© T-ARTS / syn Sophia / TV TOKYO / IPP Production Committee

As the Idol Time Pripara season continues along, the promos from TV Tokyo arrive to give us a taste of it. Shows like these tend to be the hardest to make their way overseas for a range of reasons, none of which makes the lack of them any less frustrating. The thirty-fifth episode of Idol Time Pripara is being queued up for a November 28th, 2017 debut from TV Tokyo and they’ve now cut loose the first promo for it – which we’ll warn you end up being taken down around the same time as the episode airs in Japan.

With animation production from Tatsunoko Production, the series is directed by Makoto Morikawa based on the series composition from Michihiro Tsuchiya and character designs by Shoji Hara. The series stars Arisa Date as Yui Yumekawa, Himika Akaneya as Laala Manaka, Yō Taichi as Nino Nijiiro, Yuina Yamada as Michiri Kōta, Reiō Tsuchida as Koyoi, Seiichirō Yamashita as Shōgo and Tatsuyuki Kobayashi as Asahi.

Plot Concept: PriPara (Prism Paradise) is the successor to the popular Pretty Rhythm series. The new anime is set in the PriPara world, filled with girls’ dreams and yearnings for fashion, dance, and music. Every day, there are auditions that send top idols to worldwide fame on television and online. Manaka Laala is a 5th-grader at Paprika Academy. Like most girls, she admires the world of PriPara, but unfortunately for her, her school does not allow elementary school students to participate in PriPara. However, through miraculous circumstances, Laala passes the audition to become a PriPara idol.

© Akihisa Ikeda / Shueisha, Rosario+Vampire Project

Funimation brought out some very good news for fans of the Rosario+Vampire series during Anime Expo 2017 as they revealed Blu-ray plans for the property. The show is scheduled for a November 21st, 2017 release where it’s both seasons in one set for $69.98 in bilingual form. Ahead of that release they’ve now brought out a new dub clip that lets Moka cut loose with her powers and show what a real vampire can do. Extras for the release include the clean openings and closings.

The series is based on the manga from Akihisa Ikeda that came out between 2004 and 2007 with a sequel series that ran from 2007 to 2014, totally twenty-four volumes that Viz Media has released. The anime landed its first season in the winter of 2008 with Gonzo animating and then returned in fall of 2008 with the second season.

Check out our thoughts on the first season here.

Plot Concept: Tsukune’s terrible grades stick him in the only school that will take him. To his mortification, all his classmates are monsters and if they figure out his human status, he’s fresh meat! But when his scent attracts the hungry lips of a gorgeous vampire named Moka, it turns out he’s a sucker for supernatural chicks. Before long, Tsukune is being seduced by a bouncy succubus, tormented by a witch who swings both ways and felt-up by a stalker snow fairy. Moka doesn’t mind sharing with her new friends, but her panties get in a twist when real danger threatens her boy-toy. Beastly bullies beware, because when Tsukune unlocks Moka’s supermonster seal, a ravaging beauty with a dropkick from hell is revealed!

© URAHARA Film Partners

The fall 2017 anime series Urahara is having its home video releases in Japan handled by VAP and they previously set a decent schedule for it. The twelve episode series was getting a four-volume release that would have began on December 20th, 2017. The original plan was for the DVDs to be priced at 8,000 yen while the Blu-ray’s, which are listed as limited editions, are priced at 9,000 yen.

That’s all now changed as all the single volume releases have been scrapped in favor of doing a box set. That set is now scheduled for a March 21st, 2018 release where it’ll be priced at 28,00 yen for the DVD set and 3,200 yen for the Blu-ray set. The set is being produced across three discs with extras that include the clean opening, the cast roundtable material, and a cast commentary with the twelfth episode. Pack-in extras include the drama CD and an end-card postcard set of twelve images. So it basically pulls all the singles together into one set with one less disc.

The series was directed by Amika Kubo with Masatsugu Arakawa serving as the chief director. Natsuko Takahashi worked on the series composition while Mariko Fujita worked on character designs. Shirogumi and EMT2 produced the animation.

The Japanese cast includes Sumire Uesaka as Mari Shirako, Manaka Iwami as Kotoko Watatsumugi, Luna Haruna as Rito Sudou, Kokoa Amano as Misa Maruno, Yasunori Matsumoto as Ebifurya, and Riho Iida as Sayumin.

Sumire Uesaka is performing the opening theme song “Antithese Escape” while Luna Haruna is performing the ending theme song.

Plot Concept: Several years from now, the great cities of the world will be destroyed by creatures from another planet. Their next target is…Tokyo’s famed Harajuku district! Only a trio of treasure-seeking shop girls can hope to save the day. But first, do they have what it takes to become members of the PARK Harajuku: Crisis Team?

[Source: Urahara]

Once more the boys must fly.

