Animanga in the News: 8/28 - 9/2

Here you will find a run down of this week's anime and manga news! This week, we've got three new trailers, a Dragon Ball (anime) voice actor Junpei Takiguchi died, a new manga-App offered to Japan creators to distribute their works digitally and globally, and Bakuman's 2nd season getting aired on October! Enjoy!~


The Japanese company JapanManga Inc. is currently offering an application for Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone devices titled "JapanManga." The app itself allows both professional and amateur manga creators to have their manga or doujinshi translated into other languages and distributed digitally worldwide.

Currently, the app provides manga titles in Japanese, English, and Chinese, but the company also plans on offering works in French and Korean soon. Each title, once downloaded, can be read in any of the languages offered by sliding each manga page up or down. The company is currently streaming a 62-second video on how to use the app.

The company is providing the app so foreigners can read manga in their own language and to also aid Japanese students of other languages. The app currently has seventeen manga chapters available to download for free, and the company notes new manga will be made available on the app every three days. The app also allows readers to send a message directly to the manga creator after they are done reading the chapter.

JapanManga Inc. also plans to also release the app for both Apple's iPad device and Android devices.

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Voice actor and narrator Junpei Takiguchi passed away Monday, August 29 at 7:33 a.m. due to stomach cancer. He was 80 years old.

Takiguchi's best known voice-acting role was Dokurobee, the head of the Dorombo Gang in the Yatterman franchise from the first anime series to the 2008 remake and even Takashi Miike's live-action film. He was also Uranai Baba and other roles in the Dragon Ball series. From 1992 to July of this year, he narrated the popular railroad travel program Burari Tochū Gesha no Tabi on NTV for a total of 958 episodes.

Services will be held for relatives only at the request of the family.

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Bandai Visual's Lantis label began streaming a new 138-second "Horizon" promotional video for Manabu Ono and Sunrise's Kyōkai Senjō no Horizon (Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere) anime on its YouTube channel this weekend. The anime's official Twitter account revealed on Sunday that the series will have two ending theme songs: Ceui's "Stardust Melodia" and AiRI's "Pieces." Both will go on sale on November 9.

Minoru Kawakami's original school fantasy light novel series is set in a distant future when Japan is divided into feudal territories and conquered by other countries. There is a floating city named Musashi that is composed of eight ships in the skies. A war that will determine the fate of the world will be fought by students on the Musashi. The anime will premiere in Japan on October 1.

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The public broadcaster NHK opened a website on Monday for the second season of the Bakuman. television anime series, and the website revealed that the series will premiere on NHK's E-Tele channel on October 1 at 5:30 p.m.

The popular Japanese musical duo Kobukuro announced on Sunday that they are going on a temporary hiatus due to their health. The two members — 34-year-old Kentarō Kobuchi (pictured far right) and 34-year-old Junsuke Kuroda (pictured right) — made their announcement during the final concert of their nationwide tour at the Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena in Hokkaido. The duo made their major debut a decade ago in March of 2001. Kobukuro performed the opening theme songs for the television anime series Cross Game and Bakuman.

Kobuchi has been having trouble singing, especially during the high notes for which the duo is known, since the end of last year. When the symptoms did not improve, he underwent an examination by a medical specialist. The specialist diagnosed the problem as spasmodic laryngeal dysphonia, a neurological disorder common among people who use their voice in their professions. The specialist prescribed about half a year of rest for Kobuchi's throat to let it recuperate.

In addition, Kuroda's throat has also become fatigued, and his chronic back pain has worsened during the tour. Kuroda will also take the same half year to rest. Due to their hiatus, the duo's annual Fan Festa event at Wakayama, which was slated for November this year, has been cancelled. The duo will also not release an album or perform in the Tohoku region for now due to the difficulty in performing live or recording.

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The first Blu-ray Disc volume for the Working'!! television anime sequel will ship on November 2 with a bonus sequence. Working'!! is the second television series based on Karino Takatsu's Working!! manga, which revolves around a high school freshman named Sota Takanashi who works part-time among a restaurant's high-spirited, eccentric, yet cool staffers.



While the volume's content lists "bonus sequences for all episodes," the first volume only contains the first episode of the anime, "Popura no Iji." However, the first Blu-ray volume will also include a bonus CD with the full versions of the opening and ending theme songs, the 100-minute video of the "Wagnaria ~Natsu no Dai-Dai-Kanshasai ~2011" event, and character commentary by Karino.

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The "0th" limited-edition volume of Hiro Kiyohara's manga adaptation of Yukito Ayatsuji's horror novel Another will ship next May with "episode 0" of the anime version.

The bundled anime episode will not be aired and is not part of the television anime series that will premiere this January. It also depicts a part of the story that is not in the original novel. The all-new episode will depict the story of the character Mei Misaki leading up to the main anime series.

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The official blog of the Queen's Blade franchise began streaming a 108-second promotional video on Friday for the two original anime DVDs bundled with the Queen's Blade Premium Visual Books. The first Queen's Blade Premium Visual Book will ship on October 29, and Queen's Blade Rebellion Premium Visual Book will ship on January 28, 2012.



The all-new original anime project is set after the Queen's Blade competition of Hobby Japan's original games but before the Rebellion storyline. In particular, they feature the animated debut of the characters Annerotte (Aya Endo) and Siggy (Yu Kobayashi).

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