New York voice actress Jessica Calvello can currently be seen on TV in a commercial for DAD’s dog food. While the commercial will only air in certain markets, it is also available on her website (requires QuickTime).

Bandai Entertainment have opened a new website for their upcoming show Magical Meow Meow Taruto. You can find a trailer, cast/staff information, and pictures from the show on the website. There’s also an interview with ADR Director Elisa Fiorillo.

Taruto: Jessica Straus
Charlotte: Lisa Enochs
Chitose: Wendee Lee
Iori Monaka: Greg Lastrapes
Kinako Monaka: Laurel Hatfield
Kakipi: Bob Klein
Anzuko Domyoji: Sherrie Jackson

Director: Elisa Fiorillo
Produced by Elastic Media Corporation (more…)

Viz have put up a survey on their web page, asking about anime/manga purchasing habits and suggestions for which properties they should license next.

New
King of Bandit Jing
Hades Project Zeorymer
Maze TV
Pilot Candidate
Castle in the Sky
The Castle of Cagliostro
Flame of Recca
Lady Blue
Burn Up!
Beyblade
Silent Service
Saint Tail

Updated
Petite Princess Yucie
Monster Rancher
Chrono Crusade

During a message board Q&A session, Adult Swim anime programming director Kim Manning stated that, due to inadequate ratings, they won’t be acquiring any more episodes of Case Closed. The show will however remain on their schedule, with reruns of the episodes they already have.

Voice actor Deem Bristow passed away on Sunday, January 16, 2005. While most of his work was in video games, most notably Dr. Eggman the recent Sonic the Hedgehog games, he had also ventured into anime dubbing, playing Dr. Breckenridge in Bandai’s Spirit of Wonder. North County Times has an obituary.

Go Fish Pictures has posted up a form to exchange your current copy of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence for a new one with redone subtitles. The original version of the DVD features Closed Caption style subtitles only.

New copies of the DVD can be identified in stores by the mark “v4” on the spine of the packaging.

In his livejournal, Inuyasha producer Toshifumi Yoshida writes that they’re recording the dub for the 3rd movie this month. He says Dale Wilson will play Inuyasha’s father, Michael Dobson will play Saya, Sounga went to Ward Perry, and Takemaru is being played by Jonathan Holmes.

Further, he reveales that they’re up to working on episode 128 of the TV series, having recently cast Chiara Zanni as the voice of the infant incarnation of Naraku. Unfortunately, as Saffron Henderson has moved to Los Angeles, they’ve also had to recast Sota and Eri, who will now be played by Rebecca Shoichet.

AnimeOnDVD.com has posted a preview of Toei Animation’s first three titles to be published in the US. The dubbing for Slam Dunk TV, Air Master TV, and Interlude OVA is being handled by Toronto based Kaleidoscope Entertainment (Power Stone, Knights of the Zodiac).

Voice Director for all three title is Dan Hennessey (’90s X-Men voice director). Adapting the scripts is playwright/animation scribe Mark Leiren-Young . (more…)

AdultSwim.com‘s Q&A session tonight brought the announcement that they have acquired through episode 167 of InuYasha. They also announced that Samurai Champloo and Paranoia Agent will begin airing sometime in the summer.

SwimBuddha also reminded fans that they will be airing Metropolis, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, and the first two InuYasha movies (Affections & Looking Glass).