What Akia Cares About [#5] Welcome back 'D.N.Angel'

For those of you who are yet aware, Tokyopop has released the 12th volume of D.N.Angel almost 3 years after the 11th was published. Now, this long delay between releases was in no way Tokyopop's fault (even though most people have found Tokyopop's release schedule to be a little un-trustworthy). In fact, it was Sugisaki-san's fault. The manga had been in hiatus in Japan from 2005-Febuary 23, 2007. Sugisaki-san had taken a break from D.N.Angel in order to work on another series. The 12th volume was released by Tokyopop in Agust 2009. In Japan, the manga recently surpased 14 volumes. It is still an ongoing series :]

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~Anime (and manga) News~

In case you didn't know, yesterday Tokyopop hosted an online meeting where they went over their manga release calander and answered questions from the viewers. It was a very neat meeting, and there is another one coming up. Be sure to sign up for Tokyopop's newsblast by registering for an account on their website. When you register, you'll be put on a mailing list for their manga magazine. After a small while, a new issue is being sent out soon, so sign up ASAP so you will definantly get that issue. I have a feeling it will be chock full of awsome. Also, it's all free. Everyone loves free stuff, ne?

Hana to Yume TV special: In order to celebrate 35 years of being a magazine, Hana to Yume is celebrating with a 2hr TV special "All Night Nippon: Shojo Manga Nite Hana to Yume Special." on September 5th 2009. [If you live in Japan, check it out. Haha.]

Tokyopop to publish 'Shiawase Kissa 3-chōme': In Hana to Yume's August 20th issue, Shiawase Kissa 3-chōme's last chapter is being published. Tokyopop is going to start publishing the takubons January 2010. It was one of the titles mentioned in the online meeting. Oh, it's being released as Happy Cafe.

'Haruhi Suzumiya's Endless Eight Arc' ending: The arc is ending this week. [I haven't been watching, so I'm not sure if this is good or happy news. Let me know, k?]

'Fate/Stay Night' film info: The movie is to cover the Unlimited Blade Works story from the Type-moon franchise. Opens January 23rd 2010 in several Japanese theatres. [I thought the anime was fairly good, so I'm pretty excited to see this movie.]

Anime trailers: The Story of the Blue-Eyed Girl (link); Half-Broken Music Box (link)

[Movies] Daybreakers(2010) [teaser #1]

0__0 This looks AWSOME.

Premiers 8 January 2010

What Akia Cares About [#4]- Yen+ is Awsome-fullll

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If you have not been reading Yen+ (which is one of the very few manga/manwha magazines being released in the U.S.), you really are missing out on what I believe is a magazine that is truly publishing the best asian comics out there (sorry SJ, you're no longer the best in my eyes). The neat thing about Yen+ is that the magazine is publishing 4 kinds of comics- manga (such as Nabari no Ou, Soul Eater and Hero Tales), manwha (such as Jack Frost, Pig Bride and One Fine Day), a comic based on an american series of novels called Maximum Ride and original english manga such as Nightschool as well as one shots. The magazine is being released by Yen who will be releasing the Twilight manwha. The most recent issue (the August 2009 one) came with a Maximum Ride pin-up as well as these [m= manga, mw=mangwha, oel= original english manga]. This month, Nightschool's artist took a break:

Maximum Ride (mw)chpt.13

Pig Bride (mw) chpt.13

One Fine Day (mw) chpt.17

Time and Again (mw) chpt.7

Jack Frost (mw) chpt.13

Hero Tales (m) chpt.7

Pandora Hearts (m) chpt.3

Sumomomo,Momomo (m) chpt.12

Nabari no ou (m) chpt.13

Soul Eater (m) chpt.10

.plus a variety of articles.

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~Some Anime (& other) News~

To clear something up, a lot of my news comes straight from ann but in my own words and opinion on the matter. If I'm using a different source, I do my best to post links to those sources so you can read the original material. Also, I only post on what Akia remotely cares about. Thus the title of this blog. Mwahaha.
Bessatsu Shonen Magazine: It's first issue release date is currently set for September 9th of this year. The magazine will 'premier' with 16 titles. These titles include Dōbutsu no Kuni (a manga by the artist behind Gash Bell that is set in a parellel world to Gash Bell), Sonna Mirai wa Uso de Aru (a supernatural fantasy manga by the artist behind such hit manga as Minami-ke and Kyo no Gononi), Joshiraku (the title is not official. a manga based on a story by the writter behind Zayonara Zetsubou Sensei; drawn by the artist behind ToraDora!). For more titles, visit [1].

4Kids for Sale: [1] According to ann, 4Kids putting itself up for sale is currently more of a rumor rather than an official happening. I for one don't really care because I'm way over the age aim that 4Kids has, and 4Kids has some of the worst anime dubs I've seen.

Ivy video [1] Fined: A korean music video was fined 400mil korean won for copying Square Enix's FFVII: Advent Children scene in the music video. HA!

