News
Weekend Wrapup: 3/Mar - 9/Mar
posted on by Jon Hayward
Studio Trigger has streamed an extended trailer for Little Witch Academia. Director/character designer/animation director Yoh Yoshinari (episode director for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt) and producer Naoko Tsutsumi(Black Rock Shooter, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt) led the project, and Michiru Oshima (Fullmetal Alchemist, BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, Blast of Tempest) scored the music. Little Witch Academia is part of the Anime Mirai program, which distributes funds from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs (JAniCA) to studios who train young animators on the job. This short, alongside the other Anime Mirai program shows including Gonzo's "Ryo", " ZEXCS' "Aruvu Rezuru" and MADHOUSE's "Death Billiards", opened in 14 theatres across Japan on Saturday the 2nd of March.
The April issue of Shueisha's shōjo manga magazine, Ribon, announced that the June issue will ship with a Vocaloid related manga series.
Tamiki Wakaki's The World God Only Knows will recieve a three chapter spinoff manga called Magical Star Kanon 100%. The first chapter will debut in this year's 15th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine.
Hiroaki Samura, creator of Blade of the Immortal, will be starting a new serial manga series in Ohta Publishing Co.'s Manga Erotics F magazine in May. The series is tentatively titles Tatazumeru Snegurochka (The Loitering Snow Maiden) and takes place in Russia in 1920. The manga follows a woman named Bielka and her attendant named Shishenok, neither of whom can trust anyone else.
A teaser and the trailer for this year's Dectective Conan anime film, Meitantei Conan: Zekkai no Private Eye (Detective Conan: Private Eye in the Distant Sea), have begun streaming online. The movie is set on a state-of-the art Aegis vessel with the full cooperation of Japan's real-life Ministry of Defense and Maritime Self-Defense Force. The corpse of a Self-Defense Force member has been found — minus the left arm — and a spy has infiltrated the Aegis vessel. The heroine Ran is put in jeopardy, and Conan is forced to stand up against the dangerous Spy "X." The film will be directed by Koburi Shizuno at TMS and V1 Studio with the television anime cast reprising their respective roles. The film will open on the 20th of April 2013 in TOHO cinemas across Japan.
Wired.com has begun streaming a dubbed clip from Studio Ghibli's From Up on Poppy Hill. From Up On Poppy Hill adapts the 1960's shōjo manga of the same name by Tetsurō Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi. The film follows Umi (The Spiderwick Chronicles' Sarah Bolger) and Shun (Star Trek's Anton Yelchin) in a budding romance as they come together to save their school's clubhouse. Hayao Miyazaki wrote the screenplay adaptation and the film was directed by Goro Miyazaki. The film originally premiered in theaters in Japan in July 2011 and was screened as part of ReelAnime 2012 by Madman Entertainment in Australia.
And finally, the stage adaptation of Princess Mononoke will adapt the film's original score by Joe Hisaishi. The adaptation had previously planned to have a original score but due to an offer by both Joe Hisashi and Studio Ghibli to use the original film's music they decided that the play would be better served utilizing the film score for the stage score. The play has two sell out performances in London's New Diorama Theater in April and late June and will travel to Japan for performances from April 29th to June 6th.
