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.

TIME has offered up its fifth annual list of the 100 Most Influential People, and who should appear at #78 but artist/Kanye collaborator Takashi Murakami? I have to say, he looks REALLY dorky in a bow tie, for all that his art is fantastic (regardless of what Zetsubou-sensei says).

Also of interest: the #1 result on TIME’s user-voted “most-influential” poll is none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, of Nintendo everything fame. Each of these guys gets a pros/cons list, and Shiggy’s cons mostly have to do with how fat gamers are. Thanks, TIME, we love you too.

Was just catching up on my Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and caught this little clip:

…Could this be a reference to pop artist showing at the Brooklyn Museum in New York at the moment? (Okay, this episode aired on March 8th, almost a month prior to the exhibit opening, but Murakami has shown in NYC in the past, too…)

Hmm…

Shorties:

• Blah blah blah Yaoi Con. If you’re interested in it, odds are good you’ve already seen YaoiSuki’s phenomenal coverage of it, so I won’t bother rehashing.
• Hey look– Japan Town San Francisco is revamping, including the building of a Jpop culture center. I’ll have to check that out when it’s done…
• European investors like Japanese love hotels. Who knew?
• Let’s see, I already talked about Lucky Star being licensed. For those of you silly enough to take me seriously, I was annoyed that it happened on a weekend when I wasn’t around to scoop, not because of the license itself. Duh.
• Apparently the gala event for Takashi Murakami’s exhibit at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art was a little star-studded.
• Tsundere GPS device. What the fuck.
• Are we done with Hare Hare Yukai now that even the virtual idols are doing it?
• HOLY SHIT LIVE ACTION AKIRA. Well, maybe. Possibly. We’re thinking about it.
• Remember Dale’s interview with Oreskaband at Anime Expo? No? That’s because animeOnline died before we could post it. (Wait, did we get it through? I don’t remember.) Anyway, the band is going to be in a movie.
• Vertical has Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. It’s my fave Tezuka series, second to Unico, so HUZZAH!
• VIZ is all like, “look at all of our live-action manga adaptations! LOOK AT THEM! WE SO COOL!” Apparently they hoped we’d forget that everyone’s been expecting all of these for ages, except maybe Love*Com.
• Gong+Blinkx=more legal anime online. And stuff.
• A couple of new series: the sci-fi/greek mythology dark-lookin’ show Mnemosyne, plus an anime based on the character books Zenryoku Usagi. Also, BIOHAZARD CG anime.

At Length:

Ghost Hunt licensed: I love this show– solid characters, interesting stories, and any and all potential romance/personal drama is subtle and mostly not addressed. Also, AMAZING soundtrack by Masuda Toshio, who also did the soundtrack for Mushishi, FYI. Mmmm.

FUNimation vs Atari re: Dragon Ball Z games. I’m intrigued that no one has released the “why” for FUNimation’s move (which was to announce their intent to sever Atari’s rights to the games due to unknown infractions). Apparently DBZ is one of the floundering Atari’s few successful franchises– I wonder if FUNi is just hoping to jump ship before it sinks, or ir something significant really did go down?

B2B anime info portal: So Japanese companies are trying to get more information about their series to both North American and European countries. Given the recent hubbub with U.S. anime companies– e.g. FUNi, ADV, and Geneon’s layoffs and scalebacks –I think it’s a good idea for anime companies to get a better sense of what’s out there and what to license. While the “snag every single anime possible” tactic has its bonuses, I can’t think it’s the best method out there.

…Whew. That should keep you guys busy for a few minutes. Did I skip anything big?

Superflat pioneer Takashi Murakami sure is expanding his reach. From painting to sculpture to CD cover design to jewelry, the artist has now jumped into a related domain: directing anime. According to Variety, Murakami will direct his first anime, titled kaikai & kiki. (The name isn’t as random as it seems– Murakami’s production company, who is doing the anime without assistance of any well-known anime production houses –is called Kaikai Kiki Co.)

The first ten-minute episode is set to premiere at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art on Monday as part of is “© Murakami” show. The museum is also hosting a panel run by Variety and TOKYOPOP on Saturday, featuring TOKYOPOP CEO Stu Levy, Dreamworks producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the directors of the CG flick “Bee Movie.”

Yowza.

I actually saw this a few days ago but didn’t look into it– the headline was just “Kanye West Becomes a Jewelry Designer,” so what did I care?

But today I stumbled upon it again and looked closer. It turns out he’s actually working on his jewelry line with Japanese superflat artist Takashi Murakami, who also designed the cover of his latest album.

He apparently debuted a sample piece on the third, wearing a “huge gold Manga-style diamond-studded pendant around his neck.” I don’t know what a Manga-style pendant is, but don’t worry, it won’t be all diamonds:

Shedding more light on the pieces in his forthcoming collection, West told Women’s Wear Daily: “They’ll be more accessible, they won’t be all diamonds.”

Wacky!

Seriously, two weeks in a row (the 9/28 issue and the 10/5 issue), Entertainment Weekly has featured some otaku culture. First it was Takashi Murakami’s cover design for Kanye West, and then this week it’s Witchblade. Okay, okay, I know there are specific western attachments for both of those, since Kanye West is an American rapper and Witchblade was originally an American comic, but still.

Hit the jump to see some bits from the article (but I’m not reprinting them in their entirety, for the sake of having SOME semblence of respect for copyright). Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, I don’t follow rap . I pretty much only know Kanye West as “that rapper who said a bunch of funny shit after he failed to win some award.” And as that guy who did that anime-style music video and was going to make a manga at some point.

But all that just seemed like an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Japanese pop culture. This, on the other hand, is actually kinda neat. Kanye’s latest album cover features work by superflat artist Takashi Murakami, who I mentioned a few times back on aO - his work was on display in New York City not too long ago.

Okay, Kanye, I’m paying attention. Are you just another otaku, or are you going to do something interesting here?