First scooped here at the beginning of the month, word is in today from Movic that their Corticarte Apa Lagranges (adult ver.) PVC figure from Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica is now available for preorder from the official Movic online shop. She's scheduled to retail in January of next year at 1/8 scale (21 cm tall) and 5,880 yen. I don't know why, but the only thing I can imagine her doing in this pose is palming the face of Goodsmile's version... Gallery below:
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Word is in from GA Graphic today that Movic has begun production on a Corticarte Apa Lagranges (adult version) PVC figure from Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica. She's due out in January of '08 at 5,880 yen retail, 1/8 scale (21 cm tall), and with a sculpt from Yami Yoroi (Yamiyo no Hikari), another member of invincible sculpting circle Tekkoryuu. Despite some sketchiness in the Movic production values, in my opinion this sculpt kicks Goodsmile's Corticarte to the curb - she'll palm your face and rub it into her capacious bosoms until you agree. (no more)
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We've mentioned them here at various times over the past couple of months (with the exception of Kino, I think), but now it's official: December '07 will see the release of Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica's Corticarte Apa Lagranges and Kino no Tabi's Kino from Goodsmile, and Toradora!'s Aisaka Taiga from Max Factory. Corticarte retails at 6,300 yen, with Kino at 4,800 and Taiga at 5,800. Now that they've been unleashed on Goodsmile's official site we can expect preorder listings to appear soon... (no more)
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I'm taking the simplest possible method of judging how otaku in Japan and outside it grade the current shows: current number of threads on 2channel vs. number of posts on AnimeSuki. This is more an index of interest than approval, but it at least gives us some comparisons. Actual Japanese TV ratings are, as usual, considerably different, with shows for kids and girls rating far higher than on 2channel.Among otaku in Japan and abroad, the top show of the spring season is Nanoha StrikerS, by far. On 2channel, the next two shows are Lucky Star and Gurren Laggan, whereas on AnimeSuki they are Claymore and Lucky Star. Dennou Coil and Idolmaster Xenoglossia (two very different shows) are much higher on the 2channel list than on AnimeSuki, whereas Kaze no Stigma, Darker than Black and Lovely Complex are much higher on AnimeSuki. My guess is that the percentage of female posters on AnimeSuki is higher than on 2channel, which tends to ignore shoujo shows, such as Lovely Complex.For the summer, the top show on 2channel is School Days, by a large margin, followed by Higurashi2, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and Zero no Tsukaima2. On AS, the top show is Higurashi2, far ahead of Zero no Tsukaima2 and School Days, which are in turn far ahead of anything else. The linguistic complexity -- and maybe the style of humor -- of Zetsubou Sensei may explain why it is more a favorite in Japan. And School Days may have higher mind-share in Japan because people are more familiar with the original game.Here are fullish listings, first for spring and then for summer, listed first by 2channel popularity, then by AnimeSuki popularity:1. spring 2007 anime2channel -- # of threads (1000 posts per full thread) Nanoha StrikerS 289 Lucky Star 256 Tengen Toppa Guren Lagan 192 Hayate no Gotoku 69 Dennou Coil 67 Idolmaster Xenoglossia 66 Seto no Hanayome 58 Bokurano 48 Claymore 47 Ookiku Furikabutte 46 Darker than Black 45 Kaibutsu Oujo 27 Toward Terra 25 Nagasarete Airantou 25 Gegege no Kitarou 24 Gigantic Formula 22 KissDum