If you haven’t already heard, Stan Lee, the co-creator of the Spider-Man and X-Men comics, has been planning this new animated series for television with the same BONES studio behind Fullmetal Alchemist and Soul Eater.
The official website for Tamon Ota’s manga version of BONES and Stan Lee’s Heroman project has opened with a 90-second trailer of the television anime. The first compiled book volume of the manga shipped on March 20, while the anime will premiered in Japan on April 1. The story follows a boy named Joey who discovers a toy robot in Center City on the west coast of the United States. The toy becomes Heroman, a giant robot that Joey pilots against the mysterious Scrag beings invading Earth.
There’s still no word on when or if Heroman will ever (legally) make it to the States, but it should be interesting to see how Japanese audiences respond to Stan Lee’s animated adventure.

It’s, you know, really dark…

To those it may concern, FUNimation, along with distributor RightStuf.com has issued a recall of Season 1 of Darker Than Black after being innondated with a number of complaints and alerts that the third DVD of the set was freezing, blacking out, and in some cases, just flat out not working. Exchanges will be available, but all pending orders for the series has been put on hold until the issue with the disks have been worked out.

FUNimation Entertainment has acquired the rights to re-release the Trigun anime series on DVD and Blu-ray after many years of the series being inactive on the home entertainment front. Not much is known beyond the initial announcement from the studio, but the releases will definitely see the light of day.
Thought to be lost forever when Geneon USA shut its doors, FUNimation finally finished what was probably an extensive negotiation process for the classic anime series Trigun, acquiring all the rights for it from holder Flying Dog.
Now that this feather is in their cap, they’re planning a DVD release in the Fall of 2010. No word on just what it’ll be like, but I’d expect a full-series box set, and probably the Trigun Remix version of the series.
So who’s ready for another shot at the man worth $$60 billion?

There is currently an online rumor about a second season of the most epic series of all time; Beserk. If said rumors were true I would go as far as to say this is the biggest announcement of the year. J2d, a member of the video game-centric forum NeoGAF, seems to have insider information regarding a sequel to the Berserk anime.

Apparently, he learned from an old friend (who now works for the animation company, Studio 4°C) that a new Berserk anime is in production, and was even lucky enough to get a glimpse at some of the footage. Now, due to a lapse in judgment, J2d’s leaked a few shots of the trailer onto NeoGAF, seemingly confirming the project’s existence. He took them down soon after, but by then it was too late. They had already begun to spread like wildfire.

The manga has been ongoing since 1990, and the first season aired more than a decade ago. I am both a huge fan of the anime and the ongoing manga, so if this rumor turns out to be true I would be overjoyed!

The first season was picked up by Funimation, which released it in two sets over the last year. To watch some of the dubbed episodes, go here.

Well. It was expected, so this doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Bandai confirmed rumors of a third Code Geass season with a rather provocative image that has begun to cause a stir in the anime blogosphere:

The large text reads: “New Code Geass Project Launch Green-Lit! Wait for more info in 2010!!”

The sub-text reads: “This is a new genesis . . . the day of rebirth. Today, Geass has reached a new stage. You will be cast a new Geass soon. Hope, wait and desire it enthusiastically. Don’t forget. Geass is like a wish. If you wish, Geass will . . .”

In my opinion, Code Geass is getting to be like Twilight. Yeah, the first season was good, but as the story progressed, it started to lose the charm and quality I had initially come to like. (I’m not saying that I ever liked Twilight at all.) But now the fanbase is growing larger and larger, which will in turn spur the producers to insert more fanservice, which will really deteriorate the quality that true Code Geass came to like in the first place. Like anything, too much of one thing isn’t good. The same goes for Code Geass. (It actually wasn’t as spectacular as everyone described it to be anyways, but I liked it.)

