Anime News Service - August 18th-20th Anime News

8-20-06 (11:19PM EDT)---- Code Geass Cast

New info on the joint CLAMP and Sunrise TV series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. The main cast has been revealed as follows: Lelouch: Fukuyama Jun, Suuki Suzaku Sakurai Takahiro, C.C.: Yukana.

8-20-06 (11:12PM EDT)---- Latest Galaxy Angel Anime Gets Title

Also coming out of the C3xHOBBY CharaHobby 2006 show in Japan this weekend the newest Galaxy Angel TV series officially got a title. "Galaxy Angel II: Lune Angel Tai [corps] Special Stage" debuts a 2:00 on TV Tokyo Sunday, October 1st. A special 50 second preview was shown to event goers. Animation will be produced by Satellite.

8-20-06 (9:46PM EDT)---- Giant Robo Coming To Manga

Gearing up for Giant Robo's return to animation, Akita Shoten's Champion Red Magazine will begin serializing the new manga "Giant Robo Chikyuu Ga Moe Kotogotoki Ru Nichi" (The Day The Earth Burnt Out) from their November issue. The plot looks to be a retelling of the OVA. Original Story by series creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Screenplay by Yasuhiro Imagawa, Manga Art by Toda Yasunari (Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Astray, Scryed).

8-20-06 (9:29PM EDT)---- Gunbuster Movie Site Opens

GAINAX has launched their official website for their "Top Wo Narae 2! & Top Wo Narae! Gattai Gekijouban" (united theater version). The Tokyo Anime Center will host the world premiere on October 1st. The screening will occur in the facility's Akiba 3D Theater. Nationwide distribution will follow. Tickets are 1,800 Yen for the TAC shows which run through Oct. 29th. The movie poster and other information can be seen at: www.gainax.co.jp/anime/top_movie/

8-20-06 (8:10PM EDT)---- Tomino To Attend USA Gundam Zeta Movie Premiere

As part of the 42nd annual Chicago International Film Festival held October 5-19 The Japan America Society Of Chicago will host the USA premiere of Director Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise's Gundam Zeta Movies 1-3. The whole triology will screen back-to-back in a whole-day Gundam extravaganza. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino will be coming to the USA and be on hand before each screening to introduce his works and after each screening for a Q&A session. The location will be the Thorne Auditorium 375 East Chicago Street Date and Time: October 7, 2006 Admission: TBD Additionally, original series Gundam Movies 1-3 will be shown along with F91 and Char's Counterattack. Tominio-san will appear at a special lecture at Columbia College on October 6th with other panel members Hiroaki Inoue, Laura Miller and Michael Raine of The University of Chicago. The discussion will cover the socioeconomic impact of anime in Japan.

8-20-06 (4:25AM EDT)---- Noein DVD 1 Specs From Anchor Bay

Special Thanks to Daniel Zelter who sends in word that Anchor Bay Enertainment mentions the following specs and extras are included in Manga's October 17 release of Noein: Length: 157 mins [5 episodes] Ratio: 1.78:1/16x9 Audio: English: Dolby Surround 2.0, English: Dolby Surround 5.1, Japanese: Dolby Surround 2.0, Japanese: Dolby Surround 5.1 Widescreen Presentation Alternate Opening #1 Alternate Opening #2 Easter Eggs (ADR bloopers) On Location with Japanese voice actor and director Original Japanese promos Textless Ending Textless Opening SRP: $19.98

8-19-06 (11:34PM EDT)---- ANIMAX Hits Malaysia / American Connections

The Malaysia Star reports the southeast Asian country of Malaysia will soon get Sony's all anime ANIMAX channel via Astro on Aug 31st. The Animax programme menu is an interesting mix of classic and current anime: eternal favourites the likes of Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball, and more recent ones such as the hilarious, bishonen-heavy God Save Our King! (Kyou Kara Maoh!), Harry Potter-like Alice Academy, romantic comedy Honey and Clover, supernatural mystery Lunar Legend Tsukihime, action adventure R.O.D. the TV, and Gunslinger Girl, which is about child assassins. An ANIMAX representative said the majority of anime being brought over is "fresh out of Japan" and some of the anime shown on Animax are not even released in the United States yet. "We have a very good relationship with the Japanese animators and producers. Animax was launched in Japan in 1998, that's eight years of history. The Japanese do know that we're very passionate and serious about animation. Therefore, we are given quite a good window to get the shows before other countries like America. And of course, we pay good money". As for an answer to the question from Malaysian otaku as to the dubbing of the anime to be screened the answer is yes and no. Yes, most of the anime will be dubbed into English by US dubbing artists. (If the anime has been released in the United States, Animax will use the US dubbed version, but since many of the anime aired over Animax are brand new, Animax does some of the dubbing itself.) However, hardcore fans will be pleased to know that selected anime programmes during the prime time belt of 6pm to 8.30pm will have dual audio capabilities. That means one has the choice between two audio tracks: English or Japanese. All the anime will carry Bahasa Malaysia subtitles. Gearing up for the fullout launch The Star has also done a more in-depth look at some of the animation to be shown on the channel.

