Posts Tagged ‘studio ghibli’

So not only has it been a good week for new summer TV trailers but movie trailers for Redline and The Borrowers hit the net this week as well! So, again I have traveled the web and gathered all of the new trailer goodness together in one place so that you don’t have to.

Seikirei Pure Engagement: Two new trailers lasting 15 seconds and 30 seconds have been posted to the official website. Mostly just quick fight footage, it’s a quick glimpse which reminds viewers that it has two important, bouncing points that it plans to bring to the table for its second season. The first season has been licensed by Funimation so keep this one on your simulcast radar just in case.

Redline: On the official YouTube channel, the first 53 second trailer has been posted for everyone. Based on what I’ve heard and read, the minute that you spend watching these racing sequences is essentially what you’re committing yourself to watching by sitting down in front of this movie. I can say openly that I’m not convinced I’m going to like this movie but just try to stop me from at least seeing it.

Legend of the Legendary Heroes: A brand new legendary trailer about the Legend of the Legendary Heroes has been posted to the official legendary YouTube channel. I know, I keep promising to stop doing that and yet I can’t seem to help myself. The new trailer is only half as long as the first two but while the first two were all about introducing viewers to the story and characters, the third is more focused on action and intense moments. The fantasy series premieres July 1st.  

The Borrowers: Finally after way too many teasers, a full minute of animation has been released from the upcoming Ghibli movie, The Borrowers. While we’ve already become familiar with the theme song thanks to earlier promotional videos, this is the first time viewers have gotten to take a look at some of the backgrounds and character art. I am really looking forward to this!

Mitsudomoe: A second 75 second trailer has been posted to the official site for the upcoming series based on the gag manga. The new trailer is another look at characters and animation style with some seiyuu introductions thrown in for good measure. I’d be lying if I said I’m looking forward to this one but part of me wonders if this is going to be the series that surprises me this summer by being good.

So how is everyone? It’s been kind of a slow week and I thought it was going to stay that way all the way through today. Course, then Crunchyroll and Sentai shook things up a little and that idea kind of faded away into nothing. So what have I missed this week? More zombies, rumors and fans get the Shaft treatment one more time.

New Anime of the Week:

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka: A boy is killed by a serial killer but is later resurrected as a zombie and ordered to fight for a magical girl named Haruna. Right… on that note, this series started as a light novel last year. New details were expected to be announced in the special One Heart With You net broadcast yesterday but apparently not so much.

To aru Majutsu no Index 2? : This one is still firmly in the rumor column but a store in Japan has reportedly let it leak that a second season of the JC Staff action series A Certain Magical Index is on its way. The first season aired in 2008 and was followed by the spinoff To aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) a few months ago. – If this is true than this is awesome news for those of us who enjoyed the first season so let’s just hope that it’s true for now. Confirmed yet? How about now?

Yosuga no Sora; in solitude, where we are least alone: An anime adaptation has been announced for the eroge that I seriously hope gets a shorter title when it premieres. The melodrama revolves around twins who must move in with their grandfather after losing their parents in an accident. After arriving back in the remote village the twins remember why they chose to come back and the promise they made to each other as children. No details on a premiere date or who will be producing it but I’ll keep you informed. – I don’t care if it’s an eroge adaptation, this one has potential so let me hang onto that faint hope before seeing the trailer and having it shattered.

In other news that doesn’t involve me wishing that studios would just release all their info at once…

Tales from Earthsea Gets US Theatrical Premiere: In an interesting twist this week, Disney has announced this week that Tales from Earthsea from Studio Ghibli will hit US theaters on August 13th. The movie was the directorial debut of Goro Miyazaki (son of Hayao Miyazaki) and was first released to Japanese theaters in 2006. After that it’s kind of a blur of everyone including the author of the source novel saying how terrible it was. The release indicates the settlement of a dispute between Disney and SyFy over a series they created based on the same source material. – At last, America can see a “new” Ghibli movie knowing ahead of time that it’s terrible?

Bakemonogatari Delayed Again… Naturally: Who didn’t see this coming? Shaft has announced that the final volume of Bakemonogatari will not be available until July 28th after first being pushed back from March to June. The final episode is still expected to stream on the official website in June but I would take that with a grain of salt at this point.  – You know what Shaft? If you can’t get me Senjougahara on time than forget you! Hmph!… I’m just kidding, can we please have the last episode now???

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai ED Theme Contest: This is only going to apply to those of you with a NicoNico Douga account but since that might be a few of you, here’s some info you’ll want to know. A new contest has been opened to find the 12 songs that will be used as ending themes in the series Ore no Imouto. Users can submit original song entries to NicoNico from June 1st to July 31st in any genre. The winning songwriters will get to record their songs with the series seiyuus and a small cash prize.

