"Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin" manga gets TV anime

[leongsh]

What the...!!! :D :D :D *In delirious shock and totally flabbergasted*

Anime News Network, 26 March 2008:
This year's 17th issue (released on March 27) of Shogakukan's Weekly Young Sunday magazine has announced that George Abe and Masasumi Kakizaki's Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin (The Seven Boys of Dorm 2, Room 6) manga will be adapted into a television in Spring of 2009. Set in the 1950s, the critically acclaimed story centers around six junior delinquents and their mentor at the Shōnan Special Reform School near Tokyo. The manga follows the boys' lives during their time in the school and the years after they leave. The manga won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2006 and has sold over 30 million copies over the course of 19 volumes.
Link to ANN news report (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-03-26/rainbow-nisha-rokubo-no-shichinin-manga-gets-tv-anime).

Rainbow (http://www.youngsunday.com/rensai/comics/rainbow.html) is one of my favourite ongoing manga titles. This manga is generally unknown outside Japan. It's one of those titles that I harboured unspoken hopes of the manga being adapted to anime. And now, it's coming true. Spring 2009. One year to go. I'm looking forward very eagerly to getting more info on the production details.

EDIT: The 1st chapter of the manga (in Japanese :P ) is available for free viewing at the Weekly Young Sunday website - direct link to Chapter 1 (http://www.youngsunday.com/rensai/first/rainbow/index.html).

[Andrew Cunningham]

So, yeah, very nice to see someone trying a new genre. This was a book I kept meaning to try and always had too much on my plate to get around to. Definitely was aware of the buzz on it.

[Shsway]

Rainbow (http://www.youngsunday.com/rensai/comics/rainbow.html) is one of my favourite ongoing manga titles. This manga is generally unknown outside Japan. It's one of those titles that I harboured unspoken hopes of the manga being adapted to anime. And now, it's coming true. Spring 2009.

Oh man, classic designs! Nice.

And the covers are awesome...I'd love to see this get an English-language release, but I wouldn't like these to be replaced for something along the lines of the more pathetic, western substitutes.

I have, however, just verified that it has been printed in French! Win!

EDIT: The 1st chapter of the manga (in Japanese :P ) is available for free viewing at the Weekly Young Sunday website - direct link to Chapter 1 (http://www.youngsunday.com/rensai/first/rainbow/index.html).

Ooh, thanks for that!

[roastedpekingduck]

I haven't seen a dark and gritty anime in a while, so this should be a very welcome watch for me.

[leongsh]

I'd love to see this get an English-language release, but I wouldn't like these to be replaced for something along the lines of the more pathetic, western substitutes.
I wonder whether there would be sufficient interest in an English-language release of this manga. Subject matter and story wise, this is not really escapist fare. I'm already collecting the Japanese release but I would definitely double dip for an English-language release of this manga.

EDIT: The 1st chapter of the manga (in Japanese :P ) is available for free viewing at the Weekly Young Sunday website - direct link to Chapter 1 (http://www.youngsunday.com/rensai/first/rainbow/index.html).
Ooh, thanks for that!
So, how do you find it? Intriguing?

[leongsh]

I haven't seen a dark and gritty anime in a while, so this should be a very welcome watch for me.
It's dark, gritty, brutal drama set in prison and outside of it later on. I'm hoping they do not tone it down nor sugar-coat it. The anime adaptation should just tell it as is. I hope the anime adaptation gets an anime production house that would do justice to the work.

*Looks expectantly at Madhouse*

[Andrew Cunningham]

Given how badly Madhouse has handled just about every license they've had for the last year, I'm not sure why we expect good things out of them for anything but their original projects.

[leongsh]

Given how badly Madhouse has handled just about every license they've had for the last year, I'm not sure why we expect good things out of them for anything but their original projects.
Yeah, they were uneven last year but they did do some good work on some non-Madhouse original projects, e.g. Shigurui and Kaiji. Considering the subject and story matter, they are best placed to take up this adaptation and if so, do expect them to do a good job on it.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Shigurui had pacing from hell. Not quite a objectively terrible as Princess Resurrection or Neuro, but I think they could have made a much better anime from that manga.

[leongsh]

Shigurui had pacing from hell. Not quite a objectively terrible as Princess Resurrection or Neuro, but I think they could have made a much better anime from that manga.
The pacing of Shigurui is slow but not so glacial slow as implied that it was difficult to watch. Could it have been better? Yes, it could.

[Shsway]

So, how do you find it? Intriguing?

Oh, most definitely! To an extent, I feel like I'm fairly sure about the way things will go from here, but the fun will obviously be in seeing how its all handled. And the art is just incredible! Really gives you a sense of being in the room with these characters.

I'm kind of hoping for some uplifting material though, more than just something fascinatingly sadistic or dark. :sd:

[HellKorn]

pacing from hell

Never seen a Tarkovsky movie?

Depending on how much of this is planned to be animated -- whether it'll just be a usual 13/26 episode run or product that eventually diverges from the source material or whatever -- I'll want either IG or Madhouse animation this... Hell, mangaglobe (Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy) hasn't done anything in a while, and while not always consistent their production values on those two series are top-notch.

I await the grit and introspection.

[Andrew Cunningham]

pacing from hell

Never seen a Tarkovsky movie?

I have, and hated it a lot. Unsurprisingly.
I dug the George Clooney version of Solaris, though...

[HellKorn]

Eh, neither movie adaption matches up to Lem's novel. (Lem even hated Tarkovsky's rendition because the message is the fucking opposite of the book.) I don't mind and can enjoy the hell out of occasionally self-indulgent and slow-paced works, as evidenced by my love of Oshii, Hamazaki, and Kubrick, but Tarkovsky takes that notion to painful extremes.

... And so as to not keep this totally off-topic: since the original manga is published by Shogakukan, there might be some hope that Viz would license the manga if someone would pick up the anime. Cool.

[Busaiku]

Hey, but Kaiji was still excellent.
I also felt Dennou Coil and Oh! Edo Rocket were nice fares.

[HellKorn]

I also felt Dennou Coil and Oh! Edo Rocket were nice fares.

Denno Coil is the result of "one man's vision" (Mitsuo Iso) rather than something that comes about as a genuine Madhouse production. (Not to mention I and some others in this thread have some misgivings about its ending.)

Oh! Edo Rocket, from what I saw, suffers due to extra padding; could've been a 13 episode series with some condensing.

... Come to think of it, with a few exceptions, Madhouse's series from the past few years are largely forgettable. Though their films are another matter.

[Andrew Cunningham]

Hey, but Kaiji was still excellent.
I also felt Dennou Coil and Oh! Edo Rocket were nice fares.

I didn't last long in Kaiji, but it was what it was.
And the other two were original shows - more or less. Oh! Edo Rocket was based on a play, but it was more or less original by the sheer amount they had to create on their own.
My suspicions are entirely reserved for their recent spate of dubious adaptations. I certainly hope that the streak ends soon, but I think they've done some serious damage to their reputation.