[Anime of the Week] (8/2-8/09) Now and Then, Here and There

# of episodes: 13

Running Time: 30 min/ep

Rating: Teen [13+]

Plot: Shu is a typical Japanese boy, but has an unbeatable, optimistic and determined attitude. However, when he sees a mysterious girl with strange eyes named Lala-Ru up on a smokestack, he is soon pulled into a strange desert world. Shu soon discovers the true terrors of war, which includes genocide, brutal torture, hunger, thirst, and child explotation. Now Shu is trying to save Lala-Ru, as well as his hard earned, and often relunctant, new friends from the insane dictator, Hamdo. Whether Shu can possibly accomplish saving those he cares about while still holding up to his values remains to be seen. (ann)

DVDs: [1][2][3][box set]

VHS (eng. dub): [1][2][3][box set]

Reviews: [1][2][3][4]

Watch Now

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I've picked Now and Then, Here and There as the anime of the week because of how known yet unkown this amazing show is. It may be old, but it has one of the greatest (and most taboo) stories ever presented in anime to date. I do warn thee, this is a violent anime- but not gore violent, violence towards children violet. Proceed with caution!

Interesting Videos [#1]

Decided to start a new blog series simply for mentioning about
videos that don't really fit into any of my other blog series. I hope
you enjoy this new series as much as I enjoy finding these videos :]

I was exploring Chrunchyroll's Pulse section today and came across these interesting gems:

This first video is composed of 21 deaf chinese women doing a dance based on a legend.

Hammertime, the Star Wars version. Pure awsome!

This is why Japanese people are weird. They're so expressive. And like silver eyelashes on Harry Potter stars. lllooollll and btw, I want to interview Rubert >:[ Lucky Japanese girl!!!!

i've found a song to play at an anime convention that will be oddly liked and accepted. *sigh* This is the kind of fandom I'm involved in!? No wonder I don't care what people think. Mwaha. ha?

0__0 'nuff said

Japan and their need to make mascots for EVERYTHING >.> including Windows.... *sigh*

Kurokami ep.1-4 [english]

You can watch the english dub of Kurokami here. It's legal!

I've decided to blog by the episode for Kurokami.... but today I ended up watching 4 episodes instead of just one of 'em so I've decided to blog about more than one episode if I happen to watch more than one in a day (or night. haha. i tend to watch anie at evening/night). I was planning on having screen shots but since I'm blogging about 4 instead of 1 or 2 episodes you'll just have to deal with no screen shots! *uses her exceed on anyone who is abou to whine* :)

[Ep.1~ Doppleliner System]

I'm going to rant a bit about this first episode because I'm comparing it to the manga version which is really different (but still about the same). If I wasn't comparing the two, I'd still enjoy this anime but probably a bit more than I did knowing how the first volume of the manga set up the story. Don't get me wrong, the same basic doppleganger concept is being used and many of the characters are still present. A major difference between the manga and anime is how Kuro makes the compact with Keita. In the manga, Keita loses and arm. To save his dying self, Kuro gives her arm to him and puts his now usless to a human arm on herself. In the anime, she ends up giving him her heart. Another major difference is the age of Keita and the point of life he's at- in the anime he is an 18 year old senior in high school where as in the manga he is a fairly preverted 20 year old with an aime to make the greatest adult game on earth. YET the anime sticks fairly close to occurances of events.

[Ep.2~4]

I'm too lazy to blog about each of these episodes, and I'm in a bit of a rush to finish this blog so I can watch some Eve no Jikan. Haha. There wasn't much that happened in each episode.... but I will blog about each one individualy when I do a comparison review of the manga to the anime. So look out for those. Hehe. But watch this anime. It uses an overused concept, but the animation and way of telling the story are fairly new. Ok, only bit.

Ghibli Films based on....

Recently I bought the novel version of Howl's Moving Castle. The movie version is very different from the novel, yet the two also share a lot of similarites. Both version follow a very similar occurance of events but they both tend to differ on these events (in the movie when Howl has a temper tantrum he isn't really clothed where was in the book he is. Both versions involve green goo). If you love the movie and are afraid that you'll constantly be thinking "that did not happen in the movie" or vice versa PLEASE give this book/ movie a chance any ways because both are really good. The same author wrote two sequels- Castle in the Air (which Ghibli's Castle in the Sky is not based on) and House of Many Ways (released in 2008). House of Many Ways is known as more of a sequel than Castle in the Air.

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One of my favorite Ghibli films (watched it again last night) Whisper of the Heart is based on a manga called Mimi wo Sumaseba that was released for only a few short months. Whisper of the Heart's sequel, The Cat Returns, has a manga adaptation (meaning the movie came out first) called Baron: The Cat Returns which is illustrated by the same manga-ka as Mimi wo Sumaseba. I have yet to read either of the manga versions, but I probably will soon since the movies are amoung my favorite Ghibli films.

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Grave of the Fireflies is based on novel of the same name.

Kiki's Delivery Service is based on the first novel in a series of the same name. The series was recently revealed to have a conclusion released October 2009 [source].

My Neighbors the Yamadas is based on a yonkoma manga series called Nono-chan.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is based on a manga of the same name.

Only Yesterday is based on a manga of the same name.

Porco Rosso is a lose adaptation of Miyazaki's manga Hikotei Jidai.

Tales from Earthsea is losely based on books in the Earthsea series.

August 2009 Blog Layout

I'm still working on the layout, but I have aleady placed the new banner on the blog. I've decided it's best to no longer put a month on my banners in case it takes longer to revamp my layout each month (there was a period I did not update it for a few months). This banner was made using an old image of mine [can be found here] that was meant to originaly be concept art for a novel series I want to eventually write and publish.