And a card game, I should add. As reported on ANN, game developer Level-5 (Dragon Quest VIII, Rogue Galaxy) has just announced that Inazuma Eleven - their upcoming game for the Nintendo DS blending role-playing with... *gasp*... soccer - will be adapted into a manga, an anime, and a card game. Granted, the manga and anime adaptations were known to be coming since last year.

Although the game itself is only slated for release in Japan on August 22, the manga will already start tomorrow, May 15, in the CoroCoro Comic magazine. ANN adds that "OLM is planning the anime version as a 2D-animated project with the stadiums rendered in 3D computer graphics", and that's the last thing we'll likely have to say about it. Sports animes aren't exactly our soft spot.

- The first picture for the upcoming Dragonball live-action movie popped up on various fansites. It's just a promotional photo scanned from the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, showing Justin Chatwin as Goku, so... nothing to see here, move along. The movie's delayed premiere in set for March 2009 in Japan, and April 3 in the US.

- In other manga-to-live-action news, the Crows Zero movie adaptation will be getting a sequel, "set about 8 months after the first movie".

- Super Robot Wars: OG - Divine Wars episode 1 is now streaming on Bandai's dot-anime.us website - "available in the United States and Canada only". Ah well, no loss.

- By the way, English dubbing sucks ass? Then go dub it yourself. In a maid cafe, no less!

- The 32nd Annual Manga Awards were announced this Monday by Japanese publisher Kodansha. "The winners are all comedies, but of decidedly different styles: a magical girl comedy, a baseball comedy, a high school slice-of-life comedy, and a medical comedy". Because amputations and vasectomies are so bloody funny!

- Speaking of which, the 37th Japan Mangaka Association Awards and the 12th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize were also announced over the weekend.

- 3 new manga titles will begin serialization in the Weekly Shonen magazine, from the makers of Suzuka, Inugami and Samurai Deeper Kyo.

- Japanese youth: IQ and lust in decline?... IQ? Most probably. Lust? I doubt it. And to prove it, there's another crapload of ero-news on HD; and again.

- 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.

Say, how would you feel about having a nuclear-powered U.S. Navy aicraft carrier parked in your backyard? Not too peachy, eh? Now imagine how the nuclear-phobic Japanese citizens residing near the Yokosuka naval base must be feeling about the imminent arrival of USS George Washington in their town, this August... So what does Uncle Sam do to ease their minds? He puts out a propagandistic manga, go figure!

In an alleged attempt to explain its mission to Japanese youngsters, the U.S. Navy has printed a manga about life aboard the 'Washington aircraft carrier, titled "CVN-73" (like the ship's hull number). The story itself is not new, but now Stars and Stripes (via ANN) reports that the 200-page manga is ready for distribution, as 30,000 copies have already been printed by Commander U.S. Naval Forces Japan (CNFJ).

"We're not trying to lie or state false facts. We're simply putting several key aspects of the George Washington in a format that is widely accepted in Japan", [CNFJ spokesman] Waterman said.

Sure, sure, neither was Bill Clinton trying to lie or state false facts about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Anyway, politics aside... yaaay, free manga! More about it below.

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 Continue reading 'U.S. Navy Manga Set To Invade Japan'...

ICv2 brings word tonight that American publisher Dark Horse Comics has licensed the Clover manga, which they will (re-)release in January 2009. Yes, it's not exactly the first time it's being released in North America (Tokyopop did it in 2001-2002), but Dark Horse is going for a different format: they will pack the entire Clover manga series (four volumes) in a 512-page omnibus edition with 32 pages of color, priced at $19.95.

The story is set in a dark, dystopian future, where a totalitarian government tries to control a breed of children gifted with special powers, known as "Clovers". The Clover manga was originally created by CLAMP and published by Kodansha in Japan between 1997-1999. Talk about late licenses...

- The Gurren Lagann: Guren-hen movie website has launched, bringing along the first trailer that you can also see here on Animekon since a couple of days ago. The animated movie will premiere in Japan on September 6, and may we remind you that the first Gurren Lagann anime series was surprisingly licensed by Bandai, for a DVD debut this July.

- The 07-Ghost manga has been licensed by Go! Comi, who will publish the first volume in January 2009. There are currently six volumes published in Japan, and the manga is still running. Needs more lolis.

- Nui! manga preview posted online in English by Broccoli Books (PDF file). Volume 1 of this schoolgirl-loves-her-plushies (and vice-versa) manga is coming out on June 23, volume 2 in October, and volume 3... who knows.