What They Say:
After Colony 196. Tranquility has spread through the Earth Sphere and the colonies are at peace. The Gundam pilots find themselves attempting to rebuild their lives in this new era. No longer having need of their weapons of war, they have sent their Gundams into the sun to be destroyed. But suddenly, Relena Darlian, who has become a high-ranking government official, is kidnapped by a colony with aspirations of total domination. The Gundam pilots and their allies find themselves called into action once again. The Endless Waltz has resumed…

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track and the previously created English language dub in stereo in PCM format. For the most part, that applies to the release in general but it should be noted that the movie version also has an English 5.1 PCM mix that ups the ante just a bit when it comes to the action, though Japanese fans with the stereo mix won’t miss out on too much overall. The show is one that plays well to the period where it has some minor directionality at times with the action and dialogue but it’s not going to be big or crazy with it since setups largely didn’t do all that much back in the mid-1990’s. The action plays well with some bigger sequences that go louder and with some impact, especially in uncompressed form here as opposed to the lossy DVDs we used to have, while the dialogue side of it mostly straightforward in its design. There’s not a ton of directionality or depth to be had there but it has a clean and smooth sound where the music, and especially the opening and closing sequences, have a richer and warmer feeling to it. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
Originally airing in 1996 for Operation Meteor and 1997 for the OVAs and 1998 for the film, the transfer for this project is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio.The layout works well with the first two discs covering two episodes each of the Operation Meteor side while the third is the OVAs and the fourth is the film. Animated by Sunrise, the show has a strong look to it with some great and creative mobile suit designs, some solid detail in the backgrounds, and more varied character designs that hold up well. The traditionally animated series has some great warmth in the color design of the show and I love the fluidity of the characters when it shifts to bigger scenes and with the mobile suit fights themselves. The OVAs up things a bit in terms of animation quality as the action scenes feel more fluid and detailed but it all does its best to keep to the overall aesthetic of the TV series. The main takeaway here is that this is a strong improvement over the standard definition editions of the past while retaining the right kind of film feeling with the grain that doesn’t create additional noise or breakup to it.

Packaging:
The packaging for this release comes in a slightly thicker than normal Blu-ray case where we get the discs held on the two hinges inside. The front cover is my favorite of the releases that have come out as we get the boys in the foreground with great costumes and expressions and tied to their mobile suits in the background with a great color scheme that just oozes coolness. The back cover carries over the blackness but fills it in with a few stars and several shots from the show as well as a larger action visual from the show. The downside is that the summary of the premise, which is small to begin with, is done with the old green text used for computers back in the day and it’s essentially unreadable in most lighting and that includes the breakdown of the extras on the disc. The technical aspect is done with a white text in a separate box that covers things accurately. While there isn’t a show related insert here we do get artwork on the reverse side with the left featuring a good image of a pair of mobile suits while the right breaks down the episodes by number and title.

Menu:
The menu design for this release goes for the simple but effective approach with the static design. Each disc works the same kind of navigation piece along the bottom with the old school green text on black for the text that looks really nice while having the logo along the left of it. It doubles as the pop-up menu and works effectively in moving around and dealing with the setup and episode access. The bulk of each menu is the static piece that brings us different character pairings over the four volumes while set against some radar style imagery and a starfield to give it some additional weight. They’re not the strongest of menus in terms of flashy material but they’re solid and fit the theme very well.

Extras:
The only extras included in this release are the clean versions of the opening sequences and closing sequences as well as some of the previews for the OVA side.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the complete TV series having now been released, the final piece of the Gundam Wing experience is here with the Endless Waltz release. And it’s one that was definitely exciting back in the day in getting one more mission with the guys and seeing how some of the things shook out. It still surprise me to some extent that most of the various alternate Gundam properties aren’t utilized for long once the anime itself is done as you can easily imagine more stories in each of the universes and I’d actually kind of like to see a twenty years later kind of sequel series or web anime project for a lot of them just to see how they can be updated.

The Endless Waltz release is a little different from the TV series in what we get here as there’s a fair bit of material. We get the three OVAs that make up the property as well as the film version, but I have to admit as a weird completist I would have loved to have seen the Toonami edit included even in standard definition, even if I have little interest in watching it. Just from a preservation point of view. What really makes this set extra special, however, is the inclusion of the four-part Operation Meteor extra. These OVAs were released after the TV series finished and run just about an hour or more each and breaks out the stories of the characters in a kind of odd recap fashion where we see things from their perspective. The odd-numbered episodes deals with three of the boys, hence going a bit longer, while the even numbered ones have two of them. What makes this more than just recap is that there is new footage for each of them that shows what happens after the series, but I have to admit that in just having finished the TV series proper this was a rough experience because so much of it is recap before you get to that and it all turned into a blur.

