Yay, Shana wins! The hottest loli (no pun intended) to ever grace the anime world, Shana from "Shakugan no Shana II," managed to win her round & crush her competition. Miyu Kuonji (KimiAru) & Ai Kaga (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei) didn't stand a chance. I think I'll need a refresh of who's still in this tournament at this point, but right now I'm pretty sure Shana is my choice to go all the way. Despite this being her third Saimoe Tournament in a row, she has yet to win it. She made it all the way to the semifinals in 2006, & was one of the Sweet 16 last year in 2007. These trends may dictate that she'll do even worse this year, but I'm hoping that this time she'll do it.

The resident loli of NebsTV/GX_ST's "Rosario + Vampire," Yukari Sendou, competed today as well. Sadly she didn't do so well, but guess who did. If you said a Nanoha girl, then you'd be right! Caro Ru Lushe of "Nanoha StrikerS" managed to beat her & Kirari Tsukishima of "Kirarin☆Revolution." Sorry Yukari, I guess being a lesbian loli wasn't enough. Better luck next year, because she will have the chance to compete again thanks to the second season of RosaVam coming this Fall.

& finally, the cute Tamaki Kawazoe of "Bamboo Blade" won her round. Her kendo partner in crime, Sayako Kuwabara, didn't fair so well though. I guess all the Bamboo Blade fans were too busy voting for Tamaki, as Anzelotte of "Night Wizard" put up a good fight, but it wasn't enough to win.

Tomorrow, one of the most famous names in anime history enters the Saimoe Tournament for the very first time. Rei Ayanami of Evangelion prepares to fight for the first time, despite her series being 10 years old. But wait, you say. How can a character from an old series compete in a tournament that consists of only characters from the past year? Don't forget now that the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie was in theaters this past year, so it counts. Unfortunately Asuka wasn't in the first movie, meaning she CAN'T compete. How fair is that that we get Rei but not Asuka? Asuka should be in next year's tournament, & you can bet she'll get my FULL support. But it wont be easy for Rei, as she'll be going against the popular lesbian loli from "Kodomo no Jikan," Kuro Kagami. So will an old favorite, who's one of the most fapped to girls in anime history, win? Or will a newer but very popular DFC loli character take the crown? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

...Oh, & Akira from Lucky Star's Lucky Channel will be competing as well, but I spent so much talking about Rei & Kuro that we've run out of time! Bye-bee!!

Source: http://www.moetron.com/2008/09/05/%ef%bd%a2saimoe-%e2%80%9808%ef%bd%a3-group-e-day-2-block-1st-round-results/

The first Haruhi Suzumiya game for the Nintendo Wii isn't even out yet, but that isn't stopping a second Haruhi Wii game from being announced. While the first game is more known for its dancing theme, this one will be focusing more on the adventure story side of things. The plot will be an original one that takes place on ship filled with mysterious events. Aside from the five SOS Brigade members, Tsuruya-san, Taniguchi, & Kyon's sister seem to be in the game as well.

With the first Wii game as well as the Haruhi DS game scheduled to come out this Winter, this new title is scheduled to hit Japan in the Spring of 2009. Just a shame that none of these Haruhi games will likely ever see the light of day outside of Asia.

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/09/03/new-haruhi-wii-game/

4Kids Entertainment has released their Fall schedules for both Saturday morning blocks they control- 4KidsTV on Fox, & the CW4Kids. The schedule confirms once again that Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's will premiere on CW4Kids on September 13 at 10:30am. & with new episodes of Dinosaur King, Ninja Turtles, & Viva Pinata moving from 4KidsTV to CW4Kids, they seem to be all but abandoning their original Fox block. 4KidsTV isn't totally without new programming, though. New episodes of Biker Mice from Mars (really?) & Di-Gata Defenders will continue, as will the new Chaotic season entitled "Chaotic: M'arrillian Invasion." Reruns of the original Chaotic season will air on CW4Kids.

