Category Archives: News

Which Fall 2010 Anime Will You Be Watching?

Posted on by
14

Onee-sama...

With the summer season halfway finished, it’s time to start drooling over the new fall season anime. Since Chartfag has not yet released his usual new anime chart, a couple of other bloggers have stepped in to fill the void. This chart from The Cart Driver seems to be the most accurate thus far. Click on the thumbnail followed by the little green arrow at the bottom of the lightbox to see it at full size. Bootleg PVs for some of these anime can be watched here.

Here are the anime I’m planning to watch and why.

  • Star Driver: I’ve been thirsting for a new giant robot show for a while, and this one looks pretty promising.
  • My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute!: I’ve heard good things about this light novel series from moe fans. It looks kinda generic, but hopefully will be entertaining enough to fill the void left by K-ON!!.
  • Iron Man: Dude, it’s friggin IRON MAN animated by MADHOUSE. Everybody is going to be watching this, myself included.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA: I’m a huge fan of Railgun, and there’s no way I’m going to pass up a chance to see mai waifu Mikoto again. Bring it on!
  • A Certain Magical Index II: See above.
  • Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls: This seems like brainless fanservice action fare, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. Sometimes you find a good show hiding among the muck.
  • Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: This surreal show looks like a mix of Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. Can Gainax deliver another instant classic, or will it flop like Hanamaru Kindergarten?

The rest of these shows simply don’t interest me. If any of them get good reviews, I’ll consider picking it up… but just going by their descriptions alone, I doubt they’ll be worth watching.

How about you? Do any of these shows strike your fancy, or are you gritting your teeth for yet another mediocre season?

The Confessions of Aya Hirano

Posted on by
14

Editorial comment


Here I was hoping Aya was on the road to normalizing her career, but that notion seems to be in my dreams. In reality, her career is becoming a large looming uncontrollable nightmare. Her recent revelations about her love life have caused quite a stir among her fans, creating lots of unnecessary and ultimately harmful drama. How Aya is coping with this is something we’d all like to know.

More after the jump. Continue reading →

K-ON!’s Weirdest Merchandise

Posted on by
12

Wanna look your best at work with Mio!

According to a recent article from ANN, the K-ON! merchandising juggernaut has made 1.8 billion yen in the last three months. That’s approximately $20 million USD, and that doesn’t even include the video sales and licensing rights for the anime or CDs. It’s not on par with merchandising juggernauts like Star Wars or Gundam, but it’s still pretty impressive.

But out of all this merchandise, there are a few products that are rather… bizarre. Let’s take a look at those odd and ridiculous accessories that really make people scratch their heads and beg the question,”What were they thinking?”

Check out the strange products after the jump. Continue reading →

K-ON! Manga Ends in September

Posted on by
11

Could the K-ON! manga be coming to an end? This story just went live on ANN.

A footnote on the bottom of kakifly’s K-ON! manga in the September issue of Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara magazine lists the next installment as the final one. The September issue officially ships on Monday.

Now, don’t start panicking just yet. This only means that K-ON! will no longer be serialized in Manga Time Kiara. It’s entirely possible that kakifly could continue the manga in another serial magazine. On the other hand, this could mean that the next chapter will indeed be the final one, and the series will end with the girl’s graduation from high school. This theory is further supported by the K-ON!! anime, which will finish airing in late September. Perhaps the manga and anime will end simultaneously, like Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Personally, I think it’s about time for K-ON! to take its last bow. It’s been a fun ride, but the show has become somewhat creatively bankrupt and repetitive as of late. But don’t despair, moe fans! Kyoto Animation’s next project, Nichijou, is already in the works.

[Via ANN]

Continue reading →

Project Haruhi Has A Fancy New Comment System!

Posted on by
14

It's so beautiful...

Project Haruhi is now using Disqus as our comment system. This adds a ton of new functionality, such as the ability to edit your comments, post them to Twitter, subscribe to comment feeds via RSS or email, and rate other people’s comments. You can log into the system using your Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo ID, or use the old-fashioned method by simply providing a username and email like before. However, the best method is to create a Disqus profile with the same email address you use to comment here. After you’ve verified your email and logged in to Disqus, follow this link and claim your old comments.

As always, we’re open to feedback. If you have any comments or suggestions, tell us below or e-mail them to ryoko[at]projectharuhi.net!

