I experienced a small snowfall on my last day of college yesterday (Thursday) but awoke today (an INSET day so the first day of the holidays for me) to find that there had been a lot more snow overnight. A pleasant and festive surprise! I don't think I ever have seen snow where I live in December before, let alone in the Christmas holidays. It's usually too mild for it. But it's exciting to know that I could be having a white Christmas. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The weather forecast is saying there could be more snow on the way tomorrow and over the next few days because the temperature is remaining very low. That sounds good to me. I love snow and it's even better when there will be lots of it falling for longer. I am enjoying this positive start to the holidays and I'm looking forward to more. I hope you guys are all having a good festive season too!

It is believed and not confirmed that Digimon Around could be airing in Japan in April 2010. Nobody knows whether it is a series or a one-off/special like a certain other Digimon season was.

New Digimon games for the DS and Wii will be coming out too but in December, with the DS game being named Digimon Story: Lost Evolution. Here is the site for this game (Japanese): [link]

If this game's animation for the characters is anything to go by, it could well mean that the new anime (if there is going to be one) will use the same style - which is also practically the same as that of Adventure and Zero Two. Plus you roam the Digital World with your Digimon partner in the game, just like the first two seasons! A hint of what's to come in the new anime perhaps? I sure hope so.

Digimon has long been overdue another season. I hope this anime will be a series like Frontier, Savers, Tamers, Adventure and Zero Two. I am really looking forward to it and I would love for Around to be set in the same world and with the same anime style as Adventure or at least to have the same concepts - primarily where the Digidestined travel between the the Digital World and their own world with their monster partners, using digivices/crests/eggs/other items/their own energy to help them digivolve. That is what I liked most about Adventure and Zero Two; the others just did not have that. As long as Around has the same concepts as the first two seasons did, I won't mind seeing new characters/digimon.

It's been confirmed just recently that the second series of Full Metal Alchemist is going to be dubbed into English by Funimation. They will also be releasing it on DVD in Spring 2010. Most of the original cast from the first series will be reprising their roles in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood including Vic Mignogna as Edward Elric and Caitlin Glass as Rose and Riza Hawkeye. Aaron Dismuke will unfortunately not be returning to voice Alphonse Elric due to his voice maturing but he will be playing a later role in Brotherhood and most likely a major one. Maxey Whitehead will be Al this time around and she's got big shoes to fill - let's hope she does as good a job on this wonderful character as he did! Isaac McDougal will have another voice actor, Bryan Massey, doing his role and Scar will also have somebody new voicing him and that's J Michael Tatum.

To read this news for yourself, check out these links: [link] and [link]

I'm so excited to hear that most of the original voice actors will be returning in the English dub of FMA Brotherhood. They did such a great job last time and I know they are going to be even better this time. I can't wait to hear Vic as Ed again and Caitlin as Riza. It's going to be awesome!

The new Inuyasha series is premiering in Japan today. Like FMA Brotherhood, most of the original cast have reprised their roles. I'm really looking forward to hearing Inuyasha's seiyuu again. I love his voice! Viz is doing a simulcast of the anime so I'll be able to watch it subtitled not long after it comes out. The one drawback is that it looks like the series actually IS going to be only 26 episodes as the rumours say, which means the pacing is going to be a nightmare. I've heard they've tried to squeeze twelve manga chapters into one episode and that they have skipped some scenes!

Oh man...why did Sunrise have to make Inuyasha Kanketsuhen so SHORT?! They had better listen to what people saying and sort this out before it's too late. I don't want to be watching 200 or 300 chapters' worth all crammed in like that and nor do any of the other Inuyasha fans who have waited so long to see this brilliant series on air again. It's going to feel contrived and too rushed otherwise. I sure hope things improve. Despite this, the prospect of seeing new Inuyasha being animated once more is good.

The Inuyasha anime finished four years ago due to catching up with the manga (which was still ongoing at the time) and did not even have a proper ending. It just left us all hanging because nothing was resolved. Many fans like myself were disappointed because of that. The anime team had not even made an effort to create some kind of closure of their own for the series like the people animating Full Metal Alchemist did. Full Metal Alchemist has since then returned (airing in Japan April this year) with a complete reboot of the series, being made more faithful to the manga. The second series is called Fulll Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Now Inuyasha will do the same. It was announced at the end of July that a new anime series will be airing in Japan this autumn, covering the last 21 volumes of the manga. It will be called Inuyasha: The Final Chapter. Finally this wonderful series will get the decent ending it deserves! I've been hoping this would happen for about two years or so now since I finished watching the previous anime series in 2005. It's great to know that the anime will once again be airing!

Beyblade returned August 2008 in Japan with a new product line called Metal Fight Beyblade. A new anime series under the same name was aired in April 2009 and new episodes have been released every Sunday since then. Manga chapters by new Beyblade manga artist Adachi Takafumi are published monthly in Japan.

Three days ago it was announced that Nelvana, the company who dubbed the previous series Bakuten Shoot Beyblade (shortened to just Beyblade in the West), has acquired the rights to once again dub and distrubute the series on DVD in this part of the world. They have been co-producing the Japanese version of the anime (the music part at least) so it'll be interesting to see how they will do with the English dub.

As most Beyblade fans know, the English dub of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade was mediochre (in terms of keeping to the original Japanese) at best. The voice actors were good (despite being kids/young people rather than adults) and this was what most older Beyblade fans such as myself grew up with. It was not until we discovered the Japanese version a little later on that we found how different the two dubs were. Nelvana cuts a lot of things out in the anime they dub, from scenes, things said by the characters, endings, music and even entire episodes which is why most fans turn to the original Japanese with subtitles instead. Beyblade itself, Bakugan and Cardcaptors (its orginal Japanese name being Cardcaptor Sakura) are prime examples of this.

The previous series of Beyblade would have been received so much better if it had not been for Nelvana doing things such as changing the soundtrack, characters' names and cutting out great scenes. Many of us who have been folowing Metal Fight Beyblade or who have at least heard of it are apprehensive about how they will handle the new anime. It has already been renamed Beyblade Metal Fusion (which actually isn't a bad name! For once, Nelvana has done okay with this). What other changes will be made? Will the main character Ginga Hagane have his name changed like Takao Kinomiya (Tyson Granger)? Will the opening themes and ending themes be replaced and shortened like last time? Will scenes be cut out yet again?

I hope not. I'd love for the series to stay as it is when it's dubbed in English. That way Metal Fight Beyblade will do better than Bakuten Shoot, maybe even be around for longer and enjoyed more by the fans! If it is released on DVD with the original Japanese as well, that would be awesome; it was only done for some episodes in the third season of Bakuten Shoot. Let's hope it'll be done for all the episodes of Metal Fight!

My favourite anime has been given another chance. This second chance has gone down well in Japan and the series and the products are taking the country by storm. I hope it does the same here. Don't mess this up Nelvana, because you'll be setting the trend in the West!