AnimeNewsNetwork.com is reporting that Funimation has licensed 5, well, 4 more series – both seasons of Tower of Druaga (Sword of Uruk and Aegis of Uruk) which is based off the Namco game series, Blassreiter (about a demon hunter with demonic powers), Dragonaut – The Resonance (about Humans breeding dragons to fight off an alien menace), and Bamboo Blade (a sports anime about a Women’s Kendo team).
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Now that Rumiko Takahashi, creator of Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku, Urusei Yatsura & InuYasha has finally finished up the InuYasha manga, AnimeNewsNetwork is reporting she’s working on a new manga, which will be serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday this spring, the same magazine that ran InuYasha. The manga has already been licensed by Viz.

As yet, there is no information available on the manga whatsoever. The first volume will be available in English by the end of the year.

AnimeVice.com is reporting that the upcoming March issue of the Japanese version of Newtype (which has not hit newsstands yet) Japan will reveal the long-awaited 2nd series of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya will start running in April. We know this before the issue actually comes out because it’s the cover story and a TV ad ran on Japanese television showing the cover.

The last vestage of Toonami is gone. Anime News Network.com is reporting that Cartoon Network has shut down their free online streaming anime service Toonami Jetstream. This service previously streamed episodes of a rotating lineup of series, starting originally with Dominion Tank Police, Cowboy Bebop, and other older series when it orginally started, and continuing to change it’s lineup over time to reflect the programming on Toonami, with a bit of a focus on anime adapted from Shonen Jump manga, particularly Naruto and Hikaru No Go. Viewers are being directed to other sites, including Viz’s own streaming anime service to pick up where they left off on the series they were watching.

Moving Right Along with Bleach, we continue to the first half of the Soul Society Arc – Season 2. Does it continue to build up momentum from Season 1, or does it squander it?
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Bandai Entertainment, the company which (among other series they’ve licensed) released all of the various Mobile Suit Gundam series stateside, likes to put hidden messages in the HTML code of their web page to tease future releases. I’m bringing this up because AnimeVice.com has the latest messages.

Analysis of my own below the cut

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Alright, this weekend I’ll be starting off one of the biggest Shonen Anime to be released stateside in the past few years that don’t involve knucklehead ninja – Bleach. I’m not going to do a “Complete Bleach” thing this time – the show is still running and and not all of the currently released seasons have been released in the US yet.
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Anime News Network is reporting that the “Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan” gag anime (which is not a second season of the show, unfortunately) will stream it’s first episode online through Kadokawa’s YouTube channel. Later episodes will be put online as per “the whim of the SOS Brigade Leader.”
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Funimation, to wrap up the year, has announced two new licenses after announcing 10 new licenses over the last 10 days. Their new licenses are Media Factory’s shonen series Soul Eater, which they will be releasing in four half-season sets, and the first of four new films re-making/re-telling Neon Genesis Evangelion, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone.
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