The full-length trailer is out for the upcoming Japanese anime adaptation of Mary Pope Osborne's mega-popular Magic Tree House books. The film will open in Japan on January 7, 2012, and I suspect it will turn up in American theaters eventually. This series has sold more than 92 million books worldwide, so it seems like it would be well-worth the cost of dubbing... unless, of course, there's already a competing English-language edition in the works*.
Speaking of classic manga adaptations, AnimeNewsNetwork has announced that the 1982 animated film The Last Unicorn is getting a theatrical re-release in 2012 and 2013, and author Peter S. Beagle is planning to attend every event honoring the film based on his 1968 fantasy novel.
Wow, The Last Unicorn must be a bigger money-maker than I realized. If your local indie movie theater could use a piece of 80s-nostalgia pie, you might want to suggest they book this movie (and Mr. Beagle's presence) early.
Imagine a Japanese Nancy Drew paired with a demonic Sherlock Holmes
I was delighted to discover that the deeply weird horror/mystery/comedy anime Neuro has turned up on Hulu. I don't think the manga is available in English and it's not the kind of show that comes with a built-in audience, so I'm not sure what inspired them to pick the series up, but the next time you're stuck at home because of a sick day or whatever, I totally recommend it. (Well, as long as the sick day isn't because you're nauseated. Neuro can get kind of gross.)
A quick reminder for disorganized Rumiko Takahashi fans: Inuyasha: the Final Act will begin airing in Japan on October 3rd.
People who watched the original TV series on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim or have been catching up on the episodes via Hulu (like me) might not realize that the anime, despite being a zillion seasons long, ended well before the manga. This new series will cover the story featured in volumes 36 through 56 of the manga, and will feature the same production staff and voice cast.
AnimeNewsNetwork informs me that someone is making an anime version of Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, the super-popular shojo manga by Hiro Fujiwara. This series, while cute, is one of those stories that kicked off with a fun idea (the heroine is a boy-hating, play-by-the-rules student council member who secretly works at a maid café), but lets it drag on way, way too long—we're at nine volumes and counting.
Speaking of free stuff (always our favorite price!), VIZ Media is offering a free iTunes download of the first episode of the anime Honey and Clover (based on the super-popular shojo manga of the same name by Chica Umino), now through August 31st.
They've cast the threemain characters of the upcoming CW adaptation of L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries.
The anime adaptation of Skip Beat is winding down. People always want another season of popular series... and in this case, I have no idea how they're going to resolve even half of their plot lines in the time remaining. Another season seems downright necessary.
If you can read Japanese, manga greats Rumiko Takahashi and Mitsuru Adachi created a one-shot manga short story called "My Sweet Sunday" in celebration of the Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine's 50th anniversary, and you can read it online for free until May 24.
And the good news keeps coming! Viz Media has announced that they've picked up the new, as-yet-unnamed Rumiko Takahashi title (as expected), AND they've licensed Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box, a 70-page-long, two-installment story featuring Rui Hanazawa in the lead role.
This is the second HYD "epilogue" written by series creator Yoko Kamio (the first one came out in 2006), and--as far as I know, anyway--it hasn't been scanlated yet, so I'm pretty stoked to read it.
It is a day of wondrous anime- and manga-related news, dear readers. At its New York Comic Con panel, North American publisher Yen Press announced on Saturday that it has picked up the license for the sixth volume of Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba&!.
Yen Press already endeared themselves to me by rescuing the many titles abandoned by ICE Kunion, and now this! That's it: they are definitely going on the Wordcandy Christmas card list this year....
AnimeNewsNetwork has announced that there will be a third "season" of the anime adaptation of Tomoko Ninomiya's Nodame Cantabile manga, set to air in fall '09. I'm totally obsessed with the currently-airing "Paris" arc, so I'm thrilled to hear this series will continue!
Why don't we ever get to see animated versions of, like, Paradise Lost?
According to AnimeNewsNetwork, anime director Osamu Dezaki is planning to debut his anime Genji Monogatari Sen-nen-ki Genji ("The Tale of Genji: A Millennium-Old Journal") on Japanese television in January.
