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France is the biggest manga market in Europe

Date: 2012 February 02 17:36 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

Facts and figures for the the manga industry always make an interesting read. CNN's Geekout Blog has a good article about the European Manga Industry.

Did you know that France accounts for 50% of VIZ Media Europe's manga sales? The article also highlights that combined Europe and the Middle East generates more manga sales than America -

"'In Europe, manga is most popular in France, then Italy and Spain,' said Hyoe Narita, president of VIZ Media Europe, which is headquartered in Paris. Annual manga sales in Japan are about $5 billion, he said, whereas American manga sales are $120 million and Europe and the Middle East combined make $250 million. This combined number given out is probably because VIZ Media Europe distributes to the Middle East as well. Japan is still the huge maker, but these numbers show that manga is moving well outside of Asia."

"The popularity does vary by country, but France is by far the leader in European otaku interest, as it brings in 50% of European manga sales. Narita said it’s the same size or a bit bigger than the market in the United States."

Souce: CNN\'s Geekout Blog

Digital Manga Inc Launch Anime Cel Art Shop

Date: 2011 November 25 14:27 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Retail

We've received some rather interesting news from Digital Manga Inc. They've just opened a new site Anime Cel Art, which like the name implies is dedicated to selling anime cel art. They've currently got Naruto, Bleach and One Piece cels for sale.

Collectors should note, that these are not production cels used to make the anime as production now is digital. These are officially licensed reproductions. They are hand painted, and made exactly the same as production cels, but these images have never been used to make anime. As a result you get more for your money. You get a high quality image along with a background for a reasonable price.

Voice Actors at the London Comic Con - October 2011

Date: 2011 October 14 17:30 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

As the London MCM Expo gets nearer we always get sent more details about the event. It's set to run from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th October 2011. This time the good folks there are reminding us about the top voice acting talent that'll be attending. Vic Mignogna, Gideon Emery, Adam Howden and Philip Shahbaz are all confirmed guests at the event. They'll be there to host panels, meet fans and sign autographs, so get your DVD and game boxes for them to sign!

American Comic Companies battle for readers

Date: 2011 August 22 04:47 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

BBC News are running an interesting story about Marvel and DC's current strategy of expansion into Asia.

"With sales in decline at home, US comic-book giants Marvel and its old rival DC Comics have been looking towards foreign markets to grow their businesses."

CB Cebulski at Marvel declares that "Sales are down and we've been losing market share to things like video games, social media, to film, to piracy."

The article highlights the difficulties DC and Marvel will have with manga and it's culture strong established in the Asian market. It also mentions that sales of manga are falling in Japan as well. The Japanese government are trying to fix this.
"The Japanese government has recently announced a new plan to aggressively further promote its pop culture and content, including manga, to international markets"

We've already seen this at events like the JETRO talk at Hyper Japan.

The article concludes with Marvel's current strategy of hiring local talent in Asia to draw comics and that they are given more creative control. It ends with an table of percentages of market share of Japanese manga versus American comics in Asia.

Souce: BBC News

JETRO Japanese Multimedia Seminar @ HYPER JAPAN 2011

Date: 2011 August 08 16:57 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The good folks from Hyper Japan have sent us details of the JETRO Japanese Multimedia Seminar held at this years Hyper Japan on Friday 22nd July 2011.

JETRO is the Japan External Trade Organization, who would like to help people build a business with Japanese multimedia content.

We've been sent a link to videos of the seminar on YouTube.

An Interview with Voice Actors Ben Diskin and Brian Beacock

Date: 2011 July 25 16:37 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Production

Every now and again at Otaku News, we like to interview voice actors, the very people who provide the voices for anime. At the May 2011 MCM London Expo we were lucky to catch up with Ben Diskin and Brian Beacock.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Why every UK anime fan should say thanks to Australian otaku

Date: 2011 June 22 17:42 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

We're going all nostalgic here at Otaku News and have decided to dig up some old articles from our archive that are not published on-line, either because they were originally for print or from websites that are now off-line.

