Additional Shōnen Hollywood Cast Announced

Anime based on popular novel to premiere in July

The official website for the upcoming anime Shōnen Hollywood revealed the names of the additional cast on Wednesday:

• Daisuke Namikawa as President
• Souichiro Hoshi as Daichi Hirosawa
• Yuuto Suzuki as Kō Ōsaki
• Daisuke Sakaguchi as Jitsu Tomii

Crunchyroll Adds Blade and Soul Anime for Spring 2014

Anime based on the MMORPG premieres today

Crunchyroll announced on Thursday that it will stream the Blade & Soul anime series as it airs in Japan. The show will premiere for members at 9:00 p.m. PDT this Thursday, April 3, and air every Thursday at 12:46 p.m. PDT. The show will be available for free one week later. The stream will be available in the United States, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France, Latin America, Netherlands & Scandinavia, and Turkey.

Sentai Filmworks Adds One Week Friends

North American anime distributor Sentai Filmworks announced on Thursday that it has licensed the anime adaptation of Matcha Hazuki's Isshūkan Friends. (One Week Friends) manga. The show will stream in North America as it airs in Japan beginning on April 7.

Love Stage!!'s Limited Edition 5th Manga Volume to Include an OVA

Manga Oh publishing company now lists on its website that the 5th volume of Taishi Zaou and Eiki Eiki's of boys-love manga Love Stage!! will include an original video animation in the limited edition release, which will ship on November 22 with a special cover photo and box.

J.C. Staff opened the official Love Stage!! anime website in January to announce the television anime adaptation. Kenichi Kasai (Major, Bakuman., Nodame Cantabile) is directing the series at J.C. Staff. Michiko Yokote (XXXHOLiC, Squid Girl) is working on the series composition while Yoko Ito (key animator for Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, Turn A Gundam) is in charge of character design.

Extended Anime Ad for Shinra Bansho Choco Streamed

Shinra Bansho Choco chocolate wafers come with collectible cards

The official YouTube channel for Shinra Bansho Choco, Bandai's snack and collectible trading card series, began streaming a extended promotional video on Tuesday. The trailer advertises a new set of cards for the series, Shinra Bansho Choco: Tenchi Shinmei no Shou, which debuts on April 7 in Japan.

Magi: Adventure of Sinbad Anime Spinoff Previewed in TV Ad

The official website for the Magi: Sinbad no Bōken (Magi: Adventure of Sinbad) anime began streaming a television spot for the original anime series last Friday. The ad proclaims that this is the "legitimate prologue" that will cover the beginning of Sinbad's quest to take on Baal's Dungeon.

NIS America Offers Toradora! Blu-rays With English Dub

NIS America announced on Tuesday that it will re-issue the Toradora! romantic comedy anime series on Blu-ray with an English dub. The premium and standard box sets are slated for release on July 1. The premium edition will include four Blu-ray and four DVD discs and retail for US$129.99. The standard edition will be released in two separate box sets and retail for US$59.99 each.

Trigger Makes Anime of Inou-Battle in the Usually Daze Comedy Novels

The wraparound jacket band on the sixth volume of Kota Nozomi's Inō-Battle wa Nichijō-kei no Naka de (Inou-Battle in the Usually Daze) light novel series is announcing this week that an anime adaptation has been green-lit. The studio Trigger (Kill la Kill, Little Witch Academia) is producing the anime.

In the orignal novel series' story, the five members of the literature club awakened with extraordinary powers half a year ago. Although the members expected to be thrown into a world of super-powered battles (inō-battle) at their school, their normal daily routine continued. No secret organizations bent on world destruction, no super-powered wars, no braves or demon kings.

2013 Doraemon Film's Japanese TV Airing Gets Censored

TV Asahi aired the 2013 Doraemon film Doraemon: Nobita no Himitsu Dōgu Museum on March 6 with a censored scene. In the scene, the character Shizuka encounters the secret tool "hyper vacuum," and the vacuum sucks up the clothes she is wearing, including her underwear. In the TV broadcast version of the scene, lines of light were used to censor Shizuka when her clothes were sucked up by the vacuum (see image at right).