That said, getting into the OVA side of the project with Endless Waltz brought back a lot of fun nostalgia and was just a visual treat even if the story itself is something of a mixed bag. In one sense I was really glad to see more new stuff with the boys and their Gundams, but in another sense, it all felt rather rushed compared to the sprawling feel of the TV series itself. The show starts in AC196, a year after the end of the war that brought everyone together in peace and harmony. The new government is celebrating with their new President, and just about everyone seems to be really upbeat about things. Quatre and Duo are prepping a storage ship to enter the sun that contains their Gundams as well as Trowa’s and Heero’s. They’ve all realized their place in the new world, as well as the lack of need for the Gundams, and have decided to part ways with them. Wu Fei, being who he is, has been unseen for a long time now and has kept his Gundam.

Things are all going hunky-dory at this point. Noin and Lady Une now head up a group called the Preventers which works for the new united government to try and prevent wars and other flare-ups. Relena has moved up to a Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs. Most of the Gundam boys have gone into various jobs, with Trowa being the most obvious being back in his circus act.

During the celebration, however, things go quite awry. Relena is kidnapped while at one of the colonies. The Barton Corporation proves to be entangled deep with someone who is intent on seeking independence from this new government and uses the company’s money to build tons of mobile suits and mobile dolls. The celebration proves to be the perfect time to do it as well. With swift moves, the colony is taken under control and the Preventers begin their job of heading to the colony to save it. The boys go into overdrive in trying to retrieve their Gundams and dealing with the new enemy suits.

But not all is as it seems, as the upstart ruler is not what was expected. The seven year old girl named Mariemaia introduces herself and her plans; to follow in the footsteps of her father and complete his dreams. Who is he? None other than Treize himself. Mariemaia definitely has the look and the coldness about her while still having some hint of the charm, even at such a young age. The show then progresses to run through the cycle of why wars happen and whose real responsibility it is to prevent them and to hold the peace, soldiers or citizens. Wu Fei throws in his lot with the Mariemaia forces as this question is the most pressing to him, which brings him into direct conflict with his old comrades.

In terms of the story, I’ve got mixed feelings about it. It feels sort of tacked onto the end of the TV series as an excuse to get some more cool toys made and make some great looking animation. The plot at times really does feel secondary to the animation and depending on how you view the ending of the TV series, something that doesn’t really feel in the same theme of it.

There’s also a fair amount of backstory provided for the series in the revelation of what Operation Meteor was really supposed to be all about. This comes when you meet the original Trowa Barton and learn about his desires to avenge Heero Yuy. It’s all rather interesting, but even after just finishing the TV series I’m still not sure that it all fits in all that concisely with it or whether it’s a revisionist thing with some gaping holes to it.

Where the show does succeed in a way similar to the TV series is that it really does shine in the absolutely stunning fight sequences, especially in the space ones with the Tallgeese and the Wing Zero. The animation is gorgeous and amazingly fluid and vibrant. If the show really is nothing more than just an excuse for more Gundam fights, I’m not about to complain when they’re executed this beautifully and even more so this time around in high definition.

In Summary:
It’s been a quick and fast binge session in a sense in the last month or so going through the full TV series and then this, which certainly colors my view a bit since four hours of this release is all about recapping the show with some additional bits mixed in. I’m beyond thrilled that we did finally get Operation Meteor as it was one of those few holy grail missing pieces that never felt like we’d actually get it. For me, the meat and potatoes of this set is Endless Waltz itself and having both versions to sink your teeth into is great since there are little bridging elements that make the movie interesting while I’m admittedly more of a stickler for the “as presented” OVA side that I had seen initially. Nozomi has put together a great run with this property with Sunrise and this capping feather definitely is worth the price of admission for fans for something that looks and sounds so great. They deliver here, big time.

Features:
Japanese PCM 2.0 Language, English PCM 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Openings, Japanese Commercials

Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B

Released By: Nozomi Entertainment/Sunrise
Release Date: December 5th, 2017
MSRP: $59.99
Running Time: 440 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

Claymore manga creator Norihiro Yagi finished off that work back in 2014 and has done a few smaller things since then and is now looking to get their next big project underway. The latest Weekly Shounen Sunday magazine updated yesterday on this with the reveal of Ariadne of the Azure Sky which is set to kick off in the December 6th installment of the magazine and will be Yagi’s first work for it.

Viz Media licensed and released the Claymore manga here while Funimation licensed and released the anime adaptation for it.

Plot Concept: The project focuses on a boy who lives alone away from people, but harbors a special dream. One day, he meets a lone girl, and the story begins as he becomes part of the girl’s destiny.

[Source: ANN]

© Sunrise

Funimation’s pickup earlier this year of the My-Hime property was definitely something I was glad to see formalized and scheduled and ahead of the release we now have the first trailer for it. The complete series is scheduled for a January 9th, 2018 debut priced at $64.98 where it’ll be a solid bilingual combo release for fans.

Special features include the Character Featurettes, Textless Closing Episode 15, Episode 26 Director’s Cut Ending, Textless Opening & Closing Songs.

