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A new song and music video for the Haruhi Suzumiya series is in production. The announcement tweet from the official X (formerly known as Twitter) teased a new Haruhi dance for the Reiwa era.

The Haruhi dance in question refers to the dance that the characters perform in the ending of the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya anime adaptation, “Hare Hare Yukai.” Many fans performed covers on sites like YouTube and Nico Nico Douga. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Aya Hirano, who voices Haruhi, made a tutorial video for how to perform the dance at home.

Here's the official teaser:

Like “Hare Hare Yukai,” the new song will be performed by Aya Hirano, Yuko Goto, and Minori Chihara. They’re the voice actresses for Haruhi, Mikuru, and Yuki, respectively. The announcement picture includes Kyon and Koizumi, but they will likely only appear as dancers in the music video.

Though the height of Haruhi’s popularity was in the mid-2000s, there has been a revival as of late due to the new The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya novel. It will come out on November 29, 2024, and it’ll come out simultaneously in Japanese and English. This is the direct sequel to the previous volume, The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya, which came out on November 25, 2020.

More information on the new Haruhi Suzumiya song and music video will come out in the near future; most likely, we’ll hear more about it later this month to coincide with the new light novel.

The post New Haruhi Suzumiya Song And Music Video in Production appeared first on Siliconera.

Kadokawa announced during the Sneaker Bunko 35th Anniversary Festa! that a new Haruhi Suzumiya light novel is currently in production, titled The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya. Currently, Kadokawa has no set release date for the light novel. [Thanks, Game Watch!]

The light novel will include the short stories "Haruhi Suzumiya Theater" published in the Sneaker in 2004, and its sequel "Return of Haruhi Suzumiya Theater" published in the Sneaker in 2006. These two shot stories remained uncollected and with no continuation to their storylines for 17 years.

Illustrator Noizi Ito shared new artwork that highlights the theme of the light novel, featuring Haruhi in a white dress, Kyon in his school uniform, Yuki dressed as a rogue, Itsuki as a cowboy, and Mikuru as a space force officer.

[embed]https://twitter.com/haruhi_official/status/1705831290048835834[/embed]

Written by Nagaru Tanigawa, the light novel series focuses on a high schooler named Kyon as he interacts with Haruhi, a bored and erratic classmate who is unaware that she possesses the ability to alter the universe. Kyon is dragged into ing her club, the SOS Brigade, which also includes an alien, a time traveler, and an esper who are all tasked resolve any strange incidents caused by Haruhi and to make sure she never discovers her secret abilities.

Yen Press currently publishes the light novels in English under their Yen On imprint. The 12th light novel, The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya, released on November 25, 2020 after a 9-year hiatus. The series previously ran in the Sneaker, Kadokawa Shoten's light novel magazine that ran from 1998 to 2011. Kadokawa Shoten publishes the light novels in Japan under the Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint.

The anime adaption of the light novel series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, was animated by Kyoto Animation and premiered in 2006 in Japan. Crunchyroll currently has the series available to stream on their service.

The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya currently has no set release date, but is currently in production.

The post New Haruhi Suzumiya Light Novel Announced appeared first on Siliconera.

A new Sgt Frog x Karaoke no Tetsujin collaboration campaign called the “Keron Festival 2023” is scheduled to begin in September 2023, and the characters transformed into anime boys just for the occasion. It is called the “Keroro Platoon Idolization Project.” Karaoke no Tetsujin locations in Japan will take part in this campaign. An exact launch date has yet to be confirmed. Further information will be revealed at a later date.

The campaign was announced on the Karaoke no Tetsujin collaboration official social media . An official web page for collaboration event also opened.
[embed]https://twitter.com/animegame_kt/status/1696432498585055559?s=20[/embed]

The original five characters in the Keroro Platoon Keroro, Tamama, Giroro, Kululu, and Dororo) are featured in this Sgt Frog collaboration. Karaoke no Tetsujin locations across Japan will participate in the campaign, and a complete list of participating stores will be revealed in the future.

Each featured character appears in a new illustration for the campaign. All of the frog boys are pictured wearing matching idol outfits and performing on stage. ing characters Garuru and Angol Mois showed up in new illustrations too. In the artwork, they are of the cheering squad for the platoon, each sporting a happi, glowstick, fan, and an ita-bag decorated out with buttons and merchandise of all of the frogs.

