Anime Studio Gonzo is developing The Midnight Animals, a series of CG anime shorts that will stream on the Hikari TV internet service beginning this August. The anime shorts will revolve around African animals with diva-personalities that gather at night to “wax poetic.” The voice cast will feature the Japanese drag queen celebrity trio Hoshikuzu Scat, celebrity drag queen Bubreena, and gay celebrity and choreographer Kaba-chan.
Source: Anime News Network
A live-action TV series adaptation of Ryo Koshino’s ongoing medical manga Machi-Isha Jumbo!! (Town Doctor Jumbo) will premiere on the NTV network on July 4. The manga revolves around a physically imposing doctor nicknamed “Jumbo.” EXILE pop-group member Daisuke Maki will star as “Dr. Jumbo.” Shiori Kutsuna will play nurse Hichou.
Source: Anime News Network
Media Blasters has announced its acquisition of translation & distribution rights to the 2003 Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito (The Traveller Yami, the Hat, and the Book) television series. The 13-episode adaptation of the adult PC game by developer Root revolves around a quest to find Eve, the caretaker of the universe’s great library, as she travels through the worlds contained in books. The show has been widely recognized for its heavy yuri overtones. Media Blasters has not yet announced language or format options for its domestic release.
Miami, Florida-based Kansai Club Publishing has opened its homepage announcing its forthcoming English language publication of Osamu Tezuka’s short manga anthology The Crater. The manga will be published in a single hardcover printing of 2,000 numbered copies initially available only to Kickstarter contributors.
Good luck to Andrew & Yuka. I’ll make a pledge today.
The homepage for next February’s Buddha 2: Tezuka Osamu no Buddha ~Owarinaki Tabi~ movie has released an English subtitled 10-minute long trailer. The film is the second of Toei & Tezuka Productions’ planned three films adaptating the late Osamu Tezuka’s 1972-1983 manga biography of Siddhartha Buddha.
Source: Anime News Network
The first TV spot for the anime adaptation of Ruri Miyahara’s four-panel school comedy manga Renai Lab has appeared online. The Love Lab slice-of-life bishoujo television series will be animated by studio Dogakobo (Yuruyuri, GJ Club) with Masahiko Ohta (Yuruyuri, Mitsudomoe) directing, Takashi Aoshima (Yuruyuri, Mitsudomoe) writing, and Chiaki Nakajima (Yuruyuri) providing animation character design. The show will tentatively premiere in July.
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese publisher Kodansha has formally announced word that Tsutomu Nihei’s current mecha action manga series Knights of Sidonia (Sidonia no Kishi) will be getting an anime adaptation. Nihei launched the ongoing manga in 2009. Vertical currently publishes the manga in English. Nihei’s 1997 cyberpunk manga Blame! was adapted into a 2003 web anime and a 2007 OVA.
Source: Anime News Network
The advertising obi found on new copies of the Japanese BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger novelization confirms that an anime adaptation of the fighting game franchise has been green-lit. Arc System Works’ BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger 2D fighting game debuted in Japanese arcades in 2008
Source: Anime News Network
Japanese publisher Shogakukan has formally announced word that Koroku Inumura’s 2009 light novel series Toaru Hikushi e no Koiuta (A Love Song to a Certain Airship Pilot) will be getting an anime adaptation. The five-volume wartime romance story occurs in the same setting as Inumura’s 2008 light novel Toaru Hikushi e no Tsuioku (Recollection of a Certain Airship Pilot), which was adapted into an anime feature film in 2011; however, the characters in “Koiuta” and “Tsuioku” are unrelated.
Source: Anime News Network
A series of monthly two-minute anime films based on Yuusuke Kozaki’s surreal animal comedy manga Donyatsu will begin screening before features in T-Joy Cinemas on June 1. The ongoing Donyatsu manga that premiered in December 2011 features animal/snack-food hybrids that live in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district after all humans have mysteriously disappeared. Anime studio Gathering (PUCHIM@S, Tono to Issho) will produce the theatrical shorts with Mankyu (PUCHIM@S, Tono to Issho) directing.
Source: Anime News Network