Just because they're old doesn't mean they're not relevant to today's otaku.

We start with an article originally published in the AmeCon 2007 Conbook about why UK anime fans owe a debt of gratitude to their Australian counterparts. Please note that it was written for a UK anime audience in mind, Australian readers might find it interesting to know how important they are to the UK industry and how the UK industry helps Madman out.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

AM2 to screen Mai Mai Miracle for passport holders only

Date: 2011 May 31 17:30 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

US readers who can make it to Anaheim, California should head over to AM2 on July 1 to 3 2011 get a chance to view a special Passport holders only screening of Mai Mai Miracle.

We've seen Mai Mai Miracle, and must say it is worth seeing, especially on the big screen. It's everything you'd expect from a high budget Madhouse production. It's one of those films screaming out for a Blu-ray release. It's a title making the effort to get out and watch. It's in instant classic.

Tokyopop to Close at the end of May 2011

Date: 2011 April 15 15:07 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

Manga publisher Tokyopop are to close in the US as of May 31st 2011 . The company's film, TV, and European operations, including its Hamburg, Germany-based publishing and international rights sales will continue. ICv2 have more details along with Bleeding Cool News and The Beat which broke the news. As always Anime News Network has coverage of the story too.

Tokyopop's Founder Stu Levy has posted a personal statement.

As the details were announced today we have no idea what impact this will have on their release details, as well as what will happen to the rights of existing Japanese manga and original English language comics also published. Any artists who have worked with Tokyopop should read the small print of their contracts now.

Souce: Tokyopop

An Interview with Figure Sculptor Momiji

Date: 2011 February 27 14:00 | Posted By: Priss

Category > Production

Last year, the second annual MCM London Expo returned to bring together a myriad of media and popular culture exhibitors and merchants. It is an exciting occasion for anime fans who attend to meet, mingle and fight their way through the melee of merchandisers and organisers.

Expo is an event that I attend on the front line behind the dealers' tables as an assistant for sales. I am predominantly positioned ready and waiting to serve customers who are on the hunt for anime, manga and figures from the store United Publications. It is an intense and demanding event and catering for the volume of visitors is often a challenge that affords little time to explore the wonders of the wider event. This time, however, I had to make the exception for a remarkable appearance amongst October's exhibitors.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Manga Entertainment UK discontinue Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Blu-ray

Date: 2010 December 13 16:33 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

Manga Entertainment UK have sent us some sad news about the release of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Blu-ray. Due to the poor sales of Part 1 and 2 on Blu-ray they will discontinue the series on the format. Part 3 onwards will still be released on DVD.

This due to the high cost of producing Blu-rays and the low sales they've had of the format.

At least Manga Entertainment have sent a press release, other companies just silently pull titles.

Schoolgirl Milky Crisis now on Kindle

Date: 2010 September 15 14:42 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Retail

Anime expert and industry insider Jonathan Clements has just posted details on his blog about Schoolgirl Milky Crisis being released on Kindle.

It's available to buy from Amazon.com in the US and Amazon.co.uk in the UK.

Souce: Schoolgirl Milky Crisis Blog

Anime director Satoshi Kon passes away

Date: 2010 August 26 12:53 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

Acclaimed anime director Satoshi Kon passed away 2 days ago on 24th August 2010. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on 18th May 2010.

Satoshi Kon has directed several popular films which generally have a cerebral dream like element to them, where the imagination, dreams and reality all mix together. He directed the films Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika and the TV series Paranoia Agent. Satoshi Kon was working on a feature film called Yume-Miru Kikai, which is unofficially known as Dream Machine in English.

News of death spread like wild fire on the internet, with many anime fans expressing their sadness of his death.

Prominent food and bento blogger Makiko Itoh has translated Satoshi Kon's last words.

The New York Times also have a detailed obituary.

Anime expert Helen McCarthy points out that "at that age Miyazaki hadn't finished Totoro, Tezuka hadn't created Black Jack, Kurosawa hadn't made Yojimbo."

The Anime News Network have details from his wife.

The Guardian also has a good write up.

