Anime News - Ghibli's Kokuriko-Zaka Kara Film Trailer Streamed

The anime Studio Ghibli is collaborating with the Japanese telecommunications company KDDI tostream the trailer for Goro Miyazaki and Ghibli's Kokuriko-Zaka Kara film. (Goro Miyazaki is the son of the studio's founder Hayao Miyazaki, and the younger Miyazaki directed Tales from Earthsea.) KDDI is also streaming three live-action commercials inspired by the collaboration.

Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsurō Sayama's original Kokuriko-Zaka Kara manga is set in Showa 38 (1963, a year before the Tokyo Olympics) and follows the coming of age of an ordinary, pigtailed high school girl named Komatsuzaki (23-year-old actress Masami Nagasawa) in Yokohama, a harbor city near Tokyo. Her sailor father went missing after an accident, and her photographer mother is frequently going abroad for work. Her family now runs a lodging house. The manga recounts Komatsuzaki's everyday life of "laughter and tears" with two boys — a school newspaper member named Shun Kazama (30-year-old Junichi Okada of the music group V6) and the student council president Mizunuma.

The Kokuriko-Zaka Kara film will open in Japan on July 16.

[Via Catsuka]

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »

Anime News - Sanrio's 'Wish Me Mell' Anime Short Posted on YouTube

The character in Sanrio's Wish me mell line are starring in the animation short "Wish me mell Miracle Circus." The anime short was recently available only to mobile users from June to July 1, but Sanrio has now launched the short on YouTube for free.

The Wish me mell characters premiered in December of 2010 marketed towards women between the ages of 15-20. Fanworks (The Bears' School , Hanoka) produced the animation.

Sanrio is known for its popular mascot characters such as Hello Kitty, Cinnaroll, Badtzmaru, and Chococat.

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »

Anime News - No. 6 Anime's 4th Trailer Streamed

The official website for Kenji Nagasaki and BONES' No. 6 television anime series began streaming the anime's fourth trailer on Saturday (a third trailer began streaming on June 22). The anime will premiere in Japan on July 7.

In Atsuko Asano's novels that inspired the anime, the story is set in "No. 6," a future model city in 2013. Raised as a top-ranking elite since the age of 2, a boy named Shion (voiced byYuuki Kaji) lives in an exclusive area in No. 6. On the night of his 12th birthday, he rescues a boy who calls himself "Nezumi" (Yoshimasa Hosoya). Nezumi ran away from the city's Special Security Area. From that moment on, Shion's life is changed forever.

Asano had previously written the books that inspired The Comedy Team manga and The Telepathy Girl Ran anime.

Kodansha published the first volume of the No. 6 novel in 2003, and the eighth volume shipped in 2009. Hinoki Kino (Sengaku) is currentlydrawing a manga adaptation of the novels in Kodansha's monthly ARIA magazine.

Image © Atsuko Asano, Kodansha/No. 6 Production Committee

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »

Anime News - Kakko-Kawaii Sengen! Comedy Gets Sequel Anime Series

The August issue of Shueisha's Jump Square magazine is announcing on Monday that production on a sequel for the Kakko-Kawaii Sengen! anime series has been green-lit. The first series of four television shorts (and one online exclusive short) were played over 4.5 million times on the Nico Nico Douga website.

The anime adapts Jigoku no Misawa's gag comedy manga. The first anime series aired late last year.

[Via Yaraon!]

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »

Anime News - NicoNico's English Site Lists 6 Summer Anime Titles

NicoNico.com, the international English version of the popular Japanese video website Nico Nico Douga, is now listing six titles on its Channels website as "Anime title for this Summer." The titles include Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise (Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel), A Dark Rabbit has Seven Lives (Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi), R-15, and The Mystic Archives of Dantalian (Dantalian no Shoka), and each has a date that is within one day of its Japanese broadcast premiere.

NicoNico had announced that it will stream two of the listed anime, Blood-C and Uta no Prince Sama (Uta no Prince-sama— Maji Love 1000%) outside Japan. NicoNico will stream Blood-C and Uta no Prince Sama with English subtitles right after the first broadcast of each episode in Japan. Nico Nico is also streaming live and holding panels at both Anime Expo in Los Angeles and Japan Expo in Paris this weekend.

NicoNico has not yet responded to ANN's request for comment on this page with six titles.

[Via Shiroi Hane]

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »

Anime News - Direct Brands Parent Agrees to Make Bid for Borders

Najafi, the parent company of the book club Direct Brands, has made a preliminary agreement to become the "stalking horse" for the American bookstore chain Borders in an auction later in July. A "stalking horse" agrees to make the starting bid before an auction begins and can receive compensation if it does not win.

As part of the same agreement, Borders will sell an undetermined number of stores for US $215.1 million cash and US$220 million in assumption of liabilities. According to Borders, the liquidators, Hilco and Gordon Brothers, have agreed to acquire any stores not in the sale and close them "in an orderly manner."

Bids are due July 17. If Najafi wins, Borders would be a wholly owned subsidiary of Direct Brands. If Najafi is outbid for Borders, the requested breakup fee for the chain is US$6.45 million.

Borders reports that if no sales agreement is reached, either with Nafarji or another company, then Borders has a deal with a joint venture consisting of the liquidators Hilco and Gordon Brothers, plus SB Capital Group, Tiger Capital Group, and Great American Group. In this case, Borders's 399 stores would be liquidated. Borders estimates that its liquidation would bring in US$252 to US $284 million.

According to Publishers Weekly, "A chainwide Going Out of Business/Store Closing sale would have to take place on or before July 22. However, if a going concern sale is approved it would take place on or before July 29, and no later than August 5."

Source: Publishers Weekly

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »

Anime News - Manyū Hiken-chō's New Commercial Streamed

The official website for the Manyū Hiken-chō television anime series began streaming a new 36-second commercial on Friday.  Hideki Yamada's original "ultimate bishōjo action" manga is set in a parallel Taihei Edo period and follows Chifusa (Minako Kotobuki), an amply porportioned sword fighter in the Manyū clan. Director Hiraku Kaneko and animation director Jun Takagi are reuniting to work on this new anime after working on Seikon no Qwaser. The anime will premiere on July 10.

[Via Moon Phase]

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Read more »