Posts Tagged “News”

Remember the misreported story last month about Best Buy getting rid of their anime section? Well, details of the company’s actual plans were revealed yesterday (saw via ANN) and they involve ranking of titles and clearance sales next month.

Once I read the words “A-list”, “B-list”, and “C-list” in the ANN article, I immediately thought back to two previous posts I had written in response to ADV Films’ John Ledford using similar terminology to describe how marketable different anime series are. In this case, the A-list titles will be “around 20 core anime SKUs”, according to ICv2, and would be carried in all locations; those would presumably include Afro Samurai, Naruto, and Dragon Ball Z. The B-list series (”over 100 anime SKUs”) would appear in about half of their 1,000+ stores and the C-listers would only show up in their top 200 stores nationwide as part of “large scale anime assortments”. So something like Baccano! may fall into the B range while Save Me! Lollipop and Indian Summer would likely fall under the C category. A reminder: these categorizations are based on expected marketability and not directly reflective of the quality of the series themselves.

I perused the list of stores ICv2 posted (ANN’s copy has store numbers) that will have 50% off clearance sales March 1st-21st and found two that I sometimes frequent – one in Vacaville and the other in Natomas – are on it so I’ll try to stop by both those in early March to see what’s available (and snag any good stuff) as well as do before and after shots of their respective sections. The ones in Citrus Heights and Arden Fair (Sacramento) weren’t listed so I’m assuming both will continue to carry A’s & some B’s.

There was no indication of a reduction in their online offerings but there may be a decline in how many copies they order as an entire retailer. This move will result in fewer total sales of anime in their B&M stores and pushing more people toward other online-only outfits but it may negligible for the company since the stores that are contracting their shelf space weren’t making an impact anyway. I hope many of those vacated spaces aren’t replaced by plastic instruments…

So just to recap: only the best-selling stores will carry the widest breadth of anime, the middle will carry a more moderate amount, and the least will have significantly pared-down sections – and there will be clearance sales next month.

A 14-year-old Tecumseh, Oklahoma, girl who has been missing since Monday – Deborah Kalai Fourzan – is reportedly traveling to California with a once family friend James “Jim” Reimer and stopping at various anime conventions along the way, starting this weekend with Ikkicon in Austin, Texas.

Some elements that give this story an unsavory twist are that Reimer sent a number of explicit text messages to the girl’s phone, which her mother turned over to police and were used as evidence for a current warrant for “using text messaging to solicit sexual contact with a minor”, and that the convenience store where Reimer works was reported a cash theft Monday afternoon of several thousand dollars. (KOCO)

Authorities advise anyone who sees the two individuals not to approach them, but to contact the Austin Police Department at 1-405-598-9305. Fourzan is 5″2 and weighs 120 pounds. She has blue eyes, pierced ears, a birthmark on the back of her arm, and blond hair, but she may dye her hair black and also use her middle name Kalai. Reimer is 5″10 and weighs 280 pounds. He has brown hair, blue eyes, and a beard, but he may shave his beard off.

Despite the man’s previous behavior, there is a small and possibly irrational part of me – the devil’s advocate part – that thinks maybe Fourzan wanted to go to this journey with him and, less likely, has some feelings for Reimer. (Remember that Reimer is 40 and Fourzan is 14.) I simply wanted to float that possibility even though it may not turn out to be the case. Seriously though, I hope she does not get harmed before this case gets resolved.

Considering the area between Texas and California and looking at AnimeCons.com, possible conventions in their travels include Animation On Display in San Francisco, CA, on February 14-15 (if they can drive to SF in a week); Mizuumi-Con in San Antonio, TX, on March 21 (don’t know why they would go a short distance southwest over a month’s time); Animeland Wasabi in Denver, CO, on March 27-29; AniZona in Phoenix, AZ, on April 9-12; Anime Matsuri in The Woodlands, TX, on April 10-12; KamiKazeCon in Houston, TX, in April 10-12; and FanimeCon in San Jose, CA, on May 22-25.

Scott Green at Ain’t It Cool News passed along that Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers, which is being distributed by Sony’s Stage 6 Films label, was granted a PG-13 rating by the MPAA Ratings Board for “material involving violence, some sexual content and smoking”. The next big steps are deciding on a release date and casting dub actors, if any.

Just to compare, here are what some other recent anime films to hit the big screen were rated: Paprika (2006; Sony Pictures Classics) – R for “violent and sexual images”; Howl’s Moving Castle (2005; Buena Vista) – PG for “frightening images and brief mild language”; Appleseed (2004; Arcangelo Entertainment) – R for “some violence”

I’d also like to mention that IGN has finished their countdown of the top 100 animated series (that aired on American television) and fifteen anime made the list, reconstructions of series included. Evangelion cracked the top ten at number 10 – the rest were Cowboy Bebop (#14), Transformers (#23), Speed Racer (#29), Robotech (#34), Naruto (#38), Battle of the Planets [aka Gatchaman] (#44), Death Note (#51), Pokemon (#70), Gundam Wing (#73), Voltron (#76), Dragon Ball Z (#78), Astro Boy (#86), Afro Samurai (#90), and Fullmetal Alchemist (#95).

