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~English Nico Nico Douga Launches!~




The popular Japanese video streaming website Nico Nico Douga has launched a beta website in English.

Users who already have an account registered for the original Japanese site will not be required to make a new account if they wish to use the English site. New users can create a new account or log in via Facebook.

Nico Nico Douga originally launched in December of 2006 and is the thirteenth most visited website in Japan. The site is also notable for its unique commenting feature where comments are overlaid directly onto the video, synced to a specific playback time which allows comments to respond directly to events occurring in the video, in sync with the viewer - creating a sense of a shared watching experience.

http://www.niconico.com/

~Funimation Licenses Fairy Tail~




Funimation announced its license of Fairy Tail at its Sakura-Con panel today. Only the first 48 episodes have been licensed so far but assuming it sells well I am sure we will see more. It will be released with an English dub later this year, the dubbing process has actually already begun.

Fairy Tail is a long running shonen anime that revolves around a 17-year-old girl Lucy who wants to be a full-fledged mage. One day when visiting Harujion Town, she meets Natsu, a young man who gets sick easily by any type of transportation. But Natsu isnt just any ordinary kid, he's a member of one of the world's most infamous mage guilds: Fairy Tail.

Source (ANN):
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...reasure-hunter

~Funimation to stream Toriko~




FUNimation has announced plans to stream weekly episodes of the new anime television series Toriko. Toriko is a manga series written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro’s and is based in a world where the taste and texture of food is extremely important. There exist individuals known as Gourmet Hunters who specialize in the acquisition of rare ingredients and animals. Toriko is one of these hunters and it is his dream to find the most precious foods in the world and create the ultimate dinner course. Toriko will stream on FUNimation’s video page and Hulu.

Toriko will also appear alongside One Piece in the films' crossover special.

~Tokyopop to shut down U.S. publishing division~



Yesterday, longtime American manga publisher, Tokyopop, announced that it would be closing down its manga publishing operations in the U.S. in late May. The announcement read:

Quote:
“Today, we are sad to inform our loyal community of manga fans, our passionate creators of manga content, our business and retail partners, and other stakeholders who have supported us through the years that as of May 31, 2011, TOKYOPOP is closing its Los Angeles-based North American publishing operations.”
Comics Beat report that, after their last round of lay-offs, Tokyopop’s employee count had whittled down to just six people. It’s unknown what will happen to Tokyopop’s publishing licenses, but the company will still maintain its European branch and televisions projects.

In addition to the announcement, Tokyopop founder Stuart Levy’s blog featured a personal statement from him.

New Rurouni Kenshin Anime Announced







According to the magazine Jump Square, a new anime of Rurouni Kenshin has been green-lit. There were no details regarding the format of the anime or even what it will be about. More information will be announced in a future issue of the magazine.

Source (ANN):
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...nime-green-lit