Whew, it’s been a couple of days now since getting back from Seattle and yet here I am about to start talking about more conventions in Seattle. I always knew that there were people who built models with legos all the way up into their adulthood and you have to admire the ones who are able to stick with it and create some pretty damn impressive works. What I didn’t realize however is that there are still entire conventions dedicated to this and one will be taking place in Seattle later this year.

Taking on the theme ‘Big in Japan’, this year’s BrickCon held in Seattle will be featuring models and displays from lego builders which are influenced from Japanese history and pop culture (which includes anime). It’s still very early but one builder, Iain Heath, has already started to display some of his designs which will include some interesting My Neighbor Totoro displays.

If you happen to be in Seattle around the beginning of October and want to see some anime lego designs, make sure to hit the Seattle Center.

<Image via Iain Heath, thanks to Isaac Alexander for the tip>

Wow has it been a long time since I’ve been able to write one of these. But now that there’s a little bit of breathing space it’s time to dig into some new trailers. First up is a brand new trailer for the upcoming movie, King of Thorn. For those who haven’t heard me or hundreds of other bloggers re-hash the story, the story takes place in the future after a group of 160 individuals have woken up from cryogenic stasis. After waking up, one girl (who entered stasis while her twin sister was left behind) and the others expect to find scientists who have found a cure for the incurable disease that had begun to ravage the world; what they find instead is a new world filled with monsters and no answers as to what has happened while they were asleep. Directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama (Appleseed, Sentimental Journey, Those Who Hunt Elves) and produced by Sunrise, the movie will finally be released to Japanese theaters on May 1^th after spending most of 2009 in the film festival circuit.

The new two minute trailer shows a lot of the same footage from the first trailer but still manages to insert some new animation and the previously unheard theme song. If you’re into dark sci-fi this is a title that you are going to want to watch.

Moving in a MUCH lighter direction, a new teaser was also released this week for the next Studio Ghibli film; Karigurashi no Arrietty. The minute long teaser only shows a bit of animation but leaves two minutes to talk with the composer for the movie, Cecile Corbel, from France. As mentioned previously, Miyazaki won’t actually be directing this one and instead has passed the reigns over to Hiromasa Yoenbayashi who worked his way up from being an animator at Studio Ghibli.

Now, I know that we’ve all grown used to the wonderful scores from Joe Hiasashi but with a new director at the helm, I have no problem with things being shaken up a little. Will it all pay off in the end? That’s for you to decide when it’s released to theaters on July 17^th… well, all of you in Japan at least. It’s still a little early to predict when the movie will get a release anywhere else in the world.

Closing this one out, Bandai has uploaded an ‘un-edited’ ASOS Brigade episode to their YouTube channel which finally reveals new details on the Haruhi Suzumiya season 2 license that was announced last month. Yes, I’m aware that this isn’t actually a trailer for the new season but I honestly just didn’t want to write a hundred word post just to tell you that the new season will be released as one complete box set at some point in the future. There’s no release date attached to the box set quite yet but let’s be honest, at this point is anyone taking Bandai release dates seriously?

That’s it for today’s roundup. What’s looking good to you? Leave your thoughts in the comments and discuss away!

The Borrowers Gets Ghibli-fied

At a press conference today, Studio Ghibli announced their next full film project will be an adaptation of the novel The Borrowers originally published in 1952. The movie will be titled Karigurashi no Arrietty (Arrietty Borrows Everything) and center on a girl named Arrietty who stands only 10cm tall. She and her family borrow from the human family that live in the house but one day Arrietty is discovered by a human boy. Producer Toshio Suzuki said of the movie, ”This is a story of a girl who borrows many things from the human’s world for her life. I think the film will give viewers suggestions about how to survive this tough time.”

Taking on director duties for the first time will be Hiromasa Yobebayashi (Asst. Animation Director – Gedo Senki, Animation Director – Mei to Konekobasu) with Hayao Miyazaki providing assistance along the way. The movie is currently set for a summer 2010 release but it’s still too early to guess at when Disney will release it in the US. I’m especially interested to see how this release will differ from Ponyo which was much more geared towards the kids in the audience.

In a related note, at least we know that Miyazaki won’t be attempting to work through the award season. The five 2010 Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature were announced earlier this week and Ponyo wasn’t among them. Getting the nominations instead were: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog and Up.

