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Sekirei is a fun series – nothing special, but fun to watch… and it has plenty of “eye candy,” if you catch my drift. If you’re interested, you can watch for yourself thanks to the fansubs.
The only problem was that its ending left… umm… much to be desired. Like most series derived from manga, it ended in the middle of the manga’s story arc (which is still running actually).
There is good news however. Recently it was announced that production on a second season of Sekirei was green-lit. Presumably this second season will finish up the manga’s story arc. Much of the cast and crew from the first Sekirei anime are returning, including director Keizou Kusakawa, writer Takao Yoshioka, character designer Shinpei Tomooka, musical composer Hiroaki Sano, and the Seven Arcs anime studio that animated it. Returning voice actors include Shinnosuke Tachibana (who voiced Minato), Saori Hayami (Musubi), Marina Inoue (Tsukiumi), and Kana Hanazawa (Kusano). No firm date (other than a rather vague “winter of 2009”) has been given for the release of this second series.
Here is the video announcing the new series. Translation of the on-screen text: (credit goes to I Eat Anime for the translation)
“Sekirei Project – Restart”
“Commentaries on a beautiful war starts again”
“Miraculous love story”
“Old memory will be revealed”
“Each others feelings that mingle”
“Pledged bond with the loved one”
“it has been decided to be produce as a new anime series on TV!”
I’m a total fan of Crunchyroll… and to think, I only heard about it a few months ago! And I still am amazed at the thought that generally well-subbed anime hits the Crunchyroll feeds just 1 day after they are aired in Japan – it’s just too cool, I can’t hardly get my brain wrapped around the concept. And when I discovered that Crunchyroll also has forums… and groups… and how you could actually create your own groups… well, that was it. (I can tell you’ve figured out where this is going) Yes, I’ve created a fan group on Crunchyroll. Join it today! Your mighty overlord commands it!
BUT WAIT – THERE’S MORE!! (I’ve always wanted to say that.) If you too are an anime/manga podcaster, rejoice, for I have also created a group for anime podcasters! (Actually, I was honestly quite surprised that one didn’t exist already, which is why I created it.)
This year marks the 5 year anniversary of our trip to Japan on the AX Tokyo tour. (And I STILL haven’t edited together our trip video! Yeah, feel free to beat me with whatever blunt objects happen to be within easy reach.) I was interested in Asian and Japanese culture long before becoming an anime fan, so this trip for me was doubly exciting. And totally worth it. To this very day, I am haunted by many of the events and scenes I saw while traveling around Japan, as well as the general “sugoi”-ness of it all. My hope above all hopes is to be able to return for a second visit sometime before the global economy collapses, air travel becomes impossible (or only for the hyper-rich, and we are forced to hunt for our food using only sharp pointy sticks and wear their skins as clothing. (Me? Bitter? What gives you that idea?)
One of the ways I console my aching soul (well, besides watching anime that is) is to listen to podcasts about travel in Japan. And just the other day, the fine folks at TJX: The Japan Xperience put up a new episode once again detailing one of their adventures traveling through Japan. In this episode, your fearless leaders DJ City and DJ Gladiator talk about their travels in and around Nara prefecture (which we never got to in our tour). Among the subjects they talk about include the rather friendly deer in Nara Park that come right up to you (but sometimes bite you, so be careful!), the Daibutsu (or Great Buddha of Nara), arguably the world’s largest buddha, and… well… lots of other cool stuff.
Listen to it here. Or – better yet – subscribe to their podcast – they’re cool guys and their talk of Japan travel and music (plus plenty of friendly jabs at each other) is always entertaining and interesting.
Now please excuse me while I go sigh dramatically and pine away… (and hand me that cheese over there, it’ll go great with my whine…)
It’s been a busier than usual work week for me, and this weekend is shaping up to be even busier still. So it is highly likely that the next episode won’t come out until mid next week, at the very earliest… probably more like next weekend, realistically speaking. If a miracle happens and my weekend schedule frees itself (unlikely but anything can happen) of course I’ll get to it sooner. But I thought I should warn you folks just in case!
