Mecha Talk

I’ve learned it’s because Lorenzo Di Bonaventura has a big mouth and spilled the beans today without warning anybody. In fact the studio was still polishing its press statement for release tomorrow. The result is that Paramount is furious at the producer and Michael Bay “went crazy” on him as well, an insider tells me. “Lorenzo was at a toy fair and someone sticks a camera in his face. So Lorenzo goes on this 60-second tirade speaking on behalf of everyone — the studio, Michael Bay — and it’s inappropriate.”

The J-pop band TM Network has announced plans to perform three concerts, including an earthquake charity show titled "ALL THAT LOVE -give & give-" on March 20, followed by two concerts at the Nippon Budokan arena on April 24 and 25. The band will also release a new single on April 25. The single's title will be announced at a later date.

The band, which includes Tetsuya Komuro, Takashi Utsunomiya and Naoto Kine, was originally active from 1983 through 1994, and reunited briefly in 1999. The band is best known by anime fans for its theme songs that have appeared in the original Vampire Hunter D OVA, City Hunter and Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack. "Get Wild," which was used as a theme for City Hunter, has also been covered by pop singer Nami Tamaki.

Sentai Filmworks announced on Thursday that it licensed the Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works anime film. The company will release the film digitally and on DVD and Blu-ray Disc later this year. The all-new animated production covered the Unlimited Blade Works storyline from Type-Moon's game franchise. The film opened in Japan in January 2010, and the film's Blu-ray Disc release in Japan in October of that year sold 44,000 copies in its first week.

Director Yuji Yamaguchi, series script supervisor Takuya Satō, character designer and chief animation director Megumi Ishihara, and Studio DEEN all returned from the Fate/stay night television series. Voice cast members Noriaki Sugiyama, Ayako Kawasumi, Kana Ueda, Noriko Shitaya, Mai Kadowaki, Miki Itou, Junichi Suwabe, Yuu Asakawa, and Jouji Nakata also reprised their respective roles.

Funimation released a Fate/stay night anime series box as one of its first anime DVDs from its distribution deal with Geneon Entertainment. Tokyopop published 11 volumes of Datto Nishiwaki's manga version in North America before its North American branch shut down last May.

The official Yamato Crew community website announced on Saturday that Isao Sasaki will reprise his "Space Battleship Yamato" theme song in a new recording for this year's Space Battleship Yamato 2199 television anime series and film project. Sasaki originally sang the song 38 years ago for the first Space Battleship Yamato television series in 1974.

American production company 4Kids Entertainment announced on Thursday that there is an amicable settlement of the lawsuit between 4Kids Entertainment and Asatsu-DK (ADK) and TV Tokyo over the license of the Yu-Gi-Oh! property. According to 4Kids, the licensing agreement between the three parties will continue to be "in full force and effect with 4Kids continuing to serve as the exclusive licensing agent for the merchandise licensing, television broadcast, and home video rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! property throughout the world outside of Asia."

The lawsuit was filed by TV Tokyo and Nihon Ad Systems last March, accusing the North American media distributor of "underpayments, wrongful deductions, and unmet obligations" and stating that 4Kids owed the companies US$4,792,460.36. Last December, a bankruptcy judge ordered that 4Kids' license of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series was still in effect, after earlier ordering a stay that barred ADK and TV Tokyo from selling the international license of the new Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal anime series to other companies.