Anime Banzai

Moon Phase reports that Shinobu Takayama's manga Amatsuki is being developed into an anime. The series is about a high schooler named Tokidoki who is so bad at history that he's forced to work at a history museum to improve his grades. But one day, as he's playing the high-tech museum's Edo era simulator, he loses an eye to a monster-- and can't find his way back out of the game. Studio Deen is set to animate; no date has been set.

And while we're on the topic of new anime, fans of TOKYOPOP's manga Dazzle-- a.k.a. Hatenkou Yugi --might like to know that an official website for the anime has been pre-opened. Just a splash image for now, but it's the first glance of how Minari Endo's art will be translated into animation.

What does it mean when we start getting U.S. anime news from Japanese anime news sites? Anime!Anime! reports that TOKYOPOP announced a live-action adaptation of Ikki Tousen at TIFFCOM, the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Ikki Tousen, of course, is Yuji Shioaki's adaptation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in which warriors from the Three Kingdoms era are reincarnated as buxom female high school students in Japan. Live-action fanservice? You bet your booty.

The December issue (on sale October 27) of Ichijinsha's Monthly Comic Zero-Sum magazine will announce that Studio DEEN is animating Amatsuki, Shinobu Takayama's fantasy manga about two high school boys trapped in a fully immersive, virtual recreation of 19th-century Japan. According to a Moon Phase blog entry, Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Rurouni Kenshin, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Getbackers) will direct the project, as well as co-write the scripts with Chieko Suzuki. Shinobu Tagashira (Shonen Onmyouji, Hunter X Hunter) will design the characters. Five manga volumes have been published so far.

Norie Yamada and Kumichi Yoshizuki's Someday's Dreamers (Mahō Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto) magical slice-of-life manga is being adapted into a live-action film for release in Japan in Summer of 2008. The movie will star 15-year-old model and actress Rio Yamashita (Tokyo Girl drama) as a budding mage learning to use her powers in Tokyo. Director Shun Nakahara (Tomie: Forbidden Fruit) has been shooting the film from September 29 until the end of October. Tokyopop released the original manga in English in 2006, and Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. released the animated version in English in 2003. Thanks, dormcat. Source: Ultimatum

Head Phones President, an alternative heavy rock band with former Sailor Moon musical actress and anime theme singer Anza as lead vocalist, will perform at the Pacific Media Expo convention at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport on November 9-11. Along with Anza, guitarists Hiro and Mar and bassist Narumi formed the band in 2000. Anza was the first actress to play the title role in the Sailor Moon musicals, and co-sang a version of the "Moonlight Densetsu" theme for the anime version. In her solo career, Anza also sang songs for Card Captor Sakura and Glass Fleet.

The Japanese website for Production I.G's Tokyo Marble Chocolate, an anime short about the "pure love" between a couple celebrating Christmas in Tokyo, posted two trailers Saturday. The "Mata Aimashō" trailer is named after the theme song sung by hip hop artist Seamo, while the male jazz pop duo Sukima Switch provides the "Zenryoku Shōnen" theme song for the second trailer. The movie will have its premiere on October 27 at the Tokyo International Film Festival, with a DVD release to follow on December 19. Source: Moon Phase

Funimation has announced that its September 25 release of the first Witchblade anime DVD had the best first-week sales of any anime in the United States so far this year. Funimation made that announcement after the survey company Nielsen VideoScan posted its data for point-of-sale purchases for Witchblade's debut week. The Japanese animation company Gonzo adapted this series from a Top Cow comic book about a sentient weapon that bequeaths its female wielders with unnatural powers.

Musician and actress Nao Matsushita will star in a April 2008 live-action film of Suna-dokei (Sand Chronicles), the 2003-2005 shōjo manga by Hinako Ashihara (Forbidden Dance, SOS). The story recounts the "pure love" between two friends as they grow from 12 to 26 years old. The ten-volume manga already sold 5.7 million copies and was made into a hit live-action television series (6.7% average rating with a peak of 9.1%) last spring. The movie will begin shooting on October 27 and end in the middle of December. Viz Media will start releasing volumes of the original manga in English next January. Source: Ultimatum

A.D. Vision's Anime Network will premiere the Venus Versus Virus supernatural adventure series on November 16 on its video-on-demand service. The first DVD volume ships on November 13. According to its online schedule, ImaginAsian TV (IATV) will replace The Law of Ueki with Paradise Kiss at 9:00 p.m. ET during its Anime EnerG programming block on Tuesdays, starting this week. Kamichu! will continue to air at 8:00 p.m. ET. IATV will air episode 39 of Kyo Kara Maoh! (the last episode of the anime's first half) on October 23 at 8:30 pm ET, and replace the series with Ayakashi on October 30. Thanks, Jose Gonzalez. Errata: Headline corrected. Thanks, Dragonxtc.

Jason Thompson (Del Rey's Manga: The Complete Guide author, former Shonen Jump editor) and Atsuhisa Okura (artist of Japanime's Moe USA, 50 Things We Love About Japan) have created a 10-page manga about manga in the November issue (on sale October 23) of the Wired technology magazine. Brave Story's Yochiro Ono draws the issue's cover art, and Daniel H. Pink, the creator of an upcoming manga on tips from Japanese business (The Adventures of Johnny Bunko), writes an accompanying article about dōjinshi. Thompson will appear at a Complete Guide signing at the Borders Books & Music store in Torrance, California on October 27.

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