Haruhi-chan, Churya-san and K-On! Win Kobe Awards

This year’s Kobe Awards winners have been announced, and three Kyoani series were among the honored. The internet series Haurhi-chan, along with its sister series Nyoron Churuya-san, won the Network Award, given to series with outstanding interactive content. Hatsune Miku, Second Life and Final Fantasy XI have all received this award in past years. K-On! took home the Theme Song Award for its popular ending theme, “Don’t say ‘lazy'”, joining previous winners such as “Triangler” from Macross Frontier, “Motteke! Sailor Fuku” from Lucky Star, and “Hare Hare Yukai” from Haruhi’s first season.

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Ponyo Blu-Ray Will Include English Subs

Yes, this is actually a character from Ponyo.

Yes, this is actually a character from Ponyo.

Disney has confirmed that the Japanese Blu-Ray release of Ponyo, which is the first Studio Ghibli Blu-ray release ever, will include multiple subtitle tracks in eight languages. These languages are: Japanese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. Additionally, the release will include audio tracks in seven languages: Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese Chinese. Oddly enough, English is the only language to receive subtitles, but no audio track. This likely has to do with Ghibli’s licensing agreement with Disney.

Since both Japan and the United States adhere to Region A Blu-ray coding, American fans who wish to watch Ponyo subtitled can now import the Blu-ray disc when it is released on December 8th. Unfortunately, our Australian and British friends will have to wait for a Region B release.

–Via ANN

Ponyo: Japanese Soundtrack vs. English Pop

Disney, being the marketing geniuses executive meddlers that they are, have decided to record their own pop version of the theme song from Hayao Miyazaki’s new film Ponyo. The final product, which makes use of the vocal “talents” of Frankie Jonas and Noah Cyrus, as well as heavy manipulation by Auto-Tune, can be heard in the comparison video below.

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