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Idolm@ster, Pokémon, Moshidora, Always Promos Streamed
posted on by Daryl Bunao
The official website for the new anime adaptation of The IDOLM@STER game franchise began streaming the second 6-minute promotional video on Sunday. In the original Xbox 360 game, the player manages the careers of 10 aspiring Japanese idol singers as a producer. The new Summer 2011 television anime ties into The IDOLM@STER 2 game sequel, which shipped in Japan in February.
The official website also announced on Sunday that it is creating a "Real 765 Pro" project. The producers are offering the franchise's cast for real-world jobs such as narrating television programs, appearing at department store events, or acting as "campaign girls" for products — the same kind of jobs that the cast does within both the games and the upcoming anime.
The official Pokémon movie website began streaming the second full trailer for the upcoming pair of films, Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Victini to Kuroki Eiyū Zekrom and Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Victini to Shiroki Eiyū Reshiram, last week. Both films will open on July 16 in Japan. The video is not embeddable but can be viewed at this link.
The Victini movies collectively will be the 14th theatrical entry in the franchise since the franchise's big screen debut in 1998. Aside from featuring Victini, the "victory Pokémon," each film showcases one of the two legendary mascot characters of the Pokemon: Black and White! games — Zekrom and Reshiram.
Voice actress and singer Nana Mizuki, Kouichi Yamadera, Shōko Nakagawa, Hideki Takahashi, Shosuke Tanihara, Satomi Ishihara, and Mao Daichi have all been previously announced to play parts in the movies.
Additionally, the website of the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu revealed a movie promotion where players of the Pokemon: Black and White! games can download Victini into their games by reserving a ticket to either film. The promotional Victini will be level 50 and contain the moves V-Create (V-Generate) and Searing Shot (Kaen-Dan), as well as Zekrom and Reshiram's Fusion Bolt (Cross Thunder) and Fusion Flare (Cross Flame).
The official website for the live-action film adaptation of Natsumi Iwasaki's Moshi Kōkō Yakyū no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no "Management" o Yondara (Moshidora) business novel began streaming a full trailer and a second teaser trailer on Saturday. In the original novel, whose title can be translated as What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker's "Management"?, a high school girl named Minami Kawashima (AKB48 idol group member Atsuko Maeda) becomes the baseball team manager at Tokyo's Hodokubo High School. Minami accidentally buys Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices — a classic productivity guide by the Austrian-American management guru Peter Drucker — and uses it to rally her dispirited team.
The film will open on June 4. The Japanese public broadcaster NHK will also premiere a Moshidora television anime series from director Takayuki Hamana (The Prince of Tennis, The Beast Player Erin, Library War) and the anime studio Production I.G on April 25. A manga adaptation launched in Shueisha's Super Jump magazine last December. The novel has sold over 2 million copies since its debut in December of 2009, and it was last year's bestselling "general" book in Japan.
The official website for Always: Sunset on Third Street '64, Takashi Yamazaki's third live-action film based on Ryohei Saigan's nostalgic San-chōme no Yūhi - Yūyake no Uta manga, also began streaming a teaser trailer on Saturday. (In the linked page, select the "予告" option in the bottom menu.) The original manga, a 1990-1991 television anime series adaptation, and the first two live-action films followed the lives of people in a Tokyo neighborhood as the iconic Tokyo Tower rises above them. The new film is set several years later in 1964, the year that Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics that came to symbolize Japan's post-war revival. The new film will open in stereoscopic 3D in Japan next year.
[Via Yaraon!, Nippon Cinema (link 2)]
Image © Nintendo, Creatures, GAME FREAK, TV Tokyo, Sho-Pro, JR Kikaku © Pokémon © 2011 Pikachu Project
© 2012 Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 Production Committee
Update: More information about "Real 765 Pro Project" added.
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