With Yusei Matsui’s Assassination Classroom being one of the most successful anime and manga titles today, fans of the series have a lot more to be happy about because during a live event at Tokyo’s TOHO Cinemas Roppongi Hills, the staff of the live-action Assassination Classroom movie has announced a movie sequel.
The staff, led by producer, Juichi Uehara, announced that the live-action movie’s sequel will be titled Ansatsu Kyoushitsu ~Sotsugyou-hen~ (Assassination Classroom ~Graduation Edition~), and it will make its Japanese premiere in 2016. The staff, cast, and exact release date will be announced in the future. The live-action movie premiered in Japan last 21 March and has been met with much success.
The live-action movie’s staff, which had Koro-sensei himself as their special guest, also announced that the anime will be getting a second season. The first season is currently listed at 22 episodes and is currently airing in Japan. Like the live-action movie, more announcements about the anime’s second season, will also be made in the days ahead.
Mamare Touno, the man behind hit light novel series, Log Horizon and Maoyu: Maou Yuusha, is in hot water with the Japanese government as of late as he has been charged by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau with tax evasion.
The author, whose real name is Daisuke Umezu, best known for incorporating various economic theories in his works, and his company, m2lade JAM (Marmalade Jam), are currently in suspicion of violating Japan’s Corporate Tax Law and a case has already been filed against them with the Tokyo Public Prosecutors’ Office.
According to reports, Touno did not pay the full amount of taxes he was supposed to pay, and neither did he report all of his earnings to the local tax office. He reportedly withheld information that he earned over 120 million yen in royalties from his books and contracts with major publishers by March 2014, making him pay approximately 30 million yen less than what he’s supposed to pay.
In a recent report by NHK news, Mamare Touno has said that he and his company have already payed the taxes due but refused to comment further.
Two of Touno’s works, Log Horizon and Maoyu: Maou Yuusha, have received very popular anime adaptations and has earned him plenty of fans. Hopefully, the issue will be resolved soon.
CLAMP’s unforgettable manga series, Cardcaptor Sakura, has definitely touched the lives of many of today’s women when they were growing up as kids. Now, Japanese fashion brand, Sukiyaki, is teaming up with the magical girl series for a new fashion line aimed at the ladies, who were once the kids inspired by the mahou shoujo classic.
The designs are inspired by the clothes worn by main character Sakura Kinomoto in the series, Sukiyaki is releasing four sets of them, and each one is priced at 15,984 yen.
Tomoeda Primary School Uniform
The Sakura dress (battle costume)
Cherry Stars and Stripes (battle costume)
The Alice Dress (battle costume)
These Cardcaptor Sakura-inspired dresses are now available for pre-orders via the Japanese fashion website, Super Groupies . All four designs come in XXS, S, M, L, and XL sizes. The model in the images above are all wearing XXS.
One year ago, we brought you the results of Charapedia’s first 10,000 fan seiyuu poll. This year, we are back with the results for this year, bringing to you the top 30 popular seiyuus as polled from Japanese fans!
Just two weeks ago, these fans were asked to vote for their favourite male and female seiyuu. The voters consisted of 46.3% males and 53.7% females, with more than 75% of voters in their teens and 20s.
This year, an exciting new segment has been added to the poll. Interested to know the Top 5 male seiyuus popular among guy fans? How about Top 5 female seiyuus voted for by the gals? Find out here!
Will last year’s A-listers stay in the running for this year? Or have they been surpassed by younger, fresher contenders?
3 Daisuke Ono (900 votes) 小野大輔 Characters: Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus), Kokkuri-san (Gugure! Kokkuri-san), Seishuu Handa (Barakamon)
Kamiya has once again proved that he is absolutely unstoppable. Besides being the one and only winner of the Hiroshi Kamiya Awar- I mean, the Popularity Awards in the annual Seiyuu Awards for 4 consecutive years, he is once again reigning supreme in this poll. Kaji has moved up from last year’s 3rd place to 2nd this year, boosted by his recent lead roles in popular shounen title Nanatsu no Taizai.
OnoD has been snagging awards everywhere with his dual win of Best Male Actor and Radio Personality at this year’s Seiyuu Awards, impressing the audience with his lead roles in shows like Barakamon and Gugure! Kokkuri-san. Riding their wave of popularity from swimming anime Free!, Mamo and Tatsu continue to stay in the limelight with Nanatsu no Taizai.
