Anime Kip is Watching: Axis Powers Hetalia

So... I'm watching this... I think...

The episode was only five minutes long... so I... don't know... if I like it... or if I even watched it... 0~o;

Well... I do like it! It was funny!
Imagine the cast from Yamato Nadeshiko Shinichi Henge (The Wallflower), if each became the physical, bishonen embodyment of several major countries.

And you have... Axis Powers Hetalia. The name is menat to sound the way an Italian would pronounce their own country's name, and the Japanese word for 'useless'.
And by the looks of it, Italy's caracture will be the star of this series.

I think... it was only five minutes long, so... I don't know... much.

There's a reason for the shortness of each episode, though. The seires is being distributed online, because of the controversy surrounding the characture for Korea. At a meeting of the National Assembly, several South Koreans demanded that the show not allowed to be broadcast on television after certain acts were portrayed in the webcomic from which it was adapted, that insensed (few) South Koreans.

The way the characters act is intended to be a bit insulting, and all good fun in spite of these countries. And because of this, the series was moved to an online streaming format, and will possibly be available as a subscription to cell phones.

I may have to watch a couple more episodes to figure out if it's any good...

Oh the elipsis...

Anime Coming to TV, Here, There, Everywhere!

For like... ever... there's been no real good anime news, but its nice to finally see some blogworthy things coming up!

Afro Samurai, the hit mini-series starring Samuel L. Jackson, that aired simultaneously in Japan and North America in 2007, will finally get a sequel movie. The movie is set to air on Spike TV this Sunday at 10:00 PM Eastern and Pacific time.
The sequel, being called Afro Samurai: Resurrection, will feature Jackson (Everything Decently Awesome) reprising his role as "Afro" the samurai, as well as Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels) and Mark Hamill (Star Wars).
Source: Anime News Network.

Elsewhere in anime news...
Lupin III and Detective Boy Conan (or Case Closed) will meet in a television special to be appropriately called Lupin vs. Conan.
Lupin, the infamous bandit, is best known and loved as the ultimate anime theif, having stolen some pretty valuable stuff, while detective Conan is known for solving some cases that have stumped even some of the better detectives out there.
Who knows, after this special, we may someday see a Jing vs. L movie!
Source: Anime News Network.

Finally, (you guessed it) Anime News Network reports Japanese broadcast network NHK will begin airing a weekly-ish series remaking several of Osamu Tezuka's manga into anime.
Despite many of Tezuka's works already having been made into anime, including Astro Boy, Blackjack, Kimba, Metropolis, and more, this undoubtedly has something to do with the new Astro Boy computer-generated film having an impact on the popularity of his manga again.

And, by the way, have you seen the trailer for this film?

Alice ...er ARis the Maid in Action

Sometimes it's just best to let the video tell the story:

This a an "Altered Reality" interactive device or "ARis", where with a simple webcam and the computer program you can interact with the maid seen in the video -who is, by the way, voiced by Yukana, the same seiyuu as C.C. from Code Geass!

You can choose to be nice to her and give her presents, frighten her, even upset her by undressing her (only to her underwear), as evident by this video:

More information is available at Sankaku Complex.

Kokoro X Haruhi Mad

This video of SHnY set to Kokoro Odoru has quite the most rewatchability out of a lot of the MADs I've seen in a long time!

Nico.

Update: Well, apparently Nico Nico Douga doesn't embed well into Blogger, so you will have to settle for this instead.

Greetings from Anime Companies!

Check out the new year's greetings from all of the different anime companies.
These greetings are a tradition among the Japanese, and are given by the postal workers to the recipients on New Year's day.

Here are some of my favorites:



1. The Doraemon snowglobe from Doraemon Channel.



2. Megumi Hyashibara's greeting at Star Child.



3. Sunrise is digging into its archives for it's 30th Anneversary!
It's "Round Vernian Vifam", which is a series I believe to be an
inspiration on the anime "Eureka Seven".



4. Many of the greetings are celebrating the new year
of the cow/ox.
So is Yukito Kishiro's site Yukitopia.



5. Finally, check out this kicking drawing done by the Gurren Lagann crew at GAINAX.



Visit Anime News Network to see nearly one half of one-hundred more!
Happy New Year!

Update: You have to shake Doraemon's globe to get it to do stuff. Also, pick it up and drop it a couple of times.

...It may not have happened in 1999, but...

This is a little something I found while playing around on Google Maps.

This island is described as the most probable location for the fictional island of "Macross" from Robotech fame, where the alien space ship, of series fame, crash landed.

View Larger Map

As the text reads, "This island, Minami Iwo Jima (literally South Sulfur Island), is the real world equivalent of that location."