Plot Concept: Mai Tokiha thought she had enough trouble in life between taking care of her ailing brother and transferring to a new school. But when she saves a mysterious girl wielding a sword, everything changes. A power awakens within her and she becomes a HiME, a battle princess! But she’s not alone with this power—eleven other girls share her fate, and the burden is a heavy one.

As things come together with the planned March 6th, 2019 Captain Marvel film from Marvel Studios, a new bit of casting news has surfaced for it. The latest is that Jude Law is confirmed to be in extensive talks to joining the project in a mentor role which has further been confirmed to be that of Mar-Vell himself, which held the title originally when he first appeared back in 1967. The character has as convoluted a history as any of them but there was a very good period where the character was dead back in 1982 and the title moved to other characters inhabiting the role, which gained significant popularity in the last few years with Carol Danvers.

Captain Marvel will see Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck tackling this project as co-directors, which is being written by Inside Out co-writer Meg LaFauve with Guardians of the Galaxy writer Nicole Perlman. The cast Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury with Ben Mendelsohn in talks for the villain role.

Boden and Fleck have worked together on multiple projects over the years, including the 2015 film Mississipi Grind, and have dabbled in both film and TV with work recently on The Affair and Billions. That blend of mediums is something that Marvel Studios has been attracted to in their talent as there are things that you can bring across from both to make for an engaging film, especially when it comes to character work.

© URAHARA Film Partners

As we mentioned before, it’s sometimes difficult to try a new show especially if you have a predetermined view of it without even seeing it. One way to get people to try something is with a “free sample” of sorts, hence Crunchyroll bringing out three more clips from the fall 2017 anime series Urahara which showcases some really neat looking animation design!

The series has new episodes coming every Wednesday at 7:15 am ET from the service with Funimation working a simuldub soon. Availability for it is very good as it’s open worldwide outside if Asia.

The series is being directed by Amika Kubo with Masatsugu Arakawa serving as the chief director. Natsuko Takahashi is handling the series composition while Mariko Fujita is working on character designs. Shirogumi and EMT2 are handling the animation production.

The Japanese cast includes Sumire Uesaka as Mari Shirako, Manaka Iwami as Kotoko Watatsumugi, Luna Haruna as Rito Sudou, Kokoa Amano as Misa Maruno, Yasunori Matsumoto as Ebifurya, and Riho Iida as Sayumin.

Sumire Uesaka is performing the opening theme song “Antithese Escape” while Luna Haruna is performing the ending theme song.

Plot Concept: Several years from now, the great cities of the world will be destroyed by creatures from another planet. Their next target is…Tokyo’s famed Harajuku district! Only a trio of treasure-seeking shop girls can hope to save the day. But first, do they have what it takes to become members of the PARK Harajuku: Crisis Team?

It looks like another new series from some familiar names is coming up later this year with Weekly Shounen Sunday announcing that Detective Zeno and the Seven Closed Room Murders will begin with the December 29th, 2017 installment. This comes from writer Kyoichi Nanatsuki, the writer behind Project ARMS, and artist Teppei Sugiyama, marking their first serialized work.

Nanatsuki’s previous projects have largely gone over well during a different period where PRoject ARMS ran for twenty-two volumes way back in 1997 and got a 52-episode anime TV series adaptation. His most recent work was with artist Kyung-Il Yang with Area D that ran for fourteen volumes between 2012 and 2016.

Plot Concept: The series deals with a murder that took place at a stadium. Appearing on the scene is the detective Zeno, who is famed for having solved a number of murders in barely a year. The detective, who always solves his case with an emotionless expression, hides a secret.

[Source: ANN]

The summer 2017 anime series Altair: A Record of Battles is having Aniplex Japan handling its home video releases and they’ve set a pretty tight release for it. With the second volume coming up in just a bit over a month we now have a look at that release with its cover design and the expectation to get the full packaging look for it later on. The two-cour series clocks in at twenty-four episodes and is getting four box sets brought out for it. The first and third DVD sets are priced at 16,500 yen with six episodes each while the second is priced at 17,500 yen with seven episodes and the fourth set at 15,500 yen with five episodes. The first and third Blu-ray sets are priced at 18,500 yen with six episodes each while the second is priced at 19,500 yen with seven episodes and the fourth set at 17,500 yen with five episodes.

The adaptation has Kazuhiro Furuhashi directing based on the series composition by Noboru Takagi. Toshiyuki Kanno is handling the character designs with it being animated at MAPPA.

The Japanese cast includes Ayumu Murase as Mahmut, Makoto Furukawa as Zaganos, KENN as Kyros, Katsuyuki Konishi as Sleiman, Kenjiro Tsuda as Rui, Kenichi Ogata as Khalil, Junichi Suwabe as Abiriga, Takaya Satou as Ibrahim, Yoko Hikasa as Shara, Kazuya Nakai as Balaban, Kouki Uchiyama as Bayezit, Ai Kayano as Ayşe, Nobunaga Shimazaki as Orhan and Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ishmael.

The original work comes from Kotono Kato and began in Monthly Shonen Sirius back in 2007 with over eighteen volumes out so far.