Japan's Animation Blu-ray Disc Ranking, February 24-March 2

Rank	Last Week	Title	Weekly Copies	Total Copies	Release Date		Maker
		Artist/Category			Highest Rank	Weeks on Chart
1	-	Otorimonogatari Part I/Nadeko Medusa Part I (Monogatari Series Second Season, Limited Complete Pressing)	31,738	31,738	14/2/26		ANX
		Animation			1	1
2	-	A Certain Scientific Railgun S Vol. 8 (Limited First Pressing)	12,421	12,421	14/2/26		WHV
		Animation			2	1
3	-	Infinite Stratos 2Vol. 4	10,441	10,441	14/2/26		OLP
		Animation			3	1
4	-	Little Busters! Refrain 2 (Limited First Pressing)	7,666	7,666	14/2/26		WHV
		Animation			4	1
5	-	Hakuōki Dai-isshō Kyoto Ranbu Blu-ray〈Limited First Edition〉	7,292	7,292	14/2/26		GUE
		Animation			5	1
6	-	Non Non Biyori Vol. 3 (Blu-ray)	6,714	6,714	14/2/26		MFI
		Animation			6	1
7	-	Wake Up, Girls! Shichi-nin no IdolLimited First Edition	5,523	5,523	14/2/28		AVE
		Animation			7	1
8	-	Kin-iro Mosaic Vol. 6 (Blu-ray)	5,248	5,248	14/2/26		MFI
		Animation			8	1
9	-	Strike the BloodVol. 2〈Limited First Pressing〉	4,348	4,348	14/2/26		WHV
		Animation			9	1
10	-	Hyperdimension Neptunia Vol. 6 (Blu-ray)	3,527	3,527	14/2/26		FTW
		Animation			10	1
14*	-	Tamayura - More Aggressive Vol. 5	3,376	3,376	14/2/26		SHV
		Animation			14	1
15*	-	Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS Vol. 6 (Limited First Pressing)	3,159	3,159	14/2/26		WHV
		Animation			15	1
16*	-	Wake Up, Girls! Shichi-nin no IdolTheater-Exclusive Edition	3,075	3,075	14/2/28		AVE
		Animation			16	1
17*	-	Valvrave the Liberator 2nd Season 3 (Limited Complete Pressing)	3,045	3,045	14/2/26		K/ANX
		Animation			17	1
18*	-	Log Horizon 2 (Blu-ray)	3,031	3,031	14/2/26		NHE
		Animation			18	1
19*	-	Unbreakable Machine-Doll Vol. 3 (Blu-ray)	3,025	3,025	14/2/26		SGT
		Animation			19	1
20*	-	White Album 2 3	3,011	3,011	14/2/26		K
		Animation			20	1

* Rank on overall Blu-ray Disc chart

Source: Oricon

Japan's Animation DVD Ranking, February 24-March 2

The deluxe edition of TeniPuri Festa 2013 sold 2,969 more copies for a new total of 17,225. It dropped from #2 to #12 in its second week on the overall DVD chart.

K Anime Film's Title, Story Unveiled

The official website for the upcoming K film opened on Tuesday, and revealed that the official title of the film will be K Missing Kings. The site debuted a new official key visual (seen above) which assembles all the characters with the tagline, "Bonds, once again."

Hitomi Makes Voice-Acting Debut & Sings for New Tamagotchi TV Anime

Singer hitomi is contributing the theme songs for Go-Go Tamagotchi!, this spring's new television anime inspired by Bandai's Tamagotchi! virtual pets. Plus, she will make her voice-acting debut as the character "hitomicchi" in the episode airing on June 5. The singer said that she was very happy to be able to perform theme songs forTamagotchi!, which even her daughter loves.

Japan's Animation TV Ranking: February 24-March 2

The live-action film adaptation of Saori Oguri's 2002 autobiographical Darling wa Gaikokujin(literally, My Darling is a Foreigner) manga aired on TBS on Saturday, March 3 at 2 p.m. and earned a 4.0% rating.

Japanese Box Office, March 1-2

Takashi Miike's live-action film adaptation of Noboru Takahashi's Mogura no Uta manga series, Mogura no Uta: Senyū Sōsakan Reiji(The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji), fell from #1 to #2 in its third weekend. In the story of the original manga, Reiji Kikukawa is known as a troublesome member of the police force due to his tendency to enforce justice through his own morals. He goes undercover to infiltrate a gangster syndicate. The film also ranked #2 on Box Office Mojo's chart and earned 222,024,096 yen (US$2,149,415) on 293 screens for a new total of 1,262,941,248 yen (US$12,226,534).

Miyazaki's The Wind Rises Earns US$871,000 in 3rd U.S. Weekend

The Box Office Mojo website reports that Hayao Miyazaki's final feature film, The Wind Rises, earned an estimated US$871,000 in 496 American theaters this weekend. It dropped from #13 to #16 in its third weekend in the United States.

Ghibli Co-Founder Toshio Suzuki Retires as Producer

65-year-old producer Toshio Suzuki is voluntarily stepping down from his position at Studio Ghibli, although he will assume the new title of "general manager." Yoshiaki Nishimura will instead be the studio's producer for Ghibli's films going forward. Director Hiromasa Yonebayashi is adapting Joan G. Robinson's English children's novel classic When Marnie Was There (Omoide no Marnie) for release this summer.

Blade & Soul Fantasy Anime's 2nd Promo Streamed

The second promotional video for the television anime adaptation of NCSoft's Blade & SoulMMORPG began streaming on Saturday. The video features the anime's opening theme song “Sayonara Usotsuki” (Farewell, Liar) by Mimimeme MIMI.

Stand By Me Doraemon 3D CG FIlm's New Teaser Posted

The official website for Stand By Me Doraemon, the first 3D CG film starring the anime robot cat Doraemon, began streaming a new teaser trailer on Saturday. The narrator states that this is, "Doraemon's first — and final — story." Doraemon tells Nobita, “I can't stay here anymore.” The tagline at the end of the video reads, “To everyone who has experienced childhood.”

Aya Suzaki to Perform Tamako Love Story Film's Theme Song

The official website for the Tamako Love Story film announced on Friday that Aya Suzaki will perform the theme song "Principle." Suzaki is reprising her role as Tamako Kitashirakawa from Kyoto Animation's original Tamako Market television anime. Suzaki performed the opening theme "Dramatic Market Ride" and the ending theme "Neguse" (Bed Head) for the 2013 series.

Suzaki's single CD with "Principle" and "Koi no Uta" (Love Song) will ship on April 30 for 1,200 yen (about US$12).