Otaku News Weekly Recap: December 28, 2020 - January 3, 2021
Studio Ghibli has a brand new 2021 illustration, for the Year of the Ox, similar to Hayao Miyazaki’s annual illustration in 2020 for the Year of the Rat. This art was posted on Studio Ghibli’s brand new Twitter account, @JP_GHIBLI, which promises to share new info on projects and events, so be sure to follow to stay up to date!
Animate International opened orders for a series of vinyl records from Studio Ghibli and musician Joe Hisaishi. It includes Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke. Each album and soundtrack is remastered, given brand new cover art, and includes commentary and liner notes.
Mangaka Tsukasa Saimura (creator of Tokyo Undead and Hour of the Zombie) also posted an image to celebrate the new year and the Year of the Ox. This image may be less family friendly, but is available on the Twitter account @tukasai. Saimura also teased a new manga will launch this spring.
The “Fate Project New Year’s Eve TV Special 2020” announced the Fate/Grand Order game is inspiring a two-volume original video anime project titled Fate/Grand Carnival. The 30-minute “1st Season” Blu-ray and DVD will go on sale June 2nd, with the 30-minute “2nd Season” on August 25th. The special also previewed an episode from the “1st Season,” and announced the main staff and cast.
As a New Year’s gift to fans, the AI-droid Raising project posted a four-minute dance-only version music video for “Dang Dong♡Dang Dong,” the second song of its two-member android idol unit Twinkles!!, on YouTube. Behind-the-scenes clips are also posted on the project’s official Twitter account @AI_droid.
Voice actresses Nozomi Kasuga and Yukari Anzai delivered New Year’s greetings in 30 languages as the first challenge project in 2021 for their web radio program “Do Yu No the Radio.” The 30 languages include English, French, Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Hebrew, Swahili, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, Farsi, Kurdish, Korean, Thai, Tagalog, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Malay, Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Arabic, Turkish, and Hungarian. The full episode with this challenge will be available on January 8th.
The production company C2 Kikan posted its New Year’s greeting, and said that it, anime studio ENGI, and publisher Kadokawa are making progress on the production of the new KanColle anime project and would air in 2022.
Doraemon started the new year with a two-part, hour-long special with each half of the special reflecting one of the show’s recent or upcoming theatrical releases. The first of the two specials is titled “Blockbuster Tokusatsu Movie Space Daimajin,” and the second special is titled “Nobita’s Wedding Day Eve.”
Kyoto Animation posted a New Year’s greeting on their Twitter account @kyoani featuring the studio’s mascot Baja and friend Ga-chan. This message was posted in both English and Japanese, thanking fans for their support over the last year. Other anime series in the Kyoani portfolio also released their own messages, which Crunchyroll nicely collected! Anime News Network also has their annual New Year’s greetings round-up with many of the greetings featuring cows or bulls for the year of the ox.
Filmarks, Japan’s largest film, drama, and anime review service operated by the Tokyo-based company Tsumiki, announced the “Satisfaction Ranking of 2020.” The most highly-rated film of 2020 was Violet Evergarden The Movie, while the most highly-rated TV anime of 2020 was HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP.
Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Anime News Network each also have their top anime picks of 2020 from their staff and editorial teams.
The official website for the Love Live! Idol franchise announced Kanako Takatsuki, would not appear in the live-streamed “Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours COUNTDOWN Love Live! ~ WHITE ISLAND ~” event and the CDTV Live! Live! New Year’s Eve Special 2020 → 2021 television program due to her poor physical health caused by anxiety. She did, however, appear in a pre-recorded portion during the “WHITE ISLAND” event on December 30-31.
The Love Live! Sunshine!! Franchise’s nine-member unit Aqours plans to release their new single “smile smile ship Start!” with an anime music video as part of their fifth-anniversary project. On New Year’s Day, it was announced the single is set to be released in Japan on March 31. A 100-second preview of the title song’s music video is also posted on the franchise’s official YouTube channel. The single’s first press limited edition will come with a “5th Anniversary Thank You Card” by Aqours members randomly.
The unit will also hold their live concert titled “Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours 5th Anniversary LoveLive! ~LET’S GO WONDER TRIP~” at the resort hotel Tsumagoi Resort Sai no Sato on May 1 and 2, 2021.
