noitaminA Block to Get Full Hour
We finally have an answer as to why we've been hearing about so many upcoming noitaminA titles recently but not enough room to air them all- the high quality anime block will be expanding to a full hour! Starting this Spring, there'll now be two shows occupying the famous midnight Thursday slot. Fuji TV claims that noitaminA is the highest-rated Thursday night anime on Japanese television, & its "stable & high reputation" has made it a hit with both viewers & advertisers. As such, it only makes sense to expand the block.
We already know that "House of Five Leaves" (aka Sarai-ya Goyou) will begin this April, which we originally thought ruined the prediction that "Yojo-Han Shinwa Taikei" (aka the Tatami Galaxy) would be airing instead. But now we know that both titles will be shown on noitaminA in April.
As for the Summer season, half of it will consist of noitaminA's first ever live-action series- the J-Drama adaptation of "Moyashimon." The other series will be an anime adaptation of the manga series "Shiki." Shiki will be a two cours series, meaning that it will continue on into the Fall season as well. This was pretty common for ealier noitaminA series, but hasn't happened since the original Nodame Cantabile series in 2007. Guess they figure they can afford to do it again now that there's two slots. It will be joined by another Fall series come October, the shoujo manga "Kuragehime." You can check out trailers for Tatami Galaxy, Five Leaves, & Moyashimon below:
Click to viewSources: http://www.fujicreative.co.jp/intldept/animation/noitaminA.html
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-02-21/gackt-stars-in-shiki-noitamina-anime-details-confirmed