The "Band Anime of Kyoto Animation" the top 2 Animes for spring 2009? Haruhi vs. K-On!

The two anime programs that started this April, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "K-On!" are big hits in Akiba.



"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"series of Japanese light novels is written by Nagaru Tanigawa, currently running Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko series."Haruhi Suzumiya"(anime voiced by Aya Hirano) , beautiful, intelligent and athletic, but also has a strong self-centered and impudent persona.As the leader of the SOS Brigade, her energetic and eccentric character gets her surroundings involved as well.It has stirred up a fad since its airing of the anime adaptation from April to July of 2006. The "newly" airing(28 episodes with new installments) started this April has fans on the lookout.


"K-On!" is a Japanese four-panel comic strip manga serialized on Houbunsha's seinen manga magazine "Manga Time Kirara" and "Manga Time Kirara Carat". Their break came after the start of the anime on-air from April 2009. Comics are selling well at Akihabara and the instruments that the girls use are getting attention.The singles of their opening and ending songs topped the Oricon chart two days in a row on April  24thand 25th. "Don't say Lazy", the closing theme took the no.1 spot the following day, while the closing theme and the opening theme ranked 2nd and 4th on the charts respectively for the May 4th weekly chart.


Both anime are produced by "Kyoto Animation", or"Kyo-Ani" for short and resembles in 1.they are both staged at a school, and 2. both have girls playing in a band. AsoBit Game City coined them together as "Kyo-Ani Band Collision!" and held an area titled "Haruhi Suzumiya vs K-On!" playing the theme songs from each titles ,giving it a band-stand atmosphere. BTW, the voting for your "K-On!" character is still going on.

Other "Haruhi" related products "Noizi Ito Picture Collection Haruhi Shugi" and June 2009 issue of "Shonen ACE" were published. As the name reveals itself, "Noizi Ito Picture Collection Haruhi Shugi" is an illustration book filled with Haruhi related pictures with over 100 pages of items collected from novels and magazines.

June 2009 issue on "Monthly Shonen ACE" comes with "Haruhi Suzumiya Doki-Doki Mousepad" illustrated by Noizi Ito which was shown at AKIHABARA GAMERS main store. The magazine-sized mousepad is good for actual usage.

AKIHABARA GAMERS main store's comics department on the 4th floor held a "K-On!" area with re-shipped volume 1 and volume 2 stacked up high. They have ordered the long droghted first volume, we were able to count as many as 500 volumes. As for the tower pile-up, a staff told us "We stacked them up, we're not sure if it'll last through the Golden Week holidays".

There is no doubt that both "Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "K-on!" will be the benchmark titles of this season if not for the whole year. This golden week holidays might be a good chance for people who know the anime version but not the original or vise versa.


【Related article】(Japanese)
□http://akiba.kakaku.com/hobby/0904/21/200000.php
□http://akiba.kakaku.com/hobby/0904/21/220000.php
□http://akiba.kakaku.com/hobby/0904/10/230000.php
□http://akiba.kakaku.com/hobby/0903/27/210000.php

【Related site】
□http://kakaku.com/book_cd_dvd/
□http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/-/CategoryCD=4512/
□http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/k-on/
□http://www.haruhi.tv/

【Related shop】:Asobit Game City&AKIHABARA GAMERS main store