Adult Swim has announced their on-air schedule for the next two months via their official website, & it comes with the unfortunate news that they're drastically cutting down on their anime. Not on the time in which their anime airs, as that'll remain the same. No, this time AS is cutting back on the number of anime series that will be airing on their Saturday night block.

We already knew that when Moribito comes to an end on December 19 that it would be leaving the schedule again instead of showing repeats. That still remains true, although Code Geass will no longer be replacing it. Now in addition to Moribito, there's no more Code Geass on Adult Swim's schedule either.

But wait, because it gets worse. Death Note & Blood+ are also leaving the schedule as well- seemingly for good. Blood+ only just started re-airing after a long time off the air, & it's now being pulled again after 14 episodes beginning next Saturday. At least Death Note will be getting a proper sendoff. AS will be showing mini-marathons of Death Note on 12/19, 12/26, 1/2, & 1/9. They're doing this so that they can properly finish Death Note's current run, making sure that every episode airs for one last time.

Adult Swim's new anime schedule on Saturday nights, starting January 16, now consists of an hour of Bleach, an hour of FullMetal Alchemist, an hour of Cowboy Bebop, an hour of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, an episode of Big O Season 2, & an hour of InuYasha. Yup, their entire anime block now consists of just six shows. All of those are reruns too, by the way. But don't worry, given Bleach's current status we'll probably start getting new episodes again around July.

So why are we losing Death Note, Blood+, Code Geass, & Moribito (& likely FLCL & Shin-Chan as well, even though those two haven't aired in awhile)? This is only speculation on my part, but I'm guessing Adult Swim's broadcast rights to those series expire in the new year, & AS simply didn't want to pay to renew them. That's what happened to many of their older titles like Samurai Champloo & Eureka Seven. Heck, they haven't even aired a single season 1 episode of Big O in about a year, likely because they no longer have the rights to it (they helped create season 2, so they'll likely have the rights to that forever). Their marathoning of Death Note in its final weeks only further manages to prove my theory.

It's hard to believe that they're permanently giving up on Geass & Death Note, but neither of those two huge titles managed to meet expectations on the network. I guess we should just be grateful that Adult Swim isn't cutting back on anime's airtime as well. Enjoy them while you can, because you likely wont be seeing them on American TV ever again.

Source: http://www.adultswim.com/schedule/onair.html

This time it's time to take a look at the best anime titles that were released in the US during 2009. Mania/AnimeOnDVD's legendary Chris Beveridge took a look at what he thought were the top 10 titles to be released state-side during the year. Some of these are carryovers from last year that finished their run this year, such as Gurren Lagann & Death Note. But they're still all very worthy titles & the list presented here is pretty much perfect (#2 is the only one I'm surprised about). You can read the countdown at the link below, or if you just want to hit the results quickly, I've listed them after the jump:

http://www.mania.com/anime-gift-list-10-must-own-anime-dvds_article_119287.html

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According to trusted Shonen Jump tipster EizHb38XPU, an anime adaptation of Bakuman will be coming out in the Fall of 2010. There hasn't been any official announcement on this yet so we'll label this a rumor for the time being, but EizHb38XPU is rarely wrong about the information he gets. He was the first to reveal the cancellation of To Love-ru before Shonen Jump had officially announced it, for example.

Next Fall is still awhile away, but somehow it still seems too early for Bakuman to be getting an anime adaptation. It's only been running for a little over a year right now, & I would've thought they'd wait for more story material to come out of it before adapting it. But it is a very popular SJ title & comes from the creators of Death Note, so it will no doubt do very well.

Source: http://www.japanator.com/rumor-bakuman-anime-coming-fall-2010-12608.phtml

It's now infamous Japanese website 2ch's turn to take part in the end of the year festivities, as its large user database was asked what they thought the best anime series of 2009 was. Last year, Code Geass R2 took the top spot on the website. But for 2009, the untouchable series Bakemonogatari easily came in at #1. You can check out the rest of the Top 10 below, & see if your favorite 2009 series made the list:

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Trigun- Badlands Rumble:


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A second trailer for the upcoming huge Yu-Gi-Oh 10th Anniversary cross-over movie has been leaked online. This new trailer gives us a much better idea of what the 3D film will be like, & includes lots of new footage & information about the feature. It's just so freaking cool to see Yugi, Judai, & Yusei all teaming up. Although Judai's Yubel eyes seem a bit off compared to how they look from the TV series.

Another version of this new trailer can be seen below, & after that you can check out LittleKuriboh's Abridged version of the trailer:

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Yahoo Japan recently conducted a survey, which asked otaku which anime girl that aired in a 2009 series would they wish to marry more than any other? Although now that otaku are seemingly capable of actually marrying their 2D dream girls, maybe this isn't the kind of thing Yahoo should be encouraging.

The top winner is unbelievably surprising- Mari Illustrious Makinami from Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0. I mean, seriously? I'm surprised she made the list at all, much less coming in first place. Neither Rei nor Asuka break the Top 10 either, so Mari managed to crush both of her predecessors. I'm a bit surprised at who came in at #2 as well, but the rest of the list makes sense (in other words, a lot of tsundere). Check out the top 10 below:

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Ever since Section23 formed, they've been doing two things right- licensing a good amount of anime in a very short time, & releasing them in even shorter time. The newest batch of series by them & their partner Sentai Filmworks are "Maria Holic" & "Skull Man."

