Source: ANN

The Crunchyroll video-streaming website has announced today that it will offer the Speed Racer animated series via ad-supported, subscription, and download-to-own video services.

…

The downloads in this service will have no digital rights management (DRM).

wow..is this for real ? Kudos to them.

  May issue of Monthly Gangan Wing will feature an official announcement of Seto no Hanayome OVA.

More moe mermaids? ;)

I have been keeping track of news on Crunchyroll and it seems that it is receiving lots of good updates lately. With the recent US$4mil boost into Crunchyroll and Gozno’s interest, Crunchyroll now brings you free high quality and H264 streaming. It is good.

i have some really GREAT news! im sure some of you have noticed already, but i figured out a way so everyone can watch the hi-quality streams ^_^ but it requires a little work on your side by installing a new Bittorrent client (its pretty easy and i know many of you already use it). cuz its p2p, it should be faster for you guys to stream and it will cut back on the bandwidth cost a lot! if you click on the high quality/h264 link, it’ll take you to the download page to install if you don’t have it yet! (edit: well, for some videos u dont need it..only the really popular videos).

Kudos. :)

more great news about some new stuff coming out in a couple weeks:
Crunchyroll is going to simulcast 2 brand new anime series from gonzo,
The Tower of DRUAGA -the Aegis of URUK- and BLASSREITER, the same day it airs in Japan!

The Tower of DRUAGA -the Aegis of URUK- premieres on April 4th and is directed by Koichi Chigira, who also directed some of my favorites like Full Metal Panic! and Last Exile!
BLASSREITER premieres on April 5th and is directed by Ichiro Itano, who’s worked on Gantz and Macross Zero!

The best part is the streaming will stay FREE and any ads on it will help pay for the costs and go back to the creators too! There will also be a lot of other cool stuff i can’t talk about yet ^_^

Kudos x2. :)

Official Source: Crunchyroll 

Kadokawa takes another step further in providing Mamoru kun anime for free in Youtube. All 24 episodes are now available in Kadokawa channel of Youtube for a limited time.

Earlier on, they had Full Metal Panic and Mushi-uta in Youtube as well.  \o/

Note: Animes are in raw format, no subtitles are available.

Check it out here

Source: ANN

Both regional arms of Bandai Visual “are now rushing to reschedule all future releases, focusing on Blu-ray” for both new and old titles.

According to Konno, the decision to focus on Blu-ray was largely instigated by the staff in Japan.

Bandai Visual announced on the delay of releases like True Tears, sola and Shigofumi. I guess all the hype and excitement about porting the recent animes to the States has gone down the drain.

Source: JigokuShoujo.com

3/19 第3シリーズタイトル決定!

「地獄少女　三鼎(みつがなえ)」

w00t! 3rd season ! More Enma Ai ! Ippen Shindemiru?

Source: ANN

The May issue (released on March 19) of Fujimi Shobo’s Dragon Magazine has announced the official title of the upcoming fourth anime television series in the Slayers fantasy comedy franchise: Slayers Revolution.

Source: Chunichi Shimnbun , ANN

韓国の聯合ニュースは１８日、人気ドラマ「冬のソナタ」のアニメーション版が制作されることになり、ドラマの主演男優ペ・ヨンジュンさんが主人公の声を担当すると報じた。ペさんの所属事務所の話として伝えた。

In simple words, it means as what the title implies. :) Korean lead actor for Winter Sonata, Bae Yong Joon will voice for the anime as well.

More details to be revealed in TAF 2008 which is taking place in Mar 28.

Source: Daily Yomiuri Online

The nation’s four Internet provider organizations have agreed to forcibly cut the Internet connection of users found to repeatedly use Winny and other file-sharing programs to illegally copy gaming software and music, it was learned Friday.

There goes winny, seems like they are really enforcing it right down the users’ throats but I am wondering what the public’s reaction might be. As quoted again from the same source,

Two years ago, a major Internet provider tried to introduce a measure to disconnect users from the Internet whenever the company detected the use of Winny or other file-sharing software.

However, the provider abandoned the idea after receiving a warning from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry that such an approach was regarded as Internet snooping and might violate the right to privacy in communications.

Users will receive a letter who have been tracked by a “special detection software” if they use winny or file sharing software to download illegal copies of copyright infringing material.

The providers would then send warning e-mails to the users based on the IP addresses of the computers used to connect to the Internet. 

Sounds familar, isn’t it ? Sounds so much like..x3d0

Source: ANN

The exhibitor notes at the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) 2008 website list a press stage event for the “Announcement of the Anime Production for the Winter Sonata (Fuyu no Sonata)” live-action drama series on March 28