Animanga in the News: 9/17 - 9/24

This week, we've got four new anime trailers, two new cg trailers, one new live-action movie trailer, 'Bleach' anime about its next opening singers, Crunchyroll sue YouTube Users for copyright complaints, Shueisha starts semi-monthly manga Magazine for adults, and Japanese animation market's percentage growth! Enjoy!~

As production continues on Berserk: Golden Age I – Egg of the King, a pair of new TV ads have surfaced to promote the 2012 movie that works as the re-telling of the manga but at a seemingly accelerated rate if you go by some of the images here. Of course, it’s been years since I last read the manga so my mind may be playing tricks on me at this point.

The Twitter account for the Berserk franchise announced on Friday that the official site is streaming two television commercials for the 36th manga volume and the Berserk Ōgon Jidai-Hen I: Haō no Tamago (Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler) film. The "Kiss Kiss" and "Sore Dokoro Ja ne!" commercials began airing in Japan at Friday at midnight.

Kentarou Miura's 36th manga volume is shipping on Friday, and the first film in the three-part retelling of the Golden Age arc of Kentaro Miura's manga will open in Japan next January. Digital Manga Publishing and Dark Horse Comics are publishing the 35th manga volume this week.

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The official website for Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki (Friends: Naki of Monster Island) began streaming two more promotional videos for the 3D computer-animated film. A previous Japanese-language trailer began streaming on the site in May.



The live-action Space Battleship Yamato film's Takashi Yamazaki is writing and directing the film. SMAP band member Shingo Katori will star as Naki, a red oni (Japanese demon/ogre). Veteran voice actor Kouichi Yamadera (Cowboy Bebop's Spike, Evangelion's Kaji) will play a blue oni named Gunjō. Japanese R&B singer Misia will sing Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" as the movie's theme song.

The film will open in Japan in stereoscopic 3D and traditional 2D versions on December 17.

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Kenji Kamiyama, the director behind such anime as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eden of the East, and Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit, has begun production on a new anime feature. He will personally reveal his latest project at an announcement event at Tokyo's Shinjuku Wald 9 theater on October 4.

Kamiyama will screen the newest footage from the project, and staff members from the project will join him onstage. Besides the unveiling of Kamiyama's new project, the event will begin with a screening of Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. Solid State Society 3D, this year's stereoscopic 3D update of Kamiyama's 2006 film.

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The four-member band SCANDAL confirmed on Friday that the band's new single "Harukaze" will be the next opening theme song for Bleach. The television anime series will begin using the song on October 11, the same day that the anime will enter the Shinigami Daikō Shōshitsu arc from Tite Kubo's original manga.

The all-female band already performed "Shōjo S," 10th opening theme song for Bleach, in 2009. SCANDAL also contributed theme songs for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto. Not only did the band work on the soundtrack for the Loups-Garous anime film, but the members also appeared in animated form within the film itself.

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The digital theatrical distributor Cinedigm began streaming an English-dubbed trailer for the Pokémon the Movie: White - Victini and Zekrom (Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Victini to Kuroki Eiyū Zekrom) film on Monday. The film is one of this year's two films in the Pokémon anime franchise. Cinedigm will handle the film's two-day theatrical release in more that 300 theaters in the United States on December 3-4.

The second 2011 film, Pokémon the Movie: Black — Victini and Reshiram (Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Victini to Shiroki Eiyū Reshiram), will also debut in December.

This year's two Pokémon films have collectively grossed over $53 million in Japan since they opened there on July 16. The newest Pokémon television series, Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes!, has been airing in Japan since last year.

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Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo have issued a lawsuit against 13 YouTube uploaders for allegedly illegal distribution of anime episodes, according to a copyright infringement complaint filed on May 11 and served between July and September. Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo are seeking reparation for "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money" because of the defendants' allegedly unauthorized copying, uploading, and distributing via YouTube of multiple Naruto, Naruto Shippūden, and Bleach episodes.

Based on their YouTube subscriber information, the defendants reside in the United States, Japan, Canada, Denmark, and Hungary. Crunchyroll maintains its main offices in California (as does YouTube), so the suit was filed as a U.S. copyright violation in the Northern District Court of California. For the purposes of the lawsuit, TV Tokyo is giving Crunchyroll legal permission to act on its behalf in order to "permanently remove the illegal uploads of infringing parties from file-sharing services and to obtain legal relief against infringers."

The plaintiff companies' claim is that they "lose a customer opportunity" each time the uploading parties illegally disseminated anime episodes for which TV Tokyo and Crunchyroll hold legal distribution rights. TV Tokyo holds the broadcasting rights for Naruto, Naruto Shippūden, and Bleach. Crunchyroll holds online streaming rights for the mentioned episodes, including worldwide exclusive streaming rights for the first week after the original Japanese broadcast.



Crunchyroll issued a takedown notice to YouTube to remove the offending episodes. YouTube complied with the request, and the episodes involved in the suit have since been removed from the site. Under YouTube's video removal procedures, counter notifications were sent to the defendants, and the defendants each responded that the videos were removed due to a "mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled." However, Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo claim that because the defendants knew they did not have legal rights to the videos, they were engaging in willful copyright infringement.

Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo want the defendants to cease illegal uploading, destroy all illegal copies, and refrain from further unauthorized uploading. Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo are also seeking court costs and damages caused by the worldwide YouTube streaming.

On August 18, the Northern District Court of California granted a motion to allow the involved sides to pursue settlement outside of court if they so choose. The first date for the Crunchyroll and TV Tokyo representatives to meet with the defendants and a judge is set for November 18. According to documents filed on Wednesday, September 21, summons were served to three of the defendants on July 11, July 21, and September 20.

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The official Japanese website for the Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen) began streaming a 32-second trailer on Thursday, and the site also announced that the film will open in 12 Japanese theaters on February 11.

The film adapts BioWare and Electronic Arts' fantasy action role-playing game franchise Dragon Age. It was originally slated to ship on home video in North America this year, but has since been delayed to next year. Director Fumihiko Sori and the studio Oxybot are working on the computer-animated project after previously collaborating on Vexille - 2077 Isolation of Japan and To. Jeffrey Scott wrote the script, and Daisuke Nakayama (Tweeny Witches) designed the characters. Tetsuya Takahashi (Appleseed , Halo Legends, To, Resident Evil: Degeneration) composed the music, while Koji Kasamatsu (Afro Samurai, Appleseed, Halo Legends, To) served as the sound designer.

Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker will be the first title from Funimation's Original Entertainment team and its co-production initiative. The film's executive producers are BioWare's Executive Producer Mark Darrah and Creative Director Mike Laidlaw, as well as FUNimation's president and CEO Gen Fukunaga and Director of Original Entertainment Chris Moujaes. T.O Entertainment, Inc. is distributing the film in Japan.

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Manga artist Jae-Ho Yoon will launch a spinoff manga series based on Dall-Young Lim's Freezing manga series in the 34th volume of Kill Time Communication's Comic Valkyrie magazine on Tuesday. The new series will center on the future student body president Chiffon Fairchild when she was a first-year student.

Comic Valkyrie has been running Lim and Kwang-Hyun Kim's original Freezing manga since 2006. The story revolves around Kazuya, a boy who lost his sister in humankind's fight against beings from another dimension. He enrolls in Genetics, a military academy for combat training against the dimensional beings. There, a group of girls known as "Pandora" prepare to fight the unknown enemy.

The original manga inspired a television anime series that ran from January to March of this year. Funimation streamed the anime in the United States as it aired in Japan.

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Odakyu Electric Railway announced on Thursday that it will no longer have a train decorated with Doraemon and other manga characters due to Tokyo's ban on large outdoors advertising. Starting in October, the service will instead run a train with a standard paint scheme on the line currently served by the "Odakyu F-Train."

The line began service on August 3 to celebrate the September 3 opening of the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum. However, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government contacted Odakyu since it considered the train's manga illustrations as advertising for the museum. The government explained that the train violated the law on outdoors advertising that exceeds a standard size without a permit application.

Odakyu said that the law violation was unintentional, and it apologized to its customers and those involved for the inconvenience.

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The North American anime distributor Media Blasters announced on its Facebook page on Friday its English dub cast for its upcoming DVD release of the Bakuman television anime series.

Media Blasters' AnimeWorks label will start releasing the anime on DVD this November with the first seven episodes. Media Blasters also confirmed it will release Bakuman 2, which is slated to air on October 1.

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This year's 44th issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine is announcing on Wednesday that an anime adaptation of the Code:Breaker manga by Akimine Kamijyō (Samurai Deeper Kyo) has been green-lit. Del Rey Manga published two volumes of the manga in North America last year (before Kodansha USA took over Del Rey's manga titles).

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The official website for the Fate/Zero television anime series began streaming the fifth of seven commercials on Friday. The 15-second commercial centers around the master Kayneth and his servant Lancer. The fifth commercial premiered on Japanese airwaves last Saturday, while the sixth commercial with Kariya Matō and Berserker premiered on Saturday.

The anime adapts the prequel novel by Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Phantom - The Animation, Blassreiter) to Type-Moon's Fate/stay night visual novel software. The story is set a decade before Fate/stay night and reveals the 4th Holy Grail War that sets the stage for the war in the software. Director Ei Aoki (Hourou Musuko, Ga-Rei: Zero, Girls Bravo), the anime studio ufotable, and composer Yuki Kajiura (Madoka Magica, .hack, Kara no Kyoukai) are all involved in this anime, which will premiere this October.

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This year's 20th issue of Shueisha's Business Jump magazine is announcing on Wednesday that Shueisha will launch a new semi-monthly seinen manga magazine called Grand Jump in November. According to Shueisha, the magazine "for liberated adults."

Shueisha will provide more details on the new magazine on October 5 in Business Jump magazine's combined 21st/22nd issue — the last issue of the magazine. Shueisha had announced in July that it would end both Business Jump and another semi-monthly seinen magazine called Super Jump, but would launch a new semi-monthly magazine this fall.

