AnimeVision

The autumn season is almost upon us, and Crunchyroll are first out of the simulcast gate - they'l be offering three shows, Sora no Otoshimono: Forte (the first season of which is on CR but annyingly blocked to the UK), Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt and Fortune Arterial: Red Promise, to UK users. Dates and times to be anounced. The deal is part of a wider agreement with Kadokawa that includes 13 other as-yet-unnamed catalogue shows - more on those when the details are confirmed. Now, who's next...?

UPDATE: Why issue one press release when you can issue three. Crunchyroll will now also be simulcasting Letter Bee Reverse, Squid Girl, The World God Only Knows and Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector, so their lineup is shaping up to be quite impressive. I'll post the full screening schedules for the new show once they're confirmed.

Via UKA comes news that the first Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha movie, to be released in Japan on November 26th, will come complete with English subtitles. The movie is based on the first season of the TV anime, but will come at a typically high cost, with prices ranging from £45 for the standard DVD release, up to £68 for the limited-edition Bluray - and that's before shipping and import charges. Ouch. If the Bluray tempts you, remember that the UK and Japan are in different Bluray regions, so check for coding before you splash the cash.

Nozomi Entertainment began streaming the first episode of Maria Watches Over Us (Maria-sama ga Miteru) earlier today, and the good news is that the stream is open to UK viewers. You'll find it on Nozomi's YouTube channel, and further episodes will be rotated in (and presumably out) in coming weeks. The series is set in a catholic all-girls high school, and follows the friendships of a group of girls there - typical slice-of-life stuff that's strangely appealing, and not just because it can all be viewed through fandom's legendary yuri goggles. Not the most exciting of shows out there, but worth checking out.

While it can't claim to have the same buzz about it as its TV counterpart does, I've been quite looking forward to the UK release of the Eureka Seven movie. Unfortunately, word from Manga UK's Twitter feed is that the movie has been delayed until early 2011 due to "production issues". Boo.

UPDATE: Manga's Jerome Mazandarani has updated their blog with the reasons for the delay:

So, why have we pushed the release date back? As with most decisions we make that are unpopular, it is pure economics. The cost of authoring the Blu-ray and DVD off the HD master supplied by Bandai Visual is quite prohibitive. We would prefer to co-author the release with a number of other distributors in other territories to bring these costs down. We cannot move forward until the other parties we are in discussions with finalize their agreements with the licensor. Hence, the postponement of the UK release.

I cannot apologise enough to the many patient and loyal anime fans we have disappointed with this news. The good news is Manga has signed its contract with Bandai Visual for the Eureka Seven the Movie and paid the advance and material costs. We are definitely releasing this title. I just beg you all to be a little more patient.

UK satellite channel Pop Girl (Sky channel 626 / Freesat channel 604) will begin airing the English dub version of Pretty Cure on Monday 6th September. Daily showing will be at 7:00am, 5:30pm and 8:30pm (with the channel's +1 variant screening them one hour later, as you'd expect). My love for the Japanese original means I'll probably only watch out of a morbid sense of curiosity as to how bad the adaptation can be (memories of Tokyo Mew Mew's hackjob still pain me), but at least one channel is giving anime a decent outing...

Scotland Loves Anime have now released their guestlist for their upcoming events in Glasgow (8-10 October) and Edinburgh (15-17 October), with Jonathan Clements, Satoshi Nishiura and Shigeru Kitayama all appearing. Read on for full details..

Ah, Twitter, how you trump other news sources. For some subjects, anyway. Manga UK have confirmed, via their Twitter feed, that they'll be bringing Hetalia: Axis Powers to the UK, with the DVD release appearing "hopefully, just after Christmas". The show, which has become something of a fandom sensation over the past year or so, takes the various countries of the world, anthropomorphises them, and then has some (often politically-incorrect) fun at their expense. If you can't wait until the DVD release for a taster, the series is currently available (legally) via YouTube. So far at least they'll just be releasing season one - presumably subsequent seasons will depend on how that fares.

The Grand Cosplay Ball is back for its 2010 outing, and will again be held at the Clapham Grand, London on November 28th, with the theme this year being Arabian Nights. Expect belly dancers, snake charmers and daring/dangerous acts, apparently.

Tickets cost £18 and are on sale now via the event website. A limited number of private boxes also available, priced at £260 or £200.

We've known for a while that Viz Media had the first season of Vampire Knight (which has been picked up for UK release by Manga Entertainment). Now there's confirmation, by way of an incidental post on their Facebook page, that they'll also be releasing the second season of the series, Vampire Knight: Guilty. I haven't seen any of the VK anime myself, but the first few volumes of the manga were certainly intriguing enough to make me interested - despite it being a rather angsty shojou series at heart. The series will make its first appearances on Viz's online streaming service, although since that's based on Hulu it won't be available to the UK. Hat-tip to @AnimeNewsdotbiz on Twitter for spotting the announcement.