8-19-06 (11:05PM EDT)---- Armor Hunter Mellowlink DVDs Coming

In the early / mid-1990's a fire is said to have struck a Sunrise Animation warehouse containing the master copies for a number of Armored Trooper Votoms OVA's. Among the destroyed was believed to be 1988's 12 part Armor Hunter Mellowlink (Kikou Ryohei Merowlink). Although an initial LD and VHS release occured starting in November '88 followed by a LDBOX in '95 for many years it's been said the loss of these masters would prevent a future DVD release in Japan. Likewise, American companies who have looked at putting the series out in the USA have mentioned at conventions that after inquring to the studio these destroyed masters would prevent licensing. Following today's new VOTOMS series news Sunrise has renewed their www.votoms.net website mentioning Mellowlink will be coming to DVD afterall. VAP has launched an official site for the coming December 6th DVD BOX release. Featuring box art by Moriyasu Taniguchi and cover art by Takahiro Kimura, it will in include all 12 episodes on 3 discs as well as a limited edition 10cm Mellowlink figure with 32 points of articulation and a 48-page booklet. Retail is 15,750 Yen.

8-19-06 (7:42PM EDT)---- Sneak DiGi Charat Sequel Stuns TBS Anime Festa

A surprise OVA sequel based on Broccoli's popular DiGi Charat characters was unveiled at the TBS Anime Festa this weekend. Titled Winter Garden, the J.C. Staff production features a grown up Dejiko and Puchiko 10 years following past animations. Totally catching show goers off guard, the first half of the OVA was shown at Saturday's event, without any prior announcement. Touted as a pure lovestory with some of the usual slapstic comedy elements, the story occurs on Christmas Eve where the 2 main characters work at a cake shop/cafe. But the surprise comes in the fact that the anime had anything to do at all with DiGi Charat was missed by all but the most ardent fans until the ending credits when Broccoli's name rolled onto the screen. Puchiko's sassy voice supplied by Sawashiro Miyuki might have been a clear give away. Sanada Asami (Dejiko) performs the ending theme, a cover of a Matsuda Seiko song. Details such as possible release dates are currently unknown but from credits much of the staff and cast has been discerned: Original Concept: Broccoli, Director: Hiroaki Sakurai, Original Characters: Koge Donbo, Character Designs: Shinya Hasegawa (Revolutionary Girl Utena), Art Design: Shichiro Kobayashi, Music: Instant Cytron (Goro Nagase and Tomoko Kataoka), Music Director: Nakano Tooru, Sound Production: HALF H-P STUDIO, Animation Production: JC Staff, Digiko: Sanada Asami, Puchiko: Sawashiro Miyuki, Kimura Takurou: Irino Jiyuu, Aiko: Sasaki Nozomi.

8-19-06 (7:32PM EDT)---- Rocket Girl To Be Animated

Also announced at the C3xHOBBY CharaHobby 2006 show on Saturday at the Happinet Booth, Housuke Nojiri's Seinen/Shounen, Sci-fi light novel series, Rocket Girl will be animated. The original self titled novel was published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko in 1995 follwed by "MAGIUS Rocket Girl RPG" in the same year via publisher Fujimi Dragon Book. A new novel series will be published by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko starting in October 2006. Regarding the anime, while the project is progressing many details are undecided. Animate TV has a promotinal poster.

8-19-06 (7:00PM EDT)---- NYT Full Metal Alchemist Movie Piece

The New York Times has a large article on the opening of FUNimation's Full Metal Alchemist Movie in the USA.

8-19-06 (6:39PM EDT)---- New VOTOMS Coming In 2007

At this weekend's C3xHOBBY CharaHobby 2006 show at Makuhari Messe Director Ryosuke Takahashi and writer Toru Nozaki (Gaogaigar, Gasaraki) were on hand for an Armored Trooper Votoms talk event. They confirmed reports which first surfaced last year surrounding a revival of Sunrise and Takahashi's gritty war opus. The director mentioned bringing on staff who had worked with him in the past for the project. No other details were mentioned although as ANS reported in October of last year, the November, 2005 issue of Nikkei Characters magazine relayed some additional staff for the planned series: Production by Steve Tsukada with Character Designs by Norio Shioyama and Mecha Designs by Kunio Okawara. The magazine itself serialized Takahashi's latest VOTOMS novelization "Votoms Ichibunno Ichi". You can view a promo image, heralding the new work that was at the CharaHobby show here.

8-19-06 (5:57PM EDT)---- Venus Versus Virus To Be Animated

Based on the Atsushi Suzumi manga serialized in Dengeki Gao from the No. 8 issue, released on 6/27/05, Venus Versus Virus will be adapted to an anime TV series. Shinichiro Kimura (Hand Maid May, Cosplay Complex, Burnup Excess) will direct the Studio Lark produced animation. The story follows regular schoolgirl Sumire who's had the ability to see ghosts since a young age. She tells friends and family about this fact and they just dismiss it, thinking she's a liar. A chance encounter with a broach flying out of nowhere, a monster and gothloli clad monster killer named Ruchia leaves her with a life changing decision to use her ability and fight against these "virsuses" feeding upon the human race.

8-19-06 (5:50PM EDT)---- Oh! My Goddess Coming To PS2

Marvelous Interactive will market an AA Megami Sama (Oh My Godess) PS2 game to go on sale in Japan this winter.

8-19-06 (5:47PM EDT)---- Rozen Maiden Special

This winter an animated Rozen Maiden special will broadcast titled "Rozen Maiden Orbelture".

8-19-06 (5:30AM EDT)---- Site Updates

Our 970 member strong Yahoo Groups Mailing List is now active and open for discussion again. Our

feed is also back to being updated daily.

8-18-06 (11:11PM EDT)---- Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo At Sitges

Studio Madhouse's Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo directed by Mamoru Hosoda will compte in the ANIMA'T section at the Spanish 39th Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia held October 6-15, 2006.

8-18-06 (10:23PM EDT)---- Moe Themed Anime DVD Authoring Software

Japanese based Pegasys of the Marubeni Infotec Corp. has announced their new "MOE-PEGEnc" animation DVD authoring software will go on sale from September 8th, 2006. The package comes with several programs with filters and templates (Moe theme - Robot theme - Kids / Family theme) exclusively tailored for creating anime DVDs. At the core is the Pegasys "TMPGEnc Advance MPEG1/2 Encode Engine". Through the "XDVD" compression output 1.5-2 times the usual amount of animation can be collected. Acceptable input filetypes include Windows XP MCE / AVI/MPEG/WMV. Price information is not available. For Windows 2000 Professional/XP OS. A flash demo of the programs in action can be seen at the above link.

8-18-06 (9:15PM EDT)---- Internet Video Distributor Issues FCC Complaint

Digital Producer is running an associated press article which says Internet video distributor VDC Corp., owner of VDC.com, complained in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission this week that it is having difficulty securing carriage deals with established cable networks. In his letter to FCC chairman Kevin Martin, Wolf alleges that some cable networks are balking at licensing their networks to VDC.com because of "external influence, mainly from the large [cable] MSOs." "Smaller channels like Anime Network, for example, have been afraid to license their channel to us, for fear of being thrown off the large cable systems. In this environment, it is already hard enough for smaller networks to become viable, it is unfair that their distribution options are limited because of pressure from large cable operators," Wolf wrote in the Aug. 14 letter to Martin.

8-18-06 (9:15PM EDT)---- Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas Serial Starts

Shiori Teshirogi's Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas manga storyline will begin running in Akita Shoten's Shonen Champion No. 39 on sale August 24th in Japan.

8-18-06 (9:05PM EDT)---- Voice Actor Tony Jay Dies

Animation World News reports Deep-voiced actor Tony Jay, whose many roles included villainous Judge Frollo in Disney's 1996 THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, died Sunday following microsurgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor from his lungs. His only anime voice role was as the narrator of the English-language 2004 dub of Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 anime classic NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WINDS.

