I’ve seen some strange Lego creations in my day, but this is one of the most unique. Modeled after the famous castle in Howl’s Moving Castle, this Lego construction is pretty substantial.

If you ask me though, I think it’s a little too well built. The castle from the anime was disheveled and broken up with parts falling off at times, and this lego model needs a little bit more chaos to be an accurate portrayal of the original. Nevertheless, it’s an impressive Lego feat. Read the rest of this entry »

Anime News Network has an article reporting that Japan will begin “automatically search for videos that were submitted without authorization and demand that site administrators delete the unauthorized materials.”

They will apparently only monitor a few bigger anime titles at first, but I expect that if this initiative bears fruit we could see it expand. There is also ambition to extend their reach to China, one of the worst piracy offenders. But as we all know, legal battles can be laborious at best in the Middle Kingdom. Read the rest of this entry »

Retro time! Touch is a 101-episode sports-drama anime based on the manga of the same name by Adachi Mitsuru. It also spawned three feature films, two TV specials and several live action versions in addition to the anime since its incarnation in 1981. Famous 80s j-pop star Iwasaki Yoshimi performed most of the openings and endings for the show, the first of which was recently covered by Bleach ending artist Younha.

The story of Touch revolves around twin brothers Kazuya and Tatsuya, and their childhood friend Minami. It’s generally accepted that Kazuya, a handsome, personable, intelligent up-and-coming baseball star who dreams of going to Koushien, will eventually end up engaged to Minami, to his twin brother’s annoyance. Tatsuya, despite his own hidden talents, consistently steps back to allow Kazuya to take the limelight, but little by little he finds himself unwilling to give up so much for Kazuya, especially when it comes to Minami. When he starts reaching for his own place in the world, though, everyone is going to sit up and take notice!

Touch is considered to be one of the best sports animes out there, and continues to be spoken of some 25 years after its first publication. It has never been licensed for North American distribution (there are fansubs available, however), but it has been dubbed into French, Spanish and Italian at points.

If you’re going to give Touch a look, though, start with the beginning of the anime – the movies take place much later on in the series, I’ve been warned, and will spoil some major plot points. Otherwise, enjoy!

So I hear the FUNimation Channel has opened its own little store on iTunes! It’s not available to me, since I have a Canadian version of the program installed, but maybe our American readers will be interested in checking this out. Supposedly, a single episode costs $1.99 (some of the featured shows are Samurai 7, Speed Grapher and Desert Punk) and they can be purchased singularly or in full seasons, viewable through iTunes, iPod Videos and if available, AppleTV. So far, FUNi is the first company to offer anime through iTunes.

If anyone decides to try it out, let us know how things went by using the comment box below!

Source: Newtype USA

Ah, I’ll admit I’ve been very neglectful of this blog. However, much of that squandered time was used on watching some excellent shows, so I’ll share a few of these with you before the season’s newest offerings start!

Based on the five-volume manga series of the same name, REC is a slice-of-life romantic comedy that ran for nine twelve-minute episodes in February and March of 2006. Salaryman Matsumaru is looking for a little romance in his life just as he meets Aka, an up-and-coming voice actress whose apartment complex just happens to have burnt to the ground. The sympathetic Matsumaru invites her to stay with him for as long as she needs, but he hasn’t bargained on the personality conflicts, sexual tension and cramped living Aka’s intrusion brings into his life. When her career really starts to take off, both need to decide where they want to take their relationship.

This is a relatively unknown series (any fans of Audrey Hepburn will appreciate Aka’s character, for sure) and quite short, but it’s a real gem, directed by Nakamura Ryutaro of Serial Experiments Lain, Sakura Wars and Kino no Tabi. It also features the catchiest opening theme song I’ve heard in a long while. No official English adaptation is planned at the moment (fansubs are around, however), but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone decided to pick it up for a DVD release.

Amazingly popular anime Naruto has been in filler mode for over a year now. For those who don’t know, filler episodes are made-up stories by the anime production company (although there can be some short fillers made by the manga-ka themselves) to allow the manga storyline some buffer before animating it. This has been controversial in the past, because the quality of the filler storyline is quite often very poor. In the case of the Rurouni Kenshin filler, the popularity of the show decreased to the point where it was cancelled and the animating of the next arc never went ahead.

This Naruto filler has been painful for me. It’s generally a single episode story, maybe extending to three episode long arcs, and are usually very stupid, ie: the punchline is that Naruto farts at the wrong time.

So it’s a huge relief to hear that the filler will end this coming spring! The next arc in the manga will have Naruto two and a half years older – now aged 15! The characters have been redesigned to show their new ages and it’s looking very awesome. This new Naruto will be called “Naruto: Shippuuden” (Naruto: The Hurricane Chronicles) and accompanying it will be yet another animated movie, later this year. Yay!

Seeing how no one’s commented on my last post yet, figured I’d move right along to other topics in the meantime, such as the brand-new Death Note anime that will be premiering today in Japan. The anime is pretty highly anticipated because the manga has been a top seller nearly since its incarnation in 2004 (12 tankubons are available in Japan, and 8 in North America to date), and boasts some recognized names in voice acting, with Yamaguchi Kappei playing L and Miyano Mamoru as Light. The anime is being produced by Madhouse and broadcast on NTV.

I won’t say too much since this is a title I’ll likely review over the next few weeks, but I figured a quick blurb about it would tip off or remind anyone wanting to catch the premiere. As of yet, no English adaptation is planned, but since the manga is available in North America, I wouldn’t count one out just yet.

NTV ‘S Death Note Site

Madhouse’s Death Note Site

Hi everyone! I’m back from a bit of a hiatus with plenty of plans for blog updates, but I’ve gotta know first - what do you guys want to hear? I’ve been meaning to make my posts a bit more personal, and I’ve always wondered if I should be concentrating more on the newest news in Japan or concentrating what’s making its way to this side of the pond, as most of our audience is English-speaking. It seems the more I talked about the latest manga the more people wanted to hear about Tokyopop’s release schedules instead! So this is a call to you guys, the readers, to find out what it is you want to see in this column. I’ll still be making my series-info posts and reporting on major events like which huge show has just been licensed, but I’d like to mix it up a bit. If you have something you’d like covered – anything at all anime related – comment and I’ll do my best to deliver!

Kiba is a fantasy anime by director Hiroshi Koujina about Zed, a 15-year-old boy who lives in a place called “Calm”. He is frustrated by his current situation in life and feels that somewhere out there is a place where he can live more fully. One day, at the invitation of a mysterious wind, Zed dives into a space-time portal, seeking the “answer” that might be there. Riding on the wind, he is transported to a war-torn world where magic users called “Shard Casters” fight endlessly with each other, using magical crystals. With the power of the Shards, the Shard Casters are able to use magic and control monsters called “Spirits”. Fascinated by that power, Zed aims to become a Shard Caster. However, he still doesn’t know that residing in his body is “Amil Gaul”, a mighty Spirit with the power to influence the world’s future.

Five episodes have aired as of this writing. I just saw this show over the weekend and thought it was fantastic; definitely worth checking out!

Links:

Official Site

Source: Wikipedia

Musashi, a new anime series from the creator of Lupin the 3rd, will premiere April 9 on Japan’s BS-i network.

More info if and when I get it!

Source: Anime News Network