Souce: Anime News Network

High School of the Dead hits North America

Date: 2010 July 02 19:41 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

Want zombies with your anime? The good folks at Sentai Filmworks and Anime Network are willing to provide you with infected flesh eating monsters! Sentai Filmworks have the license for High School of the Dead. and will be releasing it subbed and dubbed throughout North America.

The Anime Network will also be showing the first and second episode from Monday July 5th to subscribers in North America.

Interview with Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori the creators of the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue series

Date: 2010 June 13 13:46 | Posted By: Dallas Marshall

Category > Gaming

On the memorial day weekend at Fanimecon, a bay area anime convention in San Jose California, I had the privilege of sitting down with both Daisuke Ishiwatari and Toshimichi Mori of ARC System Works. The studio that brought you the Guilty Gear series and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger and the soon to be released BlazBlue:Continuum Shift.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Multi-National Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition Formed

Date: 2010 June 08 16:47 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

Multi-National Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition Formed

We've received some very interesting details from VIZ Media about the formation of a Multi-National Manga Anti-Piracy Coalition.It seems that the industry has grown tired of Scanlations - manga scanned into a digital format and distributed without the copyright holders consent. The coalition include the 36 members of Japan's Digital Comic Association, Square Enix, VIZ Media, TOKYOPOP and Yen Press.

Originally scanlations were manga translated by fans into their native language from Japanese. This can be seen as the manga equivalent of anime fansubs. Some scanlation sites branched out to scans of manga that was already official translated and licensed outside of Japan.

This has cost the manga publishing industry significant amounts of money, not just in lost book sales, but lost opportunities in the relatively new market of eBooks and mobile devices.

The coalition intend to target scanlation sites and aggregators of scanlation sites. They've drawn up a list of 30 sites to targeted for action. First they will ask the sites to cease distributing scanlations. If the sites fail to cease distributing further action will be taken depending on the jurisdiction of each site. Actions include legal injunctions against the sites, reporting the sites to governmental anti-piracy units of law enforcement, including the US Justice Department, local law enforcement agencies and the FBI.

Fans curious about piracy in the anime and manga industry should read the Pirate Anime FAQ.

This is not the first time the anime and manga industry has attempted to stop piracy in the industry, but this is the biggest and most coordinated international effort so far. With many companies in the industry forced to make cut backs, closing down offices, laying off staff, we wonder if this is the start of a new approach? Will more companies pursue legal options? Are fansubbers next?

BlazBlue Art Exhibition in Bath

Date: 2010 May 11 16:35 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Gaming

Bath based gamers or those who are interested in the game design process will want to head over to the the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution to see the BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger Exhibition. The exhibition will open on Wednesday 12th of May 2010. It's a great chance to see all the hard work and little details that goes into making a game.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka nominated for 2010 Eisner Awards

Date: 2010 April 18 14:13 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga by Helen McCarthy has been nominated for the prestigious 210 Eisner Awards. The book is up for Best Comics-Related Book, it competes against the following titles -

- Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel, by Annalisa Di Liddo (University Press of Mississippi)
- The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics, by Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle (Abrams ComicArts)
- Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater, by Eric P. Nash (Abrams ComicArts)
- Will Eisner and PS Magazine, by Paul E. Fitzgerald (Fitzworld.US)

The Otaku News crew congratulate Helen McCarthy and the team behind the book for the nomination and wish them the best of luck in winning the award.

Souce: Comic-Con International

Preview the first 7 minutes of Gundam Unicorn

Date: 2010 March 02 15:20 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

The good folks from Beez have sent us details about the upcoming release of Gundam Unicorn on Friday 12th 2010 on Blu-ray disc. The release will be worldwide simultaneously in the 7 territorial areas of Japan, US, Canada, UK, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

You can view the first 7 minutes of the OAV on the Beez Website.

Jonathan Ross to leave the BBC

Date: 2010 January 07 21:57 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Current Affairs

Jonathan Ross has announced he's going to leave the BBC. It's all over the entertainment section of the news, celebrity gossip news so why is it on Otaku News too? Well we're curious as to what he's going to do next.

