Anime

Via Hot Shot News, the recent Akiba chat revealed that the new OVA will be titled Green vs. Red. Not many details beyond that at the moment, but the image in the news piece looks very intriguing.

Hot Shot News (official Japanese site) has two new reports up. Haven't fully translated them, but here is the general gist.

Not much information available, but they have the story summary, cast/staff, and overall summary available.

Babelfish translations give a decent idea of the special's concept. They are dipping back into the first TV series and basing this story off of the 13th episode "Beware of the Time Machine!".

They are being coy about the overall plot and villain, but it appears that Kyosuke Mamo or own of his descendants is after Lupin once again. The time machine is mentioned along with a "special guest". They are not revealing the voice actor for this special guest and/or villain either.

They are hyping up the 40th anniversary (manga) angle also. Hope this turns out better than the 30th anniversary (anime) Pycal story they did.

A LTT forum member posted that Japanese blogs have revealed the title and date of this year's special. Airing on July 27, the title appears to be "Elusiveness of the Fog". Telecom, the studio that animated Cagliostro, will be animating the special. NTV has yet to post their information about the special, but they should be posting something within the next week or two.

Geneon keeps pushing Lupin into new distribution channels; Anime News Network reports that the Akimbo video-on-demand service is the latest player to be peddling Lupin. The service requires Windows XP or Vista, Roxio Venue, and Windows Media Player 10 or higher for computers. Specific settop boxs for televisions can also deliver the service.

Geneon pushes further into digital distribution by offering titles via Xbox Live. No word yet on pricing, availability, etc.

Anime News Network is reporting that Geneon will be distributing Lupin via BitTorrent. No word yet on pricing other than they will be giving away the first episode for free. Geneon will be using the Vuze video service; Vuze requires digital rights management software from Windows XP or Vista, as well as Windows Media Player 10 or higher.

While I'm not wild about it being restricted to Windows only, that is OS of choice for most of the downloading nation. Will this revitalize the franchise in the US? It certainly couldn't hurt.

While it does not reveal any details about this year's special, the soundtrack is set to be released on 2007 August 01. Spotted by a member of the LupinTheThird.net forums, you can pre-order it at CD Japan months in advance.

Hot Shot News (Japanese) is reporting that the Toho Gifu theater will be showing Cagliostro for six days starting on November 11. If you are lucky enough to be in Japan, go see one of the great classic films.

Find them both on my blog. Currently one other Lupin item you might be interested in on there also. Check back often if you like as I will be slowly but surely posting pics of my Lupin toys and generally rambling on about things.

Enjoy!