Voice actress Shuka Saito, also in Love Live! Sunshine!! And member of Aqours, announced her second solo single “Sekai no Hate” (or The End of The World) will be released on February 10th. The song will be featured as the ED theme for the winter 2021 TV anime Back Arrow. In addition, her solo concert to celebrate the release of this single is to be held at Tokyo Garden Theater on June 3.
LiSA’s song “Homura”, the theme song for the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train film, won Song of the Year at the 62nd Japan Record Awards.
On New Year’s Day, LiSA released her new artist photo and CD jacket photo for her next 18th single “dawn” which is to be released on January 13th. The single will be featured as the OP theme for the anime Back Arrow. New information about this new single will be released on LiSA’s official YouTube channel, website, and STAFF Twitter @LiSA_STAFF every day for 13 days from January 1 to 13 under the title of “13days count ‘dawn’”.
After the official Twitter account for the Zombie Land Saga television anime, @zombielandsaga, posted a teaser video featuring Mamoru Miyano dressed up as his character Tatsumi, teased that there will be an important announcement regarding Zombie Land Saga Revenge, a “fateful promotional video” debuted at midnight on January 1st to announce that the Zombie Land Saga Revenge sequel project will premiere on television in April 2021.
Miyano also announced the concert, ZOMBIE LAND SAGA LIVE ~Franchouchou LIVE OF THE DEAD~ R will now be held on February 27th after being called off during a mass cancelation of events in February 2020.
The new year also has new marriages. Voice actors Nao Tamura, Mami Ozaki, and Satomi Moriya announced their respective marriages on Twitter this past week.
The February issue of Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine published a special chapter for Haruyuki Yoshida’s Hataraku Saikin (or Cells at Work: Bacteria!), the spinoff of Akane Shimizu’s Hataraku Saibō (or Cells at Work!) manga, under the title Hataraku Saikin NEO. A new chapter will publish on the Palcy manga app around February.
Kadokawa began streaming a promotional video for the World Witches Hasshin Shimasu—! (or World Witches Take Off!) television anime. The series of 15-minute shorts will premiere on the on January 12. The new anime will not only feature the 501st Joint Fighter Wing (Strike Witches), but also the 502nd (Brave Witches).
The staff for attl Mori’s Gloomy Bear character revealed the character will get a television anime series that will premiere in April 2021 titled Itazura Guma no Gloomy (Gloomy the Naughty Grizzly). The anime will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the character, and the anime’s YouTube channel is streaming a promotional video for the anime with English subtitles.
The staff for Ichigo Animation and Mamoru Oshii’s new anime series Vladlove will debut online on February 14 on Abema and Amazon Prime Video in Japan, along with other subscription and rental streaming services. The official YouTube channel for the anime streamed a “special version” of the show’s first episode on December 18 with English subtitles.
The official website for the anime adaptation of Rihito Takarai’s Ten Count manga announced the anime is postponed due to the staff reconsidering the series’ development form. The anime was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020, but the staff will reveal more details as soon as they are decided.
Sentai announced it acquired exclusive rights to Redo of Healer, the dark fantasy anime series based on the light novel series written by Rui Tsukiyo. Sentai also announced it acquired exclusive rights to Non Non Biyori Nonstop. Both series will be available on select digital outlets in Winter 2021, with a home video release to follow.
To promote Non Non Biyori Nonstop, a countdown project launched on its official website and official PR Twitter account @nonnontv. Colored papers written/drawn by the anime’s main voice cast members and staff will be posted until the new season’s premiere day in Japan. In addition, one person will get a countdown colored paper by following the Twitter account and retweeting the corresponding tweet.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train dominated the weekend box office ranking for 11 weeks in a row. Thanks to the new bonus item and the start of screening at MX4D/4DX theaters, it achieved an astounding 204 percent in attendance and 232 percent in box-office revenue compared to the previous week. It became the top-grossing film of all-time in Japan, surpassing the previous record of 31.68 billion yen marked by Spirited Away in 2001.
The official anime website for Demon Slayer released a downloadable PDF of a Sugoroku game board with the anime’s theme. The brand-new illustrations were produced by anime production studio ufotable. In order to download the file from the website, you must check four boxes which indicate that you agree not to do certain acts. The download period last until January 17th.
