Yus!

If the second season of the criminally undersold Arakawa Under the Bridge didn’t wow you, don’t worry – the prequel to Nisio Isin’s famed ghost story series Bakemonogatari is going to be animated by Shaft soon. With Kizumonogatari in the pipes, fans can now rest assured that the hit 2009 anime is going to get much, much more anime. Kizumonogatari takes place before Bakemonogatari, and covers the strange sequence of events that turned Koyomi into a vampire, then cured him. Also of interest, it shows how Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade became the quiet little Lolita she is in the main story. No date or format has been announced for the new series, which is probably for the best.

With this announcement, it becomes very safe to say that every -monogatari story in the series is going to get its turn getting animated by the overworked people at Shaft. Whether or not they’ll be completed in time for release is another question entirely, thanks to the now-infamous missing scenes scattered throughout the Bakemonogatari anime. That’s good, because the hard-working Nisio Isin is scheduled to bring out a new novel every three months until December of next year.

Not content with finishing up Nekomonogatari (“Tsubasa Tiger”) in October, he’s following them up with Keimonogatari (“Mayoi Jiang-Shi”) in December and Hanamonogatari (“Suruga Devil”), Otorimonogatari (“Nadeko Medusa”), Onimonogatari (“Shinobu Time”), and Koimonogatari (“Hitagi End”) in 2011. Shaft’s going to fall behind at this rate – but then again, no one really expects them to be on time anymore.

In other news, this is the most hyphens I have ever used in a single post. I felt like mentioning that.

Dream stories are hot. Thanks, Inception!

Minor manga rag Manga Time Kirara Forward has announced on the cover that fantasy action title Yumekui Merry (Dream-eating Merry) is getting the anime treatment. If you haven’t heard of Manga Time Kirara in general, I don’t blame you – it’s mostly known for K-On! and Doujin Work, neither of which really made it big in manga form.

The story of Ushiki Yoshitaka’s manga starts with Fujiwara Yumeji, a boy who can walk in other people’s dreams and observe them. One day, he bumps into Merry Nightmare, a denizen of dreams who has managed to cross over into the real world. Like so many other manga protagonists, he gets sucked into a fight with other dream denizens, not nearly as benevolent (or cute) as the Dream Eater Merry.

No date is yet announced for this adaptation, but based on the timing of the announcement, I suspect that we’re going to see this coming to TBS and BS-TBS in late 2010/early 2011.

Go to DMC! Go to DMC!

Well, it’s about time. Viz Pictures has announced that a release plan for the 2008 Detroit Metal City movie. DMC is the live action adaptation of Wakasugi Kiminori’s comedy manga about a simple country boy named Negishi Soichi, who fronts a death metal band as the demonic Johannes Krauser II (pictured above). Their current schedule is not yet solid, but a DVD release is coming this fall, which will most likely be accompanied by a limited theater release, a la 20th Century Boys and Death Note.

I saw the movie while I was in Japan back in August 2008, and it was hilarious. I’ve fallen out of love with the manga in recent years because it got too crazy and aggressive over time, turning the main character into an unlikeable font of schizophrenic rage; as a 100-minute movie, it felt just right as a cheesy, funny look at a man struggling between what he likes and what he’s good at. Matsuyama Ken’ichi’s (L from Death Note) portrayal of Negishi mixes comedic buffoonery with just enough tragedy to keep you sympathetic. Plus, you can’t hate a movie that gives you the pleasure of hearing Gene Simmons say “Kill him, Metal Buffalo!” It’s just not possible.

Hit the jump for the official movie trailer and a bonus music video from the original promotional campaign.

The movie trailer:

SATSUGAI, Detroit Metal City’s anthem:

NEW SCHOOL COMEDY SERIES-ICHIBAN USHIRO NO DAIMAO-TO BEGIN SIMULCASTING THIS APRIL ONANIME NETWORK ONLINE

HOUSTON, TX - 3-30-2010 – Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao, the latest series from famed director Takashi Watanabe (Boogiepop Phantom, New Fist of the North Star), will begin simulcasting this April on Anime Network Online.

WHAT: Worldwide Premiere of Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao on Anime Network Online

From Marvelous Entertainment (Mushi-shi, Air Gear) and Artland (Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Legend of the Galactic Heroes) comes the story of young Akuto Sai, a new student at Constan Magical Academy. On the day of admittance, his aptitude test has predicted his future occupation as…Devil King. And so begins the trials and tribulations of school life as he is hounded by do-gooders, self appointed protectors, and overzealous followers. In this school, there’s no rest for the Devil King.