Plot Concept: Mahmut is a young Pasha serving on the general’s council of Turkey. The clouds of war are gathering over his country. With Turkey’s council split between the warmongers and the pacifists, Mahmut begins his quest to keep the peace at any cost. As he finds himself deeper and deeper in the politics of the ancient world, new enemies and allies surface. Who will prevail? What will Mahmut do if war proves to be inevitable?

Altair Japanese Volume 2 Cover

Altair Japanese Volume 1 Packaging

Altair Japanese Volume 1 Cover

[Source: Altair]

With a Hollywood adaptation still supposedly in the works, HIDIVE has revealed that they’ve acquired the rights to stream the Lone Wolf & Cub live-action TV series. The service has the first episode up now with new episodes landing every Wednesday at 1:00 pm ET for their members. The series ran for 78 episodes back in 1973 and some of it saw release through Media Blasters previously while Dark Horse Comics has released the manga in a couple of forms over the years.

Plot concept: Ittou Ogami has very little left to live for. Though once the Shogunate’s chief executioner, his name is left in ruins after being framed for treason by the treacherous Yagyuu Clan, seeking to steal his position of power. His misfortune does not end here, however; they culminate in the brutal murder of his entire family, including his wife Azami, with only his child Daigorou still left alive.

With dishonor upon his head and his beloved wife in the grave, Ittou takes up a new mantle as an assassin for hire. Alongside his young son, Ittou wanders the country in search of revenge, with only the complete destruction of the Yagyuu Clan on his mind. As he travels the land, the number of his successful assassinations quickly grows, and soon the moniker of “Lone Wolf and Cub” becomes infamous across the land as the choice assassin to get the job done right.

©Project Itoh / GENOCIDAL ORGAN Licensed by Fuji TV through FCC to Funimation® Productions, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Funimation recently brought out the Genocidal Organ feature film and is doing a bit more on the marketing side to get people interested in it since there should be a good market for such a solid film. The latest is a pretty solid dub clip that focuses on one of the action scenes from the film that shows off some of the near-future technology and the approach of how soldiers operate in this kind of scenario.

Check out our review of this excellent feature.

Clifford Chapin directed the dub for it based on the script by Deborah Crane. The cast includes Josh Grelle as Clavis, Ricco Fajardo as John Paul, Jeannie Tirado as Lucie, Ian Sinclair as Williams, Christopher R. Sabat as Rockwell, Clifford Chapin as Alex, David Wald as Lucius, and Joel McDonald as Leland.

Shuko Murase was involved in working on the script while redjuice provided the original character designs for it. EGOIST is on board to do the theme song for it. No run time has been revealed for the film yet. The production was taken over by a new studio called Geno Studio.

The cast includes Yūichi Nakamura as Clavis Shepherd, Satoshi Mikami as Williams, Yuuki Kaji as Alex, Kaito Ishikawa as Realand, Akio Ohtsuka as Rockwell, Sanae Kobayashi as Lucia and Takahiro Sakurai as John Paul.

Project Itoh is the pen name of Satoshi Ito, a 34-year-old science fiction novelist in Japan who died in 2009 but had some strong works. Some of his works are being brought to life in anime form with Genocidal Organ, Empire of Corposes and Harmony, all three of which have been released in North America by the book imprint of Viz Media, Haikasoru. Ito wrote for only two years before his death but left behind some fascinating works to be adapted.

(C) Hari Tokeino / “Gakuen Babysitters” Production Committee

Chalk up one of the usual last key pieces of information to come in for the anime adaptation of Hari Tokeino’s manga series Gakuen Babysitters. We’ve gotten most of the casting, some visuals, and a promotional video for it and now we have a premiere date of January 7th, 2018 as it kicks off on Tokyo MX before moving to other networks over the next few days. Shuusei Morishita is directing the series based on the series composition by Yuuko Kakihara. Mina Oosawa is on board as the character designer with Brain’s Base handling the animation production.

The previously revealed Japanese cast includes:

• Kōtarō Nishiyama as Ryūichi Kashima
• Nozomi Furuki as Kotarō Kashima
• Yuichiro Umehara as Hayato Kamitani
• Yuko Sanpei as Taka Kamitani
• Tomoaki Maeno as Yoshihito Usaida
• Daisuke Ono as Keigo Saikawa
• Tomoko Miyadera as Yōko Morinomiya
• Ayaka Saito as Takuma Mamizuka
• Atsumi Tanezaki as Kazuma Mamizuka
• Konomi Kohara as Kirin Kumatsuka
• Kaede Hondo as Midori Sawatari

The manga began in 2009 and has fifteen volumes released so far. A drama CD was produced back in 2011 and one is coming with the sixteenth volume in January.

Plot Concept: After their parents are killed in a plane crash, Ryuuichi and his younger brother Kotarou are taken in by the chairman, who they never met before, of an elite academy. Ryuuichi becomes the school daycare’s new babysitter.

