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.

Imprint Talk reports that Google Japan users now have more themes they can use on iGoogle, Google’s portal/widget site. Many of the themes feature work by popular artists, such as Nagi Noda (of HanPanda fame) and…Osamu Tezuka!

Yeah, there’s an AstroBoy theme. It’s pretty groovy. (WHERE’S MY BLACKJACK, GOOGLE? Also, Noizi Ito or Takeshi Obata would be nice…)

Continuing with our regular Rob Watch, check out one of his latest. Apparently the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Phillippines is starting a “Bible Anime” program, but it also apparently doesn’t know what “anime” means, since they will be producing a line of manga-esque comics about Biblical characters and passages.

OLD NEWS ROB. This is what, like, the 86th manga version of the Bible? (Okay, fine, third or so, whatever.)

What’s way more fun about his post is his list of manga Bible scenes he’d like to see. I’ll tease you with one, but you’ll have to visit him to get the rest:

David using the Fist of the North Star technique on Goliath

Current Mood:  Dadada

If there’s one thing in California that I wish we had in Portland - besides lanes and parking spaces that are actually wide enough to fit cars in - it’s a Kinokuniya that gets all of the monthly magazines in on time. I’m kinda lucky to have one at all in Beaverton, but damn if they don’t get delayed on the magazines a lot. I didn’t get the May magazines until the day I left for California…May 17th.

Because of that, I’ll have TWO sets of magazine swag to try and find home for. Bah!
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Current Mood:  WTF is going on?

Christ, there’s a lot of hullabaloo on the ‘net today. SlashThrough2007, Kodomo no Jikan, Anime > Sex at Wikipedia, Rozen Maiden ending, and all sorts of other junk.Let’s see, where to start…I guess the LJ thing sort of hit the fan first, so let’s get there, shall we? And I should note that since I’ve been a very poor LJ’er lately, I’m not necessarily the most up on how things went down…
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Current Mood:  Upset

According to ComiPress, a 17-year-old boy in Japan who killed his mother and took her severed head to the police station (where he confessed to killing her) was possibly influenced by the manga MPD Psycho. Actually, their headline is “MPD Psycho Causes Teenager to Murder His Own Mother?”Sorry to break it to you, ComiPress, but I’m willing to bet that that kid had Issues even before he read the manga. Manga, video games, movies - they don’t cause the violent acts. They may inspire specifics for such an act, but people who are going to snap will snap - if it wasn’t a manga that set him off, it would have been something else.

That said, I don’t know whether I should feel bad for Dark Horse or congratulate them. They’re releasing the first volume of MPD Psycho tomorrow. On the one hand? Boom! Instant press. On the other hand? Well…it’s not the most positive press. Hmm.