Posts Tagged ‘to aru kagaku no railgun’

Is everyone recovered from an interesting first week? Week 2 of the Fall season is a little less exciting but a couple of big titles are still waiting in the wings. The second season of A Certain Magical Index will be hitting Japanese airwaves today and at the end of the month the spinoff, A Certain Scientific Railgun, will be getting its own OVA. Oddly Funimation has been very quiet this season in terms of simulcasts but with NYAF right around the corner perhaps we’ll be hearing something from them regarding those two series and the new addition to the Noitamina block, Kuragehime.

To aru Majutsu no Index Season 2
A Certain Magical Index Season 2
Studio: J.C. Staff
Premiere Date: 10/8
Genre: Action
Sequel
Trailer

Story

A return to University City where the primary research taking place is into psychic powers and those who use them. The lead, Tomo, is only a level 1 power but his right hand can negate any other power it comes into contact with.

Why You Should Care

The first season to this series was wildly underappreciated when it was released so I’m glad to see a second season. Now if only we could get a spinoff series completely dedicated to Kuroko (I mean besides Railgun which is more Mikoto based anyway).

All of the cast and crew remain the same from the first season.

Kuragehime
Studio: Brains Base
Premiere Date: 10/14
Genre: Josei
Adapted From: Manga

Story

A girl named Tsukimi moves into an apartment complex filled with fujoshi (female otaku) and a strict ‘no men allowed’ rule. After Tsukimi meets another woman and invites her to stay with her, she learns that this new women isn’t exactly what she appears to be.

Why You Should Care

The newest series to air in the Noitamina television block which has been the home of House of Five Leaves, The Tatami Galaxy and others this year which tells me this is going to be anything but typical.

Director Takahiro Omori will be, once again, teaming with composer Makato Yoshimori. The two have worked together previously on Baccano, Durarara, Gakuen Alice and Koi Kaze.

OVAs

ToHeart2 adnext
Studio: Chaos Project
Premiere Date: 9/23
Genre: Harem Comedy/Romance
Sequel

Story

Two side stories which will feature Manaka and Yuuki.

Why You Should Care

Along with the primary side stories, the DVD release also contains an additional side story for fans of the franchise to check out.

Cast and director remain the same from the last OVA that came out last year.

T.P. Sakura ~Time Paladin Sakura~ Jikū Bōeisen
Premiere Date: 10/28
Genre: Magical

Story

Bundled with the latest PSP game for the D.C. – Da Capo - franchise, this short spinoff focuses on the magical 3^rd grader Sakura.

Why You Should Care

If you’ve been following this franchise, I doubt you’re going to pass this one up. I’ve never actually checked out this series before but I might have to change that at some point in the near future.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun OVA
A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA
Studio: J.C. Staff
Premiere Date: 10/29
Genre: Action/Comedy
Sequel

Story

It’s only for 1 release but the level 5 ESPer Mikoto, her odd roommate Kuroko and their friends return for another adventure.

Why You Should Care

If you saw the first season (which apparently quite a few of you did) you’ve probably been waiting as anxiously as I have for this! All the cast and crew are the same and there’s even new theme songs from fripside and Elisa!

Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi
Studio: Tatsunoko Production/KMMJ Studios
Premiere Date:
Genre: Action
Adapted From: Manga

Story

A quartet of teenage superheroes (which includes the mayor of a small town), fight off criminals and evil that cause problems.

Why You Should Care

Unlike the TV series released in 2008, this OVA series will resemble the manga storyline much more closely.

Completely new crew and animation studio but the cast remains the same.

Tamayura
Studio: HAL Film Maker
Premiere Date: 11/25
Genre: Slice of Life

Story

A girl who loves to take photographs moves to the same town her father grew up in along the Seto inland sea. While there she starts to make new friends and learns to love her home.

Why You Should Care

Director Junichi Sato (Aria the Animation, Sailor Moon, Kaleido Star, Umi Monogatari) returns with his latest healing anime which means a very relaxing, easy going release.