K-ON! Dub Cast Announced

Posted on by
10

More news about Bandai’s upcoming K-ON! release! They’ve announced that the show’s English language dub will be handled by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, the studio responsible for dubbing both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star. The role of Yui will be played by the prolific Stephanie Sheh, who played Mikuru in Haruhi and Akira in Lucky Star. Mio will be voiced by Cristina Vee, most famous for her fandubs of various anime songs on YouTube. Here is her rendition of Super Driver:

I must say, I’m a bit conflicted about these choices. Stephanie Sheh is an experienced voice actress, but her take on Mikuru was too high and squeaky for my liking. On the other hand, she did a GREAT job as Akira, so I honestly have no idea whether she’ll be good as Yui. As for Cristina Vee… she has an awesome singing voice, but little anime voice-acting experience. Is she really up to the challenge of playing Mio, K-ON!’s most popular character? Also, does this mean she’ll be dubbing K-ON!’s music into English?

More importantly, who will they get to dub Ritsu?

Yen Plus Offers Free Online Manga!

Posted on by
4

Yen Press, the US publishing company that holds the rights to titles such as Yotsuba&, K-ON! and Highschool of the Dead, has launched the online version of their monthly anthology magazine Yen Plus this week, replacing their now-defunct print edition. To celebrate this event, the August issue of the magazine is free, while any ongoing subscriptions will be $2.99 per month. The fact that this move occurs in the same week as the death of One Manga is perhaps only a coincidence, however with other publishing houses like Square Enix also putting content online, we may be seeing the beginning of a major shift in manga content distribution. What’s your opinion: are you along for the ride?

More after the jump.

Continue reading →

Thar She Blows: One Manga Signs Off

Posted on by
21

Well, it has finally happened. One Manga, one of the biggest scanlation hoarding websites on the internet today, is closing up shop at the end of this week due to ‘publishers recently changing their stance on scanlations’. It was only a matter of time before the popular website submitted to pressure from the multi-national manga anti-piracy coalition, which aims to reduce the huge amount of manga piracy on the internet. Indeed, the scalp of One Manga will be a big victory for the coalition as, according to ANN, One Manga was ranked #935 on Google’s 1000 most visited websites on the ‘net. This is quite a staggering thought; to think that a website that relies on such blatant piracy could rise to become one of Google’s top 1000. No wonder it had to go.

Do you visit One Manga frequently? I know I did, yet as I said in my previous article, and I say again now: lets pull our fingers out and start supporting the industry we love. Consider the death of One Manga the final wake up call.

Project Haruhi First Anniversary Contest Winner!

Posted on by
8

Last week, Project Haruhi celebrated its first anniversary as an anime blog. We asked you, the readers, to help us come up with a witty and fun tagline that would suit this website. Well, congratulations to Kamanashi for the winning comment! Project Haruhi: We’re not interested in ordinary cartoons is definitely something Haruhi herself would say and captures the vibe of the website perfectly.

Kamanashi, please forward your contact details to ryoko[at] projectharuhi.net and we shall send you your prize, a $50 gift certificate for J-List. Once again, congratulations!

Kamanshi’s blog and Twitter

Honorable mentions:
Galen: I Can’t Believe Its Not Moe!
Starlogic: Because Sankaku Complex is NSFW
Zzeroparticle: Chocolate Cornets and Other Anime Musings; After School Tea, Cakes, and Anime

Announcing Project Haruhi’s First Anniversary Contest!

Posted on by

One year ago today, Project Haruhi made the transition from generic Haruhi fansite to anime blog. Since then, we’ve expanded our focus from just Haruhi to anime in general, especially KyoAni’s works such as Lucky Star and K-ON!. However, many visitors to our site still believe us to be merely a Haruhi fansite. Since we have no plans to change our name, how can we let our readers know that we’re more than just Haruhi?

The solution is simple: we need a tagline.

Sadly, our staff isn’t very good at coming up with clever slogans. That’s why we’re turning to our loyal readers for help. We’d like for YOU to come up with a short, catchy tagline for us; something that lets visitors know we’re a fun, community-oriented anime blog dedicated to all things KyoAni.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a contest without a prize. Whoever submits the winning tagline will receive a $50 gift certificate to J-List.com, to spend on whatever you please! I recommend the Haruhi lemonade, but that’s just me.

Here are the contest rules:
1. If you are under 18 years of age, you must receive parental approval before entering this contest.
2. Submit your entry in the comments below. Remember, the tagline must be short, sweet and convey PH’s nature efficiently.
3. You may submit up to five taglines to the contest.
4. Entries with profanity or inappropriate content will be automatically disqualified, along with whoever submitted them.
5. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time on July 19th, one week from today. The winner will be announced a few days later.
6. The winner will receive one $50 J-List gift certificate, which can be delivered either electronically or by conventional mail.
7. Obviously, PH staff are forbidden from entering this contest.

Well, there you have it. Good luck!