Caitlin Moran TV Critic for The Times has made an interesting speculation -
"What most people don't seem to realise is that the documentaries he did on Japanese films, anime and cultish subjects were absolutely fantastic and I imagine he might want to go and do more of that."

Long hours and low pay the reality of being an animator in Japan

Date: 2009 November 23 07:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal points out how much trouble the Japanese animation industry is in. The article mentions that anime is one of Japan's great cultural exports. However due to the shrinking population of Japan, there are fewer children, resulting in toy makers and sponsors being less willing to fund new shows.

It highlights that many leave the animation industry within the first 3 years, in order to get better jobs in the video games industry. 13 to 14 hour days appear to be common too, along with working weekends. It seems that 1 day off a month was common in the case of one employee at an anime studio.

"A survey conducted this year for industry executives showed that animators in their 20s made just 1.1 million yen ($11,000) a year on average, while those in their 30s earned 2.1 million yen."

There is light at the end of the tunnel, with companies actively recruiting staff instead of keeping them on as freelancers. The Japanese government too are supporting the industry by planning to increase spending on education and training young animators as well as allocating more funds toward film marketing.

There is a worry though that with competition from outsourcing overseas Japan's ability to cultivate creative talent will be reduced.

Souce: Wall Street Journal

Animation industry in the UK and Japan Symposium

Date: 2009 October 23 15:05 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Academic anime fans will want to get London on Friday 30th October 2009 for the Animation industry in the UK and Japan: Creativity, identity and the global marketplace. It's going to run in Council Room, Strand Campus, King’s College London.

It's free to attend but booking in advance is required. We suggest you book as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

The Art of Osamu Tezuka God of Manga out November 2009

Date: 2009 October 13 15:40 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Fans of Osamu Tezuka, the founding father of modern anime and manga will be pleased to hear that a new book is due out November 2009. Written by prominent anime and manga expert Helen McCarthy the hardcover book published by Ilex Press reveals what makes Tezuka one of the key figures of 20th century pop culture.

It includes 350 colour illustrations and a 45 minute DVD documentary never aired outside of Japan before.

The publication coincides with the annual Comica Festival.

Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Buy from Amazon.com

ADV Films Shuts down

Date: 2009 September 02 17:51 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

US based Anime company ADV have closed. A detailed write up can be found on Anime News Network.

Apart from the asset transfers to other companies registered in Texas (where ADV was based), the details are still coming to light.

Below we've included the press release from ADV along with the press release from Section23 Films.

Anime Expo 2009 Guest of Honor - Seiji Mizushima

Date: 2009 May 18 16:53 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Los Angeles, California anime fans who haven't already marked July 2nd to 5th 2009 on their calendars may really want to do so now. Anime Expo have anime director Seiji Mizushima as their official guest of honor.

Beez at the London MCM Expo May 2009

Date: 2009 May 08 14:17 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

The good folks at Beez have sent us details of their plans at the London MCM Expo on the 23rd to the 24th of May 2009. Highlights include plenty of discounted DVDs, as they'll be shifting to a 3 part release model. Along with some Gurren Lagann posters to give away.

Schoolgirl Milky Crisis Book Competition

Date: 2009 March 05 15:28 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

We've teamed up with the good folks at Titan Books to give away copies of the new book Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in The Anime And Manga Trade. The book written by Jonathan Clements reveals in inner workings of the anime and manga business.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Helen McCarthy on RightStuf's Anime Today Podcast

Date: 2009 January 20 16:12 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Anime fans will want to check out RightStuf's latest podcast. It features an interview with anime expert Helen McCarthy who promotes her book 500 Essential Anime Movies. In the podcast she explains how she narrowed down her choices in the book to just 500 shows. Along with how anime production and writing about anime has changed over the years.

Souce: RightStuf Anime Today Podcast

Schoolgirl Milky Crisis Blog

Date: 2008 December 05 18:49 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Production

Anime expert Jonathan Clements has just launched a blog to promote his new book Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade, which is due for publication in early 2009.

