After a week hiatus, Episode 18 is now available.  Enjoy.

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If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp18.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

ADV Films will be making some of their properties available via XBox Live.  They will be making some TV series and movies available for download with the service.  Other companies that will be allowing similar downloads are Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, A&E, and National Geographic.

During an interview at the Tokyo Anime Fair, Akira Toriyama (Dragonball, Dr. Slump) commented that Blue Dragon may be his final anime.  He said he is feeling incredible pressure and is working hard on Blue Dragon at the same time as saying it may be his final.

Blue Dragon is set to premiere on TV Tokyo on April 7th.

The trailer for the 3rd Hellsing OVA is now available online on the official Hellsing website.  The 3rd OVA will be released on April 4th in Japan.

Anime Expo has announced that Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as their first guest for 2007.  She is best known for her directing of Naruto, Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain.  Anime Expo will be held June 29th through July 2nd in Long Beach, CA

We recieved a press release today from DrMaster.  They have just released Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Key Rondo Vol. 2, a 200 page graphic novel for a retail price of $9.95.  You can visit the manga index page for this volume or the press release to see a full synopsis of the story.

To further confuse things, Synch-Point has announced that they will be doing the actual production on the Bandai Visual USA licensed Galaxy Angel Rune.  Once completed, Geneon Entertainment will take over the distribution.

*insert "how many anime companies" joke here*

It has been confirmed that Emile Hirsch will be playing Speed Racer in the upcoming Live Action movie.  Emile Hirsch has recently starred in Lords of Dogtown and Alpha Dog.

Yasuhiro Nightow (Trigun, Gungrave) and Noriyuki Zinguji (Trigun, Hellsing) have been announced as guests at Anime Central.  Anime Central will take place May 11th-13th in Rosemont, IL.

The Motley Fool, a site dedicated to financial and investing news, has posted an analysis of 4Kids based on their 4th Quarter earnings report and the results of FY2006.  They have called 4Kids a "hit-or-miss affair" but mentions that the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie may help the company since they own the rights to TMNT toys.

Imagi has released concept art for the upcoming live action Gatchaman film.  You can find the art at Imagi's homepage in the Our Films section under Gatchaman.

The first Naruto Movie, Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, will show in select cities in the US on June 6th.  You can find the full list of times and locations at Fathom Events website.  Some of the cities listed are New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.

I have posted a new Webmaster's Corner talking a little bit about a couple new additions to Anime Bliss 3.0.  You can reach it using the link in the left hand navbar or by clicking here

Bandai has announced that there will be a game titled Dragon Ball Online appearing in 2008.  This will be an MMO that Akira Toriyama will be overseeing.  There is no other information available at this time such as play fees and such, but a beta will begin in Korea this summer. 

The game will be set far in the future.  Both familiar and brand new characters will show up and players will be able to customize many aspects of the characters they play.

Libre has posted a statement on their website claiming that Be Beautiful has been publishing some of its titles without permission.  They have asked fans to boycott these titles by not buying them as well as issuing a cease and desist order against Be Beautiful.

Bandai Visual has announced that they will release the first volume of the Freedom OVA simulatneously in both Japan and the US on June 26th on HD-DVD.  The release will be sub only and will retail for $39.99.  There will be a total of 6 volumes in this series. 

Bandai has future plans to release other titles on both HD-DVD and Blu Ray in Japan and then later in other international markets.

Here is the thread I promised to work out the details of a possible site gathering at Anime Boston.  Visit the thread and lend us your input.

Dark Horse has sent us a press release revealing that they have licensed Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair Novel.  This novel will be released July 13th and will retail for $8.95.  You can use the links above to view both the press release and the index page which will give you summaries and other information about this title.

Dark Horse has sent us a press release revealing that they have licensed the MPD-Psycho Graphic Novels.  This series was considered too dark and gory to be released in the US in the past but Dark Horse has decided to give it a chance.  MPD-Psycho Volume 1 will be released June 6th and will retail for $10.95.  You can use the links above to view both the press release and the index page which will give you summaries and other information about this title.

