preview of their Hell Girl (Jigoku Shoujo) manga online, on MySpace, giving me a great opportunity to point out the kind of girlish graphical style that I hate from the bottom of my caucasian ass. Thank God the anime adopted a much cleaner, yet still "artsy" style, otherwise I may have never come to know and... enjoy one of the spookiest lolis around - Ai Enma.

Those who don't have such "aesthetical" issues, or may even be looking forward to buying the Hell Girl manga in English, better mark their calendars for January 29, when the first volume will be released. The rest of us will now return to our usual program: waiting for the third Jigoku Shoujo anime.

Yet another drool-inducing manga is on the speculative verge of being adapted into an anime series: Sekirei, an ecchi manga boasting oversized female busts (and a relatively flat-chested loli), with the typical loser-male type character on the side. Returning to its daily roundup of novelties and rumours, Heisei Democracy links to an earlier Moon Phase newsbit which speculates that a Sekirei anime will be produced by ARMS - the animation studio behind Genshiken 2 and Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny. And Elfen Lied, I should add.

The Sekirei artworks we're adding today in our gallery should be reason enough for you to look forward to this anime - whenever it will become a reality.

 (...)

 Continue reading 'Sekirei Anime Rumoured'...

This week marked the premiere of the over-hyped Cloverfield movie (see the trailer on TVkon if you don't know what the fuss is all about), but it seems there's more to it than meets the eye on the big screen. Specifically, the Cloverfield Clues fansite noticed that there's already a Cloverfield: Kishin manga posted online by Japanese manga publisher Kadokawa. This is only the first chapter (from a total of four), and it's about a Japanese high school boy named Aiba, whose fate is tied to the apocalyptic events that take place in New York, in the movie. The next chapter will hit the internets at the end of February, but each time a new one comes out, the previous will be taken down. So enjoy it while you can, with the help of this rough translation from myOtaku.

One would expect a manga to go on forever, after being turned into an anime TV Show. And, in the case of Doujin Work, it was one of the better shows I’ve seen recently - lots of good humor, “interesting” and very sane characters, Justice-kun and Guilty-kun, all in all, a conglomerate of weirdos doing extremely weird stuff. Hilarious, nevertheless, it is probably the only series I have managed to watch about 3 or 4 times in a row this year.

Ah well, but that’s about it. Hiroyuki, the one dude that created the manga, recently made a post on his own, personal and loli-free blog that lets us all know Doujin Work is coming to an end in the February issue of Manga Time Kirara. Do not fret, my children, because a spin-off is set to follow starting April, and it promises us more and more naked Sora fun, more and more crappy Doujin and, of course, lots of evil lolis planning to take over the world.