"Anime 1 Week" brings you a summary of the latest anime news from the past week. From September 15th to 21st, news of the screening of all three parts of the elusive 8mm film version of "Space Battleship Yamato" and the unveiling of a new mobile suit from "Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem of Revenge" attracted attention.
On the 15th, it was announced that a live performance by the band "FIRE BOMBER" from the popular anime series "Macross" "Macross 7", entitled "SANKYO presents MACROSS 7 30th Anniv. FIRE BOMBER LIVE 2025 ~BURN! BURN! BURN!~" will be held at Toyosu PIT (Koto-ku, Tokyo) on February 21st and 22nd, 2025. Yoshiki Fukuyama, who sings for Basara Nekki, and Chie Kajiura, who sings for Mireille Flare Jenius, will appear. This will be the first time the two have performed together as "FIRE BOMBER" in about six years since "MACROSS CROSSOVER LIVE 2019 at Makuhari Messe" in 2019, and their first solo live performance in about 13 years since "FIRE BOMBER 2012" in 2012.
On the 15th, it was announced that the second season of the TV anime "Little Citizen Series," based on a novel by Honobu Yonezawa, known for "Hyouka" and other works, will be produced and will begin airing in April 2025. "The Autumn Limited Chestnut Kinton Incident" and "The Winter Limited Bonbon Chocolat Incident" will be animated.
On the 16th, it was announced that "Virgin Punk," an original anime series by director Yasuomi Umezu, known for "A KITE" and "MEZZO FORTE," will be produced. This will be Umezu's first work in about 10 years, and he will team up with Shaft, the studio behind "Puella Magi Madoka Magica."
On the 16th, it was announced that a new anime, "EP24.5: Rain Fragment - The Penultimate Truth-", will be produced for the original robot anime "Aldnoah.Zero" that aired from 2014 to 2015. It will be included in a Blu-ray disc box set to be released on March 26, 2025, 10 years after the broadcast of the final episode.
On the 17th, it was announced that the movie version of the 21st installment of the popular anime "PreCure" series, "Wonderful PreCure!", "Wonderful PreCure! The Movie! A Thrilling Adventure in the Game World!", recorded a box office revenue of approximately 497 million yen in the four days since its release on the 13th. The number of viewers was approximately 405,000. This is the second highest opening box office revenue in the series' history, after the movie version "PreCure All Stars F" released last year.
On the 17th, the opening four-minute clip of the popular anime series "Gundam" "Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem of Revenge" was premiered at the Netflix event "Geeked Week 2024". It is an original 3D anime with six episodes focusing on the European front of the One Year War. It starts with a tense scene of Zeon soldiers walking through silent ruins, then turns into a battlefield where a fierce battle with the Earth Federation Forces unfolds, and the Red Wolf Corps' Zaku II F begins to descend... Visuals of mobile suits such as Zaku II F (LeShon's), Zaku II F (Chubs'), Zaku II F (Kayle's), Gouf Custom, Zaku Tank, GM, and Land Assault Guntank B were also released.
On the 18th, it was revealed that the total number of copies of the popular light novel series "The Apothecary's Diary" by Natsu Hinata, which was born from the novel submission site "Let's Become a Novelist", has exceeded 38 million. The series is also popular as a TV anime, with a total circulation of approximately 24 million copies as of the end of September 2023 before the first season began, and surpassing 27 million copies in about one month after the start of the broadcast in October 2023. By the end of the first season in March 2024, the circulation had exceeded 33 million copies, and continued to grow without slowing down, surpassing a total of 38 million copies in September. This is an increase of approximately 14 million copies in about one year after the TV anime began broadcasting.
On the 19th, it was announced that a second season of the TV anime "My Neighbor, Arya-san, Who Sometimes Whimsically Says Love in Russian (Rosidere)," based on the light novel by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko (KADOKAWA), will be produced. The second season will be an anime adaptation of episodes from the fourth volume of the original work.
On the 20th, it was revealed that the first event in the 50th anniversary project of the popular anime "Space Battleship Yamato" will be the "Space Battleship Yamato 50th Anniversary Screening," which will screen all three episodes of the 8mm film version of "Space Battleship Yamato." The 8mm film version is a re-edited version of all 26 episodes of the TV series, and unlike the edit of the "Space Battleship Yamato: The Movie" released in 1977, it is a "little known" video that uses new narration. This will be the first time it will be released in theaters. The one-night-only screening event will be held at Shinjuku Piccadilly (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo) at the same time on the same day in 2024, exactly 50 years after the TV broadcast began at 7:30 pm on October 6, 1974, and will be planned and produced by director Hideaki Anno, known for the "Evangelion" series, etc. On the 20th, the main visual and official trailer for the second chapter, "Red Sun's Sortie," of "Yamato Forever REBEL3199," the latest installment in the "Space Battleship Yamato" remake series, were released. The main visual was drawn by character designer Yuki Nobuteru, and depicts the enemy officer Alphon, who faces off against the main character, Kodai Susumu, with "someone with blonde hair" in Alphon's arms. The official trailer shows the scene where the Space Runaway finally takes off.
On the 20th, it was announced that the Blu-ray Disc box set "Space Runaway Ideon Blu-ray BOX," for the robot anime "Space Runaway Ideon," which aired from 1980 to 1981, will be reproduced and released on December 18th. The BD box set released in 2013 became a collector's item and was traded at high prices for a long time, but it will be reproduced in 2025, the 45th anniversary of the start of the TV anime broadcast.
On the 20th, it was announced that a new anime project for the popular Mobile Police Patlabor series, Mobile Police Patlabor EZY, will be launched in 2026. It will be directed by Izubuchi Yutaka, with series composition and scriptwriting by Ito Kazunori. J.C.STAFF will produce the anime. Visuals for Ingram Plus (AV-98plus) were also released.
On the 21st, it was revealed that Arawi Keiichi's manga CITY, known for Nichijou and other works, will be made into an anime and broadcast in 2025. The anime will be titled CITY THE ANIMATION, will be directed by Ishidate Taichi, known for works such as Beyond the Boundary and Violet Evergarden, and will be produced by Kyoto Animation, the company behind the Nichijou TV anime. This will be the first time Kyoto Animation has produced a new anime, excluding sequels, in about six years.
On the 21st, it was announced that a movie version of the anime Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, based on the manga by Cool Kyou Shinja, entitled Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: The Lonely Dragon, will be produced and released in 2025. Like the TV anime, it will be produced by Kyoto Animation, and will be directed by Ishihara Tatsuya, who also directed the second season of the TV anime Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S. This will be the first time that a movie version of the work will be produced.