Source: ANN| Mizu | Not Cliche

How long has Major been running now? Since 2004. Almost every year after that, new seasons are being put out! Of course, it’s to follow the manga’s storyline, but let’s start with the manga. The manga is ridiculously long. Instead of getting to the point and emphasizing the idea that friendship and teamwork can go a long way in just several volumes, the adventures of Goro and his companions and teammates is stretched into 71 volumes, and counting (Detective Conan much).

In the same fashion, the anime is being made to be ridiculously long. They better wrap it up soon with this next season, because soon their viewers will be exasperated, and will eventually quit watching altogether. Although the action sequences and humor is enjoyable, there’s only so much of the same stuff that someone can handle.

Actually, a lot of truly good series are pretty short. 24-26 episodes, really. The longer ones are usually shounen, because the adventures of the main character, who is obviously a male, is more pronounced and it’s made to impact the viewers greatly. But SIX seasons? And each season’s episode count continually get’s larger and larger. I’m afraid if there are even seven or eight, the count will go up to 400! It might even beat Detective Conan’s long run (or Dragon Ball Z).

Now think. Would this length attract new watchers? No, of course not. They would be daunted by the mere fact there were SIX seasons, and to top it off, they aren’t short ‘n sweet. Just unnecessarily long. (Of course, coming from Sho-Pro, the same people behind Detective Conan, you can be sure it’s going to top Conan, to some extent.)

Anyways, this sixth season will premiere in Japan on
Source: ANN

April 3, 2010.

Nori Sakurai’s Mitsudomoe spoof manga has been confirmed for an anime adaptation. The story is based on the made-to-be comedic learning experiences and adventures of the Marui triplets in sixth grade (oh joy, sixth grade, the age of puberty and so-called love).

I have a feeling this new anime will be much like Azumanga Daioh. Simply because the characters in there still look like grade schoolers, but with more sister-on-sister moe.

Source: ANN

Hello Kitty is an irresistibly cute little feline that has become a symbol of Japan and Japanese pop culture. Spawning movies, TV shows, cutesy school supplies, and fashionable clothing, the Hello Kitty franchise is dominant not only in Japan, but in other developed countries like the United States and Europe.

Asahi Production, the Tokyo-based anime studio that created Hello Kitty, has announced development of a new production studio in Miyagi’s Shiraishi City next year, in April. The plus-side(s) about this is that new employees will have to be employed, thus creating more revenue for Shiraishi City, more job opportunities for the people of Shiraishi City, and more anime series that’s completely kawaii.

Their first venture? Musubi-maru. Asahi President Munehara Yamaura stated at a Thursday press conference that the amount of people willing to work in the anime industry has been dwindling. This new studio was created partially for the hope that young entrepreneurs seeking to find jobs and enjoy their work in the anime industry would be able to do so. The studio will employ 30 people, maximum, from the area.

Miyagi prefecture’s government agreed to pitch in approximately 17,000,000 yen (about $200,000 in USD) from its job creation fund. (Which just goes to demonstrate the trouble the US is in; they probably wouldn’t give a dime to a project as this, simply because they can’t. The US government’s job creation plan is too large-scaled that they wouldn’t give notice about the seemingly futile attempts of an animation studio.)

Musubi-Maru is the prefectural mascot of Miyagi, and anime episodes and commercials will be created at Asahi’s latest studio. As the name implies, Musubi-Maru is a musubi, or onigiri, or moreover, his head is a musubi or onigiri. Musubi-Maru will sport several different traditional Japanese costumes, like the crescent symboled samurai helmet which was worn by Date Masamune, the medieval warlord of northern Japan. Musubi-Maru is already a famous character among the inhabitants of Miyagi. He usually reveals himself at public events ranging from anime conventions to grand openings. So of course he’ll be there when the studio opens. Heck, he might even be on site, helping in the construction of his studio!

I don’t know about you, but I’m rather anxious about this series, seeing as I’m a huge history buff. If Japan’s medieval times, which were one of the best eras in the world, are depicted and portrayed in a cutesy-esque way, by a human-like onigiri no less, I’m all for it. Plus, I just love spam musubi and onigiri!

Source: ANN | 47 News