Hanazawa and Sawashiro once again prove their popularity by taking top spots in this year’s poll, having ranked 1st and 3rd respectively last year. Staying steadily in the limelight with prominent roles in blockbusters such as PSYCHO-PASS and Sword Art Online II respectively, these two are absolutely unstoppable, both having also won Best Supporting Actress awards at this year’s Seiyuu Awards.
Hayami has pulled ahead from her 12th place last year, no doubt boosted by strong roles in popular series Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, among others. Tomatsu also pulled a few spots ahead to take 4th place, boosting her Asuna (SAO II) popularity with her lead role in Japan’s latest craze, Youkai Watch (no, we weren’t going to say Frozen). Veteran Kugimiya remains solid at 5th spot, taking on new roles in upcoming anime, on top of her adorably familiar roles as Kagura (Gintama) and Happy (Fairy Tail).
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A special addition to this year’s Charapedia poll sees the most popular seiyuus as voted by same-gender fans!
Without any doubt, Matsuoka, or “Tsugu-tsugu” as he is casually known to his male fans, occupies a special place in the hearts of fanboys and fangirls alike with his leading roles in Sword Art Online II and No Game No Life. Recalling the many low-pitched roars and cheers at last year’s AFASG special stage event featuring him as a guest, we are confident that Matsuoka will be the top choice of our local and regional boys as well.
Sawashiro has stolen many a female heart with her wide plethora of roles, ranging anywhere from intimidating war god, to cute-meganekko-(glasses girl)-turned-gun-toting-kickass-sniper. Equally loud female and male cheers for her character during the SAO II special stage at last year’s AFA reminded us of the key to her popularity – Sawashiro’s unique charm makes every character truly her own.
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Charapedia is an online wiki page maintained by anime and game fans. It acts as an online collection of everything and anything related to anime/game characters, including character bios, information, fan illustrations and videos. As registration is completely free, it serves as an accessible online platform to create and share information and creative work, or simply spread the love for your favourite characters. Do note though, it is also only available in Japanese.
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Let us know your favourites male and female seiyuus here on AFACHAN!
If you’ve read the title, we assure you, it’s no joke, because it was announced during a special event for Gen Urobuchi’s popular mecha anime series, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (Suisei no Gargantia). The Bandai Visual producer, Yuuji Hirooka has announced that Production I.G. will discontinue their plans for a second season for the anime, and it will instead end as a novel written by Gargantia script writer, Daishiro Tanimura.
According to Hirooka, Production I.G. has chosen to discontinue their planned second season and could not produce it for “various reasons”, which were not elaborated on. Instead, they have chosen that the conclusion for Ledo and Amy’s adventures in the water world which is Earth would be ended in a novel format. The novel is slated for release in Japan this summer.
Fans who want to watch more of their beloved Gargantia crew, don’t fret just yet because Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet will be having a second OVA. This second OVA was shown in selected theaters in Japan last 4 April and will be having its home video release on 27 May 2015.
The first fans who watched the second OVA in theaters also got their hands on a Gargantia short story, which also serves as a prequel to the main sequel novel. Hirooka also stated that the word “Land” will be key to the novel. Also revealed were the character designs for two of the sequel novel’s main characters, Stella and Russel, as well as the mecha, Ignite. All three will be playing key roles in the novel and the conclusion of Ledo’s story.
And here are a couple of new screenshots from the second OVA
Well, the cancellation of the second season is truly a big blow to many fans. However, look at the bright side, maybe we can see the novel get animated in the future? Who knows?
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet premiered in Japan last April 2013 and follows the story of Ledo, who after a battle against the squid-like monsters known as the Hideauze in space, crash-lands in a watery planet and is taken in by the massive Gargantia fleet. There, he meets Amy, who changes his outlook on life. The anime was directed by Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion associate director, Kazuya Morata over at Production I.G., with its scenario written by none other than Gen Urobutchi (Madoka Magica, Fate/ Zero, Aldnoah.Zero)
Have you ever wondered about the origins of Kantai Collection (艦隊これくしょん)? Or happened to watch the anime but never knew what the actual game was like? Today, I will be introducing the free-to-play browser game that is all-the-rage in Japan at the moment.
