Recent Posts
Protaku Anime and Manga Blog
Return To Blog Listing
Protaku is a blog dedicated to covering Anime and Manga from Japan. Protaku has commentary about various series and movies, and insights on the Anime industry.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'industry news'
FUNimation adding some more Fullmetal Alchemist anime?
D.F. Smith over at IGN reported this interesting tidbit about FUNimation, Fullmetal Alchemist, and the upcoming convention season Funimation, word has it, will be announcing something Fullmetal Alchemist-related when the convention season kicks off ...
Top Graphic Novels-Manga of 2008? BookScan says Naruto, ftw.
Anyone who needed confirmation that Naruto is still selling as strong as ever need look no further than the latest data for 2008. ICv2 reports that the Nielsen BookScan data for 2008 shows Naruto clearly dominated the manga sales last year. ICv2 ...
Imagi Studios is out of cash, Astro Boy and Gatchaman films in jeopardy
UPDATE: Anime News Network confirmed the story with Imagi, but President Erin Corbett of IMAGI Studios U.S. told ANN that her company plans to resume production next week with new funding. The sad news on the internet today is that Imagi Studios is o...
Mania.com: Top 5 things Anime Companies did Right in 2008
It’s the end of the year, which means anime bloggers everywhere will be posting their “year in review” articles. While trolling the interwebs, I found an article that’s different than the usual “Best Of” fare. Chr...
English trailer for Dragonball Evolution
Yes, it’s here folks. The official trailer for this god-awful, disgrace to all anime fans. The movie never looked good in the previous sample vids or still shots. Nothing’s changed. But hey, if you’re still curious, or just want a...
Here’s your mission this holiday season: Buy manga and anime!
Times are tough, folks. With this economic slowdown, many industries are hurting bad. Anime/manga sales have already been declining both here and abroad. If our favorite entertainment segment is going to survive these tough times, we need to do on...
Finally! Viz plans to stream Naruto episodes a week within airing in Japan
Today, the anime community collectively said, “It’s about damn time!” The big news: The North American anime distributor Viz Media has announced that it will begin streaming the latest episodes of the Naruto Shippūden anime sequel...
An Osamu Tezuka manga is set for reprint for first time in 62 years
The original version of a classic manga comic written by Osamu Tezuka, will be reprinted for the first time in 62 years in February 2009 by Shogakukan Creative Inc., The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. According to the Yomiuri site: “Shin Takaraj...
Some iTunes anime news
First up, news from Anime Network and the people behind the vSNAX app on the iPhone and iPod touch: The best shows from Anime Network, America’s #1 Anime Channel, are now available on the Anime channel of vSNAX Videos, a free app for the Apple iPh...
Manga fan facing federal prosecution for “obscene” collection
Today’s Del Rey Manga newsletter contained a special alert urging fans to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in its efforts to defend a manga collector from federal prosecution for possession of manga that the government claims to be obs...
FUNimation and Joost show more FREE anime
According to a press release, FUNimation Entertainment has partnered with Joost to bring its catalog of full-length, legal anime video content to the online social video service. Starting in November, FUNimation Entertainment will launch its video c...
Del Rey and Cartoon Network make manga
Del Rey, one of the big players in the OEL manga market, has agreed to make manga titles based on a couple of Cartoon Network properties Del Rey Manga, in collaboration with Cartoon Network Enterprises, announced a new manga publishing partnership t...
Toonami is dead. RIP.
It’s official. Cartoon Network announced today that they are ending their Toonami cartoon block. After tonight, September 20th, 2008, it’s gone. Employees who worked on the block will be going to other parts of the channel. Anime will b...
Adult Swim is killing anime
Adult Swim is killing anime. Or at least, their own efforts to bring anime to U.S. shores. The network that ushered in a new era of popularity for shows like Cowboy Bebop, Wolf’s Rain, and Fullmetal Alchemist, has just banished two of their l...
The Malaysia has two articles on erotic anime figurines. uh oh.
The Malaysia star is one of the asian newspapers/sites I read regularly for their unique take on anime and manga news. Today they’ve decided to focus on the strange, but increasingly popular, phenomenon of erotic anime figures with not just on...
