Animanga in the News: 12/17 - 12/23

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying the holidays. This week in the news we have
2 anime announcements with a manga series that will be running with it, info on one piece upcoming film, 5 anime adaptions announced and much more! To find out, read more~



The official Twitter accounts for Viz Media's Shonen Jump brand and Hisashi Sasaki (deputy director of Shueisha's Shōnen Manga group) announced on Sunday that One Piece manga creator Eiichiro Oda will be the executive producer for the next One Piece film. Viz Media also announced that the film will open in Japan next December, and the first One Piece art exhibition — with new artwork by Oda — will open in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills on March 20, 2012.

Oda personally oversaw the production of One Piece Film Strong World (pictured right), the pirate adventure franchise's 10th film which will opened in Japan on December 12, 2009. (Manga creator Tite Kubo performed a similar role for last December's Bleach: Jigoku-hen film.)

The new One Piece film was announced through a teaser that aired at the end of last month's television showing of One Piece Film Strong World, and the teaser said that the new film will be set in the manga and anime's ongoing New World Arc. There has not been a feature-length One Piece film since One Piece Film Strong World in 2009, although there was the half-hour "One Piece 3D: Mugiwara Chase" short in March. There is also a "One Piece 3D Gekisō! Trap Coaster" event short at select theme parks and theaters this month.

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A group of seven Japanese writers and manga artists approached the Tokyo district court on Tuesday to seek legal action against two book-digitizing shops. The group believes the shops are violating Japanese copyright law by producing copies of manga and other works without the authors' permission.

Keigo Higashino (Heads), Jirō Asada (Mibu Gishiden), Arimasa Osawa (Koryu no Mimi), Mariko Hayashi (Niji no Natascha), Go Nagai (Cutey Honey, Mazinger Z), Kenshi Hirokane (Human Crossing), and Buronson (Fist of the North Star) are asking the Scan Box and Scan x Bank shops to stop reproducing copyrighted works. In September, a group of 122 manga creators joined seven Japanese publishing companies to sign a letter of concern to over 100 book-digitizing shops in Japan. Many shops announced they would stop book and manga-scanning practices, but Scan Box and Scan x Bank have not complied with the authors' and publishers' request, according to the seven creators' attorney Kensaku Fukui.

Scan Box advertises on its website that it will scan customers' books for a fee of 200 yen (about US$2.60) per centimeter of book thickness. Another typical shop offers to cut the pages out of one book and scan them for 800 yen (about US$10). The shop will also scan one book without cutting it apart for 2,500 yen (US$32). Because such copies are claimed to be for individuals' private usage, these policies remain in a gray area under Japanese law.

According to Fukui, Higashino and the other writers and artists believe that Scan Box and Scan x Bank's practices move beyond duplication for individuals' private usage because the shops offer commercial scanning services to a wide clientele. The creators also cite customers' subsequent internet uploading of the scanned books as a problem and view book-digitalizing shops as enablers.

At a press conference, Hayashi stated that she and the other creators want to compromise with the shops to resolve the issue, but she also said the book-digitizing shops "are acting like hyenas by doing such illegal things." Buronson said book-scanning practices are painful for authors to see and called for people to "please love books more."

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The official website for the Eureka Seven: Astral Ocean (Eureka Seven Ao) project announced on Friday in Japan that a television anime version will air starting in April 2012. The anime studio BONES will return to animate the sequel series.

The February issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine is announcing on Monday that Eureka Seven Ao, a manga sequel to the Eureka Seven television anime series, will launch in the next issue on January 26. The "real mecha epic" will center around a boy named Ao who "set 'destiny' in motion again when he held the 'power.'" Artist Yūichi Katō is drawing the manga based on the original story by the anime studio BONES.

BONES created the original 2005-2006 Eureka Seven television anime series, and the series inspired the 2009 anime film Eureka Seven - good night, sleep tight, young lovers. Bandai Entertainment released both anime projects in North America. Bandai Entertainment also released the main Eureka Seven manga adaptation by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou, and the Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys & Lifting Girl manga spinoff by Miki Kizuki.

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The February issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine is announcing on Monday that Eureka Seven Ao, a manga sequel to the Eureka Seven television anime series, will launch in the next issue on January 26. The "real mecha epic" will center around a boy named Ao who "set 'destiny' in motion again when he held the 'power.'" Artist Yūichi Katō is drawing the manga based on the original story by the anime studio BONES.

