Tonight, I am marathoning a classic anime series, Noir. I recently ordered the DVD boxset to replace the horrible bootleg I bought over 8 years ago, and it feels good to finally right that wrong.

When I was a budding otaku, I would spend my Saturdays at Frank and Sons collectible show in City of Industry, CA. Wallscrolls, manga, anime, and figures, all at fantastic prices. I thought I hit the motherlode of otaku goods.

At first, my novice mind was blown away at the discounts over BestBuy and Suncoast. $20-25 for a complete series? Hell yea! I spent an entire paycheck on several series in the span of a few minutes (along with some sweet wallscrolls). Once I got home however, I realized the error I made.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai was one of those series I didn’t know whether or not I’ll enjoy it, and therefore put it off for awhile. After watching the first few episodes last week, I may have to marathon the remainder of the season in order to prepare for season 2, scheduled to start sometimes next January (don’t I already watch too many anime series based on a high school club?).

In this cute promo video, Yozora and company attempt to describe what’s so great about the series (and fail miserably). If you’re a fan you should definitely take a look (after the break).

While the promo was originally shown at the MF Bunko J imprint’s 10th Anniversary Summer School Festival in July, production company Media Factory only started to stream it last Sunday. At least now we have a release time-frame. To hold fans over until then, a special disc will be released September 26th, which will include the 13th (unaired) episode from season 1, as well as a brand new OAV. No word yet if this bonus disc will make its way stateside.

If you need to catch up on the series, or are interested in checking it out, the first season (minus the 13th episode) is available to watch on FUNimation’s website.

FUNimation Entertainment recently announced the English dub cast for the time-travel conspiracy series, Steins;Gate. Those lucky enough to attend Otakon this year will be treated to the premiere of the English dub.

J. Michael Tatum voices the central character, Okabe. Trina Nishimura will voice Makise, the neuroscience researcher. Jackie Ross will voice Mayuri, Okabe’s childhood friend. Tyson Rinehart voices Daru, a hacker and Okabe’s friend.

The rest of the dub cast is as follows:

• Suzuha – Cherami Leigh
• John Titor – Patrick Seitz
• Braun – Chris Sabat
• Nae – Brina Palencia
• Ruka – Lindsay Seidel
• Moeka – Jessica Cavanagh

The television anime is based on the second “scientific adventure game” by studios Nitroplus and 5pb. The artist huke (character designer for Black Rock Shooter) designed the characters. The story of the original game revolves around the eccentric college student Rintarō “Okarin” Okabe and his “Mirai Gadget Kenkyūsho” (“Future Gadget Laboratory”) circle of friends in a realistic version of Tokyo’s Akihabara district. The friends turn a microwave oven into a machine that sends email messages to the past, and that attracts the attention of a mysterious organization called SERN.

The series premiered in Japan last April, with Crunchyroll handling the simulcast. Last year, FUNimation announced their acquisition of the series. The premiere of the English dub will take place at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday, July 28 at Otakon in Baltimore.

Click past the break for the English dub trailer.

Anime Expo 2012 has ended, bringing to a close 4 days of Anime, Manga, Cosplay, Music, and shopping sprees. As usual, there was a wide assortment of announcements by several companies in the industry. I will do my best to corral the major U.S. announcements all into one page.

Aniplex of America

- New web series that follows “The Aniplex Guy” as he visits otaku locations in Japan, streaming on Aniplex’s website.

- Second season of Fate/Zero available for pre-order.

- OreImo will be re-released on DVD July 10th (was initially released on BD last year).

- Baccano! will be re-released on BD July 31st.

- Bakemonogatari will be available in a complete BD boxset this fall.

- Aniplex will handle the U.S. release of the Mikunopolis concert (from AX 2011).

- Blue Exorcist will be dubbed and available on Viz Media’s “Neon Alley” service, starting in September.
 
Viz Media

- Introduced “Neon Alley”, a 24-hr programmed channel that will primarily feature anime, dubbed and uncut. The service will also feature 70′s and 80′s martial arts films, series by other studios (FUNimation, Aniplex USA, etc…), and topical content provided by Anime News Network. The service will be available via a “major game console” for $6.99/mo, which will be supplemented with limited advertising.

- Inuyasha: The Final Act Set 1 available on DVD and BD in November 2012.

- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind premium box set, feat. Hayao Miyazaki’s complete manga, will be available November 6th, 2012.

- A digital manga app for Android devices was announced, although there is no fixed date for its release yet.
 
FUNimation

- Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins premiered on the newly-resurrected Toonami block on Cartoon Network.

- Titles are available on FUNimation Channel, Netflix, Hulu, the Funimation website, and the “Funimation Cinema,” an embedded app on Facebook.

- New releases:

• Dragon Age
• Tales of Vesperia
• Hetalia Season 4
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

- Upcoming releases

• Fractale
• One Piece Season 4
• Oblivion Island

- Re-releases

• Kaleido Star
• Freezing
• Texhnolyze
• Ergo Proxy

- Acquired broadcast rights for the following:

• Mitchiko to Hatchin
• Appleseed XIII
• Blood-C
• Blood-C: The Last Dark
• Ikki Tousen: Great Guardians
• Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor

- Acquired home entertainment rights for the following:

• Eureka Seven AO
• Aria of the Scarlet Ammo
• Highschool DxD

- Acquired simulcast rights for the for the following:

• Binbogami ga!
• Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

The Right Stuf International

- Right Stuf On Demand service will print manga titles “on demand,” allowing fans to continue reading titles that were discontinued by their original publishers.

- Upcoming releases:

• Dirty Pair Flash
• Martian Successor Nadesico (TV, OVA, Movie)
• Gekiganger 3 OAV

- The Nozomi brand will focus on collectors editions of critically acclaimed series, while the Lucky Penny brand will release budget-friendly boxset editions, starting in 2013.
 
NIS America

- New releases:

• Ano Hana
• Kimi ni Todoke Vol. 2

- Upcoming releases:

• Bunny Drop
• Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up
• Natsume’s Book of Friends

- NIS America is aware of fansubs, so they tailor their products to make sure they’re providing something more than just the show itself (artbooks, deluxe packaging, etc…)

Oh Funimation. You were so quick to send out cease & desists when your precious simulcasts were in danger. Yet during the second episode of Tokyopop’s “America’s Greatest Otaku” (I’ll save my rant on that for another time), a pirated clip of Sora no Otoshimono was shown in Funimation’s own dubbing studio. It was shown online that the subtitle’s text and font style matches exactly to a sub group that re-styles subtitles from Crunchyroll streams.

Funimation has yet to make an official statement on this matter, but an employee who wished to remain anonymous stated that the company occasionally uses “unofficial” copies of a series if the acquisition of the original source material is delayed. They claim it’s legal, since Funimation holds a distribution licence for the series in the US.

While the legality of this matter is left to be confirmed, the fact that Funimation uses pirate subs of series that they licensed for their dubbing sessions definitely puts a tarnish on their image. I wonder how they will spin this info when they (eventually) release a statement.