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Sad news coming out of New York as it’s been confirmed that Media Blasters was recently forced to put at least 13 employees on temporary unpaid leave or laid off entirely. For a small company like Media Blasters, this represents about 25% of their staff.

In a statement to ANN, Media Blasters CEO John Sirabella said “Recently, some of our larger vendors have slowed down quite a bit, so we have to take precautions. We are hoping that if we start to see the orders flow back from these vendors, we can bring [the furloughed employees] back later.”

Unfortunately, this news also comes with a round of new release dates for planned DVDs (including Kanokon, Queen’s Blade and others that certain fans have been looking forward to… I think you all know who you are). The list of titles that are being rescheduled are listed below with their new release dates afterwards:

Wordsworth Outer Story moved to 4/13/2010

World of Wordsworth Collection (WordsWorth Premium Collection) moved to 4/13/2010

Otogi Zoshi: Collection of Ages moved to 4/20/2010

Gaogaigar Season 2 LiteBox moved to 4/27/2010

Rurouni Kenshin Complete Series Volumes 1-22, Eps, 1-95 moved to 4/27/2010

Tekkaman Blade Complete (Volumes 1-3 , Eps. 1-49) moved to 5/4/2010

Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan Special Edition (Now Dubbed) moved to 5/18/2010

Queens Blade The Exiled Virgin: A Single Step Vol.1 moved to 5/18/2010

Kanokon – The Girl Who Cried Fox: Sexy Like a Fox  Vol. 1 moved to 5/25/2010

Inma Seiden moved to 6/1/2010

Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny: Vol 3 moved to 6/29/2010

Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (Uncut Episode) moved to To be Determined

Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (The Movie) moved to To be Determined

Queens Blade The Exiled Virgin: The Beaten Path, Vol. 2 moved to To be Determined

Fleshdance (Shimaizuma) moved to To be Determined

Ikki Tousen Premium Box moved to To be Determined

Oh My Sex Goddess (Megachu) moved to To be Determined

Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei V1 moved to To be Determined

<Via ANN, Anime on DVD>

Wow, this is a really slow Monday! Not that I’m really complaining, it’s always nice to have spare time to dedicate towards stuff going on behind the scenes but it sure would be nice to have some big news to report to everyone. Instead I hope everyone will settle for some brand new trailers!

If you missed the original series or even if you’ve already seen it many times over, it’s hard to not be curious about the new Trigun: Badlands Rumble Movie. Premiering April 2nd at SakuraCon in Seattle (three weeks before the Japanese theater premiere!), the new movie brings back the cast and crew for a new adventure starring Vash the Stampede. If you’re still on the fence about this one however, here’s a 98 second trailer to help bring you off the brink.

If Trigun isn’t your thing, a second trailer went up over the weekend for the upcoming spring premiere of Heroman (Hit menu at the bottom, then choose movie). Getting a manga and anime adaptation (the first volume of the manga is out late this month while the anime premieres on April 1st), the story takes place on America’s west coast where a young boy finds a toy robot and an alien invasion. Luckily for him (and us I guess), the toy robot can transform into a giant robot (which looks like a very patriotic, mechanical Michelin Man) which the boy can pilot and use to stave off the alien invasion. If you’re asking yourself what that reminds you of, start asking yourself a better question ‘What doesn’t that remind you of?’.

Alright, that’s a little unfair so instead I’ll say this: it’s an original story from Stan Lee and an animation studio that has produced great series such as Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Ouran High School Host Club. So let’s all give it a chance and hopefully see a story that isn’t ‘Stan Lee and Bones Presents Generic Shonen Series #1532-B’

I couldn’t tell you where it first began, but for as long as I’ve been watching anime I can recall seeing interesting family relationships. From the cousin who wants to be just a bit too close orthe sister who wants to share in some constant skinship, these are the characters that will make you laugh as long as you’re ok with it occasionally being uncomfortable.

