Been doing some news compilation over the last few days, nothing really worthy enough to deserve its own post but something I found out recently made it all worth it…apparently we might be seeing more Haruhi sooner than we think! Full story after the jump, along with some other noteworthy stories.

Haruhi 2 Date Announced?
The word is over at MOON PHASE that apparently the second season of the famous Haruhi Suzumiya anime, based off the fourth of currently ten light novels, titled The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, could been greenlit for a springtime release, possibly as soon as this Friday, which would be April 4th as stated in the unsourced image.

It’s a surprising move given that there hasn’t been a lot of talk around the blogosphere - English, anyways - about the airdate of the second season of everyone’s favorite time traveler / esper / alien / sarcasm (oh, and Haruhi) adventures, but pleasant news nonetheless. The story only appeared on MOON PHASE recently, probably within the last few hours, so it’s possible that we’ll hear about this announcement from more knowledgeable sources.

I’m not sure if I’m reading this correctly, as some of the writing still eludes me. Perhaps it’s just an announcement of an announcement, that we’ll hear more about the long-awaited second season on Friday? That might be more realistic than having the first episode air on Friday - although, knowing Kyoto Animation, and being as optomistic as I am, I can’t help but hope.

Shugo Chara English License Ahead?
Right Stuf has been dropping some hints again about an upcoming license they’ve been negotiating, quick on the heels of its previous announcement of the licensing of Maria-sama ga Miteru, and interestingly enough, all signs are pointing to the new license being popular magical girl show Shugo Chara.

Shawne Kleckner likes to be clever with his subtle clues at what could be next down the pipeline, and certainly the phrases “If our post-Easter shopping checks out, we’ll have one golden egg on our hands,” seems vague enough to point at anything. But do remember Shugo Chara’s strong connection with eggs (the Guardian Characters) and Easter (the evil organization), and check out this excerpt from a post found at the AnimeOnDVD forums:

“I can’t say just yet what we’re trying to get our hands on, but rest assured, you’ll be hop step jumping for joy if we can pull this through!”

And assuming that Right Stuf hasn’t licensed Jeff Lawson, it’s a pretty sure bet that we might be seeing everyone’s favorite pink-haired tsundere-alike magical-girl on English airwaves - or at least on DVD - soon! It seems like Right Stuf is trying to bring back the mahou shoujo genre in the U.S. after the days of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura - or at least, appeal to some of the more niche American anime fans, and I applaud them for that.

Hopefully we’ll see more of this in the weeks to come, and I hope that this trend picks up, as I can think of a few other shows in this genre that deserve wider attention.

Kaiji Finale Pulled From Airwaves Following Accident
I certainly hope this isn’t true, but word is that next week’s 26th and final episode of Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji, the stunning moe-free hit anime based on the story of a delinquent gambler and his struggles in the yazuka underworld, might not air on time thanks to another tragic - some might say frustrating - event in Japan.

Apparently some Japanese high school students were sent to the emergency room last week after participating in a “gamble”, in which they were coerced by their peers to race across a wooden plank connecting two school buildings, four stories off the ground. There were only three planks, and as the crowd of students - rumored to be nearly a dozen - dashed across in a race to be first to the other side, one of the planks snapped and four students fell to the ground. Two were critically injured, while another recieved minor injuries.

The stunt bears a striking similarity to the Brave Men Road game in Kaiji, where dead-end delinquents were conned into participating in a sort of human derby across metal girders far above the ground, tempted with prizes in the hundred of thousands. It’s uncertain whether the students in question were doing the same thing or just acting on a dare, but either way it’s a saddening event for all involved.

Some parents get stuck with a huge hospital bill, and we don’t get our fix of awesome gambling GAR. Maybe it seems callous of me to say that, but then again it seems callous of them to pull it for the stupidity of some students who thought they were invincible. Darwin selection at it’s finest.

KimiKiss Live Action
While the KimiKiss anime has just finished airing recently in Japan, it seems that the momentum has yet to stop for this show. Despite getting rather poor reception from Japanese viewers (compared to the critical praise from the English anime community), internet rumblings indicate somebody is determined to make this show work, and is pitching a live-action drama adaptation of KimiKiss to producers.

The word is that while KimiKiss flopped with moe-seeking Japanese anime fans, who were dissapointed with the liberties taken compared to the original, more pandering visual novel, the larger, more adult and more female demographic who follows the J-drama market could respond positively to the “new-style” KimiKiss and its romantic stories and conflicts. It’s unclear what station, if any, will pick up on the show, if it is cleared for production, as the original post at 2ch was quite vague and unsourced. Still, I would be 100% in support of more Yuumi goodness, so I do hope there is some truth to this rumor. Might get me into watching dramas for once, instead of just anime.

Kodomo no Jikan Brought Stateside
Despite all the controversy regarding the release-or-maybe-not of the Kodomo no Jikan manga in America, it appears that there might be a second chance for Rin and pals to make it to U.S. shelves, this time in anime form.

Bandai Visual USA, already mired in controversy about the exorbitant pricing and swift licensing of shows like True Tears and Shigofumi, took what might be another step into the mud by quietly announcing plans to bring Kodomo no Jikan, to be directly transliterated as A Child’s Time, to America.