Fans of Japanese indie rock will be pleased to know that the Japan Girls Nite tour, featuring bands Redd Bacteria Vaccuum, noodles, TsuShiMaMire, and Omodaka +6%DOKIDOKI Shop Girls, will be hitting various venues in both LA and San Francisco. Full list of dates and shows after the “read more” link.
Apparently this coming Monday is “Lazy Day,” a national celebration commemorating… well, laziness. Although I can’t find any mention of this in any online resource. Still, any excuse to celebrate laziness is fine with me! (Edit: I was able to find one page explaining this holiday.)
But you may want to make one exception in your lazy, do-nothing schedule for the day if you’re an anime fan. Because, to celebrate the occasion, The Anime Network will be making all of its premium online content freely viewable by anyone. Starting Midnight CDT on Sunday the 9th and ending at 11:59 PM CDT on Monday the 10th, all Anime Network premium online content will be accessible to anyone, for the amazingly low price of free. If you’re feeling particularly generous and wish to sign up for paid access to the premium content, you will get a 50% discount on your first months’ worth. (The regular price for monthly subscriptions is $6.95/month.)
You can find the catalog of shows here. Share And Enjoy!
A quick update on the story we reported in Episode #0008. Anime News Network is reporting that as of Saturday evening, Noriko Sakai voluntarily turned herself in to a Tokyo police facility and has been arrested on drug possession charges. The police issued a warrant for Sakai’s arrest on Friday after they reportedly found stimulants and a straw used to inhale the drugs at her residence. Police investigators allege that Sakai was a regular user after saying that they discovered traces of Sakai’s DNA in the saliva on the straw.
If you live in New York City and are free tomorrow (Sunday, August 9), then you have the opportunity to see Hayao Miyazaki’s new film five days before its official release date! The New York International Childrens’ Film Festival announced that it will be hosting a special advance screening of the film at the city’s Symphony Space on Sunday at 3:00 pm. This will be the East Coast’s first screening of the film. A block of tickets was just released and there will also be a standby line forming at the box office one hour prior to the showing.
For the rest of us unlucky souls out there, we’ll just have to wait until Walt Disney officially opens the film to the rest of North America this coming Friday, August 14.
The story of Ponyo follows an ordinary boy named Sosuke (voiced by Frankie Jonas in the English dub) and his friendship with Ponyo (Noah Cyrus), an unusual goldfish from the seas. Other cast members of the English dub include Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White. The trailer is available for streaming from both Yahoo! and Apple.
Bert Monroy is one of the world’s premier digital artists. Using the Adobe Creative Suite (mostly Photoshop and Illustrator), he creates incredibly detailed scenes, “digital paintings” of a sort. They look so incredibly lifelike – so much so that someone who is not familiar with Monroy’s works would call them photographs. They are not. Every object in a Bert Monroy scene – be it a soda can, beer bottle, billboard, city skyline, whatever, is completely created by hand using the Adobe software – these are not digital photographs or scans.
Anyway, he hosts a show on the Revision3 IPTV network called PixelPerfect, in which he demonstrates and teaches his Photoshop and Illustrator techniques. His latest episode features a tutorial on how, using Photoshop, you can draw and color manga characters, and turn them into a marquee-like biillboard. You can watch the show on the Revision3 website or in the embedded player below. Or you can subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcatcher of choice.
Ok, this is a bit old news, but still both humorous and touching at the same time.
By way of the Cartoon Geeks, this lovely gem of a video tells the heartwarming story of a geek and a goth, locked in a forbidden romance that neither of their friends can possibly understand. Funny and touching at the same time. And a star studded voiceover cast to boot – the part of Kyle the Geek is voiced by none other than… Wil Wheaton!
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