New Full Metal Alchemist TV series coming!!
It’s true folks! The rumors have been floating around for a while, but there’s now confirmation that there will be a brand new Full Metal Alchemist TV series. Elric fans everywhere, rejoice! According to Anime News Network: The wraparo...
Vampire Hunter D short story to be published at NY Anime Fest
The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) announced today that the short story Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer’s Ship by legendary author Hideyuki Kikuchi will be published inside the festival’s Official Guide Book. Vampire Hunter D: The Wanderer...
iaTV and TokyoPop team up
TokyoPop is teaming up with iaTV, the Only 24/7 Network in the U.S. for Asian Pop Culture, for broadcast of its properties and some advertising opportunities. From the press release: Programming acquired by iaTV from TOKYOPOP includes two popular J...
Links: More live action chat, FUNimation adds anime to their cable channel
io9, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places for all things sci-fi, has a post called 5 Manga Movies We Want to See After Akira Blows Everyone’s Mind. They are referring, of course, to the upcoming Akira live action movies that hav...
CrunchyRoll adds Gonzo, Media Blasters, and ADV titles…legally!
CrunchyRoll announced at Otakon that they’re has acquired the digital-only-rights to distribute multiple series from MediaBlasters, ADV, and Gonzo’s corporate parent. These series include: ADV: * Angelic Layer 26-episode animated ser...
Kadokawa embraces YouTube pirates…just for anime videos
Here’s an interesting piece from the mainstream business community. Businessweek, a huge business-oriented news vehicle, has an article on anime publisher Kadokawa’s approach to people that use their properties for copyright-infringing a...
OEL manga Miki Falls to become a Hollywood film?
Brad Pitt’s movie production company, Plan B, has picked up the rights to a four-volume OEL manga series by Mark Crilley titled Miki Falls. I do believe this is the first time an OEL title has gotten mainstream attention. It’s especiall...
CraveOnline buys MyAnimeList.com, new Ghost in the Shell enhanced Blu-Ray coming.
CraveOnline.com, a leading lifestyle destination for men featuring video, movies, TV, music, sports, games, cars, humor and more, announced today that it has acquired MyAnimeList.com, the world’s largest anime & manga social networking sit...
IGN talks with Bleach creator Tite Kubo, Keanu as Spike in Cowboy Bebop?
My good friends and comrades at IGN got a chance to do a brief but interesting interview with Bleach manga creator Tite Kubo at Comic-Con ‘08. You won’t find too much new info here, but Kubo rarely speaks to American media so it’s...
Another man sentenced in Japan for sharing anime
Anime News Network reports that Kasuhiro Maki from Kawasaki City was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years, for unauthorized uploading of Gundam and other popular anime with the Share file-sharing program. The Jap...
Bandai announces Lucky Star manga at Comic Con
Bandai made a fairly interesting announcement at San Diego Comic-Con: they’ve licensed the Lucky Star manga. Lucky Star is kind of a plotless series that revolves around comic slices of the high-school life of four Japanese girls. It’s ...
News: Viz gets into live action, big names join Afro Samurai
Viz quietly announced a new division called Viz Productions, which will tackle producing and licensing live action films based on anime and manga. They’ve stated that Viz Productions will act as the U.S. liason between Japanese property-owner...
Singapore gets same-week anime broadcasts from Japan
Singaporean broadcast group MediaCorp has signed a landmark deal with hated anime distributor Odex to bring a range of Japanese titles to its Arts Central channel and to the new online service AnimeTrix, available through its VOD portal MOBTV.sg. To...
Link: Where are the Shonen OEL Artists?
I was just trolling through the interwebs today, as I often do, and found an interesting LiveJournal post from Jason Thompson (aka khyungbird), author, manga fan and artist of the webcomic The Stiff. In this post he poses an interesting question: Wh...
News: Anime Expo up 5%, Tokyopop cancels stuff, ADV corrects
I’ve been kind of busy with various tasks, so here’s some random linkage to keep y’all occupied. ICV2 reports official numbers for Anime Expo 2008 attendance: “An attendance of 43,000 attendees was announced, up from 41,000 la...