If, by any chance, you're familiar with the Kurozuka manga, then you're likely to enjoy edo-ass-kicking and sword-fighting stories. And by extention you'll be happy to know that said manga will be adapted into an anime series by Animax. The announcement mentions that the Kurozuka anime will be aired after Ultraviolet: Code 044 - which itself is only set to begin on July 1, so... look for Kurozuka around October, I guess also on July 1. (Update: Fixed the date, based on Giapet's more eloquent report)

Originally published in the Super Jump magazine until 2006, the manga was later compiled into 10 volumes. You can see the covers below, and even further down below you'll find ANN's outline of the storyline.

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 Continue reading 'Kurozuka Manga Gets Anime'...

It's loli-business as usual here at Animekon as we return from our week-long road trip, with eyes wide feasted on all the blossoming girlies we stalked stumbled upon in select locations around the country. Shikashi... all this "real life" has taken its toll on our sedentary selves, so let's return to the good old virtual world, briefly recapping what went on in our absence.

- The OP and ED songs for the upcoming anime Slayers Revolution will be sung by singer / voice actress Megumi Hayashibara, who will also return as the main lead Lina.

- The Three Kingdoms anime jointly produced in China and Japan (by Beijing Glorious Animation and Future Planet, respectively) will begin airing in June, and will run for 52 episodes, adapting the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. Like many other animes / games have done before...

- A 43-year-old otaku from South Carolina was rejected from a manga club meeting at his local library. He was not amused. In fact, he's thinking about suing the library for age discrimination. (I hope we won't become such retards 10-15 years from now)

- Neko Rahmen will be getting a live-action movie called Neko Rahmen Taishou (General Neko Rahmen). The original comedy manga about a cat running a ramen shop was already adapted into an anime - freely available online on Vuze.

- A new Blue Dragon manga will be serialized in the V Jump magazine (starting from May 21), based on the recently started Blue Dragon: Tenkai no Shichi Ryuu anime. By the way, we've just added a trailer for the second anime.

- The Lucky Star manga has sold 1.8 million copies so far, according to the latest report issued by Kadokawa. Even so, the publisher's net losses approached $25 million in the previous fiscal year. Blame the Suzumiya Haruhi / Lucky Star anime pirates. Or Canada.

- Aria the Animation was licensed by Right Stuf and its Nozomi Entertainment production arm, who will release the first DVD box set (13 episodes) on September 30, with Japanese audio and English subtitles. Later on, they also plan to release Aria the Natural, Aria the OVA: Arietta, and finally Aria the Origination.

- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, or simply TokiKake) will be screened in American theatres, from June to early September. So far Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle are the cities carrying solid screening dates, but "other theatrical dates will be announced soon".

- Gonzo is streaming the Hennako-chan web-anime on its YouTube channel starting tomorrow, April 25. Based on the calssic black-comedy manga about a girl with psychic powers, the web-anime will consist of six 3-minute episodes coming out every other week, and will also be provided with English (and Chinese) subtitles, via Fujiyama. Update: The first subbed episode is already online. Not bad!

- Viz Media is releasing the first half of the Busou Renkin anime on DVD - in English - on April 29. The 13-episode bundle is packed with all sorts of goodies, and it's priced at $49.98 (roughly $3.8 per episode). The second half of the series will follow later this year.

- American manga sales rose in 2007, but at a slower rate than in previous years.

I'm going to rip off our quick-links type of posts from Playkon (hmm, we really should get back to writing there again), and start collecting various anime / manga / whatever stories as "checkpoints". More or less like this...

- Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo eroge demo version up for download (288 MB), more mirrors here (try the right-side buttons). For an even quicker impression, you can see some NSFW screenshots, and a marginally safe for work wallpaper. (Update: I've been scrolling through the demo for well over an hour, and there's still no end in sight... But I'm starting to get hungry, from all these food and bento scenes. And various other things. Yummy!)

- On a side-note, eroge developer Windmill has released its CatSystem2 engine for making doujin games, free for personal use. Windmill's next title, Tsunaban - Love Mix is set for release on July 18.

- sola, Koi Kupid manga previews posted online in English by Broccoli Books. There are 9 pages from sola (Volume 1 coming this June), and 12 pages from Koi Cupid (Volume 1 released last month).

- Hanaharu Naruko (author of the Kamichu! manga), will release his first adult manga, "Shoujo Material" in May. Nice wanking material. And this one is also his, by the way. Win!

- Fate/Zero novels return in stores after four months of silence. The four volumes were originally released between December 2006 and December 2007, and their story takes place 10 years before Fate/Stay Night. Not that I care, really - I just like the covers.