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Crunchyroll media distribution company has revealed on their company website that it is beginning to stream Kunio Kato's Oscar-winning short, La Maison en Petits Cubes (Tsumiki no le or House of Blocks) today at 6:00am EDT. The anime won the Best Animated Short Film at the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

The 12-minute work uses paper drawings and 2D computer graphics to tell the story of a grandfather's memories as he adds more blocks to his house to stem the flooding waters. It was the second Japanese animated work to win a major Oscar, after Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. ~ Anime News Network
Along with Kato's Petits Cubes is the streaming of Kato's The Diary of Tortov Roddle Short which will took place at 6:00 am EDT as well.

Crunchyroll has already begun to stream Studio Fantasia's Glass Maiden television anime series (pictured above). Streaming of the series began on Wednesday. Other recently added anime titles include; the Dark Side Cat Flash anime series, the Greathunt Flash anime series and the Japan Tourism Anime Channel shorts.

Source: Anime News Network

Gag Manga Biyori's 4th Comedy TV Anime adaption was given the green lit as announced on the wraparound jacket band on the 10th volume of Kousuke Masuda's Gag Manga Biyori.

The third anime series based on the nonsensical gag comedy debuted last year and more details for the fourth anime series will be revealed in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine. The August issue will ship on Saturday.

Source: Anime News Network

Maru Music has announced that the visual-kei cellist/vocalist Kanon Wakeshima will be travelling to California for two performcances in July, following her Otakon guest appearance. She will perform and sign autographs at the Amoeba Music store in San Francisco on July 20th before travelling to the Royal T Cafe in Los Angeles suburb of Culver City to perform on the next day.

The Royal T Cafe will also be holding an art exhibit for Wakeshima, who is known for her Gothic Lolita art and fashion sensibilities. Wakeshima's Shinshoku Dolce album debuted in the US on Tuesday.

Crunchyroll media distribution company's website is listing a scheduled simulacast for the Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) anime series at 3:00pm EDT Wednesday (July 1st). Despite this listing Crunchyroll has not yet officially announced that it will stream this new television adaptation of Takako Shimura's yuri manga.

In the original Aoi Hana manga's story, Fumi and Akira were close childhood friends until Fumi had to move away. Ten years after losing touch with each other, the two girls meet again as high school freshmen. The two struggle to reconnect after so much has changed, and both deal with the trials and tribulations of high school — sometimes independently and sometimes with each other's help.

Three new OVA Volumes for To Love-Ru will be shipped with the 16th, 17th, and 18th volumes of the original manga. This years 32nd issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine will announce on Monday that the OVA volumes based on Kentaro Yabuki and Saki Hasemi's To Love-Ru manga have been given the green light.

The 16th volume will ship on November 4th.

Source: Anime News Network

Japanese publisher Futabasha has stated on Tuesday - in Japanese and in English - that its legal dispute with the South Korean studio Show East will not affect the planned Hollywood movie adaptation of the Old Boy manga. The original manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi was published by Futabasha in 1996 to 1998 and Show East produced Park Chan-Wook's live-action Korean film adaptation in 2003. Futabasha filed a lawsuit in the Seoul Central District Court against Show East for alleged violations of their agreement, resulting in a breach in contract, on August 15. There is still no confirmnation if Show East is bankrupt, or if the studio even still exists as a coporate entity.

The support of Tsuchiya and Minegishi as well as the Japanese publisher was offtered to DreamWorks by Futabasha for DreamWorks plans to adapt the manga with director Steven Spielberg and actor Will Smith.

Sony has quietly filed a patent that appears to reveal that they are planning or at the very least considering the possibility of reintroducing full PS2 emulation to the PS3. The PS3 initially shipped with a special chip for this purpose but was later removed in an attempt but Sony in order to cut costs.

The 'plan' is suggested by Sony's American operation recently filing a patent which describes a method by which the PS3s "Cell" processor could emulate the PS2's "Emotion Engine", without the need for special hardware.

Initially the PS3 actually shipped with this functionality provided in the hardware and this was a key selling point (After all backwards compatibility is very key for gamers), but with later revisions of the console the chip was dropped and with it the backwards compatibility of the PS2.

If you're in the civinity of Akihabara you might be interested in going over to the CURE maid cafe as it will be in it's new Evangelion mode until July 26th. The new mode is to go along with the new release of the Evangelion: 2.0 you can (Not) Advance movie.

Having recently held its "Fate/sta Night" event this cafe has come up with a new menu of Eva-influenced dishes and drinks along with appropriate decorations in the interior. This particular cafe, one of the earliest and best known progenitors of the maid café concept, is constantly remodeling itself to best fit a specific series so it's not surprising that they have now taken on a Eva appearance, however, this particular event will be longer than most for the cafe as it will be running until July 26th.

More information is available at the CURE official website.

Images via Akiba Map / Source: Sankaku Complex

Toei Animation Studio launched a website for the Toei Robot Girls project with a weekly four-panel manga series. The project features girls dressed as various famous robots and is used to promote various wroks in the studio's anime catalog. The first installment of this manga is centered on three female personifications of the robots in Gaiking, Magnerobot Gakeen and Superhuman Combat Team Baratack.

In the backstory created for the project, the Toei Robot Girls Laboratory was established to protect Earth from the threat of space invasion. The laboratory gathered the data from super robots who have protected Earth in the past, and then used that research to imbue "cute girls" with their legendary powers.

Source: Anime News Network

There will be two albums and a dvd release in July from music label LOiD. With something from Naoto Fuuga, a collab with internet artists (popular for their work on the internet sharing sites) and a DVD parody of Hatsune Miku! the sales should be good in July.

Naoto Fuuga is the voice behind many songs and productions, including the ending song for Kamen Rider Agito and Vocaloid Kaito! Having already released an album last December (Hikyou Sentai Urotanda) his new single will be on sale this July.

Titled Sen’nen no Dokusouka the single will be released July 1st. There will be some extras like message cards and copies of score music or a special track when you buy this CD at Toranoana or Animate shops!

Another release from LOiD is a compilation CD that will be released 8th July. This offering boasts of a great mix of techno and electro music contributed by popular names from the Net and Youtube, like Denkitribe, baker and Aliced Twilightz.

This last release, slated to hit stores 15 July is a parody of the popular vocaloid, Hatsune Miku. Although the work is based on Miku, the storyline is original and unique,

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