It’s an equally confusing decision but on the official Boss Note blog the statement was made that the decision to license Kojika was made because “there is a … well-established market in the United States for material such as that contained in Kodomo no Jikan.” It sounds like simple profit-mongering but it seems that BVUSA is going after a different target audience this time around with shows like this. One must only hope that church pastors, dirty old schoolteachers, and naive third-graders will be able to accept an animated substitute such as this. Maybe we’ll see Moetan licensed in a few months as well.

Two New Shows From Kyoto Animation?!
Despite having burdened themselves up with second season of both the Haruhi Suzumiya series and of Clannad, famed anime studio Kyoto Animation seems more than happy to fill out their schedule far in advance, this time with two new - or perhaps, old - shows stealthily appearing on their website.

The first is Minami-ke ~Just Desserts~, an apparent third-season continuation of the hit slice-of-life comedy, and the second is Little Busters!, yet another conversion of a Key visual novel.

Neither show has their own webpage yet, but there is a short quote to be paired at each show, roughly translated as follows…

For Minami-ke ~Just Desserts~, it says “Following the season 2 of Minami-ke, Minami-ke ~Second Helpings~, it is regarded as poorly done and not representative of power of Minami sisters. Thus, the third season, it is announced as to restore the name of the story which features characters such as the female man Makoto, the male woman Touma, and the Haruka that is amazing. Additionally, the qualities of Cakes Makoto moe status is enhanced, and Hosaka of the GAR is made more so. Please watch as to give name of Kyoto Animation the label of ultimate dictator over the anime which is king.”

And for Little Busters! … “The visual novel which is produced by Key is cow which produces cash of which teat is sucked by moe-desiring fan of anime. Thus, installation four of such series is proudced by Kyoto Animation as which to raise popularity and money for which to produce more of series of Haruhi Suzumiya (of which also is moe) and to fund purchase of Ferraris of the gold color and quality. Tears of the great volume are promised, as is locking of characters in the room of gym storage, so please watch warmly with questions of zero amount.”

I think my Babelfish is acting up, as the translations sound a bit awkward, but either way I would definitely watch both these series when they are released, so I look forward to the Kyoto touch on more shows.

Shuffle Days Announced
One of today’s more strange yet incredible discoveries was made in joint by Navel and 0verflow in the announcing of a new project, Shuffle Days, a visual novel which takes the popular characters from Navel’s Shuffle! series and gives them a new spin thanks to the imaginative power of 0verflow.

Similar to their previous series, School Days, 0verflow + Navel’s Shuffle Days is to be a fully voiced and fully animated eroge with multiple branches and endings. It should be no surprise to those seeing 0verflow capitalize on the recent “Nice Boat” fad that the infamous bad endings of School Days’s style will be onboard as well. Rumors are that the bad endings include Kaede slicing Asa with a boxcutter, Nerine and Sia collectively blowing Rin’s household to smithereens on a collective anti-Kaede offensive, and Chris Hansen arresting Rin for attempting to bed Primula. These will be collectively known as “Nice Boxcutter”, “Nice Bomb”, and “Nice I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC, Just What Were You Planning To Do To That Artifical Life Form?”

Additionally, many ero-scenes not available previously will be shown in Shuffle Days, with options for Rin to shack up with both Shigures at once, both Licorice and the two Nerines (see: Tick! Tack!) in a selfcestfest, all the usual haremettes plus the side characters and all the women in God’s (Sia’s dad) harem, and Itsuki.

Just how else Shuffle Days will merge elements of both Navel and 0verflow’s games is unknown, but it must be said that this is one of my most anticipated games of the future, right along with Ever18, The Nagatofication of Haruhi Suzumiya, Kanon After Story (All Ages Version), and Tsukihime ~Sacchin Style~. Speaking of…

Tsukihime Anime Remake Coming 2009, Featuring Satsuki’s Path?
…ah screw it, you know this is all one April Fool’s Hoax by now anyway, I can’t bear myself to fake this. *breaks down in tears … not the true kind* Hope you enjoyed this feature in any case, the flaming queue is over there to the left. More April’s tomfoolery later if I get a chance.

-CCY

(Psst…it’s midnight somewhere. Also, considering the blog layout, I suppose I’m obligated to say:

“Yup, these are my readers this is your blogger.”

No harm intended, I’m actually on the “whore for Jason” side.

Incidentally, I typed ‘harm’ as ‘harem’ again.)

If you liked this post, try...

• April 9, 2008 -- The Hook: OP/EDs that will have you biting the bait again and again
• May 7, 2008 -- The Otaku Girl Archetype and a painfully serious reflection on living the anime life
• May 3, 2008 -- [Rapidfire] Fanime, blogroll upkeep, Toshokan Sensou
• April 21, 2008 -- Isn’t it scary, Sacchin: The faulty fandom of side characters (plus added moe BS)
• April 12, 2008 -- Emotional Sonic Boom: Five Centimeters Per Second, (First) Final Impressions

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Analysis, blog general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.