Originally, this adaptation planned to focus on Waki Yamato's historical shōjo manga Asakiyumemishi - The Tale of Genji (another a retelling of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji), but Dezaki apparently decided to go straight to the source. His anime will celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of this classic Japanese novel.
Anime distributor Funimation is currently streaming the first two episodes of the Ouran High School Host Club anime adaptation AND the first four episodes of the second season of School Rumble. I think they switch titles every Friday, so, uh, watch 'em while they're hot.
Please note that while I totally loved the Ouran anime, and the basic storyline is appropriate for all ages, it does feature a lot of very shojo-manga-specific humor that might get lost in translation. ("Brotherly love" jokes, etc.)
Gyah. I've watched and enjoyed a lot of shojo-manga-based anime in the past two years, but very few series have done an even halfway-decent job of replicating their source material. (For every series like Ouran High School Host Club, Nodame Cantabile or Gakuen Alice, which did a nice job with pacing, artwork, and soundtrack, there's a Special A or The Wallflower, both of which, while entertaining, were extremely poorly made.
I'd like to think that the upcoming Skip Beat anime will fall into the first category, but the quality of the artwork in this trailer has me worried:
AnimeNewsNetwork has an interesting article up about The Masque of the Black Death, the last script co-written by legendary director Akira Kurosawa before his death in 1998. The script is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story about a prince's attempt to escape the plague while holding a masquerade, and will made into an animated film with a planned theatrical release date of 2010.
Note: Doesn't the Gris Grimly book (right) look awesome? What a great fit of author and illustrator.
The promo video for the upcoming Nodame Cantabile Paris arc anime is up. It's all in Japanese, but that's okay--Nodame's awesomeness needs no translation:
This series will premiere in Japan on October 9th, making it a personal birthday gift from Tomoko Ninomiya to Wordcandy staff member Nathan (or so I choose to believe).
I'm hearing that the anime adaptation of the popular manga Gakuen Alice has been licensed here in the U.S. I enjoyed this half-cute, half-creepy 26-episode series about a spunky 10-year-old who follows her genius best friend to a school for children with bizarre gifts, and I'm sure the fine people at Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment will find it very profitable (even if that "Right Stuf" spelling does give me a headache).
Gakuen Alice will be released as a DVD box set with Japanese audio and English-language subtitles in 2009.
AnimeNewsNetwork.com is reporting that Nodame Cantabile (one of my favorite series) is going on hiatus until October, as series creator Tomoko Ninomiya is going on maternity leave. However, the fine people at the Nodame livejournal community The S Orchestra read the announcement a little differently: according to several posters, Ms. Ninomiya will be writing Nodame until the October issue, and then may take a break after that.
I'm hoping the livejournal camp is correct. Obviously, I want Ms. Ninomiya to have a safe, comfortable pregnancy and delivery... but that last chapter was a cruel, cruel cliffhanger, and I really don't want to wait until November to find out what happens next!
I can't believe that I'm only NOW learning that there's going to be a sequel to the anime adaptation of Tomoko Ninomiya's Nodame Cantabile, covering her "Paris" story arc. I love this series (the live action was pretty good too, and God knows the actor who played Chiaki was super smokin' hot, but I generally prefer over-the-top characterization in anime form), so this is awesome news.
But if any of you are are Nodame newbies, here's a glimpse of one of my favorite scenes. The dialogue is in Japanese, but all you really need to know is that Nodame is the girl in the mongoose suit, and Chiaki is the stunned-looking guy in the audience. She's a gifted but very, very strange pianist, and he's an equally gifted but massively uptight conductor-in-training:
AnimeNewsNetwork has confirmed that the Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit anime series will premiere on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on August 24.
Moribito is an adaptation if Nahoko Uehashi's fantasy novel of the same name about a wandering spearwoman named Balsa. Scholastic published an English edition of this novel last month, and I'm looking forward to reading it--it gives off a vaguely Inuyasha-ish historical fantasy vibe, and I really like the cover.
