Otaku News

Licca-chan Doll Gets Official North American Release

Date: 2026 April 07 10:56 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Retail

We've just received news that Japanese fashion doll Licca-chan has just been officially released in North America. The release will start with a collection of 10 dolls, which include some anime tie-ins such as Frieren and Detective Conan.

The iconic fashion doll has been part of the Japanese toy market since 1967 and has a big following with toy collectors overseas too. By bringing the doll into North America through retailers such as BoxLunch, Hot Topic, Miniso and animate Los Angeles as well Gacha&Catch it's clear that they're aiming for the 15 to 25 year old market. They're after the demographic with disposable income.

Netflix Spring 2026 Anime Line Up

Date: 2026 April 04 17:08 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Netflix have just revealed their Spring 2026 anime streaming release slate. Highlights include the amazingly violent and truly excellent Dorohedoro Season 2, which was released on the 1st April, Spy x FAMILY Season 3 is due out on 4th April. While other highlights include My Dress Up Darling Season 1, which is a charming cosplay romance, with the odd bits of spicy fan service thrown in.

We're also very excited about the anime adaption of Akane Banashi, which tells the story of a teenager who wants to become a rakugo star. This is due to be streamed sometime in May.

Marriagetoxin Anime Streaming Details

Date: 2026 March 31 20:08 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Fans the manga Marriagetoxin will be keen to hear that the anime adaption will be hitting Crunchyroll from Tuesday 7th April 2026 at 7:30 Pacific Time / 3:30pm BST (UK) / 4:30pm CEST (Western Europe etc).

The first episode is called The Poison Master's Search for Marriage.

The manga is published in English by Viz. You can read more about it on their website.

The Last Blossom Movie Review

Date: 2026 March 16 20:47 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Features

The Last Blossom hits cinemas across the UK and Ireland from Friday 27th March 2026. It won both the Jury Award and Audience Award at Scotland Loves Anime. Keen to get a big scoop of melancholy, with a sprinkle of crime thriller, topped off with a bit of slice of life bliss, we take a (spoiler free) look at the movie.

Japan House London Announces Photography Exhibition: Invisible

Date: 2026 March 14 09:50 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

The good folks from Japan House London have sent us details of an upcoming photography exhibition called Invisible . It's set to run from 3rd June to October 2026. It will showcase two major contemporary Japanese photographers: Kawada Kikuji and Iwane Ai. The exhibition will be directed by the team behind the KYOTOGRAPHIE photography festival.

Like many fans of photography we've always wanted to go to KYOTOGRAPHIE in Kyoto and we think it's great that Japan House London are bringing a bit of it over to the UK.

This is Japan House London's first photography exhibition.

Death Note the Musical London UK Details

Date: 2026 March 10 20:38 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Death Note the Musical London UK Details

We've just received news about Death Note The Musical. It' set to run at London's Barbican for 6 weeks from Thursday 30th July until Saturday 12th September 2026.

The live action musical will be performed in English. The first week of performances as part of the Barbican summer season have sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on sale, with remaining tickets selling at record speed making it the fastest selling ever Barbican Summer Season.

They've got a great collection of creative talent behind this production including director Stephen Whitson (Hamilton UK and Moulin Rouge! UK), Emmy-nominated designer Jon Bausor (Spirited Away, Bat Out of Hell) and choreography by Olivier Award nominated Fabian Aloise (Evita at the London Palladium and Sunset Boulevard at The Savoy) alongside Jason Howland as orchestration and arranger, with additional lyrics by Morgan Reilly. The cast will be announced soon.

We're very curious how they'll hand Ryuk?! Will it be some kind of puppet or an actor in heavy prosthetics? Also what kind of songs will they have? We're curious about the lines!

The hugely popular manga, Death Note follows the adventures of Light a high school student who discovers Death Note, a notebook where you can write down the name of anyone and they'll die in 40 seconds. It's a supernatural mystery, detective story, fan favourite and title that gets you thinking, if you had a Death Note, would you use it? And if so who would you use it on?

The manga spawned an anime, a TV show, several live action movies, video games. There's also a great spin off manga of short stories.

To find out more and book tickets for the remaining performances vist DeathNoteTheMusical.com

Akira Anime 2026 UK Cinema Screening Details

Date: 2026 February 25 21:33 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

The good folks from Anime Limited have sent us details for the up coming cinema release of the classic Akira. It'll hit cinemas around the UK from Friday 17th April 2026. This will include IMAX cinemas. You can visit AkiraFilm.co.uk to sign up for updates and to find a screening near you.