WHEN: Episode 1 will be available on Friday, April 2, 2010.  Check www.theanimenetwork.com for North American Listings.

WHERE: Anime Network Official website’s Online Player.

HOW: The Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao simulcast will be available to registered users. Registration is absolutely free and takes very little time.

It’s an interesting little modern fantasy manga, but I don’t know how much of my interest comes from the fact that Nightow is behind it and how much of it comes out of the actual quality of the art and story. After all, Nightow himself said that the manga exists because he wanted to make “a manga where people shout out the names of their attacks,” and there’ no more generic manga type than the fighting fantasy.

More after the jump!

The main character of Kekkai Sensen is nominally Leonardo Watch (all names are roughly translated, he could officially be Leonard Wach for all I know), a young man who picks up odd jobs and is accidentally sucked into the vigilante organization known as Libra. But the real main character so far is the city he lives in, Herusalem’s Lot. The city used to be New York City, but three years before the manga’s opening, a gate from a demonic world only known as “Beyond” opens, flooding New York with refugees, criminals, and monsters. After years of chaos and bloodshed, the former residents of NYC live as best as they can in the nominally settled zone. Their lives are full of violence and crime and destruction, but they manage to scrape out livings alongside the new class of demons and magical monsters next door.

The first volume is a pretty exciting introduction to this world, as you find out just how bad regular people have it in Herusalem’s Lot. In the course  of just one day, Leonardo finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery, is attacked by the HLPD’s powered suits division after he falls in with Libra, and chases a monkey into Central Park after the villainous Femt, King of Depravity, summons a demonic terror and hides half of the summoning gate on the frightened creature. It’s a whirlwind tour of the worst parts of town, and between Nightow’s penchant for wildly deformed monster designs and his love of drawing gore, it’s grotesque and fascinating all at the same time.

Only one volume has been released so far, but there’s plenty of promise in Kekkai Sensen – the characters are interesting and interact well with each other, and the setting and back stories are fascinating. Add in Nightow’s unique touch for grisly action spreads and while KEkkai Sensen isn’t for everyone, I’m interested enough to add this to my must-follow list. Here’s hoping that Nightow doesn’t take too many of his infamous hiatuses from this one, because I’d like to see it develop.

It’s interesting that Toradora! went this long without an American company picking it up, and the other shows on the list are pretty interesting grabs too; even more interesting is how NIS America’s entry into the anime market will shake things up (if at all). More speculation on that after the jump.

In some ways, this is the perfect time for a company to join the market. Abunch of competitors have fallen on bad times (see: ADV/Section 23, Bandai), and with a smaller number of anime companies getting pickier and pickier about what titles they are willing to market and distribute (see: FUNimation, Viz), there is a lot of space in the cracks. I wouldn’t be surprised if NIS managed to get some pretty sweet deals for these licenses because no one else was willing to take the chance on them, and since they already have a staff of translators who aren’t doing very much video game translation (N1′s Japanese game division is in especially bad shape after 2009), this is a calculated risk that could pay off well.

The Toradora! license leads to some interesting speculation, as well: since Nippon Ichi has one J.C. Staff show already, there’s a strong chance they will be able to pick up more major J.C. Staff titles as well, like the as-yet-untouched To Aru Kagaku no Railgun and To Aru Majutsu no Index. Let’s see what happens next, after NIS America announces its release schedule and pricing plans. There is a lot of opportunity in this new venture by the video game company, but there are a lot of pitfalls too. Time will tell how well this sticks.

Thanks, Photoshop, we needed you!

If you’ve watched anime enough, you know what “Steam Girls” are, even if you haven’t heard the term before. “Steam Girls” refers to a time-honored anime tradition: in the obligatory “onsen episode,” the animators show a bunch of naked girls in a bath house, but cover their naughty bits with artfully placed bands of steam to avoid the wrath of the TV censors. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu has perhaps the most hilarious variation on this decades-old workaround, doing visual gymnastics with everything from butterflies to rubber duckies to keep the viewer from seeing anything truly indecent.

In recent years, advertising revenues have plummeted, and DVD sales have become more and more important to the success or failure of a TV series. Accordingly, the focus of steam censorship has shifted away from making the show fit for TV, and has become a way of telling pervy fans “Buy the show on DVD and we’ll take this digital steam away for your viewing pleasure!” This season, the censorship has hit new heights (or new lows, depending on who you talk to) with the shows Omamori Himari, Seikon no Qwaser, and Ladies versus Butlers!

