Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto manga is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year in Japan. To help celebrate, many other famous Shonen Jump manga-ka commissioned their own Naruto fan-art. Included are the manga artists of DragonBall, Bleach, One Piece, Death Note, Gintama, Bo-Bobo, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, & many more. Check out the photo gallery here:

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/12/08/narutos-bizarre-adventure

With the end of the year now in sight, the top English search engines have revealed their most searched terms for 2009. For Yahoo's Top 10 of the year, "Naruto" was actually the 6th most searched for term on their site.

No anime terms made onto Google's overall Top 10 list, but a few did make it on their Fastest Rising in Entertainment list. Again "Naruto" does very well coming in at #4. It was beat out though by "Transformers," which landed at the #2 spot. Though that has more to do with the second live-action movie than the anime version. & finally, the term "anime online" made it on at #8. Considering how much free & legal streaming anime grew during 2009, that probably has a lot to do with that term doing so well.

Incidentally, among the top 10 hottest new searches for Japanese users on Google were Shinkenger & Kamen Rider Decade.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-02/naruto-makes-yahoo-top-10-for-search-terms-in-2009

Just as they did last year, Weekly Shonen Jump has uploaded some of the specials from the 2009 Jump Super Tour to its website. & also like last year, some of them have been given official English subtitles on its official English site.

The first video with English subs is the new Naruto special "Naruto: the Cross Roads." This special actually takes place way back when Sasuke was still a part of Team Kakashi, placing it well before the current Shippuden series. The special is also notable for being completely animated in CG, giving it a very interesting look. The other special is Toriko, a recent series that got its first ever anime adaptation for this tour. Toriko probably got the English sub treatment to help promote the manga coming to the US Shonen Jump magazine beginning next month.

While those are the only two titles on the English version of the website, the Japanese version also hosts an extended preview of the upcoming 10th One Piece movie. The Japanese version also promises to add an extended preview of the upcoming 10th Anniversary Yu-Gi-Oh movie soon. Whether or not that'll be added to the English site remains to be seen, though personally I doubt it. But you can at least check out the subbed Naruto & Toriko specials here:

http://www.shonenjump.com/e/animetour

LittleKuriboh has been quite busy since debuting his double episodes at Youmacon earlier this month. Not with making new Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged episodes, but by doing a bunch of other small fun projects & pieces. Not the least of which is the third episode of his hilarious Naruto Abridged Parody series- now with David Bowie! The humor in this series is quite different from Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, but in some ways it's even funnier that way. You can check out the other fun little vids LK has been putting out these past few weeks below:

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Viz Media has revealed that they plan to release an official Naruto Shippuden Snuggie this Winter. You know Snuggie, right? The blanket that you can wear, with sleeves! Well this one has the infamous Akatsuki design pattern on it, meaning you too can now look like a deadly rogue ninja... who's cold & ready for bed. Expect these to be all the rage at anime conventions everywhere in 2010.

Source: http://twitter.com/VIZ_Media/status/5777240613

I usually don't read scanslations or anything of the current manga chapters of Naruto in Japan. I just read the English version in Shonen Jump for the most part. But with the big event that happened in the latest chapter, it's hard to ignore stuff like that.

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Just a friendly reminder from your neighborhood Nebs that the American dub premiere of Naruto Shippuden debuts tonight on Disney XD! The first 4 episodes will air back-to-back tonight at 8:30pm Eastern/Pacific. & every week after that will have a brand new episode air Wednesdays at 8:30 as well. You don't wanna miss this, believe it!

http://disney.go.com/disneyxd/#/disneyxd/shows/naruto

According to Disney's television schedule, Naruto Shippuden will be making its US television premiere on the night of October 28 on Disney XD. The first four episodes of the series will air back-to-back starting at 8:30pm Eastern/Pacific time. After that, the first episode is scheduled to re-air several times over the next few days afterwords, all of which being relatively late at night.

It would seem new episodes will be airing every Wednesday, but until the schedule is updated further, it's hard to know if it'll be one new episode a week or more. For now though, here's the schedule for the night of the 28th:

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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

After being without a home for nearly a year, Naruto Shippuden will finally be airing on American TV. Only it wont be anywhere on Cartoon Network. Instead, a very unlikely new channel has stepped in- Disney XD. That's right, Naruto Shippuden will be airing on Disney XD, beginning next month in fact.

