So the 2008 Oscar Nominations are out, and I just thought I’d let you know that there were no anime noms for best animated feature and no Japanese films are up for best foreign feature either.

Now, a few of us were talking about what would be eligible. I initially assumed that stuff that had made the festival circuit would be eligible, and therefore guessed that the neglected anime films would be Byousoku 5cm, Vexille, Evangelion 1.0, and Appleseed EX Machina, all of which were released in Japan in 2007 (and therefore were probably in the ‘07 festival circuit).

But looking into it more closely the eligibility has more to do with whether it was available to be seen in a theater in Los Angeles County and had at least a 7-day run, which would make Paprika the only truly definite option. I’m not sure what kind of run, if any, Tekkonkinkreet got. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time might be a possibility for next year’s Oscars, and Gedo Senki hasn’t been released in the states yet either.

If Paprika was an option, I’m really surprised it didn’t manage to finagle a nomination; it got a lot of really positive press, and Satoshi Kon isn’t unknown outside of anime fans either. Boo!

I’ve been workin’ on the railroad non-anime type work today (I do have to, y’know, make money to pay my rent and whatnot), hence why it’s been so quiet here in spite of the MASSIVE amounts of news. So, here we go:

• Yasuo Fukuda is now Japan’s Prime Minister. He offered a Cabinet position to Taro Aso, who said something like “screw you bitchezzz I resign!” instead. So much for the “otaku Prime Minister,” eh?
• The makers of the School Days game are going to host a special screening of the anime adaptation’s finale, according to Canned Dogs, which would be cool except that people can only get in if they have an unopened copy of either the School Days or Summer Days game. Which is kind of retarded.
• The first promo image for the live-action Blood: The Last Vampire movie is now online, if not terrilby exciting. Twitch also has word of Asian Oscar contenders.
• Last but not least…well, no, it’s probably least. But anyway, TokyoGraph reports that UVERworld (who you probably recognize from Bleach soundtracks, and/or Blood+ and/or Terra E) is going to do the theme song for the new live-action TV adaptation of Moyoco Anno’s manga Hataraki Man.

I’ve got a commentary post I’m about to do, but I’ve also got more work and a meetup tonight, so sorry if you miss me ;o