MOVIC is creating a line of made-to-order, oversized “Mame Mate” plush toys of Tanjiro Kamado and Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer. The Extra Large Mame Mate toys stand approximately 65 centimeters tall and have a waist circumference of about 120 centimeters. These toys are available for pre-order until January 20th, 2021, from online vendors such as Animate Online Shop and MOVIC Movie Store, with the final product scheduled to begin shipping out to customers in April 2021.
A full-length documentary about how the Toonami Generation is a part of the anime industry today called, What Toonami Means To Me, premiered on December 28th on Youtube on the, Toonami Faithful Channel.
On Facebook’s Steve on Watch, Steve Harvey interviewed Arthell and Darnell Isom, two brothers who own the first Black-owned Japanese anime studio, where they talk about why it is so important to bring diversity to the art.
College student, Caleb King, sold Pokémon cards for thousands to pay for graduate school.
Right now, King said he made $80,000 selling cards, after spending a mere $4,000 on the originals – most of which were purchased only a few years ago.
The official website for the Sailor Moon franchise posted a new special clip for the two-part Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon Eternal (Pretty Guardians Sailor Moon Eternal The MOVIE) anime film project. The first film was originally scheduled to open in Japan on September 11, 2020 but was delayed to January 8, 2021. The second film will open on February 11, 2021. The two-part film project will take the place of a fourth season for Sailor Moon Crystal and will cover the “Dead Moon” arc of Takeuchi’s original manga.
To commemorate the release of the movie, there is a collaboration campaign with Wendy’s First Kitchen from January 8. Purchase a potato set for 680 yen and get the movie version collaboration goods. Also, during the period, the movie version “Sailor Moon Eternal” will be specially decorated at “Shibuya Center Street Store”.
Makoto Shinkai’s 2019 anime film Tenki no Ko (or Weathering With You) broadcast on terrestrial television in Japan (TV Asahi and its affiliates) for the first time on January 3rd. A special one-minute ending movie aired after the credits of the film. The clip was supervised by the director Shinkai himself and can only be seen in this broadcast.
An official website opened for the stage play of Shungiku Nakamura’s manga Junjo Romantica and revealed the play will run at Sōgetsu Hall in Tokyo from April 29 to May 2 with eight performances.
The official website for the anime of Iori Miyazawa’s (Urasekai Picnic) or Otherside Picnic novel series began streaming a commercial, and it previews CHICO with Honeyworks’ opening theme song “Minikui Ikimono” (or Ugly Creatures). The anime will premiere in Japan January 4, and Funimation will stream the anime as it airs in Japan.
The official Twitter account for Chukyo TV and Sublimation’s original “near-future science fiction drama” anime Shikizakura @ShikizakuraA announced that May’n will perform the anime’s ending theme song. The account also revealed that the anime will premiere in the second half of 2021, which had originally been scheduled to debut in early 2021.
Princess Connect! Re: Dive is heading toward its global launch and is going to be doing so with the help of Hololive EN. It starts with a pre-launch sneak peek stream with Takanashi Kiara one week before launch. After that, Amelia Watson will host a celebratory stream to commemorate the global launch of Princess Connect Re: Dive. Production is currently holding an open audition for English-speaking Vtubers and singers, with applications accepted until January 29, 2021.
Musical theatre manga Kageki Shojo!! Is getting an anime. Two new pieces of character art dropped, showing what Kumiko Saiki’s lead characters will look like. The two new character setting sheets depict the series leads: upbeat country girl Sarasa Watanabe and and former idol Ai Narada, respectively.
Animation Studio Khara posted guidelines for Evangelion fan artists. Khara still encourages fans to create derivative works as long as they adhere to the rules. The guidelines are subject to change at any point, depending on public reception and changes in society. A couple days later, Khara’s official Twitter account posted a statement clarifying its fanart guidelines were not intended to “censor” or “prohibit” fan activities.
Then one day after the guidelines announcement, fanartist Mogudan announced no longer draw the popular Evangelion character Rei Ayanami nor create new works involving the character on the fan site. Later tweets stated that although there is no intent of deleting work already posted on the fansite or other services, it is recommend for fans to download their work in case they are removed by the site owners.
The official website for Aria the Crepuscolo, a new theatrical anime film project celebrating the Aria anime’s 15th anniversary, revealed a trailer, main visual, and the March 5. The trailer features Kiyono Yasuno’s opening theme song “Felicità.”
