Alainmendez

On April 21st, FUNimation released their 12th collection of One Piece with episodes 276-299, constituting the penultimate part of the Enies Lobby Arc. The cover features the storyline's antagonist Spandam, who is one of the series' numerous pro-wrestling references. And, in this case, senpai noticed.

Gimmick infringement? pic.twitter.com/629XtXpIOq

— Mick Foley (@realmickfoley) May 3, 2015

“@BBobysud588: @realmickfoley I believe his appearance is based on Mankind. The author is a wrestling fan.” COOL - it's a tribute!

— Mick Foley (@realmickfoley) May 3, 2015

A useful, but at this point somewhat dated (Dressrosa has a lot, and even at the time, Boa Hancock was thought to be porn actress Sora Aoi, and Jewelry Bonney being competitive was considered Big Eater Son) reference to the series' real world inspirations from ~SATOart.

• God Enel - Eminem | • Steven Tyler - Jango | • Jim Carrey (Lloyd Christmas) - Mr.2 BonClay | • Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura) - Franky | • Freddie Mercury - Peeply Lulu

• Joey Jordison - Basil Hawkins | • Michael Jackson - Hody Jones | • Lenny Kravitz - Mr.5 | • Twiggy - Miss Valentine | • Hugo Boss Model - Paulie

• Al Capone - Capone Bege | • Valentino Rossi - Trafalgar Law | • Mick Foley - Spandam | • Louise Brook - Nico Robin | • Uma Thurman (Mia Wallace) - Shakky

• Stevie Ray Vaughan - Postgas D. Ace | • Tim Curry (Dr. Frank N. Furter) - Emporio Ivankov | • Yusaku Matsuda - Aokiji/Kuzan | • Kunie Tanaka - Kizaru | • Bunta Sugawara - Akainu/Sakazuki

• Danny DeVito (The Penguin) - Dr. Hogback | • Hulk Hogan - Whitebeard | • Daft Punk - Killer | • Jean Rochefort - Gun Fall | • Cruella de Vil - Inazuma

• Harvey Keitels - Rob Lucci | • George Clooney - Iceburg | • Mikhail Gorbachev - The Gorosei ( Five Elder Stars) | • Mahatma Gandhi - The Gorosei ( Five Elder Stars) | • Michel Polnareff - Don Quixote Doflamingo

For comparison, Gene Simmons reacting to Love Live's KISS homage

via @pabaylosis

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

#アニプラ [限定復刻]また、企画進行中のアーチャーコスチュームをまとった遠坂凛フィギュアも初公開原型展示中！生で見る数少ない機会をお見逃しなく、こちらもufotableCINEMAさんで5日まで！ pic.twitter.com/D9Autho9LH

— アニプレックスプラス (@aniplex_plus) 2015, 5月 3

Seven Seas Entertainment has announced the license of Ichigo Takano's romantic time-travel manga series, orange. Seven Seas will release the critically-lauded manga for the first time in print in North America as two complete omnibus editions. Each book will contain over 380 pages, wrap-around covers, and color inserts. The first omnibus will be released on January 26, 2016 for $18.99 US / $21.99 CAN, with the second omnibus following in May.  

Regarding our omnibus editions of orange, each will contain 2.5 volumes, so an even split.

— Seven Seas (@gomanga) April 30, 2015

They describe the series"

Everyone has regrets in life. So who wouldn’t take the chance to change the past if given the opportunity? When sixteen-year-old Takamiya Naho receives a mysterious letter, claiming to be from her twenty-seven-year-old self, her life is suddenly thrown into flux. The letter tells her that a new transfer student by the name of Naruse Kakeru will be joining her class, and to keep her eye on him. But why? Naho must decide what to make of the letter and its cryptic warning, and what it means not only for her future, but for Kakeru's as well.

"We're always excited to expand our shojo catalog and orange is another big part of that," said Seven Seas publisher Jason DeAngelis. “With orange, I was impressed by its touching story, but also intrigued by the time-travel aspect. It's both heart-warming and suspenseful. I think it will really move our readers."

orange was originally published by Futabasha in Japan, and has since sold over 1 520 000 copies. The series is currently being adapted into a live-action film.­

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

Even decades after its initial release, the popularity of the Ranma ½ manga and anime series created by Rumiko Takahashi continues unabated. Now a deluxe boxed set collection for the 3 Ranma ½ theatrical films and the 11 Ranma ½ OAVs has been announced for release on Japanese home video.

The release features 470 minutes of content spread across 3 Bluray discs. The set retails for 18,792 yen ($156.33 US) including tax and has a release date of August 18, 2015. You can find it at online retailers such as Amazon Japan.

Please note: The 2008 “Nightmare! Incense of Deep Sleep” OAV created for the It's a Rumic World Exhibition is not listed as part of this release. Only the movies and OAVs produced from 1991 to 1996 are included.

