When Shoji Murahama left the troubled Gonzo studio back in April, he vowed to move on to bigger & better things. & just last month, he accomplished that goal. He released a brand new iPhone game called "Goldfish Scooping," where the player... scoops up goldfish. The game is the first creation of his new company Lambda Film, & quite the inaugural product it is.

Goldfish scooping is quite the popular summer activity in Japan. Of course if you sat through every episode of Haruhi's Endless Eight this past summer, you should already be well aware of that fact. The game is available for the iPhone & iPod Touch worldwide. You can download it on Apple's App Store for a mere 99 cents. A little info on the game:

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We already new for the first time ever that Gonzo didn't have any series currently running in Japan, but at least we took comfort in the fact that Strike Witches 2 was in the works. Unfortunately, it's now been revealed Gonzo has lost that as well. The latest issue of Kadokawa's Nyantype magazine confirmed that anime studio AIC will take over work on the second season of the popular loli series, tentatively titled "Strike Witches 2-ki."

Don't get too worried over what this will mean for the quality of the new season, though. Most of the staff from the first season will be returning, including the director, character designer, & script supervisor. However, this does bring up a cause of concern for Gonzo. I'm no financial expert, but wouldn't holding onto a title that's guaranteed to be bankable & extremely profitable be a good idea? Or are things so bad for them now that they can't afford to even work on the new season?

Regardless of most of the staff returning, there is some cause for concern. For instance, AIC's animation quality over these past few years isn't really up to par with Gonzo's. Say what you will about Strike Witches, but it had solid & fluid animation to it. I worry that AIC animating it wont look quite as good. But choosing AIC does make some sense as well. They've partnered with Gonzo on projects several times in the past, & they even animated SW's sister series SkyGirls.

One final note is the copyright notice for season 2. Gonzo is actually listed right there, which reads "© 2007-2009 Humikane Shimada/Kadokawa Shoten/Gonzo/501st Joint Fighter Wing."

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-27/aic-to-replace-gonzo-on-2nd-strike-witches-season-updated

Speaking of not selling well, it's been revealed that the second half of Gonzo's "Shangri-la" anime series will not be released in single disc format with 2 episodes per DVD, which was the case for the first half of the series (& 99% of every other anime series in Japan). Instead, the remaining 12 episodes will be bundled together in a half-series box-set, something that's still very rare in Japan despite being so common these days in the US.

Gonzo's exact reason for doing this is unknown, but more than likely it's probably due to low sales of the first six volumes of the series. Gonzo's financial troubles are no secret, & a poor selling series for them (one of the only new ones they're currently releasing to boot) definitely isn't a good thing. But putting a large amount of episodes in one release could drive up sales for the title & give Gonzo a lot of money in one lump sum, which would be a good thing for them. The special 12-episode set will go on sale in Japan on March 26, 2010. Meanwhile, us here in the US can watch the series for free on Crunchyroll.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-10/last-6-shangri-la-single-dvds-dropped-for-box-in-japan

RightStuf is having a limited special right now, where if you pre-order Part 1 of Linebarrels of Iron on DVD you'll get a free oppai mousepad of one of the girls from the series. That's right, no longer is importing one from Japan you're only option of getting a mousepad with 3D boobs as a wrist rest. FUNimation & RightStuf are teaming up to get you this official US-sanctioned goody! But hurry, it's only while supplies last! The DVD officially goes on sale on January 19.

(UPDATE: Turns out that it's not an oppai mousepad, but rather just a regular flat mousepad with just art of an anime chick on it. What the heck's up with that? Just look at the thing, it's so obvious it was meant to be oppai. Looks like Funi chickened out on this one.)

& while we're talking about Linebarrels available in the US, FUNimation has officially announced the cast list for their English dub of the series (featuring the awesome Tiffany Grant in her first ever lead FUNimation role). Check out the leads below:

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Fans of "Strike Witches" who have been feeling withdrawal seasons while waiting for Gonzo to make season 2 can take comfort in the most recent episode of "Seitokai no Ichizon." The comedy anime series did an exact shot-for-shot remake of a scene of the loli fan-service anime, with Kurimu dressed up as Yoshika. They even got the sukumizu rear-end shot down to a tee. You can check out the episode now on NebsTV:

http://home.comcast.net/~nebstv/nebstv/seitokai.html

Strike Witches sure have been in the news quite a lot this week, & I'm about to bring it up again. This time in the form of its long-awaited DS game. A trailer for the game, titled "Blitz in the Blue Skies- New Commander Struggles," was uploaded online this week. As the trailer indicates, the game is about a new girl who joins the team. It's due out next month is Japan, & an expected date of never for America. Tons more awesome & weird video game videos after the jump:

