Fans of old school anime and of the seminal magical girl series rejoice! After 6 years out of print the Sailor Moon manga is being re-released in the USA. Kodansha USA has announced it’s going to reprint the whole Sailor Moon manga in a condensed delux edition spanning 12 volumes plus the western debut of Sailor V, the Sailor Moon prequel based around Sailor Venus.

They just dont make Magical Girls like they used to… why I even hear nowadays they have to sign contracts…

[ANN]

We’ve known about the inevitability of the west making a Death Note movie for a long time but it’s not until now that we get to put some faces to that bleak idea. Warner Brothers has tapped Shane Black to direct a Death Note adaptation based off the Manga, rather than the series.  Mr. Black is most recently well known for writing and directing the marvelously quirky Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He’s spoken on treating the project with respect and appealing to the ‘spirituality’ of the original work but he’ll have to forgive us if we take this with a grain, or several barrels, of salt.

[Slashfilm]

After 2 failed attempts at recording the second episode we finally manage to succeed. Listen as we let our feminine side out and talk about Sailor Moon, The Sims, wrestling idols and yes, My Little Pony.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The podcast is back in what we’re conveniently calling season 2! Is moe killing the anime industry? Is Steam killing PC gaming? Why are anime fans treated like lepers? Find out in this episode hosted by Ivan and Ben.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A little late on this one but I am proud nonetheless to bring you a great review on the most important anime-related convention on Aztec soil which, luckily for me, this year’s TNT started on May, the same month I was in the vicinity, studying composition in Morelia; surely an opportunity I couldn’t let go having it right before my eyes!

Read more!

Our favourite cross dressing bass and electric guitar player has uploaded another video of himself rocking a skirt, showing the they look a little too fine legs and playing a mean bass to K-On!!‘s opening theme song “Go! Go! Maniac!”. You may want to scroll past this video if you’re on a computer at work or in a public space. Unless you’re in a position to explain why you’re watching a video of a man in a dress in his bedroom and a pair of headphones.

When a guy can play a bass this well, what he’s wearing quickly goes out of the window…up until he falls back on his bed and treats everybody to an up-skirt. That’s fan service right there.

Well…it’s not a full blown PV with fly Lolita outfits, flashing lights and the girls rocking it out with instruments; all the while giving looks into the camera which border on cute ‘n seductive. But it’s chock-a-block full of clips from the anime, with just enough quirkniess and cuteness to make you wanna check the anime out if you haven’t done so already.

The pitch of the singing often hits a frequency level that only canines can hear. But at least it was void of the dreaded auto-tune. And I’ll be damned if the song doesn’t make at least one person tap their feet, bop their head and go Veoh themselves a whole episode.

Read it: First impressions of K-On!

Nico touches the walls are a relatively new band, having only formed in 2004 and having only 2 full length studio albums under their belt. But they’re songs were quickly snapped up to get slotted into popular anime’s. Their lead single “Broken youth” from their first full length studio album featured as an ending theme song for Naruto shippuden and the single “Hologram” from their second album featured as one of two opening theme’s for Fullmetal alchemist: Brotherhood.

If you like a bit of light hearted J-Rock, then you’ll dig this.

Listen: Hologram

Performed by Nico touches the walls
© 2010 Ki/oon records

I’m a sucker for a bit of feel good melodic J-Rock. And I was drawn to “Hologram” like a google eyed moth to a flame. It’s a great Summer song to drive to on a really nice day. Or alternatively a shit day when you need a bit of a pick me up. I always get stares at traffic lights for my head banging theatrics during the hook.

Nico’s home on the web: Official website

This probably being my last report in a long time, I plan on telling the perilous story of a certain guy that went on his way to a dream place filled to the very top with gamers, where he would find a vast amount of consoles, computers, and avid players that were going to be testing all afternoon their long-trained psychomotor skills with the controllers in an attempt to successfully control bald space marines or drive a simple go-kart impervious to explosives and reptilian carapace all the way to the finish line. . .or so they said.

Read more!

Remember about a month ago when a few more details about James Cameron’s live action adaptation of Battle Angel Alita were released? Just a few weeks ago we thought we could see the project released sometime in the vicinity of 2012, you know, after the world ends and no one’s left to watch it. Well now that looks like wishful thinking.

Jan Landau, one of Avatar’s producers recently told MTV that Mr. Cameron plans to do Alita after he gets done with the next Avatar movie. Considering Avatar took a good 5 years to come to fruition and that Cameron isn’t exactly known as a prolific director it’s now safe to say we probably wont be seeing Battle Angel Alita on the big screen until at least 2016. Oh well, better learn to love those space smurfs with guns I guess.

[MTV]