GMA-7, a leading TV network in the Philippines', is working on a live-action Lupin the Third tv series.  Richard Gutierrez is set to play Lupin and Janno Gibbs is slated for inspector Zenigata.

With online pre-registration for Otakon 2007 opening this past weekend, it has been announced that there is no attendance cap this year, unlike the past couple of years.  According to the Otakon website, this change is due to an increase in volunteers as well as increased hired security.  There have also been changes to the convention layout which allowed for increased attendance.

4Kids Entertainment announced their fiscal 2006 year end results.  As of December 31st, 2006, 4Kids Entertinament had lost $1.0 million.  As a comparision, in 2004 they had $5.1 million in profit.  4Kids Entertainment CEO, Alfred Khan, pointed to decreased revenue from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Yu-Gi-Oh, as well as decreasing ad sales for 4Kids TV as the cause.  They are hoping that this year will show improvement with the introduction of the Chaotic brand and hope that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie will create buzz.

Anime Boston has officially announced their second round of guests.  For English VA's we have Chris Bevins, Luci Christian, Mike McFarland, and Mike Sinterniklaas.  For Industry Guests they announced Grant Moran and Tom Wayland. Finally Japanese guests are Junji Nishimura and Yasuhiro Imagaw

In a related note, Anime Bliss will be at Anime Boston again this year.  I will be attempting to set up a site gathering assuming people are interested.  Keep an eye on the boards for a post about this next week.

Cartoon Network has renewed both Prince of Tennis and MAR for a second season.  Both series air on Saturday night at 10PM and 10:30PM respectively.

Episode 17 is now available.  Enjoy.

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If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp17.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

Geneon Entertainment has announced that The Wings of Rean volume 1 will be released on June 12th for $39.98.  This disc will contain 2 episodes which will run for 68 minutes.  They also announced that Ikki Tousen - Complete Thinpack will retail for $79.98 and 3x3 Eyes Volume 1 will retail for $14.98.  Both titles will also be released on June 12th.

Geneon also announced that Rozen Maiden Volume 1 and Karin Volume 1 will both be released on May 29th instead of April 10th.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC will be the site of the world premiere of Genius Party.  Genius Party is a Studio 4°C anthology of short animated works.  It's expected to hit Japanese theatres this summer.  Some of the people associated with this anthology include Koji Morimoto (Memories, Mind Game), Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo), Hidekia Futamura (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Beyond, Animatrix), and Tadashi Hiramatsu (Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex)

After premiereing in Washington DC, Genius Party is going to tour the other major film festivals in the world.  You can find the official website here.

Media Blasters has announced the cancellation of most of their non-yaoi manga titles.  These titles include Pilgrim Jager, Apocalypse Zero, Baron Gong Battle, Kanunara: Rebirth of the Deamon Slayer, and Flesh for the Beast.  Media Blasters commented that they had hoped to enter the market by offering titles to an older audience, but that financially it didn't work out.

Yesterday, March 14th, 11 manga creators filed a lawsuit in Tokyo against a website that allegedly distributes manga without permission.  The two individuals who created the website supposedly scanned and distributed various manga between September 2005 and January 2006 and their site was recieveing around 100,000 hits per day.  In 2006, the website owners were taken to court and found guilty in a seperate trial so the website is no longer distributing any manga. 

The creators are suing for 22 million yen, which is about $190,000 US and include:

Inoue Takehiko (Slam Dunk, Vagabond)
Uoto Osamu (Ninja JaJa Marukun)
Kitami Kenichi (Tsuri Baka Nisshi)
Kurashina Ryo
Chiba Tetsuya (Tommorrow's Joe/Ashita no Joe)
Hara Tetsuo (Fist of the North Star/Hokuto no Ken)
Hojo Tsukasa (City Hunter)
Murakami Motoka (Musashi no Ken)
Motomira Hiroshi (Salaryman Kintaro)

Source: Anime News Network

801 Media sent us a press release today announcing two new titles.  Here is a snippet:

"Sensitive Pornograph by Ashika Sakura
October 22, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-93412-911-1
Being with an older lover is hot on just sooo many levels…
Seiji-kun is a novice manga artist. He’s also completely addicted to the body of the incredibly beautiful Sono-san, despite the fact that Sono-san is a guy. Is this love?
The book behind the hit yaoi OVA Sensitive Pornograph (Kitty Media).

