News - by Ian - July 11, 2010 - 19:46 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Anime and bartending aren’t two subjects that normally sit hand in hand. However, a team of anime fans with a passion for bartending and coding have come together to create the latest iPhone application – Nimble Strong: Bartender in Training.
“Nimble Strong takes fast-paced arcade-style game play, wraps it around a dark, neo-noir storyline, and then focuses everything toward the goal of teaching you how to authentically make over 70 of the most classic and influential cocktails ever devised,” said Adam Ghahramani, the game’s director, “This is a far better, more fun, and more hands-on method to learn foundational mixology than spending hundreds of dollars on crowded and often highly suspect classes.”
Available in the UK on all iPhones for £2.99GBP, this little game will teach the player how to mix drinks in a story based mode with anime characters to keep you going along the way. To make the title replayable there are multiple endings, dialogue branches and 15 unique characters. To purchase this title just search Nimble in the AppStore and hit download.
News - by Ian - July 11, 2010 - 14:48 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Manga Entertainment today squashed the rumours floating around the internet regarding their acquisition of Kanon 2006. We reported in May that Manga Entertainment along with Bamboo Blade had Kanon 2006 on their wishlist, Bamboo Blade was confirmed today by Manga Entertainment.
To the dismay of the Kanon fans, Manga Entertainment have today confirmed via their Twitter page that they do not currently own the rights for Kanon in the UK:
Re #Kanon rumours. Manga does not currently have this series on its schedule. Sorry for the misinformation that may have got out.
This announcement does not rule out Manga’s interest in the series for the UK, it just reiterates that it does not have the rights to the series.
Source: Twitter
News - by Ian - July 11, 2010 - 14:37 UTC - 1 Comment
Bamboo Blade - Released by Manga Entertainment
Following yesterday’s speculation, it has now been formally confirmed by Manga Entertainment that their latest acquisition is indeed Bamboo Blade and it will be released as Play.com stated correctly, on the 22nd November 2010.
Manga Entertainment’s Jerome Mazandarani confirmed this today on their official Twitter page:
@NewsAnime T’is true. #BambooBlade Series 1 Part 1 (Eps 1-12) out on double disc DVD 22.11.2010. www.play.com
Source: Twitter
News - by Ian - July 10, 2010 - 17:55 UTC - Be first to Comment!
There are unconfirmed reports that the popular series: Bamboo Blade: Series 1 – Part 1 will be released in the UK on the 22nd November 2010, according to Play.com, Anime UK News have reported today. Anime UK News have further speculated that this release may actually be published by Manga Entertainment due to the titling of the show.
Manga Entertainment currently have not confirmed that they have acquired the license to Bamboo Blade; however, we reported in May that Bamboo Blade along with Kanon 2006 were on their hit-list. So it’s very possible that Bamboo Blade will be released under the Manga Entertainment name. This rumour is further firmed by the level of Funimation shows that Manga Entertainment distribute as part of their distribution agreement with the US Anime company.
Source: Anime UK News, Play.com
News - by Ian - July 10, 2010 - 16:38 UTC - 1 Comment
Copyright Manga Entertainment
It is being reported by various sources that the parent company of Manga Entertainment, Overture Films, is likely to be sold in the coming weeks. Manga Entertainment has various parent companies; however, the parent company of Overture Entertainment, Starz Media, who in turn are owned by Starz LLC, whom are in turned attributed to the Liberty Capital Group and Liberty Media Corporation own various other companies. Such as Manga Entertainment globally, Anchor Bay Entertainment in the US and Film Roman in the US to play with, it’s likely that different buyers will be interested in each of these specialist companies.
This is still to be confirmed by Starz LLC formally; however, there have been some high level resignations at other subsidiary companies in the Starz LLC family. Executives at Overture Films recently resigned with almost immediate affect, citing: “due to differences over the strategic direction of the company”.
Manga Entertainment UK’s Jerome Mazandarani announced on the official Manga Entertainment Twitter feed:
“Our parent company Overture may or may not be up for sale! It’s not unusual. Nothing to worry about”.
Source: Anime News Network, Twitter, Starz LLC
News - by Ian - July 10, 2010 - 16:12 UTC - 1 Comment
Copyright Beez Entertainment
Beez Entertainment, the European subsidiary company of Bandai Entertainment Group have recently announced that they are going to moving into the retail market.