The debut single “Kimagure Ticktack” by harmoe, a new voice actress unit formed by Haruki Iwata and Moeka Koizumi, is set to be released on March 10th. The song’s 110-second lyric video to introduce the unit’s singing voice for the first time is now streamed on their official YouTube channel.
Bandai Namco’s THE IDOLM@STER: Producer Greeting Kit lets players make and exchange their own producer business cards. The app is currently set for a winter 2021 release in Japan as a free download on iOS and Android. Using official materials, the app gives players the opportunity to create business cards and ultimately expand their network of co-workers as they connect and exchange them amongst others. Bandai Namco plans to reveal a video with more info on January 14th.
A new character preview video has been published for Soukou Musume Senki (“The War Record of Armored Girls”), an upcoming anime based on the Danbooru Senki or Little Battlers Experience series of action RPG video games developed by Level-5. The character PV highlights Suzuno, a somewhat shy and anxious girl who coordinates attlefield operations using her “Lucifer” model LBX armor. The series will broadcast in Japan beginning on January 06, 2020.
The official website for the stage reading of Kinoko Nasu’s Tsuki no Sango (or Moon Coral) short story announced the reading is delayed to March 29 due to the poor physical health of the reader Maaya Sakamoto. Any customers who purchased streaming tickets for the stage reading may transfer their tickets to the March 29 date or request refunds.
Combatants Will Be Dispatched!, based on the popular light novel series of the same name by Natsume Akatsuki, is officially headed to Funimation this April as a co-production with KADOKAWA. There is also a trailer for the series, which introduces Combat Agent Six, Alice and the evil organization in the series.
Kadokawa revealed the 15th volume of Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba&! Manga will ship on February 27. The volume will be the first new volume for the manga in nearly two years, since the 14th volume shipped in April 2018.
Prior to its CD release on January 6, 2021, Okinawa-born singer-songwriter Anly released her new song “Seishun ~Star Wink~” digitally on December 30 and posted the song’s music video on her official YouTube channel. The dramatic tune will be featured as the theme song for the upcoming anime film Natsume Yujin-cho: Ishi Okoshi to Ayashiki Raihousha (Natsume Yujin-cho: The Waking Rock and the Strange Visitor).
The anime studio Fanworks is collaborating with Aniplex and Sony Creative Products on Daina-Sō Biyori, or Dinosaur Biyori, which is an original short anime about the surreal apartment life story following three dinosaurs who could not be more different in personalities will begin airing this April.
The Sports Hochi website reported actor Mackenyu leave the entertainment agency TOP COAT and stop acting in Japan at the end of April 2021. He will begin participating in overseas filming next May.
The English dub for the KONOSUBA: Legend of Crimson is now on Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll made another addition with episodes 1 though 18 of Kiratto Pri☆chan! Also, new episodes will be added every three weeks.
Digital Rights Media announced release dates for the anime titles that will stream on its RetroCrush streaming service in January. This includes such titles as Inukami, Strawberry Panic! City Hunter and more. All the titles will be available with English subtitles.
The official YouTube channel for the three-member voice actress unit TrySail, consisting of Momo Asakura, Sora Amamiya, and Shiina Natsukawa, started streaming a four-minute all-song preview video for their latest Blu-ray “TrySail 5th Anniversary ‘Go for a Sail’ STUDIO LIVE” to be released on January 20th.
The official YouTube channel for TV Asahi’s All-Nippon News Network began streaming a video about Netflix anime. The video reveals that anime consistently ranks in the top 10 most watched types of programs worldwide and also features a behind-the-scenes look at Wit Studio, which is working on the original anime Vampire in the Garden that is scheduled to debut on the streaming service worldwide this year.
Studio 4°C announced it will produce an anime film adaptation of Kanako Nishi’s novel Gyokō no Nikuko-chan (Nikuko of the Fishing Harbor) and will open in Japan in early summer.
The romantic-comedy manga series Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie by Keigo Maki (which started as a twitter manga) announced that it will get an anime adaptation, though the format, staff, studio, and release date hasn’t been confirmed as of yet.
Retailer Right Stuf’s listing for Viz Media’s Blu-ray release for the first season of Mr. Osomatsu states that it will not include the “controversial episode 1” of the anime. The Blu-ray Disc will include episodes 2-25 of the series, and it is slated to ship on March 9.