Blend S Japanese Volume 2 Cover

With the Blend-S series getting a lot of love around here, one way to show why it is getting that attention is through some clips. Crunchyroll is putting a lot of these out lately and there’s now two more out there that run to different areas. The first focuses on Maika going out with Dino and running into a strawberry shortage, the horror!, while the second focuses on Jungle Day at the cafe which means it’s time to get dressed up.

The series was directed by Ryouji Masuyama based on the series composition by Gou Zappa. Yousuke Okuda worked on the character designs and it was being animated by A-1 Pictures.

The Japanese cast includes Azumi Waki as Maika Sakuranomiya, Akari Kito as Kaho Hinata, Anzu Haruno as Mafuyu Hoshikawa, Atsumi Tanezaki as Miu Amano, Sora Tokui as Hideri Kanzaki, Tomoaki Maeno as Dino, and Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Kouyou Akizuki.

The series had its third volume release at the end of January 2017 after it started as a pair of one-shots back in 2013 and then as an ongoing in 2014 in Manga Time Kirara Carat.

Plot Concept: Sakura Nomiya is, by nature, a person with bad luck and always gets into trouble, but knows Dino, who manages a cafeteria. However, it is not any cafeteria, and the waitresses have to act according to their “attributes.”

Harukana Receive Japanese Volume 1

We learned back in July that the Harukana Receive from Jizai Nyuoi was going to be getting an anime adaptation and we recently saw Seven SEas Entertainment pick up the rights to the manga itself for release here. Now, the official site has updated to reveal the main staff information to give us an idea of what we’re going to get plus a key visual. The series is set to be directed by Yoshiyuki Kubooka based on the series composition by Touko Machida. Takeshi Oda is on board as both character designer and chief animation director with C2C handling the animation production.

The series is currently running in Manga Time Kirara Forward and has been ongoing since August 2015.

Plot Concept: The story takes place in Okinawa, where Haruka forms a beach volleyball pair with Kanata. Kanata, who couldn’t handle the pressure put on her by her short height, had given up on beach volleyball already but is convinced by Haruka to step back on the sand once again and aim for the junior tournament.

© Jizai Nyoi · Yoshifumi Shimbun

Warner Bros. Japan is handling the home video release of Snow White with the Red Hair and they finished up the release just over a year ago across twelve volumes. For those that didn’t want all the packaging artwork and goodies that came with it they’re now putting together a new complete box set release. With the set coming up in a few weeks we now have a look at the main box artwork in a larger form that’s just beautiful as well as the packaging as a whole.

Scheduled for December 13th, 2017, it’ll be priced at 32,000 yen and will have the full twenty-four episodes plus the OVA. Contrast that with the twelve volume release where the DVDs were priced at 6,000 yen and the Blu-ray’s at 6,800 yen. This new set is a Blu-ray only release and will be spread across five discs while looking to include all the on-disc extras from the singles. It’ll also have a postcard set.

The work comes from Sorata Akizuki which began back in 2006 in the LaLa magazine and has fifteen volumes out so far. The series translates as Snow White with the Red Hair and was produced by Studio Bones with Masahiro Ando directing based on the scripts by Dekao Akao. Kumiko Takahashi served as the character designer.

The series is stars Saori Hayami as Shirayuki, Ryota Ohsaka as Zen, Jun Fukuyama as Raji Shenazard, Kaori Nazuka as Kiki Seiran, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Obi, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Mihaya, Yuichiro Umehara as Mitsuhide Roen, Akira Ishida as Izana, Yuko Kaida as Garack and Yuko Sanpei as Ryu.

Plot concept: Shirayuki was a young girl born with unique apple-red hair. She meets a famous but foolish Prince Raji, who falls in love with her at first sight and orders her to become his concubine. With nowhere else to go, Shirayuki cuts her hair and escapes to a neighboring country. While traversing through the forests, she meets a young boy, Zen, who helps her after she boldly cures his wounds but then gets poisoned by an apple given to Shirayuki. Meanwhile, Prince Raji sends out henchmen to search for her. What will happen to Shirayuki? What is Zen’s true character? A refreshing fantasy story between an optimistic heroine and a prince who constantly stays on her watch.

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Box Set Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Box Set Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 12 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 12 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 11 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 11 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 10 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 10 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 9 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 9 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 8 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 8 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 7 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 7 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 6 Packaging

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 6 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 5 Cover

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 5 Packaging (click for larger)

Snow White with the Red Hair Japanese Volume 4 Packaging

Snow White With The Red Hair Japanese Packaging 3 (click for larger)

Snow White With The Red Hair Japanese Packaging 2

Snow White With The Red Hair Japanese Packaging 1

Snow White With The Red Hair Japanese Cover 1

[Source: Snow White with the Red Hair]

Accel World Japanese Volume 22 Novel

The latest rankings are in for what’s selling with manga and light novels in Japan for the week ending November 19th and One Piece finally drops to second place as it moves another 138,000 units. Chihayafuru with its latest volume takes the top spot at 156,000 units total after some minor pre-sales and the list showcases some fun books, though most are under 100,000 for the top ten. That brings us more Hajime no Ippo and Kindaichi among others.