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In response to immense feedback, FUNimation has clarified why they changed their streams of uncensored Strike Witches to the edited version a mere few hours after I broke the story. Here's their official statement on the matter:

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Half a day or so after I reported on FUNimation streaming the controversial unedited version of Strike Witches, their video portal has now changed the streams of both episodes 3 & 4 to the unedited TV version of the series. This version is different from both the edited TV version (which is what streamed on Crunchyroll & YouTube last summer) & the uncensored DVD version (which was what Funi had on their site over the weekend). Apparently the videos were even down for a little while as they made the switch. No more legal naked lolis for you.

I guess for some reason, FUNimation wasn't aware of the content of the episodes when they uploaded, despite the fact that one had to enter their age to verify they were over 18 to watch these episodes. But when I broke word on what they had done & the news spread, someone high up at Funi headquarters must have gotten nervous & ordered the removal of the naked underage girls. So yes, this kinda my fault for reporting on it in the first place. Please don't throw stones at me. Let's just hope this doesn't change plans for the DVD release when it comes out early next year.

Source: http://www4.funimation.com/video/?page=show&b=289

FUNimation truly is giving fans the completely uncensored DVD version of Strike Witches on their website. Funi began streaming the series last weekend with the first two episodes, but it wasn't until this weekend that we got to find out if they were truly going to stream the true unedited version.

Episodes three & four of the series both had nudity in their Japanese DVD releases, but the version that aired on Crunchyroll & YouTube last year had their nudity edited out. But with those two episodes now up on FUNimation's video pages, we in the US finally get to see the naked lolis for free, & legally too. & yes, I just used the words "naked loli" & "legal" in the same sentence. Don't forget there's still more nudity in this series yet to come (including of the youngest character Francesca). Don't need any more motivation than that to pick up the DVD set when it comes early next year.

Source: http://www4.funimation.com/video/?page=show&b=289

FUNimation typically adds a few dozen new episodes to their video website every week, but this past weekend it really felt like they were stepping things up & adding some really cool new stuff, as can be made apparent in the most recent This Week in Free Anime & Manga posting.

Several new titles that have been added feel surprising to have legal & official access to for the first time ever. One of them is the first two episodes of Slayers Revolution. As an old fan of the original Slayers series, I was thrilled to have the classic come back for two new seasons in the modern age, & now the first two episodes are streaming- completely free & legal. It also feels amazing to get free legal "Spice & Wolf" for the first time as well, with the first two episodes for that also going live this weekend.

Another such series is the first two episodes of "Strike Witches," a show that I'm still (pleasantly) surprised that FUNimation ever licensed. Funi has said that their DVD release for the series will be completely uncut, but I have to wonder if they'll be using the uncut version for streaming on their site or if they'll use one of the two edited versions that aired on Japanese TV & Crunchyroll last year. We wont know until the next set of episodes go live next weekend, as uncensored loli nudity was only added beginning with the second DVD.

The addition of "Strike Witches" is also notable because this really is the first time the series is completely available for free (legally) for viewing at anytime. When Crunchyroll & YouTube began simulcasting the series last year, the streams were only free for a mere 10 hours after they aired in Japan. After that, you had to pay to download each episode in order to watch them. But now, we can finally get legal "Strike Witches" for free.

Another Gonzo series that was simulcasted last year, "Tower of Druaga," began streaming its English dub episodes. This is the first time an English version of the series can be heard, since the first DVD set for the series is still a little ways away. Since Druaga was one of my favorite series from last year (it did star KENN as the main character, fresh from the end of GX after all), I'm greatly enjoying rewatching the series dubbed in English.

There were more new dubs added as well. The first 4 English episodes of "Ah! My Goddess" were added, along with the first 4 dubbed episodes of "Bamboo Blade" (another series I'm excited to hear in English for the first time), & the first 4 dubbed eps of "Higurashi: When They Cry." FUNimation was also (very) slowly releasing the dubbed episodes of "Vandread" to their site, but this weekend they finally just went all out & added episodes 5-26 up all at once.

