It seems that in order to promote the upcoming Spice and Wolf II Flying Dog recruited Ami Koshimizu and Iun Fukuyama , the seiyuu  of their respected puppets, play with the Horo and Lawrence hand puppets that I posted about back in May. As a promotional tool I know this video is going to be a huge success. It definitely gets the basic factors of the show, Horo beats on Lawrence and loves apples, down to an easy to understand slapstick joke. You don’t even need to understand Japanese to get the premise! Also, the adorable insert at the end with Horo and Lawrence just makes me melt. I can’t wait for the second season to start!

Source: Japanator

The golden age of Evangelion merchandise continues. This time Japanese fast food restaurant Lotteria is releasing Evangelion themed coasters and reusable drink cups. This is the kind of news that makes me wish that I lived in Japan. Sure in the United States we get Star Trek and Pokemon at Burger King. But getting a cup with Rei in a sexy pose is a completely different experience.

The full set of coasters:

Hit the jump for more images.

Evangelion 01 coaster:

Asuka coaster

Three fully assembled cups:

The cup comes apart easily for washing:

Petit-Eva illustration:

Rei Ayanami:

Evangelion Unit-01 checked pattern:

Source: Gigazine Via Yahoo & Lotteria

I think this trailer has been terribly miscast. Haruhi should be Neo. As a living God able to alter reality at will she is the only character in the anime that can be compared to Neo who is an “Admin” in the Matrix’s digital world. But other than that small complaint this fan trailer is very well made and syncs up well to the original 1999 movie trailer.

One of the most important aspect about being an Otaku is the figure collection. If you don’t have an impressive collection of colored molded plastic. Here are two upcoming overpriced figures that will (hopefully) soon adorn my shelf. Both of these figures are going to be priced at $75.

Taiga, from the Fall season show Toradora, stands confident in her school uniform holding her Bokken.

Horo sits on the side of Lawrence’s wagon enjoying her favorite food.

Hit the jump for more pictures of both these adorable figures.

A  new Playstation 3 program will allow Neon Genesis Evangelion heroine Misato Katsuragi to personally read the news to any Otaku willing to drop the 800 Yen a monthly subscription fee. Misato will read all types of news, including Anime Industry news, by pulling it from real world news sites and passing it through a voice synthesizer.

I suppose the key feature is that the end user is able to customize the backgrounds, music, and even Misato’s hair and clothes. I guess the next best thing to having Misato read the news is to have Misato read the news in whatever outfit you choose.

Source: Kotaku

The anime version of Valkyria Chronicles Alicia is a much more emotional character. Her chosen emotion is annoyed. Specifically at the protagonist who comes across as an airheaded, lazy bum. Click the jump more!

The second episode of Haruhi season 2 aired today and with it we get the new opening. The first new episode, Bambo Leaf Rhapsody, was aired without any opening but with the new closing credits. The song is preformed by Haruhi’s Seiyuu Aya Hirano and is called “Super Driver.” Enjoy!

Source: Anime Vice

As one of the overlooked shows of the season Pandora Hearts offers a compelling story with characters that are fairly deep for the genre… which is “FOR FANGIRLS”, an idea that every episode seems to scream out on a subconscious level. But that doesn’t prevent the main character, a female rabbit who ties people up with chains, from being absolutely adorable.

Around the Internet I’ve been hearing a lot of backlash against the way Haruhi season 2 is being released. While I agree that it is a tease to force the very demanding, very loyal fan base to wait while the original episodes are being aired before they deliver the bulk of the new episodes I think it is better to look at this situation from the point of view of the writers and directors of the series. It’s not all about ratings or viral marketing and it’s easy for the audience to claim those factors for the prolonged roll out of the new season. But Kyoto Animations has the best interest of the content and the audience in mind.

As an anime fan it has been painful to watch good shows turn bad because the original source material doesn’t provide a good stopping place to wrap the series up. Fantastic shows like Claymore and Black Cat were ruined by an attempt to bring the series to a close due to time constraints. The new endings the writers of the anime came up with destroyed those series. Black Cat followed the manga, not exactly but fairly closely, up till about episode eighteen. After that point the writers needed a place to stop the series so a new arc was created in the style of Black Cat in order to give the show a satisfying climax. But it wasn’t satisfying. It was poorly written and felt like a step below the first half of the series in all respects. The plot felt rushed, the characters felt out of place, and it broke away from the themes and overarching story of the pervious eighteen episodes.

Claymore was even more extreme. The writers of the anime followed the Manga up to the very end. Then they inserted a final battle that did not resembled the previous fights in the show to give the anime one last big battle before the ending. The terrible endings of those shows inspired me to read the manga and I am enjoying both of them much more than what the adapted version offered because unlike the anime version they didn’t have to worry about the larger budget and bigger audience required to keep a television show running. Manga and novels aren’t limited to a set number of episodes in order to fill a season long block of time. The demands of television are not always good for creativity.

The other anime writing blunder I want to compare the new season of Haruhi to is the start of Season 2 of Code Geass. Looking forward to the anime I just wanted it to pick up at the cliffhanger it left off on. But that isn’t what happened. Season 1 ended, this is a minor spoiler, with the final battle as a loss for the black knights and Lalouch’s sister captured by an unknown woman. Season 2 opened with Lelouch back at school with a new younger brother. The reason for this stark difference is that they wanted to reboot the series for any potential new audience members who didn’t watch the first season. They had to reintroduce the premise, reintroduce the characters, and explain how the everything got to this point before they could resolve the hanging thread. Meanwhile, the audience who just wanted to see the story that stopped at season 1 were weighted down with unnecessary bloat. The series suffered because of this artificial need to rehash the premise.

I believe what Kyoto is trying to do is avoid pulling a blunder like Claymore, Black Cat and Code Geass. They are working the new episodes into the old ones and placing them in the proper chronological order. There is no rewriting to put them at the end of season one. There is no need to include footnotes with the second season DVD explaining to ignorant fans about the correct order the show needs to be watched. Replaying the original season after three years will allow a new audience to watch the show and enjoy it without sacrificing any time in the second season for reintroducing the characters, premise, or recapping the events that happened up to that point. In truth what they have done is, in a way, revolutionary. Haruhi is the first series that I know of which has put the content before the rules of television.

The original run of Haruhi also broke a few of these rules. The original run was fourteen episodes long. As a midseason show it should have conformed to the standard 12-13 episode limit. The show was played out of order with an extremely odd first episode that didn’t introduce any characters or the premise. In fact most people who stopped watching Haruhi stopped at the first episode. But even with all the risks that Kyoto took with Haruhi it was still successful. Proof that content will always triumph over form. It doesn’t matter how long or short a series is or how the story is presented. If the story is good the show will find an audience. If it remains good the audience will always come back.

So I beg you. I’m pleading with you Haruhi fans out there who are bitter with Kyoto Animation for how they are handling your precious show. It is in good hands. All they are asking for is a little patience.

In Episode 9 of K-On! Azusa does some soul searching at a local music club. The club she visited seems to be based on a popular music hall in Kyoto. Probably a location that is familiar to one of the animations at Kyoto Animation. Mojo was used to model the fictional music hall Koto in the Anime.

Source: Sankaku Complex