Otaku Review

Well, the plan for today is to largely hide and catch up with DVDs as much as I can. It is that special day of the year when getting a reliable news story is harder than usual so I think I’ll sit this one out and catch up on DVDs. Trailers are reliable though and we have quite a few today including a full OP.

The full OP for the upcoming sci-fi series, ‘Shangri-La’ was leaked online from the official website. The sequence was uploaded to the website but never officially linked to until residents of 2ch found it. Watching this OP sequence though really makes me intrigued to see more. Gonzo put together a great looking sequence to get fans hooked in though the character designs are a little off.

Another spring premiere has gotten a brand new promotional video as well. Reverse harem series Hanasakuru Seishounen has released a four minute promotional video showing lots of early animation setting up the story and the various suitors that the heroine will be choosing from plus some backstage recording footage and interviews. If you want to get a head start on learning about the characters in this series than you’ll want to check this one out.

The final spring premiere to get a trailer today is from the next chapter in the Shin Mazinger series. It’s been awhile since this series has been remade into anything but this one looks interesting. In that trailer, the one thing in particular that struck me as unique is how old the character designs look and yet how modern the animation is. The staff is really doing their best to call back to the fans of the older releases with this and it will be fun to see how well it works.

In news that isn’t related to spring premieres, a 94 second trailer for the upcoming ‘Evagelion 2.0’ has made its way online as well. The new trailer does exactly what it should do showing plenty of footage that will make any Eva fan excited to see more, including the first peeks at the return of Asuka. The new version of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ is pretty terrible though. The pacing is much too slow, especially to be placed against that particular trailer.

Hanasakuru Seishounen
aka: 花咲ける青少年
Genre: Romance
Premiere Date: 4/5/09
Studio: Studio Pierrot
Official Website

Story

Originally a manga from the 80’s and early 90’s, ‘Hanasakeru Seishōnen’ tells the story of a half Japanese heiress who has started high school for the first time in the United States. While attending school, she’ll meet new people and get caught up in a plot involving oil and wealth.

Artwork

While no animation from the series has managed to make its way onto the interwebs, the character designs that I’ve seen so far aren’t leading me into optimistic territory.

Early Impressions

With little to go off of, I’m going to be walking to this series with a blind eye and open mind. While the romantic story of a Japanese heiress suddenly going to school in the US doesn’t really sound like something that I would get into, I’ve been known to get into (and enjoy!) stories that are far more ridiculous or overly dramatic than that. In defense of this series however, quite a few names have been attached to this project that will make it an aural treat for fans such as Aya Endo (Kajika Burnsworth), Daisuke Ono (Eugene) and Jun Fukuyama (Carl).

Sanrio and Sega revealed (via Famitsu Magazine) at the Tokyo Toy Forum that the ‘JewelPet’ line will be getting an anime series. The ‘JewelPet’ line are toys in the form of impossibly cute animals all named after various jewels. The toys are aimed at young girl in Japan who can access a special website with a code included in each toy. I’m not really sure what the girls do after going to the website (since as AnimeVice points out, you can’t actually look at the website unless you’ve bought one of the toys). No further details have been released as of yet.

In a quick and unrelated note, the official website for the upcoming series ‘Hanasakeru Seishonen’ has opened. The TV series will be adapting the manga of the same name first serialized in the late 80’s to early 90’s in LaLa. So far only a couple of names have been revealed as attached to the project including seiyuu Aya Endo (‘Lucky Star’, ‘Sora Kake Girl’) in the role of Kajika Burnsworth and Chiaki Kon (‘Higurashi’, ‘Nodame Cantabile: Paris’) as director. The Studio Pierrot series will air in April ’09.