I got a google alert for “otaku” that led me to this article at MediaPost about a couple of guys who are working to make mobile phones in the US more like the ones in Japan (i.e. awesome and useful). They specifically talk about the QR codes– you’ve probably seen them on websites; they look kinda like barcodes? Japanese phones can scan them to get you more information or content about the product/site/etc.

They say that they’re banking on “otaku,” as in obsessives, not as in anime and manga fans. They also say that “Hello Kitty became the original importation of Japanese pop culture,” which is an absolute lie; Speed Racer came to the US in 1967; Hello Kitty was created in ‘74. The fools!

Okay! As promised, here is the Winter 2008 cheat sheet. Hit the jump to see it in this entry (I did my best to make it readable); click here to see a printable version, and this time I decided to make my own Excel spreadsheet of the shows available to you guys. Here it be.

These files feature the titles, Japanese titles, start dates, primary air times, studios, genres, website URLs, and a very short summary for all 23 upcoming TV anime. Hope you find it handy. ♥

Oh, and if you want the full preview, here are parts one, two, and three at Jtor.

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FYI, my 2008 Winter season preview has been going up on Jtor– part one features ARIA the Origination through Minamike ~okawari~, and part two is Mnemosyne through Rosario to Vampire. Part three will go up tomorrow and features the rest, which are Shigofumi through Zoku: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

I’ll also post my season cheatsheet here tomorrow. :)

So Minori Chihara– The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Yuki, Lucky Star’s Minami, Dragonaut’s Toa, and an incredibly cute woman (and a talented singer to boot!) –is going to turn out a photobook, according to jiiii. The book will feature a Q&A section which features fans’ questions, and you, too, can submit one here (in Japanese– and no, using Google or Babelfish to translate to Japanese will probably NOT cut it).

“Serge the Concierge” spotlights Hello, Please! Very Helpful Super Kawaii Characters from Japan, a book which tries to narrow down “kawaii culture” a bit and figure out where the heck it came from in the first damn place.

I think I just want it for Toilet Paper-chan.

Okay, this figure of Code Geass’ Cornelia Li Britannia is nice and all (though the woman needs to learn that purple lipstick goes with purple outfits and red goes with red– c’mon, lady), but where’s my hot smexy Nunally figure?!

So Gonzo’s owner, GDH International, has made some comments and even produced an open letter via its president, Arthur Smith.

And now the company has finally stepped up and announced that it will be offering legal P2P anime downloads in Japan of two series. First up, Speed Grapher– which must just be a great show to experiment with online, since it’s one of the titles FUNimation has made available everywhere possible –and they will also be making their new series Tower of Druaga available online, and a short series called Project PAPO.

It’s an experiment they’re launching this very day, but I’m not sure they’ve got a fantastic price setup here. Everything is download-to-own but DRM protected, and Speed Grapher eps run ¥1000 each– that’s $8.75 USD an episode. For all 24 eps, that’s over $200. The DVD box set is currently up on Amazon.co.jp for ¥17955– $157 USD. (That’s Amazon’s price; regular price is ¥29925, $262 USD). You can also get HD episodes for ¥1500 each (about $13.13 an ep).

Through January ‘08, however, they are having a slightly more reasonable deal: ¥500 an ep (~$4.38 USD) for regular definition, and ¥750 (~$6.57 USD) an ep for high-def. They don’t say what the resolution is on these episodes and I’m not entirely sure what the 1MB/3MB/8MB notes in their little chart. The trailer for Druaga is free. Each episode of Project PAPO is ¥150 (~$1.30 USD)– but they’re only 7 episodes that are 2.5 minutes long.

Now, I kind of expected it to be more expensive in Japan– maybe ¥500 an episode standard. But ¥1000? And I’d also bet that when Druaga actually comes out it will be more expensive than Speed Grapher since it’s new. Will the Japanese pay it? I don’t know; since the copies are digital I don’t think there’s as much of a collector’s urge to play off of. And since the Japanese have access to it on the TV (and most otaku would be up watching other anime anyway), I don’t know.

Original source: GDH
Secondary source: anime!anime!

Lazy bum. We can’t open presents until he’s up and moving. *grumble*

• So Ken Hirai– my favorite Jpop artist, for the record –is going to sing the theme for the new Honey and Clover drama, says TokyoGraph. Damn, now I’ll have to actually watch it. (Yes, I’m a heathen and I could never really get into H&C.)
• About.com manga lists Mushishi as 2007’s Best New Manga, and I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. ♥ Good pick Deb!
• For us perverts who want to see what Kodomo no Jikan is like without all that nasty censorship, Japanator spotted a video on Moetron that provides a batch of the previously-censored scenes uncut from the DVD. Some of the scenes seem silly to censor, but a few I have a hard time being upset over.
• ComiPress Backstage has a feature on Anime News Service, a long-running but often-on-sabbatical news site. (It hasn’t updated since September at the moment, but in all likelihood it’ll pop back into constant updates for a few months in the near future before dropping back out.)

That’s it! Happy holidays, everyone. ♥

Well, I put up the new layout, after much deliberation over which show to feature. For those who don’t know my little scheme with layouts is that as each season ends, I pick the show that was my favorite for the season and do a layout based on it for during the next season.

However, fall ‘07 was such a mediocre season overall, there were no obvious choices for my favorite. I eventually narrowed it down to Ghost Hound, Moyashimon, or Shugo Chara! before eventually settling on the latter. And I worked my ass off trying to make sure it wasn’t TOO hideously pink. Mostly I like the layout because it has so much space for content.

So! New layout. It will be here until ~March, unless I get extremely tired of it. ♥

Edit: I HAVE noticed it looks a little funny in IE6. I’m working on it. It seems to work fine everywhere else though…and y’all should be using Opera, Firefox, or at least IE7+ by now anyway. ;)

Blah blah blah, ADV, Anime Network On Demand, blah, blah, only 3 eps of Gurren Lagann instead of a full run, etc. Way to turn what was widely being praised as a giant step in the right direction into, well, still a little bit more than the one-dubbed-ep that was becoming standard.

With this news coming on Christmas Eve I came up with about a half-dozen possible titles for this post. Here are a few of the others:

• How ADV Stole Christmas
• ADV Giveth and ADV Taketh Away (this is the headline I used at theO, actually)
• Manly Tears, Simon’s Tears, No Gurren Lagann For Us (to “Silent Night”)
• ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, With No Gurren Lagann In the House
• ADV The Red-Faced Anime Licensor Had Only Three Eps Of Gurren Lagann
• Silver Drills, Silver Drills, It’s Grinch-mas Time at ADV (to “Silver Bells”)

…etc.