On the light novel side, the latest Accel World book has a good second week by adding another 17,400 units to its ranks to keep it in first place ahead of the debut of the 24th High School DXD volume at just under 17,000. Strike the Blood continues to do well and the newest Akashic Records has a strng showing. We’re still not seeing any surge from the fall anime season here which is a bit disheartening as you like to see something catch on.

Rank / This week’s sales by copies / Cumulative sales / Titles

*1. 151,390 *,156,014 Chihayafuru Vol.36
*2. 138,487 2,040,375 One Piece Vol.87
*3. 114,873 *,114,873 Magi Vol.37
*4. 101,320 *,101,320 Fairy Tail Vol.63
*5. *88,823 *,250,837 Arslan Senki Vol.8
*6. *60,316 *,*60,316 Hajime no Ippo Vol.119
*7. *49,925 *,*49,925 Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns Vol.14
*8. *48,168 *,447,972 Boku no Hero Academia Vol.16
*9. *47,196 *,*47,196 Magi: Sinbad no Bouken Vol.16
10. *45,197 *,*45,732 Boku to Kimi no Taisetsu na Hanashi Vol.3

11. *40,377 *,*41,440 Kuragehime Vol.17
12. *39,104 *,*39,104 Kimi wa Midara na Boku no Joou Vol.2
13. *38,166 *,*38,166 Tanuki to Kitsune Vol.3
14. *36,543 *,*72,214 Nobunaga Concerto Vol.16
15. *35,939 *,*35,939 Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Vol.8
16. *35,813 *,*75,105 Koi wa Ameagari no You ni Vol.9
17. *32,164 *,*32,164 Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Gaiden: Hannin-tachi no Jikenbo Vol.1
18. *31,882 *,*84,162 UQ Holder! Vol.15
19. *31,043 *,119,286 Prison School Vol.27
20. *30,715 *,*30,715 Enen no Shouboutai Vol.11

21. *29,766 *,*29,766 Mashiro no Oto Vol.19
22. *29,470 *,290,761 Shokugeki no Souma Vol.27
23. *28,220 *,223,244 Owari no Seraph Vol.15
24. *28,139 *,245,884 Dragon Ball Super Vol.4
25. *27,153 *,*27,153 Be Blues! Ao ni Nare Vol.29
26. *25,703 *,*25,703 Fuuka Vol.18
27. *25,398 *,237,386 Yakusoku no Neverland Vol.6
28. *25,270 *,*25,270 Fushigi no Kuni no Bird Vol.4
29. *24,360 *,*24,633 Mairimashita, Senpai Vol.3
30. *22,978 *,*96,888 Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa Vol.6

31. *22,378 *,*22,378 Tsurezure Children Vol.10
32. *22,274 *,*22,274 Minamoto-kun Monogatari Vol.12
33. *22,195 *,222,467 Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Vol.4
34. *21,230 *,*69,286 Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? Vol.6
35. *20,706 *,*20,706 Fumetsu no Anata e Vol.5
36. *20,650 *,*40,518 Yukibana no Tora Vol.5
37. *20,292 *,*20,778 Seito Shokun!: Saishuushou – Tabidachi Vol.25
38. *19,941 *,*20,185 Watashi ga Motete Dousunda Vol.13
39. *19,346 *,*19,346 Usogui Vol.48
40. *19,310 *,*19,310 Fairy Tail Vol.63 Special Edition

41. *19,212 *,*19,212 Domestic na Kanojo Vol.16
42. *18,963 *,*18,963 Parallel Paradise Vol.2
43. *18,085 *,652,143 Tokyo Ghoul:re Vol.13
44. *17,660 *,*17,660 Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei desu ga, Toriaezu Shine Vol.6
45. *17,640 *,736,019 Kingdom Vol.48
46. *17,327 *,*17,327 Real Account Vol.17
47. *17,223 *,*17,223 Black Night Parade Vol.2
48. *15,408 *,*27,686 Uirabu.: Uiuishii Koi no Ohanashi Vol.10
49. *15,023 *,*15,563 Ishtar no Musume: Ono no Otsuu Den Vol.16
50. *14,828 *,118,633 Akagami no Shirayuki-hime Vol.18

Light Novel Rank / This week’s sales by copies / Cumulative sales / Titles

*1. 17,462 *54,706 Accel World Vol.22
*2. 16,848 *16,848 High School DxD Vol.24
*3. 16,055 *16,055 Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records Vol.10
*4. 10,050 *36,207 Strike the Blood Vol.18
*5. *7,040 **7,040 Tensei Kizoku no Isekai Boukenroku Vol.2
*6. *6,810 **6,810 Daten no Inugami: Slash Døg – High School DxD Universe Vol.1
*7. *6,284 **6,284 Yowa-Chara Tomozaki-kun Vol.5
*8. *5,374 **5,374 Only Sense Online: Hakugin no Muse Vol.3
*9. *4,301 *27,160 Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu “Ijiwaru na Deai”
10. *4,296 **4,296 Junketsushu no Nie

