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Tonari no 801-chan Anime Short Green-Lit (Update 3)
posted on by Egan Loo
The fourth volume of Ajiko Kojima's Tonari no 801-chan manga will ship in Japan on September 10 with a "Tonari no 801-chan R" anime short on DVD. The manga follows the personal life of a fujoshi (female boys-love otaku) and her otaku boyfriend. Yutaka Yamamoto (Kannagi) will direct the production of the 90-second "opening anime" at Aniplex's A-1 Pictures studio (Kannagi, Ookiku Furikabutte). Yamamoto is best known for working at Kyoto Animation on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and part of Lucky Star before being forced out of the studio. He has not returned to Kyoto Animation, but has since launched his own studio, Ordet.
Masatoshi Nishimura, a musical contributor to The Prince of Tennis and City Hunter 2, will produce the soundtrack. However, the vocalist for the "Tonari no 801-chan R" short's theme song has yet to be decided. An open audition will be held via audience voting on the Nico Nico Douga video-streaming website. The original Tonari no 801-chan web comic inspired two spinoff manga aimed at younger audiences, and 450,000 copies of the first three compiled books volumes were published.
The cover of the manga's third volume had announced last July that an earlier anime project was green-lit. The plans were further confirmed at TBS Anime Festa 2008 during the August 16-17 weekend, but the TBS broadcasting station acknowledged just two weeks later that the plans were cancelled without giving the specific reasons why. Kojima posted her first public comments on the unexpected "disappearance" of the blog's anime adaptation in September. She drew a manga strip with the otaku boyfriend, Tibet ("Tibe-kun"), waking up with a start and saying he had a happy dream about being made into a TV anime — by the acclaimed studio Kyoto Animation, no less. The fujoshi, 801-chan, assured Tibe-kun that it was indeed just a dream.
Source: animeanime.jp
Update: More background information added.
Update 2: More information on the theme song added.
Update 3: Satoshi Kadowaki, an animation director on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star, is designing the anime's characters. Nico Nico Douga is already hosting a page devoted to the theme song's audition. Yamamoto linked to the page in a Friday blog entry entitled, "I avenge myself."
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