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The Animation Market Analysis Project of Japan's Media Development Research Institute (MDRI) reported on September 9 that the market for domestic and foreign animation in Japan grew 5.8% to 229.0 billion yen (about US$2.55 billion) in 2010. This was the second annual increase in a row, after the 1.6% increase the previous year.

The same research firm had reported that the market peaked at 241.5 billion yen (US$2.53 billion) in 2006, before dipping to 230.2 billion yen (US$2.41 billion) in 2007 and again to 212.9 billion yen (US$2.26 billion) — a 7.5% drop — in 2008. (Due to the fluctuating currency exchange rate, the decrease or increase in U.S. dollars is often different than it is in the original yen.)



These figures cover both Japanese animated works and foreign animated works that were sold or distributed within Japan. The results include theatrical films, home video sales and rentals, television animation, and online distribution via computers, Internet Protocol Television, and mobile phones.

MRI noted that the data reflects the significant contributions that hit animated films have made to the overall market in recent years. Titles such as the Japanese anime film Arrietty (9.25 billion yen) and the American animated film Toy Story 3 (10.8 billion yen) lifted the overall box office total higher in 2010.

By contrast, the number of animated television works continued its general downward trend from its peak in 2006, as the over-the-air television market overall grew smaller. On the other hand, the number of viewers for animation channels on satellite and cable television grew, as did the market for pay television.

While overall home video sales contracted from the previous year, sales for animated works grew. Animated works accounted for about 60 percent of the money spent on Blu-ray Discs last year and the first half of this year.

The market for paid distribution on personal computers showed little change, but the mobile anime distribution market grew. The combined market for animation titles via computers and mobile devices was still a small slice of the overall market.

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The Japanese movie website Cinema Today began streaming a trailer for Gokudō Meshi, a live-action film based on Shigeru Tsuchiyama's gourmet manga of the same name last week.



Gokudō Meshi, which can be translated as "Criminals" Meals," is a human comedy about five Japanese prisoners who reminisce about the most delicious meals they ever had in the past. Directed by Tetsu Maeda, the film's stars include Tasuku Nagaoka, Masanobu Katsumura, Akaji Maro, and Motoki Ochiai.

The Gokudō Meshi manga began running in Futabasha's Manga Action anthology in 2006. The eighth compiled volume in the manga series will ship in Japan on September 20. Tsuchiyama's other food-related manga include Kenka Ramen ("Fighting Ramen") and Shokking ("Food King").

The Gokudō Meshi live-action film opens in Japan on Friday.

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Manga Entertainment UK is gearing up for the November 14th release of the very popular film Redline with a new promo out today that starts a touch slow but then just dives hard into it. It’s almost old school style advertising in a way when it comes to anime, but a lot of that comes from the fact that it’s just a gorgeous racing piece that is so visually arresting that you can’t help but to get sucked into it. The British anime distributor Manga Entertainment began streaming a 114-second trailer for Takeshi Koike and MADHOUSE's anime film Redline on Monday.

The film follows the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. A daredevil driver named JP gets voted into the race, but government opposition to the race could put his life at even greater risk. The racer must put everything on the line and keep his enemies at bay in order to survive the final race.

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Masahiro Itosugi, original creator of Aki Sora, launched the serial manga Uwakoi in the November issue of Shōnen Gahosha's Monthly Young King magazine on Tuesday. That issue also includes a clear folder featuring Uwakoi's Yuno in a bathing suit.

The love story follows a young man named Yukiteru who gets caught in a risky love triangle. Yukiteru and his childhood friend Yuno have a history together, but Yukiteru's female friend Rena complicates the relationship. She has strange secrets, and the love triangle may not resolve the way anyone expects.

Itosugi's adult romance manga Aki Sora has received two original video animation adaptations. Itosugi also wrote the story and drew the art for the manga A Wish of My Sister.

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The international television channel Animax Asia announced on Saturday that it will show the Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- anime series within a day of the anime's airing in Japan.

The first episode will premiere in Japan on October 14 at 26:00 (effectively October 15 at 2:00 a.m.) after an introductory special the week before. The first episode will then premiere in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, India/South Asia, and other regions on October 15 at 8:00 p.m. local time. It will also run in Taiwan at 10:30 p.m. that same day.

Director Koichi Chigira, character designer Range Murata, and production designer Makoto Kobayashi are all returning from the first Last Exile anime, but the new person in charge of scripts is Kiyoko Yoshimura.

Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- will be the fifth anime that Animax Asia runs in the same week that it airs in Japan. The channel ran its first anime on the same day and week they air in Japan in 2009, when it premiered Tears to Tiara and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, respectively. It also televised Inuyasha: The Final Act and Maid-Sama in the same week that they aired in Japan.

Funimation licensed the anime for North America.

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Since Saladesu is out for a while, if you would like to help in finding and translating news of this nature, please contact Asahina via PM, or any staff. ^^ Please, feel free to PM Asahina any interesting bits of anime or manga news you find floating around the internet, too.