In a way it can be considered a fitting home. Disney decided last year to evolve their Jetix action block on Toon Disney by expanding it to the entire channel & renaming it Disney XD. It was meant to change the channel to the go-to place for young & tween boys to tune in for action & adventure. The only problem was, while Jetix was actually pretty cool of an action block (not quite at the level of Toonami, but it was the spiritual successor to Fox Kids), Disney XD ruined all its potential & just plain old sucks. Jetix had a decent amount of anime in its day, but XD decided to get rid of pretty much all of it, even though it now had MORE time on the schedule to fill with such programming.

With Shippuden coming to the channel, Disney XD seems to be trying its hand at anime once again. & what better way than to air the biggest action title in the anime world today? The only problem is, how badly can we expect the edits to be in this version? The original Naruto series didn't air completely uncensored, but it was pretty darn close with very little changed or removed. Heck, some episodes even had parental warnings at the beginning to warn of the extensive violence in the eps, saying it wasn't meant for a young audience. But on a Disney channel? I'm afraid to see how badly this series will get butchered. I can't imagine Naruto without blood, but at the same time I can't imagine Disney allowing blood to be shown.

& do you really expect we'll get the original Japanese opening themes if the series airs on XD? Granted that Oban Star-Racers airs its Japanese ending them without issue, but I just don't expect the same of Shippuden's openings. But if the idea of this show being edited to hell & back bothers you a lot, it really shouldn't. After all, we get free simulcasts of the Japanese version every single week online. & if you really want an unedited dub version so bad, just buy the DVDs or episodes on iTunes.

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Naruto Shippuden- Clash of Ninja Revolution 3:


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Been awhile since I last got one of these up, & a lot has happened since. Including, the passing of Michael Jackson. So we'll pay tribute to him with this video game MAD of Michael Jackson Forever mixed with various Famicom games, as you can view above. Then check out the videos below, which feature trailers for games such as Gundam Senki, DragonBall for the Wii, Claymore, Naruto Shippuden, & much more:

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Last year's Jump Super Anime Tour was so successful that they're doing it again. The latest issue of Shonen Jump in Japan announced that the new tour will begin on October 12, & many of the anime specials featured this year are honoring the number 10 in different ways. The series taking part this year are Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Naruto, Tegami Bachi, Toriko, Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's, & One Piece. For Toriko, this will be its first animated project ever. Last year Tegami Bachi had its first animated project ever at the 2008 Tour, & now its getting its own anime series.

We already reported on the new Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's 10th anniversary OVA that's coming out soon, & as it turns out it'll be a part of this tour. While it's pretty much a sure thing now that the rumor of it being a crossover duel with Yugi & Judai is fake, one has to look forward to what they do plan to show for a 10th anniversary special. & while Yu-Gi-Oh is celebrating 10 years of animation, Naruto will be celebrating 10 years of manga chapters with its special. As for One Piece, the Tour will be showing special footage from the upcoming 10th One Piece movie, which is also the first movie to be supervised by manga-ka Eiichiro Oda.

Last year, three of the specials were uploaded online for free on Shonen Jump's JumpLand website, with subtitles included. Let's just hope that something similar happens again this year with Jump's new website.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-07-05/toriko-yu-gi-oh-10th-special-anime-shorts-announced

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

Got my June issue of Shonen Jump in the mail yesterday, & in one of the most interesting move the American version of the magazine has ever made, it included an exclusive chapter of the Naruto manga that's never been released in Japan. As SJ calls it, it's a "special card-battle manga!" That's right, it's Naruto meets Yu-Gi-Oh as the young shinobi prepares to duel it out card games style!

In order to promote the release of the latest Naruto card game expansion due out next month, Shonen Jump has created a mini-manga in which Naruto challenged Kakashi to a card battle. The story involves hardcore ninja card-throwing action. Neji, Shikamaru, & Chouji act as spectators to the event & provide background commentary. It's only six pages long, & the art, while decent, is clearly not the work of Kishimoto. It's a silly idea & a little over commercial, but I do have to applaud Viz in their creativity on this idea (despite that the finale of the duel was taken straight from an earlier Naruto story). SJ is asking for input on this card manga at the following page, even though it's not up yet (not surprising considering this issue doesn't officially go on sale until May 5):

http://shonenjump.com/cardmanga

In other news, this issue of Shonen Jump confirmed that Bo-Bobo will no longer be published in the magazine & will move straight to graphic novel releases from here on out. Stan Lee's Ultimo will be replacing it starting next month in the July issue, as previously reported.