Wow, this week was a lot busier than it seemed while it was actually happening! Lots of new anime has been announced for TV and DVD debuts including some popular series that people have been waiting very patiently for. The big story that rocked the blogosphere last night though was the announcement that Anime News Network is getting into the entertainment business by hiring Gia Manry to write their new casual news posts. I don’t have any anti ANN sentiments (anymore) and ANN has every right to expand their coverage but come on guys, you’re already the biggest anime website in the world! You can’t leave just a little corner of the industry untouched for the rest of us?

Guess that just means the rest of us are going to have to work that much harder to remain relevant/noticed… speaking of which, there’s new anime to talk about so let’s just get to it already!

NEW ANIME

Hakuouki Season 2: At the close of the first season, it was announced that historic bishie series Hakuouki will be getting a second season. The series centers on the often animated Shinsengumi after they take in a stray girl who has accidently found out about their quest to destroy demons while searching for her father. – I admit, I gave up on this series after 1 episode so I’m not looking forward to the second season.

Atashin’chi: Already compiled into 15 volumes, a TV series that ran for 7 years and 1 movie; the weekly comedy manga Atashin’chi will be getting a brand new 40 minute 3D theatrical movie. The slice of life series revolves around a high school girl and her family made up of a salary man father, homemaker mother and a younger brother. – This sounds remarkably like Mainichi Kaasan (though this one came first I know)except the focus is on the daughter instead of the mother. Eh, I’ll pass.

IS <Infinite Stratos> : The light novel series IS <Infinite Stratos> will be getting a TV anime adaptation sometime in the future. Yes, it’s another series that features a boy entering a school filled with nothing but females but this one is different! It has mechs! – Oh who am I kidding? It’s ANOTHER series centering on a teen surrounded by nothing but females in a school setting and I’m feeling a rant building inside of me.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun Season 2 OVA : Oooh, now THIS is news that I can get excited about! Different from the previously mentioned OVA being included with the art book, a brand new OVA series has been announced for To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun)! The first volume will hit shelves in Japan on 10/29! This is in addition to the second season of A Certain Magical Index (To Aru Majutsu no Index) which will be premiering in November so be ready for a very Misaka/Index heavy end of the year. – Just in time for my birthday, obviously they were thinking of me (yeahnotreally).

New DVD Releases: While this week was a little heavier than usual with anime announcements, there were also a few new DVD announcements this week worth your attention. Starting on this side of the Pacific, Funimation has finally launched an official website for the Bee Train produced series Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ which has confirmed a 2011 DVD release date. The series was one of the first that Funimation simulcast in 2009 but they’ve been completely silent on the title ever since it concluded.

Meanwhile, Bandai has managed to send out a press release that lists Haruhi Suzumiya Season 2 as a 4 disc box set. The season will include all of the episodes, a host of extras, English dubbing and a special bonus CD; all of which can be yours on August 17th.

Moving back over to Japan; a DVD exclusive episode was also announced this week for Ookiku Furikabutte Season 2 (Big Windup) along with the official release date for Bungaku Shoujo. The special episode 12.5 of Ookiku Furikabutte will be included with the DVD and Blu ray releases of Vol. 7 (no release date yet, sorry).

Meanwhile the movie about a girl who eats books (no seriously) will be hitting store shelves on August 25th. The first of three prequel OVAs will also be released in standard and limited editions starting tomorrow (June 25th). Finally wrapping up the DVD news, Durarara will be including a special unaired bonus epilogue episode on its final volume (set to be released on February 23rd).

New Sora no Woto Streams: Now, if all that weren’t enough for you to take in, half of a new episode of K-ON Joins the Army… I mean, Sora no Woto has begun streaming on the official website. The new episode is labeled as episode 7.5 and was included with the 4th volume released earlier this week in Japan. Another, previously announced, unaired episode will be included with the 7th volume which hits stores on September 22nd. – ANN has posted that Crunchyroll will be streaming the bonus episodes of Durarara and Sora no Woto but the email I just got from Crunchyroll states that the deal has yet to be finalized. I’ll let everyone know when I hear something a bit more solid.

