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

Adult Swim is shaking up their Saturday night schedule yet again beginning tonight. Don't worry, you're still getting the same amount of anime screentime. Despite that though, this is a pretty sucky change-up. For starters, AS's repeats of Star Wars: the Clone Wars (which just began its second season last night on Cartoon Network's regular lineup), which was considered an honorary member of the anime block, is gone. It has instead been replaced by a second episode of the Boondocks. After that we still have an hour of new Bleach episodes, which is good. But then we get to the bad again, as the new episodes of Moribito no longer follow & have instead been moved to a later (ie worse) timeslot. Now an hour of FullMetal Alchemist follow Bleach, & only after do we get new Moribito. At least we're still getting Moribito, I guess you can say. Oh, & because we're now getting a second episode of FMA, Code Geass is temporarily gone as well. The rest of the lineup remains the same.

Onto some good news though, I guess Adult Swim's airing of the first Bleach movie was a success, because they've now scheduled the much more recent second movie, the DiamondDust Rebellion, to air on December 5. A re-airing of the first movie will follow that same night, as well as the week before on November 28.

Onto the bad news once again though, as it currently looks like new episodes of Bleach are scheduled to end on November 21. Only one new episode (rather than two) is scheduled for that night, & after the two-week break for the Bleach movies, no new episodes are scheduled. Personally I'd rather have one new episode a week rather than a period of two new episodes a week, followed by a period of no new episodes. It's possible this will change though. Oh, & after the final episode of Moribito airs on December 19, the series will then be removed from the schedule yet again. After that on the 26th, Code Geass will return to take its place.

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

Over the weekend, Adult Swim aired a promo for Bleach (seen above). At the end of it, they advertise for the first Bleach Movie, Memories of Nobody will be making its American television debut on September 5. For awhile now, Adult Swim's online schedule has listed "movie" for that day from midnight to 2am (Eastern/Pacific), but never got more specific than that.

It's a bit unusual considering the timing of all this. All of Viz's Naruto movies aired on Cartoon Network before they were released on DVD. "Memories of Nobody" has been on DVD for close to a year. Adult Swim had previously stated on-air that they were not interested in airing anime movies anymore. & considering their poor treatment of anime in the past, it wasn't surprising that they weren't interested in showing the Bleach movie. But recently Bleach's ratings have done pretty well, & as a result Adult Swim has been giving anime a little more respect by giving them better timeslots & actually airing promotional commercials. So their decision to air it now probably has to do with giving Bleach (& anime in general) another chance.

The big news at Viz's Anime Expo panel was the confirmation that they'll indeed be speed releasing the One Piece manga in order to catch up to where the story is in Japan. Similar to what Viz did with the Naruto manga- except even more extreme- they'll be releasing 30 volumes of the series in just 6 months. Beginning in January 2010, they'll be releasing 5 volumes a month starting with #24, & conclude in June with #53. That is a LOT of manga.

While it'll take a few months for the graphic novels to catch up, Shonen Jump will begin publishing the "latest chapters from Japan" (presumably only a few weeks behind like how Naruto is now) beginning with the January issue. Over the next few months, Viz's new One Piece site will update with summaries of the four sagas that take place in between where the English manga is now & where it will be come January. That way, SJ readers wont be totally lost.

In anime news, the long-awaited Kakashi Chronicles is finally getting animated. The special will stream on Viz's site on August 6. Speaking of Naruto, DVDs for Shippuden will finally start coming out beginning September 29. Unfortunately, Viz will no longer be releasing it in season box sets like they did for the first series, & will now instead be doing the obsolete single DVD releases. It is, however, the only way to watch the dub of the series. The first Shippuden movie will be released shortly after on November 1.