I’m also here to say that there is nothing wrong with that! These sisters have made me laugh and cry so creepy sisters who made me occasionally ask ‘Are these two seriously related?’, I salute you!

1. Minato Nagase (Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka): Such an incredible sister she can cook, clean, fight off small armies and still win her brother away from the prying rich girl that he was arranged to marry.

[View with PicLens]

2. Silvia De Alisia (Aquarion): Admit it, she was always just a little too anxious to find out that her and her brother were reincarnated lovers from a past life.

[View with PicLens]

3. Shion Sonozaki (Higurashi – When They Cry): Who was more yandere, Mion or Shion? It’s a war that will never have a winner but if it helps change the tides any I’m on Team Shion. Despite her not really being ‘creepy’, insane is close enough for me.

[View with PicLens]

4. Sakuya (Sister Princess): In the first TV series, Sakuya was flirtatious but it was never out of hand. It wasn’t until I saw the final episode of the Repure sequel that I realized just how creepy Sakuya could be when you actually hear what she’s thinking.

[View with PicLens]

5. Ako & Riko (Kiss x Sis): Some of the newest addition to the category of creepy sisters, these two know no bounds… which might explain their quickly rising and swelling popularity. It’s as though their fan base is just throbbing.

[View with PicLens]

That’s it for this month! As always, share your thoughts on who should’ve been on the list in the comments. Got a suggestion for a future Otaku Review Salutes? Leave it here or on Twitter and you may see it happen in a future post.

Sometime in the last couple of days, a note was attached to the Omamori Himari page on Crunchyroll which stated that the series will be removed from the streaming site 30 days after the final episode airs on March 24th. The note also states that the video is being removed by Kadokawa. Another series licensed from Kadokawa, Sora no Otoshimono, was also quietly removed from the site sometime in the recent past. That one may have escaped notice from fans because it was a terrible series.

In an email, Crunchyroll VP of Licensing Rob Pereyda explained the removal of the series:

“While I cannot reveal too many details as to the specifics of the Kadokawa Pictures deals, I can confirm that there is a window in place for the two titles. While I am not privy to their entire media strategy, I can say that the windowing of content across various forms of media has become more and more widespread recently, especially overseas, and that both rights holders and distributors ultimately come to these kinds of agreements to best ensure the future, viable production of high-quality media.”

Translated, Kadokawa is only letting their series be licensed out for short periods of time. The most obvious reason why this could be a decent strategy is in hopes of getting a future DVD deal that fans will buy after having already been exposed to it while it aired. Then again, anime fans can have quite the short term memory at times. Sora no Otoshimono will always be remembered as the ‘flying pantsu’ series but Omamori Himari is never going to be known as the ‘warrior catgirl’ series so it’s hard to predict how these series would do on DVD.

It DOESN’T mean that either series has been licensed already but it could indicate that Kadokawa believes there is some kind of market for these series in the future. Because it’s not like we haven’t had our fill of supernatural or sci-fi harem series already.

In an slightly related note, the super natural action series Chrono Crusade was also recently removed from Crunchyroll. In this case however, Pereyda confirmed that they just decided not to renew the license for the series from Gonzo/GDH.

<Thanks to ScottFrye for the tip>

I don’t normally write about non-anime related stories coming out of Japan. Last night while surfing however, this one caught my eye and I need to share my thoughts with you here because it’s been long time since I started this story in such a different mood than where I was when I ended it.

According to the story, Princess Akio of Japan (the only child of Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako) left school early on Monday and is afraid to go back because she was bullied by boys in her class. Now, I admit that at this point I felt bad for the kid. She’s only 8 and I remember what it was like to be bullied at that age (and every other age now that I think about it).

Then I read a little further down and came across this line

Nomura [grand master of the crown prince's household] said the palace had asked the school to deal with the matter.

Alright, in reality I’m sure that this was a pleasant enough phone call and was no different than how the parent of another child would handle it. But still, I’m already light years away from feeling bad and now wondering just how exactly the palace asked them to deal with it. The way its phrased already has me in my head remembering how much Japan values how they appear to others and picturing a school getting a call from the royal palace.

