Man, it’s a hell of a day for interviews out there. Here are three I’ve come across lately:

TokyoGraph has a translated interview with Visual Kei’er Miyavi, in which he talks about his new album “This Iz The Japanese Kabuki Rock.” Apparently he was particularly focused on expressing pride as a Japanese person, using traditional Japanese drums, the shamisen, and even geta sandals as a tapping noise on one track. The CD also apparently contains what Miyavi says is his “first erotic entry.” Rawr! I’ve heard some clips on Miyavi’s official website and the CD sounds badass.

Meanwhile Japanator’s Dale North had a chat with Nirgilis while they were at Anime Matsuri in Houston. The members talk about their history and influences, and apparently one of them admits to being an otaku; two of them mention a bunch of favorites (Keroro Gunso, Evangelion, Death Note, Gunbuster, Ichigo Marshmallow, Crayon Shin-chan…).

Now, the third interview isn’t music-related, it’s con-related: ActiveAnime talked to the founder of Zuiichi, a new kind of anime event taking place in Vancouver, WA (near Portland, OR) on August 3rd.

I’ll foreword this by noting that I have friends who run Portland’s KumoriCon, and that I believe this new event Zuiichi is being run by former K-con staffers, so maybe I’m biased, but…$150 to spend a weekend watching a handful of anime and a lot of Serenity and Firefly?

Now, there are some neat aspects to this “elite” event, which is supposed to be more about fandom than anime specifically (hence all the Whedon stuff). It actually takes place at a theater called Cinetopia, so they actually have full-on theater screens to show stuff, which is neat. And they do have a couple of relatively unique events: a sake tasting, for example, and a “pocky marshmallow roast.”

But the rest looks like pretty standard far, and the only guest so far is…PDX Browncoats, the Portland Firefly fanclub. $150 is a lot of money for that. (They also have a $60 ticket that features entry to one movie and a dinner of some kind.) I’ll be in town that weekend, but I don’t know if I’ll go.

No, seriously: a three-foot tall Gundam statue has been erected at Kamiigusa Train Station in Suginami-ku in Tokyo, very near the studios of Sunrise, the anime studio behind the Gundam franchise. This was actually announced a while back, but it’s neat to see that it happened.

By the way, Alafista reports that Keroro Gunso (alias: Sergeant Frog) is now the acting stationmaster at Kamiigusa Station. So…I guess Sunrise bought out the train company?

I’m actually not technically back from Anime Matsuri, btw, just crashed at the home of Japanator’s John Martone (his mom? SO hot). I know I failed to get the spring preview up, but I promise it’s coming! ♥♥