11. *4,207 **4,207 Monster Factory Vol.2
12. *3,786 *12,377 Isekai Izakaya “Nobu” Vol.4
13. *3,593 *70,610 Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e Vol.7
14. *3,563 *31,811 One Piece: Mugiwara Stories
15. *3,530 *10,166 Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo Vol.7
16. *2,927 **2,927 Sora ni Hibiku wa Ryuu no Utagoe: Tenkyuu ni Naku Ougonryuu
17. *2,859 **2,859 Ryuukishi no Okiniiri Vol.3
18. *2,827 **2,827 Nihonkoku Shoukan Vol.3
19. *2,557 **2,557 Tensei Kyuuketsuki-san wa Ohirune ga Shitai Vol.5

[Source: Oricon Youtaijou via MAL]

© BNP/Bandai, Dentsu, TV Tokyo

The Aikatsu Stars! series is underway in Japan with the second season and TV Tokyo is getting things moving with promotion for the next episode. Ahead of the November 30th, 2017 debut, they’ve now let loose with a quick hit promo for the eighty-fourth episode that showcases the main cast and supporting characters well.

Please note that TV Tokyo marks these previews are private after the episode airs.

The series is directed by Teruo Satou based on the series composition by Yuuko Kakihara. Yukiko Aikyou serves as the character designer and it’s produced by Bandai Namco Pictures. The main cast includes Miyu Tomita, Ayaka Asai and Minami Tsuda.

The original series has been ongoing since 2012 with almost 150 episodes so far while the first theatrical feature landed from Sunrise back in December 2014.

Plot Concept: The series features a new protagonist named Yume Nijino. Yume aims to become a top idol, and she enrolls in the Yotsuboshi Gakuen (Four Stars Academy). This academy has a special group called the S4, who are the top four active idols in the school. Yume and the other first-year students aim to become a part of the S4.

The spring 2017 anime series The Royal Tutor is having its home video release plans handled by Avex Pictures and they’ve set a standard release plan for it. The sixth and final volume of the series is landing right about now in Japan and that means we’ve got some good sized artwork to look at for it and at the run as a whole. The twelve episode series is getting a six-volume DVD and Blu-ray release that began on June 30th, 2017. The DVDs are priced at 5,800 yen each and the Blu-ray’s at 6,800 yen each. Check the full schedule below!

The show was directed by Katsuya Kikuchi based on the series composition by Kimiko Ueno. Rena Okuyama served as the character designer and it was animated at studio Bridge.

The Japanese cast includes Keisuke Ueda as Heine Wittgenstein, Yūya Asato as Kai von Grannzreich, the 2nd Prince, Yūto Adachi as Bruno von Grannzreich, the 3rd Prince, Daisuke Hirose as Leonhardt von Grannzreich, the 4th Prince, Shouta Aoi as Richt von Grannzreich, the 5th Prince, Shinnosuke Tachibana as Maximilian, Daisuke Namikawa as Ludwig, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Victor von Grannzreich and Takuya Eguchi as Rosenberg.

The property, which is currently being simulpublished monthly by Yen Press digitally, began in the fall of 2013 as serialized in Monthly G Fantasy. There have been six volumes released as of the broadcast of the anime adaptation.

Plot concept: Accepting the post of Royal Tutor at the court of the king of Grannzreich, Heine Wittgenstein is a little professor with a big job ahead! Each of the kingdom’s four princes has a rather distinct personality. Does their diminutive new instructor have what it takes to lay down some learning? It’s a comedy of educational proportions!

The Royal Tutor Japanese Volume 6 Cover

The Royal Tutor Japanese Volume 5 Cover

The Royal Tutor Japanese Volume 4 Cover

The Royal Tutor Japanese Volume 3 Cover

The Royal Tutor Japanese Volume 2 Cover

The Royal Tutor Japanese Volume 1 Cover

[Source: Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine]

©BNEI／PROJECT SideM

The new fall 2017 anime adaptation of The iDOLM@STER SideM is underway and promotion for it continues to hit. The series saw pickup from Crunchyroll that makes it pretty accessible overall and now the official Japanese channel for the series has a preview for the eighth episode that’s due on November 25th, 2017 to check out and get excited for.

The popular franchise has a lot of adaptations out there and this one will be working off of the cellphone game of the same name. Takahiro Harada is directing it with Miyuki Kuroki based on the series composition by Yuniko Ayana and Yukie Sugawara. Yuusuke Tanaka is on board with character designs with it being animated at A-1 Pictures.

The focus for this one is on the male idols as part of 315 Production and that means there will be a lot of voice actors involved.