Global Shinkai Day 2011 will be held on the 12th of March.

Crunchyroll are spearheading preparations with their brand-new DVD release of Shinkai’s most recent film, 5 Centimetres Per Second. The site is also running a competition in which one talented fan can win an autographed poster featuring Shinkai’s upcoming project Hoshi o Ou Kodomo (check this page for details on how to enter).

In addition to Crunchyroll, I’m keeping a watchful eye on the Shinkai fan forum Cherry Blossoms Falling for more information as the event approaches.

Note: For broader coverage, this post has also been published on my personal blog. Mark your calendars and spread the word, comrades.

Coming off Japanator, Eric Sherman, President of Bang Zoom! Entertainment, is heralding the End of Days as he sees it:

Last year we saw Bandai fire 90% of their staff on one Monday in January, and two years ago we saw Geneon (neé Pioneer) shut their doors and auction off their wares to the highest bidder. CPM died a slow, painful death. And ADV fell hard and fast, the way mighty giants will. But from here on, it won’t be so exciting. Japan is already suffering and struggling to bring out quality titles. They can’t rely on everything being picked up by US distributors anymore. And little by little, it just won’t be here anymore.

The cause? Straight up theft.

Read the rest of this entry »

This post originally appeared on my personal blog – I’m just trying to give this breaking news wider coverage. To get the full picture, read the complete report on Anime News Network.

If untrue, come 24 May let’s all fly to Kadokawa’s corporate headquarters and seriously trash the place. If true, then the guesswork I made on 01 May (click here to read the original post) turns out to be correct after all:

Sasa no Ha Rhapsody will probably appear as one of the side stories in the second season.

The new episodes produced for the second season will probably be mixed into the “rebroadcast” of the first season.

If the chronological ordering of the Suzumiya Haruhi light novel series is strictly observed and the two preceding inferences are correct, the first episode of the new season will probably be an adaptation of Sasa no Ha Rhapsody and will probably air on 22 May or shortly thereafter, by which time – based on the 03 April start date of the “rebroadcast” – a gap will exist in the light novel material already covered by the first season. [emphasis added]

Now comes the difficult part: waiting for hard evidence. The Dark Kadokawa Empire cannot be trusted by its word alone.

EDIT (22 MAY 2009): IT’S HERE. RIGHT ON THE TICK.

Spotted this news blurb on ANN that said Funimation has Gainax’s new anime, Shikabane Hime Aka, on the upcoming shedule of their Youtube channel. Does this means Funi wants to test the waters before doing an official license? We can only guess because I’m not clairvoyant. I didn’t think Shikabane Hime was anything special, but I can see it having a lot of mainstream appeal to the US market.

Not leaving well enough alone, infamous Japanese porn company TMA (The geniuses behind Kira Star and The Melancholy of Hahiru Suzumiya) will be releasing… Clonnad on November 7th. Why, Japan, why? I spot Nagisa, Kotomi, Kyou and Tomoyo. I guess the girl in the top middle is Yukine, but who’s the one on the bottom right? Anyway, please excuse me while I wash out the blood seeping from my eyes.

[Edit: Top middle is apparently Fuko. Bottom right is Ryou. The Kotomi cosplayer is also the worst of the bunch.]

I’m not really into the Tales franchise, but this bit of news from Kotaku was pretty intriguing. Apparently Namco Bandai is going to let consumers pick their poison by releasing two versions of the DS game. One will utilize anime cutscenes while the other will feature CG cutscenes to further the story.

The franchise’s style has always favored traditional anime designs and this version looks better. Of course the new generation of gamers are spoiled on CG graphics, so that may give the CG version the edge. Which one would you guys pick?

Please disable those annoying snap previews. When someone hovers over a link or picture, they are attacked by a distracting pop-up! Everytime a snap preview pops up, a Strike Witch dies. So please think of the Strike Witches. Here’s how to disable the evil snap preview.

Dashboard -> Design -> Extras -> Disable Snap Preview -> ??? -> Yamcha is a happy camper

Don’t let snap previews happen to you.

PS: Sorry for picking on you C.I. Or am I? Ha ha ha ha!

The big talk among the figure community today is Goodsmile Company’s new English website. The site is pretty and all, but I don’t care for the layout very much. My nitpicking aside, be sure to check it out if you’re a figure fan.

Dood! Saw this bit of news on Kotaku and 1-up. Disgaea’s popular cannon fodder penguins are finally starring in their own spin-off game, Prinny: Ore ga Shujinko de Iinsuka?.

According to 1-up, “it’s an action game where you control not one, not two, but a 1,000-Prinny squadron on their quest to help an extremely pissed-off Etna recover her stolen sweets[...] So you’ll be going through one Prinny after another in this 2.5D, Metal Slug-like adventure, killing ‘em off like lemmings as you traverse the game’s fantasy-themed, side-scrolling stages”.

The details are still sketchy, but it’s about damn time. The Prinnies will invade Japanese PSPs this November 20th.

FREEing will release their Ryoko Asakura, sporting her seductive blue bunny girl outfit, this September for 11,800 yen. The preproduction sculpt and paintwork look excellent so far. None of FREEing’s previous bunny girls interested me too much but this Ryoko is sizzling hot. What a way to finish the collection by saving the best for last. The figure gods continue to tempt me.

Image source: Hobby Search