Viz also announced that they got the second Death Note Relight special & will be releasing it on October 27 (just in time for Halloween!). Meanwhile, the DVD for L: Change the World will come out on August 18. The second Bleach movie will be getting a DVD release on September 8, after getting a limited theatrical release at Viz's new San Francisco theater on August 19.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2009/anime-expo/viz-media

First Adult Swim confirmed that Moribito would indeed be returning to their lineup. Well now their latest schedule update does indeed indicate that the series will finally be going past episode 10, meaning that we'll be getting new episodes at last. Moribito began rebroadcasting last weekend from the beginning, & according to AS's new schedule, the brand new episode 11 will be airing on August 22. Of course considering how often Adult Swim changes things up, this is far from sketched in stone. Still though, things are looking good.

Also revealed in their new schedule, it seems that Adult Swim has changed their mind about ceasing two back-to-back episodes of Bleach. The series was originally scheduled to go back to only one new episode a week beginning July 11, but now the full hour of new Bleach continues into the unforeseeable future, going into at least September. Very good news to hear indeed.

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

Just as the nice fellows from Media Blasters informed me at ACen earlier this month, Adult Swim now confirms that "Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit" will be returning to their lineup beginning June 13 at 1:30am (Eastern/Pacific), beginning with episode one. Unfortunately their online schedule only goes up to the beginning of August, leaving us a little shy of finding out if AS will truly be making it past episode 10 this time around. So good news for Moribito, but bad news for Blood+, which was originally scheduled to take over that timeslot from Code Geass. Poor Blood+, getting so close to finally getting a re-airing, & then having the rug pulled out from under it.

Also of note is that the back-to-back new episodes of Bleach will be put to a rest after July 4. Adult Swim will still be showing a full hour of Bleach every Saturday night at 12:30, but from July 11 on only the second episode will actually be new. Not sure why they're putting a stop to it so soon. Back-to-back new episodes of Naruto lasted nearly a full year on Toonami, & the Bleach dub is still quite behind the Japanese version of the anime. But after about 2 months of a full hour of new Bleach, at least we're now a little closer to catching up.

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

That vid above is the last bit of Code Geass plot development you'll see for a good while. You'll have to wait at least two months to see what happens next in the dub. Once again, Adult Swim has retooled their Saturday night schedule. Usually this means bad news for anime, but this time it's actually a combination of good & bad. The change, quick as usual, begins this Saturday.

Starting with the good, AS will be increasing the Action portion of the night by one hour, meaning the comedy portion at the beginning will be cut down from three hours to two. The Blaxploitation hour of the PJs & Boondocks is now gone. Starting at midnight (Eastern/Pacific time), a non-anime show will be kicking off the Action lineup- repeats of Star Wars: the Clone Wars. An unexpected but pleasant & welcome surprise to be sure. I know I (& pretty much everyone else) was a little rough on the Clone Wars movie when it first came out, & I still feel that the thing never belonged on the big screen. But as a television series, it's actually become pretty enjoyable. Especially after the first few, the series really got rolling. Maybe AS will even show the "uncut" version (after the first few eps, Cartoon Network had to remove the word "hell" from all episodes due to parental complaints).

After that, Adult Swim will now be airing a full hour of Bleach. For the first few weeks for whatever reason, the first ep will be a repeat from the previous week, followed by a new episode at 1am. But starting April 18, AS will be showing two back-back new episodes! It's about time too, I must say. Viz & CN have been working their butts off for a long time now trying to get Naruto closer to the Japanese releases. With Bleach now over 100 episodes & more than two years behind the Japanese anime, it's about time that series plays a little catchup of its own. & considering how Shonen Jump likes to stay ahead of their anime counterparts, perhaps Bleach will be seeing its own manga blitz sometime soon as well.

