Newtype Japan March

Just a few things perhaps worth commenting on from this month's Japanese Newtype (in counterpoint to Galen's Megami threads, perhaps ^_^)...

The main theme, as proudly announced on the cover, is 'Fresh Boys and Sweet Girls' - showcasing the forthcoming April season a little with stuff for both shounen and shoujo audiences.

Fullmetal Alchemist is definitely the big show of the moment. It's even managed to displace Gundam Seed from the cover of Newtype, no mean feat (even though Seed finished back in October, Newtype still run massive long features about it most issues). There's a long feature on the current Sins plot arc showcasing some villains we can expect shortly, plus an interview with the seiyuus for Al, Ed, Hughes and Mustang and some quick pictures of the supporting cast (one of the strengths of FMA for me is that no matter how wonderful I think Al and Ed are, the supporting cast is just as varied and interesting (and downright bizarre at times!)).

Chrno Crusade is apparently running for longer than 13 episodes (there's episode guides to 14 and 15 in the 'listings' section of the magazine), which is a relief - even though the show is fairly average, I still enjoy it, and hopefully Gonzo'll get around to fleshing out the plot properly with an extra however many episodes.

There's a preview for Bee Train (.Hack//Sign, Avenger)'s next anime, MADLAX (apparently a lacrosse term!), and the two page spread makes it sound almost exactly like Noir, even down to the Yuki Kajiura music. Perhaps they'll pull something a little more consistent out the hat this time.

I spoke too soon about Gundam Seed - there's a massive feature on the songs (well, some of them, probably all the ones that Sony as opposed to Victor owns the rights to) featuring Lacus/Rakks/whatever her name is and some disturbing photos of TM Revolution in a waistcoat.

A future Gonzo TV project in development is showcased briefly, 'Gankutsu Oh', which is apparently based on Dumas' novel 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. The concept artwork shown is absolutely stunning - everyone looks like the elfin water creatures from Blue Sub 6, but on land, I'm not quite sure how to describe the look (except perhaps a little like the stained glass windows at the beginning of Disney's Beauty and the Beast film), but it looks fantastic. There's also a brief mention of Gonzo's first full-length film, 'Spirit', which features Range Murata (Last Exile) character designs but seems very much like a generic adventure story thus far.

I'd been looking forward to hearing what Studio Bones (Wolf's Rain, RahXephon, Scrapped Princess, Angelic Layer...etc.) would be up to next, but their next series doesn't look that exciting from the promo art here. 'The Daybreaker' (preceded by a bunch of kanji I don't know) has character designs straight out of Gundam Seed (and the main character is wearing Hitomi from Escaflowne's pendant!), a sentient floating ball and giant robots - although since Bones successfully reimagined Eva with RahXephon I should give them the benefit of the doubt, it could be a little generic. Apparently it's set on Mars and has pirate ships in it though, which at least sounds interesting.

Of course there's more in the magazine, but that's what immediately sprung out as interesting. Next month will be more in depth on a bunch of April shows - including the two new Gainax shows, Melody of Oblivion and This Ugly and Beautiful World, 'Keroro Gunso' (Sergeant Frog) and Samurai Champloo - and, because it's Newtype's 19th anniversary, even more Gundam Seed. Some things never change.

Andrew H

After a year of some pretty mediocre hack work, sounds like some hope is coming around the corner. Thanks Andrew

That might be because it has been phenomenally successful in its DVD sales. With the release of the 11th DVD, more than 1 million 'Gundam SEED' DVDs have been sold in Japan, with three more volumes yet to come.

Source - http://www.animenation.net/news/index.php?id=5862

This is true of 'One Piece', as well.

Every time I see that title, I think 'MAD EXLAX'

'Noir' is very consistent - 2/3 of the episodes are very similar to each other...

It's nice to see anime creators experimenting with new visual styles. That's one reason I like 'Kousestsu Hyaku Monogotari'.

With adventure stores, the devil is in the details. A fairly generic skeleton can be elevated (or debased) through attention to detail in world design and in character development.

Or is it Sheeta's from 'Castle in the Sky'? Or is it the pendant from 'Atlantis'? Or is it...

If Bones' chooses to accurately animate the effects of Mars's lower gravity, then 'The Daybreaker' might end up with a very distinctive and unusual visual style. ('Avenger' tries to do this occasionally and inconsistently, but fails to do so realistically IMHO.)

The web site for 'Melody of Oblivion' just opened -
http://www.tbs.co.jp/boukyaku/

The character designs seem very bland, without any sort of distinctive style, which is unusual for Gainax.

- dbm

That's someone who's angry about being kicked off the lacrosse team.