Instead of school, watch Elementhunters on NHK-Educational

That’s right. Why go to school when you can stay home and watch the sci-fi adventure anime Elementhunters on Nippon Housou Kyoukai’s (日本放送協会; nippon housou kyoukai, nihon housou kyoukai), more commonly known as NHK, educational channel NHK-Educational and learn chemical elements from your own living room or wherever you decide to get comfortable and learn. The obvious answer is that all your friends are at school, right? Or, well, at least they should be. Anyway, NHK launches a new anime called Elementhunters which is meant to teach children chemical elements as well as entertain them (I assume) this July. Elementhunters will also be aired in Korea as it is a joint production between Korea and Japan; however, I’m not sure when the Korean version will start airing.

Elementhunters

Hopefully (maybe), NHK has planned out the series’ airtime better than to place it right in the middle of the school day, otherwise the students maybe will stay home instead of going to school. Seriously, if you had the choice of going to school or staying home, watching anime, what would you do?

Source: Moon Phase via Anime News Network

Baby cause of Kimi ni Todoke hiatus

I really should write about things as soon as I find out, but well, this way you get lots of news the days I write… right?

Karuho Shiina, author of Kimi ni Todoke, takes a break from being a mangaka to become a mother. In place of the Kimi no Todoke manga, the magazine Bessatsu Margaret will feature a new story on Kimi no Todoke by Sanae Shimokawa starting with their March issue shipping on the 13th February; however, the story will not be in manga form but as simple text, like a book.

Sawako Kuronuma and friends.

Will little baby Shiino be a mangaka too, in her latter days, you think? A family of manga authors… could be fun?

Source: Mainichi Mantan via Anime News Network

The candyman is here!

Okay, enough news for now, but here something else. When I woke up the doorbell rang and at the door was a delivery man with a package for me. I signed my signatures, accepted the package and completely forgot about it until now. Let’s open it and see what I got (I think it’s candy… lol)!

*opening*

Ooooh, lots of goody goodies in here! I’ll add a gallery with pictures of what I got at the bottom of this post later. Whoa, I feel dizzy and… I wonder why. Anyway, here’s a list of what I got:

• Glico Pocky “Ichigo” (strawberry taste) x 10
• Glico Pocky “Fuyu no Kuchidoke” (chocolate taste, holiday special edition with cocoa)
• Glico Walky Walky
• Meiji Hokkaido Choco Potato – Black
• Meiji Hokkaido Choco Potato – White
• Sakuma Drops
• Mochi Candy – Green Apple
• Mochi Candy – Cherry
• Mochi Candy – Grape
• Meiji Dice Caramels
• Japanese Grapefruit Mentos (awesome!)
• Lotte Cube Plus X – Pink Grapefruit Mint Gum

I think that was all of it, but I’m not completely sure… Anyway, enjoy some pictures and drool on your keyboard until it can’t be used anymore!

Seasonal Pocky, Winter edition. Melt in your mouth, chocolate taste pretzel sticks covered in cocoa!

New One Piece movie to celebrate anime’s 10th anniversary

Two years after Shueisha’s celebration of Eiichiro Oda’s pirate manga One Piece’s ^{ANN1 ANN2} 10th anniversary it’s Toei Animation’s turn to celebrate the anime’s 10th anniversary by releasing a tenth theatrical movie, aptly named One Piece 10th, 2009. All the previous One Piece movies have premiered in Japanese theatres in early March every year during spring break in Japan; however, I could not find a set date for One Piece 10th to premiere.

According to a research by Oricon, One Piece was the most popular manga of 2008!

Source: animeanime.jp

Premiere date for Gurren Lagann: Rasen-hen set

The second Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ANN movie, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Rasen-hen (the Japanese are truly the masters of long, but still awesome, titles), is as mentioned before set to premiere under Golden Week in Japan, 2009, but not before just recently did they go out on the official movie website the exact premiere date: 25th April 2009! An exclusive preview will be screening on February 9, earlier the same year, for a few lucky people.

"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"

I have never had a good experience with non-canon movies because, frankly, they suck, but it seems even those movies are getting better nowadays with the new Bleach ^{ANN1 ANN2} movie looking very promising and the new Eureka Seven ^ANN movie on its way – a product attached to the name Eureka Seven simply can’t suck. Can it? If it does, I’m seriously going to hunt the people behind the project down and too gore content, cannot be allowed anywhere – not even on the internet. You know, if I can get away from everything else I’ve got to do just for a short while… Oh wait, I shouldn’t be talking about Eureka Seven in a Gurren Lagann post now, should I? No, I should not. So I won’t… Good bye.

Source: 2channel News Navigator via Alafista

It’s finally here!