Source: Gigazine.net

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

Atlus’ latest trailer for the game puts Nanako in the spotlight.

Read Nanako Shows Some Cute Moves To A Junes Mix In Persona 4: Dancing All Night on Siliconera!

I only own one animated Disney feature on DVD. And it is The Great Mouse Detective, the mouse version of Sherlock Holmes. Why every parent doesn’t use this movie to get kids to read Sherlock Holmes, I do not know.

Read more...

The New Nintendo 3DS Faceplate Pack Fire Emblem If edition includes the New Nintendo 3DS console, together with a Fire Emblem If faceplate, and a 16GB microSDHC memory card.

Read Fire Emblem If Edition New Nintendo 3DS Faceplate Pack Coming To Japan on Siliconera!

A Nintendo Direct presentation for Splatoon will be held on May 7th.

Read Nintendo Direct For Splatoon Coming Next Week on Siliconera!

“The most difficult of the three is the Black Kingdom route, but those who play White Kingdom should have no problem playing the third route,” says Intelligent Systems' Masahiro Higuchi.

Read Fire Emblem If’s Third Story Route Will More Difficult Than White, But Less Than Black on Siliconera!

Udon Entertainment and Capcom are releasing The Art of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in the U.S.

Read Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies Art Book Coming To U.S. on Siliconera!

Fire Emblem If: White Kingdom will indeed be easier, while Black Kingdom will have a much higher difficulty. Additionally, it will also have more difficult conditions for clearing stages.

Read Fire Emblem If: Black Kingdom Will Have More Complicated Victory Requirements on Siliconera!

Atlus previously announced a Persona 5 Special Video Blu-ray for first-print copies of Persona 4: Dancing All Night in Japan, but there's another bonus on the way. Those who pick up early copies will get a Woman's Swimsuit Set, which includes swimsuit outfits for Chie, Yukiko, Rise, and Naoto.

Pictured below, the costumes will also be available to purchase via PSN for those who miss out on the first-print bonus.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night hits PS Vita in Japan on June 25. A North American release is due out this year, but for now these bonuses are Japan-only.

Via Gematsu

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Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. His first mini-comic, SLIME, is now available. His blog can be found at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

It is confirmed that the 19th Detective Conan film, Sunflowers of Inferno, which opened on 349 screens in Japan on April 18, has already drawn over one million moviegoers by April 24, only in seven days from its premiere. It is the fastest record in the 18 years history of the anime film series started in 1997 with The Time-Bombed Skyscraper.

The film took second place with 874,762,300 yen on 688,623 admissions in its first weekend, only behind Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F with 960,586,350 yen, which is also believed to reach the one million mark on the same day. The distributor Toho expects that the film will earn around 4.5 billion yen from its entire theatrical run in Japan and will become the highest grossing Conan film, passing the previous record of 4.11 billion yen by the last year's Dimensional Sniper.

"Detective Conan Sunflowers of Inferno" trailer

Flayer images

Source: Cinema today

© Gosho Aoyama/Detective Conan Production Committee

The official website for the ongoing 12th PreCure TV anime series, Go! Princess PreCure, has announced that the masked villain Twilight who will appear in the story for the first time in the next 13th episode this Sunday will be voiced by 29-year-old voice actress Miyuki Sawashiro. She is best known as Mint Blancmanche in Galaxy Angel, Mineko Fuji in Lupin The Third, and Sinon in Sword Art Online II.  

Twilight has appeared only in the OP, standing face to face with the protagonist Cure Flora. According to the description, she self-proclaims herself as "noble, respectful, and graceful one-and-only princess" and confronts the Princess PreCure team playing cold tones with her violin. The majority of the PreCure fans expect that she will be the next member of the PreCure team in future, like Eas in Fresh PreCure! and Seiren in Suite PreCure. Check the trailer for the 13th episode "Cold Tones...! A Black

Princess Appears!"

Miyuki Sawashiro/Twilight

Source: "Go! Princess PreCure" official website

© ABC/Toei Animation

The official website for the upcoming new Lupin the Third TV anime series today posted a 90-second PV featuring the second TV series' original theme music composed by Yuji Ohno, who will join the news series as well. Though it had a 13-episode spin-off series The Woman Called Fujiko Mine in 2012, it will be the first main TV series for the franchise in 30 years since the 50-episode Lupin The Third Part III aired in Japan in 1985-1986.

The new series is set in the Republic of San Marino and is scheduled to premiere on RTI in Italy in May, then on Nihon TV in Japan in fall. Kazuhide Tomonaga, who served as the character designer for the 1987 film The Plot of the Fuma Clan, directs the series for TMS Entertainment.