I’m Not Your Stepping Stone by Shiuko Kano
November 21, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1-93412-912-8
Sakai Kazuya is a 23-year-old man in love. Unfortunately, the object of his affection is a lovely woman only interested in well educated men. Sakai never finished high school and has been living off of his brawn, not his brains. So he enlists the help of her younger brother, Izumi Masashi, to help him pass the high school entrance exam, his first step toward to becoming a well-educated man. Izumi is happy to help, but his services come with a very steep fee. And, Izumi isn’t interested in money, he has his sights on some of Sakai’s other assets…
Maybe I Am Your Stepping Stone!?! coming in 2008!"

You can find the full release here.

Digital Manga announced today that Hinako Takanaga will be a guest at Yaoi Con 2007.  Hinako Takanaga is best known for her series Little Butterfly.  You can find more information about Hinako Takanaga in this press release as well as more information about Yaoi Con.  You can also go to www.yaoicon.com.

Bandai Entertainment has announced that they have the rights to Galaxy Angel AA and that the first volume will contain 8 12-minute episodes.  Volume 1 will be released June 19th.

We received a press release today from Central Park Media talking about two titles that are getting reprices and rereleased.  The they are Fencer of Minerva: The Tempest and Sins of the Sisters.  Both of these titles will be rereleased on May 22nd and be priced at $9.95.  You can click the links above to view the DVD index pages for both titles which has a summary, or you can read the full press release here.

The first ten episodes of Gunslinger Girl and Basilisk are now available on the iTunes Music Store.  Future episodes will be added to the store after they show on IFC, which currently happens at 11 p.m. EST on Friday nights.

Viz has announced, via the April issue of Shoujo Beat, that they will be releasing two new manga.  The first is Fall in Love Like a Comic which is a one volume manga and will be released in October.  The second is Sand Chronicles which will start appearing in Shoujo Beat sometime later this year.

The live action Speed Racer movie has officially been scheduled to hit theatres on May 9th, 2008.  On this date the movie will be released in the US as well as numerous international markets.  The movie will be directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. 

Banday will be releasing the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Hare Hare Yukai Music CD on May 29th, the same day as the first volume DVD.  It will retail for $9.98 and will include the uncut version of the Haruhi Suzumiya ending theme along with a Karaoke version and other stuff.

Infinity Studios has announced that they will begin releasing Iono-sama Fanatics on June 15th.  They originally scheduled Volume 1 for March 31st.

The fourth season of Keroro Gunso will begin airing April 4th in Japan.  It will show Saturdays at 10 AM on TV Tokyo.  ADV Films will be releasing Keroro Gunso under the title Sgt. Frog in North America but have not announced any release dates at this time.

The Nippon Television Network has announced that they will be releasing a limited edtion Death Note Notebook Computer.  The laptops will have the Death Note logo on the back of the screen.  Retail price is 200,000 yen which is about $1700 US.  The specs are as follows:

CPU: Mobile AMDSempron (TM) processor 3200
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home
LCD: 15.4" Wide / super shine
hard disk: Approximately 100GB drive
DVD super multiple drive
LAN: wireless LAN (a/b/g)
Security: On-board FeliCa port
size: Width 360× depth 260× height 40mm

Unfortunately these computers are already sold out but you can see pictures here.

Confirmed by Newtype Romance, there will be a new season of Code Geass: Lelouche of the Rebellion.  This is rumored to be scheduled for a fall 2007 release in Japan but Newtype Romance did not mention a confirmed release date.

Although they never officially announced that they had the rights to Shonen Onmyoji, they have sent out early solicitations for volume 1 and 2.  Volume 1 will be available July 10th as a $29.98 regular edition and a $39.98 Art Box edition.  Volume 2 will be available Sept. 1st.

Shochiku has released a subtitled trailer for the upcoming live-action movie Gegege no Kitaro.  The trailer is available on their website here

Dark Horse has postponed OCtopus Girl and Museum of Terror indefinitely.

