The Third ~Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo~
 

ザ・サード

http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/thethird/
http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/third/

Its based on a novel for young men.

Its based on a novel thats published under the seinen(young men's) label Fujimi Fantasia Bunko, and the novel is serialized in the seinen(young men's) novel magazine Dragon Magazine.
For now there are 8 volumes released of this novel (volumes 1-7 and volume 0), here are the covers: (volume 0 was released after volume 5)

Volumes 1-5:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3...velvol19au.jpg http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/4...velvol20qi.jpg http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/3...velvol36is.jpg http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/6...velvol45sp.jpg http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3...velvol55sa.jpg

Volume 0:

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7...velvol03hu.jpg

Volume 6: (has two parts; the first part was released on 10/2002 and the second part was released on 1/2003)

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7...61020023hb.jpg http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7...l6120031bx.jpg

Volume 7: (has two parts; the first part was released on 10/2004 and the second part was released on 1/2005)

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6...71020042id.jpg http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7...l7120057db.jpg

There is also a novel which is a collection of short stories of The Third.
For now there are 6 volumes released of these short stories, here are the covers:

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1968/stvol17fu.jpg http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/6176/stvol25rq.jpg http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2898/stvol34kx.jpg http://img311.imageshack.us/img311/188/stvol47lq.jpg http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/729/stvol55re.jpg http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8...velvol67xs.jpg

A manga based on the The Third novel started in December's issue (released November 9th, 2005) of the shounen manga magazine Dragon Age.

Title of the manga:
ザ・サード 砂漠の星のアプレンティスガール
THE THIRD Apprentice Girl on the Desert Planet

For now there's 1 volume released of the manga.
Here its cover:

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/321...rlonthedes.jpg

Shounen manga
Serialized in: Dragon AGE

Story: HOSHINO Ryo
Art: ITOH Yuuko
Character Design: GOTO Nao

From AnimeNfo:

Genre: Seinen, Action, Adventure, Science-Fiction

The Third is a seinen novel/anime.

Bah, you beat me to it. Stupid forum downtime. ;)

This is going to be a novel -> anime conversion of a series of novels spanning across time from the year 1999 up to now, written by Hoshino Ryou. The cooperative illustrations were done by Goto Nao. Surprisingly, MOONPHASE lists XEBEC as the anime production company, but I haven't found this information anywhere else.

And here's its wikipedia entry. I hope somebody can fully translate it.

I have updated the first post with the covers of the seinen novel :p

Ok all we have to do now is wait :p

I believe it is...
x 星野亮 = Hoshino Akira
o 星野亮 = Hoshino Ryou
http://www.lythka.com/dl/TheThird/ra...62686third.jpg

Thanks :) it got corrected.

Other seinen novels from the seinen novel magazine Dragon Magazine that got animated: Full Metal Panic!, The Slayers, Maburaho.

Another take on the The Third novels from Froth-Bite's staff channel (summarized, told by Sylf who read some of the novels):

The time in The Third novel is post "BIG World War", a postapocalyptic era in distant future when men had already built a great deal of advanced technology prior to the war, but all of it was lost. Some enormous powers that were released during the war brought mutations to some human races, creating demi-human forms. One of those forms are called The Third. The Third have a third eye on their forehead which provides them with a great deal of power and knowledge, like being able to communicate with the latest technology computers, robots and cyborgs.
The main character, the flat-chested girl Honoka is a "failed" The Third. The Government found out that she had the third eye, so she was taken but later sent back because she lacked true abilities that The Third race should possess. She is a sword master. One of her friends calls her a Sword Dancer and the cool thing about her is that she's enchanted rather than the sword.

It looks awesome I will have to check this out!

The official site of the seinen novel The Third:
http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/fujimi/third/third.html

This is the official site of the novel and not the anime (no site for the anime, at least for now).

Edit:

I somehow forgot to mention the seinen novel Full Metal Panic! in my previous post :twitch:

The anime is starting on 13/4/2006 :)

The name of the anime (based on The Third novel) was changed to:

ザ・サード ～蒼い瞳の少女～

The Third ~Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo~

The site for the seinen anime The Third:

http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/fujimi/webage/thethird.html

hmmm, looks like another spring anime that i will be looking forward too

WOWOW's site for the seinen anime The Third has opened:

http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/third/

I'm totally getting Shakugan no Shana wibes from this. At least they both have a flat chested sword wielding jail bait heroine.

Volume 6 of the collection of the short story novel The Third will be released on 20/4/2006.

Here its cover:
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8...velvol67xs.jpg

I already added it with the other covers of the collection of short stories novel thats in the first post of this thread.

There is also something called: (correct me if I'm wrong)

超解!ザ・サード
Super Solution! The Third

Edited by: Dragon Magazine editorial department

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be, but its not the first volume of the manga (which is serialized in Dragon AGE).
Somewhere it was mentioned that this volume will contain some explanations about the novel (but I can't say I'm sure about this, since I read this on some forum).

Anyway, I'll post its cover when its out.

Ahh Yay another few days and the anime gets broadcasted :D

The promo is now fansubbed :)

The anime is starting on 14/4/2006.

I was undecided on this anime, but the promo sold me. Now this has become a series I'm looking foward to.:D Of course promos are designed to make a series look good so... :heh:

Just watched the promo too and it looks awesome *adds to list*

Jebus!

Flat chested this, flat chested that...

Flat-Chested??
 

Maybe my perception of "flat-chested" is somehow off.

Maybe the anime will be different, but it looks to me like she's got a couple a handfuls there in those novel illustrations.:eyebrow:

*dirty thoughts are bad*

as for this anime the animation looks good and form what i've read on anidb the story is pretty good too