Posts Tagged ‘kyoto animation’

I never thought I’d say this but thank you Kyoto Animation for doing at least a little something during the slow news week!

NEW ANIME

Tachumaru Zukan SD : A series will launch in October which re-imagines various franchises created by Tatsunoko Productions through the 70’s and 80’s as SD characters combined with cute animals. Animation will be produced by Tatsunoko Productions (Casshern Sins, Gatchaman, Ogan Senshi Gold Raitan) and the official website features three characters which will be featured in the series. – This was the only new anime to get announced this week. Wow I can’t wait for the new season to get here if it means more than just this gets announced.

Linebarrels of Iron : I’m including this in the new anime section but no one actually knows if the series will be getting a new anime. In the October issue of Champion Red, it was announced that Linebarrels of Iron will be taking part in a big project which will be revealed next month. New anime? OVA? Manga series? Your guess is as good as mine.

IN OTHER NEWS

Kyoto Animation Wants New Anime : Kyoto Animation knows that new anime ideas need to be brought to the surface and it’s going to make it happen damn it! The studio (possibly delirious from K-ON cash) has launched a new original project initiative section on their website. The idea is that the studio will choose a theme which creators at the studio will then turn into their own anime ideas. Fans will get to vote on which ideas they like the best and want to see developed. The first theme to be chosen: KyoAni Sisters (stories about four sisters).

Additionally, Kyoto Animation has also announced the return of their Kyoto Animation awards which allows fans to submit their own ideas in novel, manga and scenario categories. Winners will get to have their ideas maybe, possibly turned into a real project if the studio feels like it along with a cash prize. Last year the studio held the contest only to announce in April that NO winners whatsoever were to be chosen.

Surprisingly no one complained (at least loudly enough for it to be made public) but KyoAni are still covering their asses in the rules this year by stating clearly: there is no guarantee that a grand prize winner will be chosen and the studio will hold the copyright on any winning idea. If you still want to take your chances at winning a couple of thousand dollars and see your creative work turned into something (providing the judges don’t think it, you know, sucks), you can read all about it on the official website.

Titan Rain Out, Stereoscopic In : At a general stockholder meeting, the parent company of Production I.G and Xebec; IG Port, revealed that their upcoming anime project Titan Rain has been canceled due to delays. Storm Lion, a company in Singapore collaborating on the project, will shoulder the costs of the cancelation. In the same meeting they also announced that will be working on a large scale children’s movie using stereoscopic 3D animation. – And they also recently opened a pizza joint in their building so hey, good news all around!

BACK AT HOME

Funimation Announces November Slate : Closing things out, Funimation has announced their November slate which includes some interesting new releases and rescues:

Blassreiter Complete Collection – 11/2 (49.98)
Oh! Edo Rocket Season 1, Part 1 – 11/2 (49.98)
Oh! Edo Rocket Season 1, Part 2 – 11/2 (49.98)
Gunslinger Girl II: Teatrino [Viridian] – 11/2 (39.98)
Tsubasa, Reservoir Chronicles Season 2 [Viridian] – 11/9 (49.98)
Comic Party Revolution Complete Series [SAVE] – 11/9 (19.98)
Initial D Stage 1, Part 2 – 11/16 (29.98)
Sekirei Complete Series – 11/23 (49.98)
Girls Bravo Complete Series – 11/23 (49.98)
Kaleido Star Season 1 Collection – 11/23 (39.98)
Armitage III Movie Collection – 11/23 (29.98)
Birdy the Mighty: Decode Part 2 – 11/30 (59.98)

So, does this help your holiday shopping? Lots of titles will be coming out around Black Friday for fans to pick up for cheap (I personally push you towards Kaleido Star but that’s just me).

Fans on both sides of the US received a bit of excitement this week when US theatrical premieres and screenings were announced for both the dark sci-fi King of Thorn and the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movies this week. In the east, the Japan Society has announced the lineup for their Japan Cuts Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema taking place the first half of July in New York. Among the 20 films listed in the press release, the US premiere for the sci-fi thriller King of Thorn will be taking place on July 11th at 6pm. To get the more up to date information on tickets and venues, visit the official website. The futuristic thriller spent 2009 in the film festival circuit before opening in Japan on May 1st and getting largely ignored in theaters.

