Don sends this bit of good news: Negotiations are underway with several companies for the R1 rights to Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The entire package; manga, novels, & animé, may be licensed here, to one company or several. (See 11/6/06 05:20 post.)
This is one animé I’m likely to spring for the box on, and pre-order to boot. DVD’s are cheaper to replace than hard drives, and I’ll wear mine out from rewatching the series! (Ok, the HD is hardly that fragile, but you get the picture.) An interesting note, scroll down to the 11/1/06 07:56PM post: American companies are getting behind on their license payments. The blame is placed on the fansubbers, but I suspect the real culprit is buying the licenses while the series is in pre-production rather than after it’s brodcast — and we know if it’s a stinker or not. (cough, Coyote Ragtime, cough, which looked awesome… for an episode.)
Update: Not only is the news circulating (as reported by Andrew, below) that Melancholy will be getting a second season in 2007, word has (over at Jason’s site) that Zero no Tsukaima is getting a second season. This time, Louise and Saito better get their shit (and lips) together.
Ah, but will the DVDs have the episodes in broadcast or chronological order? Probably the latter, since they’re coming out that way in Japan, but I personally loved the episode shuffling gimmick, and think the show works best in broadcast order (at least for the first viewing). In chronological order you have a great six-episode story arc followed by eight episodes of filler (really well done filler, but filler nonetheless). “Someday in the Rain” has its good points, but it’s terrible as an ending.
Some guy on the Anime on DVD forums worked out how, by including no more than six different episodes per disc in a four disc release, it becomes possible to watch in either order. I really like that idea, but somehow doubt the R1 licensor would go for it, since you could get all fourteen episodes without having to buy the second disc. Though it would be a royal pain to watch in either order if you did that…
None of that matters right now, though, because while looking for that post I stumbled across this news (in Japanese… sorry). According to the fine folks on AoD’s forums (and supported by what I could comprehend with my limited knowledge of Japanese), it says that Haruhi season two will begin airing next fall. It was actually moved up from 2008. MOON PHASE is a reputable Japanese site for anime news, so it’s most likely true. Excuse me while I go… um… do something celebratory….
WHAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
I would be amazed if they didn’t make a second season of Haruhi; it’s a huge hit, and there’s plenty of original material left in the novels. It would be like “No, we don’t want your money!”
Yeah, but now that I’ve had a moment to come down, I have to wonder. I’d heard (but don’t remember) the name of the next series KyoAni was doing after Kanon. My question is, did they decide to push it back (reasonable choice) or is another studio going to do it? (Very not reasonable choice: whom do I kill if that’s the case?)
Give me Melancholy by KyoAni, or (I) give you death!
Haruhi 2: The Wrath of Kyon in 2007?
Thank you, KyoAni. For showing us how to love… again!
Don’t worry… the MOON PHASE item was under the heading 京都アニメーション関係 (“Kyoto Animation kankei”, or “related to Kyoto Animation”), which seems to suggest that it will in fact be a KyoAni production.
Kyoto Animation’s next series after Kanon will be Lucky Star (らã☆ã™ãŸ), based on this 4-koma manga by Kagami YOSHIMIZU. Probably a half-season series, since it has to fit into the six months separating Kanon and Haruhi season 2 and Kyoto Animation usually takes a half-season break between TV series (it’s still a relatively small studio).