FuniCon 4.0: Finally wrapping things up, Funimation has announced that it will be hosting it’s 4th online convention panel this Friday (June 25th) at 5pm Central (3pm Pacific). Sadly I’ll be at work during that time but if anything big happens I’ll be sure to post an update after I get home.

And that’s it for this week everyone! Hopefully next week I’ll be a better judge of how busy it’s going to be and won’t have to write a short novel when it comes time to tie up all the weekly loose ends.

So before I head into this week’s Catch Up post; recently I was thinking about something: What is old school anime? A question was brought up on a site asking fans to name their favorite ‘old school’ anime themes. A lot of the answers coming in were from titles that were less than a decade old which hardly qualifies as old school in my book. But then I didn’t fare much better as my choices were only a little older (Kiseki no Umi from Record of Lodoss War and the OP from Princess Nine if you were wondering). So what is old school to you? Is it a particular period and earlier such as anything from the 80’s? Is it more vague such as ‘anything that came out before I knew what anime was’? Share your answers in the comments or in an email to admin@otakureview.net as I’d really like to hear some thoughts on this. Anyways, on with the news…

New Anime of the Week

Gakuen Hakkenden: An anime adaptation has been announced for the boys love manga series, Gakuen Hakkenden. The series re-imagines the original novel, Nansou Satomi Hakkenden which takes place in the Warring States era. – Anyone read this? Because I’m getting visions of angsty bishie samurais dealing with high school drama.

Kuruneko 2nd Season: A new season of Kuruneko will premiere on July 3rd with actress Miki Nakatani taking over all of the voices for Satomi Kobayashi. The series of 5 minute episodes debuted last year and centers on a designer in her 30’s living alone with 5 cats. – Situational comedy about a not so crazy cat lady; hilarious!

Kuttsukiboshi: From the studio who brought us animated gems such as Training with Hinako and its stellar sequel, Sleeping with Hinako comes a brand new yuri themed release titled Kuttsukiboshi. Written, animated and directed entirely by Naoya Ishikawa; the first part will be released this summer at Comiket 78 with Part II scheduled to be released next summer. Details are slim right now but it seems that the story will be centering on two girls having a “risky” summer vacation. A trailer has already been posted to the official Primastea YouTube channel. – I don’t know, the animation doesn’t actually make this look that bad but I’m not getting my hopes up.

Princess Resurrection OAD: Already turned into an absolutely terrible TV series, the manga series Princess Resurrection is now scheduled to be getting a brand new OAD. Details will be announced with the new issue of Sirius Magazine on June 26th. – Terrible TV series. Horrible.

Seikon no Qwaser: Empress no Shozo: A sequel to breast feeding vampire series Seikon no Qwaser was accidently leaked by the official website earlier today. The announcement, which featured an image of the character Katja, was scheduled to be posted on the 20th and was quickly removed but not before the sharp eyed media had already seen it. More details will be available as soon as they’re done yelling at the guy who posted the news early.

Whew! Quite a bit of new anime this week though none of it is particularly exciting. That is unless you’re looking for a new yuri anime release and I don’t think we need to bashfully hide how many of us that applies to… right? Somebody? Anybody? Alright fine then, let’s move onto the other news of the week:

Yutaka Yamamoto Working on New TV Anime: So this isn’t being listed as under the new anime section because as of now, there isn’t really much to report beyond the headline. At a discussion event, Japanese sci-fi critic Tsunehiro Uno revealed that Yutaka Yamamoto (Kannagi, Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star) is currently working on a project with Hiroki Azuma and Mari Okada and that it will air either next year or the year after. So yeah… keep your eyes peeled for that in about a year or so. – Anyone else wondering why Uno was the one to reveal this randomly at a discussion panel and not anyone, you know, actually involved with it?