But one thing that's noticeably missing from both blocks' schedules is Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Despite originally scheduled to air on CW4Kids alongside 5D's, the series has now dropped off TV entirely. It's been rumored for awhile now that 4Kids wouldn't dub the final season of GX & instead just focus all of their attention on 5D's. & now with this change in schedule, it appears to be true.

The GX dub ended with the duel between Judai Jaden & Yubel, with Jaden fusing their souls together in order to send everybody else home. The final episode of season 3, which was mostly a recap but also showed Judai returning to Earth at the very end, has not yet been shown. & thus Jaden's fate in the dub remains a mystery, just like the fate of the series itself. It'd be a shame if 4Kids decided to drop the series with only 25 episodes left to go. Maybe the dubbers didn't like Judai's change in attitude in season 4? Let's just hope it'll return eventually. But anyway, here's the schedules for both blocks as they stand now:

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The creator of the Kite anime franchise, Yasuomi Umetsu, has written on the series blog that he is currently working on a sequel to the Kite Liberator OVA. Liberator is itself a loose sequel to the original Kite OVA from 1998, & is actually partially a hentai title in its original form. The OVA was also adapted into a play a theater group at my school put together, interestingly enough.

Liberator was free of the adult material seen in the original, as it was never Umetsu's vision to include such content in his story in the first place. Liberator did however end on an incredibly annoying cliffhanger, which pissed off a lot of fans of the franchise. Many had hoped that a sequel was in the works, because otherwise it'd just be a terrible ending to the story. & now we've finally been able to confirm that yes, more Kite is in the works.

Source: http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/09/04/kite-liberator-sequel-in-development/

ABC Family is hosting a special event this weekend by airing their brand new "Samurai Girl" miniseries. Based on a young-adult novel series of the same name (& no relation to the anime/manga series of the same name), Samurai Girl is about a Japanese teen named Heaven learning sword fighting in San Francisco in order to avenge her brother's murder at the hands of some Yakuza.

There are six hour-long episodes to this miniseries in total, with two episodes airing every night this weekend starting tonight at 8pm (Eastern/Pacific). The next two will air tomorrow night, with the final two eps showing on Sunday. Looks interesting I'd say, & Entertainment Weekly seems to like it enough. Rating the series with a B+, here's what they had to say about it:

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So Nono lost too, huh? First Kazumi lost yesterday, & now Nono today. It seems that the TRULY moe characters keep losing while the popular characters move forward. But surprising at least to me, Nia didn't win either. That of course can only mean that Natsumi Asou of "Sketchbook ~full color’s~" beat both Nia Teppelin (Gurren Lagann) & Nono Nekomiya (Yotsunoha). A close battle between all 3 of them, with each getting in the 400 mark.

In another battle, the star of Nanoha herself went up against one of her own kind. But the surprising factor wasn't the other Nanoha chick, buit rather the third contender. In the end though, Nanoha Takamachi of "Nanoha StrikerS" beat out Hiromi Yuasa (true tears) & Signum (Nanoha StikerS). The surprising thing was that Hiromi actually almost one! A mere 20 votes separated the two of them. & there even a bunch of fake votes for both girls, & when including them Hiromi actually won. But we can't include fake votes... unfortunately. Signum wasn't even a factor here, as she didn't even break the 100 vote mark. I guess all the Nanoha-tards were too busy trying to make sure their queen would win. We were THIS close!

& finally, the main character of Strike Witches sister series "Sky Girls" did indeed win her round with no trouble. Otoha Sakurano (Sky Girls) defeated Ayano Kannagi (Kaze no Stigma) & Shinra Kuoniji (KimiAru). & that ends the first day of the Group E battles.

Tomorrow... SHANA, SHANA, SHANA!! Shana enters the battle! She's probably my choice to go all the way right now. Despite this being her third Saimoe Tournament in a row now, she's still a fan-favorite. I don't know if she can come through & win the the whole thing this time around, but she'll at least advance past this round. The resident loli of NebsTV/GX_ST's "Rosario + Vampire" fights tomorrow as well. But uh-oh, she's going up against yet ANOTHER Nanoha girl. Should be a tough battle. & finally, two "Bamboo Blade" girls fight against each other. Maybe they'll have a kendo match to see who advances. But I think the cuter Tamaki should be able to beat Sayako.