BONES created the original 2005-2006 Eureka Seven television anime series, and the series inspired the 2009 anime film Eureka Seven - good night, sleep tight, young lovers. Bandai Entertainment released both anime projects in North America. Bandai Entertainment also released the main Eureka Seven manga adaptation by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou, and the Eureka Seven: Gravity Boys & Lifting Girl manga spinoff by Miki Kizuki.

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The studio Kyoto Animation opened a website for its Hyoka television anime series and revealed the anime's main staff and a piece of key visual art. The studio is adapting Honobu Yonezawa's adolescent mystery novel of the same name.

Shoji Gatoh, the author best known for the Full Metal Panic! light novel series, is in charge of the series scripts. Gatoh was also in charge of the scripts for the various Full Metal Panic! anime, as well as for The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk and The Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk sequel. He wrote scripts for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star.

Yasuhiro Takemoto is directing the series after having done the same for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and several Full Metal Panic! projects. Kouhei Tanaka (Gate Keepers, Gunbuster, Sakura Wars) is composing the music. Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine already revealed that Futoshi Nishiya (Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya, My Ordinary Life/Nichijō) is designing the characters in Hyoka.

The story of Hyoka follows a boy named Hōtarō who is not assertive about getting involved, but was ordered by his older sister to join the classic literature club. In the club, he gets close to the truth about an incident, involving a female member's uncle, which happened 33 years ago. The "energy-saving" boy is joined by an inquisitive girl in this adolescent mystery.

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The February issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine is announcing on Monday that Task Ohna will launch a Hyoka manga series in the next issue on January 26. The manga will adapt Honobu Yonezawa's adolescent mystery novel Hyoka, but it will also feature character designs by Futoshi Nishiya of Kyoto Animation. Kyoto Animation is adapting Yonezawa's novel into a television anime series.

The story of Hyoka follows a boy named Hōtarō who is not assertive about getting involved, but was ordered by his older sister to join the classic literature club. In the club, he gets close to the truth about an incident, involving a female member's uncle, which happened 33 years ago. The "energy-saving" boy is joined by an inquisitive girl in this adolescent mystery.

Yonezawa also wrote the Shōshimin mystery novel series that has had several manga adaptations, including Anko Manjūya's Shunki Gentei Ichigo Tart Jiken (The Case of the Springtime Limited-Edition Strawberry Tart). Nishiya designed the characters in Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya and My Ordinary Life (Nichijō). He also served as an episode animation director on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-ON!, and other Kyoto Animation projects.

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The wraparound jacket band on the 10th volume of Keitarō Takahashi's Jormungand manga is announcing on Monday that a television anime adaptation by the studio WHITE FOX (Steins;Gate) has been green-lit. The story centers on an underground weapon seller and her accomplices, and it begins when a quiet boy who hates weapons joins the team.

The action manga began in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday GX magazine in 2006, and it will end in the February 2012 issue on January 19. Viz Media began releasing Jormungand in North America in 2009, and the company's English edition of the eighth compiled book will ship on January 10.

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The official website for the Yuruyuri television anime series and original manga creator Namori confirmed on Saturday that production on a second television anime season has been green-lit. The announcement was first made at the Yuruyuri event that was streamed on the Nico Nico Live service on Saturday.

According to the official Twitter acount for the anime, the first key visual art for the second season, titled Yuruyuri♪♪, will be published in the March issue of Ichijinsha's Comic Yuri Hime magazine (the home of the manga) on January 18.

In both the manga and the first television anime season that it inspired, four fun-loving schoolgirls take over the former room of a tea ceremony club for their own "Gorakubu" (amusement club). The first 12-episode anime season ran from July to September, and Crunchyroll streamed the season outside Japan as it aired.

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Kadokawa Group Publishing announced that an anime adaptation of Noriko Ogiwara's RDG Red Data Girl modern fantasy novel series is in the works.

The story revolves around Izumiko Suzuhara, a girl raised within the confines of Tamakura Shrine, one of the Kumano shrines that are part of a World Heritage site. However, after Izumiko spent practically her entire life at Kumano until middle school, it was decided that she and her childhood friend Miyuki would enroll in Hōjō High School in Tokyo. On a school trip to Tokyo, a mysterious entity known as Himegami appears and a terrible incident occurs. Izumiko's family carries a great secret that Izumiko is about to learn.