Akira is a hugely influential title. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo who also made the original manga, Akira is one of those landmark titles that got many people discovering anime and manga. It's a classic for reason, you've got a dystopian cyberpunk future, delinquent kids, biker gangs, a causal bit of government conspiracy and military intervention all wrapped up in an amazingly high quality animated title.

Read More... | Souce: Anime Limited

The Last Blossom Anime Movie UK and Ireland Cinema Release Details

Date: 2026 February 23 20:27 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

The good folks from Anime Limited have revealed the cinema release details for The Last Blossom. Pitched as a thrilling and life-affirming crime drama it'll hit cinemas around the UK and Ireland on Friday 27th March 2026.

The original feature is from the up and coming team of director Baku Kinoshita and writer Kazuya Konomoto, the same duo responsible for the truly fabulous ODDTAXI. The whole synopsis for this film does sound different with an elderly inmate serving life in prison nearing death and starts to reflect on his life. We're massive fans of ODDTAXI so are very excited about this movie and just like ODDTAXI, we're not exactly sure to expect, which is half the fun!

If you're lucky and want to catch this movie early, you could go to a Japan Foundation Touring Film Screening that's running in selected art house cinemas around the UK.

Read More... | Souce: Anime Limited

Jujutsu Kaisen in Concert London UK Details

Date: 2026 February 07 17:35 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Fans of Jujutsu Kaisen will want to head to the Eventim Apollo in London on Wednesday 3rd June 2026 for an evening performance of Jujutsu Kaisen in Concert. It's a new live concert experience based on all 3 seasons of the anime in a hybrid ensemble of classical and modern instruments. They promise us you'll experience every fight, triumph, and dramatic beat in full, cinematic sound as scenes are shown on a large HD cinema screen.

New Ghost in the Shell 2026 Music Production Details Revealed

Date: 2026 February 07 11:12 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

We've just received details about the the new 2026 release of Ghost in the Shell. It's already been revealed that it'll be released in Japan sometime in July 2026, but now we're told that Taisei Iwasaki, Ryo Konishi and Yuki Kanesaka will be providing the music for the series.

Taisei Iwasaki will be the musical director and is best known for composing the score for Belle, while Ryo Konishi, produces for artists such as Chara+YUKI, Mrs. Green Apple, TOMOO and more. They'll be collaborating with composer Yuki Kanesaka, who produced the music for TV anime Dr. Stone.

Lupin The IIIrd: The Movie - The Immortal Bloodline UK and Ireland Cinema Release Details

Date: 2026 February 05 21:35 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

The good folks from Anime Limited have sent us details about the up coming cinema release of Lupin The IIIrd: The Movie - The Immortal Bloodline. The film is due to hit cinemas around the UK and Ireland from Saturday 21 February 2026.

It's directed by Takeshi Koike (who is best known for Redline and a segment on The Animatrix) and we're promised an adrenaline infused Sci-Fi adventure that connects celebrated capers past and present. To be honest they had us a Lupin III, but combining it with Takeshi Koike just makes us to watch it even more.

Read More... | Souce: Anime Limited

All You Need Is Kill Anime Movie UK and Ireland Cinema Release Details

Date: 2026 February 03 21:28 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

The good folks from Anime Limited have revealed the cinema release details for All You Need Is Kill. The anime movie will hit cinemas across the UK and Ireland from Friday 27th February 2026.

Based on the best selling Hiroshi Sakurazaka light novel, this anime adaption is by Studio 4°C who are known for the awesome Tekkonkinkreet and Mind Game. The movie has also been adapted in a hugely popular manga, and Hollywood movie called Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise .

You can watch the trailer here.

Read More... | Souce: Anime Limited

Anime Herald Magazine First Issue Sells Out

Date: 2026 January 31 09:53 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

The good folks from online publication Anime Herald have sent us news that their official print magazine has sold out. The magazine has been such a success that they're planning issue which should be due out in the second half of 2026.

We interviewed Anime Herald Editor-in-Chief Samantha Ferreira about the publication last year.

Although the print edition is sold out you can still buy the digital edition from shop.animeherald.com.

AnimEigo Release Latest Episode of The Anime Business Documentary Featuring Translator and Writer Johnathan Clements

Date: 2026 January 21 20:39 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks from AnimEigo have sent us the details for the latest episode of their ongoing documentary series The Anime Business. Episode 12 features an interview with Johnathan Clements, translator, writer and co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia. He's an established name in the anime industry and very well known in anime fandom especially in the UK. He's done many collaborations with Helen McCarthy who was featured in Episode 11. He's well known for his insights into the anime industry and has written about it's inner workings.