Source: http://www.moetron.com/2008/09/04/%ef%bd%a2saimoe-%e2%80%9808%ef%bd%a3-group-e-day-1-block-1st-round-results/

SpiceWolf 13:
http://home.comcast.net/~nebs66/nebstv/channel3.html

5Ds 23:
http://home.comcast.net/~nebs66/nebstv/channel1.html

Hayate 17:
http://home.comcast.net/~nebs66/nebstv/channel4.html

Ninomiya 6:
http://home.comcast.net/~nebs66/nebstv/channel2.html

Hatenko Yugi 10:
http://home.comcast.net/~nebs66/nebstv/gx_st.html

STRIKE WITCHES ［Episode 10: Trust and Friendship］

In her encounter with Neuroi, Yoshika makes an unauthorized decision. As a result, Minna grounds her and confines her to her room for a certain period of time. However, a pressing matter arises which leaves Yoshika no choice but to sneak out of her room. As she leaves her room, she runs into her friend Lynne who came to see if Yoshika was okay....

BOST TV: http://www.bosttv.com/gonzo/strike-witches/episodes/strikew10
Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-408158/Strike-Witches-Episode-10-Trust-and-Friendship.html

What's this? Kazumi lost?! Noooo!!!! She's too cute to lose. ;;_;; & of course, it just HAD to be a Nanoha slut that beat her. It was a relatively close battle though, with only about a 60 point difference. But in the end, Teana Lanster of "Nanoha StrikerS" beat out Kazumi Yoshida (Shakugan no Shana II) & Iinchou (Seto no Hanayome). Sadly, Kazumi just couldn't gather enough votes.

But in the good news department, NebsTV & GX_ST's own Rahzel Anadis of "Hatenkou Yuugi" won her round! The cute Rahzel managed to win against the cat character Mike from "Sketchbook ~full color’s~" & Marina Ismail of "Gundam 00." & yes, the cat beat the Gundam chick. It got over 300 votes. What the hell is wrong with the otaku in this tournament? But it doesn't matter, because Rahzel won!

& finally, Yume Asakura of "D.C.II" defeated Yuumi Hoshino (Kimikiss pure rouge) & Himawari Kunogi (xxxHOLiC◆Kei). Yeah, I don't really have anything else to say about that round.

Tomorrow in the beginning of Group E, the insanely adorable/cute/moe/kawaii/all-around-awesome Nono from Yotsunoha. She's definitely one of my favorite anime girls of the past year just because of how utterly cute she is. Completely irresistible. But she does have some tough competition in the form of Nia from Gurren Lagann. Nono will have my support all the way, but I don't think she can beat Nia. The main girl of Sky Girls (the predecessor to Strike Witches) competes in a different category. If the Japanese love for those loli pilots is anything like their love for Strike Witches, she should have no problem winning. Also another Nanoha girl. No wait, make that THE Nanoha girl. That's right, Nanoha herself finally enters the Saimoe Tournament. She's also going up against one of her own kind- another Nanoha chick. That means that they both can't win! Take that, you whores! That's right, fight amongst yourselves! Bwahahaha!

Source: http://www.moetron.com/2008/09/03/%ef%bd%a2saimoe-%e2%80%9808%ef%bd%a3-group-d-day-4-block-1st-round-results/

So it seems LittleKuriboh has started work on a new little side project here. Kaiba & Mokuba are going on a journey that involves their real father. Why LK's doing this little series & not including them in the actual episodes is a bit of a mystery to me. As is what he's actually trying to accomplish with it. It all just seems very random, but it's funny, so that's all that really counts in the end. How long this will go on for remains to be seen.