Following on from Manga Entertainment, who opened up their online shop a while ago now, Beez Entertainment recently announced that they will start selling Beez Entertainment titles from their own online store. Currently the store only has one title available in the UK, which is: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn – Blu-Ray.
Over the coming weeks there will be plenty of development on the store and with many new additions to their current catalogue of available titles.
News - by Ian - July 10, 2010 - 16:03 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Crunchyroll is one of the largest, legal, anime streaming sites in the world. With licenses to many anime that cross over many different territories, they have a costly operation that requires extensive funds to keep us enjoying what we love best. In recent months Crunchyroll have had various cash injections from their new partners, most recently from TV Tokyo.
Akihiko Tamura, a managing executive officer at TV Tokyo and the general manager of the animation division announced during a meeting on Friday that Crunchyroll had finally broken even for the month of May. However, TV Tokyo did not announce what those figures were, or whether they have slipped back into the red.
This also mirrors the sentiments that Crunchyroll announced earlier on in the month when the CEO: Kun Gao and their Brand Manager: Keith Kawamura outlined the company’s financial status.
Source: Anime News Network
News - by Ian - July 5, 2010 - 18:22 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Anime continues to make it’s presence known in the UK and after last year’s entrance into the London Film and Comic Con, anime will be making a welcome return for the second year running to this prestigious event.
There’s going to be over 75 guests in attendance at this year’s LFCC including Wendee Lee who voiced Faye Valentine on Cowboy Bebop, Takeru “T.K.” Takaishi on Digimon Adventure, Haruhi Suzumiya on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Konata Izumi on Lucky ? Star and Dante Basco who voiced Prince Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jake Long in American Dragon: Jake Long for anime.
SECOND STAGE TIMETABLE (Cosplay and Anime Stage)
Saturday
10am – ((To Be Confirmed))
11am – Greg Rucka Q&A (Writer of Superman/DC Comics etc)
12pm – Speed Eating Contest (Cosplay Olympics)
12:30pm – Anime Pictionary (Cosplay Olympics)
1pm – Japanese Culture Talk with Akemi Solloway (www.akemisolloway.com)
2pm – Wendee Lee & Dante Basco Voice-Actors Panel
3pm – Cosplay Masquerade
4pm – The LFCC Talent Show
5pm – Iron Artist
Outside: (Cosplay Olympics) Dizzy Dinosaurs Assault Course at 1pm, 1:30pm Ryoka Castle Hide And Seek
Sunday
10am – ((To Be Confirmed))
11am – Bill Sienkiewicz Q&A (Comic Artist)
12pm – Build a Robot Mecha (Cosplay Olympics)
12:30pm – Anime Musical Chairs (Cosplay Olympics)
1pm – Cosplay The Musical Q&A
2pm – Wendee Lee & Dante Basco Voice-Actors Panel
3pm – Cosplay Masquerade
4pm – Cosplay Showdown
Outside: (Cosplay Olympics) 1pm – Giant Twister Tournament, 1:30pm – Hula Hooping, 2pm Three-Legged Race
COSPLAY ZONE & COSPLAY OLYMPICS
The Cosplay Zone is back bigger and better than ever! Not only do we have the masquerade with big prizes for the winners, but we also have the Cosplay Showdown (a comedy skit competition taken to an entirely new level)! And if that was not enough, Cosplay the Musical, bought to you by Fran Shergold, will be taking auditions for their live-performance at London Collectormania in November! If you are interested in signing up to be part of the musical please email showmasterscosplay@googlemail.com
And that’s not all! For hundreds of cosplay groups attend the UK’s largest anime cons. What if all these groups competed against one another in many awesome events with cash prizes at stake? The Cosplay Olympics shall be hitting LFCC this year! You can join a team, and compete for cash prizes over a number of fun events including speed-eating, origami contests, giant twister, musical chairs, a talent show, three-legged races and more!
Info and signup for the Masquerade go here -http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49065
Info and signup for the Showdown go here -http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59709
Info and signup for the Cosplay Olympics go here -http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59708
Info and signup for the Talent Show go here -http://showmastersonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=60640
VIDEO GAMING
Grab your friends and come along to the Video Game Zone to challenge others across a variety of multi-player games!