I was browsing around online to see how the covers from the first Haruhi novel and the manga’s first volume differed visually (they’re similar but not close enough to cause confusion) and saw that Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon all currently list Volume 1 of the Lucky Star manga with a release date of May 15th, a price point of $9.99, and a page count of 150. Both its standard ISBN of 1604961120 and ISBN-13 of 9781604961126 checked out when I cross-checked them on ISBNdb.com.

Granted, Bandai has not officially announced anything nor have they sent solicitations to specialty retailers like TRSI or yet but the date looks right since it would be two months after the sixth and final DVD volume comes out on March 17th. I would expect them to announce this date along some more details at NYCC next month during either their general panel (Saturday Feb. 7th 12:30 PM-1:30 PM) or their Lucky Star panel (Sat. 1:45PM-2:45PM).

Here’s the product description that may show up on the back cover:

From the studio that brought you The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya! When eating a chocolate cornet which end do you begin with, the top or the bottom? Which side is the top and which is the bottom? For that matter, what is a chocolate cornet? The proper way to eat pastries is only one of the many every day occurrences explored by the girls of Ms. Kuroi’s class. Meet Konata, an athletic and intelligent girl too dedicated to her favorite primetime animes to excel in anything but otaku culture; Miyuki, the cute, bespectacled living example of Moe with an encyclopedic knowledge of all subjects; Kagami, the bitter-sweet, tough but shy sister; Tsukasa, a kind but air-headed klutz. Witness this study in the human condition as our heroines explore the unexplored in questioning the ordinary!

FUNimation confirmed today that it has sent out a batch of cease-and-desist notices to a number of fansub groups regarding D.Gray-man, Katekyo Hitman Reborn (which had been previously targeted), Soul Eater, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, Mushi-Uta, Spice & Wolf, and Seto no Hanayome on behalf of Japanese studios. (Those groups got their C&D’s on Friday and include Rumbel, Tadashi, and Nyoron among others.) FUNimation originally licensed the first 51 episodes of D.Gray-man when it announced rights in May and I thought that was it but I guess we can assume they now hold claim to the second season and therefore the whole lot of 103 episodes. Or they may have expanded that license and I simply didn’t notice.

Like any other cease-and-desist notice, this latest action by FUNimation does not necessary mean that they will distribute any of the series that don’t involve Innocence as a source of supernatural powers. Kadokawa Pictures USA previously announced an in-house license for the first season of Spice & Wolf at Anime Expo but whether that also encompasses the yet-to-air second season is unclear as, well, it hasn’t been broadcast yet. I doubt it does. Also: in June, KP USA included Mushi-Uta among 11 series they wanted AnimeSuki to stop listing.

Viz’s announcement to stream quicksubs of Naruto Shippuden builds on the momentum of Gonzo’s same-day releases back in March and July and Funimation’s “just a few weeks behind” arrangement last month. I did some back-of-an-envelope projections of how all the parts might work when this plan gets implemented in January.

First let’s look at the “within a week of broadcast” component: Viz said in its release that “beginning January 15th the latest episode…will be available for free viewing…within days of its original airdate in Japan” with subsequent quicksubs appearing on a Thursday schedule. As of this posting, 84 episodes of Shippuden have aired so far in Japan, the latest premiere occurring on Nov. 13th. Taking into account that the regular schedule may take a break for Christmas and New Years’ Day, as those holidays fall on Thursdays this year, episode 90 would likely be the ‘latest episode’ once the 15th rolls around unless the translations for #91 are already ready in time of compete against raw viewership (and Crunchyroll’s base of paid subscribers).

(Projected Japanese Shippuden airdates:
11/13 – #84; 11/20 – #85; 11/27 – #86; 12/4 – #87; 12/11 – #88; 12/18 – #89; 1/8 – #90; 1/15 – #91)

The other half of this budding online initiative is a batch availability of eight subtitled episodes each Friday beginning on Jan. 2nd “until the series eventually catches up to the current third [sic] season”. (Shippuden is currently in its fourth twenty-six episode season but who’s counting?) That eight episodes a week rate means that the batch containing #89 through #96 would debut online on March 20th. The use of the word ‘until’ implies that the batch uploads would halt after the catch has been completed so I hope Viz keeps their more advanced episodes online all along, meaning that the first 109 episodes will be online by then (#99 would’ve been posted the day before on Mar. 19th).

I figured I would track when the regular series might finish its initial run on American TV. This past Saturday, November 15th, saw the airing of episode 203 out of 220 on Cartoon Network so if the pace of one episode per week continues, episode 220 would air on March 14th, 2009. The accelerated “11 volumes in three months” manga release schedule laid out by Viz confirms what was suspected a few weeks ago based on Simon & Schuster and Amazon listings.

There is no question that this is a smart move by Viz in order to divert views and traffic away from Dattebayo and scanlation sites in order, as ICv2 described, “to garner the promotional and advertising benefit of distributing new episodes on its own site, rather than ceding it to pirate third party sites” as well as to stave off any ill effects from scan-hosting sites by tightening the gap between Japanese and American manga volume releases.