But speaking of random Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged videos, there's one more unusual treat waiting for you after the jump:

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Even though the DragonBall live-action movie trailer wont be in theaters until October 17, it seems to have been leaked early to at least one person. Supposed images of the trailer have been flooding the interwebs since yesterday. Among some... interesting shots, we finally get our first look at live-action Piccolo!

I must say though, I was really hoping that once we saw the film in action, it'd prove all those naysayers wrong who say the movie's gonna suck. But these pics don't really make the film look all that great to me. Well, I'll still hold out some hope yet. The leaked pics can be spotted here:

http://www.dragonballmovieblog.net/2008/09/trailer-screen-capturespiccolos-reveal/

This month on the FUNimation Monthly Update podcast, they sat down with the star/director of the live-action Japanese fighting movie "Shinobi" for an interview. After that, we get a look at the various steps of production in anime dubbing & find out how much the people at each level research what they're working on. It's quite a lot, actually.

& that's really it for this month. A bit short, but it's still over 10 minutes of interesting information. & they do promise to announce a brand new license for the first time on next week's Quickie podcast. So there's something to look forward to. Any guesses on what it might be? Until then, check out this ep above, or download it below:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/funimation/Update_September_final-iPhone.m4v

The highly popular (in terms of her own series, anyway) Tomoyo Sakagami of "CLANNAD" managed to beat out her competition with ease. Both Sheryl Nome (Macross FRONTIER) & Chigusa Sakai (Shakugan no Shana II) fell to her popularity. Now if it were a certain other Macross F girl she was going up against, things may have been different.

Another Shana character was able to fair much better though. Wilhelmina Carmel of "Shakugan no Shana II" managed to beat out Dairi Mubyou (Wagaya no Oinari-sama) & Yume Kuonji (KimiAru).

Finally, Miyako of "Hidamari Sketch" defeated both Adilicia Ren Mathers (Rental Magica) & Meru Otonashi (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei).

A bit boring & dry today, but tomorrow we got some real gems. Rahzel from NebsTV & GX_ST's "Hatenkou Yuugi" (which comes to an end this week) will be entering the tournament! She goes up against a Gundam 00 chick &... a cat. No, not a catgirl. An actual cat. Needless to say, I think Rahzel's odds are good. Not only that, but we got the lovely & hawt Kazumi from "Shakaugan no Shana!" Please please please let her win tomorrow! While Shana herself is my favorite girl of that series, Kazumi is a fav of mine as well. I think of her as a better version of Mikuru from Haruhi. She too has a loli face with a large chest, but she's a lot less whiny than Mikuru is. But what's this? She's going up against a Nanoha girl?! Uh-oh....

Source: http://www.moetron.com/2008/09/02/%ef%bd%a2saimoe-%e2%80%9808%ef%bd%a3-group-d-day-3-block-1st-round-results/

A video demo for a bunch of the mini games in the To Love-Ru DS game has surfaced online. It includes poking, girls in towels, heavy breathing, & the latest & most awesome game yet- squirting milk on strawberries! Yes, as the end of the video indicates, there comes a challenge where Lala is holding a strawberry & you have to squirt the white liquid on it. But since she moves it around a lot, you'll often "accidentally" squirt some on her face & chest. A pity, I know.

Aside from that, everyone's favorite virtual idol Miku Hatsune is now getting a portable game for the PSP. You can find a trailer for that below. Other vids include the extremely weird original ending to Tekken, some Japanese school girls unrespectfully dancing to a song from a hentai game in front of the Atomic Dome memorial in Hiroshima (showing their pantsu at one point), a few Pokemon Platinum commercials, & much much more:

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So the War of the Abridged Series Creators took some time off for a week, but now it rages on like an inferno once again. The Abridged Overlord seems to be only growing in power, & he now has another minion on his side. This can be only bad news for all, as can be seen below. If only one of the others running for Abridged Overlord (like myself) can dethrone him. Doesn't seem to be going that way though. Maybe if Team FourStar intervenes, something big will happen. A few more vids below:

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