"Maria Holic" aired just earlier this year in Japan, & is about a girl who transfers to an all-girl school because of her fear of men. It is there she meets the yuri love of her life, who happens to be a cross-dressing boy. Yes, this is a trap anime, & quite a popular one among fans of this recently surging genre. The complete 12-episode set will go on sale February 23 for $39.98.

"The Skull Man" is a modern day remake of the classic horror manga by Shotaro Ishinomori (Kamen Rider, Cyborg 009, Kikaider) from the 1970s. The story is about a masked man committing horrendous murders in an alternate history of Japan. The complete 13-episode set goes on sale February 2 & also retails for $39.98.

Finally, Section23 also announced that Part 2 of To Love-Ru will go on sale February 16, also retailing for $39.98. I think it goes without saying at this point that all of these releases are sub-only.

Press Release: http://www.sxanimedia.com/2009/12/section23-films-announces-maria-holic.html

Today was Lelouch's birthday, or at least it would be assuming that he's still alive. But instead of all of us getting him a present, he gave us one. Bandai's official mobile website confirmed on this most holiest of days that a brand new Code Geass project has been green-lit. The message was left by none other than Zero himself.

There's no real mention on what this new project is, other than it'll be a "rebirth." By this I take it they mean some sort of reimagining or spin-off, similar to the various manga versions out there. Considering how conclusive R2's final episode was, I don't see how they could do a direct sequel. Of course there's no guarantee that this new project is even an anime, though we're pretty sure it is. It might be a movie or OVA rather than a new series, though. Here's a translation of the message Zero left on the mobile site:

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The winners of the 13th annual Japan Media Arts Festival Awards were announced this week. The big winners this time around included Hosoda's newest hit film Summer Wars, which won the Grand Prize in the Animation Division. The only other big anime title to win an award was Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, which was one of the winners in the Excellence Prize category for animation. There were plenty of noteworthy names in the Jury Recommended Works in Long Animation category, including Canaan, ToraDora, Nodame Cantabile: Paris, Eden of the East, & Xam'd.

In terms of manga, the mature story Vinland Saga won the Grand Prize in the Manga Division. A few other well-known manga titles won the Excellence Prize, including Children of the Sea (available for free in the US from Sig Ikki) & Hyouge Mono.

& finally in the Entertainment Division, the Naruto: Narutimate Storm video game for the PS3 won one of the Excellence Prizes. Meanwhile, the controversial Hetalia anime web series was one of the Jury Recommended Works in the self-produced/web manga section.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-03/summer-wars-vinland-saga-win-media-arts-awards

Descendants of Darkness 1-13:

http://www.hulu.com/descendants-of-darkness

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Seems like I'm doing one of these Year in Review things pretty much everyday now. Today we take a look at the ten most shocking anime headlines of 2009. The list comes from a Japanese magazine, so don't expect any American-side anime news to make the list. A lot of these of course were covered here on the Nebs Blog over the course of the year as well. Check out the list below & see if you can remember when they happened:

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Holy sweet jesus. What we have here is the first official figurine of Asuka Langley Shikinami in her test-version plugsuit, seen exclusively in the Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 film. There are seemingly hundreds of different Asuka figures that have been released over the years, but this is the first to have her in a new official outfit like this.

This new version of the classic EVA plugsuit was worn by Asuka towards the end of the film when she test piloted a new EVA. Since a new outfit was never even hinted at in the trailers or anything, fans were taken aghast by Asuka's surprisingly revealing new uniform. I mean, yowza. That orange part is essentially see-through.

Outfit aside, I love Asuka's overall look here. Great face, & lovely flowing hair to go along with it. Seriously, you can't call yourself an Asuka fan if you don't order one of these. I put my order in instantly. In fact it's so awesome & I'm such a big Asuka fan, maybe I wont be doing her justice unless I buy two of them. =b

Retail price is 4725 yen (~$50), quite a good price actually. Though that probably has to do with the fact that she's smaller than your average anime figurine. Average tends to be 1/8th scale, but Asuka here is only 1/10th scale. You'll have to wait awhile before importing her too. She wont be hitting Japan until May 2010.

Source: http://www.hobby-wave.com/LINE_UP/kanseihin/2009/asuka

With the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie only about two months away, you'd think we'd have a more substantial trailer by now. Unfortunately for the time being, we'll have to deal with these character sketches. It's still pretty cool though, especially since we can now finally get our long-haired Haruhi. Not only that, but Asakura makes her triumphant return as well. You can check out movie sketches for all the main characters (including a seasonally appropriate Mikuru in a Santa outfit) here:

http://www.cartoonleap.com/2009/12/01/disappearance-of-suzumiya-haruhi-character-sketches

K-On's darling loli character Azusa seems to be quite popular among erotic game makers. Last month I reported on a look-alike character appearing in an ERO game with an absurd title. & now another clone of the character has appeared in a different kind of pervy game. & this time she looks more like the real Azunyan than ever before.

This one is actually a mobile phone game that Japanese users can download to their cells. The game itself is actually a chikan (groping) simulator. If you don't already know, groping (especially of school-aged girls) is a serious problem on crowded Japanese trains. So much so that many lines offer female-only carts. It's hard to say though if having video game versions help reduce the amount of real occurrences or if they encourage them. But it's not like you'll run into someone like Azunyan on a train in real life anyway, so it's kinda hard to resist.

The cellphone game offers three different choices- Breasts, Bottom, & Threaten. No idea what that last one does. However, upon completion of the game, the user is taken to a porn site that has nothing to do with 2D girls. An odd bait-and-switch, it seems.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/01/molest-azusa-free-from-your-mobile