Speaking of adding series in bulk, the entirety of the "Romeo X Juliet" series was put online all at once as well. Yup, all 24 subbed episodes are now up for you're viewing pleasure. The final notable new item that was added this weekend was both parts of the "Gunslinger Girl OVA." Of course there were a bunch of other new episodes for other shows added as well, but all the really noteworthy ones have already been mentioned. You can start watching all this amazing greatness & more here:

http://www4.funimation.com/video

Things haven't been too rosy over at Gonzo for awhile now, but never more so than right now. For one, Gonzo recently announced that their online webstore will be shutting down at the end of the month. But that's not the main cause for concern here. Currently Gonzo is airing two series in Japan (as well as on Crunchyroll)- Saki & Shangri-la. But once both of those series end this month, for the first time ever Gonzo wont have any other shows lined up to take their place. Gonzo's always had SOMETHING on the air, even if it was just one series, & usually more than that.

They announced last year that starting in 2009 they were changing their annual anime output from 7 series to 4. The four they announced at the time were Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk, Slap Up Party -Arad Senki-, Shangri-La, & Alive- Saishu Shinka teki Shonen. But then shortly after that, they added Saki to the list of 2009 anime, bringing the supposed total to 5. With the exception of Alive, all the above series have already been animated, & the author of Alive has recently confirmed that plans for its animated adaptation have been canceled. So it looks like 4 was the magic number after all.

Strike Witches 2 is confirmed to be in the works, but no solid release date has been announced yet, & it definitely wont be happening this year. On top of that, no other series for 2010 has yet to be announced. That's right, not only does Gonzo have no shows airing in the last quarter of this year, but they only have one single show that's supposed to go up next year, & even that one isn't a sure thing yet. Here's hoping they'll be able to survive these tough times.

Source: http://zepy.momotato.com/2009/09/07/gonzo-style-official-online-shop-is-closing

I had listed this as part of the most recent This Week in Free Anime & Manga post, but felt it was worth making a separate post for it as well. FUNimation is now streaming the first four English dubbed episodes of Blassreiter for free on their website. The first DVD for the series doesn't even come out for about another two months, so this is a good early look at the dub.

I felt this was worth mentioning in particular because Blassreiter is one of the four anime series that Gonzo simulcasted last year, which at the time was a bold new experiment that had never been done before. Along with Tower of Druaga, Blassreiter was the the first series to get an online official English sub the same day it aired in Japan. Strike Witches & Linebarrels of Iron followed shortly after, & because of the success of these first four titles, we now get tons of simulcasts every week from Crunchyroll & FUNimation. Incidentally, Funi has licensed all four of Gonzo's 2008 simulcasts for US DVD release. Blassreiter is just the first of these.

FUNimation's dub of Blassreiter is definitely for mature audiences only. The series already has intense violence & some nudity, so I guess Funi felt there was no need to hold back on this series since the visual content already went so far. So their English script is full of cursing & mature dialogue. Check out the first four dubbed episodes, as well as the complete subtitled series, here:

http://www4.funimation.com/video/?page=show&b=269

A recent survey in Comptiq Magazine asked readers who among the Strike Witches cast they'd choose as their anime wife. This survey is a bit different from asking fans which Strike Witches pantsu/buttocks they prefer. Rather, this one asks otaku if they ever get the right to marry anime characters, which Witch would they choose? Well the results are now in! Check out the top 8 below:

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Just as it did for Strike Witches last year, it seems that Gonzo is airing two different versions of their current series Saki. Most stations, as well as the English subtitled version on Crunchyroll, are airing what has turned out to be an edited down version of the series. But AT-X, a more liberal station that usually airs its series uncensored (including Queen's Blade), is showing a different version of Saki. Now there's still no full blown nudity in this version, but we do get more cleavage & less steam.

Of course if Strike Witches is any indication, we might even see a third version of Saki. The DVDs for the series will start coming out next month in Japan, & many fans are predicting that the DVD version will be totally uncensored & will include full nudity. If Strike Witches can do it, Saki totally can. While this hasn't been confirmed yet, it has been announced that the special edition of the second DVD will include special bonus item- a SakixNodoka dakimakura (body pillow cover). A fanboy's dream come true.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/tag/saki

For the second time, a shop in Akihabara has conducted a favorite ass/pantsu election for the girls of "Strike Witches." Sanya V Litvyak won the first time around. Interestingly enough, she's one of the only girls that actually has her panties covered most of the time. Granted they're covered with black tights & not pants or anything, but it's still covered.

For this second election, the results were surprisingly very different. Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen & Gertrud Barkhorn both tied for first place this time around. Interestingly again, Eila is also one of the only other girls that has her pantsu covered. Previous winner Sanya wound up in fourth place this time around. Francesca Lucchini, my personal favorite, dropped from second place to sixth. & Yoshika Miyafuji, who came in last place among the 11 main girls last time, jumped up to the #5 spot now. Pretty weird stuff. The entire listings below:

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