According to World Screen News, VIZ has announced a new licensor of Death Note– The Northwest Company, a manufacturer of home decor items. Yes, now U.S. and Canada-based fans can buy Death Note pillows and throw blankets…you know, the ones that aren’t imported or knockoffs. This looks like TNC’s first anime merchandise, but I guarantee if you’ve ever set foot in a Hot Topic, you’re familiar with their wares. For some samples, try their Pirates of the Caribbean swag.

I just hope they make an L dakimakura. WOULD TOTALLY WANT!

Yes, yes, roundup-tastic– I’m back working on more database stuff for the new site, so a bit less time for the lengthy posts (though there’s always time for more CPM/Libre speculation!).

Anime:
- Man, we do a Spoiler-san for Haruhi on Japanator, and suddenly the Haruhi news just keeps popping up. First the Wii game, and now Canned Dogs reports that details on The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, aka Haruhi Second Season, are due in the July issue of Newtype. Huzzah!

- A video for the Mashura remake is up.

- This one’s a day or two old now, but I sucked at getting it up (Golden Week makes me lazy!): Zune is going to carry some FUNimation titles, including Afro Samurai and Witchblade.

- Meanwhile, Bandai Visual USA plans to stream Super Robot Wars and Galaxy Angel Rune– just the first episodes –within the next few weeks.

- The Higurashi no Naku Koro ni third season OVA has been confirmed and will start being released this winter. (Via Moon Phase.)

Movies:
- ICv2 has details on the DVD release of Naruto the Movie 2.

- Ain’t It Cool News has a few reader reviews of the Speed Racer film. Here’s another and another and more and more and more…

Games:
- The Wii Fit is a bad, bad person machine. Seriously.

- Meanwhile, Japanator reports on a board game featuring characters from anime romcoms– and Project A-Kon and Dominion Tank Police. Sounds like someone got a little too wacky with their copy of BESM one night…

Misc:
- Various website updates: apparently ADV is now outsourcing its online shop to Right Stuf in yet another cost-cutting move (though FUNimation did it first). Meanwhile, Bandai Entertainment’s temporary site promises a new website at 5pm PST tomorrow, or else a firing.
- And in a final bit of “awww!” news, FUNimation has been visited by a very special VIP: Jay Dunn, a 15-year-old who visited FUNimation with assistance from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The image above is some of Jay’s art. How’s that for a warm-and-fuzzy way to sign off?

Oof, Golden Week is always such a slow news week! But there’s still some occasional tidbits of US news: a friend of mine pointed me to this post on 801 Media’s forums, in which mascot 801-chan teases the forumgoers with a new, not-yet-contracted license.

All I will say is that you all asked for it. So you had better buy it. Like seriously, a bunch of people didn’t want to do the book for various reasons and I went out on a limb on this one. (Like, we mentioned it in confidence to a few people and they tried to talk us out of it!!!)

Some of the usual guesses appear: Okane ga Nai (which is a little shota-tastic, but hey, Kitty Media already put out the OVA…though 801 has said previously that they don’t have it), Under Grand Hotel (no one would have to be convinced to do that title– EVERY yaoi publisher wants it).

….And then they start fantasizing that 801 might try to bring over one of the hardcore doujinshi of a popular series (such as Antique Bakery and Gravitation, both of whose creators have created smutty doujins for). As for me, I have no clue. But among all the other things they enjoy, I happen to know that yaoi fans like guessing games and speculation. So, hop to it.

Figures, I finally manage to get out and DO stuff on a weekend, and something actually HAPPENS.

So, if you’ve got a single anime news feed on your reader, odds are good that you’ve already heard that Go! Comi has licensed 07-Ghost, Yuki Amemiya’s 2005 shounen fantasy (and debut manga). It revolves around Teito Klein, an elite student at a military academy where he is among the top student users of “zaiphon,” basically a magic ability. Just as he’s passed his final exam to get into the army, he overhears something he isn’t supposed to and becomes a fugitive. Oops!

Also of note, I spotted this in their store. If you’re a fan of Aimee Major Steinberger, who created Go! Comi’s Japan Ai comic, they’re selling a limited quantity of her doujinshi sketchbook, Water Lily. Just thought it was kinda neat.

On a sidenote releating to 07-Ghost, it runs in Ichinjinsha’s Zero-Sum anthology. Canned Dogs has a report from Ichijinsha about the readership of Zero-Sum and its other anthologies. It’s interesting data; be sure and check it out.

This is NOT the complete list of theaters that Bandai Entertainment will play Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo/The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, at, but it is the first few: from June 13th through 19th it will play subtitled in Los Angeles (at the ImaginAsian Center) and dubbed in New York City (at the ImaginAsian Theater), and August 29th through September 4th it will play subbed at the Varsity Theater in Seattle, WA.

So, to repeat:

Los Angeles, ImaginAsian Center, June 13-19, SUBBED.
NYC, ImaginAsian Theater, June 13-19, DUBBED.
Seattle, Landmark’s Varsity Theater, August 29 - Sept. 4, SUBBED.

More dates pending!

A new press release surfaced today announcing that Crunchyroll has struck a deal with THINK Corporation (who, btw, is behind the Neko Rahmen anime), to showcase its “Anime Innovation Tokyo” content. (Anime Innovation Tokyo is a project set up between THINK and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to nurture young creators.)

The launch will include several videos and digital channel dedicated to Anime Innovation Tokyo’s content…The “Anime Innovation Tokyo” digital channel will be seeded with a variety of trailers and clips from its extensive portfolio of titles, as well as feature several social networking elements, including polls, discussion boards, group membership, and more.

Good stuff!

So! Right Stuf has preorders for the first 9 episodes (on two discs) of Gurren Lagann, Bandai Entertainment’s sub-only release.

Interestingly, they also have a special edition of the bare bones release o_o; It’s unclear what all the features are, but don’t be fooled by the two discs; the regular edition has two as well. It looks like it comes with just a CD, presumably the “Sorairo Days” OP single or something along those lines.

And hey, speaking of Gurren Lagann– the official website has opened on up. It looks like they’re pre-selling movie tickets on May 30th, during which time the first 10,000 purchasers will get a free poster, and again on July 18th, when they’ll give away 10,000 limited-edition illustration anthologies (DO WANT). And the movie, of course, hits theaters September 6th.

Jeeez, the site got really slow to load when I reloaded for the announcement. But it is, in fact, Aria, as previously speculated. Or at least season 1 of it EDIT: Just heard back from Right Stuf; they’re not ready to announce more specs just yet but they’ll definitely have more than just the first season).

It’ll start coming out with a first season box set on September 30th, which will include all 13 episodes, sub-only, for $49.99. You can actually pre-order it right now.

For the chunk of you out there who don’t yet know the show, Aria is set in a future where humans have settled other planets, including Mars, which has taken on a Venice-like canal-city structure. As a result, the city is full of gondolas; the show follows a group of young girls training to become professional gondoliers. It’s an “atmosphere” kind of show, based on the manga by Kozue Amano (which also just finished recently, if I remember correctly).

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.)

At 2pm CST (about three hours from the writing of this post), Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment will announce a new license.

But if you’re in a hurry, Japanator thinks they may already know what it is thanks to an LJer who may have caught a scoop. I know some of you will be VERY excited if it turns out to be what they think it is…