The Times, They Are A Changin'?

This will probably be a short entry.

Over the past couple of years, one of the major trends in anime has been the 'Harem' genre, but I think starting in 2006 we're going to be seeing a return some of the more classic titles. Being a fan of classical anime, this is exciting to me. However, I really cannot predict where this sort of trend will go, or even if it will become a trend throughout the industry.

Two of the titles I am looking forward to right now are Wings of Rean 『リーンの翼』 and Hokuto no Ken - Raoh-den Jun'ai no Shou 『北斗の拳 ラオウ伝 - 殉愛の章』.

Wings of Rean is a continuation of the Legend of Byston Well. Byston Well is the fictional setting created by Tomino Yoshiyuki for his cult-classic Aura Battler Dunbine. Dunbine, while only recently become known to American fandom (thanks to ADV's well done releases), has become a cult classic amongst Japanese fandom. The original TV series ran from 1982~83; the series featured a couple of OAV sequels in the late 1980s and a movie in the Nineties, Garzey's Wing 『ガージーの翼』.

What's more interesting, while Dunbine carried many of Tomino's mature 'Real Robot' (Though, there is a unique twist that Dunbine is a mecha series in a fantasy setting; you know, unicorns and knights) that were cliche throughout the 1980s, Sunrise is pursuing a new streaming format for the release of Wings of Rean. While many people think of the OAV as a mainstaple of the Otaku diet, it is a very recent invention. Afterall, modern anime have been appearing in movie theaters and on telvision since the 1960s, the OAV did not arise until the middle 1980s. Sunrise is releasing the new Wings of Rean as an ONA - Original Net Animation. Hopefully this will branch out into more releases in this format.

The next big news, reported last week, was the new Hokuto no Ken movies. The movies are based off of the new OAV series (featuring much of the same artwork) Raoh-den Jun'ai no Shou. The website's trailers look great and I am looking forward to this trilogy starting this Spring.

Though, speaking of Hokuto No Ken, there was some recent news from Manga Video here in the United States. Manga has had some licenses discontinued recently, most notable are the Hokuto no Ken TV series and Mobile Police Patlabor. More to come on this as time develops. However, with companies now losing licenses, I think this goes to show how saturated the North American anime market has become over the past couple of years.