Initial Thoughts: Little Busters!

Riki was a child when his parents died, leaving him hopeless and depressed. What saved him was a group of four kids calling themselves the Little Busters. They took Riki out and played with him during his time of need. He really enjoyed being together with them, and his grief gradually faded away. Now in his second year of high school they still hang out, fight and live together, and enjoy their school life. (Source: MAL)

Spoiler warning: Post contains spoilers for the first episode of the Little Busters! anime. It does not contain spoilers for the visual novel the anime is based on.

Confession time! I have never played a visual novel by Key - not Clannad, nor Kanon, or Air and especially not Little Busters. Hell, I've never even seen an anime version of any of these games (sorry, Clannad fans!). But the hype from its fan base over an anime adaptation has gotten me excited in turn, so this program is the one of the new fall season I've really been looking forward to. So is it any good? In a word: yes. In two words: hell yes.

Yet Another News Round-Up (Now With 100% More TYPE-MOON)

This week has been very exciting, especially if you are a fan of visual novels turned anime. This latest round-up proves that Sentai loves me very much and so does Dark Horse Manga.

• Crunchyroll: Preview videos for the Little Busters! anime are now up, thanks to the Warner Brothers' JP YouTube channel. We get to hear more of the voice talent, which is always a plus. The link includes previously posted preview videos.
• (Speaking of Little Busters!, awesomecurry at OASG has posted a review of the LB! visual novel and covers all of the routes, including the Refrain route. Go and read it!)
• Crunchyroll: Sentai Filmworks has licensed the Fate/Stay Night anime for Blu-Ray release; the first collection is scheduled for January 2013. Sentai has already licensed the Unlimited Blade Works film of the same series. Unsure if it will be a Blu-Ray/DVD bundle or just BR.
• ANN: Dark Horse just announced a handful of new manga releases, including a Trigun anthology and a new Neon Genesis Evangelion spinoff. The NGE spinoff is called Shinji Ikari Detective Diary and is a private eye AU featuring Shinji and Kaworu.
• Finally, Fantagraphics has given Wandering Son fans something to talk about: a subscription option for future volumes of the Wandering Son manga. Readers will get a discount for pre-ordering as opposed to buying them individually as they come out.

News Round-Up: Little Busters!

You ever start out apathetic to a certain series until the energies by its fandom actually make you interested in said series? That's me and Little Busters!, a series I've been off and on reporting on since it was revealed the Key visual novel would finally get an anime adaptation. Its fans has made me keenly interested in this upcoming anime, which is why I felt obligated to bring more LB related news to this blog.

As of yet, no NA-based company has made any major moves to license Little Busters! for commercial or streaming release. However, I would not be surprised if Crunchyroll eventually decided to simulcast this series for its next season of series.

• ANN: The Little Busters anime has been scheduled to premiere October 6 of this year on several stations, including TV Kanagawa and TV Aichi. 
• ANN: Official art and character designs have been posted online, scanned from an anime magazine. The character designs look very nice; I especially like Komari and Yukio.
• AnimeNation News: A trailer for Little Busters! is now up, courtesy of J.C. Staff, and is currently available to watch on YouTube. It looks absolutely wonderful.
• MAL/Key: The voice acting cast of Little Busters! was announced, although it seems it was more leaked than anything else. For those who played the visual novel, the cast for the anime should be very familiar.

Anyone Up For A News Round-Up?

Why? Because.

Geez, I haven't done one of these in a long time! Well, here comes a most delicious link spam of news and like minded discoveries! Including news about a series I'll be reviewing come tomorrow, about a certain magic user and his sexy armored reincarnated saber lady friend - yeah, now it's kind of obvious, innit?

• I'm sure many people will be excited about this one. Little Busters! is finally getting an anime adaptation. So, LB! fans can stop flooding MyAnimeList forums about the lack of LB anime, right? 
• Even more Little Busters! news: the series will feature the original songs from the visual novels, sung by game artist Rita. Oh, and it'll be produced by J.C. Staff instead of KyoAni. Cue the entire fandom pitching a fit! Wah, why don't y'all make anime my way!
• One Peace Books (heard of 'em? Yeah, neither had I!) is going to re-release, of all titles, the Crayon Shin-chan manga - or at least the first three volumes. And the covers look pretty sweet!
• Wave Corporation is giving Fate/Stay Night fans something to really appreciate: a 1/10 scale figure of Saber in a swimsuit. Aww, yeah. And for 47 dollars? Why not?
• Yuu Watase fans and stage play fans can rejoice. Absolute Boyfriend is getting a stage adaptation, due to hit Japan early next year. Sadly, it's not a Takarazuka Revue production.
• For Haruki Murakami fans, SF Bay Guardian Online has a great interview with Jay Rubin and J. Philip Gabriel, Murakami's translators. Their most recently translation was Murakami's 900+ epic tale of parallel worlds, 1Q84 (which everyone should read!)