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Sgt Frog is a 2004 anime produced by Sunrise starring a group of frog-like aliens that desperately want to invade Earth, but are terribly bad at it. The story follows Fuyuki, a 12-year-old boy who crafts an unbreakable bond with the leader of the alien platoon, Sgt. Keroro. His mom lets him keep Keroro as a pet, and they come to find that he’s only really good at three things: vacuuming, eating burgers, and building Gundam models.

The Sgt Frog x Karaoke no Tetsujin collaboration campaign will begin sometime in September 2023. More information is to be revealed at a later date. Sgt. Frog is available to stream on Crunchyroll.

The post Sgt Frog Characters Transformed into Anime Boys for Karaoke no Tetsujin appeared first on Siliconera.

Kadokawa Game Linkage released an art book of Bayonetta 3. The book has 384 pages and consists of character art, CG, background settings, image boards, and more. It also contains comments from the development staff in regards to the process behind deg Bayonetta 3. [Thanks, Dengeki Online!]

Other than information on how PlatinumGames designed the character and setting, the Bayonetta 3 art book consists of data from the early stages of development. For example, you can check out the first draft of the conceptual art, as well as details for stages that did not make it into the final game. There are lyrics (both Japanese and English) for songs from Bayonetta 3 as well.

For each character, you can look at how their outfit looks from various angles. There is also their profile, as well as beta designs. It is very likely that it will be similar to the Cheshire video Platinum Games released, in which the the development team discusses how it went about bringing the character to life.

The Bayonetta 3 art book costs 3,850 JPY. That is approximately $29.60. Because you can purchase the book via Amazon, international customers can buy it as well. There is also an eBook version if you do not need a physical copy. However, only Ebten offers the DX pack set. If you buy the art book as part of the pack, you also get an A2 tapestry, Viola stickers, and eight acrylic stands.

You can purchase the Bayonetta 3 art book via Amazon, and Bayonetta 3 is readily available for the Nintendo Switch.

Related: Which Difficulty Should you choose in Bayonetta 3 on Attack of the Fanboy

The post Bayonetta 3 Art Book is Available Now appeared first on Siliconera.

Nichijou, also known as My Ordinary Life, will get its latest tankobon publication sometime after Summer 2022. Series creator Keiichi Arawi announced plans to release a new tankobon via personal Twitter . The announcement follows the series' return to regular publication after a six-year hiatus.

Nichijou is a slice-of-life manga series that largely follows the strange and quirky hijinks of three high school girls. The manga series, which started in 2006, later received an anime adaptation produced by Kyoto Animation in 2011. The series originally ended in 2015. However, Arawi announced last year that Shonen Ace would serialize the series again in October 2021.

Arawi announced the new tankobon publication through a Twitter post, which included various s from recent publications of Nichijou. Arawi said that further information about the publication will likely release around the end of Summer 2022. The manga series' tenth and final tankobon volume released in 2015, nearly seven years ago. It's still unclear when exactly the new tankobon will release.

https://twitter.com/himaraya/status/1510458004214218758

Aside from work as manga artist, Arawi has also worked as a designer for the Mechatro WeGo gunpla model series. In addition to a few Nichijou collaboration kits, Arawi has also designed several kits featuring Evangelion characters such as Asuka and Shinji in a signature art style.

Further information about the new Nichijou tankobon will release sometime after Summer 2022. The Nichijou manga series is available to read weekly on Shonen Ace. The anime series is available to watch on Funimation and Crunchyroll.

The post New Nichijou Tankobon Releasing After Summer 2022 appeared first on Siliconera.

Neon Genesis Evangelion has been around for a long time. Created by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, the manga series originally made its debut in December 1994 in Kadokawa Shoten’s Shounen Ace magazine.

Then, in 2009, Kadokawa moved Evangelion to a magazine aimed at an older demographic, Young Ace. Shortly thereafter, the series went on hiatus as Sadamoto stopped writing it to oversee other Evangelion projects.

Now, 14 months later, the Evangelion manga is making its return, according to a report at Anime News Network. Neon Genesis Evangelion will resume in the next issue of Young Age, which will be published on April 4th.

