No, seriously, look: first, there were those Mangaka Association awards I posted about before. Then…

- The 32nd Kodansha Manga Awards, with Moyashimon taking the top prize (best general manga), among other familiar names (Shugo Chara! Woot!)

- The 12th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, with ¥2 million going to…Moyashimon! Hmm. I’m detecting a pattern here.

Right then, moving on to the rest of the news…

Anime:
- The sequel to MS Gundam IGLOO will be an OVA, says Moon Phase. Shown above.

- This is only barely anime-related anymore, but 4kids isn’t doing too well and I thought you should know. And yeah, I know a couple of you are snickering in the back row there.

- Anime on DVD thinks it knows FUNimation’s next licensing announcement. I’m convinced!

Movies:
- TokyoGraph is on a roll; they’ve confirmed a sequel film to the manga-to-live-action-movie Crows Zero. The sequel will be directed by the original’s helmer Takashi Miike, and Shun Oguri returns as the lead, Genji Takaya.

- TG also reports that Jin Akanishi, a member of the popular boy band KAT-TUN, is taking on his first voice acting role…as Speed in the Japanese dub of the new Speed Racer flick. Hmm.

Conventions:
- Girls rule, boys drool! Alafista reports that women outnumber men at the enormous Comiket doujinshi events, 57% to 43%. There are a lot of other interesting tidbits of info in the article, such as the fact that 71% of the doujinshika are women, and the average attendee is 2-3 years younger than the average circle member.

- FanimeCon is not only running a charity auction this year, they’ll also match all donations. Sweet!

Don’t worry; my to-do list includes a whole bunch of articles. So let’s get started with the catch-up first!

Anime:
- I’m trying to include more “interesting read” articles these days, and here’s one: a Gundam Wing retrospective.

- Dot Anime is now officially streaming the first episode of Super Robot Wars OG Divine Wars.

- Off in Japan, two of the Tales OVAs– Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Fantasia — are being released in Blu-Ray box sets.

- In case you didn’t believe me, I just got a press release confirming that FUNi has licensed Save Me! Lollipop.

Manga:
- Debbie at manga.about.com spots DMP’s new Speed Racer website.

- The Yomiuri has an article on manga that focus on traditional Japanese theater forms Noh and Kabuki.

- German yaoi publisher Fire Angels is planning on publishing in English– specifically, they’ll be releasing an English translated version of K-A-E 29th Secret. I’ve heard tell that yaoi is even bigger in Germany than in the US, and/or that their OEL market is huge, so this should be interesting to watch.

- Alafista has the winners of this year’s Japan Mangaka Association Award, which includes Monster creator Naoki Urasawa as grand prize winner for 20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys. The other winner of the grand prize is Hiroko Minami for Hina-chan no Nichijo. Make sure you check out alafista’s article, which includes the Excellence Awards and special awards.

Movies:
- And if you hate yourself and want to be miserable, check out the first official Dragon Ball Z movie promo pic.

- This is only vaguely tangentially related to anime, but a Witchblade movie is in the works.

- Yes, Speed Racer isn’t doing as well as people had hoped, but at the #2 spot, it’s not completely floundering either.

Misc:
- AkibaBlog reports on various Miku Hatsune itasha (car decor).

- What Japan Thinks informs us of the cutest corporate mascots in Japan, and Japan picks the toucan over the viking kitty. WTF?

- Oh, here, this might explain it: Sankaku Complex discussing the decline in both IQ and lust suffered by Japan’s youth.

Warning: Do not see this movie immediately before a longish freeway drive home. Doing so may result in speeding tickets and/or death by trying to flip off the freeway.

Also, epileptics may want to skip out.

Insert opening joke about LSD here! Yes, the Speed Racer movie is incredibly vibrant in its visuals, with plenty of slapstick and gags and goofy facial expressions that I’m willing to bet will be off-putting to some. It’s…dare I say it?…cartoony. Gloriously so.

If you go into this movie expecting some kind of deep, serious, or even witty film, you will be disappointed: Speed Racer is none of these things. However, if you’re the sort of person who can throw off all the elitist pretentions and just sit back and enjoy a fun, over-the-top action flick, you won’t have wasted your money– though I fear you IMAX goers may find yourselves getting a little motion sick in some of the scenes.

I didn’t think it was anywhere near as bad as critics seem to be saying, such as MSNBC’s Alonso Duralde, who I’m only mentioning because I do really like his suggestion that the film is like “pouring hot, melted Starburst candies into your corneas.”

It’s light on plot, and some of the dialogue is pretty iffy (”Inspector Detector suspected that…” Yeah, right). The bad guys are decidedly of the black-hat sort, although there’s a reason why the good guys’ helmets have racing stripes instead of being pure white– I’d argue that our hero Speed becomes even more aggressive and violent as the film continues. But there are a lot of fun references to the original show (such as the cameo from original Speed dub voice actor Peter Fernandez, the repeated refrain of the “go speed racer go-oooo” bit of the anime’s theme, and little brother Spritle watching a subtitled Japanese show) and there’s more than enough to feast your eyes on at any given moment.