Developed by Kadokawa, Kancolle (艦これ) was released in 23 April 2013 on the online gaming platform DMM. The game was originally intended for 10,000 players. However, the game caught on with the combined usage of cute anthropomorphic warships, backed by the voices of renowned seiyuus and went viral soon after. As a result, Kancolle currently has roughly 2.8 million players registered. That count isn’t showing any signs of slowing down with the recent conclusion of the anime, which might have perked the interest of the anime-watching audience. As a side-note, foreign IP addresses are blocked from accessing the game on DMM, although foreigners aren’t actually banned from playing the game itself.
Gameplay
So what is the main attraction of the game? True to its name, Kancolle is mostly about collecting fleet-girls, also known as kanmusu (艦むす). The crux is that these ship-girls are based on actual ships that took part in World War II, or are part of the Imperial Japan Navy. The bigger catch however, are the voices behind these ship-girls. Renowned seiyuus such as Ayane Sakura; Nao Touyama; Rina Hidaka; Risa Taneda; Yuka Iguchi, all voiced at least different 8 ships each! As Kancolle grew in size and following, the list of famous seiyuus joined the ranks as new ships were slowly added into the game, with the latest few being Ai Kayano; Hisako Kanemoto; Mamiko Noto and Yui Horie.
Gameplay is fairly simplistic. You the admiral (提督teitoku), assemble fleets and sortie them on missions to defeat the enemy, which is simply known as the Abyssal. There have been speculations about the true nature of the Abyssal, whether they are based on allied warships or if they were former kanmusu that were sunk during combat. However, there has been no canonical information about the Abyssal, or where they originate from.
The sense of progression comes from expanding your collection while leveling your kanmusu at the same time. When they reach the level cap of 99, one can “marry” them for the price of 700 yen – raising their level cap to 150 but more importantly, to show their ultimate affection to the kanmusu of their heart. Minor updates happen every fortnight to add new content into the game. Every couple of months, there will be event maps which are based on real war operations such as Midway and the Aleutian Islands. These limited-time-only maps usually poses a significant challenge for new players and even seasoned veterans, whereby the reward for clearing these maps are usually exclusive event–only kanmusu, alongside new equipment.
Conclusion
Although Kancolle is a simple game at its core, its fandom is still going strong despite that fact. The question to ask is whether Kancolle will ever be more than just a flash game, given the cult following it has garnered. Avid industry watchers have noted that Kancolle is already a resounding success not just as a game, but also as a franchise – ranging from receiving an anime adaptation (with a sequel already announced), to the countless merchandises such as PVC figures. While we’re at that why not add in a PS Vita game to the mix too? At the end of the day, it remains to be seen whether Kancolle is nothing more than a fad, or if it can continue to rival Touhou (in terms of popularity) for the years to come. If you are interested in the game and would like to know more, you can check out the Kancolle wiki as well as the general Wikipedia entry.
he plot is certainly thickening in Fairy Tail as the anime finally enters the Tartaros Arc this April, and issue #17 of Weekly Shounen Magazine has unveiled the cast who will voice the arc’s antagonists, the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros.
The cast as revealed by the scan:
Ai Kayano (AnoHana’s Menma, Guilty Crown’s Inori Yuzuriha) as Kyouka
Aki Toyosaki (K-On!’s Yui Hirasawa and To Love-Ru’s Momo Deviluke) as Sayla
Kenjiro Tsuda (K’s Mikoto Suoh, also voices Bacchus in Fairy Tail) as Silver
Takuma Terashima (Mekaku City Actors’ Shintarou Kisaragi and Aquarion’s Apollo) as Jackal
Takahiro Mizushima (White Album 2’s Haruki Kitahara and Code Geass’s Rollo Lamperouge) as Tempesta
Yutaka Aoyama (Also voices Fairy Tail’s Jura Nekis) as Franmalth
The Nine Demon Gates aren’t actually magicians, but demons, and they form the dark magic guild known as Tartaros. They will be giving Natsu, Lucy, Erza, and the others a whole heap of trouble in this new arc, which will begin this 4 April 2015. And speaking of the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros, they are even teased in the arc’s new PV
Flying Dog has released the much-awaited official soundtrack for the anime adaptation of DMM and Kadokawa’s popular PC game, Kantai Collection. It also serves as a character song album, which means that this new album not only features some of the songs featured in the anime, but also several character songs from the series’ most beloved characters.
