Animanga in the News: 7/10 - 7/16

Here you will find a run down of this week's anime and manga news! This week, we've got famous Japanese manga artists currently located in Germany, two new movie trailers, three new films being scheduled to release this year, and an insecure mangaka who plagiarized & still won an award! Enjoy!



If you live in Germany or visiting Germany in the coming days, you should know that Nozomu Tamaki, the author and artist of 'Dance in the Vampire Bund' will be the guest of honor of the show called "Animagic 2011" in Bonn. The show will take place from 11th to the 18th of July 2011.

Nozomu Tamaki will sign autographs on Friday, July 15 from 17:30 to 19:30, Saturday, July 16 from 11:00 to 12:30 (30 minutes and 60 minutes drawing a signature), and finally Sunday, July 17 from 12:30 to 14:00 (30 minutes and 60 minutes drawing signature). A good opportunity to meet this author if you are in the area ... Also note the presence of Takashi Okazaki, the artist of 'Afro Samurai' will also be present.

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Monthly Shounen Gangan recently published the winner of the 18th Square Enix Manga Awards, a mangaka entitled "Compliance -Zettai Hourei Toshi-" by Matsuura Daiki. What they didn't know is that there were uncanny similarities to Ubukata Tou's "Mardock Scramble 104" that was compiled in "Mardock Fragments."

There was an uproar all over the internet as readers pointed out blatant plagiarism where Matsuura had lifted entire lines from "Mardock Scramble."



Some have even noted similarities in the logo of "Compliance" to that of "Metal Gear Solid," as well as similarities in the hairstyle of the protagonist to L in "Death Note."



Square Enix has posted an official apology on their website, as well as an apology from Matsuura himself.

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Based off the manga by Hiromu Arakawa, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos follows Ed and Al and an untold chapter about the lost holy land of Milos. The new film was directed by Kazuya Murata (assistant director on Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion), with the script by Yuichi Shinbo. Kenichi Konishu adapted Arakawa's original character designs with BONES at the helm for animation.

The film opened up in Japan last Saturday (July 2) and FUNimation previously announced that they had licensed the film for a North American release. Kazuya Murata (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion assistant director) is directing off a script by Yuichi Shinbo (Whiteout). Kenichi Konishi (Tokyo Godfathers) is adapting the character designs from Hiromu Arakawa's original manga at the studio BONES (Eureka Seven).

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Back in 1972, Maruyama co-founded the studio with Osamu Dezaki, Rintaro and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Since then, he recruited in some of the greatest talent to MADHOUSE and allowed them flourish - talents such as Satoshi Kon and Atsuko Ishizuka. Maruyama has also produced some of the greatest animes, such as Vampire Hunter D, Death Notes, Black Lagoon, Nana, Red Line and many many more.

Other guests include music acts Chemistry and KYLEE, voice actors Johnny Yong Bosch, Orine Fukushima, and Aniplex producer Atsuhiro Iwakami.

Check the full guest list here.

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“We want to buy a character that won’t harm Hello Kitty’s image,” Marketing manager Susumu Emori said. He declined to say if they're currently in talks with any candidates, but said that the company wanted to created a diversity among its character portfolio.

Emori noted that popular retail giant Walmart, which is now one of Sanrio's licensed retailers as of this year, may distribute Hello Kitty clothes, stationary and other merchandise. The merchandise will possibly reach about 3,000 out of the 4,427 stores in the U.S. by December.

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The app is available for free through the iTunes Store but is a beta and in Japanese only. It includes a clock, and an alarm. In addition the description promises that something will possibly happen on special days and on a band member's birthday. Fans may have to wait for a little while to see what happens as the next band member's birthday is Ritsu's which is on August 21st.
The film will open in Japan on December 3rd.

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The official website for the Berserk anime film project began streaming the first teaser trailer on Friday at 10:00 a.m. in Japan (Thursday at 9:00 p.m. EDT). The Movies Yahoo! Japan website began streaming a teaser trailer earlier on Thursday, but that version was restricted to viewers with Japanese IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.



The title of the first part, Berserk Ōgon Jidai-Hen I: Haō no Tamago (Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler), was revealed last week. The first film in the three-part retelling of the Golden Age arc of Kentaro Miura's manga will open in Japan next January.

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On the 9th of July, 00:29 hours, space shuttle Atlantis launched into space. It brought with it two photos from the live-action movie adaptation of Koyama Chuuya's "Uchuu Kyoudai" as well as an illustration of Mutta drawn by Koyama himself.

Space shuttle Apollo will be retiring after this mission, its final flight in the 30-year-long space shuttle project that had begun with its maiden voyage on the 12th of April, 1981. Up until now, bringing items unrelated to the mission at hand was not allowed, the 2009 Japanese Experiment Module "Kibou" for the International Space Station, has allowed for civilian utilization of space. Thus, just that little bit of space on Atlantis was granted for Mutta and Hibito to "board."

A representative from Lagrange, a company involved in space utilization, commented, "Even as we deal with the great impact of the disastrous earthquake, we wanted to load our dreams onto the final space shuttle and launch them together into space."

The filming for "Uchuu Kyoudai" ended on the 1st of July, and the pictures that were flown into space were taken that day. These pictures as well as Koyama's illustrations will return to Earth on the 20th of July, the same date that man first stepped on the surface of the moon 42 years ago.

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The concerts will be taking place over the course of four days: 8pm (7am EDT) on July 23rd. The Super Live concert will then be repeated twice a day at 1pm (midnight EDT), 8pm (7am EDT) on July 24th, 29th and 30th.

A venue had previously been created for the concerts, including special "guard training" and free screening of the anime within the Playstation Home. Macross Frontier will run until July 21st.

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