(If you didn’t catch the Streetcar Named Desire reference in the title, you’ll make me cry and feel old. Just sayin’.)
Anyway, VIZ has sent out a press release announcing that they’re screening the slapstick geisha comedy (no, seriously!) Maiko Haaaan!!! in New York, L.A., and…woot, Seattle! Looks like I’ll be making the ol’ 3-hour trek up this May.
The film is in New York right now through the 24th, at the ImaginAsian Theater. In L.A. it’ll screen from May 23rd through the 29th at the ImaginAsian Center, and Seattle will have it from May 2nd-8th. Which luckily happens to be a time I’m NOT travelling anywhere else. Yay!
The film, which was written by Kankuro Kudo (who also wrote VIZ Pictures’ Ping Pong, Media Blasters’(/Tokyo Shock’s) Yaji and Kita: the Midnight Pilgrims, and Takashi Miike’s Zebraman), features a Maiko otaku, obsessed with the apprentice geisha who are so rare these days. He dumps his girlfriend so he can try to find a Maiko to romance, leading the girlfriend to try and become a Maiko and other various hijinks ensue. You can check out a trailer at the film’s official English website.
Yes, it’s true: this badly-designed website belongs to what will hopefully be a better-designed manga cafe that’s opening up in San Francisco this very weekend, on April 26th.
Why do I weep? Because I’m leaving town on the 25th. Yeah, I know. Those of you who are in town should definitely check it out, though! (Via Japanator.)
This video is only safe for work if panty shots are allowed at your work!
You know, the expression “I like 2D girls better!” gets kind of confusing when you start having 3D animation, eh? A new ‘game’ called 3D Custom Shoujo (link decidedly NSFW) made me think of it. And no, it’s not a make-your-own-shoujo-manga program.
Instead you can make your own custom anime girl. Give her the hair, eyes, outfit, and accessories (…wings? bandages? armor?) you find hot, and it’ll let you conduct a sex scene with her and a slightly transparent, single-color male body. Or with just herself. I can’t tell if you can make two girls have sex with each other, though…but I AM downloading the demo. The full game comes out June 13th!
Just got a press release from VIZ– apparently the first live-action Death Note flick is going to hit theaters nation-wide…but only for two days. Those two days are May 20 and 21st, and they’ll run at 7:30pm whatever the local time is.
So the big question is: where? How many theaters? It’ll be over 300, and advance tickets go on sale April 18th through 20th on ShonenJump.com. Regular tickets will be available starting April 21st on event partner Fathom’s website, which is also supposed to have a complete list of locations, but I don’t see one yet. Still, with 300 theaters, odds are good there’ll be one at least within an hour or two of most fans.
Wait, what do you mean it wouldn’t be finished until 2011?! Well, fine, buy it for my birthday THAT year. Or Christmas. I’m not picky!
According to an over-a-week-old (zomg missed it!) Wired article, Future Robotics Technology Center director Takayuki Furuta fears that kids aren’t interested in robots anymore. (On what planet, exactly?)
So what does he decide to do? Build a Gundam, of course! At first he developed plans for a a 60-foot-tall version, but decided to scale it down to 13 for financial reasons, the wuss.
I don’t bother with a punchline, because Wired’s already got the best one:
He aims to have it working by 2011, when, ideally, someone will have created something for it to fight.
Ooh, I’ll have to make time for this when I’m in LA for Anime Expo: Clockwork Machina reports on the Royal /T Cafe, a maid cafe opening up in Los Angeles this Saturday.
Now, there have been some attempts to run a maid cafe in North America– I believe there was one in Canada that closed last year. But mostly, maid cafes that have succeeded here have been temporary: an event at a convention or an occasional feature of a shop.
The cafe’s grand opening is Saturday the 12th, and the place triples as a manga cafe, shop, art room, and is even available for special events. They’re actually in Culver City, and they offer a relatively impressive menu.
AkibaBlog has a big, photo-heavy article on the new Mandarake Complex that has opened up in Akihabara. Games, manga, figures/toys, DVDs, doujinshi, costumes, cosplaying staff, you name it, they have it. Check it out and drooool.
Back in March I reported on a new offshoot of the maid cafe phenomenon: a Mother Cafe, featuring 19-40+ year old women, which has now opened in Osaka. The Mainichi has an article on the new otaku hot spot, and some of the features a Mother-type maid can offer:
Staff are encouraged to make even the shyest customers feel at ease, and their motherly ministrations extend to hand-feeding anybody who orders a slice of cake.
Asahi Geino notes that regulars will be able to designate their own “mother” to serve them every time they visit at no extra cost, with “moms” instructed to make sure they nag repeat visitors about their lifestyles to make the experience as real as possible. (By Ryann Connell)
I like the concept of a MILF cafe, but I don’t know how much I’d want to pay to get nagged.
The Scotsman brings word of Scotland’s second-ever anime convention, Auchinawa 2008 (I’m assuming that it’s pronounced similar to Okinawa), has managed to sell out in only 9 days. Now, the official website says it’s 300 people, while the Scotsman article says 600– I’m inclined to believe the con’s site. That’s a pretty small con, but still, a 9-day sellout’s pretty good for a second-year con, especially one not starting until November! Clearly they’ll need to grow some more.
The article focuses mostly on the cosplay aspect, but from the con’s website it looks like there’ll be other events to be had as well. Hopefully they’ll work things out with UK-based anime and manga companies– which would now include VIZ Media and Starz Entertainment, who are going to release a bunch of popular titles to the UK and Ireland. Hmm!
Dallas-based A-Kon has announced that they’ll be going for the Guiness World Record of…Largest Gathering of people dressed as Games Characters. The number to beat: 80.
To be eligible you have to dres as a character that was a video game character first (Sonic’s okay even though he’s done comic books; Batman’s not because he did comics first). You also have to sign your name in front of witnesses at the event and state the character’s name and game, and you have to wear it for at least 15 minutes. The other requirements are here.
Yeah, I didn’t know they had a record for that either, but hey– best of luck to ‘em!