You’re a grade school in Tokyo and you’re getting a call from the royal palace telling you that they are unhappy with something happening in your school to the ONLY child of the prince and princess. How are you supposed to react to this? I’d like to imagine that the scramble happening inside that school office could rival the best slapstick anime but I guess we’ll never know.

Obviously, the school doesn’t think it’s a big deal since the very next line in the article reads

He also said the palace has obtained consent from the school to publicize the princess’s situation

But then again, they’ve already got the royal palace on the phone telling them that they are unhappy with the school. Would they even be allowed to say ‘no’ to anything they asked at that point?

Ah Funimation, you couldn’t have let us enjoy this just a little bit longer?

FUNimation Entertainment is known for releasing the titles we license in their original, uncut form, as their creators intended. However, after viewing the unedited as well as the Japanese broadcast edit of the series “Dance in the Vampire Bund,” we have determined the series contains controversial elements which, when taken out of context, could be objectionable to some audiences.

With this in mind and with approval of the licensor, we will edit select scenes from the series in streaming and *home entertainment release*. These are scenes which are inappropriate for U.S. viewing and are not essential to the storyline.

“Dance in the Vampire Bund” is a complex and dark drama cited by press and fans as one of the best anime series out of Japan this season. Its strong story is what brought the series to our attention and why we are bringing it to the U.S.”

So yes, Funimation will be releasing Dance in the Vampire Bund in a censored version. There is no word on what in particular will be censored but I’d say there’s a fair chance that we won’t be seeing the nude loli heroine scene from early on. I’ve said this before but I’ll state it again for the record, I do not like censorship. I believe US fans should be allowed to purchase the same materials that appear on the DVDs in Japan. However, I’m also not going to pitch a huge fit about this.

Dance in the Vampire Bund is NOT entirely tame when it comes to nudity and the romantic relationship that develops between Mina and the lead male character. With recent court cases, it’s understandable that Funimation is going to take the safe route for once. This isn’t something that I expect from them regularly and it’s frustrating that they are doing it now but in the end, it’s not worth throwing a pitchfork party over.

There are a couple of things in the press release that just bother me though…

“However, after viewing the unedited as well as the Japanese broadcast edit of the series “Dance in the Vampire Bund,” we have determined the series contains controversial elements which, when taken out of context, could be objectionable to some audiences.”

Time out! After viewing the unedited and edited versions they decided there were controversial elements? They make this sound like they bought the series and then discovered that *gasp* this chick looks really freakin young! What was that viewing like? I realize I’m not an expert on the business but something tells me that Funimation knew about the questionable content quite awhile ago.

The decision was announced the day after the license announcement came out, it was going to be censored from the beginning. We get it, but you could haven’t just said so?

Well, I hope that if you’re a fan of this series that you enjoyed episode 14 because it’s going to be the last one for awhile longer. A date change on the Sofmap website today confirmed that the final episode of Bakemonogatari (and consequently the final DVD) will not be released until late May/Early June (the new official release date for the DVD/Blu ray is June 6th).

When episode 13 streamed in January, I really thought that Shaft had a plan in place to get this series completed but then the weeks of waiting began. Then when episode 14 streamed I really thought that perhaps Shaft would make it in time to keep the original March release date but alas, they’ve gone and broken my heart once again. Don’t think I’m going to take this forever though Shaft, another 200 times of this and I’m out of here!

<Via MyAnimeList>

After getting a good night of sleep, I woke up looking for a sign. I needed to know that today was going to be a good day. Then this sitting in my inbox…

FUNimation Entertainment Acquires Baka and Test and Dance in the Vampire Bund for North American Release

Oh yeah, it’s going to be a good day.

Funimation announced this morning that have acquired all the usual rights (digitial, home video, etc) for Baka to Test to Shokanju (to be released as Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts) produced by Silver Link and Dance in the Vampire Bund from Shaft. Two very different series which both premiered this past January in Japan.

