Japanese Anime TV Ranking, December 1-7

The latest television drama adaptation of Hiroshi Motomiya's Salaryman Kintaro manga earned a 13.6 rating when it aired on December 5 at 23:15. The ninth episode of the late-night anime Nodame Cantabile: Paris scored a record 6.6% rating on December 4 in the Kanto region, which includes the metropolitan Tokyo area. That rating is higher than the highest rating in the same Noitamina timeslot on Fuji TV until now, Hakaba Kitarō in March (5.8%). It is also higher than the highest rating (6.3%) attained by the NANA anime, which had held the record for all late-night anime in the last decade until now. At one point during the airing, the Nodame Cantabile: Paris episode had an instantaneous rating of 7.4%.

Japanese Box Office, December 6-7

Hitoshi Tadano opens at #4; Yes! Precure 5 GoGo! drops to #8. Tokumei Kakarichō Tadano Hitoshi: Saigo no Gekijō-ban (Special Mission Section Chief Hitoshi Tadano: The Final Film, the theatrical finale to the live-action adaptation of Kimio Yanagisawa's salaryman action manga, debuted at #5 at the Japanese box office during the December 6-7 weekend.

Fullmetal Alchemist 2 set to premiere in Japan in April!

April is one of the two biggest months for anime releases in Japan (the other is October), so April of 2009 it is, for the new Fullmetal Alchemist series

JOOST PARTNERS WITH NIPPON TV, YOSHIMOTO KOGYO AND DENTSU TO OFFER ...

It also significantly deepens Joost's anime library, offering more than 100 hours of cult favorites including, Kaiji and Buzzer Beater to US audiences

Japanese anime bows on Asian phones Variety Asia

Animax Mobile, which will serve clips and full episodes of anime series on mobile phones, will be provided on the Astro cellphone network in Malaysia

Taffy Takes Bleach to France’s Virgin 17 Animation Magazine

The MoonScoop Group’s Taffy Ent. has inked a deal with Virgin 17 to bring season two of the acclaimed anime series Bleach to France in early 2009.