I’m crazy busy for the weekend, and what do you do? You go and license Lucky Star and outsource production to Bandai Entertainment, or at least so sayeth Japanator. I’m going to go cry on a bishounen’s shoulder now.

If I’m quiet this weekend, it’s ’cause I’m at Yaoi-Con. Yes, I’m crazy. It’s going to be a rough weekend.

For those of you actually interested in yaoi news, you should hit up Jen and Jordan over at YaoiSuki. They cover everything pretty much on the spot (they’re almost as obsessive about it as me). I, for one, am leaving it to them while I wander around and yell “GOTH BARBIES!” at all the people carrying Dolfies.

GAH! I hate it when I think I’ve posted an entry but I actually haven’t. But instead of posting this and then a new entry, I’ll just say that they have so much more Code Geass stuff here than they did at the big cons throughout the summer. It makes me want to cry. But I had really good luck with my figure picks (got all the ones I wanted!)…

In my sleepiness, I forgot to mention yesterday that New Galaxy Anime has a website already up and running, featuring a preview for Unico and some other information– like the fact that the company intends to focus on shoujo and release anime for all ages. (I’m not sure if they mean that they’ll be releasing mostly shows that are for all ages, or if they’ll be releasing shows for all different age groups.)

Japan Probe (who is very slow right now– maybe they’re getting too many hits again?) reports that NOVA, the most well-known chain of private English schools in Japan, has filed for court protection against creditors. NOVA schools have closed their doors and no one knows if or when they might reopen.

So let’s sum up NOVA’s difficulties over the last year, shall we? One teacher was killed (and for a while they thought it was by a NOVA student), other teachers were arrested for possession of marijuana, then NOVA itself lost a lawsuit regarding its refund policies. More recently, NOVA teachers reported not being paid on time or at all– and now, basically bankruptcy.

Insert generic joke about novas and explosions here!

Okay, I know I use those (X) + (Y) = Love headlines probably more often than I should, but really. This week Variety announced that they would be hosting a panel with TOKYOPOP on Saturday regarding film– no doubt thanks to T-pop’s Ikki Tousen project, as well as Takashi Murakami’s directorial debut –and now Variety has profiled TOKYOPOP CEO Stu Levy. Sounds to me like somebody made some friends!

Canned Dogs reports that a survey by the Japanese Cabinet Office found that 58.9% of survey-takers said that manga and illustrations should be subject to the same child porn laws that photos and videos are, and another 27.6% say that if they HAD to pick one, they lean more towards the same.

But Canned Dogs notes that the survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews, and who wants to come across as seeming pro-kiddy porn? It’s interesting stuff, and I’m too tired to reparse it here, so go over and read the Canned Dogs report.

Superflat pioneer Takashi Murakami sure is expanding his reach. From painting to sculpture to CD cover design to jewelry, the artist has now jumped into a related domain: directing anime. According to Variety, Murakami will direct his first anime, titled kaikai & kiki. (The name isn’t as random as it seems– Murakami’s production company, who is doing the anime without assistance of any well-known anime production houses –is called Kaikai Kiki Co.)

The first ten-minute episode is set to premiere at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art on Monday as part of is “© Murakami” show. The museum is also hosting a panel run by Variety and TOKYOPOP on Saturday, featuring TOKYOPOP CEO Stu Levy, Dreamworks producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the directors of the CG flick “Bee Movie.”

Yowza.

So the first anime I ever saw in my life was The Fantastic Adventures of Unico. This was so far prior to knowing what anime was, I probably didn’t even know what JAPAN was yet.

Why am I telling you this? Because the show is coming out on DVD in the U.S.

Excited? YOU FREAKIN’ BET!

ActiveAnime has a press release up from the Anime Jungle shop in SoCal, promoting a special hentai event for “grown-up friends” tomorrow night. The 18+ only event starts at 8pm and features DVDs, posters, manga, and “even some Doujin-shi.” Man, and I’ll be stuck in San Francisco.

So, ICv2 reported that they’ve “confirmed” that TOKYOPOP’s Blu imprint is bumping its price up from $9.95 to $12.95, starting in 2008. As a result, everyone ELSE reported it as being “confirmed” as well.

But no one mentions the original report came from a Blu editor on the official Blu forums on October 10th. It was then posted by YaoiSuki on the 17th, and that’s where a good batch of news sites picked it up from.

Hmph!