Engage Planet 21 Heroic Age 20 RomeoxJuliet 18 Seirei no Moribito 17 El Cazador 16 Kaze no Stigma 11 Touka Gettan 11 Oh! Edo Rocket 10 Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica 9 Kamichama Karin 6 Kotetsu Sangokushi 5 OverDrive 5 Blue Dragon 5 Lovely Complex 4 Emily of New Moon 3 AnimeSuki forums -- # of posts Nanoha StrikerS 40709 Claymore 12649 Lucky Star 11317 Tengen Toppa Guren Lagan 4021 Kaze no Stigma 2304 Hayate no Gotoku 2150 Darker than Black 1657 Lovely Complex 1512 Seto no Hanayome 1401 Nagasarete Airantou 1205 Heroic Age 1112 RomeoxJuliet 942 Seirei no Moribito 891 Bokurano 719 Touka Gettan 617 El Cazador 562 Idolmaster Xenoglossia 550 Dennou Coil 472 Kaibutsu Oujo 457 Toward Terra 391 KissDum Engage Planet 254 Kamichama Karin 217 OverDrive 170 Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica 149 Gigantic Formula 131 Ookiku Furikabutte 114 Oh! Edo Rocket 95 Gegege no Kitarou 73 Blue Dragon 57 Kotetsu Sangokushi 44 Emily of New Moon 37 2. summer 2007 anime2channel -- # of threads (1000 posts per full thread) School Days 45 Higurashi2 35 Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 31 Zero no Tsukaima 2 28 Code Geass 24-25 18 Skygirls 15 Moetan 13 Nanatsuiro Drops 9 Potemayo 9 Mononoke 8 Mushiuta 5 Umishou 5 Doujin Work 5 Umishou 4 Shigurui 3 Baccano 3 Code-E 3 Buzzer Beater 3 Zombie-Loan 2 Tetsuko no Tabi 2 Tokyo Majin Gakuen2 1 Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan2 1 AnimeSuki forums -- # of posts Higurashi2 7990 Zero no Tsukaima 2 2704 School Days 2200 Code Geass 24-25 832 Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei 549 Moetan 359 Zombie-Loan 281 Nanatsuiro Drops 280 Mushiuta 240 Skygirls 229 Mononoke 169 Potemayo 139 Doujin Work 125 Umishou 118 Code-E 98 Baccano 88 Tokyo Majin Gakuen2 51 Shigurui 47 Tetsuko no Tabi 44 Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan2 19 Buzzer Beater 5 If any show is missing, it's because it hasn't been posted about in the last 200 shows posted about on 2channel.
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Stuff I’m going to be talking about: Sky Girls, Byousoku 5 Centimeter, Nanatsuiro Drops, and Polyphonica. Sky Girls: After the first three episodes, this is already a vast improvement from the rather lackluster OVA. While it’s been mostly introductions and training so far, it’s generally managed to at least keep my attention. The fanservice also hasn’t [...]
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GA Graphic has just posted a thorough visual preview of an upcoming Corticarte figure announced from the wizards at Goodsmile. Based on the incorrigibly named heroine of the Polyphonica visual novel and anime (etc.), she's due out in November at 19 cm (1/8 scale) with price yet determined. Arakawa Hiroshi of circle Almight (Happyhobby) (Amiami search) is on sculpting duty, with original designs from Kannatsuki Noboru (Wikipedia). Bit of a boring item in my opinion, but I'm sure there are Polyphonica fans out there who would beg to differ... (no more)
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It was pretty much a straightforward development episode, so my commentary will be rather brief. This is the kind of episode this show had been needing badly: one that gives a little background and sets up the relationships among the main characters. The series began jumping right into the middle of things, and as a result [...]
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The obligatory bleach episode falls on episode three this time. The early “yay playing at the beach” portion was pretty satisfying too; the well-endowed female characters were pretty well-drawn. The episode as a whole wasn’t anything especially great, but it was definitely quite a step up from the previous one– there was a greater sense [...]
