So, AX08 has come and gone. Now the dust has settled and the lines are drawn… or something like that. Though, what came of this years AX, is the fact that Funimation has become the biggest anime distributor in region 1, with Bandai Entertainment not far off. We had some exciting licenses, Hayate no Gotoku, Alice Gakuen, Spice and Wolf, Wagaya no Oinari-sama, and a lot of other stuff. Also, Gundam 00 will be getting a TV run on Sci-Fi this fall. 

So, for the past month or two, Bandai Entertainment USA has kicked off “Nebula Project ‘08”. Through Nebula Project, BEI has considerably raised their standing in the R1 anime market. They effectively rescued Gurren Lagan after ADV lost the rights to it, licensed Gundam 00, changed over to collections instead of singles for their releases, got Gurren Lagan on Sci-fi channel, absorbed their sister company (Bandai Visual), and licensed Sword of the Stranger.

According to ANN, the Haruhi manga has been licensed by Yen Press. This is pretty good news. Now, hopefully, we will see someone bring over the novels.

First off, some old news. It seems that Media Blasters will continue to release Gaogaigar on DVD. However, to the ire of many dub fans, it will be subtitled only. Oh well, at least we can still get GGG over here in North America.

        I feel the same way Mamoru….

According to this at the Toonzone forums, Media Blasters has stopped production on GaoGaiGar. While the report is unconfirmed, it is still worrisome news about the future of the franchise in North America. We (R1) barely got GGG, and now it seems that we could have it all taken back. Still, the report is unconfirmed. Plus, it may just have been the dub, since the source of the news is reported to have come from Gai’s dub voice actor. While the dub for GaoGaiGar was great, I would rather have a dub-less GGG than no GGG at all.

Yes, you read it right, and you’ve probably read it all over the “intarwebz” already. Still, this is one of the biggest and best licenses this year. One Piece needed to be rescued from 4Kids, that’s all there is to it. Regardless of how long it takes to get the first episodes out on DVD, or what edits they make to the TV version, it’s in better hands now.

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.

Three good announcements today, though all are Japan only. First, the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni official website has announced that the second season will premier in July. This is very nice, as it seems the summer will have many big name titles.The second item of interest being two announcements made at the Tokyo Anime Fair, an Aria OVA, and a School Days TV series to air in July. Both are exciting, and hopefully turn out well.As for an update, I will be posting some more reviews soon, and I want to give everyone an idea of when they will be done…

A few tid-bits of news have come out in the past few days. First off, Blood+ has formally been announced for AS, and was given the 12:30 A.M timeslot on Saturdays, starting March 10. It was obvious that Blood+ would be airing as soon as one of the current series ended. However, Eureka 7 will be finishing soon as well, so that leaves another time slot up for speculation. Most likely E7 will be replaced with the Witchblade series that premiered in Spring ‘06 in Japan. Witchblade has been mentioned by sources unrelated by CN as acquired by the network. However, this doesn’t really mean anything until CN actually confirms it. I liked what I saw of the Witchblade series, but I really hope that Haruhi will get acquired. The show needs all the exposure it can get, so airing it wouldn’t hurt at all. Guess we’ll just have to see.

Next up, Karin was licensed by Geneon today for distribution in the R1 region. I’ll definitely buy this, though, the final episodes left me feeling empty. Good to see that the R1 market seems to be recovering now.

Finally, the Manga-ka of the Jinki: Extend manga reported that he has received over ten offers from various magazines in Japan to continue publication of the series after it was dropped from Comic Blade Magazine. While I haven’t been following the Japanese run of the Jinki: Extend manga, it is good to know that it will more than likely continue. Now it has a better chance of being picked up (again) by a English language manga publisher than it did a month ago. Very good news indeed.  

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.