Ogiwara launched the novels just this past June after creating The Good Witch of the West (Nishi no Yoki Majo - Astraea Testament), and the fifth RDG volume shipped in October. Tokyopop published The Good Witch of the West manga in North America, and the manga has a related anime.

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The first 2012 issue of Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine revealed on Friday that the new manga by Hanamaru Kindergarten manga creator Yuto will be Iroha-saka, Agatte Sugu (The Iroha-saka Path Is Up Ahead). The series will launch in the magazine's next issue on January 6.

Yuto's Hanamaru Kindergarten slice-of-life comedy manga ended in Young Gangan in October. The manga inspired a television anime by director Seiji Mizushima (Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam 00) and the studio Gainax last year. Yuto has also been drawing another manga series called Sis Plus in Monthly Big Gangan and other magazines.

Yuusuke Kozaki also launched a new series in the first 2012 issue. The "highly unique science-fiction advanture" of Donyatsu features adorable animal/food chimeras in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. Notable characters include "Donyatsu", the half-cat, half-doughnut hybrid and "Begaru," a feline bagel composite.

Kozaki created character designs and illustrations for the Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto and Speed Grapher television anime series and drew the art for the Kyoko Karasuma - Detective of the Asakusa Police Department manga.

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The Tokushima Shimbun paper announced on Sunday that the four-panel version of the Chibi Maruko-chan manga will end after over 1,500 installments on December 31. Momoko Sakura launched this version in Japanese newspapers on July 1, 2007, after creating the manga as a regular magazine-serialized work in Shueisha's Ribon shōjo manga magazine from 1986 to 1996.

The original manga inspired the Chibi Maruko-chan television series that is consistently the #2 rated anime series after Sazae-san.

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The combined 4th/5th issue of Kodansha's Morning magazine is announcing that a television anime adaptation of Chūya Koyama's Uchū Kyōdai (Space Bros.) manga has been green-lit for an April 2012 premiere. The story follows two brothers, Mutta and Hibito, who made a vow as kids to travel to space. The younger brother Hibito did become an astronaut, but not Mutta. However, Mutta's life changes one fateful day.

Shun Oguri (Hana-Kimi, Hana Yori Dango [2005], Fullmetal Alchemist movie [2005]) and Masaki Okada (Hana-Kimi, BokuKimi, Mahō Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto) are starring in a separate live-action film adaptation which will open on May 5, 2012. The British rock band Coldplay is contributing the song "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" as the theme song.

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To commemorate the release of the second and final volume of the Jashu manga series, the manga's creator Yu-Ko Osada
(Toto, Legends of the Dark King: A Fist of the North Star Story ) personally animated the 11-second anime short above.

Takashi Yano created the original novel about six mercenaries in the late Muromachi era of 16th-century Japan. Shueisha began streaming the anime short on Monday.

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The Cinema Today website reported on Monday that Naito Yamada's Ō-sama to Boku (The King And I) teen manga will receive a live-action film adaptation starring Masaki Suda (Kamen Rider W, live-action High School Debut). Tori Matsuzaka (Kamen Rider Decade, .hack//The Movie), Hiroki Aiba (Kamen Rider Decade, The Prince of Tennis), and Fumi Nikaidō (Himizu, Tempest) will also perform in the film. Tetsu Maeda (Saru Lock, School Days with a Pig) is directing the adaptation for release next fall.

The story centers on the best friends Morio (Suda) and Mikihiko (Matsuzaka). The six-year-old Morio is involved in an accident and remains in a coma for 12 years. One day he wakes up as an 18-year-old with the mind of a child. Morio and Mikihiko renew their friendship after and support each other while facing the challenges of becoming an adult. The film will be a new interpretation of the manga story and include story elements chosen by Yamada.

Yamada's original Ō-sama to Boku manga serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Young Sunday in 1992, and Shogakukan released the story in one compiled book that year. Yamada's other original manga include Beautiful World, Corduroy, Girl friday, and Nishiogi Fūfu. She also contributed to Frédéric Boilet's Yukiko's Spinach graphic novel that Ponent Mon and Fanfare released in North America.

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The January issue of Square Enix's Monthly Gangan Joker magazine is announcing on Thursday that a television anime adaptation of Maybe's Dusk maiden of Amnesia (Tasogare Otome×Amnesia) manga has been green-lit for next spring.

The story is set at a private academy that has a history of hauntings by spirits, including a ghost girl named Yūko. For some mysterious reason, first-year middle school student Teiichi Niiya is the only person who can see Yūko. Yūko has no memory of her death, much less who or what caused it. Yūko and Teiichi create an investigation club to find the truth about her death and the other mysteries of the school.