As mentioned earlier, I placed an import order on beNippon.com for some Japanese products, and guess what a woman working at the post office delivered to my door? That’s right (unless you just said something else than the obvious answer), the package with my imports! I wonder if she brought the package right home since we live in the same apartment building and she noticed the package was addressed to someone at her address, because we have never gotten any deliveries delivered right to our door before. Anyway, since I have no digital camera of my own, I had to take all pictures of package and its insides, so prepare yourself for some low-quality pictures. I hope you can at least see what the pictures are of. Why are there so many watermarks? Well, I wanted the watermarks to be at the same location on all the pictures so I spent (or should I say wasted?) a long time trying to find a free online service that would let me do so since Photoshop wouldn’t and the service I finally ended up using had to ruin the picture even more. Well, try to enjoy the pictures anyway!

The package, touched by none except a few thousand people.

I was really psyched and ecstatic when I received the package at the door and I almost started dancing. (Hey, you there, wait… GIVE ME THAT CAMERA!!) I have also ordered something else from beNippon.com that I hope will come soon, and I hope the happiness when that package arrives won’t be any lesser than what I experience today.

Ultimo serialized in Jump SQ next year

The manga Karakuridouji Ultimo by Hiroyuki Takei, author of Shaman King ^ANN, and Stan Lee, co-creator of several Marvel comics such as Spider-Man and Fantastic Four, will start serializing in Jump Square in February, 2009. I don’t like comics that aren’t manga (such as the Marvel comics) and, even though Ultimo is a true manga, I was never that interested in Takei’s new work when it came out as a one-shot in Jump SQ.II in April, no matter how much I liked his previous work Shaman King; I checked it out, however, and the result made me even less interested in the manga than I was before I read through the pilot. Not a good move, Hiroyuki-san.

The robot main characters, Ultimo and Vice.

I’m not so into the idea of “robots” either, so often when a work includes that element I get a little sad and the series dies a bit in my mind. Cyborgs are kind of okay though, seeing as they are live people in mechanic bodies – not created beings with artificial intelligence.

Source: animeanime.jp via Anime News Network

New Naruto: Shippuuden movie on its way

In good time to celebrate the Naruto ^ANN manga’s ten year anniversary the second Naruto: Shippuuden ^ANN movie, fifth Naruto movie overall, will be released in Japanese theatres during the coming summer of 2009. The recently released teaser only tells the words “Gekijouban Naruto Shippuuden” which literally means “Movie Edition: Naruto Shippuuden,” if I may translate it myself, with no subtitle available. The teaser doesn’t tell very much about the movie or anything at all, but you get to see a few Naruto characters jump around on a black screen, trying to get you excited over the coming movie.

Source: Saishin Anime Jouhou via Anime News Network

Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows

The Eureka Seven movie has finally got itself a title and a release date. The movie called Koukyou Shihen Eureka Sebun: Pokketo ga Niji de Ippai (“Psalms of Planets Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows“) that I’ve been looking forward ever since it was announced in the May 2008 issue of Newtype is to be released during Golden Week 2009, a week in Japan featuring several public holidays. I could ramble on and on about Eureka Seven and how much I love the show for hours, days, weeks, months and even years, but I won’t. I’m guessing I will lose all current and future readers by excess boredom. Well, maybe not if you like love Eureka Seven like me, but otherwise, maybe yeah. Crap! How am I supposed to stand the long wait until next Golden Week? I mean, it’s the week that crosses April and May next year! I’ll just have to try, I guess… I just hope it’s able to live up to the name “Eureka Seven” that the movie sports so proudly in it’s title.

When you wish upon a star...

I remember how much I cried the day I realized I had finished the last episode.

Import manga worth 8705¥

Before I wrote the two latest posts earlier today, I looked around beNippon for manga and stuff, and after a long while of adding and removing almost all of their manga sortiment to/from the shop cart, I came to a total of 8705¥, about $100 or 80€, shipping and payment method fee included. The cost for the things I bought alone came to 4180¥, the shipping fee at 4150¥ and payment method fee at 375¥. Do you care? Probably not, but I wanted to fill out this post with some text before coming to the interesting (maybe?) part. What I bought wasn’t figures or anything like that, but imported manga, as the title says. I purchased volumes one, two, and three of the original, Japanese version Kannagi manga, a Katekyou Hitman REBORN! official character guide, and two One Piece data books: One Piece YELLOW: Grand Elements and One Piece BLUE: Grand Data File.

A list of what I bought, but I will not give you my full name and address. Is that okay?

Everything I bought is in their original Japanese versions, but I only think there are Japanese items on beNippon. My friend over at Akaa has bought stuff and got them from beNippon several times and says it’s safe, so I assume it is. Man, I wish I had purchased more stuff… But I gotta have some money left to buy christmas presents which I frankly should’ve gotten already.