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The seiyuu industry churns out so much new talent each year that it's hard to keep up. Shake a tree and a new seiyuu falls out. Every new anime season turns up some unfamiliar names and I'm always scratching my head and thinking 'Who on earth is that?'When I first started watching anime people like Noto Mamiko, Ueda Kana and Shimizu Ai were still relative unknowns ; and it's been quite a ride watching them progress from voicing support characters to regularly headlining anime series. Likewise it's been cool to see some like Nazuka Kaori, Shimizu Kaori, Koshimizu Ami, Hirano Aya & Irino Miyu grow up from awkward-looking teenagers to 'proper seiyuu' ^_^It doesn't always turn out that way though - there've been some seiyuu I thought might go on to bigger things but never really did; Yoshida Sayuri, Asano Ruri, Katou Nanae, Tasaka Hideki & Hoshino Takanori have sort of fallen in between the cracks and haven't quite had the sort of impact I initially thought they would.Anyway, here's a list of 10 seiyuu I think (or blindly hope) that in five years' time will have achieved success of Noto Mamiko proportions ^_^ The brick wall I faced doing this post was finding half-decent pictures of the seiyuu since most of them haven't been around for too long. And the list appears to heavily favour the girls... where have all the talented young guys gone? ^^;; Note: I deliberately left out Kitamura Eri & Inoue Marina, cos I don't want to sound like a broken record talking about them all the time...1. Yonaga TsubasaOne of Ken Production's biggest young hopes - Yonaga is one of the most recent graduates from their seiyuu academy School Duo (also attended by other KenPro heavyweights like Nabatame Hitomi & Itou Shizuka). Already he's landed two lead roles (Ren in Ookiku Furikabutte & Shingo in Gigantic Formula), something many of his seniors (Kakehashi Atsushi, Mogami Tsuguo etc) haven't quite managed to do. It probably helps that Yonaga's voice is pitched pretty high (to me, he sounds a lot like Sakaguchi Daisuke) & hence he's able to voice young male characters. Actually if you listen to the voice sample on his agency profile you'll find he's got reasonable range. Looking forward to hearing more of him in the future.2. Tomatsu HarukaHer debut performance as Corti in Polyphonica left a good impression on me even if the show itself didn't. A mere 17-years old and still in school, Tomatsu commutes to Tokyo from her Nagoya home every week for seiyuu work. Haruka-chan is............SUPER HYPER GENKI. Just listen to Polytalk (Kari), the mini shows she hosts on the Polyphonica website - she's like an Energizer bunny ^^; Tomatsu may be young but she manages to hold her own against all her experienced costars, her chats with Konishi Katsuyuki and Satou Rina were pretty fun. She also had a small role in Bokurano as Daichi's sister Futaba, and do look out for her next major role in Moetan as Ink's classmate Sumi (she also sings the opening theme with Nazuka Kaori & Tamura Yukari). I have high hopes for Haruka ^_^3. Hasegawa ShizukaTechnically not a newcomer; like Hirano Aya (they're both signed to the same agency Space Craft, which also has Chiba Saeko & Nanri Yuuka on its books) the 18-year old Hasegawa made her anime debut in Tenshi no Shippo back in 2001 when she was just 13, but she's been a child model since.... she was born ^^; Since she was 2 months old in fact (she mentioned this on Takahashi Mikako's radio show, who called her Dai-senpai) though she only signed up to Space Craft when she was three. Mainly voices young girls - Ruru in the Futakoi series, Tomohane in Inukami!, and currently Yukino in Airantou & soon to be in Lucky Star as Konata's cousin Yutaka. Shizuka likes eating bananas with mayonnaise on top, she's said that a few times on various radio shows now ^^; Plus she has the most infectious/irritating laugh, depending on how you look at it.4. Kakihara TetsuyaHe's maybe less of a newcomer now after all the publicity he got on the back of his surprise win in the inaugural Seiyuu Awards, but Kakihara only made his debut in 2005 as Bright in Futagohime. Born in Germany, the 24-year old is a graduate of Amusement Media's seiyuu training school (classmates include Kadowaki Mai & Hatano Wataru) and is now signed to 81 Produce, one of the bigger seiyuu agencies around. His voice is like Yonaga's, a bit higher than most male seiyuu but he can do serious characters like Mercutio in Romeo X Juliet in addition to the screaming shonen types (Simon in Gurren Lagann), plus the 5 inanimate objects he voices in Nanoha StrikerS (some in German). Kakihara's stock has certainly risen since the Best Newcomer award, and he's got a role in GONZO's autumn anime Dragonaut a.k.a. The S.O.S-dan reunion ^^;; And he appeals to the female fans too ^_^5. Fujita SakiTo me she really is a carbon copy of Tamura Yukari both in looks and sound. But I do like Sakki, her blog's part of my daily to-read list and I listen to her weekly radio show/podcast (when I remember). Mentioned