The first song in that video is the Kongou Sisters sisters’ song titled Susume! Kongou-gata Yonshimai, which was performed by all four Kongou sisters, Kongou, Hiei, Haruna, and Kirishima, during the anime’s episode 4. However, this song is quite peculiar as it features four different voices, but only one singer, and that is voice actress Nao Touyama, who also voices Atago and Takao in the anime and the game. Touyama is quite infamous in Kantai Collection as she manages to pull off 10 different characters. For the untrained ear, you won’t know that the voices of these 10 characters are attributed to just one seiyuu.
Also featured is the song Khorosho by Hibiki, voiced by Aya Suzaki (Kill la Kill’s Mako and Tamako Market’s Tamako), who also voices her sister destroyers, Akatsuki, Ikazuchi, and Inazuma. And of course, this Kantai Collection album won’t be complete without a song by Naka, right? Naka, voiced by Ayane Sakura (also voices her sisters Sendai and Jintsuu as well as Shimakaze, Nagato and Mutsu), is singing the song, First Love Torpedo Squadron.
The character songs included in the album are performed by Kaga (CV: Yuka Iguchi), Shimakaze (CV: Ayane Sakura), and Fubuki (CV: Sumire Uesaka). The CD costs 2,800 yen plus tax.
Kantai Collection is quite infamous to seiyuu fans as many of its seiyuus are voicing more than one characters. You can read our voice comparisons on some of the characters through this link
One of the most innocent yet darkest series in the entire Gundam franchise, Mobile Suit Victory Gundam, finally gets its Blu-ray box set, however, its creator and director, the legendary Yoshiyuki Tomino, has a few not-so-kind words about the release.
In a statement on the Blu-ray release’s official website, he asked fans to look for “what is bad” about Victory, and stated in his opening sentence that the anime is “all negative”. He then warned the people that if they did make the “mistake” of buying the Blu-ray set, they could find what is wrong with the series. This “warning” by the the legendary anime director is not the first as for Victory Gundam’s limited edition DVD release, Director Tomino infamously said “This DVD should not be bought as it is not intended to be seen!!”
Victory is considered to be the most depressing anime in the entire Gundam franchise (and that is saying a lot) due to the fact that at least one character is killed every episode. This series exemplifies Tomino’s infamous nickname, “Kill’em All Tomino” because of the body count in this series is really that high.
The series has a very dark tone, no thanks to it being made during a period when Tomino was depressed; Wanting to destroy the Gundam franchise altogether by making fans hate Victory Gundam. Of course, with Gundam still being one of the most recognized franchises in anime today, that plan did not work. Currently, Tomino has already gotten over his depression and is now back and directing Reconguista in G.
The special limited edition Blu-ray boxes will be released in two parts, with the first set being released on 24 July and the second set being released on 25 September. The first set will include the first 25 episodes while the second set will have the latter 24. Both volumes will come in special boxes illustrated by the anime’s mecha designer, Hajime Katoki, and feature the creditless OPs and EDs as well as an audio commentary by the staff. Both releases will cost 34,000 yen.
So would you heed Tomino’s new warning? Or would you still be interested in buying it?
Just be warned though, do not get overly attached to any of the characters because this is like the anime equivalent of Game of Thrones where “anyone can die.”
A wrap-around jacket in the 16th volume of the ecchi-comedy manga, Prison School (Kangoku Gakuen) has revealed that the award-winning manga by Akira Hiromoto now has over four million copies printed. The same wrap-around jacket also made an important announcement about the anime adaptation.
The wrap-around revealed that the anime adaptation will be slated to premiere the summer 2015 season, which will begin this July.
Here is what Yen Press, which distributes the manga’s English version in North America, describes the series:
Hachimitsu Private Academy was a revered and elite all-girls’ boarding school on the outskirts of Tokyo…once upon a time. But with the new school year comes a revision to school policy: Boys are to be admitted into the student body for the first time ever. But on his first day at Hachimitsu, Kiyoshi Fujino discovers that he’s one of only five boys enrolled at the school. Their numbers overwhelmed by the thousand girls in the student body, is it heaven or hell that awaits these five (un)fortunates?!
With 16 volumes now released and over four million copies now in print, the manga is considered to be very popular in Japan. The manga started serialization in Japan back in 2011 within the pages of Kodansha’s Young Magazine and has already sold over 3.5 million copies as of August 2014. The series is also an award-winning one as it won the Best General Manga during the 36th Kodansha Manga Awards.
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