As far as U.S. releases of Neon Genesis Evangelion go, Viz Media published volume 12 of the series -- the last published volume in Japan -- in February.

The post Neon Genesis Evangelion Manga Resumes In April appeared first on Siliconera.

This past week, Kadokawa Shoten published a Japanese language 128-page Fate/Extra Visual Fanbook that contains a wealth of content about the game, including production materials and interviews with of the development staff.

Also featured in the interviews are original Fate/stay Night co-creators, Takashi Takeuchi and Kinoko Nasu. Some of Takeuchi’s concept designs for Fate/Extra are shown off in the book, too, along with comics and the usual fanservice you’d expect.

The Fate/Extra Visual Fanbook costs 1,995 yen and comes printed on A4-size paper. Here's a mildly NSFW teaser:

Click to see image:

Teaser image courtesy of Earlbox (NSFW).

The post Kadokawa Shoten Summon Fate/Extra Visual Fanbook appeared first on Siliconera.

Shueisha's managing director, Kazuhiko Torishima, recently revealed plans for 37 different Japanese publishers to collaborate and launch an online North American manga portal where licenses from each of the publishers will be distributed digitally.

The initiative involves the usual suspects -- Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, Kadokawa Shoten and others. The coalition of publishers hope to have a beta version of the site up and running by the end of the year, and the finalized site is slated for launch in March 2011.

You can view the full list of publishers at Anime News Network. Missing from the list are Square Enix, who are slated to launch their own digital manga initiative in the near future.

This is the third time publishers have collaborated in such a fashion. The first was during an active resistance against digital manga distribution in Japan, while the second was an anti-piracy initiative, which involved cooperation with North American publishers as well.

The post Japanese Publishers To Open North American Manga Portal appeared first on Siliconera.

You may know it better as Saiunkoku Monogatari, but the popular shoujo series written by Sai Yukino with artwork by Kairi Yura, is another amongst Viz's recent aggressive license acquisitions under the name, The Story of Saiunkoku.

Shurei Hong, a descendant of a noble family that has fallen on hard times, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from the position. However, one day she is asked by the advisor to the emperor to become his consort for half a year and teach him to be responsible ruler.

The series is now being published in volumes under Viz’s "Shojo Beat" imprint and is available now for the standard $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN per volume.

The other volume release announce this past week falls more on the shounen side of the genre range. Genkaku Picasso tells the story of Hikaru “Picasso” Hamura, a grouchy teenager with a talent for drawing, who dies in a freak accident.

Gods decide to revive him, but only on the condition that he use his artistic gift for the good of humanity. Picasso soon discovers that by sketching a person’s aura, he can see a surreal portrait of their psyche. Stranger still, Picasso can dive into these dreamscapes and help people by exploring their deepest emotions, memories and perceptions.

Genkaku Picasso by Usamaru Furuya is being published under the Shonen Jump imprint, also for $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

The post Viz Release Story of Saiunkoku And Genkaku Picasso appeared first on Siliconera.

Type-Moon Ace, the official magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten about anything and everything related to the company, has a rather sparse release schedule. Although the magazine was originally launched in April 2008, only four volumes have been published to date. Understandable, given the sparse nature of Type-Moon's own projects.

Unfortunately, the nature of Type-Moon's projects also means that not every issue of the magazine comes loaded with new information and features that you'd be thrilled to read. For instance, it would appear volume 3 included a horrendous body-swapping crossover manga based on Type-Moon characters, essentially ruining everything sacred about the fascinating world that they were (are?) building up. So far, volume 2, which talked at length about Mahou Tsukai no Yoru, appears to have been the highlight of the magazine.

Fortunately, volume 5 is around the corner, and considering Mahou Tsukai is scheduled for a 2010 release, hopefully, it will include an update on how that project is progressing. Perhaps even a release date.

For those that may not be aware, Mahou Tsukai no Yoru serves as a prequel of sorts to Tsukihime, and was one of the earelier novels written by Type-Moon co-founder Kinoko Nasu. While the game centres around its own story and characters, the protagonist, Aoko Aozaki, was the red-haired lady that gave Tohno Shiki his special glasses at the start of Tsukihime.