Now onto the bad. New episodes of Code Geass R2 are once again being put on hold. & this time for a lot longer. Code Geass will also be extended to an hour beginning at 1:30, & the series will be starting from the beginning of R2 & carry on from there. Now if you do your math, then two reruns a week means we'll be caught up again in 8 weeks. Adult Swim's schedule does go up to that point (& no further), & lists last week's episode 15 (what they're labeling Code Geass 40) repeating on May 2 at 1:30, followed by the not-yet-seen episode 16 (aka 41) at 2am. Now while that ep is on the schedule, AS is not listing it as new. This can either mean a) a mistake on their part not to list it as new, or b) they're not confident that new episodes will resume at that point. I've expressed before how impressed I was with the speed of which Bandai was dubbing R2. As it turns out, it was indeed too quick for them to keep up with.

More Geass of course means somethings got to give. Unfortunately, that means Shin-Chan has once again been removed from AS's schedule. Perhaps this time for good. Meanwhile, Moribito is still dead. I had hoped that its removal from the schedule was only temporary, & that it would return to AS eventually. But it's been awhile now, & this new schedule shakeup would've been the perfect opportunity to return it to TV. Now I've given up hope on it. It's inability to never make it past episode 10 never made much sense. Being a Geneon rescue license, they should have finished dubbing the series a long time ago, despite Media Blaster's very slow release of it on DVD.

Finally, a new series will be premiering on (really late) Saturday nights beginning April 18. Titled "Rising Son," it'll air from 5am-5:15, replacing the first half-hour of InuYasha that AS has at that time now, along with the Brak Show at from 5:15-5:30. Adult Swim's being pretty coy about what this series is. Clearly it's not anime but rather AS's typical 15 minute fair. But as to why it's only on so late on Saturdays & why it's called "Rising Son" (like Japan's nickname Rising Sun) is unknown. Could it be AS's second attempt to make fun of anime, after Perfect Hair Forever? Guess we'll have to wait & see.

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

As I'm sure was noticed yesterday, Adult Swim updated their anime schedule by removing Moribito- Guardian of the Spirit from their lineup. AS had just finished re-airing the first 10 episodes once again, & just when we thought we'd finally be getting new episodes again after over two months, they pull the title all together. The rest of the anime lineup moves up half an hour earlier, with new Code Geass R2 taking Moribito's old time & an extra episode of InuYasha making up the time difference at the end.

It's easy to assume that this change is due to low ratings, but the fact that the series stopped after 10 eps once again makes me think. At first I thought when Adult Swim decided to reshow the first 10 eps all over again was because the series had moved out of its old crappy time slot. But the fact that the magic number is once again 10 makes me think something else is going on here. Some kind of legal rights regarding the rest of the series perhaps?

There is a bright spot to Adult Swim's updated schedule though. It has confirmed that new episodes of Bleach will continue after episode 104. AS pulled Bleach from their lineup for a little while after episode 52 aired, & then came back a few months later. I thought there was a decent possibility that they'd do that again after ep 104, but it looks like we don't have to worry about that anymore. We are over a hundred episodes behind Japan, after all.

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

Continuing our look at new Yu-Gi-Oh goodies that we can import from Japan, even more cool merch has become available. Now available are new mugs (one with Yusei & another with Jack), windbreaker jackets (a Kaiba Land one & a Millennium Puzzle one), tote-bags (one of Stardust Dragon & one for Kaiba Land), an Eye of Wdjat wristband, & a Ghouls t-shirt. You can find all of that, as well as trading cards galore, here:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/search.html?type=AC&restrict=GOODS&strict=&word=yu-gi-oh

& speaking of buying Yu-Gi-Oh stuff, the new Alice Nine album featuring the current 5D's ending song "Cross Game" was one of the top selling CDs during its debut week. It managed to get up to #8 in Japanese sales, which is awesome stuff. The Porno Graffiti release featuring the theme to the third Bleach movie, which came out this month in Japan, debuted at #2.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-12-22/bleach-yu-gi-oh-shugo-chara-singles-rank-no.2-8-9

Bleach mascot character Kon came from Japan to New York last month in order to celebrate the American premier of the first movie, Memories of Nobody. Kinda cool that Japan was taking notice & covering the release of the dub movie, but the real highlight of this video is at the very end. It gives a quick (very quick) glimpse of what to expect for the upcoming third Bleach movie that's due out in Japanese theaters this December. With only the words "Goodbye, Rukia" & Ichigo heard screaming her name, it seems that the movie will have something to do about her. More details about that film are to come down the line soon, I'm sure.