Even more of the latest games and contests shall be bought to you by the Animeleague Crew of http://www.animeleague.net/. DS:London ofhttp://www.dslondon.net/ shall also be in attendance, so make sure to bring your DS along for their tournaments!
Modern Gaming with the latest systems and games.
Retro Gaming with all your favorite consoles.
Handheld Corner – make sure to bring your DS!
DDR/Stepmania with your favorite tunes.
Saturday Tournaments
12pm – Retro Sonic 2 Tournament (Megadrive)
1pm – BlueBlaz Tournament
2pm – Super Mario Smash Bros
4pm – Rock Band Tournament
Sunday Tournaments
12pm – Mario Kart Wii
1pm – Super Street Fighter IV
2pm – DDR Tournament
4pm – New Super Mario Bros Wii
The tournaments will have a cash prize of £10 to the winners of each!
ARTISTS ALLEY
The Artists Alley is for amateur comic & manga artists to chill out, draw and meet other artists. No experience required and absolute beginneers are more than welcome!
Make sure to check out the numerous guests and professional artists beside this area, including Bill Sienkiewicz, Lee Townsend and Greg Rucka!
At the very front of the Artist Alley resides the Art Wall that will be up throughout the day for you to pin your artwork to. The top three pieces of artwork as judged by our panel of professionals at the end of the day will win prizes!
Want to sell your work? Then bring it along to be part of the Artists Showcase where we put your work on display and manage the selling of it for you! No bookings are needed, just bring it along on the day, drop it into the Artists Alley; we will take care of the rest!
Finally, there shall be numerous events, talks, panels and workshops going on throughout the day. This shall include a Doll Meet, a panel on BJD, the Iron Artist (where the best artists compete against one another!), a portfolio building workshop, life drawing classes and much much more!
ANIME ZONE
Attendees should start saving up now for the many-many anime dealers who shall be selling your favourite DVDs, manga, merchandise and goodies in the Anime Zone!
Or if you get tired of all the frantic action, why not sit down and chillout watching some of your favorite anime bought to the very first time to London Film and Comic Con? We shall be showing various titles throughout the day from 10am in the morning right through to closing time!
TRADING CARD ZONE
Casual play and trading areas will also be provided with a wide range of single cards, boosters, booster boxes and deck protector supplies will be available. Officially sanctioned tournaments and casual play.
YuGiOh!
1. Prize tournaments of 8 players running throughout the day
2. ‘Gun Slinging’ beat top players to win prizes
3. Introductions to YuGioh
4. Deck building workshops for beginners
Magic The Gathering
1. Prize tournaments of 8 players running throughout the day
2. ‘Gun Slinging’ beat top players to win prizes
3. Introductions to Magic The Gathering
4. Free promotional Giveaways and introductory decks from Wizards Of The coast
5. Player registrations to DCI Player ranking system
DETAILS
For all the latest news and information why not join up on the forums athttp://www.showmastersonline.com/forums A great chance to get to know fellow attendees beforehand and to discuss the event!
Location – Earls Court 2, London, SW5 9TA
Admission – £5 after 11am, or £10 if before 11am. Entry is only £3 for under 12s. Bring along a DS for the record attempt and get £1 off!
17th JULY SATURDAY – 9AM TO 6PM
18TH JULY SUNDAY – 9AM TO 5PM
ALL AGES ARE WELCOME TO THIS!
For more information, visit http://www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/
News - by Ian - June 29, 2010 - 20:55 UTC - Be first to Comment!
News-Anime.com is a fast paced, growing website that now needs some additional hands to make things work. We are looking for the following positions to be filled by enthusiastic volunteer workers who have a love for anime and is prepared to give up a little bit of their time every day to write about what they love. We need:
- News Writers
- Article Writers (feature articles about anime/manga/UK scene)
- Bloggers
- Review Writers (review copies will be provided; however, you must either be over 18 or have the express written consent of your parents as we will be posting DVDs to you)
Everyone will need to be able to write in good, clear English, be able to take criticism well and be able to dedicate their time to keeping News-Anime.com up to date, whilst working under myself and Arctic Zora – our other staffer here.
Benefits? Well, we can’t pay you any cash for this role as we’re not making profits at the moment, but you will be able to keep the review copies we pass on to you and we will be able to get you into most Anime events in the country as a member of the press.