The post Type-Moon Ace Volume 5 Coming This June appeared first on Siliconera.

Curious to see what Strike Witches on the 360 is like in motion? Here's your first look, courtesy of Siliconera reader ECM, who ed it on from his blog. Thanks for the awesome tip!

The post Here’s What Strike Witches On The 360 Looks Like appeared first on Siliconera.

Kadokawa Shoten is bringing Legend of the Legendary Hero: Legendary Saga to the PSP.

Legend of the Legendary Hero: Legendary Saga started off as a light novel. Then it was made into an anime and on February 18 it becomes a PSP game. Kadokawa Shoten made a traditional RPG with turn based combat and 3D dungeons.

The title system is the game’s most original feature. You earn titles during event scenes and these affect your character’s parameters and what skills you can use. Legend of the Legendary Hero: Legendary Saga has over 100 titles to collect.

The post Screenshots Of The Most Legendary PSP RPG appeared first on Siliconera.

Kadokawa Shoten is making a game out of Sora no Otoshimono. The manga stars Ikaros, a wish granting Angeloid who bonds to Tomoki, a peeping tom.

The genre of the game, Sora no Otoshimono: Doki Doki Summer Vacation, is “adventure.” In other words it’s a visual novel. Other than discussing the 9,975 yen ($110) deluxe pack, few details about the title have been revealed.

Items in the DX Pack include glow in the dark stickers, a card case, and an 1800x1600 mm shower curtain with three of the girls. A standalone copy of Sora no Otoshimono: Doki Doki Summer Vacation goes for 6,090 yen ($68). Pre-order it before March 25 and you get a poster as a bonus.

The post Sora no Otoshimono Falling On To PSP appeared first on Siliconera.

I came across this earlier in the week and it made me chuckle. In a shocking twist, Jlist actually does a better job of promoting Japanese games than most game publishers and online stores. Case in point: Strike Witches Limited Edition for DS, being promoted on the basis of coming with a DS pouch shaped like a pair of bloomers. Oh, the actual game sounds pretty quirky, too, but more on that after the bloomers:

If you love World War II-themed anime series about extremely cute magical girls with animal ears flying missions and defending Earth from aliens (and who doesn't?), then you'll want to check out the new Nintendo DS Strike Witches game. Go on missions, destroy your enemies and interact with the cute girls of the Strike Witches battalion. This is the excellent limited edition of the DS game, which not only includes the game itself, but a plastic "clear file" document protector plus the piece de resistance, a special pouch made from the same material as Miyafuji's bloomers (aka zubon, meaning "pantsu").

For anyone that doesn't know what the Strike Witches DS game is, it's an RPG with dating-sim-esque elements, just like Sakura Wars and Persona. You're the commander of the strike witches, and you have to lead them in battle. Each girl has a different magical affinity, so you'll need to decide which ones to use prior to each mission. The adventure part of the game involves you trying to get to know your teammates better. Once the war ends, you get to spend time with the girl of your choice. There are different endings, too, based on your choices during the adventure mode. There's also a PS2 game.

The downside is the that Strike Witches Limited Edition with the panty pouch (OK, so they're really bloomers) costs $105 on Jlist and it's sold-out on Play-Asia, so unless you're super-obsessed, you're not going to bite.

The post Otaku Inventory: Strike Witches Limited Edition Comes With Panty Pouch appeared first on Siliconera.

Kadokawa Shoten is working on another Haruhi game this year, but when they announced the Wii project it didn’t even have a proper name. Now, we have the title and the release date. Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidou (loosely: The Stunning Shock of Haruhi Suzumiya) is scheduled to come out on November 27 in Japan.

While the other Haruhi games are adventure titles, Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidou is a dancing game. Players mimic Haruhi’s motions by pointing the remote up, down, left, right, and everything in between. The only song announced thus far is the Haruhi theme. Since the game costs 7,140 yen ($66) Namco Bandai better have more songs. The other option for Haruhi fans is to pick up a DX pack which includes a limited edition Haruhi figure for 9,240 yen ($85).

Let’s see if Datel can create and distribute a revised version of the Wii Freeloader by then.

Images courtesy of Kadokawa Shoten.

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