This week’s episodes of Omamori Himari and Ladies versus Butlers were especially butchered, with giant ham-fisted white splotches all over the screen (see above – other sites have more screen caps, or you can see it yourself on Crunchyroll) that basically scream “I am a crippled version of this show!”

Do you think it’s smart business, or does it just annoy you these days?

Over on Kadokawa Anime’s YouTube channel, they’ve posted a trailer for the second half of Omamori Himari, or as they call it, the “Hardcore” portion of the series. According to the trailer, the already service-heavy boobs-’n'-brawls series is about to introduce the most popular character from the source material, yandere queen Quess. The short video also promises that the show is about to become “Sexier, wilder, and more dangerous,” so those of you who are already watching the show should be pleased at the progress it’s making. Those of you who are ignoring it, feel free to keep ignoring it…

And those of you who are still reading, I ask you: how messed up is this Himari figure from CharaAni, where the main feature is the sliding panties? I mean, really?

The weekend’s always a busy time for anime, since so many popular shows air on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Three of the big streaming highlights were the usual shounen fare, but there are some hidden gems with a lot of potential that you should keep an eye on, too.

The giants of the weekend are One Piece, Fairy Tail, and InuYasha: The Final Act, which all had pretty solid episodes. One Piece episode 434 had plenty of action and excitement as the big bossman Magellan came down to fight Luffy. Fairy Tail episode 14, meanwhile, was a fan service-fest as girls wearing short skirts brawled and got wet. InuYasha: The Final Act episode 16 had a much stronger concept of girl power, as Kagome awakened the sacred powers of her bow and got pretty much the whole episode to herself.

The other simulcasts that went up this weekend are new Winter shows that have some promise – Sora no Woto episode 3 is mildly promising as the fluffy and cute show of the season progresses, but it’s also kind of boring. The jarring visual rift between the ultra-detailed backgrounds and the cutesy, underdeveloped foreground characters makes it weird to watch, too.

Durarara, meanwhile, looks like it could be easily the best show of the season with a strong episode 2.

Check out these anime and more, the season may not be as doom-and-gloom as the naysayers believe! (Note: I reserve the right to take this back if I watch Seikon no Qwaser for some reason).

The core members of Princess Resurrection‘s often-rotating cast are Hiyorimi Hiro, an ordinary boy who is strangely both expendable and immortal, and Hime, a princess of monsters who never loses her cool. Every chapter is basically a miniature horror movie: the two of them, plus any of their friends who happen to be around, are attacked by a host of supernatural menaces who have been sent by Hime’s rivals for the throne. They face a who’s who of classic movie monsters, representing every genre and every era of horror: there are pod people and zombies, ghost ships and vampires, masked murderers, and even a fly in a lab coat.

Almost all of the stories are self-contained, and most follow this formula:

1) Strange events start to occur around Hime and Hiro.
2) Hiro and a few others get caught in the monster of the week’s attack (Hiro gets back up later thanks to Hime’s magical bond with him, but any humans who are nearby aren’t so lucky).
3) Everyone has a tough time holding off the attack, except for Hime, who watches calmly and analyzes what has to be done.
4) Full-page or two-page spread of Hime brandishing a makeshift weapon, ready to take care of business.
5) Everyone comes out okay (except the ones who are dead), while Hime explains how she figured everything out.

The formula gets a bit tiresome around volume 6 or 7 even with the many variations on the formula offered by Mitsunaga, but it’s quite enjoyable for what it is. The presentation is excellent – Mitsunaga’s simple, clean art, plus his artistic, old-school sense of black and white, make each chapter a love song to the Nosferatu era of horror. The manga is great at imbuing the shadows and backgrounds with personality and life, and even in the “boring” parts of the manga, there is a lot to appreciate in the layout and use of darkness. Heck, the black and white pages even make the buckets of blood seem more artistic than excessive.

What makes Princess Resurrection repetitive after a while is Hiro’s ability to stand up after taking damage that would kill anyone else. While there is some minor, artificial danger when Hiro is separated from Hime and she’s unable to resurrect him, you always know that he’s going to be just fine in the end. Sure, there are casualties, but often you don’t get to know the character very well at all before they get offed in some kind of noble fashion, making them the equivalent of Star Trek redshirts.

Still, if you have an interest in horror or supernatural action, Princess Resurrection is worth a read. If you don’t like the formula, you can always put it down, and if you can appreciate it for what it is, you’ll enjoy every panel of it.