Otaku Review

Two new series have gotten the green light for TV anime series with one being about train bishies and another featuring pretty cat girls. The first series is titled ‘Miracle Train: Welcome to the Chuo Lines’ and will star the moe bishie mascot quintet that debuted recently as the mascot characters for the Chou train lines in Japan. Yumeta Company will be producing the animation with five cast members already set to take on the leads: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Rei Tokyo), Ryoutarou Okiayu (Shintarou Shinjuku), Hiroshi Kamiya (Riku Nakano), Miyu Irino (Takuto Kichijouji) (Gundam 00’s Saji Crossroad, Tsubasa’s Syaoran), Kouki Miyata (Rune Tachikawa). No other details are available about the project but one can only hope that it doesn’t turn into thirteen episodes worth of train commercials.

Also announced this morning is a series based on the manga ‘Omamori Himori’. The romantic comedy follows a sixteen year old boy who is protected by a spirit in the form of a cat girl. Also revealed in the announcement via the author is the news that Studio Hibari will be producing the animation. Personally I’m much more interested in this one at the moment than I am in the train bishies.

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).

The official website for ‘Dogs: Bullets & Carnage’ has been launched complete with a trailer for fans (click movie in the bottom right corner). The OVA is based off the manga of the same name which follows different criminals in a European city from the future. The characters include an albino gunman, a sword swinging Naota, twins named Luki and Noki and an eye patch wearing man named Badou. The trailer for release is about a minute long and gives audiences a good look at each of the main characters while exposing some of the action. The first volume of the OVA will be released along with Volume 4 of the manga on May 19^th.

Edited to fix character description

A wraparound obi on the third volume of ‘Nyan Koi!’ has revealed that the manga series has been green lit for an anime series. The series follows a high school boy who is allergic to cats and accidently breaks a cat deity statue. As punishment, he is given the power to understand all cats and must grant the wishes of 100 of them. If he fails, he will be turned into a cat himself. There was no additional information regarding when the series would be released or who was producing the animation.

This is just a quick note but it has been confirmed that the 22^nd manga volume of the music series ‘Nodame Cantabile’ will include a special OVA this summer. This is just the latest in success marks for this series however as it has already received two TV anime series (with season three set to air this fall). The manga volume and OVA will be released on August 10th.

ANN is reporting that the manga series ‘Aoi Hana’ will be getting anime series later this year produced by J.C. Staff. The yuri romance series follows two girls who were friends as children but lost touch when one moved away. Now they are meeting again as high school freshmen and trying to form their friendship again while dealing with life. Sounds um… fun I guess.

Coming in from the very cool thing that I want to see someday department, ANN reported this morning that Meiji University in Japan have made plans to open a new anime and manga museum. When it is opened, the museum will contain 2.5 million different anime and manga related items on display for fans to see making it the largest museum in the world dedicated to anime and manga. There are also plans to include a library, screening rooms and research in the 91,000 square foot building chosen as the site.

No idea on when it is actually going to open but I just got an entirely new reason to start saving up for my eventual trip overseas.

ANN has reported that a new anime is on the horizon for the ‘Shin Koihime Muso’ franchise. The series is an eroge which has the hero from the modern world transported back to ancient China just in time to star in an action filled romantic comedy. How fortunate for him. The new series will be titled ‘Shin Koihime Musou’ but no word on when it will be hitting the air waves or who is going to be involved in the production of the series. One could guess that Dogokobo will return to do animation production but that’s far from a guarantee. The announcement came via a television commercial which I’ve embedded below:

Also revealed yesterday is the green light of an anime series based off the historical manga ‘Soten Koro’. Names for the series have already been revealed to include animation produced by Madhouse, character designs from Takahiro Umehara and Akira Kano and Tsuneo Tominaga as director.

ANN has reported that the manga series ‘Sora no Manimani’ will be getting an anime series this summer. The series has had five manga volumes released starting in 2006 with the fifth (pictured left) being released last fall. Already attached to the project is Studio Comet (School Rumble, Suzuka) along with ‘School Rumble’ crew members, Shinji Takamatsu as director and Hajime Watanabe doing character designs. The romantic comedy follows first year high school student, Saku, and his childhood friend Mihoshi rebuilding their friendship after an incident from long ago left them with strained feelings.

The series itself has a website but all you get right now is a 403 Forbidden page. I’m not familiar with this series but it will be fun to see Studio Comet doing another series that is along the same genre lines as ‘School Rumble’ without actually being ‘School Rumble’.

Today’s Daily Yomiuri Online has an article about a stage production based on the manga series ‘Fruits Basket’ that will premiere next week. The series will be presented by an all male stage troupe called Studio Life. Playing the lead female role of Toru will be actor Shun Mikami. In the article Mikami says that he is looking forward to playing the role and that he has not encountered any difficulties in portraying a female role. It is pointed out that Mikami has played a number of female roles in the past for the stage troupe so maybe he’s just really comfortable/confident with who he is and what he does. Points for that I guess.  

Anyways, the article has quite a few quotes from various members of the cast and production crew and is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the series. The show will be running in Tenozu, Tokyo on various dates between 2/26 and 3/8. If you happen to be in Tokyo during those dates and attend the show, feel free to drop me a line and let me know how it is!