Baka and Test is likely the candidate for the biggest hit of the last season. A romantic school comedy about students in a school which promotes the summoning of tiny avatars to battle other students and classes; it’s becoming harder and harder to go an entire week without hearing at least one person make a reference to the androgynous trap character Hideyoshi.

The second series licensed, Dance in the Vampire Bund, is a much darker, loli vampire series about the queen of vampires, Mina Tepes, creating a new world for her race. Buying an island from Japan, Tepes plans to create a safe haven for vampires all over the world to live in but from the very beginning there are humans and vampires who want her to fail.

Both series will be getting a simulcast starting tomorrow (Friday) morning at 10am Central when the first two episodes of Baka and Test and the first four episodes of Dance in the Vampire Bund will premiere on the official Funimation site. New episodes will be rolled out weekly after that starting on the 10th and 12th.

While I’m not crazy about the new title change (Summon the Beasts makes it sound way too much like an action series when it’s actually not even close); these are two announcements that start a day off right. Baka and Test is a something I’ve enjoyed quite a bit thus far and Dance in the Vampire Bund is…. well it’s not terrible.

Full press release after the cut

FUNimation Entertainment Acquires Baka and Test and Dance in the Vampire Bund for North American Release

Anime Leader to Stream Episodes of Series within Days of Japanese Television Debut

Flower Mound, TX – March 4, 2010 — FUNimation® Entertainment has acquired digital, broadcast, home video and merchandise rights to the fantasy anime series “Baka and Test — Summon the Beasts” (known in Japan as Baka to Test to Shokanju) and the supernatural action anime series “Dance in the Vampire Bund” and the from Media Factory. The agreement gives the American anime leader exclusive rights to the online streaming and simulcast of both series in the U.S.

Starting this month, FUNimation will deliver high-quality, free, original Japanese dialogue accompanied by English subtitles, streaming episodes of “Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts” and “Dance in the Vampire Bund” via www.funimation.com, just  days after airing on Japan’s TV Tokyo and Chiba TV, respectively.

This week on Friday, March 5 at 10:00 a.m. CST FUNimation will stream the first two episodes of “Baka to Test – Summon the Beasts” and episodes 1-4 of “Dance in the Vampire Bund.” In addition to the episodes already aired in Japan, starting March 10 and 12 a new episode will be rolled out weekly as both series continue their television run.

FUNimation will also offer a download-to-own option for these episodes through www.funimation.com at $1.99 per episode.

“Baka and Test — Summon the Beasts” is a 13 episode series produced by Silver Lake and directed by Shin Oonuma (Pani Poni Dash, Negima! OVA’s) and adapted from the light novel series written by Kenju Inoue and illustrated by Yui Haga.

About Baka and Test — Summon the Beasts

Fumizuki Academy’s students can summon Avatars, pint-sized versions of themselves that battle using special powers. The students are grouped by skill level, and those in Class A are the brightest. Then there’s Akihisa Yoshii’s group – lowly Class F. They’re the worst on campus, and they’re about to take on the school’s best.

“Dance in the Vampire Bund” is a 12 episode series produced by the Japanese studio SHAFT and directed by Masahiro Sonada (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) and based on the manga by Nozomu Tamaki.

About Dance in the Vampire Bund

When Mina Tepes – queen of the vampires – suddenly appears in Japan to establish a colony for her blood-sucking brethren, Akira Kaburagi’s world will never be the same. As a boy, Akira vowed to serve the ruler of the night, and now he must fulfill his destiny by protecting Mina from those who would dethrone her!

Visit the Baka and Test – Summon the Beasts and Dance in the Vampire Bund official web sites for updates.

About FUNimation Entertainment

FUNimation^® Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is the leading company for home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States.  FUNimation has a proven formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution. For more information about FUNimation Entertainment and its brands, visit www.funimation.com.

