It's unfortunate that we were given such a short time with Hiroyuki Kobayashi, but given his popularity, we weren't too surprised. Many of you know him as a producer of various series including Resident Evil and Devil May Cry 4 -- however, this time we sat down to discuss his upcoming title Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes, which hits Japanese shelves tomorrow.  

With a date just months away, Capcom is gearing up for the first North American release -- or at least, the first proper release -- of the Sengoku Basara series. While gamers were previously treated to a heavily edited localization, which actually resulted in an almost entirely different game, this latest sequel will instead remain mostly intact. Just how intact? You'll have to read to find out.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you should have known that Iron Man and Wolverine animes were in the works. However, just announced at the San Diego Comic-Con, some new details have surfaced. G4 has revealed that they will be the exclusive U.S. television home of four brand new anime series from Marvel. In addition to the two I already mentioned, X-Men and Blade anime series will also be added to the mix. All four franchises will air as standalone series made up of twelve 30-minute episodes. Madhouse Studios, who have worked on such films as Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Trigun, will head development.

I don't know about you, but Olivia Munn won't be the only reason I'm drooling while watching G4 anymore. The anime series are scheduled to premiere on the network in 2011. Hit the jump for a synopsis on each show and some pretty sweet footage from the new Iron Man teaser that was just released.

Time to play wrap-up con! Over at San Diego Comic Con, Yen Press announced that they're licensing the hit manga Highschool of the Dead, coming hot on the heels of the anime license by Sentai Filmworks. Awesome. They'll be bringing more Higurashi manga. Awesomer. And they've licensed Betrayal Knows My Name. Triple awesome?

Of course, the big news from Yen's panel was their new digital magazine, which we've been expecting for a little while.

Coming out of SDCC, I have to tip my hat to you folks at Yen Press: you've brought on a pair of really sweet licenses, and are extending another one. Now, if only you could give Higurashi an accelerated release schedule, I'd be in heaven. Keep up the good work.

I was all over the place today, but thankfully I had a chance to drop by the Bandai Visual panel. I had heard that they had planned several announcements, though I had wondered why they decided to make those announcements here when they could have waited until Otakon. It surprised me even more when I realized they had no booth space -- or at least, no official booth space.

A lot of the announcements, and trailers were same as what was shown at Fanime and Anime Expo, including the K-On! introduction. There's no news about the series yet, but Robert Napton, their marketing director, did mention that they might be able to reveal some details at Otakon. We'll just have to wait and see.

Of course, there were the three major announcements for the night, the Kannagi manga -- which was actually kind of expected -- Turn A Gundam, and Tales of the Abyss. Not surprisingly, I'd say Turn A Gundam probably got the biggest response. Again, I'm sure in depth details regarding the releases will probably happen next month.

It did strike me as odd that Funimation had a fairly large booth space in comparison to Bandai's lack thereof, despite the fact that they weren't making any new announcements this evening, but I guess if Bandai wanted to cut costs, not having a booth at a comic convention was probably a smart move.

At San Diego Comic Con today, Bandai set the alternative mecha crowd into an elated buzz with the announcement of Turn A Gundam TV. On top of that, Bandai called dibs on the Tales of the Abyss TV series and the manga for Kannagi. 

If you've been following Gundam for a while, you probably know that 1999's Turn A Gundam is the black sheep of the family. Being a fully Yoshiyuki Tomino product, it is as Gundam as it gets, yet its alternative mecha and character designs are as far away from today's sharp-looking pretty-boys piloting sleek, angular giant humanoid weapons of destruction as you can imagine. Somehow despite all of that, Turn A wormed into my heart like no other Gundam has, and it's my personal favorite from the massive franchise. I blame Sochie.

The Tales of the Abyss TV anime aired back in 2008, which is a much more recent show to be acquired and announced at a 2010 con. This adaptation of the 2005 video game features most of the same voice cast as the game, and even uses the same opening song.

Kannagi manga, on the other hand, is a somewhat different thing than the anime. Besides its reputation as a 2ch joke where angry otaku post pictures of torn Kannagi manga in protest of Nagi's ill-defined virginity, Kannagi's mangaka also had a hard time with some serious illness, and finally resumed drawing manga as of late last year, with no words as to when Kannagi will resume serialization. I highly recommend reading the chapter when they go karaoke, though.

[image source]

So, for those of you who might not really know how it works, "Preview Night," or day zero as I'd like to call it, was basically three hours of us getting to wade through crowds of con-goers in order to see pretty much the same stuff we'll be seeing for the next three days.

Why? I'm not really sure, but I imagine it has something to do with those of us who never get to attend these events, or those of us who have a load of cash burning a hole in our pockets. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to actually buy, assuming you're there to shop, but rather than blow our loads on figures and art books the first night, we preferred to just take a quick look around -- and ride a sweet Dead Rising 2 motorcycle. Check out the video above to see what I mean.

One of our favorite publishers, Vertical, has announced their upcoming plans for San Diego's Comic Con International and Baltimore's Otakon next month. On hand for book signings at each event will be Felipe Smith, the artist responsible for the hit series Peepo Choo -- a story about an American otaku and a Japanese girl, both of which have serious misconceptions of each other's country from their experiences with pop culture.

If you recall, we broke the news regarding Vertical's acquisition of the series back in September of last year; it's currently set to release later this month with a launch party being held at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles on July 26th. The party should be open to the public and starts at 7 PM.

In addition to the signings, Vertical will be promoting Chi's Sweet Home at both cons by handing out bookmarks and coasters. Patrons who pick up copies of Chi's Sweet Home will also receive cellphone straps and other goodies while supplies last. 

I was hoping to get these up last night, but at least now everyone will have something nice to wake up to. There is a pretty good mix of pop culture, comics and anime in this batch, and while it doesn't really focus on any one thing, you'll probably find a gem or two amongst them. Unfortunately, I believe these will be the last cosplay pics we have from the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. Though it's probably the last major con that most of our staff will attend, you can probably look forward to seeing more cosplay pics from New York Anime Fest, Ikkicon, and maybe even PAX later this year.

In the meantime, enjoy this gallery and remember that we have plenty more where that came from. We always have a good laugh when people leave comments about the pictures as well, so don't be afraid to tell us when one of these horrifies you, or if you'd like to see more of a specific type, or character. We'll actually make an effort to fulfill your requests if they're relevant to our interests.

[Thanks Christina]