On a random, but spiffy note (especially for you graphic designers/photoshop wizzes out there): Stone Bridge Press has worked out a deal with the Shikosha Design Library to offer a small set of stencil and textile patterns for free for a limited time, as a promotion for the for-pay sets of designs they’re currently offering.

(PS, I’m now using one of these– adjusted to be all seamless tile-y –as the bg on my twitter account, which I thought I’d mention because some of my stalkers have been complaining that I’m too hard to get a hold of.)

I know how much you guys loooove your photoshoppery, so I thought I’d give you a quick heads up.

TIME has offered up its fifth annual list of the 100 Most Influential People, and who should appear at #78 but artist/Kanye collaborator Takashi Murakami? I have to say, he looks REALLY dorky in a bow tie, for all that his art is fantastic (regardless of what Zetsubou-sensei says).

Also of interest: the #1 result on TIME’s user-voted “most-influential” poll is none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, of Nintendo everything fame. Each of these guys gets a pros/cons list, and Shiggy’s cons mostly have to do with how fat gamers are. Thanks, TIME, we love you too.

If you thought that Vocaloid’s Miku Hatsune sounded realistic straight out of the package, you’ve got to check out this post at Moetron. Combining Miku’s voice with VocaListener, which adjusts the synthesized voice to sound more human, results in a pretty phenomenal-sounding fake voice.

Perhaps even disturbingly-realistic…

I believe it was Michael Gombos who told me that MPD Psycho v4 had the largest parental advisory sticker ever in the history of manga in the US. But my copy had a bigger sticker than this one shown on Amazon.

So, one of the things I love about Oregon (besides the fact that Portland has the highest number of strip clubs per capita of any city in the country, including Vegas) is the fact that we have some of the broadest interpretations of “freedom of speech” of any state in the union. (As a result, I’ve always wondered why so many anime and manga companies are situated in Texas instead of Oregon.)

However, I didn’t know that back in July, a law was passed that was supposed to forbid the sale of any sexually explicit material to a minor if the material was meant to “satisfy a sexual desire.” However, apparently local bookshops and publishers found the law to be too broad, however, and feel that it criminalizes titles that would otherwise be acceptable. For example, the law could be interpreted such that any book that contained information about sex, like a textbook, might be illegal to sell to minors.

The manga-related news is that Dark Horse has joined the group of stores and pubs suing the state over the law. A few other plaintiffs include Powell’s (remember them?), the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and interestingly, Planned Parenthood.

(P.S. Link via Journalist.)

When I was looking for art for that NPR Death Note article, I came across this really awesome cosplay shot, taken back in October, at Poxline. As far as I can tell it hasn’t been passed around by the blogs much, so…let’s get it goin’!

I hereby call for a doujinshi based on the concept: “Beatle Note.” Anyone whose name is written in the notebook grows their hair out long, marries Yoko Ono, and then gets shot five times in the back.

By the way, the NPR segment on Death Note is now online, and it’s a nice, positive piece. No real talk of the varying controversies, and “critic-at-large” (…) John Powers pretty much faps all over it. I especially love the part where he says that Death Note is “a show for brainy kids.” All in all, some positive coverage for a show that unfortunately tends towards the less positive.

…I need a Wii.

Anyway, since I’ve been a bit absent the last couple of days and my weekend looks absolutely insane, I thought I’d put together a big ol’ round-up of recent news. HERE WE GO!

Anime:
- VIZ has announced that Buso Renkin season 1 will be released in a box set on April 29th; the 3-disc set will have the first 13 episodes (of 26) and will cost you $49.98.
- A trailer is up for the upcoming fall series Kurogane no Line Barrels at the official website.
- Another trailer, this time for Bones’ Bounen no Xamdou, is up.

Manga:
- Go!Comi had lunch with You Higuri (creator of Gakuen Heaven and Gorgeous Carat) and reports back that she is probably going to return to finish her historical fiction series Cantarella about the sordid affairs of the Borgia clan, particularly Cesare. Fans of the series, which hasn’t been worked on in some time, will no doubt be thrilled!
- In weirder news, for copyright reasons, the queen of cute manga– Di Gi Charat/Pita Ten/Kamichama Karin creator Koge-Donbo –has changed her name to Koge-Donbo*. Insert various Prince/artist-formerly-known-as jokes here.

Cons:
- An item I didn’t play up enough at New York Comic Con: the creators of Vampire Hunter D, i.e. writer Hideyuki Kikuchi (who wrote all of the Vampire Hunter D stuff, plus Demon City Shinjuku, Darkside Blues, etc) and artist of the new manga iteration, Saiko Takaki, are going to be DMP’s guests at Anime Expo.
- Meanwhile Otakon has scored Madhouse studio founder Masao Maruyama as a guest.

Huh, that wasn’t as long as I thought it’d be.

Oricon took a “funniest manga” poll and TokyoGraph has the results: Gintama (licensed in English by VIZ Media) took the top spot! Gintama is one of those funny series that is huge in Japan but not terribly popular in the west– although that could be in part because its anime remains mysteriously unlicensed.

And the full list is:

• 1. Gintama
• 2. One Piece
• 3. Ping Pong Club/Sexy Commando
• 5. Gag Manga Biyori
• 6. Nodame Cantabile/Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku
• 8. Kochira Katsushikaku Kameari Kouenmae Hashutsujo
• 9. Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar and Lovely Complex

You should check out TokyoGraph’s coverage, because they’ve got notes on how things were across gender lines (Gag Manga Biyori was the only title to hit the top 5 for both sexes, for example). It’s kind of neat to see the list because while some of them are popular in the west (Nodame, Love*Con, One Piece), some of them I’ve never heard of (…Kochira Katsushikaku Kameari Kouenmae Hashutsujo).

Yes indeedy, Nausicaa.net has caught word of NiikeiBP’s most-valued brands of Japan list. Last year Ghibli placed 12th on the business-to-consumer list, but this year they’ve leapt up to #2, second only to Nintendo itself. And Nintendo was #7 last year; it swapped spots outright with Toyota this year.

It’s an interesting list, with Disney at #3, Sony at #4, and Nintendo DS having its own rank at #5. I highly recommend checking it out, if only because you’ll recognize the vast majority of the names on the list…and not because they’re anime-related. (Although FujiTV is on there.) One of the biggest leaps is Japanese fashion chain UNIQLO’s, who went from #52 to #12.

Full list behind the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Of all the announcements I might have expected on NYCC weekend from Anime Expo, this was not one of them:

The Emmy Award winning and popular stop-motion animation sketch comedy show, Robot Chicken, which airs on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is slated to appear at this year’s Anime Expo® 2008 held from July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Cameron Baity, writer/voice actor Mike Fasolo, director/editor Chris McKay, puppet fabricator Jeanette Moffat, and co-head writer Tom Root will all be in attendance at the con. Why an anime con? Well, why not?

In addition, exclusive anime/manga related Robot Chicken skits will be played along side other original Anime Expo® programming during the I-Show at the convention and at official Anime Expo® 2008 convention hotels on the official AX Dark Channels.

I kinda wish Seth Green was coming though. I mean, I’ve liked him since the first Austin Powers flick oh god that was over 10 years ago.