8-18-06 (8:36PM EDT)---- Victorian Romance Emma Season 2

New details are out on the second Victorian Romance Emma TV anime series. According to the September issue of Enterbrain's "Comic Beam" which serializes the manga the plot of the new season will cover the "Chapter of Molders" this time around. Staff and director are said to be the same as the former work. Further details are expected to be announced in future issues of the magazine.

8-18-06 (7:09PM EDT)---- AIR Blu-Ray Master Clarified As Standard Definition

Following online questions and negative reviews last week on the visual quality of a High Defintion Blu-Ray demo version of the AIR TV animation running in Ginza, Pony Canyon has released some new official details regarding the specs of final version to be released in November. The video master being used to produce the set has been clarified as standard definition. It's said the image quality has been improved from the version of AIR that was broadcast on BS-i. There is also a quote on the site: "It is different from a usual improvement change, a special animation algorithm is used for the encoding." The latest image processing technology was said to be used. The average bit rate is said to be a steady 40 Mbps and a HD master was created for a new opening sequence to be inlcuded in the set.

8-18-06 (6:48PM EDT)---- My-Otome Zwei Manga

Akita Shoten's Champion Red will run a 18 page preserial manga adaptation of Sunrise's My-Otome Zwei OVA illustrated by Abeno Chako (Chrome Breaker) in the December edition. It goes on sale in Japan on 10/19. Additionally a new non-oav based manga serial "extra chapter" by artist Kenetsu Satou and writr Hiroyuki Yoshino will start in Weekly Shonen Champion this autumn.

8-18-06 (6:08PM EDT)---- Sky Girls Site

JC Staff have launched their preview site for their upcoming Sky Girls anime collaboration with Konami.

8-18-06 (5:59PM EDT)---- Byosoku 5 Centimeter Site Update

Yahoo's official website for breakout anime director Makoto Shinkai's Byosoku 5 Centimeter "A chain of short stories about their distance" has updated their image gallery and desktop background selections.

8-18-06 (5:37PM EDT)---- Appleseed Showing In Zimbabwe

All Africa reports animation buffs are in for a real treat at this year's ZIFF as the festival has a collection on animated films for all ages. The feature animation is the Japanese anime hit Appleseed. The participation of this film has been made possible with support from the Embassy of Japan and the Japan Foundation. The Japan Foundation is a specialist organisation for international cultural exchange and has been committed to bringing Japanese films to ZIFF since 2004. As a leading producer of animation in the world, Japan has exported numerous films that have gone on to do very well around the world including the Academy Award nominated Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

8-18-06 (5:30PM EDT)---- "Anime Fans The New Trekkies"

Burnaby Newsleader covers Anime Evolution 2006, going on at Simon Fraser University in Canada August 19-21. They brand Japanese anime fans as the "New Trekkies".

8-18-06 (5:26PM EDT)---- Anime Screening In Vietnam

Vietnam News mentions Anime fans in Ha Noi will be flocking to the screening of nine award-winning Japanese animated films running on August 20-23. The screenings are part of the Japan Festival 2006 taking place across Viet Nam starting today. Those to be shown include Nitabo, Winter Days, Astro Boy, Shin-Chan, Pokemon, Yu Yu Hakusyo, Yu-Gi-Oh, The Prince of Tennis and Bakegyamon. The animated film festival will take place at the National Cinema Centre, 87 Lang Ha Street.

8-18-06 (1:40AM EDT)---- Comike 70 Cosplay Photos

What characters are hot to cosplay this summer in Japan? NTT's eg has posted their gallery of Cosplay images from Comike 70 held last week in Tokyo.

8-17-06 (8:22PM EDT)---- Teppan Shoujo Akane Drama

Aoki Tateo and Ariga Hitoshi's manga Teppan Shoujo Akane, serialized by Shonen Gahosha's Young King will become the basis of a new TV drama to air on TBS at 9:00 from October 15th, 2006. Maki Horikita will star in the lead role of a young Tokyo-based Teppan "iron plate" cook who travels Japan in search of her missing father. In the process of touring the country, she uses the unique ingredients found in various areas to serve up many out-of-this-world dishes that will surprise viewers every week. In an Iron Chef sort of twist she must battle other chefs through culinary competition. The original manga ran for one year from April last year through June and two volumes are currently on the market. While not a very popular comic at all, TBS has siezed on the storyline as it has become known as an underground masterpiece.

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