<Via Kyodo News, ANN>

It’s that time of year again! While many blogs and websites are getting together their awards for the year, the Oscars have already received 20 submissions for possible the Best Animated Feature at next year’s ceremony. Out of the 20 submissions received this year, two are anime features: Astro Boy (Imagi) and Ponyo (Studio Ghibli). As long as there are 16 eligible submissions, the field will be opened up to 5 different nominees. Unfortunately there are still seven nominees (“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” “The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Planet 51,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “The Secret of Kells” and “A Town Called Panic”) which have not yet met their theatrical release eligibility requirements. If three of these movies don’t meet that requirement, the field would still be limited to the usual three nominees.

Now, this is all well and cool however let us get out the sheet music and play the real cynical waltz. Astro Boy has been a theatrical bust and Ponyo is cute but capable of winning an Oscar when placed against heavyweights such as Up, 9 and A Christmas Carol? I wouldn’t get your hopes up on an anime winning the next Oscar but it would still be cool to see Studio Ghibli pick up another nomination.

<Via Oscars.org>

Earlier this week, it came out that a group of major Japanese movie and anime companies were going to come together to form an anti piracy unit. The new organization called Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) will start slowly by monitoring sites based in China starting in November. Specifically they will be looking for sites pirating more popular titles such as Ponyo or Gundam. From there the group plans to expand out to other sites further out and demand the removal of other series. According to their official English site, they are also promoting the branding of online materials with a special mark on entertainment media such as anime and movies. I assume that this is so that people will realize that it was pirated but how many fans are going to be bothered enough by the mark to care? If I’m wrong on the reasoning there feel free to tell me so.  

All of the reports I’ve seen on the original article point out the vagueness when it comes to actual punishment beyond that. Despite all of the companies signed on, I doubt that the association is being brought together to pursue serious overseas litigation to protect copyrights but I’m sure they have plenty of things they can do that I’m not even aware of. While I applaud the efforts being made here by Sunrise, Studio Ghibli, Sojitz and others, I wonder how effective it will be.

<Via ANN, Anime Vice>

Keeping with the catch up theme, there was a number of new release dates announced over the weekend as well. First up is the new series which will be making its debut in October, Yumeiro Patissiere. Based on the manga of the same name, the series follows a young teen girl as she explores her dream of becoming a top pastry chef. When she enrolls in a culinary school, she meets a fairy of sweets who helps her become her best. No bonus points if that reminds you of any other series that uses that theme.

Moving closer to home, US release dates were also revealed for the latest Studio Ghibli movie, ‘Ponyo’ and the live action adaptation of ‘Blood: The Last Vampire’. ‘Ponyo’ will be opening August 14^th on 800 screens across the country while ‘Blood: The Last Vampire’ will be opening on a paltry 11 screens (the closest one to me is Seattle, curses!) on July 10^th. Other cities include: Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Cambridge, Dallas and Washington, D.C.

Finally in DVD news, Funimation has launched a page for their upcoming release of ‘Spice and Wolf‘ season 1: December 2009 (which has already been added to my calendar).

So ADV Nation is reporting what I couldn’t get from ADV itself which is interesting. Anyways, for those who are waiting patiently for ADV to release Central Park Media license rescues in July, there is new information to be had.  At Anime Boston it was revealed (more that I failed to catch, sorry everyone!) that the World of Narue re-release will not have any video errors that were present on the original release.

In terms of the extras present on the original releases, most of them are going to remain intact. Pretty much all of the extras are going to remain where they were on the previous releases with few exceptions. World of Narue will be missing its commentary tracks, Grave of the Fireflies will have most of its extras barring an art gallery and Now and Then, Here and There will have everything left as is.

All four titles will be released at various dates throughout July: Now and Then, Here and There (7/7), Grave of the Fireflies (7/7), World of Narue (7/21) and MD Geist (7/28).

In news concerning recent ADV license rescues ‘World of Narue‘, ‘Now and Then, Here and There’, ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ and ‘MD Geist’ Chris Oarr recently answered some questions via email. When asked about the upcoming releases and if they will be re-dubbed by ADV, Oarr said “We are not redubbing any of that material.” He also stated that he is unsure on if the ‘Now and Then, Here and There’ bonus disc that contained behind the scenes footage originally released by CPM will be included with the ADV re-release. All four titles will be shipping at various dates in July.

Meanwhile, ADV Nation put up a post earlier today regarding statements from ADV representative Janice Williams on the upcoming re-release of the Geneon title ‘Appleseed‘ later this year. In the post, Williams states that ADV will be correcting the audio issues that plagued the original release. In the original release, a number of sound issues were detected by users which included bad audio mixes among other things. The ADV release will street on June 30th.