Comic Markets come and go, the calendar flips a page, but the news marches on and HD with it. In today’s update: a blizzard of new anime series are announced, including a couple that may actually turn out to be good; a trio of new games from Jellyfish, an eroge surfaces after four years (!) of development, Comiket 69 reports start to snowball, and a new year is upon us.

A sketch whipped up for the occasion, complete with overused Shakespeare quote:

Happy New Year 2006!

Media Side

  • Kicking off anime announcements in 2006 is a second season of School Rumble, set to air in the spring.
  • Comic Blade announces that the Aria anime will see a second season in 2006 as well.
  • There’s something bewitching about the designs for Simoun, a new fantasy / SF anime in production. This picture says it all, really, along with the fact that it’s slated to begin serialization in the third volume of Yurihime on sale January 18th.
  • From the makers of Rozen Maiden, Hime-sama Goyoushin is a new original series from the makers of Rozen Maiden. Did I mention that it was from the makers of Rozen Maiden? I think the site does, if I missed it. [official WOWOW site]
  • Android! Werewolf! Vampire! Witch! Magical Pokahn Official Site Grand Open!!
  • According to Wings Magazine, Tsuda Mikiyo’s Princess Princess manga is being animefied. Probably the last you’ll hear of it here.
  • Mag Garden provides some staff details for the spring 2006 Nishi no Yoki Majo anime, scooped by HD earlier.
  • Currently serialized in Comic Ciao, Kirarin☆Revolution is slated to become an anime. Looks like typical magical girl fare.
  • Akiba-kei BB Channel has a promotional video for Papillon Rose New Season available for viewing. [direct link] The show itself is slated for a February broadcast launch.
  • Marvelous Entertainment announces the planned production of a new original Tennis no Oji-sama OVA.
  • The official site for the April 2006 anime Yoshinaga-san Uchi no Gargoyle is now online.
  • The official Magikano anime site has recieved an all-around update.
  • A new wallpaper for the Disgaea 2 PS2 game is available at its official site. [direct link]
  • I have never wanted to play a PS2 game more than I want to play Ar Tonelico, which was recently updated with a new five-minute demo movie. This is worth watching for the music alone, which is stirring, riveting – a must purchase OST indeed.
  • Weekly Web Radio Roundup
  • Comic Rush has an online “tachiyomi” section where you can read through the first several pages of various current manga, including the soon to be animefied Tonagura and Clannad.
  • An A3 size clear poster for Witchblade was on sale at Comiket, and I missed it. ;_; Based on the sample image provided, Uno Makoto’s designs are indeed going to deliver… I can’t wait to see more.
  • An interview with “Nabeshin” (Watanabe Shinichi), acclaimed comedy anime director of Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemi among others, is online courtesy of Web Anime Style. Apparently he’s at the helm of the upcoming series Nerima Daikon Brothers, an item which I’ve panned here before without knowing anything about and will continue to baselessly taunt despite this development.
  • Robomoe has acquired a Kamichu 2006 calendar, but I can’t find evidence that such an item exists anywhere online. Not on the official Kamichu site, not on Amazon.jp, not at Media Works / Dengeki Daioh, not at Animate’s web shop. If anyone can provide positive confirmation (or denial) of its existence it would be much appreciated.

Ero Side

  • After a long period of silence, Jellyfish, maker of the smash-hit Lovers eroge, has announced a trio of games currently in the development pipe: Green (DVD Edition), a DVD reissue of the brand’s first game with additional material; Black and White, a “high quality” game with undecided plot particulars, and Sisters, a loli-type older sister / younger sister story. I’m most interested in Black and White at this point, provided the art is by the same designer as the fellow behind Lovers… here’s hoping it gets developed beyond the vaporware stage.
  • According to the official site for Jidaiya’s Mio Cid, publicity for the game has been appearing in magazines since 2002 (!!!!!). I’ve never heard of an eroge that’s spent four years in development without being dropped, but there you have it: a revised release date to spring 2006. From the sample CG it doesn’t look half bad, either…
  • Galge.com scoops the 10 eroge titles on sale over the past week, an incredibly underwhelming crop for the last week of the month, but less so considering the chilling effect of Comiket on other otaku-oriented sales. The only real item of note is Sister Scheme from M de Pink, the third INO-designed game to see a December 2005 release. I often wish such prolific creators would focus on a single game and make it mindblowingly awesome instead of spreading a few dozen CG around between a handful of titles. Alas.
  • If you want an exercise in puzzlement, check out Galge’s 2005 access popularity rankings. None of the year’s most popular titles (Hollow Ataraxia, To Heart 2 xrated, Tsuyokisu) make a showing, except for School Days, which isn’t even ranked very high. Galge forces registration for access to the “free” content that was so highly saught after by its members, so you can’t even do a little empirical analysis to figure out why, for instance, the two top demo downloads are both from Atelier Kaguya, or the two top demo movies are from Tech Arts brands (Squeez and May-Be Soft). Bizarre.
  • In eroanime news, D3 / White Bear has updated its official sites for the Cleavage OVA and Yakin Byoutou 2 vol. 5 with further sample screenshots.
  • New Site Launches / Release Announcements
  • We’ve Got Movie Sign!!
  • Demo Downloads
  • Sample CG
  • Wallpapers
  • Comiket Corner
      The event itself may be over, but reports are just starting to flood in…

    • Hobby Channel cosplay scoops [1] [2] [3] [4]
    • Maritan represented

Hobby Side

In addition to giving my feet a rest over the past couple of days I’ve been working on various site-related tasks, not the least of which has been a design for the relaunch I’m aiming for within the next week. Here’s a not-so-sneaky preview of the new face of Heisei Democracy (disclaimer: actual face may be altered by plastic surgeons in its ghoulish conversion to web standards, currently being undertaken by fine compatriots Buffered and shut).


Along with catching up on correspondence, basic life maintenance tasks, and putting this update together (not quite caught up yet, as can be seen by the giant sucking sound that is the Hobby section) I’ve only barely scratched the surface of my own C69 report and the latter parts of the How to Comiket piece, not to mention Genshiken and NHK reviews. I have a full week of unplowed virgin vacation time ahead, though, and these tasks will be conquered in that time, oh yes they will. I hope.

Properly speaking, this should be a season of reflection on the past year and determination leading into the next, but I feel right now like I’m stuck at full throttle and looking back will only increase the risk of a crash. A whole lot happened in 2005 (including this site, really, in its current incarnation) but this break between years seems particularly arbitrary to me – things keep moving at a breakneck pace and if I blink I’ll be left behind. This can’t be entirely healthy; I haven’t had the time to watch anime for the past few months, nearly every last second of my free time has been consumed with some project or another. It’s a fine way to feel alive, but not so good for relaxation… I guess I’m realizing that youth is a vanishing commodity and I’d better start using what I have left while it’s still here to get something done I can look back on and be proud (horrified?) of.

So, going into 2006: onward and upward! Better things are ahead for Heisei Democracy, and I hope you’ll join me as we continue on this (long, strange) journey into otakudom.