Do you want to work for us but have a different idea that we don’t currently have a position for? That’s fine – just e-mail us and we’ll take a look at your idea and see if we can place it into the growing News-Anime.com family.
News - by Ian - June 29, 2010 - 20:31 UTC - Be first to Comment!
The British Film Institute is well known for it’s diverse range of cinema, as it rightly should be. This diversification of film is not limited to live action, but also includes anime. On the 11th July 2010 at 1800 there’s a lecture about anime being delivered at this year’s BFI.
The Anime Machine: An Illustrated Lecture by Thomas Lamarre will explore how Japanese animation differs from other media, by looking at technology and philosophy.
This will be shown alongside Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and will be priced at a joint ticket of £12.90.
You can click here to book tickets and find out more information.
News - by Ian - June 29, 2010 - 20:24 UTC - Be first to Comment!
It’s Monday! It’s too hot and we all want to be able to go to bed without thinking about waking up every couple of hours due to the heat. Well, this week doesn’t look like it’s due to get any better so to keep you entertained during the awake hours in the night, there are a number of good releases out today. There are three new releases this week and they are:
- Soul Eater Part 1
- Code Geass R2 Box 1
- .hack//Roots (Anime Legends)
You can buy these DVDs through all good retailers effective immediately.
News - by Ian - June 21, 2010 - 09:00 UTC - Be first to Comment!
It’s Monday! With Monday’s comes new anime DVDs, this week there really isn’t much to choose from. However, the one choice that we have is an amazing anime that needs to be purchased by all, this anime is:
You can purchase this DVD from every major retailer immediately.
News - by Ian - June 20, 2010 - 20:20 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Logo © Manga Entertainment
Anime is a dodgy business in the UK, with DVD sales rarely reaching four figures in it’s entire life-cycle let along reaching five figures in it’s life-cycle; however, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Naturally Ghibli is the first exception, other than that, well Manga Entertainment seem to have the rights to them.
One such right is the Naruto series – Manga Entertainment recently confirmed via Twitter that in one day alone Naruto Shippuden Box 1 sold 1330 copies.
Who knows the total series’ figures, but based on those sales it’s safe to assume that Manga are making an awful lot from the Naruto series.
Source: Twitter
News - by Ian - June 20, 2010 - 20:13 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Dimensional Manga is returning to the convention circuit this month on the 26th June. Dimensional Manga is the force behind the Pwanda series and will expand it’s current range of books and merchandise around this franchise with a whole new Pwanda experience.
For the first time, Pwanda will expand into the children’s market with Playtime with Pwanda and new more grown-up titles will include Samurai-Pwanda, Mech-Pilot Pwanda and Pirate Pwanda.
All of these mangas will be available directly from our affiliate, Toymation exclusively on the 26th June at the LondonAnimeCon.
News - by Ian - June 7, 2010 - 19:51 UTC - Be first to Comment!
The worldwide entertainment phenomenon, Bleach, is distributed on DVD in the UK by Manga Entertainment and is one of the corner stones of their release schedule.
However, recently Crunchyroll announced that they will be streaming Bleach online to almost all regions as a simulcast from when the Japanese episodes are released in Standard Definition.
Crunchyroll CEO Kun Gao said: “BLEACH is one of the most popular titles of all time, and while it has already been licensed in North America, we are proud to bring BLEACH to all fans of anime within one hour of Japan TV broadcast. With BLEACH and our expanding licensing partnerships with TV TOKYO, Shueisha, and Pierrot, we have solidified our network as the most attractive destination online for fans of Japanese anime in the United States and the English-speaking world. Fans can enjoy the best in anime such as BLEACH and Naruto Shippuden through Crunchyroll.com, our iPhone app, set top box applications, our thousands of embedding affiliates partner sites, and now our new iPad application. It’s a historic time to be an anime fan, and we are proud to help pioneer the future of the anime viewing experience with our Japanese partners.”
The latest simulcast episode 274 will be available to premium viewers. Tentatively on June 15th, episodes 266 to 274 will be free for all viewers, with the simulcast of episode 275 available to premium members. Thereafter, new episodes will be added at 2:30am PST every Tuesday, with simulcasts available for premium members and the previous week’s episode being available to all viewers. Catch up of older episodes are planned and additional info will be provided at a later date.