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Next year's second issue of Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior magazine is announcing on Thursday that Moonlight Mile creator Yasuo Ohtagaki is launching a Gundam manga mini-series next March. The manga will depict the One Year War seen in the first Mobile Suit Gundam anime series.

Big Comic Superior had announced last month that Ohtagaki is putting his science-fiction manga Moonlight Mile on hiatus while he launches a "big project" next spring. Moonlight Mile will continue after the Gundam mini-series ends. The Moonlight Mile manga inspired the 2007 television anime that ADV Films (and later FUNimation Entertainment) released in North America.

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The Japanese publisher Shogakukan revealed on the website for its Shonen Sunday Super magazine that a theatrical anime film of Romeo Tanaka's light novel Aura ~Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai will open next year.

The 2008 school romantic comedy book revolves around Ichirō "Menzu" Satō, a high school freshman who forgets his textbook at school one day. Ichirō encounters a beautiful girl while sneaking back into his school in the dead of night. The girl calls herself a witch from a parallel world. Ichirō used to suffer delusions of grandeur like this, but vowed to stop so that he can successfully re-invent himself as a freshman in high school.

The manga adaptation of the original novel will start in Shonen Sunday Super in the April issue, which will ship in February. Tanaka is known for his artwork in various adult games, and he has another anime next year: the television series based on his Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita light novel series. Aura illustrator mebae also designed the characters in Noitamina's C television anime series, illustrated the Sugar Dark: Umerareta Yami to Shōjo light novel, and contributed to the animation of Black Rock Shooter and Cencoroll.

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The North American publisher Digital Manga Publishing announced on Wednesday that it has licensed Miki Araya's Secretary's Job (Hisho no Oshigoto?) boys-love manga. Digital Manga Publishing previously released Araya's I'll Be Your Slave manga in 2008.

The company also announced it has licensed the third volume of Yū Moegi's Private Teacher! boys-love manga. Digital Manga licensed the first two volumes in the series earlier this year and released the manga's second volume on Monday. Private Teacher! is the first of Moegi's works to be licensed in North America. The manga's story revolves around a young man and his tutor.

Digital Manga also recently announced the acquisition of the game-based Starry Sky manga last month.

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The February issue of Kodansha's Afternoon magazine is revealing on Saturday that Riichi Ueshiba's Nazo no Kanojo X (Mysterious Girlfriend X) romantic comedy manga will get a television anime adaptation. The announcement also notes that the limited edition of the eighth volume of the manga will bundle a drama CD when it is released on February 23.

The "unidentifiable love" manga revolves around Akira Tsubaki, who one day notices the anti-social transfer student Mikoto Urabe drooling on her desk while she is sleeping, and he tastes it. Eventually the two begin to date and get to know each other better. The manga has been running in Afternoon since 2006.

Ueshiba also created the Yume Tsukai manga, which received a 12-episode television anime adaptation from MADHOUSE in 2006.

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The February issue of Kodansha's Afternoon magazine is revealing on Saturday that character designer and manga creator Yoshikazu Yasuhiko will launch a new manga series called Ten no Kechimyaku (The Blood Lineage of the Heavens).

The new series will be Yasuhiko's first in Afternoon. Yasuhiko just ended his decade-long Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga series this past June. The Gundam: The Origin manga is a reinterpretation of the first Gundam television anime series, which features character designs by Yasuhiko. In turn, Gundam: The Origin is inspiring its own anime adaptation. Yasuhiko's other manga include Arion, Jesus, Joan, and The Venus Wars.

Yasuhiko's third modern history tale is set in 1903, just half a year before the Russo-Japanese War. An academic research party from Japan is in the town of Ji'an on the northern bank of the Yalu, the river that separates Manchuria and the Korean Pennisula. The party's objective is the Gwanggaeto Stele, the monument erected in memory of King Gwanggaeto of Goguryeo in ancient Korea. The epitaph holds the key to the history of ancient Korea and the ties between Japan and Korea.

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The Japanese character goods maker MOVIC began selling Rurouni Kenshin hanafuda playing cards on Thursday. All 48 cards feature the characters from Nobuhiro Watsuki's samurai manga and anime, only drawn in traditional Japanese card style.