Meanwhile, for those of us on the other coast and can’t make it to New York the US premiere of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya has been announced for June 24th at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 theater in LA. Unlike the previously mentioned film, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya was released to Japanese theaters in Feb. and managed to pull in the equivalent of over $7 million US in eight weeks. I’m sure there are conclusions we can draw from this but I’ll allow you to come up with your own.

The movie will be shown in its original Japanese with appearances from the English dub cast (which would make more sense if they were premiering the dub but whatever), Cristina Vee and prizes being offered to fans and cosplayers from Bandai, Yen Press and Crunchyroll. Tickets went on sale yesterday and so if you plan on attending this event I suggest you contact the theater and get yourself set up early. The movie had its first US premiere in San Francisco starting May 21st lasting through this weekend at the Viz Cinema.

So I live too far away from both of these places to plan on attending. Though if I had the choice I’d much rather find a way to get to New York to see King of Thorn. Man, they get to have all the fun on the east coast! Oh wait… no they don’t.

Updated: Corrected info re: Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya US premiere. Apologies for the error.

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Over the weekend, the latest issue of Shonen Jump announced that Kyoto Animation would be adapting the 4 panel gag manga, Nichijou, into an anime. And once again, that was it. No word on when or how the anime would be released, just that it would be. Luckily, a notice was sent to retailers just a few hours later with a bit of additional information. It’s still not entirely clear on if Nichijou will be getting a full TV adaptation but it will at least be getting an OAD which will ship with Vol. 6 of the manga in January 2011.

Listening to reactions over the weekend, it seems like most people are on board for this though many question Kyoto Animation’s ability to a surreal slice of life comedy with flat, round character designs into marketable moe bait. To which I reply: Lucky Star and K-ON.

<Via MyAnimeList>

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for dramatic, tear jerker anime. When Funimation released Rumbling Hearts, I was yelling at my television as though Mitsuki would actually be able to hear me tell her that she was being an idiot. When the last episodes of Air TV played in front of me, I wept quietly and when one of the girls of Please Twins was forced to come to grips with leaving the house, I was completely lost in the moment of possibly losing one of these characters. So for all intents and purposes, Clannad really should have been right up my alley. However, if you look through the list of anime releases that I’ve reviewed you’ll notice a few incomplete spots where I dropped a series or lost track of it… and one of these spots belongs to Clannad.

That isn’t to say that I didn’t finish and enjoy the first season to some extent. I actually did finish the entire first season and sat through every story arc that is had to offer. I took in Tomoya’s painful confession in the rain, Fuko’s quest to give her carvings to everyone in school, Kotomi’s struggle with being alone and Kyou struggling to come to terms with her feelings. And every so often Clannad would do something dramatic and make my mood inch dangerously close to touched… moved even. Most of the time though, I found myself giggling at the most inappropriate times and eventually leaving the series with a very mediocre eh feeling.

And it all starts with that first scene in the rain. Tomoya and Nagisa are together, the atmosphere is grey, the music swells and Tomoya makes his big confession and I laughed. A lot. Because the moment felt so incredibly over the top to me that I couldn’t take it seriously. Perhaps this soured me on whatever else Clannad wanted to show me but I’d rather not admit just how far I got into this series before it dawned on me that I wasn’t watching satire. When everyone gathered and Fuko got her wish, it would be hard for anyone to not feel the happiness pouring out of the scene. The moment is almost perfect and everything is going great, but then the series shifts back into its previous patterns and I would be right back aboard the SS Laughing at the Wrong Moments.

I’d like to think that I haven’t become an entirely heartless person in the last couple of years. There are still plenty of series that I can go to and know that I will still be able to have a genuine emotional experience from it. I still love watching anime melodrama and so perhaps this was just my one off series. I’ve already concluded that watching Clannad: After Story will probably not be in my best interests. I might end up watching this series again someday when I’ve entered a new phase of my life and see if the journey of Kotomi’s teddy bear ever comes across as amazing as every character wants you to believe it is. But for now, Clannad is another series in the list of titles that leave me baffled. Others may rave about this as the peak of Kyoto Animation’s forays into moe melodrama but instead I’m left staring and wondering what little detail in the big picture am I not seeing.