You know, I actually woke up early today with the intention of writing a couple of updates, getting some prep work done on some new stuff… and then I was faced with the reality of having no internet for the entire day. Believe me, you do not want to see me when I have been deprived of an internet connection for too long. Think yandere only a little more edgy… though I’m a guy so perhaps I should have used a different comparison.

So, with a quick aside to once again say “Bite me Qwest” now out of the way, let’s just jump right into everything interesting that happened while I was being deprived.

Did You Watch the First Seven Minutes of Gundam Unicorn? Because Bandai wants you to… badly. If you’re an anime and/or Gundam fan, you’ve probably at least heard about the newest release from Bandai, Gundam Unicorn. Based on the novel series by Harutoshi Fukui, the OVA series has gotten quite a bit of buzz but apparently a little more never hurts. That’s probably why Bandai has begun streaming the first seven minutes of episode 1 entirely free on their own site and YouTube in English with subtitles in several languages (the YouTube stream has no subtitles). Hm, wonder if this has anything to do with a single 58 minute episode being priced at $35 has anything to do with it? Though this is where old school fans can insert comments about how much they had to pay for single episode VHS tapes.

Christopher Handley’s Lawyer Speaks Out: One of the things I really wanted to give attention today was the statement made by Eric Chase. Serving as the defense for recently sentenced manga collector Christopher Handley, these are words that everyone who has been following the case should read. While the comment is long, there are certain passages which shed a little light into the case and new understanding of the plea and sentencing. To those who thought that Handley should have fought the charges, Chase counters with examples of why Handley would have been fighting very unfavorable odds. Though one passage did stand out which did not when I read the original sentencing agreement:

“His [Handley’s] ultimate sentence was 6 months with a recommendation that his term be served in a halfway house…Chris will likely never have a jail door slam behind him.”

I’m actually really glad to hear just one thing that can be considered even the smallest of silver linings for this guy.

Kitakyushu to Build Otaku Complex in 2012: While the real deal manga and anime museum proposed by now former Prime Minister Taro Aso may be mostly dead, new signs of life in the city of Kitakyushu may give otaku new reason to believe. The city recently unveiled a plan to build a brand new otaku complex which will include a manga museum, original artwork from Leiji Matsumoto (who is from the city) and a variety of shops.

What would you want to see in a brand new otaku complex meant to attract foreign otaku?

Yuu Asakawa Added to Anime Expo Guest List: *SWOON!* If you’ve watched anime in its original Japanese any time in the last few years there’s a chance you’ve heard this seiyuu since her resume is a mile long. Let me name off a few… Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh, Priss Asagiri in Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Rider in Fate/Stay Night, Motoko in Love Hina… yeah, her! Anime Expo announced today that she will be joining other special guests including director Shinichiro Watanabe and musical guests HIGH and MIGHTY and Sophia. (Full press release below the cut)

Read the rest of this entry »

Of course it figures that the day I decide to stay out late and have some fun is the day that a second season of Tegami Bachi (Letter Bee) is announced. Forget that bit of bad luck though… a second season of Tegami Bachi is premiering in the fall! The original announcement was made in Pafu magazine by the manga author Asada Hiroyuki.

Premiering last fall in Japan (and streaming on Crunchyroll), the Studio Pierrot animated series is based on the manga of the same name. Following a letter carrier named Lag Seeing through a fantasy world filled with giant, armor plated bugs; the story largely revolves around his deliveries and helping the recipients see the true ‘heart’ behind the letters while also searching for answers regarding his missing mentor and mother who apparently abandoned him as a child.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I have been enjoying Tegami Bachi since it premiered. It got off to a slow start but the stellar animation pulled me in before the story eventually grew on me. If you haven’t already checked this one out, I’d suggest it to those who enjoy fantasy drama with a touch of action (I’d compare it to El Hazard but that’s just wrong). I have to admit though with only a few episodes left in the first season I would love to see the series throw the audience a bone and give us just ONE answer to a story line. Just one before the second season? That can’t be too much to ask.

<Announcement image via Moetron>