in the KitaEri profile that she got a special prize in the V&S AUDITION; after which she enrolled in Nichinare (ARTSVISION's seiyuu training school), graduating in March this year. Sakki had a small role in Yoshinaga-san'chi no Gargoyle as Momo and then got her first major role in Tsuyokiss as Kanisawa Kinu, followed by the imouto-type Yayoi Mina in Tokimeki Memorial and the complete weirdo Momo-chan in Manabi Straight. She hasn't got anything on at the moment apart from that radio show... though she did go to Disneyland with Inoue Marina earlier this month ^^;6. Goto MaiI'm not sure of how versatile Goto is - the sample on her agency profile doesn't really show much range but her voice has got that sweet and soothing feel to it; reminds me a lot of Satou Rina (someone whose voice I could listen to all day long). She could find her niche playing moe characters in visual novel to anime conversions ^^; Her current credits list reads: Asagiri Mai (Tatsuya's sister) in Yoake Mae etc etc and Kohinata Sumomo in Happiness! And up next are roles in Nanatsuiro Drops and ef - a tale of memories which are both anime adaptations of games as well.... guess she's already being stereotyped.7. Fujimura AyumiClockwise from Top Left: Suara, Yuumao, Ito Shizuka & Fujimura AyumiAnother one of Ken Production's bright young stars. Ayu first got in the spotlight with her role as the mighty morphing Iokawa Karada in Asatte no Houkou, though she did have a supporting part in Nishi no Yoki Majo prior to that. Being a first-timer on Asatte, Fujimura mentioned on the radio show how she constantly fluffed her lines (up to 50 retakes once) & was generally a nervous wreck ^^; As Karada she did get to show off her ability to voice both little girls and teenagers and I thought she did a good job on the radio show and singing the character songs as well. Since then Ayu's had a lead role in Bartender, and is now in Touka Gettan as the maid Nene and in Kaze no Stigma as the tsundere joshikosei (with flaming pink hair) Kannagi Ayano.8. Okamoto NobuhikoOkamoto (front, centre) with the rest of the cast of solaFunnily enough, the three guys on my list possess similar sort of voices, squeaky high. Maybe there's a shortage of such male seiyuu, which is probably why the young male characters often end up being voiced by females. Okamoto's debut was in the rather underrated Ghost Hunt as John Brown, the gaijin priest with a funny Kansai accent but he's probably gained a bit more attention as the lead character Yorito in sola. Okamoto will be in Potemayo this summer voicing Natsu Yasumi (which translates to Summer Vacation), who earns my vote for second stupidest character name of the season (after Osana Najimi a.k.a. Childhood Friend from Doujin Work).9. Asumi KanaThe cute-as-a-button 24-year old Fukuokan wormed her way into many hearts with her performance as the similarly cute Yuno in Hidamari Sketch. Signed to Voice & Heart, the same agency as Inoue Marina; Asumi can currently be heard in Gainax's Gurren Lagann as Kiyal (one of Kittan's 3 sisters) and in Bokurano as Kana, the obnoxious Jun's little sister. At the moment, she's also co-hosting Busou Shinki RADIO RONDO with Kitamura Eri (she voices the MMS Angel Type Arnval in the game) and the Hidamari Sketch radio show just finished not long ago. Her blog is updated pretty regularly too.10. Endo AyaI guess her voicing meganekko Takara Miyuki in Lucky Star has gained her a few more fans, but Endo has been under the radar for a while now. First heard her in Okusama wa Joshikousei (for some reason, I quite liked the manga but the anime was a bit of a turn-off) as one of Asami's best friends, then forgot about her until she popped up in Inukami! as Imari (one of the twins). Endo was also on the 'infamous' Oshikari and Kokuhaku CDs and actually formed a unit called Plume with two of the other seiyuus on it, Kawaragi Shiho and Mizuno Manabi - they have a radio show and a blog. She's currently voicing major roles in two spring anime, Noa in the it's-so-bad-it's-good KissDum & of course, Lucky Star. Hopefully she'll get more roles after this....There are a few others worth keeping an eye on; the bubbly Katou Emiri (Kagami in Lucky Star), Hashimoto Mai who sounds really cute, and Nakao Eri (Escartin in Getsumen to heiki Mina) who is bizarre but fun, plus she possesses a deep, scratchy voice rarely heard amongst female seiyuu. Also Kano Yui, Takagaki Ayahi, Sasaki Nozomi, Hatano Wataru, Terashima Takuo, Akesaka Satomi, & some others who in my mind have been around for a long while but are actually pretty new (Yahagi Sayuri, Mizusawa Fumie, Tsuji Ayumi, Kawamoto Naru etc).
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This week in anime, action takes a backseat to sitting and talking, or in the more daring of cases, standing and talking. At least we have the combined excellence of SaiMono, Dennou Coil and Emma to wash away the pain, especially during the wait for non-HD Darker than Black (not that the new computer can’t [...]
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