The series is currently available from Sentai Filmworks in box sets with a complete series collection coming in June.

In October 2009, Kyoto Animation announced a great contest. Artists and writers from all over Japan could send in their ideas and the best ones would be given the grand prize of possibly being turned into a major production. Six months later, the entries have been sent in and reviewed. I’m sure that a ton of excruciating effort went into the search for just the right winners so without further adieu, here they are: NO ONE! Haha, suckers!

Yes, in an odd turn of events, Kyoto Animation announced today that the results of their first Kyoto Animation Award has resulted in absolutely no grand prize winners. None. Not a single person in the entire country of Japan sent in an idea good enough to be turned into something professional.

A number of people won honorable mentions (which comes with a 100,000¥ [about $1,075] prize), which is something I guess. In the novel category the winners were listed as: Boku-tachi, Watashi-tachi by Onii Kamasu, Tōi Machi to Kuro no Negai by Tsukasa, O-Yashiki to Coppelia by Rikuki Ichinose, Chūni-byō demo Koi Shitai! by Tora Tora and Kuroi Kanojo to Aki-Chi no Boku by Kizuka Tomoya.

Six more honorable mentions were also awarded in the scenario category listed as: Kaze ni Sakarafu Tamashii no Hana ~Utayomi~ by coyote, Cafe Avant-Hier ~Mō Hitosu no Menu~ by Suzumu Hisao, Kamata-”kō”-shinkyoku by Victory, Magical Girl Returns! by Yumihiko Tōya, Hare no Isekai ~Koi to Kenka to Senchisha~ by Kenta Taniguchi and Dynamite My Honey by Shinichirō Arisaka.

As for the manga category, Kyoto Animation didn’t even bother to award an honorable mention.

I’m not entirely sure what this means for the future of the prize. If KyoAni have their standards set so high that not a single person could win the grand prize this time around, I somehow doubt there would be as many people interested in entering even if it were offered again. So providing that they do want to open this contest again might I offer the suggestion to… I don’t know, pick a winner next time? You’d be amazed at what it does for the popularity of your contest. I’m just sayin.

If you hung anywhere around this blog last year, you witnessed me slowly devolve into a K-ON fan. Yes, it’s a series about girls who eat cake and occasionally play instruments. It’s moe bait at its worst but I just can’t help myself! This would probably explain why I get a little extra excited every time a new bit of news leak out regarding the upcoming second season.

So, we already knew that it was going to premiere in the spring (I was predicting a summer premiere but who’s complaining?) but now news regarding the crew and airing schedule are coming out. For those who you out there who dug the music from last season, you’ll be happy to know that the music crew is going to remain entirely the same. The cake eating quintet are listed as the performers for the new OP and ED themes titled ‘GO! GO! Maniac’ and ‘Listen!’ respectively. Also just like last season, the same lyricists and composers are being retained along with Aki Toyosaki (voicing Yui) being credited for the OP vocals and Youko Hikasa (voicing Mio) doing the ED theme.

If you’re living in Japan and are even vaguely worried about not being able to catch this series after it premieres you’re also in luck; TBS has announced that the series will air on 28 different networks within Japan. That’s up just a smidge from the 9 networks that the first season aired on last year. Anyone want to guess at how confident Kyoto Animation and Kadokawa are right now with how much revenue they believe this series can pull in this year?

That’s right, if you hated the series last year when it premiered or was completely baffled by its popularity, spring is probably not going to be your season.

<Via Sankaku Complex [NSFW], Image via Pixiv>

Kyoto Animation and Kadokawa are on thin ice with fans right now but recently seem to have found some peaceful middle ground lately. On one hand, the anticipated Endless Eight DVD disaster is turning into an average level release after the first two volumes of the story arc went onto sell over 10K copies each. On the other hand, perhaps fans are just biding their time following the announcement of the long awaited Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie being released next year. In the original announcement, fans were forced to be satisfied with the vague spring 2010 release date.

