News New ANN Staff Opening

Rent-A-Girlfriend Manga Gets Crossover Smartphone Game With Other Shonen Magazine Heroines

Jun 18, 19:00

games

Including girls from Fairy Tail, Seven Deadly Sins, Domestic Girlfriend, more ― A new website opened on Thursday to announce that Reiji Miyajima's Rent-A-Girlfriend (Kanojo, Okarishimasu) manga is inspiring a smartphone game titled Kanojo, Okarishimasu Heroine All-Stars that will launch in September. The game will feature crossover characters from other series that have appeared in Kodansha's Weekly ...

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The Spring 2021 Light Novel Guide

Jun 18, 17:00

novels

The second half of Anime News Network's Light Novel Guide is live! Kim Morrissy and Rebecca Silverman check out the latest releases including I Swear I Won't Bother You Again!, The King of the Dead at the Dark Palace, I Have a Secret, and more! ― Isekai may still dominate the light novel game as presented by English-language translations, but we're certainly seeing more variations on its theme. That...

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The Spring 2021 Manga Guide

Jun 18, 14:07

manga

The Manga Guide comes to the close with its final round of updates with new volumes from June! Now: Ya Boy Kongming!, Undead Girl Murder Farce, Kirby Manga Mania, I Swear I Won't Bother You Again!, Yakuza Lover, Fist of the North Star, Bofuri, Ride Your Wave, and more! ― Welcome to Anime News Network's Spring 2021 Manga Guide! You may have seen one of our seasonal Anime Preview Guides, where a team ...

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Intern Annika - Is she dying?

Jun 18, 13:00

4 comments

just for fun

Annika gets down to work, but something isn't quite right! ―

review

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning

Jun 18, 12:00

live-action

On the thematic side of things, Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning tells the story of two broken people, each driven only by their own singular, all-consuming goals. ― Like many American anime fans in the 90s, my first introduction into Rurouni Kenshin wasn't the TV anime, but rather the OVA—localized at the time as Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal. In stark contrast to the light-hearted yet action-filled TV ...

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Reimagining The World Ends With You

Jun 18, 10:00

anime

Are the anime staff doing a good enough job accounting for the differences between playing TWEWY or watching it and making sure its still an enjoyable experience that at least honors the original game? ― 2021 seems to be a good year for fans of the popular 2007 DS game The World Ends With You; the long-awaited sequel called NEO is coming out soon on July 27th but in the time being, the anime adaptat...

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Crunchyroll Originals Have Been A Disaster

Jun 18, 09:00

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industry

Callum May evaluates the streaming services attempts at original content and Crunchyroll's questionable lack of clarity about its own projects, including its seemingly shuttered Tokyo studio. ― It's difficult to sum up exactly what a “Crunchyroll Original” series is. If you ask Alden Budill, head of global partnerships and content strategy, she'll tell you that “a CR Original is a piece of content th...

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Summer 2021 Anime Trailer Watch Party With SungWon Cho!

Jun 17, 16:00

anime

Consider this your official invitation to the Summer 2021 Anime Trailer Watch Party with SungWon Cho! Tune in LIVE on Wednesday, June 23rd at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT! ― Consider this your official invitation to the Summer 2021 Anime Trailer Watch Party with SungWon Cho! Tune in LIVE on Wednesday, June 23rd at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT! Voice actor and YouTube personality SungWon (ProZD) will join executive editor Lynz...

review

Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Jun 17, 12:20

anime

The ingredients for a simple but effective crime thriller are here, which may make wonder why you have heard so little about it. The reasoning becomes apparent: despite all of its components, IWGP is far less than the sum of its parts. ― A new anime adaptation of a series of novels that's been out for two decades and change, Ikebukuro West Gate Park makes an earnest effort to be an accessible new ver...

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This Week in Anime - Crying Your Eyes Out with Fruits Basket

Jun 17, 09:00

anime

The tearjerker draws to a close in the final season of this drama-filled classic. Nicky and Steve look back on the characters, warts and all, to reveal the deep bonds of family and how to overcome those bonds when they turn into chains. ― The tearjerker draws to a close in the final season of this drama-filled classic. Nicky and Steve look back on the characters, warts and all, to reveal the deep bo...

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This Week in Games - E3 Careens Off A Cliff

Jun 16, 15:30

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games

Whether it was big announcements failing to land, expected showcases not materializing, companies showing next to nothing new, or the seemingly endless stream of filler, E3 found new and exciting ways to disappoint almost everybody. ― Boy, E3 2021 sure was a hot mess! I'm not sure how much of it had to do with COVID destroying production schedules, the seeming disorganization of the event itself, or ...

review

2 comments

A Journal of My Father GN

Jun 16, 09:00

2 comments

manga

The late Taniguchi's Eisner-nominated manga follows a man's realization that the person he always built his father to be in his mind did not represent the entirety of him, and that maybe he loved Yoichi more than he ever realized. ― It is hard, I think, to ever really know our parents as people. How can we? To most of us, for most of our lives, they are parents, a class of people somehow removed from...

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Uzumaki Feeds Off the Claustrophobia of a Small Town

Jun 16, 09:00