In this episode Johnathan Clements takes us on a retrospective of the anime industry and fandom.

Episode 12 is available now on the official AnimEigo YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@AnimEigo/videos.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 Streaming Release Details

Date: 2026 January 14 19:54 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks from anime streaming service Crunchyroll have announced the streaming release details for Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2. The popular anime charts the adventures of elf mage Frieren, who has completed her quest with a party of heroes and now has to figure out what to do next. One of our contributors describes this as the sad elf anime, but that's one take on it, to be honest, it's such a great series. There's fun slice of life moments, plenty of action and adventure. It's well animated, well paced, the more we watch the more we want to learn about Frieren's world.

Kyle Cardine the Global Editor-in-Chief for Crunchyroll News revealed the release details. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End Season 2 will be released on 16th January 2026 at 7am PT, which is 15:00 in GMT (UK Time) or 16:00 CET. The series is available to stream in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, CIS, India and Southeast Asia.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya! Netflix Release Reminder

Date: 2026 January 10 09:24 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks from Netflix have sent us more details about the up coming anime movie release of Cosmic Princess Kaguya! The reimagining of Japan's classic folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. It's is due for release on Thursday 22nd January 2026. They've just released a final pre-launch trailer.

The movie will stream exclusively on Netflix.

AnimEigo Release Latest Episode of The Anime Business Documentary Featuring Author Helen McCarthy

Date: 2025 December 24 12:25 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks from AnimEigo have sent us the details for the latest episode of their ongoing documentary series The Anime Business. Episode 11 features an interview with Helen McCarthy author of many excellent factual books about anime and was a key figure in the founding days of UK anime fandom and industry. She's been an important figure in the anime scene for more than 40 years. This episode is great as not only do we get nostalgic about the UK anime scene, but Helen McCarthy reflects on the growth of anime around the UK and elsewhere. It's a great episode if you want to know about anime getting established and more.

Episode 11 is available now on the official AnimEigo YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@AnimEigo/videos.

Doraemon Comic Traveler RPG Online Game

Date: 2025 December 22 16:24 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Gaming

The good folks from CTW Cayman have just sent us details for a new game on their G123.jp platform. Doraemon Comic Traveler a full-scale online role-playing game based on the Doraemon manga franchise. You can play it free online immediately (without any registration or download) on your web browser, so it'll run on PC, Table and Mobile. We've had a quick go of the the game, and it's very clicky. It seems like one of those games where you can just switch your brain off and click and make choices around various stats, which is good if you're in the mood for that type of game.

Toho Acquires Anime Limited

Date: 2025 December 20 11:49 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks from anime distributors Anime Limited have revealed big news about the company being acquired by Toho.

In the deal Toho have acquired 100% equity share of Anime Limited from Plaion Pictures. The company will be a standalone subsidiary of Toho Global and will be led by Anime Limited Founder Andrew Partridge with the full Anime Limited Staff.

The press release also mentions that Toho Global's Regional Office will be based in London. The press release does not reveal how much Toho paid for Anime Limited, but does mention that they're entering into strategic alliance with Plaion Pictures to extend Toho's distribution capabilities in Germany, Italy, and other European markets.

In the west Toho are best known as the creators of the Godzilla franchise as well as the producers and distributors of Akira Kurosawa's movies. Anime wise they've also go a strong pedigree being the producers and/or distributors of Studio Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai's movies.

The acquisition of Anime Limited marks further consolidation of anime companies in the UK. Anime Limited was acquired by Plaion Pictures in 2022, before it was acquired by Toho this December 2025. While Funimation purchased Manga Entertainment UK in 2019 it eventually got absorbed into Crunchyroll (which is owned by Sony).

Although it was produced by Toho, Makoto Shinkai's most recent movie Suzume was distributed by Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures, and Wild Bunch International. We suspect that by expanding in Europe Toho hope to be able to distribute more titles themselves or through their regional subsidiaries.

Read More... | Souce: Anime Limited

An Interview with Horror Manga Artist Anji Matono

Date: 2025 November 29 09:53 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Interviews

This year in Japan Expo in Paris one of the Japanese guests was horror manga artist Anji Matono. Best known for her work 100 Ghost Stories That Will Lead to My Own Death it collects a series of gruesome horror stories which spans across multiple volumes of unsettling manga.

We were lucky enough to catch up with her while in Paris and find out about what it's like being a horror manga artist.

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