A new release date has been released online though and states that the movie will now be released February 6^th, 2010 with fans in Japan able to buy advance tickets starting November 21^st. Also revealed in the announcement is that the movie is going to be a full 150 minutes. Wait, 150 minutes? As in it’s going to be two and a half hours long? Bloody hell that’s a long movie!

<Via Gigazine>

 

When the first volume of a new series is released on DVD, the sales figures can be a very telling figure in determining how successful the series actually is. Fans can say all they want about a series while it’s on television but for studios and creators, it’s the DVD and (now) Blu ray sales that bring in the profits over the long run. So when the first DVD of both Bakemonogatari and the Endless Eight Haruhi Suzumiya did respectable sales with their releases, it caught my attention. I really enjoyed Bakemonogatari but wondered, would fans keep buying the releases by the thousands in the future? Likewise, the first volume containing the dreaded Endless Eight story arc sold over 12,000 copies which is frankly more than I ever thought it would. The latest figures have come in for both Bakemonogatari Vol. 2 in Japan and the second of four Endless Eight DVDs and surprisingly both have remained in the top five of the Oricon sales charts.

Setting new records for TV anime, Bakemonogatari initially sold 56,000 copies (combined DVD and Blu ray) of the first volume in its first two weeks on the streets. That number was big enough to set a record in itself but now the second volume of the series has gone on to sell 39,000 copies on Blu ray in its first week. This makes it the best selling TV anime Blu ray release in history easily beating the 33,000 copies sold by K-ON earlier this year. The only other anime to have stronger sales is Evangelion 1.11 which sold 49,000 in its first week.

In a related note, the first of three unaired episodes has finally begun streaming from the official website. Delayed an extra week due to production issues, fans are finally be able to see the final episodes of the Tsubasa Cat arc. I suggest you go do that instead of thinking about the depressing news that follows in the next paragraph.

In news that is slightly more depressing, the second volume of the Haruhi Suzumiya Endless Eight arc has managed to sell over 12,000 copies putting it into a solid third place on the sales charts and proving that otaku will buy anything. On that note I’d like to speak personally to everyone who is actually buying these DVDs… Cut it out! Bad otaku! You cried bloody murder when it aired originally and yet you’re still supporting it? And if you’re one of the few on this side of the Pacific who is taking the time and money to import these DVDs: Stop that! Kyoto Animation has over 12,000 enablers in Japan already; do you really want to be part of that?

<Via Japanator>

 

In an update to a couple of stories that I’ve written about previously (here and here), release dates have been announced for the upcoming Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and Gintama movies. Technically this isn’t entirely confirmed because Kyoto Animation has yet to say so themselves but a theater listing says that the new movie is going to open in Japan on February 6^th. After the year that Kyoto Animation and Haruhi Suzumiya have had, it might be good to get a fresh start in 2010 though I still wonder if it’s too late to salvage what fan base this franchise has left.

In more official news, the brand new teaser site for the upcoming Gintama movie has announced that the movie will be released during Golden Week in 2010 which lasts from April 29^th to May 5^th. The movie will be titled Gintama Shinyaku Benizakura-Hen (Gintama: Benizakura Arc – A New Retelling) and retell the Benizakura manga arc. If you haven’t already started, Crunchyroll has 181 episodes available so fans can get caught up before the premiere next year.  

<Via ANN>

In the final episode of the renewed Haruhi Suzumiya broadcast, a teasing message was included to announce a brand new Haruhi Suzumiya movie which will be released in the spring of 2010. The movie will animate the primary story in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel which fans believed was going to be part of the second season before getting Endless Eight. The teaser image doesn’t reveal anything besides the planned season release but as soon as new information is available it will be on the official site.

 

Not so surprisingly, the excitement from fans and bloggers I’m sensing is fairly low. Could it really be possible that the legions of fans that this series once had have moved on? The first Endless Eight DVD sold a dismal (yet surprisingly high) 14,000 copies upon its release. Of course, there are still three more volumes of that story arc left to be released to test the ‘otaku will buy anything’ adage. But have enough fans been burned by the franchise or will all be forgiven once promotion begins on the new movie?

<Via ANN, Video via Canned Dogs>