A Certain Scientific Railgun & Sekirei Get New DVD Eps: According to official store listings for each series, both A Certain Scientific Railgun and Sekirei will be getting special unaired episodes on DVD later this year. The new 13’th (intentional apostrophe) episode of Railgun, titled Entenda no Satsuei Model mo Raku ja Arimasen wa ne (Being a Photo Shoot Model Under the Sun Isn’t Easy, Is it?) will be bundled with the official visual book being released on July 24th.

The bonus episode of Sekirei will be included with the first volume of the second season being released on August 25th. The second season makes its TV premiere on July 4th.

Ah the chill in the air, lights going up everywhere, hearing the same fifty songs over and over again until you want to hang yourself which all means one thing. Tis the season for top ten lists! Everyone seems to be working on their own year end lists (I’ll probably even write one or two myself before the end of the month) and that includes 2ch.

The residents of 2ch have made their votes known and ranked their top 10 anime of the year 2009. For the most part, the list reads pretty much as you’d expect. The top five are dominated by quality (with only a dash of moe inserted by Saki) with the bottom half receiving a similarly varied result. I can’t really disagree with many of the rankings here; Bakemonogatari is an easy pick for number 1 though I might have replaced Kimi ni Todoke and TM8. The full ten are listed below the cut, numbers in parenthesis are the number of votes it got from fans.

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So you may have noticed that I missed a week and didn’t get the Highs and Lames posted last week. Ironically the feature is returning today looking much shorter than it usually does thanks to a fairly low traffic news week giving me more time to keep caught up. So in the spirit of that, let me fill up some space by telling you that my advance review of Evangelion 1.01 will be going up Monday morning and surprisingly it doesn’t even resemble any sort of long rant on the evils of the series. Have I filled up enough space yet? Yeah, that looks good enough. On with the updates!

Funimation Posts First Four Soul Eater Eps and Almost Nine Minutes of Eva: Over the weekend, Funimation gave fans a reason to stay inside on Friday the 13^th with new videos on their website and YouTube channel. In anticipation of the new February release date for box set 1, the first four episodes of Soul Eater are available in their dubbed format for fans to check out. The latest dark shonen series to take hold of fans, early feedback has seemed to be mostly positive. I haven’t seen the episodes yet myself but plan to later today so that I can finally have my own opinion about the series. The first box set will be released on February 9^th 2010.

For those of you who are still on the fence about the picking up the new Evangelion 1.01 movie, this is also your chance to check out the first eight and a half minutes streaming. Those minutes aren’t going to take you very deep into the movie but it will at least show you a good portion of the fourth angel attack leading up to the Shinji’s first fight inside Unit 01. The movie will hit store shelves on November 17^th (that’s this Tuesday) and is available for pre-order from Amazon and Right Stuf.

Moero Downhill Night Now Shipping: The physical copies have come in and are presumably now free of Scottish highland music meaning that JAST USA has begun shipping the street racing themed eroge Moero Downhill Night. The game was released under the Peach Princess label is available from Right Stuf and J-List (NSFW). Speaking of JAST, it’s been a couple of weeks since they’ve posted any new characters or artwork for the upcoming Demonbane. I know I wouldn’t mind seeing more at least. 

Kaito Reinya Gets Winter Anime: The gag manga series Kaito Reinya will be getting an anime series in January. The series centers on a young girl who works as a sandwich board wearer during the day but at night is a dynamic thief who always foils the hapless police who try to catch her. The lead character was inspired (and will be voiced by) Morning Musume member Reina Tanaka. Can you imagine if a series like this tried to make it on the air here? First there would be no choice but to aim it towards children and then parents would throw a fit on a young girl working as a thief in the night and getting away with it. Ah, good times.

