Death Note anime trailer

For those who are interested to watch a 15-sec trailer of the upcoming Death Note anime, you may download it from Anime-Source where there's a torrent posted today. You can hear the voices of Light and Ryuk in the clip while a brief introduction of the Death Note is playing in the background. Although I'm quite disappointed not to hear L's voice in this trailer and he will only appear after a while in the story, seeing his image is a little consolation to all L fans.

Personally, the first impression I have of Miyano Mamoru's voice for Light doesn't have a tinge of evilness at all. Maybe it's due to the fact that I've been having this impression from reading the manga that Light is a deep guy who has lots of clever ideas within without showing them on the surface but I can understand the rationale for making Light sound like an ordinary teenager right from the start so as to show the development of his character from one who believes in justice to someone who becomes too entrenched in his beliefs and goes wayward.

As for Nakamura Shido's potrayal of Ryuk, he sounds quite close to the impression I have of the character which probably suggests why he wasn't dropped from the movie or anime despite his recent scandal of drink-driving. If he wasn't that good, I think he would have been replaced under normal circumstances since that's what usually happens to celebrities who get into trouble with the law.

Nodame Cantabile-related clips

Here are some links to clips on YouTube where you may find out more information on the upcoming Nodame Cantabile drama and anime which are showing in Oct 06 and Jan 07 respectively. Apparently, the anime is supposed to continue from where the drama ends so I believe it is a strategy by FujiTV to ensure that viewers tune in to both adaptations.

The first clip has a brief introduction on the storyline, the two leads i.e. Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi as well as a short interview with Ueno.

Next up is a news clip of the Nodame Cantabile ending theme recording session which Ueno and Tamaki appeared at. I had posted the news article of this earlier so you may refer to my earlier post for more details.

Last but not least, here's a 30-sec trailer of the drama. Basically, what transpired between Nodame (Ueno) and Chiaki (Tamaki) was that she tried to confess her love to him and he told her to stay away because she didn't have a shower for days. In the manga, Nodame has a habit of bathing only once a day and washing her hair every 3 days so Chiaki had to be the shampoo guy for a number of times as he couldn't stand the stench from Nodame.

Nodame Cantabile drama's ending theme

Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi appeared on 19 Sep at the live recording of the ending theme, "Rhapsody in Blue" for the drama version of "Nodame Cantabile" which will be showing via FujiTV from 16 Oct. The piece was performed by a 130-strong orchestra formed specially for the filming of this drama and there are plans for the orchestra to release its album. Ueno plays Noda Megumi while Tamaki plays Chiaki Shinichi. As part of the preparation for her role as a student majoring in piano, Ueno bought an electronic keyboard to practise at home.

Death Note anime website

The Death Note anime website produced by NTV has been launched but it is not entirely functional yet. Details including the OA date i.e. 3 Oct and the main seiyuus are announced. Other than Hirano Aya (Amane Misa) and Kudo Haruka (Yagami Sayu) whom I'm aware of (the girls play Reira in NANA and Hagu in Hachimitsu to Clover), I'm not too familiar with the two male seiyuus Miyano Mamoru and Yamaguchi Kappei who are going to play Yagami Light and L respectively. Given that Misa's role will only carry much weight towards a later stage of the story and that Sayu isn't a big role after all, I guess they would have limited airtime. I just hope that Miyano and Yamaguchi will perform up to expectations since Death Note is a very popular manga which boasts of a strong following and none of the fans would want to see the anime being a botched attempt at riding on the wave of popularity created by the manga.

Another surprise was seeing Nakamura Shido's name in the lineup and he will reprise his role as Ryuk just like what he did for the movie. Considering the fact that he was recently involved in a traffic offence scandal, it's rather amazing that he has been allowed to come back to work in such a short time. I guess that has a lot to do with the fact that he's been regarded as the best man to play Ryuk and that he's very sought-after in showbiz. If he wasn't popular, I think NTV could have easily got another guy to play Ryuk so that the OA date of the anime would not be affected and to reduce any possibility of negative publicity.

Nodame Cantabile new merchandise info

The Nodame Cantabile 2007 calendar produced by Kodansha will be released on 20 Nov and the selling price is 1260 yen (inclusive of tax). The catalog number of this item is NEOKC-3579689.

In conjunction with the upcoming launch of the drama, there will be an original soundtrack (OST) to be released on 15 Nov 2006. The item costs 3059 yen and the catalog number is ESCL-2884. Looks like this CD produced by Epic Sony will also contain pieces from the S-orchestra formed specially for the filming of this drama which will be shown via FujiTV next month. The anime which begins in Jan next year will also be shown on the same TV station in the Noitamina slot which previously featured hits like Hachimitsu to Clover, Paradise Kiss, Ayakashi and Juousei.

Last but not least, the release date of the manga's volume 16 will be set as 13 Oct 2006.

Hachimitsu to Clover Official Postcard Set

Mekke! is selling the Hachimitsu to Clover official postcards in a set of 10 at 1000 yen each which features the 5 main characters i.e. Takemoto, Hagu, Morita, Yamada and Mayama. Each postcard measures 15cm by 10cm. The catalog number of this item is 4530430121113.

Among the selection, my favourites would be that of the night as a background with the three guys which should be the scene where they return from the public path as well as the solo picture of Morita doing his enka thing. Whenever I see him in this manner, it never fails to remind me of the prince of enka i.e. Hikawa Kiyoshi especially the parts where the crowd chants Morita's name "Shinobu" which has three syllables just like "Kiyoshi".

Now that the manga and anime are coming to an end, I can't help but feel sad about this but I'm hopeful that the story will be wrapped up in a nice way so as to make it memorable for fans. Although the last volume was released on last Friday, the local Kinokuniya will most likely bring it in before the end of this week. I can't wait to get a copy of Vol 10 soon! ^__^