Anime
Naoki Urasawa ‘Animates’ New Rodrigo y Gabriela Music Video ‘Monster’ – Interest
Duo’s new single was inspired by Urasawa’s hit manga series Monster
Grammy Award winning acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero of Rodrigo y Gabriela revealed on Wednesday that manga creator Naoki Urasawa illustrated the cover of their single “MONster,” which they stated was based on Urasawa’s manga of the same name. Urasawa also directed and animated the music video for “MONster,” which features a timelapse of the cover being drawn:
©Naoki Urasawa.
Quintero stated, “[Urasawa’s] Monster is such a deep, philosophical story – it’s about a psychopathic killer, but it’s so uplifting and leaves you with a real sense of hope. We’d written that track without knowing that Urasawa was a fan of ours, and now he’s making the video for us.”
“MONster” will be a single on Rodrigo y Gabriela’s forthcoming album OurHome. The album is set for release on September 18 through ATO Records.
Urasawa’s Monster was published in Shogakukan‘s Big Comic imprint between December 1994 and December 2001. The manga got a television anime adaptation in 2004 by Mad House. Viz Media published the Monster manga, as well several other titles by Urasawa, in North America. Viz also released the Monster anime. The anime ran on the television channel Syfy in the U.S. from 2009 to 2010.
Sources: Press release, Sony Music‘s X/Twitter account, Rodrigo y Gabriela’s YouTube channel, Comic Natalie
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Anime
Light Novel ‘Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta’ Concludes With 10th Volume
The official X (formerly Twitter) account for illustrator Azuri Hyuuga announced that Takata‘s Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta (I Became Friends with the Second Cutest Girl in the Class.) light novel series will end with its tenth volume. The final volume is scheduled to release on July 1.
Takata began penning the romantic comedy series on the Kakuyomu website in November 2020. Kadokawa later acquired the series and began publishing the first volume under its Sneaker Bunko imprint with illustrations by Tom Osabe in December 2021, with Hyuuga replacing him second volume onward due to various circumstances. The ninth volume was released on April 1. Kuranika has a cumulative 1.6 million copies of its volumes in circulation, including digital editions.
Rin Ono began serializing a manga adaptation on the Alive+ website service in July 2022. Kadokawa published the seventh volume on December 26 last year, with the eighth volume scheduled for a June 26 release.
Yen Press licensed the manga in English in December 2024 and shipped the second volume in November 2025. The third volume is scheduled to ship on June 23.
The series won the Special Prize in the Romantic Comedy category of the 6th Kakuyomu Web Novel Contest. In the paperback category of the Next Light Novel Award, the novel ranked seventh in the 2022 edition before securing first place in the 2023 edition. It was also recognized by Kadokawa as the best-selling new light novel series of 2022.
The livestream for Kadokawa’s Sneaker Bunko 35th Anniversary Festa! announced a television anime adaptation for the series in September 2023. Connect produced the 12-episode television anime, which premiered in Spring 2026. Crunchyroll simulcast the anime with subtitles in multiple languages.
Synopsis
I, Maehara Maki, struggled to connect with anyone during my high school years, finding it hard to make friends. Then, a turning point arrived. A girl named Asanagi entered my life. Despite being clandestinely referred to as the “second cutest girl in class” by the boys, she chose to spend her Fridays with me instead of her best friend Amami, who held the “cutest girl in class” title.
In the comfort of my home, we delved into the realm of games, watched movies, immersed ourselves in manga, indulged in junk food—pizza, hamburgers—and guzzled cola, carefree and content. To the outside world, we might have seemed a bit messy, but to both Asanagi and me, it was a cherished, hidden time together.
Source: Official X
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© 2025 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
The Television Critics Association (TCA) announced the nominees for its 42nd Annual TCA Awards on Friday. Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation received a nod in the Outstanding Achievement in Family Programming category, where it is competing against Electric Bloom, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Phineas and Ferb, Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, Vampirina: Teenage Vampire, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, and WondLa.
Two live-action series based on Japanese stories, Drops of God and Last Samurai Standing, also received nominations for Outstanding International Series, a new category this year. The other nominees are The Boyfriend, Crime Scene Zero, The House of the Spirits, and Squid Game.
Over 220 professional television journalists in the United States and Canada voted for the nominees from among the television series distributed between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026. The TCA will announce the winners this summer. In addition to Outstanding International Series, this year’s awards added the new category of Outstanding Achievement in Animation, although no anime received a nod in this category.
The first season based on Aniplex‘s Disney Twisted-Wonderland mobile game, Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Animation: Episode of Heartslabyul, premiered on Disney+ last October, and the staff is planning at least two more seasons. The game centers around characters inspired by villains from Disney films, and Aniplex describes it as a “villains’ academy adventure game” with rhythm game elements and battles.
© Legendary Television
Apple TV began streaming the second season for the multinational production of Tadashi Agi and Shū Okimoto‘s The Drops of God (Kami no Shizuku) manga on January 21. The manga also inspired a previous live-action series in Japan, and an anime version premiered on April 10. Netflix debuted the live-action adaptation of Shōgo Imamura‘s Ikusagami novel series under the title Last Samurai Standing last November, and it has green-lit a second season.
Sources: Television Critics Association, Deadline (Denise Petski)
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