1212 Entertainment to Work on Anime/Manga Adaptations: Anime Vice reported on a new production company that has opened recently called 1212 Entertainment. Headed up by Joshua Long (who is already attached to the upcoming live action Cowboy Bebop movie), the company intends to work primarily on adapting Japanese anime, manga and video games into live action features. Long didn’t have any titles that he could specifically mention right away but promises big updates in the future.

LAME

Gonzo Turns Off Phone Support: Living in Japan and got a problem with the Gonzo DVD you just picked up? Good luck getting someone on the phone to talk about it! Gonzo announced recently that starting in December they will no longer offer any sort of phone support for their DVD products. Fans will still be able to contact the company via their official website. It sounds like this is just another cost cutting measure meant to keep the studio open for even just a while longer. From my fan perspective though if you’re already to the point where even turning off an extra phone line might make a difference, it might be time to start inching towards your panic button.

STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED UNTIL NOW

Subtitles Beamed Into Your Freakin Eyes Live! : The future is now! Japan based NEC plans to release a product in 2011 which is going to revolutionize international conversation (providing that the things work like they are supposed to). Looking like a simple pair of glasses, a small screen sits comfortably in front of the wearer’s eye. It then listens to whatever foreign language is being spoken and translates them into subtitles on the little screen. It’s not exactly a universal translator and hardly anyone will be able to afford the initial 80K price tag but this is the first step towards awesome new toys coming to us in the next decade.

Single of the Week

 

Only My Railgun – Fripside

With every new season of anime, there are two things that I absolutely have to do. I have to find the one or two series out of the dozens that I actually want to watch all the way through and I have to find the new theme songs that I enjoy. This season, I was lucky when To aru Kagaku no Railgun came out and managed to fill both of those descriptions perfectly. Debuting at #3 on the singles chart, I have yet to skip over the opening theme and animation while watching this series. I’m sure I will eventually but right now, it’s getting constantly replayed on my iPod. The single is currently available from CDJapan.

New feature time! In addition to other regular and semi regular features on the blog, today is the birth of the newest, ‘Otaku Review Salutes…’ This one is different from other features as instead of the usual rants, these are going to be pictorial salutes to a new theme every month. Starting this month, the first week of each month will be the home for my top five picks from whatever theme or category gets chosen for the month. How do themes get picked? I make them up as I go along.  For the first edition, I wanted to do something fun so for the month of November Otaku Review salutes… lolis!

Whether you love them openly, like them secretly or just feel a little creepy whenever they invade the anime you watch, it’s hard to ignore the loli once she appears on your screen and love them or hate them a good loli character has saved more than one average series in the past (Divergence Eve anyone?). For me, a good loli character has to have a certain level of charm without being annoying. Cute catch phrases and charm points aside, a loli character are one of the harder characters to write well and one of the easiest to laugh at when they are created poorly. So below the cut (in no particular order) are my top picks for favorite loli characters from my adventures through anime.

Who are your favorite loli characters? Who do you think should have been on the list? Share your picks and links to images in the comments throughout the month!

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To aru Kagaku no Rail Gun
とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン）
A Certain Scientific Railgun
Studio: JC Staff
Premiere Date: 10/2
Genre: Magical Action

Taking the popular To aru Majutsu no Index sister team and putting them into a slice of life format, To aru Kagaku no Railgun opens the series confidently telling a variety of short stories revolving around the middle school psychic sisters Kuroko and Misaka. In Academy City, almost everyone is a student studying psychic powers. Kuroko is a level 4 at her middle school and member of the public safety force Judgment while Misaka is one of the most powerful level 5′s in the city. In the first episode, a series of yuri jokes will lead to the sisters going out on a friendly outing with two first years from their school.

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So, some of you may be aware that the Summer Comic Market (Comiket) is happening in Japan right now. YouTube clips are getting posted from the floor of the show and here is the first batch which involves mostly sequels below the cut. It is interesting that only one entirely new title is being featured while the rest are sequels. This has also been an incredibly busy week for series trailers and announcements as well so look for another big batch update in the coming hours.

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