ADV Films has announced that they will release volume 1 of 009-1 on June 19th.

Episode 16 is now available.  Enjoy.

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If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp16.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

Broccoli will be releasing Newon Genesis Evangelion: Battle Orchestra for the PS2 on June 28th.  This game is a fighting style game.

Afro Samurai is set to premiere on Japanese TV on May 3rd.  The Japanese version will be the "complete Director's Cut version" and include pieces that were not part of the original Spike broadcast.  The series will be aired with Japanese subtitles. 

Funimation is set to release the English DVD version on May 22nd and will be releasing both an edited and uncut version.  The edited version will be the same as what aired on Spike while the uncut will be the same as the version running in Japan.

The University of California Irvine Extension has announced "Manga and Anime Explosion: Story Development, Marketing and Adaptation" will be added to their curriculum.  This is the follow-up course for "Manga and Anime Explosion: What, Why, How & Wow".  The course will have guest speakers such as Dallas Middaugh and Christine Yoo.

Geneon has announced details for the Bandai Visual releases of Gunbuster 2 and Demon Prince Enma.  Volume 1 of both series will be released on May 22nd.  Gunbuster 2 Volume 1 will contain 2 episodes.  Gunbuster Volume 2 will contain the next 2 episodes and will be released on June 12th.

Animagic in Germany has announced that Kouta Hirano, Tomokazu Tokoro, Yasuyuki Ueda, and Hideyuki Kurata will be among the Japanese guests attending their convention.  Also announced are Koh Kawarajima from How to Draw Manga and Haruka Fukushima from Instant Teen.  The convention will take place July 27th - 29th in Bonn, Germany.

The Funimation Channel is now available in New York City on WRNN channel 48.3. 

Yakumi Tsuru, well known newspaper manga artist and TV Commentator, announced that he will be working with the paper goods company Banbix to turn his manga drawings and 4 panel comics into rolls of toilet paper.  It will be called "Food Toipe" and will be available in cases of 50 rolls from Banbix' website.  A case will cost 8,500 yen, or about $80 US and became available on March 2nd.

You can see images on the Banbix Website

A new Prince of Tennis OVA is set to debut June 22nd in Japan.  It will be called The Prince of Tennis - National Championship Semifinal.

Geneon Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing When They Cry - Higurashi on June 5th.  This release will have both a regular edition and a limited edition box.  Originally called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni in Japan, this is a 26 episode series.

Geneon Entertainment will become the distributor for all Bandai Visual USA titles as of March 1st.  This is a two year agreement and some of the first titles covered are Gunbuster 2, Demon Prince Enma, The Wings of Rean, Freedom and Galaxy Angel Rune. There have been no dates announced at this time but they are expected to be made public shortly.

MuchMusic in Canada will be hosting a Beck marathon.  They will be showing two episodes back to back on March 9 at 8 PM and then again March 10 at 10 AM.  There will then be a 5 episode marathon at 9 PM on March 10.  This will be the first time that Beck will be shown in North America.

ADV Films has hired Terry Kalagian, former Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions at Cartoon Netowkr.  She will be serving as a programming consultant for ADV.  She spent 10 1/2 years at Cartoon Network and served as Vice President of Programming and Scheduling, Vice President of Research and Director of Research as well.

Digital Meme will be releasing a 4-disc all region box set that will contain 55 anime films from 1928 to 1950.  The set will be released April 27th and you can find a full list of titles included on their website.

Production I.G has posted two trailers for their newest series, Reideen.  The series is directed by Misugur Hongo and written by Masahiro Yokotani.  It is a remake of Yuusha Raideen which was released in 1975.  It will run for 26 episodes and premiered in Japan on March 4th.  You can find the two trailers, one 2 minutes, one 30 seconds, on the shows official website

Aperture Press will publish Fandomania: Characters and Cosplay in June 2007.  The book is a collection of 75 photographs taken by Elena Dorfman.  It will also include an essay on cosplay by art critic Carlo McCormick.  The retail price for the book is set at $35 but you may buy it directly from Apertur for $28.

