So, I was talking to a couple of other bloggers lately…and we realized, who the heck is going to be covering Yaoi Con? Boys Next Door will hopefully have a few things to say, but the vast majority of us are going to be at New York Anime Fest, which means we’ll miss out on all the BL news!

So, I know I have some BL fans reading out there. Any of you going to be there? The BL world’s been in quite a bit of upheaval– this and this only the latest developments –so I’d love to talk to anyone who’s planning to attend. Comment here, please!

Over the evening I just got word on this from the Boys Next Door girls, and then Brigid mentioned it today over at MangaBlog: apparently a new yaoi publisher called Yaoi Generation, who will be at Yaoi-Con (and, according to BND’s Cynbaby, possibly at Otakon as well).

GloBL comic writer Tina Anderson and blogger/writer/editor Kethylia trade speculation, including the possibility that Yaoi Generation is being established by Yaoi Press (the company is based in Fremont, CA, where Iris Print’s Kellie Lynch lives and now works for Yaoi Press) or DrMaster (also based in Fremont).

I’m a bit skeptical on the YPress idea– I didn’t get the sense that Lynch was especially interested in doing the licensed manga thing, and I’m not sure why Yamila Abraham would launch a whole new company for that when Yaoi Press has an established reputation and sales. As for DrMaster, I suppose it’s entirely plausible.

A whois on the domain shows that the registrant as a “Thuy Duong.” I can find plenty of Thuy Duongs online, even ones in Fremont and ones who are into manga, but I can’t find any that seem particularly affiliated or connected with the industry, so I guess that’s mostly a dead end.

I suppose only time will tell. I’m shipping out an e-mail, though I don’t know if I expect a response. But if I bump into them at Otakon I’ll certainly get the details!

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention– do look around their site. They talk a bit about what they’ll be up to, including publishing “Yaoi mangas, English edition” and a bi-monthly magazine, plus merchandise. It looks like they’ll be going for Internet sales only, with no mention of trying to get books into brick-and-mortar shops (though the online versions of real shops like Barnes and Noble and Borders’ websites are mentioned).

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?

If I’m quiet this weekend, it’s ’cause I’m at Yaoi-Con. Yes, I’m crazy. It’s going to be a rough weekend.

For those of you actually interested in yaoi news, you should hit up Jen and Jordan over at YaoiSuki. They cover everything pretty much on the spot (they’re almost as obsessive about it as me). I, for one, am leaving it to them while I wander around and yell “GOTH BARBIES!” at all the people carrying Dolfies.

GAH! I hate it when I think I’ve posted an entry but I actually haven’t. But instead of posting this and then a new entry, I’ll just say that they have so much more Code Geass stuff here than they did at the big cons throughout the summer. It makes me want to cry. But I had really good luck with my figure picks (got all the ones I wanted!)…