It was announced that a brand new Digimon game for the DS, "Digimon Story: Lost Evolution," would be coming out in 2010. Which seemed pretty, what with an old seemingly retired franchise like Digimon coming out with a new game out of the blue like that. But that's when things really started to get interested. Reports about a new Digimon anime series began to spread online not too long after that. Apparently, a brand new series tentatively titled "Digimon Around" will begin airing next year in Japan (let's not forget though that the original tentative title for "Frontier" was "Scanners"). An official announcement, if true, is expected to be made soon either in the pages of V-Jump or at Jump Festa.

Granted this all seems out of the blue, but don't forget that Digimon Savers also came out of nowhere as well. The one thing really holding a new season of Digimon back right now is its timeslot. All five seasons of Digimon have always aired Sunday mornings at 9am on Fuji TV, but that slot is currently taken by DragonBall Kai as part of Fuji's Dream9 hour along with One Piece. It's possible that Kai might end come April with the conclusion of the Freeza saga, or will perhaps move to a different time. But more than likely, it'll be Digimon Around getting the new time slot if it indeed becomes a reality. Let's keep our fingers crossed for now.

Source: http://www.wtwnews.net/exclusive-news/499/New_Digimon_Series

Up & coming famous anime director Mamoru Hosoda revealed at Singapore's Anime Festival Asia convention this weekend that he was offered to direct the upcoming Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Movie. His response was that he'd like to do it, he never fully accepted it & the offer never came to past. He has actually already started work on his next film so it would've been tough to fit Haruhi in there as well. Likewise he wouldn't have been able to partner up with his longtime character design & scriptwriter colleagues on the project, as Kyoto Animation already has those positioned filled in order to keep it in the style of the anime seasons.

Hosoda of course has become famous for his award-winning film the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, & is also fondly remembered for directing the first two Digimon Adventure movies, his earliest professional works as a director. His newest animated feature, Summer Wars just came out this past August. It sure would've been interesting having him direct the Haruhi film, though. The director for the second season of Haruhi was not the same as the director from the first season, & it's unknown if the season 2 director will be doing the movie at this time.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-22/tokikake-hosoda-had-offer-to-direct-haruhi-film

Hot off the heals of China ripping off the anime masterpiece 5cm Per Second comes the country's latest attempt at plagiarism. Meet the latest big hit in Chinese animation- "Dinosaur Baby Holy Heroes!" Based on the characters & creatures of this world, it becomes very clear that their designs are just hodgepodges from various anime series. Most notable are keen similarities with Pokemon, Naruto, & Digimon.

Reports coming out of the Chinese channel it airs on, CCTV, are playing innocent/dumb on the subject. Replies have included comments like "What's being called a rip? What's being called a copy? Please think first, then talk." & also things like “Consider the difference between imitation and plagiarism.” So since it's just imitation, that makes everything all right.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/09/13/china-rips-off-naruto-pokemon-imitation-is-not-plagiarism

In honor of Digimon's 10th anniversary in Japan, a new Digimon Adventure CD is being released. The new song included in the disc is titled "A Door into the Future ~ Ever Since That Summer Day ~," & will be sung by all the big Digimon singers- Kouji Wada, AiM, Hassy, Sammy, Takayoshi Tanimoto, & Michihiko Oota. The real interesting part, however, is this message included with the CD:

Ten years after the broadcast of "Digimon Adventure"...
Facing what lies beyond another door, a new story will come to life.

What could they be hinting at? Is some sort of new Adventure project in the works after all this time? Maybe even a new anime of some sort? We can only hope. Hopefully this'll be made clear soon.

Source: http://www.wtwnews.net/news/493/10th_Anniversary_CD_Info_Coverart_and_Maybe_Something_More

Astro Boy 1-51 (1980s):

http://www.youtube.com/show?p=rChXdMAkybA

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This latest edition of Japanese Movie Trailers begins with a movie I'm beyond excited about, Mamoru Hosoda's "Summer Wars." Hosoda has most recently become famous for his amazing anime film the Girl Who Leapt Through Time, but my readers may also be familiar with one of his earlier works. The second Digimon movie, "Our War Game." & the trailer for his latest movie reminds me A LOT of "Our War Game." I mean like, a whole lot. Which is definitely a good thing, in my opinion. Hosoda has only become more seasoned & experienced since then, so this should turn out to be a fun ride.

Another recently announced anime movie is called "Cencoroll" created by Atsuya Uki, & has no less than two trailers for it below. If Makoto Shinkai is the next Hayao Miyazaki, then Uki is the next Shinkai. Like his predecessor, Uki pretty much made this whole movie all by himself.

