North American licensing company, Sentai Filmworks, announced that they have acquired the rights to the second season of K-ON! yesterday. Sentai Filmworks will collaborate with Bang Zoom! Entertainment in order to bring the hit television anime series to North America later this year. The 26 episode series will be released on both BluRay and DVD along with the an OVA in both English (dubbed) & Japanese (with subtitles).

This comes as welcomed news to fans of the series, since the license holder of the previous season, Bandai Entertainment, had shut down distribution activities earlier this year.

It's that time of year again. As March approaches, Vocaloid fans everywhere know to be on the look out for 39's Giving Day. 39's Giving Day, a play on words (since 3 is san and 9 is kyu in Japanese it sounds like "Thank You"), is the annual Vocaloid concert held in Japan using 3D technology. This year's event is extra special though.

This year is the final 39's Giving Day concert and as it's name suggests it will be held on March 9, 2012. But if that isn't enough, Hatsune Miku Live Party 2012 (also called MIKUPA for short) is on March 8 this year, meaning two days of back to back Vocaloid events. While tickets to watch both events live may be gone already, Nico Nico Douga and it's English counterpart, NicoNico, are streaming both concerts. Each concert will set you back about $25 and can be viewed any time between when it airs live and March 16, 2012. If you purchase a ticket to watch both it will only cost you $40.

Kadokawa Pictures' youtube channel began streaming the trailer for their upcoming Strike Witches movie. The film which was originally announced in October of 2010 is scheduled to premiere in theaters on March 17, 2012. You'll find the trailer for the theatrical film which is based on 2 television anime series and an ova below.

In school they always tell you not to copy others' works, but what happens if your textbook is guilty of that very act? Esteemed 2channel users have spotted an oddly familiar face in a French guide to the Japanese language. Perhaps it is a coincidence, but it doesn't stop there. They went so far as to track down the source image to prove that this had to be a serious case of TRACE ON. You'll find the incriminating evidence of this Simmons-style homage below.

Nico Nico Douga will be streaming the first episode of the English dub of the hit anime, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica next week. The first episode is scheduled to air Friday, February 10, 2012 at 11:30 PM EST on the Nico Nico Live program. Fans who live in Japan, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand will be able to tune in to watch. After the episode there will be a special segment with three of the English voices behind the characters.

English speaking viewers can watch the stream on Aniplex USA's NicoNico channel.

Source: [Presepe] via [ANN]

UPDATE: Added link to stream.

Funimation announced at Ohayocon, last week that they have acquired additional rights to the popular series from last season, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (I Don't Have Very Many Friends) which is known as Haganai for short. Although the company originally had the streaming rights to the series, they have now added broadcast, home entertainment, merchandising, mobile and additional streaming rights to their arsenal. Furthermore, a DVD and Blu-Ray release is already planned for the anime which is based on a series of light novels by the same name.

Although the winter season is still in its infancy, upcoming Spring 2012 Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope) is so notable that we have to talk about it right now. The series which is based on an award winning manga by the same name is notable for more than its awards and the fact that it will be airing as part of the Noitamina programming block. The series' trailer (which you'll find below) and official website have indicated that director Shinichirou Watanabe of Cowboy Bebop fame will be reuniting with composer Yoko Kanno (also of Cowboy Bebop fame) to work on the anime upcoming anime adaptation.

The series, which is based on Yuuki Kodama's shoujo manga, follows Nishimi Kaoru. Kaoru is a perpetual transfer student, who befriends his new school's class president, Mukae Ritsuko, and its local delinquent, Kawabuchi Sentaro. While they seem like they have nothing in common, it's their love of jazz that brings them together in a coming of age story with heavy emphasis on music. With a subject matter like that it's no surprise that such a stellar team has been assembled for the series. Check out the trailer and staff list below.

It sure has been a while since we've last heard any news on Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi (Ookami-san and Her Seven Companions). In fact, the last time we heard about it was when Funimation announced that they had licensed it at Otakon 2010. Today Funimation unleashed the English dub of the 12 episode anime series on their website as well as a trailer on youtube which you'll find below. The English dub voice cast has only been revealed to Funimation's premium video service subscribers so far. It also shouldn't come as a surprise that a Limited Edition DVD / BluRay combo pack for the series has now been posted online with a release date of April 3, 2012.

Two days ago, we blacked out our website in protest against the US legislation known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) & the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). We'd like to thank you for supporting our decision to do so. While we do not condone piracy, we would rather deal with it over the loss of a free and open internet. The end result of participating in such a drastic move along with major websites like Google, Wikipedia & Craigslist is that 7 million people signed Google's petition against both bills, 162 million people saw the Wikipedia blackout and 8 million of those people went on to get the contact information for their representatives. All in all it was the largest internet protest action to date and in effect has been successful.

Earlier this morning Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) tweeted that just like SOPA, voting on PIPA has been shelved indefinitely. While this is cause for celebration we're not out of the woods yet. The price of liberty is to remain ever vigilant against those who wish to take that liberty away. There will come another time when we are faced with that same threat from legislators who try to legislate technologies they do not understand. As a result, it's necessary that we all remain informed and not grow complacent.

Alright my non-American friends, take your bandwidth caps off, we're in for a wild ride. Anime streaming site, Crunchyroll has added full 1080p streaming for some of their anime titles. As of press time, we are not aware of any other anime streaming site that allows this kind of bandwidth abusing but eye pleasing streaming.

They plan to offer the 1080p option to paid subscribers, starting with approximately 20 titles which include Naruto Shippuden, Bleach & Nisemonogatari. HD-philes should probably take note that it's rare for 1080p to even be broadcast on TV so it's possible that Crunchy's 1080p option is really an upscale from either 720p or 1080i.

via UK Anime Network