[Update 11/21: Dattebayo has said they would stop fansubbing Naruto once the freely available, legally subtitled episodes begin appearing online on January 15th out of respect that "Viz and Crunchyroll have gotten their acts together and are trying something new". They will still continue to work on Bleach.]

According to Mania (formerly AnimeOnDVD), Bandai has delayed the release of Ghost Slayers Ayashi Part 1 and Clamp School Detectives Complete Collection by two months, meaning both are now scheduled to come out February 3rd instead of December 2nd. There are other minor, one- or two-week delays for more prominent titles like Code Geass Part 2 and vol. 5/vol. 6, Lucky Star v. 4, and Gurren Lagann Part 1 and vol. 1/vol. 2.

Some of you may recall the reissuing of Clamp School Detectives on DVD was kind of a surprise announcement during Bandai’s Fanime 2007 panel. Oddly enough, this is not the first delay for Ghost Slayers Ayashi since being announced at Otakon 2007: September 9th was the date given for these releases during the company’s panel at this year’s Fanime.

Bandai has not given an official explanation for the delays but I suspect ensuring the quality of the authoring process could be a factor given frequent reports of defective discs, like a AOD member who complained in August about receiving at least 12 defective discs from Bandai releases since late 2007, and of course that one week from last January where many of their releases had issues playing correctly. Better to delay the releases to fix any emerging problems than to risk worsening their reputation among heavy buyers. Another factor may have been increased attention in working on Gundam 00, which is debuting on Sci-Fi Channel’s Ani-Monday block on the 24th.

I received my first legitimate press release in the site’s inbox this evening and it did not seem exciting at first. It was sent by the The New Media Group and announced a collaborative content-sharing service to launch this December with Nico Nico Douga where Nico users will be able to view content from 20 “official providers” including as TNMG’s IPTV platform World On-Demand, MTV Japan, Avex, Bandai, and Livedoor. Wait, Bandai?!?

Yes, the anime and tokusatsu producer-slash-distributor is listed as one of many partners involved in this project (unclear if it is specifically Bandai Visual, Sunrise or both) so I have a little excuse to write about this. Frankly, there aren’t many juicy details except that Nico reportedly has 9.3 million Japanese (and secret foreign?) subscribers and commands either 2.3 or 2.9 million daily unique users, depending on whom from TNMG is trying to impress people. Simon Godden, President of e-learning service Teacher Tom Japan, thinks “this [deal] is a home run” so it must be great, right? Um, it guess it would be nice if you wanted to leave streams of comments on top of official music videos and foreign content as well as the swath of Touhou, IM@S, and Miku MADs that currently inhabit the site.

At any rate, you can read the entire release after the jump to get a few more optimistic quotes from executives focused on expanding the global reach of their managed brands.
Read the rest of this entry »

ICv2 is reporting that 4Kids has let its Pretty Cure license lapse and revert back to Toei 31 months after they gained the US rights and did absolutely bupkis with it, despite planning to debut it on their TV block in fall 2006. Now the series sits in a zone where it has not been officially released yet but has lost a lot of momentum that it had when the initial license was announced. I’m not sure who is waiting for a DVD release but in the meantime, you can try out the first two episodes via Direct2Drive – something I did a few months ago and found them to be entertaining but not fantastic.

In its February 2006 story about its 4Kids license, ICv2 said that the series “has a chance to become the first magical girl anime series since Sailor Moon to achieve popularity here in the States” (did Cardcaptors flop?) and I suppose it still could if it’s marketed the right way. By the way, if you want some recommendations of other mahou shoujo series, Chris Fritz at the Pink Sylphide wrote a post about his favorites earlier this week.

Variety is reporting that Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B have acquired the rights to adapt Mark Crilley’s four-volume OEL manga Miki Falls into a movie with Sera Gamble, a producer and writer for “Supernatural”, attached to the project as the scriptwriter. Crilley is best known for his Akiko series of comic books targeted at 9- to 12-year-olds; all four volumes of this latest series are being published on HarperCollins’ HarperTeen label.

Miki Falls‘ beginning plot is that Miki Yoshida is starting her last year of high school when she falls in love with new boy in town Hiro, except that he doesn’t want anything to do with her or her town. She decides to be his friend but she finds out he is a Deliverer, someone who monitors couples about to break up and snatch their before it dies to pass onto another couple. Deliverers are forbidden from falling in love but Miki ignores that rule and acts on her ambitions. The series takes place over the seasons of a year so it would seem natural for the film to start in spring and end in winter.

Greg McElhatton from Read About Comics’ reviewed of the first volume, Spring, last July and described it as “well-rounded” with a “very soft, relaxing art style” that could appeal to readers outside its intended audience. All Ages Reads, whose review crew is a teacher and her grade-school daughters, also liked the series and recommended it for the 10-and-up crowd as the romance is confined to kissing. In September, Brigid at MangaBlog published the full version of an interview she conducted with Crilley in July 2007 for a Publisher’s Weekly article (that’s where I got the story description).