In Japan: K-On!’s second season was announced after the Let’s Go! live concert, which was held in Yokohama. After the second encore, the onstage screen played footage from the first season, followed by an announcement that the second season was green-lit for production.
In America:Hulu CEO Jason Kilar listed the top five streaming shows for the year. Naruto Shippuden cracked the list at #5, following Saturday Night Live, Family Guy, The Office, and The Simpsons.
2008
In Japan: The Tokyo District Court ruled that Leiji Matsumoto (Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999) defamed singer Noriyuki Makihara when he claimed Makihara plagiarized the Galaxy Express 999 manga. Matsumoto was ordered to pay 2.2 million yen ($26,989.60 USD) for claiming on Japanese TV that Makihara admitted to copying a phrase from his manga in the song Yakusoku no Basho.
2005
In America: Anime Insider reported that Samurai 7 would premiere on two channels in March, 2006. Both VOOM’s Animania and IFC would show the series, with IFC placing the show in its “Samurai Saturdays” block.
2004
In America:ADV Films announced that they would begin releasing high-definition digital copies of anime. The line, which began in 2005, contained a second disc with a WMV-HD version of the show, which featured a DTS 5.1 audio track, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. The line launched with Noir, RaXephon, and Full Metal Panic!
In America: Starz! Action announced that they would run a twelve-hour anime marathon on New Year’s Eve. he marathon kicked off with Ghost in the Shell, and showed a number of anime titles, including the following:
X
Perfect Blue
Vampire Hunter D
Blood: The Last Vampire
Patlabor 2
New Dominion Tank Police
2002
In America: Mandarake announced that they will shut down their Santa Monica retail store on January 1, 2003. No reason for the show’s closure were revealed, nor were any indication of plans to re-open the store elsewhere.
In America: AnimeVillage announced that they plan to begin selling their titles through retail outlets, instead of exclusively through the company website. Initially, they will only be sold through comic shops, though wide-scale distribution was planned in the future. A month prior, The Right Stuf International announced that they would begin selling AnimeVillage titles.
Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.
Anime Herald is brought to you through our Patrons and Ko-fi supporters. Consider backing us for as little as $1 a month to help us keep the site ad-free and pay a fair rate to our writers.
Patrons and backers can access several benefits, including Early Article Access, our members-only Discord, and the ability to suggest articles for our team to write on your behalf.
We’ve made massive strides compared to where we started, but there are still plenty of names that go overlooked—especially women, even on high-profile shows.
To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior for this site.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.