The English dub of the first Bleach Movie is screening in American theaters TONIGHT! It'll also be in theaters tomorrow night too, so check your local listings to find out when & where it'll be playing near you! Just a friendly reminder from your local neighborhood Nebs. The above video shows a behind-the-scenes look at the dubbing of the movie. Hit the jump below to see the rest of it, plus a few sneak peak scenes of the English version of the movie itself.

But first, speaking of Bleach movies, Toei has officially announced that a third Bleach movie will be released in Japanese theaters this December. The second movie screened in Japanese theaters last December, & has yet to be licensed for American release (though it's almost a sure thing to happen).

Source: http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/06/09/third-bleach-movie-announced/

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New details have emerged for Shonen Jump's upcoming Super Anime Tour. As was previously announced, both DragonBall & One Piece will be having new animated specials showing in the tour to celebrate 40 years of Shonen Jump magazine in Japan. It's also now been confirmed that Bleach & Gintama will be having animated specials as well, just as we speculated. Not only that, but Blue Dragon, Letter Bee, & even Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's have been added to the animated specials list as well.

As far as what all these specials will be about, a few details have been listed on that as well. The Dragon Ball special will be an original story straight from creator Akira Toriyama himself (which can't actually be said about GT). The One Piece special will be about an early adventure of Luffy from the manga that's never before been animated (meaning it's probably going to be based on the Romance Dawn pilots). Bleach's special will be about a "hilarious little side story" that's never been animated before. Gintama will also feature a new, never-before animated story for its special. Letter Bee is a much more recent Shonen Jump title that hasn't been made into an anime series yet, & thus it will feature its first animated adaptation ever for this tour. Blue Dragon's special will preview something called AT, which is apparently a new villain in the series. Finally, the 5D's special will feature Yusei in a new high-speed Riding Duel.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-06-08/jump-super-tour-anime-lineup-announced-in-japan

You already know where to get tickets for the Death Note movie that's showing in theaters next week, but what about the Bleach movie? Well now tickets are on sale for that film too! The theatrical debut of the shonen juggernaut will be shown for two nights on June 11 & 12 in over 300 theaters across the country. So no matter where you are, there'll probably be a movie theater screening the movie somewhere around your area. Basically, it's getting the same treatment as the Death Note movie.

The movie will also be shown with a behind-the-scenes featurette on how the characters in the film "come to life," as it were. To find out where the closest theater to you is playing the Bleach movie, as well as how you can purchase tickets to see it, check out Fathom's official website here:

http://www.fathomevents.com/details.aspx?eventid=720

The June issue of Shonen Jump is out, & the big thing this time around is sneak preview of the newest Shonen Jump manga in the US, Rosario + Vampire. Now I'm familiar with the RosaVam anime series that we've had on NebsTV, but I didn't really know much about the manga. I was under the assumption that this series would have to see some MAJOR edits in order to have the entire first chapter in SJ magazine. & I was... kinda right. Just weren't the edits I was really expecting:



I kinda figured there'd be some lengthening of skirts involved. But they only made her skirt longer so that his hand wasn't touching her leg. It had nothing to do with a panty shot. & after checking out the entire first chapter in Japanese, I was stunned to find that there wasn't a single panty-shot in the entire thing! The Rosario + Vampire manga isn't actually very fan-servicey at all. Naruto & Bleach have more fan-service then this series does. Considering how ecchi the anime series is, I was stunned to find out that the manga didn't have any of that stuff. & yet the manga was still edited for the English pages of Shonen Jump! Naturally the manga will be unedited in its graphic novel format, something that could also be said for all the Bleach edits as well. I just felt like this strange occurrence was worth mentioning.

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