So I think a couple of folks on Japanator’s IRC channel were talking about Double K earlier, and I wasn’t paying attention…until I saw it again on the Gurren Lagann livejournal community.

Apparently DeviantArtist captainosaka took part in a 4ch conversation in which they said that a Kamina/Kittan buddy-cop show would be the greatest thing ever, and the artist in question decided to make it happen.

He’s got a comic of his creation Double K (one panel of which is posted above, with apologies to captainosaka), but make sure you check out all his other stuff– he’s got a lot of really fantastic art for the concept. I’m incredibly fond of his original design for Yoko (and slightly less fond of his follow-up design), and I’m bowled over by the Gurrenrod.

This might be my favorite fanart all year. (Ignoring that a good chunk of it started being posted in’ 07.) ♥

Damnit, Internets, stop finding me stories so I can sleep!

But I wanted to give you all the heads up that Bandai Entertainment’s new website has launched– an “alpha” test for the time being. I’m not especially impressed with the visuals, but I am excited that they now have a blog. Here’s hoping for lots of updates!

…Which I can’t help but notice have thus far been posted by “Anonymous.” Innocent euphemism for “unpaid intern,” or statement against Scientology? You decide! ♥

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.

Just a quick FYI, since I know I have a few parents who read: MangaBlog’s Brigid has announced the creation of a new blog called Word Balloons, which is devoted to childrens’ comics for preschoolers through young adults, which will include manga (like Eisner nominee Yotsuba&!) as well as other comics around the world. And the contributor list is pretty star-studded:

…our opening group of contributors includes super-librarian and former Eisner judge Robin Brenner*, PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blogger Kate Dacey, Manga Xanadu blogger Lori Henderson, school media specialist Esther Keller, Diamond Comics Distributor’s Janna Morishima, webcomicker and blogger Jason Sigler, librarian and MangaCast reviewer (and current Eisner judge) Eva Volin, and teen librarian and Manga Jouhou reviewer Snow Wildsmith. Dan Hess, the talented creator of Angel Moxie and Realms of Ishikaze, was kind enough to draw the header image, and J. Dee Dupuy handled design (and was very patient about it, too).

* Robin Brenner is not only a former Eisner judge, she’s also a 2008 nominee!

All in all it looks like it’ll solidly fill a longstanding gap in comics blogs, and with such prominent talent? This can only be good.

Apparently somewhere along the line I missed out on word that the eroge Koihime Musou is being developed into a TV anime, and its official website has opened.

The game follows a high school boy who gets sucked into a Romance of the Three Kingdoms-esque world when trying to catch a thief. There he joins forces with a female warrior, and together they screw a dozen or so women unite the world. Or something?

Anyway, it’s supposed to air in July, and it’s being directed by Sumomomo Momomo and Kashimashi director Nobuaki Nakanishi, so it’ll probably be good fun.

Tiamat– who I mistakenly referred to as a “she” earlier; my apologies. I blame it entirely on Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher –has an update on the disappearance of Seven Seas’ website.

Namely, that it’s back! Apparently they suffered a major server crash and it looks like they’ve lost their forum data from it, although the rest of the site is workin’ fine now. Glad it was no big deal!

If you were curious about my post yesterday talking about how Seven Seas’ website seems to have somewhat disappeared off the Internets, Josh offers tech-savvy speculation at his blog, suggesting that Seven Seas may be moving from gomanga.com to the also-registered sevenseasmanga.com, and possibly even moving hosts/servers at the same time, but not as cleanly as one would like. Meanwhile Tiamat notes that the site had been sluggish prior to going down about two days ago. (He also says he’s e-mailed Adam Arnold– which I totally should have thought of.)

Has anyone else noticed that visiting manga/light novel publisher Seven Seas’ website, http://www.gomanga.com, produces nothing but an error? I visited a number of other sites on the host with no problem, so…hopefully it’s just an error on 7S’s account.

I don’t think anything too dire has happened to the publisher, since their most recent releases (March 18, 2008) seem to all be properly in stock on Amazon. Still, it wouldn’t be the first mysterious disappearance, since they pulled the launch title for their yaoi line from the site and refused to comment on their forums or privately about it. Hmm. I wish I had contact information for them, but unfortunately the only way I was ever able to even try and get in touch was via the contact form on their currently non-functioning website. D’oh!

Those of you who have your own anime blogs, you have until April 22nd to nominate blogs for the Anime Blog Awards. Thanks to those crazy bastards who nominated me, and make sure you don’t forget all the other awesome blogs out there!

After the nominations are done, voting opens up to the world at large. I know some people are already anticipating that the more popular blogs (like the ones I just linked) will take the awards, but y’know what? Being popular doesn’t mean you’re bad (some might argue the opposite), and the people who run those blogs deserve recognition, because they’re freakin’ amazing. Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t root for the underdogs; just don’t write someone off just because they’re not!

…Just some random blather inspired by some of the babble I’ve seen regarding the awards lately. ♥

Yeees, the ever-elusive (or not) Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga has opened up its anime channel site, from which it will air both the ONA Candy Boy and the new series Penguin Musume ♥ Heart. You can also catch a trailer for Musume (which is followed by an interview in Japanese).