FUNimation has announced an indefinite hiatus on the continued release of Dragon Ball Z on Blu-ray. The “Level 2.1″ disc scheduled for release on March 27 will not be released. FUNimation has explained, “Due to technical challenges of restoring from the original film frame by frame, we are unable to continue these releases by way of this process.” FUNimation expects to research more practical and commercially viable means of remastering the Dragon Ball Z anime for future Blu-ray release.
I suppose this is going to push the after-market value of the domestic Dragon Boxes even higher than they already are, unless FUNi reverses its memoriam decision and begins reprinting them.
NIS America has announced its acquisition of Sunrise’s current slice-of-life gag comedy TV series Daily Lives of High School Boys (Danshi Kokosei no Nichijo). Specifics of the release have not been confirmed yet. The series premiered on January 9.
In September 2011, Viz Media announced that it had contracted marketing & placement company T3 Networks Inc. to market Viz anime titles to television networks and film distributors. T3 Networks Inc. announced earlier this week that it had ceased all business operations, explaining, “We lack the sales, personnel and additional resources essential to continue operations as a business.”
Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe is helming the anime adaptation of Yuki Kodama’s drama manga Sakamichi no Apollon. The April Noitamina series tells the story of an introverted intellectual high school boy in the 1960s who finds common ground through jazz music with his new school’s female class president and a delinquent boy. The manga was the winner of the “Best General Manga” category in this year’s prestigious Shogakukan Manga Awards. The anime from studio MAPPA/Tezuka Productions is an all-star production reuniting director Watanabe with Cowboy Bebop music composer Yoko Kanno. Nobuteru Yuki (Escaflowne, Paradise Kiss) provides character design. Ayako Katoh (Chihayafuru) & Yuuko Kakihara (Persona 4 the Animation) are co-writing the scripts. Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Hyoge Mono) is serving as animation director. Shinichiro Watanabe hasn’t directed a full anime production since helming his “Baby Blue” segment of the 2007 anthology film Genius Party.
Can’t say that I immediately like the CG animation, but this is already assured of being one of 2012′s most acclaimed and respected shows simply based on its pedigree. It is certainly nice to see Noitamina getting back to unconventional adult oriented anime.
Gekkan Flowers Magazine has formally announced the development of an anime based on Aloha Higa’s lady’s comedy manga Shirokuma Café (Polar Bear Café). The slice-of-life gag comedy revolves around the animal patrons that visit a Café run by a polar bear. The manga premiered in 2006 and has three collected volumes. The anime adaptation will premiere in April.
Nico Nico Douga has announced plans to simulcast next month’s Black Rock Shooter television series online with subtitles in eight languages. The show will premiere on the Fuji TV network’s Noitamina programming block on February 2. The show will debut online at 11:00pm on February 3 for online viewers in the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, Monaco, Switzerland, Andorra, Italy, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Singapore.
The teaser trailer for AIC’s TV series adaptation of Ishiki’s four-koma gag manga Acchi Kocchi (Place to Place) originally released last month is now streaming on the series’ official website. The daily life school comedy will premiere this April.
Kadokawa has released a streaming ad for the Japanese home video release of the Sora no Otoshimono: Tokei-jikake no Angeloid motion picture which confirms that the anime franchise is getting a third TV series.
Weekly Shonen Sunday magazne will formally announce next week that the 47th collected volume of Shun Matsuena’s Shijo Saikyo no Deshi Kenichi (History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi) will be released in May in a limited edition including the franchise’s second OVA. The first OAD will be released on March 14, bundled with limited edition copies of the 46th volume of the manga. Unlike the 50 episode TV series from 2006 that was animated by TMS Entertainment, the OVAs will be animated by Brains Base (Kurenai, Baccano).
Strictly speaking, these anime releases are actually OADs, but Shogakukan identifies them as “OVA” format.
Developer Imageepoch and distributor Bandai/Namco Games have released a streaming teaser trailer for the upcoming Playstation 3 animation RPG Tokitowa. The game’s FMV sequences along with character movement and battle animation is entirely animated in HD by studio Satelight (Aquarion, Macross F).