Not to say it was perfect; some of Spritle’s antics are a little too predictable (like the candy obsession), and for all that Christina Ricci is amazingly hot, her performance felt a little too tongue-in-cheek, wink-at-the-screen at a couple of moments for me…though it’s nice to see Trixie get a couple of badass moments in as well.

John Goodman as Pops was a fantastic casting idea, and they throw you for a nice little loop with Racer X at one point as well. Korean pop star Rain is fun to watch in his role as rival/ally Taego Tojohkan (oh yeah, there’s a bunch of shady Japanese companies involved– this is cars, after all –and a Korean guy obviously might as well be Japanese, right?), albeit largely for his attractive face and that really awesome black-with-pink-streaks ‘do.

I think you may be sensing the theme here: Speed Racer will not weigh down your brain in any way, shape, or form, nor is it supposed to. If you even notice the plot, you may decide it’s just getting in the way of all the pretty, shiny things. But the pretty, shiny things are extremely pretty and shiny, so it’s a fun watch– especially with a group of friends and a really big screen. I’m afraid we probably ticked off some of the people in the theater with our little whispered MST3K channeling. Oops.

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?

Since I’m actually trying to leave the house this weekend (zomg! Hey, it’s for the Degas/Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the art museum and the Cinco de Mayo fair at the waterfront), I figure I’d better knock this sucker out so I don’t forget anything.

Anime:
- USA Today has finally picked up on that whole anime being made into movies thing. Now with 100% more Answerman! (ANN’s Zac Bertschy gets a quote in the article.)
- Speaking of ANN, they have word that CoLours, the “multicultural network,” isn’t running their FUNimation channel block anymore. They originally ran a four-hour block, then two hours, and then there was none.

Manga
- Hey, did you know that Naruto sells well? Yeah, so did I.
- The Yomiuri has a special on Astro Boy, specifically the expansion of his franchise with the “fat Astro Boy” designs of Lily Franky.
- Aaand over at Comics Worth Reading, we have a nice State of Josei Manga address from Johanna, who talks about what titles out in the US might fit the bill; commenters have a handful more.
- P.S. FREE MANGA! (And other comics.)

Movies/OVAs:
- Variety tells us about the visualsof Speed Racer, which, as we all know, are sexy. (The question is whether the other aspects of the flick will match up.) Oh, and IGN has three minutes of the film online.

Music:
- Hashihime updates us on the chart status of seiyuu/songstresses Maaya Sakamoto and Aya Hirano (known to me for their roles as two different Haruhis: Sakamoto is Host Club’s tomboyish Haruhi, and Hirano, of course, voices Suzumiya Haruhi herself). But Sakamoto wins out on the sales charts, taking the #3 spot while Hirano is at #20.

Cons:
- Viva l’Obata! Takeshi Obata is hitting up Paris’ Japan Expo, according to anime!anime!.

In Japan:
- Ooh, new category! But Gunota Headlines has word that the Bandai Hobby Center is having a public viewing on May 17-18th, with a Keroro Gunsou stage show and a Gundam 00 seiyuu talk show, among other events.

Misc:
- Given the popularity of 2ch, I can’t imagine how anyone would be surprised that Japanese people favor anonymity when commenting online, but here’s the poll to prove it, from WhatJapanThinks. There’s information on a number of other aspects of Internet use, especially with mobile phone surfing.

True story! Remember that Geico commercial that featured clips from the original Speed Racer? No? Well, here it is.

Now there’s a commercial for Esurance that features the live-action Speed Racer, complete with a promo website for the film.

Good lord people, I don’t know what to think. Which insurance company should I use to ally myself with the almighty Speed Racer?!

Speaking of live-action movie adaptations, let’s talk about one I’m less terrified of: Ain’t it Cool News has confirmed that the live-action Speed Racer movie will be released simultaneously on IMAX, along with a regular theatrical run.

I wonder if my local IMAX theater’ll show it?

I got a google alert for “otaku” that led me to this article at MediaPost about a couple of guys who are working to make mobile phones in the US more like the ones in Japan (i.e. awesome and useful). They specifically talk about the QR codes– you’ve probably seen them on websites; they look kinda like barcodes? Japanese phones can scan them to get you more information or content about the product/site/etc.

They say that they’re banking on “otaku,” as in obsessives, not as in anime and manga fans. They also say that “Hello Kitty became the original importation of Japanese pop culture,” which is an absolute lie; Speed Racer came to the US in 1967; Hello Kitty was created in ‘74. The fools!

Have I mentioned that I’m in Atlanta at the moment?

AICN’s “Nordling” offers us an impassioned essay on not letting “nerdstalgia” make us think that movies based on Voltron, He-Man, etc. might be good.

But after that, he notes that based on his reading of the Speed Racer script, the film will kick “unholy ass.” He then goes on to talk a lot about what you’ll see in the film, so if you want the spoilers, check ‘em out here.

But I still kinda wanna see a She-Ra movie. ♥;;;