May 2008 Archives

The Lucky Star OVA is now available for order from CDJapan:
Lucky Star OVA (Title subject to change)
The release date is the 28th of August and the price is 5800 yen (6090 yen with tax). Yasuhiro Takemoto is directing as per episodes 5 onwards of the TV series. There's no other information on CDJ, but Neowing comments "The 'Star ☆ Deadwood' is now re-emerged OVA!! TV series can depict episodes that were not realistic and time-axis in such episodes included in the original plan." (<3 babelfishing). Going to Neowing proper (The link from CDJ for some reason just brings up something inbetween now) reveals that the OVA length is 30 mins and that there will be another Lucky Channel radio drama included.
I'll add Amazon and Yes Asia links when I have them.

--edit--
fixed CDJapan link, and here's the Amazon one:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B001BA20GA/
Also added some images in the extended entry.

--edit2--
Added some more images.
CDJapan also now states it will include behind-the-scenes footage from the recording of the new radio drama. Neowing adds further that there is an 8-page colour booklet and a first press BGM CD and is now showing the runtime as 40 mins (probably including the bonus footage), the ratio as 16:9 and the audio as LPCM stereo.

--edit3--
Added some colour settei from the official site.

The first DVD box has arrived, and you can see pictures here. It is smaller than I imagined - the case isn't much taller than a DVD. The disc prints mirror the original cover artwork rather than the original discs themselves (at least when compared to the Collectors Edition as I do not have any of the regular edition discs), however the contents is exactly the same as the original LE DVDs, down to the last byte as you can see here, so also include the JPGs of the eyecatch artwork as DVD-ROM content. The bonus disc has the same image as the box. The Keiji Gotoh interview is again set at a radio telescope array somewhere and is very short (3m25s), consisting of just a few questions. The Sound Layer (14m57s), introduced by Ikue Kimura (Liquiy), starts with a serious monologue by Mika Doi (Director Eclipse) but she is later interrupted by Liquiy and it suddenly becomes something of a comedy, with Liquiy nicknaming Eclipse "Ecky" (that's about all I got out of it unfortunately). The audio is played over to a (rather nice) starfield effect and the menu (which is front loading) has a rather nice little intro animation that I'll try and upload somewhere later along with a few screencaps.

--edit--
I also found this tucked away on the bonus DVD.

--edit--
Added some screenshots to the album, and also made a quick and dirty PSP-format rip of the menu animation which you can see here.

Somehow I've missed this till now, but they have posted images of the first DVD box on the official site, so as my copy is yet to arrive (still waiting for Clannad 6 as well and that was posted a couple of days earlier but then they have a fair way to travel and need to stop over in Croydon on the way..). This is the first time I'll be inserting an image in a post since upgrading MT (which seems to be working out well so far as I've not had to delete a single spam comment. Not had any genuine comments come throug either mind, but then I never got many of those anyway). The box looks nice and glossy with an uncluttered design and uses coloured stripes over black backgrounds similarly to the movie jackets. The digipak is a book design, similar to what Geneon used for ROD the TV but without the clasp and leather effect. The discs have been redesigned, again similar to the design on the movie discs; the artwork on the two discs displayed here is that from the covers of the original DVD release rather than from the discs themselves (the Collector's Edition version anyway, as I don't have the regular to compare with). Naturally I'll have a Picasa album filled with larger shots when mine finally gets here.

--edit--
added images from CDJapan

I wasn't initially going to make an entry for this, but I figured what the heck.
Gotoh's last blog entry mentions that he's doing new illustrations for both NewType and Animage, (probably) for the volumes due out in June - I believe that is the July edition in both cases. That's about all I can make out and I don't know what series (if any) they are for (if anyone bothers reading this and happens to also be able to translate feel free to comment..)
It would be nice if they were illustrations for KG2 (indicating that it is still in the pipeline), but they may be for the original Kiddy Grade (what with the recent TV showing and DVD re-releases) or even something else altogether.

--edit June 13th--
As it turns out, something else.
Newtype: Kurenai article - page 1, page 2
Animage: Macross Frontier - page 1, page 2

All three of the Limited Edition volumes of Negima including the new OVA discs are now available for pre-order on Yes Asia:

Magister Negi Magi 23 (Limited Edition / w DVD)
Magister Negi Magi 24 (Limited Edition / w DVD)
Magister Negi Magi 25 (Limited Edition / w DVD)

All three are priced at $55.2 and are due out on August 14th, November 16th and February 16th respectively.

I've randomly discovered some quite good Japanese cosplay pictures of Ascule and Que Feuilles on Touchi Ginko's site Monpari:

http://monpari.raindrop.jp/kd2_aws_1.html
http://monpari.raindrop.jp/kd2_aws_2.html

http://monpari.raindrop.jp/kd2_askl_01.html
http://monpari.raindrop.jp/kd2_askl_02.html

It's not a big update, but it's an excuse for adding a new picture to the blog. The official Kiddy Grade site has added a picture of a flyer for the DVD boxes. Naturally I want one, but since picking one up requires either a physical presence in Japan or extortionate charges on Yahoo! Auctions through SMJ I may have to stick with the picture for now.

[edit="a little later" /]I've not done this for a while, but since my Kiddy Grade iGoogle plugin just flagged a couple of major hits, thought it was time for another links dump:

Ask John: Where is Kiddy Grade 2? (Animenation blog, 20080501)
I Want My Kiddy Grade (Impartially Biased blog, 20080504)
Kiddy Grade Fan Site (new fansite by a member of the FUNimation forums)
Kiddy Grade 2 (Advanced Anime forums, 20080306)
Kiddy Grade 2 (the waiting's simply killing me) (Viki Rosenzveig's blog, 20070705)
Season 2 Coming Soon (IMDb Kiddy Grade forums, 20061002)
Kiddy Grade 2?! (Felix's Anime Gaming Tech Ramblings, 20070122)
Kiddy Grade 2 pilot (Felix's Anime Gaming Tech Ramblings, 20070526)
KG2 (nebby_99's Livejournal, 20070528)
Date on Kiddy Grade 2? (Hongfire Anime Network forums, 20080205)
Kiddy Grade FanClub (MyAnimeList)
New season of kiddy Grade's single announced (Minitokyo forums, 1y 14wk ago)

(Like I said, some are really old but it's been a while since the last dump, and some only turned up relatively recently)

Amazon have added new box art to their listing for the first DVD box. I don't know if it is final or just a prelimiary mock-up, it has logos etc. on it this time around, but is different to what was pictured in the promo video.