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?

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.

Heavens to betsy, lookit all that news!

TV Anime:
- ANN has confirmed that Bandai Visual (that’s the Japanese one) is going to be releasing some of its titles globally on Blu-Ray, i.e. with subtitles in English and other languages.
- Meanwhile, Slayers REVOLUTION just looks better and better: Megumi Hayashibara has announced on her official site that she’ll be singing both the OP and ED themes.

Manga:
- ICv2 has released its Anime/Manga Guide, and Naruto remained the top property while anime sales continue to decline (although box sets seem to be doing well).
- An absolute must-read: Christopher Butcher goes way in-depth with VIZ’s original content line.
- God help us all, the 48-person girl group AKB48 is getting its own manga.
- A mysteriously unnamed set of “anime artists” (I can only assume they actually draw manga?) took part in a breast cancer fundraiser.

Movies/OVAs:
- An official trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Sky Crawlers is up at the official website. Score!

Music:
- Anime on DVD has a press release from Jpop group Budo Grape, with two Texas appearances (including A-kon) and one in New York City.

Toys/Swag:
- Kotobukiya is a Japanese company, and Batman is getting made into an anime, so I can call this anime-ish news, right? ‘Cause it’s absolutely badass.
- In other toy news, Japan is working on a line of eco-friendly toys.

Misc:
- I finally have a good reason to hunt down a copy of Otaku USA– Japanator’s Zac Bentz is in the new issue.
- If my preview of Manga Cafe Mika wasn’t enough for you, here’s Deb Aoki’s coverage of the grand opening over at manga.about.com.

Weehaw!

Simon Jones alerts us to comics distro Diamond’s 2007 Gem Awards. He doesn’t link to the winners and I can’t find them on Diamond’s website, but I’m willing to take Jones’ word for it: VIZ has won both of the manga categories– “Manga Publisher of the Year” and “Manga Trade Paperback of the Year” (which Naruto volume 14 won).

I don’t really follow Naruto myself (I watched the first episode of Shippuuden and that was about the extent of it), but I just got a report from JerkPop’s Nis that the newest episode of Naruto Shippuuden, #54, consists largely of random character cuts and scenes that don’t fit into the manga canon at all.

Could it be? Is it more of the dreaded…FILLER?!

Only time will tell, but the ep also seems to lead the characters into a mission rather than into a rather important character-oriented storyline that’s next in the manga. So, if it is the terrifying six-letter “F” word, sorry, Naruto fans.

Over at MangaBlog I’ve just learned that VIZ is sponsoring Free Comic Book Day at the gold level (which means their free comic book offering will be available at ALL participating comic book stores). They’re giving away a free mini-issue (32 pages) of Shonen Jump that sports Naruto on the cover (as if we’d expect anything different).

Brigid notes that VIZ was not a sponsor at all last year, and that TOKYOPOP, who was a gold-level sponsor last year, isn’t participating at all this year. Maybe they coordinate this stuff?

Free Comic Book Day is May 3rd this year, and there are other items potentially of interest to manga fans: Del Rey Manga’s Dean Koontz graphic novel, In Odd We Trust, will be in their preview mag; Drawn & Quarterly has a gekiga (”serious pictures,” as opposed to manga, “irresponsible pictures”) sampler with work by Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Seiichi Hayashi.

Also available is a preview of Yen Press’ Maximum Ride, a graphic novel adaptation of James Patterson’s YA novels, and a preview of Rod Espinosa’s slightly manga-inspired Neotopia. Also, I can’t help but notice– the cover for the Nascar Heroes preview is an homage to Speed Racer. (Seriously! Here. It’s at the bottom of the silver comics.)

Dear mainstream media,

It’s Naruto. Not Narutu (Fox News, not that you were all that great to begin with). Nor is it Narato, KOIN TV (I happened upon the mispronunciation on TV).

I don’t like to bring any more attention to the show than necessary, but come on. Would it kill you to take ten seconds to google this shit? If I search for “anime narato” or “anime narutu,” both offer the spelling correction. C’mon.

Follow-up to the earlier article: the boy who was buried in the sand head-first by his friends who were insipred by Naruto, Codey Porter, has died.

The good news is that it looks like no particular backlash against Naruto is in the works; even the Seattle PI’s article notes that accidents like this have happened in the past, such as when kids would jump off a roof while wearing a towel as a cape and playing Superman.

I guess that means we can go back to worrying about Death Note now…

Back in January a child in Indonesia managed to strangle himself while imitating something he’d seen on Naruto. Now another child, this time in Seattle, is struggling to live for the same reason.

Apparently three kids were playing in the sandbox and they came up with the idea to bury one of them in the sand– head first. When the boy started thrashing around wildly, the kids thought he was just playing, until they eventually figured out something was wrong and found their parents. The parents administered CPR until an ambulance arrived, and the boy is apparently still in the hospital fighting to recover. The kids say it was inspired by a show on Cartoon Network.

SeattlePI.com notes that a local TV station, KOMO/TV, is citing “Naruto Sand Ninjas” [sic] as the show that inspired the act.

Obviously, Naruto should be banned for the good of humanity everywhere. And the violence is bad too. (Kidding! Please don’t kill me, Naruto fans– I hear you’re violent.)

An Indonesian child apparently managed to strangle himself to death after imitating someone on Naruto (no mention of who, or what they were doing), leading a member of Indonesia’s parliament to call for stricter regulation of broadcast materials.

I’m not exactly sure what he thinks stricter regulation will do, exactly. He’s right that people mistakenly don’t see cartoons as adult and probably don’t take violence in them as seriously as they do in live-action TV, but on the other hand– they don’t seem to censor their live-action TV all that much either. Eh.

Original source: The Jakarta Post
Secondary source: