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500 Essential Anime Movies by Helen McCarthy - out now
Date: Tuesday August 5th 2008 [18:01] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Anime
We've received details regarding anime expert Helen McCarthy's new book 500 Essential Anime Movies. It's out now in the UK and will be released in the US in a few weeks. You can buy it Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
We've always recommend Helen's books for several reasons - they're well written and they're well researched that and they're enjoyable to read. ^_^
Helen goes to a lot of effort to check the facts and details when writing books and it does show. We also recommend Helen McCarthy's publications when researching anime and manga, especially for academic purposes, you can never go wrong citing her work.
The Pirate Anime FAQ Returns
Date: Sunday August 3rd 2008 [16:31] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Anime
8 years ago, I wrote an FAQ about piracy in anime, and how to avoid buying pirate goods. It started off as a simple guide as part of a site called Anime Digital, but evolved and improved over the years. It's generally regarded as the most comprehensive guide to pirate goods in anime fandom. A mini version has been printed at many anime conventions and distributed among convention staff to quickly spot pirate goods. The anime industry also use it to make anime fans aware of bootleg goods.
For the last 8 years the Pirate Anime FAQ was hosted on the London Anime Club's web server. Unfortunately it's been unavailable since April because of server problems so we have decided to host the guide on Otaku News instead. We'd like to thank the London Anime Club for hosting the Pirate Anime FAQ for the last 8 years.
The Pirate Anime FAQ has been translated into French and German, thanks to the kind help of anime fans. I'll put the French and German translations up soon. However I've made a few small changes to the FAQ to make sure it will fit with the formatting of Otaku News. As a result the translations will need to be updated too.
The old content from Anime Digital is not lost and we're currently deciding if we should integrate the articles into Otaku News, or archive them as a separate site.
So please update your bookmarks, the new URL for the Pirate Anime FAQ is http://www.otakunews.com/piratefaq.php.
Manga Artists Design Soul Calibur 4 Characters
Date: Thursday July 10th 2008 [19:28] | Posted By: LittleWoodenBoy
Category: > Gaming > Consoles
The manga artists behind Tenjou Tenge, My-HiME, Keroro Gunsou and more have designed characters for the upcoming Soul Calibur 4 fighting game.
Video Games Live: Volume One album details
Date: Monday July 7th 2008 [17:47] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Gaming
We've got some exciting news from Video Games Live, the popular Video Games themed concert with orchestras and choirs will be releasing an album soon. The digital release will be downloadable in the UK from July 7th, 2008 on iTunes, with the CD release staggered to coincide with Video Games Live events, beginning in San Diego, California on July 24th and Leipzig, Germany on August 20th.
The Track listing is as follows:
1 - Kingdom Hearts
2 - Warcraft Suite
3 - Myst Medley
4 - Medal of Honor (Live)
5 - Civilization IV Medley
6 - Tetris Piano Opus No. 1
7 - God of War Montage (LIVE)
8 - Advent Rising Suite
9 - Tron Montage
10 - Halo Suite
11 - Castlevania Rock (LIVE)
We're looking forward to this release as Video Games live is great fun. ^_^
An interview with Makoto Shinkai
Date: Sunday June 22nd 2008 [18:17] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Anime > Film
Otaku News went to a BFI screening of Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second and was lucky enough to get an exclusive chance to have a private chat with Mr Shinkai, the writer and anime director.
PiQ To Stop
Date: Tuesday June 17th 2008 [17:31] | Posted By: LittleWoodenBoy
Category: > Culture
PiQ's July issue to be its last.
Bandai Visual USA to be liquidated
Date: Wednesday June 4th 2008 [19:44] | Posted By: Eeeper
Category: > Current Affairs
Bandai Namco Holdings has announced the liquidation of the American division of their Bandai Visual releasing arm effective July 1st 2008.
Bleach Creator Tite Kubo to attend 2008 San Diego Comic-Con
Date: Wednesday May 21st 2008 [16:27] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Events
We've got some exciting news for American anime fans who can get to the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con International, where Tite Kubo the creator of Bleach will be making an appearance from July 25th.
Wired on the Japanese Web
Date: Wednesday May 21st 2008 [8:40] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Fandom
Wired have published an interesting set of articles about the internet in Japan, including one on Hiroyuki Nishimura, founder of 2chan and his new video site. The Japanese ASCII Art article sets out to explain common Japanese ASCII art, while closer to home they've also got a feature on US Fans of the Japanese Web.
Street Fighter Tribute Hardcover Edition art book
Date: Tuesday April 29th 2008 [16:17] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Retail
We've been sent details from UDON Entertainment about the new Street Fighter Tribute Hardcover artbook, which is now available for pre-order and features art from J.Scott Campbell, Adam Hughes, and Penny Arcade's Gabe, lvin Lee, Arnold Tsang, Omar Dogan and others.
NANA live action movie US DVD release details
Date: Tuesday April 8th 2008 [16:20] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Anime > DVD
We've been sent a press release from the nice folks at Viz about the US DVD release of the live action NANA film, based on the popular shojo manga. The manga has a proved very popular with fans, and it's good to see the DVD of the movie hitting shelves on April 8th 2008.
Although we haven't seen this film yet, we must admit the casting for Nana Osaki is excellent.
While Viz seem to be releasing some great live action titles on DVD at the moment. We do wish they would release the live action Train Man TV series.
GONZO make progressive metal music video
Date: Monday March 31st 2008 [17:13] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Production > Gonzo
We've been sent some interesting details about anime studio GONZO, who have produced a music video for progressive metal band Dream Theater.
Britney goes anime
Date: Sunday March 16th 2008 [10:10] | Posted By: Azure
Category: > Freaky Things
First Courtney love was involved in the Princess Ai project now Britney Spears latest music video "Break the ice" features an anime style music video. ICv2 report that it was animated in South Korea who do a lot of work for anime studios.
After seeing it's very reminiscent of anime such as GiTS and the Animatrix.
NewType USA's replacement PiQ out now
Date: Thursday March 13th 2008 [18:01] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Press Releases
We've received a press release from PiQ LLC, the magazine which is essentially the replacement for NewType USA. The magazine is due out from March 14th 2008. Issue 1 will feature articles about Appleseed: Ex Machina, Code Geass and xxxHOLiC.
Gwen Stefani's Death Note Perfume
Date: Sunday March 9th 2008 [13:25] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Freaky Things
While this isn't exactly, new I'm sure not all our readers keep up to date with perfume releases. Pop star Gwen Stefani has released a fragrance called L, under her L.A.M.B. line (Love. Angel. Music. Baby). The amusing thing is the choice of font used for the L line of cosmetics, it's the same as the L that appears in Death Note, when L is on screen.
We're wondering if this is a just a random coincidence, or if it's something else, as Gwen Stefani has sung about Harajuku Girls before, so she (or her PR people), would have at least a basic understanding of Japanese pop culture.
Visit the L.A.M.B Fragrance website to see lots of L's. ^_^
Neo Nohcon adds Japanese Performing Arts
Date: Saturday February 23rd 2008 [12:13] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Events
Anime fans who can get to Amherst in New York, will want to go to Neo Nohcon on March 7th to 8th 2008. They've got an interesting line up of guests and events including Taisho-Koto and traditional Japanese Dance.
New Live-Action Akira Film Announced
Date: Friday February 22nd 2008 [14:44] | Posted By: Spike
Category: > Anime
Warner Brothers have recently announced the production of two new Akira films based on the original six volume manga by Katsuhiro Otomo. The new films, set to be re-imagined in New Manhattan which is probably nowhere near downtown Tokyo, will chronicle three of the original works each and be helmed by Otomo himself as executive producer.
Happy 6th Birthday Sweatdrop Studios!
Date: Friday January 25th 2008 [18:59] | Posted By: Voxie
Category: > Manga
Today the UK's largest group of manga-style pioneers, Sweatdrop Studios turned six years old! And to celebrate, they're offering some of the biggest discounts off their catalogue and a few more bonuses:
- Huge 50% off comics until February 2008
- Free international shipping on orders over £15/$30
Five Girls Name Moe talk now on-line
Date: Thursday January 10th 2008 [16:46] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Anime
Jonathan Clements' talk "Five Girls Name Moe: The Anime Erotic", from Swansea Animation Days, is now up on-line as a web stream. You can watch his talk on-line, while it's up. As we've come to expect from Jonathan it's amusing, informative and backed with solid figures and statistics.
Viz reveal manga line up for the first quarter of 2008
Date: Wednesday January 9th 2008 [17:56] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Manga
The good folk at Viz have sent us the details for their new manga releases for the first quarter of 2008. They include:
Sand Chronicles
High School Debut
Ral Ω Grad
Monkey High
Honey and Clover
Switch
Plus they’ll be launching Library Editions of popular titles, these hard cover versions will be the first volumes of successful manga series including Bleach, Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, Inuyasha, Naruto and Ranma ½, and are intended to be a bit more rugged to withstand long term library use.
Perfect Piece Tachikoma Review
Date: Monday December 31st 2007 [10:08] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Toys
With the holiday season coming to a close, some of you may have some extra cash to spend, this article might tempt some of that money away from you.
Anime fandom like most kinds of fandom is always susceptible to merchandising, and lets face it there is a lot of plastic tat out there, if you can print onto it, engrave it, or mould it, it’s had some sort of anime merchandising. However every now and again something good comes along, so we thought it would be nice to do a product review to gauge our readers reactions and see if it’s the sort of thing Otaku News readers want.
Video Games Live - Meet the Mario Maestros
Date: Monday December 10th 2007 [13:58] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Gaming
Wired Magazine are currently running an article on Video Games Live called Meet the Mario Maestros. VGL is the music event that's toured around the world, bringing music from video games into venues that traditionally play classical music. The article focuses the struggles they faced getting started, on it's currently success and it's cross over appeal to gamers and even the orchestra that plays the music.
Otaku News Christmas Wallpaper
Date: Friday December 7th 2007 [17:21] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Websites
It's the holiday season again, and to celebrate we've got some great Christmas Otaku News wallpaper for you, done by Wing Yun Man.
Seasons Greetings to all our readers. ^___^
U.S. Manga Sales Up, Anime DVD Sales Down
Date: Friday December 7th 2007 [14:00] | Posted By: Queen Of Swords
Category: > Manga
News from the first annual New York Anime Festival this weekend: Manga sales in the U.S. are up, but sales of anime DVDs are down.
New distributor BOST launches streaming anime service
Date: Tuesday December 4th 2007 [12:35] | Posted By: Azure
Category: > Anime
New distributor BOST has launched offering several series streaming online in the US, Australia, New Guinea and the UK. There are several series up which cost 100 points (approx $1.99) per episode. For a limited time they are offering dating sim anime Keitai Shoujo for free ( Until February) and are ruining a poll to determine which ending they show.
The Slants to play at Sakura-Con
Date: Thursday November 29th 2007 [18:07] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Events
We've received a press release from The Slants an Asian dance/rock band from Portland, Oregon who will be playing at Sakura-Con 2008 the anime convention in Seattle, Washington state. This will be the 11th annual Sakura-Con and is set to run from March 28th to 30th. With attendance figures of over 10,000 at the 2007 convention, it proves that the convention is popular, and we recommend going to a large anime convention at least once. ^_^
Wired for manga
Date: Tuesday November 6th 2007 [19:26] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Manga
This months (November 2007) issue of Wired Magazine has an excellent feature called Japan Ink about the manga industry, the impact dojinshi has on the copyright of manga and how an unspoken agreement benefits fans and companies alike, suggesting that the model can be spread out to other media industries like the music biz.
Wired have also made manga their cover feature for this month and have produced an article in manga format about the history of manga in America, although it's very biased towards Viz, being written by a former Viz senior editor, it practically ignores the fact fandom exists.
Anime Insider Hits 50!
Date: Friday October 26th 2007 [9:32] | Posted By: Jeremy
Category: > Fandom
Anime Insider, the anime and manga oriented spin-off of Wizard, has just reached its 50th issue! And they're going all out to celebrate. In addition to their regular monthly features (including articles about the new season of Black Lagoon and the upcoming Pumpkin Scissors), the commemorative issue sports a ranking of the 50 best anime ever (check to see where and if your favorite title made the list), and a cover featuring two of the beauties of Evangelion, pilots Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Soryu offering a special cake.
Anime Insider is also offering their biggest contest to date with this issue. For a huge grand prize of a pack of anime goodies worth over $1500, all you have to do is write a haiku. That's right, the Japanese-style poem of three lines and 17 syllables (5, 7, 5). The poem can be about the magazine, fandom, giant robots, or your favorite character. Winners will be chosen from each category, with one grand prize winner for the big one. Grab a copy of the magazine for rules and entry form. And also enjoy the magazine in general.
It's over for Nova?
Date: Friday October 26th 2007 [5:00] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Current Affairs
BBC News are running at story about Nova, Japan's largest chain of foreign language schools. Apparently the company is in financial crisis and has filed for court protection from creditors. 2,000 Japanese staff have not been paid since July and 4,000 non-Japanese instructors have not been paid their October salary, according to union officials. Nova has also closed all of it's schools.
The firm primarily offers English classes, being the largest foreign language school in Japan, Nova were always keen to recruit English speaking graduates eager for adventures in Japan and frequently attend graduate fairs. English Language schools are often used by otaku as a sort of gap year experience, many have extended their stay from just a year to a couple of years, and some even joining the company permanently making their chosen career path. Nova also advertised their lessons heavily in Japan and even had a mascot, the Nova Usagi, a cute pink rabbit who was enthusiastic about learning English.
For our readers who want to go to Japan for a year, we don't think the English language school market has collapsed, Nova lost a court case that had ruled it had misled customers in adverts about it's services, as a result student enrolment dropped, and Nova accumulated huge debts. There are other English language schools in Japan (we wonder if their enrolment has increased instead of Nova's), and failing that there are also a few government schemes for foreign nationals to participate in.
Review: Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
Date: Thursday October 11th 2007 [15:57] | Posted By: Spike
Category: > Anime > Film
Schoolboy Shinji Ikari is summoned by his estranged father to the vast city of Tokyo-3, however the tearful reunion he was hoping for does not materialise as his father has a far more nefarious reason for wanting his son by his side again. Led down into the underground labyrinth of NERV headquarters, he learns that he is one of only a few children that can pilot one of the enormous Evangelion robots against a terrifying enemy. For as Shinji was being transported to Tokyo-3, it was under attack from the terrifying Angels, creatures of an unknown origin bent on penetrating the city and laying waste to anything they find. Throwing caution to the wind to save an injured girl, Shinji boards one of the massive robots and is launched to his destiny. However there are greater forces at work behind the scenes, and is the true enemy the angels, NERV, the mysterious SEELE, or the demons held within the hearts of the people involved?
Sonic dashes into Smash bros Brawl in Wii
Date: Wednesday October 10th 2007 [18:25] | Posted By: Azure
Category: > Gaming
Forget the Olympics, Sonic will be a playable character in Nintendo's Smash Brothers Brawl. He'll be joining the likes of Mario, Peach, Link, and Solid Snake.
The official site has a preview video, in which he looks delightfully old school. Best game with Sonic in for years, we it think it might be so!
Anime Cancelled Following Axe Murder
Date: Monday September 24th 2007 [19:27] | Posted By: Jeremy
Category: > Freaky Things
Two anime series get cancelled after a girl kills her father with an axe!
Pokemon GTS- it's super effective
Date: Friday September 14th 2007 [18:35] | Posted By: Azure
Category: > Gaming
Nintendo have launched a site called Pokemon GTS, to compliment the online trading system for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. It's also semi-educational since you can find Pokemon by spinning a giant globe and clicking in various cities, you then find out various stats and info about that city.
Not sure abut the pronunciation for "Hello" on the London page though. Hardly regional. The annoying Pokemon music on the loading screen? Now that's great.
Ba-dum-dum-dah-dum-da-dum-duh-daaaamu!
Manga shares gain in Japan
Date: Thursday September 13th 2007 [8:49] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Manga
As a slightly strange side effect of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announcing his exit, shares in manga retailers in Japan have surged with speculation that manga fan Taro Aso is the leading candidate to replace Mr Abe.
According to BBC News, Mr Aso is a big promoter of manga abroad. They cite the rise of manga publisher Broccoli gaining 71% and Mandarake (a retail store in Japan which is a treasure trove for otaku), jumping 13%.
The article states that Mr Aso served as foreign minister, and suggested that embracing Japanese pop culture was an important step in cultivating ties with other countries. If this is the case the Otaku News crew would like an invite to Japan to meet with Mr Aso to help promote manga and anime. ^_-
Sadly the BBC gets some facts wrong about anime and manga stating that they have "psychedelic colours and outlandish story lines", and emphasises the more explicit side of anime and manga. They also manage to mention Spirited Away and Quentin Tarantino in the same sentence, which I'm sure can lead to all sorts of associations for those who haven't actually seen the wonderful family film that is Spirited Away.
The article also states that Mr Aso created an International Manga Award to honour non-Japanese cartoonists.
Video Games Live Album
Date: Sunday September 9th 2007 [15:51] | Posted By: Joe
Category: > Gaming
The good folks from Video Games Live have sent some exciting news about an album - Video Games Live: Greatest Hits – Volume One. Due to hit the shelves on October 15th 2007, it contains medleys from some of popular games including Zelda, Mario, Halo, Warcraft, Sonic and of course Final Fantasy.
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