Producer Tom Gray talks about the Highlander anime - Highlander: Vengeance, directed by Yoshiki Kawajiri - in this interview. Highlander: Vengeance will be released straight to DVD internationally, and receive a limited theatrical release in some European nations.
As many people have deducted, Geneon Entertainment has licensed Rozen Maiden. The first volume, with four episodes, will be released in spring 2007. On Monday Anime News Network will announce the winners of the “Guess the Geneon License” contest.
Viz Media will release the Death Note anime on DVD in addition to its previously announced series of downloads.
“We look at Download to Own as a means to satisfy fans who are at the forefront of these properties released in Japan and want to see the properties in the U.S. closer to Japan’s release, and also as a means to broaden that audience by allowing viewers to try a single episode of a property before they purchase the physical product,” a Viz representative told ICv2 on Friday.
“We do not see these two distribution areas as mutually exclusive and believe that fans who want to catch the official version via download to own (subtitled version) closer to Japan’s release date will also collect the home video (dubbed version) to have the physical product for their shelves and their collections.”
Viz has not yet announced specific release dates for either the downloads or DVDs.
Animation Magazine reports (January issue, page 97) that Hayao Miyazaki’s next project, currently unnamed, will be based on a Chinese story called “I Lost My Little Boy.” Incidentally, Miyazaki turned 66 on Friday. Source: Nausicaa.net
1. Tales from Earthsea (7.65 bil. yen)
2. Umizaru 2 - Test of Trust (7.1 bil. yen)
3. Suite Dreams (6.08 bil. yen)
4. Death Note: The Last name (5.5 bil. yen)
5. Sinking of Japan (5.34 bil. yen)
6. Yamato (5.09 bil. yen)
7. Pocket Monster (3.4 bil. yen)
8. Doraemon (3.28 bil. yen)
9. Nada Soso (3.06 bil. yen)
10. Meitantei Konan (3.03 bil. yen)
Foreign films:
1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (11 bil. yen)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (10.01 bil. yen)
3. Da Vinci Code (8.9 bil. yen)
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (6.86 bil. yen)
5. M:i:III (5.2 bil. yen)
6. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (4.7 bil. yen)
7. Flight Plan (3.12 bil. yen)
8. Chicken Little (2.68 bil. yen)
9. World Trade Center (2.4 bil. yen)
10. King Kong (2.35 bil. yen)
Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Invisibles has been disqualified from the list of films eligible to be nominated for the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Animated Feature Film. “Les Invisibles” was disqualified because animation accounted for less than 75% of the film’s running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) requires that, to be eligible for the Best Animated Feature award, films must be more than 75% animated. Arthur and the Invisibles was a mixture of live-action and 3D CG.
As a result of the disqualification, only 15 titles are eligible to be nominated. According to AMPAS rules, 5 movies will be nominated if there are 16 or more that are eligible, and only 3 will be nominated if there are less than 16 eligible. There must be at least 8 movies eligible in order for the award to be given out.
Satoshi Kon’s Paprika is one of the remaining 15 films eligible to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. The other 14 are: Cars, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Happy Feet, Over the Hedge, The Ant Bully, Barnyard, Curious George, Everyone’s Hero, Flushed Away, Monster House, Open Season, Paprika, Renaissance, A Scanner Darkly and The Wild. . The nominations will be announced on January 23rd, and the winners will be announced on February 25.
ADV has announced its acquisition of Shotaro Ishinomori’s 009-1 anime series (unrelated to his Cyborg 000-9). No release date has been set.
A full length trailer for One Piece: Episode of Alabaster - Sabaku no Ojou to Kaizoku Tachi is now online. The film premieres March 3 in Japan. Source: Anime Nation
The Japanese Post Office, better known as Japan Post, has announced that the 5th Edition of their popular “Heroes and Heroines of Anime” Stamp Series will feature Neon Genesis Evangelion. An announcement about the Stamp Series, along with images of the Evangelion stamps, can be found here. The stamps go on sale on February 23rd at every post office in Japan.
The stamps, featuring images of some of the most popular characters from the Evangelion anime, will be sold in sheets of ten stamps, valued at 80 yen per stamp. As a special service to customers, the Tokyo Chuo Post Office will have a 2 limited edition ink stamps available for customer use on February 23rd only. The ink stamps feature images of Shinji Ikari and EVA Unit 01.
Previous editions of the “Heroes and Heroines of Anime” series have featured Pokemon, Gundam, Galaxy Express 999 and a “science and technology” edition featuring Gatchaman.
Conqueror of Shambala picks up honors at Amazon.com and Newsrama