To promote the book there will be an exhibit of Elena Dorfman's photographs at the Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City between April 12 and May 19.  You can find more information about the book and author at Aperture's Website.

A trailer for Appleseed 2 has been released as a bonus on teh Appleseed EX PS2 game.  You can see screenshots from the Trailer here

Bandai Entertainment has announced that the first volume of Di Gi Charat Nyo will be released on May 1st and the first volume of Tide-Line Blue will be released on May 15th.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind will be a part of the 15th annual Environmental Film Festival in Washington DC.  The screenings will be on March 15th and again on March 22nd at 6:00PM in the JICC Auditorium.

Go! Comi has announced that they will be publishing The Masque of the Red Death, an original series by Elfquest creator Wendy Pini.  While this series is not being referred to as a manga, however her work is heavily influenced by it.  The series will be published first as a web-comic and then as a graphic novel.

ADV Films has launched an official site for Kurau Phantom Memroy.  The site includes a trailer, downloads and other content.  You can find the site here.

The script for Howl's Moving Castle has been nominated for the Nebula award for best script.  Winners will be announced on May 11 - 13 in New York City.  Other nominees for best script include Batman Begins, Unfinished Business, and The Girl in the Fireplace.

There is a brand new Votoms anime in the works.  The tentative title for this series is Armored Trooper Votoms - Pelzen Files.  It is scheduled for a summer release.  There are no other details available at this time.

Del Rey will release the Train Man Novel on April 24th.  This will be the third company to be releasing a piece of the Train Man property.  Viz, CMX and Del Rey already are releasing seperate manga series and Viz released a Train Man film last month.

I have posted a new Webmaster's Corner.  This one gives more specifics about responses from production companies and more details about Anime Bliss 3.0.  It also points people to a couple of message board topics where I need user's input.

You can find the column here or by using the "Webmaster's Corner" link in the left hand navbar.

As it is now March, I have archived the February News.  You can find it with the other archived news on the bottom section of the message board, or by using the navbar link to the News Archive.

Geneon has announced that they have cancelled the Paradise Kiss Special Edition Volume 3.  No further explanation or details were released with the announcement.

We received a Press Release from Central Park Media today talking about their newest release, Backslash.  This will be the first horror film released under their new Below the Radar label.  It will be released on May 8th and will retail for $19.95.  Here is a summary of the film:
"An unrelenting killer stalks two beautiful freshman students after they're cast as the unwitting stars of a low-budget student slasher film and its deadly website. They soon find themsleves trapped in a brutal reality movie where they must outwit a killer who loves publicity more than slashing. Can they save themselves from the ultimate splatter movie ending?"
And if that isn't enough to convince you this is a must see, it is from the director that brought us "Cheerleader Ninjas".  How can you argue with that?

You can find the full Press Release here

Episode 15 is now available.  Enjoy.

I like feedback.  Please keep letting me know how I am doing

If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp15.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

I have added a bunch of new Anime Series pages to compliment a bunch of the DVD's in the DVD Indexes.

Geneon is speculating that they will be releasing the Hellsing Ultimate volume 2 regular and limited editions on June 12th.  This is not the officially announced release date however, just an "early solicitation" date and therefore could change.

Geneon has announced that the Ai Yori Aoshi/Ai Yori Aoshi-Enishi Complete Set and the Gate Keepers/Gate Keepers 21 complete set will be delayed.  Instead of being released on March 27th they will now be released on April 17th.

A trailer for Paprika is now online.  The movie is from the director of both Perfect Blue and Paranoia Agent, and will premiere in theatres May 25, 2007.

It has been announced that a new US Anime Magazine will be appearing soon.  Otaku USA will be a bi monthly magazine that will cover the entire J-Pop market in the US.  It will be published by Sovereign Media who also produces Sci Fi, which is the official Sci Fi Channel magazine.  The magazine will cover new Manga, anime, computer game, and board game releases as well as current pop culture in Japan.  It will also include manga previews.  Each issue will be 150 pages, full-color, glossy, and oversized at 9 x 10 7/8".  Currently the expected retail price will be $9.99 per issue and will include a DVD with anime features and game demos.  No official release date has been set yet.

You can find the site here