First off, Haruhi season 2 was announced! Unfortunately, the animation will be handled by C&S, the same studio responsible for Gundo Musashi, and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda, with character designs by Hisashi Hirai. Kadokawa officials were unavailable for comments.

In other news, JAM Project will be signing the opening and endings to the new, hot-blooded Kyo-Ani epic “Lucky Star”. Lead signer Hironobu Kageyama reported that it will be their “most hot-blooded, intense, song ever!”

Speaking of Kyo-ani, after the series “Lucky Star” is completed, Kyo-Ani will go out of business. Anecdotal reports from Japan say that the OVA quality animation cost so much that they needed more revenue, but due to American fansubers, they lost every yen they had, and couldn’t feed their children. In bloging news, Impz has renounced his hatred of Mech and Shonen anime. He reported that he has already amassed a collection of Gundam models worth $2000, and has Naruto’s portrait plastered around his house.

So there’s some trouble with the R1 release of Gunbuster. It seems that a piece of background music during a pivotal scene in the story was changed. Bandai Visual claims that it was because the piece of music was similar to “Chariots of Fire” or some such. Paranoia, pure and simple. However, it’s only a two minute scene.

I really don’t care, and I will be buying this release ASAP. I’ve been waiting for years upon years to actually see this classic OVA. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like supporting edited material. I don’t buy stuff from viz like Zatch Bell (Konjiki no Gash Bell), or the Zoids series (well, I did buy a few copies of NC0 at Big Lots). However, there are times where I understand that it was a necessary choice. Bandai Visual is a very small company. If they were to be sued because of this, guess what, we probably wouldn’t see a Gunbuster release for a while. The rights would be tied up because Bandai Visual would be bankrupt due to the legal battles. Personally, I’m willing to sacrifice the two minute piece of music in order to see this released in R1, and to see BV stay afloat.

Really, let’s put this into perspective. It’s a two minute piece of music. The scene itself is still there, with a different piece of music from the OST. This is not a One Piece or even a Dangaioh (just Google it) we are talking about. The show is not some hack job. From all accounts, it is a very competent release. On the other hand, it was sneaky and wrong that BV would try to hide this fact from us. Those who are mad about this have every right to be mad. I respect their opinion, but they also have seen Gunbuster before, so they have access to the “unedited” version anyway. I not trying to justify BV’s paranoid decision. I’m just trying to be rational.