In terms of live-action trailers, we're bringing the sexy back with a new "Onechanbara" film, as well as the latest work by Yoshi Nishimura, the creator of the campy but amazing blood-and-gore films "Machine Girl" & "Tokyo Gore Police." His new "Samurai Princess" keeps the tradition going with tons of totally fake looking yet still gruesome violence. Scissor legs, flying chainsaws, & breast grenades abound! All that & more below:

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See? I knew FUNimation would get this! Following in Australia's footsteps, Funi announced that they have already licensed the new FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & will also be streaming the Japanese version online with English subtitles within 4 days of the Japanese broadcast! The first episode airs tomorrow in Japan, & will be available for free on FUNimation.com on April 9 at Noon (eastern time). Not quite as quick as Crunchyroll, but still pretty darn good. The new series will also be streamed for French audiences via YouTube within a week after the eps air in Japan as well, & Hong Kong will begin airing the series on TV beginning April 22.

In addition to the new FMA series, FUNimation also announced today that they've struck a deal with Toei to stream some of their series on their website as well. The titles are Air Master, Captain Harlock, Digimon 02, Fist of the North Star, Galaxy Express, Pretty Cure, & Slam Dunk. With the exception of Air Master, all of these titles are already available on both Crunchyroll & Toei OnDemand. Air Master will be exclusive to Funimation.com, at least for the time being.

Press Releases: http://funimation.com/f_index.cfm?page=news

Toei has signed a deal with some company called Well Go USA for the American DVD rights to "Digimon: Data Squad." Yes, Digimon is FINALLY getting a proper DVD release in the US. We Digimon fans have been begging for boxsets forever, & while Data Squad/Savers may not be my preferred starting point (Adventure? Tamers?), at least it's a start. & maybe if these do well, we can see the other seasons get a similar deal as well.

Granted, so far only the first 13 eps have been confirmed for a Spring 2009 release. So shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves. We also don't know if the release will be dub only or have a subtitled version as well. But considering how Digimon is marketed in the US, I would guess sub only. & honestly I'm fine with that. Granted having the subs as an option would be great, but it's the Digimon dub that really got me to fall in love with anime in the first place 10 years ago. I'd kill to have the entire first dub season on DVD. Toei, make it happen.

Source: http://www.cynopsis.com/content/view/4178/53/

Toei Animation is trying a new direction in releasing their anime online in video-on-demand format, & it's something that Gonzo has been practicing for awhile now. That's right, Toei has added Slam Dunk, Fist of the North Star, Pretty Cure, & of course Digimon 02 to Crunchyroll.

Like most of the anime videos added to Crunchyroll these days, these full episodes will be streamed for free & have the option of purchasing a HQ download for the price of $1.99 per episode. A new episode of each will be added every week for each series, with PreCure eps still to come. So there you go, Digi-fans. Free, legal subs of the Japanese version of Digimon. Start watching here:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-367228/Slam-Dunk-Crunchyroll-Teams-Up-with-Toei-Animation.html

One thing I haven't talked about yet in last week's coverage of E3 was Namco Bandai's showing of a surprisingly large amount of anime-centric games. The Afro Samurai game, which is based off the hit anime starring Samuel L Jackson, was probably their highlight title, as least as far as anime games go. As can be seen from the trailer above, the game looks gorgeous & appears to be tons of fun. Looks pretty similar to their Samurai Champloo game that was releases a couple years back, actually.

Aside from that, they were also showing off Digimon World Championship for the Nintendo DS. The game is said to be the most authentic Digimon game to ever hit the DS. So for those wishing to go back to the old school days when Digimon was nothing more then a virtual pet toy, this is the game you've been waiting for.

Two other titles that they showed off weren't actually anime related, but they sure as hell look like your standard Japanese games. We Cheer is a cheerleading game for the Wii, where you take your remote & thrust it up in the air like a pom-pon. You follow the action on screen, so it's sort of like a cheerleader version of DDR or the Haruhi Wii dancing game that's also in the works. The other title was PowerUp Forever, a downloadable game that'll be available on Xbox Live & PSN. It's basically one of those old-school space shooter games, except it looks all spiffy & shiny.

Oh, there was also Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm on hand. That was definitely a biggie for them, but I already talked about that in a separate post. Still though, can't forget about everyone's favorite orange-clad ninja!

Source: http://kotaku.com/5027296/namco-bandai-roundup-+-digimon-naruto-and-the-game-that-never-ends

As has been expected for sometime now, Toei Animation has officially added Digimon Adventure 02 & Pretty Cure to their OnDemand downloadable lineup. The first 15 episodes of Digimon 02 & the first 2 episodes have PreCure are the first of both series to be added. As with their first two properties, the episodes are all in Japanese with official English subtitles & retail for $1.99 each (to own, not rent like blasted Sony's doing). This is the first time the Japanese version of Digimon has been officially available in America, & the first time for any version of PreCure since 4Kids let their license of the series die.

Considering the long-time Digimon fan that I am, I bought the first few episodes from the Direct2Drive service. I must say, the video quality really leaves something to be desired. This is especially true considering the unusually large size of the files- over 300MB each & they still don't look that great? Aside from that, the subs use a weird combination of Japanese terms & English dub terms for the series. All the kids keep their original Japanese names, except they're called DigiDestined instead of Chosen Children. Evolve is Digivolve, & yet "DigiMental Up" is kept intact. Ken is properly referred to as the Digimon Kaiser here, but the levels of the Digimon are referred to their dub names. The names of the Digimon themselves are all over the place. It seems for the most part dub names were kept, such as Veemon (as opposed to V-mon), Flamedramon (Fladramon), Armadillomon (Armadimon). yet interestingly enough, Tailmon is kept as Tailmon. I guess Gatomon was too different from Tailmon for even them to justify the change. Piyomon is also kept, though.

