Hello, everyone, and welcome to an all-new AniWeekly! This weekend, Aniplex of America hosted their first-ever AkibaFest in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo district. The event aimed to be a different type of fan festival, bringing the biggest, boldest aspects of Akiba culture together in the west.
As expected, Aniplex had a few surprises ready, including their license for Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga and Blu-Ray plans for Persona5 The Animation -The Day Breakers-.
Otherwise, this was another fascinating week, filled with new shows, big business deals, and a surprising move from Amazon!
In The News
The hunt for the Dragon Balls has a few new helping hands. Publisher Shueisha announced that they’ve opened a subsidiary devoted to Dragon Ball. The new division, which has been open since October, is tasked with expanding the Dragon Ball brand and providing ideas for new content.
Dubbing,for fun and profit! Funimation announced their full schedule for their Fall 2016 simuldubs. The list includes Drifters, Izetta: The Last Witch, Keijo!!!!!!!!.
Get ready for the most epic Sensha-do match ever! Sentai Filmworks unveiled their first dub teaser for Girls und Panzer der Film. In the teaser, they confirm that the movie will hit theaters in November.
Ronja’s getting ready to rob Amazon’s digital library! Amazon announced that they’ve acquired the license for Studio Ghibli and Polygon Pictures co-production Ronja the Robber’s Daughter. The series will feature narration by X-Files star Gillian Anderson.
Kodansha, I hardly knew her! Kodansha, Japan’s largest publisher, acquired rival publisher Ichijinsha. The company plans to make Ichijinsha a direct subsidiary.
Join the club… the J-Novel club! J-Novel Club, a new service, opened its doors yesterday. The company aims to bring a Netflix-like model to light novels, by offering weekly chapter releases of up-and-coming books.
Get ready for Puchim@s 2! Comedy manga The IdolM@ster: Cinderella Girls Gekijō is getting an anime adaptation! The series will kick off sometime in 2017.
Those swole, swole Mechanical Arms… Sae Okamoto’s Kickstarter to produce Mecha-Ude reached its $25,000 funding goal! The project will be produced, with an estimated December 2017 release date.
It’s time to take the princess to a virtual stage! South Korean game developer MGame announced that they’re making a Princess Maker game for VR headsets. The game, titled Princess Maker VR, will hit PC and consoles in 2017.
Get wild and tough! A live-action film adaptation of classic manga City Hunter is in the works. The feature is tentatively slated to hit Chinese theaters in December 2018. That said,, let’s take a moment to appreciate the epic ’80s sounds of the City Hunter anime’s ending theme.
Today, the entire world is shades of grey… Legendary Studio Ghibli color designer Michiyo Yasuda passed away last week, due to an unspecified illness. She was 77. She had been involved with the studio since the early days, working on countless famous works like Nausicaa, Princess Mononoke, and The Wind Rises.
From The AniBlogging Community
A challenger appears! (do dodododo do do!) Update your RSS readers, because there’s a new AniBlog in town. Anime Feminist opened their doors last week, bringing together contributors from numerous outlets like The Mary Sue, Forbes, and Anime News Network. The publication aims to review shows, and look at the anime world through a feminist lens.
Where all the adults at? Oh, right. Fall 2016. The folks at Karmaburn couldn’t help but notice that we’re seeing many more adult characters in anime these days, and that’s a good thing!
Weekly Fun Stuff!
There are some things that have to be seen to be believed. This is one of them. On the Thai version of The Voice last week, a contestant managed to not only wow the judges, but have the crowd roaring with applause, thanks to the power of anime. The contender sang a pitch-perfect rendition of Dragon Ball Z theme Cha La Head Cha La, which he quickly followed up with the themes to Doraemon and Saint Seiya.