Along with the Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-Hen video anime series, the cards celebrate of the 15th anniversary of the Rurouni Kenshin television anime series. The hanafuda set will be available at Animate stores and Animate's online shop for 2,100 yen (about US$27).

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Shogakukan's online advertising for Shonen Sunday Super revealed that the magazine's March issue will launch several new manga series on January 25. Kenjirou Hata's Colorful Hayate no Gotoku! (Colorful Hayate the Combat Butler) will begin in the issue and include bonus 4- and 6-panel comics. Hata's original Hayate the Combat Butler manga debuted in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in 2004.

Yutaka Abe and Denjiro Maru's Meitantei Conan: Seiki matsu no majutsushi (Case Closed: The Last Magician of the Century) manga will launch in Weekly Shonen Sunday's March issue. The three-chapter manga will be based on Gosho Aoyama's original story and adapt the 1999 film of the same name. Aoyama's new Meitantei Conan: Sousa Ichi-ka Hen manga will also retell the story of Conan's first case.

Hiroshi Nakanishi will draw a new Mobile Suit Gundam AGE manga as a tie-in with the current television anime series. Nakanishi released the two-part Kidō Senshi Gundam AGE: Hajimari no Monogatari manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday in October. Ken Sasaki's King Golf manga will also return with supervision by the golfer Masaki Tani. King Golf launched in Weekly Shonen Sunday in August 2008.

Shogakukan's advertising announced two manga titles for the magazine's April issue, which will ship in February. Shun Matsuena's Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi (KenIchi the Mightiest Disciple) manga will tell the story from the original anime DVD. Kōichirō Hoshino will illustrate the Aura ~Maryūinkōga Saigo no Tatakai manga based on Romeo Tanaka's light novel series and mebae's character designs. Shogakukan stated on Wednesday that reports of an anime film adaptation of Tanaka's work were "partially in error."

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Tokyo Bridal Festa 2011 opened on Friday at the Tokyo Big Sight event center, and one of the highlights is a wedding dress that the manga/anime creator team CLAMP designed in the motif of Cardcaptor Sakura.

The haute couture-produced dress is being shown on stage during a fashion show on Friday and Saturday. In addition, art panels with Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits designs by CLAMP is on display at the event.

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A website has opened on Christmas Eve to announce Sakasama no Patema, the anime film that Time of Eve creator Yasuhiro Yoshiura is writing and directing for release throughout Japan next year. Purple Cow Studio Japan is producing the project.
The official blog for Time of Eve also announced on Christmas Eve that an iPhone app called "Time of Eve act 0X" will be released "in the near future."



Yoshiura wrote "I made 'indoor stories' almost the entire time from my college days to Time of Eve. But, I think it's about time I jump outdoors. This new animation is … a story about girl-meets-boy, and boy-meets-girl. It is an extremely righteous, but also extremely strange, story."

Crunchyroll has been streaming the original Time of Eve net anime series into North America and Europe since 2008.

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Next year's combined 4th/5th issue of Young Magazine is announcing on Monday that Tohru Fujisawa's new manga series is titled I no Head Gargoyle. The "I no Head " in the title is an apparent wordplay on the Tokyo locale Inokashira. Fujisawa, who previously created GTO and GTO: Shonan 14 Days, had revealed earlier this month that he will launch a new series in the magazine. I no Head Gargoyle will launch in next year's 7th issue on January 16.

Fujisawa will also launch a new title in Shogakukan's new Monthly Hero's magazine in January titled Soul Reviver. Fujisawa is handling the manga's scenario and original character design, and Manabu Akishige (D-ASH) is illustrating the manga. Soul Reviver revolves around a woman who is half human, half Shinigami and whose job is to accompany the souls of the dead to the world of the Shinigami.

Fujisawa launched a new series called Shibuya Hachikō-Mae -another side- (In Front of Shibuya Station's Hachikō Exit -another side) in the January issue of ASCII Media Works' digital magazine Dengeki Comic Japan on November 25. Akitsugu Mizumoto is illustrating that manga.

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The new Space Battleship Yamato 2199 television anime series will be 26 episodes long, and it will be split into seven films for advance screenings at events. The first two episodes will be shown as the first "film" on April 7, before the television series itself premieres. The next six "film" screenings will each be made of four television episodes. The new project is based on the classic 1974-1975 space opera anime series.

The anime's main cast — Takayuki Sugo, Daisuke Ono, Kenichi Suzumura, and Houko Kuwashima — will appear at a "launch ceremony" event on February 18 with some of the anime's staffers.

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