Yeah, I know, I was supposed to get to this ages hours ago. Don’t ask. It’s a long story that involves a priest, a rabbi, a mongoose, a bar, and a very, very bad pun.

Oh, and lest you fear that I’m devolving into all-round-up-all-the-time, it’s just a sad combination of recent news being on the smaller scale, a step up in my work on my Secret Project (news is forthcoming…I hope), and an array of “holy shit I have a real life sometimes” nonsense, like my DMV trip earlier. So don’t worry!

Anime:
- Nozomi Entertainment issued a press release announcing that the first episode of Victorian Romance Emma– which is a sub-only offering –will be on the DVD that accompanies the June issue of Otaku USA. It’s a fantastic show, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a heart that is not frozen over with black ice.

Manga:
- New York-Tokyo.com (now THAT is a niche) has an article about a new exhibit coming to Kinokuniya in New York City: Gegege no Kitarou creator Shigeru Mizuki’s woodblock carvings. And by that I mean, it’s an ukiyo-e story called “Fifty-Three Stations of the Yokaido Road” (a pun on the Fifty-Three Stations of the Toukaidou, which was the main road through Japan in the feudal era, and the word “youkai,” or demon). The story features the youkai characters of Kitarou and it sounds really awesome. Figures it appears after I leave the city.
- In a very weird twist: ANN reports that a 43-year-old has been barred from a manga club meeting at a library in South Carolina; meanwhile, a 43-year-old librarian (and 2channeler) has been arrested in Japan for posting bomb threats. Shitty time for 43-year-olds, eh?
- Manga Xanadu has a nice article with suggestions for manga companies on the best ways to make use of the ol’ intarnubs Internet.
- Speaking of websites, VIZ has redesigned their online store and comments on UNIQLO’s partnership with VIZ co-parent Shogakukan.

Cons:
- Blah blah blah, Naruto CCG tourney at Anime Expo, etc.

Image © mehan, who I hope won’t sue me for borrowing it.

Misc:
- If you haven’t had enough of San Francisco’s Manga Cafe Mika, Jason “gotta-read-’em-all!” Thompson has another preview.
- IKIMASHOU LIVES! Sorta. Former owner Randall lives, anyway. If you’re looking to run an anime/figure/game/anything-Japan-related blog and need a host, his site dasaku.net offers just that– now with 100% more application.
- Wired has a brief article up about the new Mandarake store in Akiba.
- Over Kuriosity, we have a nice editorial on why the manga industry hasn’t been hit as hard by piracy as the anime industry.
- Hey, did you know that the World Cosplay Summit is going to go into the finals tomorrow? No, really! Y’know, the WCS doesn’t really get the word out enough, since I always sort of forget about it until something pops up on their blog or a google alert. Maybe a couple of judicious press releases and official footage on YouTube (or better yet, some kind of live webcast) would do well? Or maybe it’s just me.
- Canned Dogs has some tidbits, including an update on Colonel Sanders-tan: apparently KFC made the Akiba location remove the maid outfit. LOSE!
- Last but not least, we’re #4! We’re #4! …in instant ramen consumption.

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.

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.

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!

I did pop by the FUNimation booth and talked to Adam Sheehan, who said he hadn’t heard anything about One Piece not continuing on Cartoon Network, but told me to check in tomorrow with someone else at FUNi, which I will do. I couldn’t find anyone for BVU around, though, so I wasn’t able to ask them anything. (Maybe they’ll be at NYCC?)

That was pretty much the rest of the con as far as work went, so I hung around the Kumori Con booth and pimped out my tail for a while, then helped with the teardown. That was kinda fun. (I love riding on the carts!) Hey, did you know that the dealers basically get to leave their garbage behind? Here’s a video of the aftermath:

And with that, I’ll leave you with a final, epic cosplay image.

Hope you enjoyed Sakura Con ‘08! For those of you who are curious about my next con coverage, it’ll be New York Comic Con next month.

So it turns out that tomorrow’s Bandai Visual USA panel has been cancelled, which means I have no panels to cover, which means I’ll probably spend most of the day hanging around in the dealer’s room, acting as a booth babe for KumoriCon.

In the meantime, here are the primary highlights from the panels I covered:

• TOKYOPOP has put Kino no Tabi on hold indefinitely and they blame themselves, but didn’t detail the reasons.
• TOKYOPOP.com v2.5 is due in the next few weeks.
• Bandai Entertainment DOES have the rights to season 2 of Code Geass (not surprising, but nice to know). The DVDs of season 1 will also feature many of the bonus stuff that came with the Japanese discs, including sketch booklets and stuff.
• This was sorta already known, but TWO versions of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time/Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo are going to be sent to theaters: a digital dubbed version to theaters that can handle those, and a subbed 35mm version. So what appears in your city (if anything) will vary depending on what your theater takes. The dub will premiere at NYCC in April.
• Dark Horse’s CLAMP project may be a candidate for a movie, although it’s still unclear whether that’s a possibility for one of the seven movies that Universal makes on its own or whether they might try to self-finance, but it’s still an exciting possibility, to use Carl Horn’s words.
• DH’s Domo-kun doll is also coming available soon, including exclusive colors at San Diego Comic Con (yellow) and for Newberry (green).
• FUNimation is still pushing Operation Anime, their anime club connection program.
• Info on Ouran High School Host Club should hit this summer and will be released uncut.
• Koge Donbo is too busy working on Kamichama Karin Chu! to do a second volume of Broccoli’s Kon Kon Kokon. Sad charats!
• VIZ Media and Antarctic Press both mysteriously no-showed. (I have an e-mail out to VIZ asking what’s up and who I might ask some questions.)

I’ll be dropping by the dot anime booth to see if any BVU folks are around to chat with for a bit, since they didn’t have a panel, so I’ll let you know if I glean anything interesting from that– and I’ll check in with Sheehan regarding One Piece on Cartoon Network. Now, the swagpost…

Closeups (but not of the doujinshi ♥) and a couple of cosplay shots (including another L-in-disguise) after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t get EVERY cool outfit here, but here are a handful of awesome outfits– under the jump, for the bandwidth Read the rest of this entry »

Now I’m hangin’ out in panel room 3, waiting for FUNimation to start (okay, so I’m technically 20 minutes early. Oh well…) So get your questions to me now and I’ll see what kind of answers I can get!

It’s cold in here, by the way.