Main visuals

Source: "Lupin The Third" new TV anime series official website via Cinema Today

Original Story: Monkey Punch©TMS

Noitamina has updated their "fall" 2015 plans for the anime film adaptation of the work of Satoshi Itō, a sci-fi novelist who wrote under the name Project Itoh, and who passed away in 2009 at age 34. The new schedule starts with Genocidal Organ, planned for October, followed by Harmony in November and The Empire of Corpses in December. 

『虐殺器官』10月『ハーモニー』11月『屍者の帝国』12月と3作品の公開月が解禁となりました！また『虐殺器官』『ハーモニー』の単独ポスターも解禁！皆様お楽しみに！ http://t.co/nvZUxViRmN #PJ_Itoh pic.twitter.com/LZIpHZMwK3

— Project-Itoh 公式 (@PJ_Itoh) April 23, 2015

Empire of Corpses

Opening in 19th century London, the historical cyberpunk story follows medical student John Watson, of Sherlock Holmes fame, tracking down Dr Frankenstein's "corpse resuscitation technology."

Staff includes

Director: Ryotaro Makihara (Hal)
Original Character Design: redjuice
Production: WIT STUDIO (Attack on Titan)
Scheduled: 2015

Harmony
Original: Project Itoh 
Director: Takashi Nakamura (Fantastic Children, Akira animation director and character designer), Michael Arias (Tekkon Kinkreet)
Original Character Design: redjuice
Animation Production: STUDIO4 ℃ (Tekkon Kinkreet, Berserk movies)
Schedule: 2015

Genocidal Organ
Director: Shukō Murase (Ergo Proxy)
Kyatakuta draft: redjuice
Animation Production: manglobe (Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy)
Schedule: 2015

Viz's Haikasoru sci-fi prose label, who published the latter two novels in English, describes them:

Harmony

In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn't that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn't work, but one of the girls—Tuan Kirie—grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet...from itself.

Genocidal Organ

The war on terror exploded, literally, the day Sarajevo was destroyed by a homemade nuclear device. The leading democracies have transformed into total surveillance states, and the developing world has drowned under a wave of genocides. The mysterious American John Paul seems to be behind the collapse of the world system, and it’s up to intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd to track John Paul across the wreckage of civilizations and to find the true heart of darkness—a genocidal organ.

via @PJ_Itoh

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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

The most adorable amiibo is available as a pre-order package with Yoshi's Woolly World.

Read Yarn Yoshi Amiibo Being Sold With Yoshi’s Woolly World On UK Nintendo Store on Siliconera!

It’s a fighting and training montage of a young human boy learning from his supernatural bear master. It looks so awesome.

Read more...

DC Comics path towards a female-friendly image has been rocky to say the least — but it’s taken some great steps forward with the surge of popularity in comics like Batgirl and Gotham Academy. Now they want to take it a little further with a new initiative that highlights their female heroes.

Read more...

Well, this is interesting. It looks like the Agents of SHIELD spinoff and Marvel show being helmed by writer-producer John Ridley aren’t one and the same. And we finally know who the Agents of SHIELD spinoff will follow.

Read more...

The official website for two-member unit GRANRODEO today posted a short version PV and two-version CD jacket images for their upcoming 23rd single "Memories." It will be used as the OP song for the Seirin vs Rakuzan chapter of the Kuroko's Basketball TV anime third season after the ongoing Teikou chapter's "ZERO" sung by Kensho Ono.

The unit previously performed the OP songs for the first two season of the TV anime and the first OP for the third season, "Punky Funky Love" (as their 22nd single). "Memories" will be released in three editions on June 3.  

"Memories" short PV

First press limited edition CD jacket

Regular edition

"Punky Funky Love"

Source: GRANRODEO official website

Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem character designer toi8 posts a message to the game's official blog.

Read Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem Character Designer On His New Challenge on Siliconera!

The Fire Emblem series is celebrating its “25th anniversary of love and courage” with various festivities this year.

Read Nintendo Developers And Masahiro Sakurai To Attend Fire Emblem Anniversary Event on Siliconera!

There's some new information available concerning the upcoming Lupin III TV series.

The world premiere of the new Lupin III series will begin in May in Italy via the Italian Television Bureau and RIT.

The Japanese premiere of the series will follow in the Fall of 2015 on Nippon TV. No specific date has yet been set for the Japanese broadcast.

Also of note, Yuji Ohno will be returning to compose music for the new Lupin III TV series.

Yuji Ohno is a Japanese jazz musician who composed the theme for the second Lupin III TV series in 1977. He has also created music for such other anime as Space Adventure Cobra and the Osamu Tezuka role-bending film, Undersea Super Train: Marine Express.

Source: Comic Natalie

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

Plus, a new trailer for Under the Dog will be released to the public this Summer.

Read Under the Dog Anime Film To Be Completed By Spring 2016 on Siliconera!