The 10-minute preview of the anime adaptation of writer Okina Baba and illustrator Tsukasa Kiryu’s So I’m a Spider, So What? Light novel series is live on the Crunchyroll Collection YouTube channel and will only be available for one week on. The show officially premieres in Japan on January 8.
Novel Horizons announced work started on the Light Novel adaptation for Azure Wing, the exciting action-fantasy Visual Novel by Jonathan Solis and report there is cover art, description, and series page up now for the series. The Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page for Azure Wing Volume 1 is also now up! Novel Horizons “Sunset” E-book Program, also started for those signed up to their newsletter.
Eiichiro Oda has officially hit the 1000th chapter mark for the One Piece manga, and publisher Shueisha has been building up to it with the ONE PIECE 1000 LOGS project. The latest part of the project kicks off a global character popularity poll to commemorate the milestone.
The cover art for Weekly Shonen Jump combined issues #3 and #4 and combined issues #5 and #6 will create a special double-sized image when combined. The art features Luffy surrounded by the characters drawn by other artists. The posters within both issues can combine, too, forming the biggest poster insert in the history of Shonen Jump. On the front of the poster there's new art by Eiichiro Oda, and on the back are all the memorable moments from the first 1000 chapters. 1000th chapter is currently available in English for free on Viz website.
The World Top 100 campaign is officially live right now, with the worldwide poll to be open until February 28. During that period, fans will be able to vote on the best One Piece character through the homepage and by mail-in postcards, and will even be eligible to win prizes for participating. Once it comes to an end on February 28, the final results will be tallied. If you plan on casting a vote yourself, you get one vote per day while the poll is running. Prizes include a random AR model of a character from the series for your own unique One Piece photo ops.
Character Birthdays!
12/28 Nezuko Kamado (Demon Slayer)
Keigo Takami/Hawks (My Hero Academia)
Mafuyu Kirisu (We Never Learn: Bokuben)
12/29 Rex Raptor (Yu-Gi-Oh!)
En (Dorohedoro)
12/30 Nozel Silva (Black Clover)
Konohamaru Sarutobi (Naruto)
Kon (Bleach)
12/31 Kisuke Urahara (Bleach)
Gol D. Roger (One Piece)
Bill (Pokemon)
Sawako Kuronuma (Kimi ni Todoke)
1/1 Kaguya Shinomiya (Love is War)
Might Guy (Naruto)
Portgas D. Ace (One Piece)
Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV/Radical Ed (Cowboy Bebop)
Nezu (My Hero Academia)
1/2 Kenzo Tenma (Monster)
Sir Nighteye (My Hero Academia)
1/3 Yukino Yukinoshita (My Teen Romantic SNAFU)
Iceberg (One Piece)
New Release Spotlight
Bungo Stray Dogs Vol. 5 (light novel) by Sango Harukawa, Kafka Asagiri
The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Vol. 1 (light novel) by Rui Tsukiyo, Reia
Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, Vol. 5 (light novel) by Kei Sazane, Ao Nekonabe
Woof Woof Story: I Told You to Turn Me Into a Pampered Pooch, Not Fenrir!, Vol. 5 (light novel) by Inumajin, Kochimo
Satoko and Nada Vol. 4 Final Volume by Yupechika
Restaurant to Another World (Light Novel) Vol. 4 by Junpei Inuzuka, Katsumi Enami
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest ZERO (Light Novel) Vol. 4 by Ryo Shirakome, Takaya-ki
A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School!, Vol. 9 (manga) by Mai Tanaka
High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World!, Vol. 9 (manga) by Riku Misora, Kotaro Yamada, Sacraneco
Digital Release
A Sign of Affection Vol 3. By suu Morishita
Fairy Tail: Happy’s Heroic Adventure, Vol. 7 by Hiro Mashima, Kenshiro Sakamoto
Guilty Vol. 7 by Ai Okaue
Magic Knight Rayearth 2 Manga Box Set & Individual 1, 2, 3 by CLAMP
My Boyfriend in Orange Vol. 10 by Non Tamashima
Shaman King: The Super Star Vol. 4 by Hiroyuki Takei https://kodanshacomics.com/volume/shaman-king-the-super-star-4/
The Prince’s Romance Gambit Vol. 8 by Nikki Asada https://kodanshacomics.com/volume/the-princes-romance-gambit-8/
We’re New at This Vol. 1 by Ren Kawahara
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