Guillotine

And there you have it. After all the speculation and rumors coupled with the shock of Endless 8. It has been officially announced that The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya  will get a full length feature anime film in spring of 2010. The news was released as a teaser at the end of the final episode of this season’s re-air of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya.

While it has been almost certain for some time that this novel will be animated it was always uncertain as to how. When the re-air began filling story gaps in the first season it became obvious that they were completing the story up to the point that Disappearance would begin, but whether it was getting a full season series or a film was the big question.

Kadokawa/Kyoto Animation may be some of the sneakiest companies around, but you gotta admit they know how to get publicity.

Update:

And here is the teaser:

So, now that the spring anime series are starting to wrap up I thought I’d give my impressions of the shows I have followed. Out of  all the great shows this season I have only been following a few, but they did not disappoint.  I’m kind of sad that this season is ending since the summer anime listings don’t appear to impress me much at first glance. So far the only thing I am intending to look into is “GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class”. But you never know… Coming into this season I was only looking forward to K-On and Phantom, but it’s turned out to be quite a good batch of shows. So here we go… [More]

With the initial disappointment still in the air that the news of a Haruhi Suzumiya anime being broadcast with this spring’s anime season which we all discovered will  actually be a re-air of the first season rather than the long awaited second season. Followed soon after by the release of the Haruhi-Chan and Churya-san web anime, and now Kadokawa has announced that they will be streaming the original series on their Youtube Channel one episode per week to coincide with the television broadcast.

Something smells of fish to me… When you consider that the manga will continue it’s US releases in just a few days with volume 2, and the first translated light novel due this spring… There is just entirely too much Suzumiya related goings on right now to not think that they are planning something. As with the other hopefuls out there I’m booking my money on the second series finally making it’s way out of whatever dusty corner of Kyoto Animation that it has crept away to for all this time, but I would say that I wouldn’t expect it any sooner than the fall or winter season. With all the time they have had I also would hope for a 24+ episode season. 14 was nice for the first season, but really you can only watch them over and over so many times.

Okay Kadokawa… I think it’s safe to say that by now all eyes in the anime community are on you, so it’s time to make your next move… No more boats please.

Update: For those waiting for the translated light novels… According to Little Brown Books website the first volume is scheduled to release July 5, 2009 now rather than the originally expected april date. More delays it seems for anything Haruhi related.

A TV ad has run in Japan for the March issue of Kadokawa’s Newtype magazine, and according to the cover (from what others are saying since I haven’t learned to read Japanese quite yet) the new Suzumiya Haruhi anime series will premiere in April, and that there will be interviews and details on the upcoming season. There is also an interview with “Brigade Leader’s Assistant” Yasuhiro Takemoto who directed the first season.

Interestingly the new season will run in Japan at the same time the first of the translated light novels goes on sale here in the US. That coupled with the March release of the Suzumiya Haruhi Chan 4 panel comic and the additional upcoming releases of the 2nd and 3rd volumes of the manga (in the US) pretty much assures that there will be Haruhi everywhere we look in 2009.

The issue of Newtype containing the announcement will ship on February 10. No further details about the series have been reported at this time, but according to rumors that have been floating around the internet (some started by Kadokawa and Kyoto Animation themselves) since Christmas of 2007 the new series may be based on “The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi” Which is the 4th volume in the light novels series by Nagaru Tanigawa who originally created the stories and characters of the “Suzumiya Universe”.

Maybe too soon to say this is probably the biggest anime related announcement of the year, but it will definitely be hard to top.

P.S. I may have to score a copy of this issue for myself to frame because of the awesome Nagato cover.

Update: According to a follow up article on Anime News Network it is said that a PR representative of Kadokawa-Shoten has stated that the April running of Haruhi Suzumiya will be a re-run of the first season, and that they are not announcing a new season at this time. Well… I guess we’ll all have to wait until the March issue ships to know if that is true or not. We’ve possibly fallen prey to yet another false rumor of a second season of Haruhi.

Here is the ad:

Hmmm… Still wondering why they included a picture from The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi in there. Maybe Kadokawa is having a bit of fun with us?

Okay… So this isn’t something new, but I wanted to talk about it seeing as how Anime Network OnDemand has begun running FMP: Fumoffu. For anyone who has seen this anime and has not read the Full Metal Panic: OVERLOAD! manga that it was based on really needs to check it out, and if you haven’t yet seen the anime… Good God what’s your problem??? Watch!!! It’s pure comedy gold.

The manga is not exactly like the anime, so it’s even more craziness for those who didn’t get enough of Fumoffu. More to say there are elements and scenes that were pulled from the manga to create the anime though for the most part the episodes are different. It’s quite fun to spot the bits that they used though. Several differences exist from the anime that one might wish to be aware of though… It has an abundance of chibi style characters rather than the more serious rendering of the anime, and the characters are a bit different. Souske and Kaname are the same, but the others… Well… Kyoko rather than being merely a sidekick becomes something like Wylie Coyote in that she takes the physical brunt of Souske’s mishaps, Kurz Weber is portrayed as Souske’s rival for Kaname’s affections and pops into the story at random, I think Mao only shows up once, and Tessa just pops into random frames throughout the stories as kind of an “extra”.

There are also several characters that never made it into the anime, but are pretty hilarious and maybe should have been included. Not to mention the adventures of Souske Dog (can’t believe that didn’t make the anime although they do make a quick reference to it in episode one). As I mentioned the chapters (or Bombs as they are called) are not the same as Fumoffu. They are for the most part different stories that they simply pulled out the bits they wanted for the anime, so don’t expect an episode for episode match with Fumoffu. If anything Overload is like Fumoffu squared… You’ll quickly realize that they really did hold back on the foolishness in the anime as amazing as that seems.

Here’s one thing to look out for… For anyone else who’s a fan of Kyoto Animation you know they love to pepper their anime with references. There is a reference to something in one of the volumes of Overload in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Episode 00 The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina) which you would never get or even realize was a reference unless you read Overload… I’ll give you a hint… “Mi-Mi-Mikuru Beeeeam.”

At any rate… Any Full Metal Panic fan should give these books a once over (or even 2 or 3 times). Now you might not find these at your local Books A Million as they are 7-8 years old, but you can get them at Amazon (at $10 a pop new… Kind of pricey but I’ll provide the link anyway). The best bet is to get them used if possible. I found them in a local used book store and paid $25 for the whole set, or you can most likely find them on ebay as well. The set is 5 volumes so it’s not going to take forever and a ton of debt to get the whole series, and to date the series is finished so new volumes are not very likely. So check it out and enjoy (if you liked the anime then I can’t see anyone not liking this).