There are also a few small spelling & grammar mistakes made throughout the episodes. & I STILL don't understand why they chose to skip the first season of the series & go straight to 02. 02 was probably my least favorite season of Digimon, but probably has mostly to do with how long the Kaiser arc dragged on for. But despite all these problems & issues, were finally getting an official subtitled version of Digimon after all these years, & us old fans of the series should appreciate that. The interchangeable dub names shouldn't be a real problem unless you're a hardcore original extremist. But I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we ALL fell in love with Digimon through the Saban dub, so it really isn't that big of a deal. So go & support Digimon by buying some episode! Oh, & Pretty Cure too. =b Your downloading begins here:

http://www.toei-anim.com/ondemand/

Toei was supposed to have a panel at Anime Expo this year, but something came up & it was canceled. No one really seems sure what that "something" is, though. We had hoped that Toei would use this chance to announce all the new Video on Demand series they were rumored to add to their English site, including Digimon. But alas, we were left with nothing

But Toei did have one Digimon event at the convention. On the first day of AX, they showed the first five raw Japanese episodes of Digimon 02 (which only further indicates that they'll be starting off with 02 instead of the first season for their VoD service). Reportedly, this is the first time the Japanese version of Digimon (of any season) has been shown legally in the United States (if not the whole world outside of Japan). Nice to see Digimon still alive & kicking after all these years. Namco Bandai was also at hand at the convention to show a new demo of the upcoming Digimon World Championship video game, so in all there were a few things to check out for all Digi-fans.

Source: http://www.wtwnews.net/

Remember how we talked about the likelihood of Digimon being added to Toei's new video on-demand service? Well now it seems all but certain to happen. A little investigation work on the new site can reveal that buttons for some other Toei anime series also exist. Those include Digimon Adventure 02, Pretty Cure, Air Master, Galaxy Express 999, & Captain Harlock. Since these were all "hidden" items, there's no telling when exactly they'll start appearing on the website for download, but it should be quite soon.

& yes, only Digimon 02 is listed so far. Don't know why they decided to start off with that instead of the first season. But since it hasn't even started being uploaded yet, it's too early to assume what's going to ultimately happen. Also, there'll be some sort of "Digimon push" happening at Anime Expo next month. No word yet on what this could mean, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is when Toei will formally announce that series will be available for download.

Source: http://www.wtwnews.net/exclusive-news/421/DIGIMON_ON_DEMAND_downloadable_episodes/

Toei has launched their own online video on demand service, & they're kicking it off with two of their classics- "Slam Dunk" & "Fist of the North Star." The first 15 episodes of both series are now up & ready to be bought for $1.99 each. & to get people started, they're letting IGN stream the entire first episode of Slam Dunk for free, which you can watch above. The preview episode, just like the purchasable episodes on-demand, are sub only releases with no English dub.

A few years back, the Japanese animation company tried to enter the American DVD market by releasing these series & more. Unfortunately for them though, their attempt failed (not so bad for the consumer though, as they're DVDs pretty much sucked). After that, didn't completely disappear from the American anime scene. They've been involved with the English versions of many of their series, such as Beet the Vandel Buster, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Digimon: Data Squad, & One Piece. They were also to be involved in the English version of Pretty Cure, but we all know what happened with that. But since they still list the series on their English website, maybe there's hope yet that the series will be getting an English release at some point.

Last year, Toei ran a survey on Anime News Network asking readers which of their series they would like to see subtitled on a Video on Demand service. Slam Dunk did pretty well on the survey, coming in fourth place in total votes. Fist of the North Star did... okay, coming in at around 12th place. The success of those two probably had something to do with them being the inaugural series in this project of theirs. But what of the shows that did even better in the survey? After all, Sailor Moon was the number one choice, & Digimon came in at number 2. Both series clobbered all the other competition. So with Toei's VoD service now a reality, the chance of seeing officially subtitled Digimon & Sailor Moon might just be around the corner. Now those are anime series that I'd pay to see officially subtitled. But until that ever happens (if that ever happens), you can check out Toei's first 2 VoD shows here:

http://www.toei-anim.com/ondemand/

The Digimon Championship game for the Nintendo DS was announced as licensed for North America by Namco/Bandai earlier this week. Changed to "Digimon World Championship" for the English version (gotta include "World" in all their titles, after all), they're talking about tweaking the game's story a bit in order to have it based on Data Squad, instead of a standalone story like the Japanese version was. Nothing is certain yet, though. The game is expected to hit stateside sometime in late 2008.

Source: http://www.wtwnews.net/news/374/Digimon_World_Championship_in_the_USA/