The blog has some interesting insights that will no doubt also appear in the book, even an article about writing the index for the book proves to be amusing.

Souce: Schoolgirl Milky Crisis Blog

Revelation Films 2009 Q1 anime UK DVD release schedule

Date: 2008 October 21 16:32 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

The nice folks at Revelation Films have sent us details of their 2009 Q1 line up. For the first three months of 2009 promises to see the UK release of:

Fullmetal Alchemist Season One Part One - January.
Spiral The Complete Series Box - February
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (the final instalment) - March
Tsubasa The Complete Series Box Set - March

What's interesting in the press release is that it actually states sales figures, something you rarely see for the anime industry. It'll be nice if all anime companies releases sales figures for their titles. However this is valuable information for sales and marketing teams, which is why most companies like to keep this these details secret.

An interview with Kari Wahlgren

Date: 2008 September 07 11:01 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Thanks to go the great folk at AmeCon 2008, we were able to interview their main guest, voice actress Kari Wahlgren. You may have heard her in the American dub of FLCL as Haruko, or Robin in Witch Hunter Robin or Scarlett in Steamboy to name a few of her roles. As well as many video games you've probably played.

Fanboys wanted for MTV's True Life

Date: 2008 August 19 16:09 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

Our US based readers who like the idea of appearing on TV should consider this request from MTV who are keen to do a True Life episode on Fanboys.

500 Essential Anime Movies by Helen McCarthy - out now

Date: 2008 August 05 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: 2008 August 03 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.

Souce: The Pirate Anime FAQ

An interview with Makoto Shinkai

Date: 2008 June 22 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.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Bandai Visual USA to be liquidated

Date: 2008 June 04 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.

King's College London Japan's Manga and Anime Industries seminar

Date: 2008 May 01 17:14 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Readers who can get into London on Friday 16th of May 2008 will want to get to King's College London, from 1pm to 6pm to attend a seminar on Japanese comic book and animation industries.

The line up of speakers looks good, but Yoko Ono is not THAT Yoko Ono. It'll be interesting if they mention the difference between manga and manga style artwork in the talks too.

To go to the talk you will need to register via e-mail.

GONZO make progressive metal music video

Date: 2008 March 31 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.

Chinese Manhua and the state

Date: 2008 March 14 18:04 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Art

BBC News are currently running an interesting story about Chinese comics or Manhua and how the publications in the Chinese mainland have to be government approved.

Souce: BBC News

Momiji Competition - (Vote for Wing)

Date: 2008 March 12 18:19 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Art

The folks at Don't Panic are currently running a competition to design your own Momiji message doll. Manga style artists are popular with these designs and Joanna Zhou created her own Momiji set last year.

Anyone one can enter this competition, and our artist chum Wing Yun Man has entered too, so please show your support and vote for her.

Souce: Don\'t Panic

LDMS now distrubting ADV titles in the UK.

Date: 2008 March 11 19:08 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

We've received a press release from LDMS who will be now be distributing ADV DVD titles in the UK, after ADV closed their UK offices. The press release details the release schedule up until May 2008.

After ADV UK closing down it's good to see that their titles will be still be distributed, but it's sad to see that ADV UK had to shut shop, the UK staff there were more than just people doing their jobs, they were actual anime fans with a passion for what they were doing which does make a difference. ADV UK's presence at anime events will be sorely missed. They were more than just another company, they were actually part of the UK anime scene. It was a shame to see these people lose their jobs. We wish them the best of luck in finding a new careers.

It will be interesting to see if LDMS will be active in anime fan circles as ADV UK was.

Five Girls Name Moe talk now on-line

Date: 2008 January 10 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.

Souce: Five Girls Name Moe: The Anime Erotic

Wired for manga

Date: 2007 November 06 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.

Souce: Wired

Five Girls Named Moe at Swansea Animation Days 2007

Date: 2007 October 18 17:54 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Anime fans who can get to Swansea Animation Days 2007, will want to see anime expert Jonathan Clements' talk called Five Girls Named Moe, which focuses on "the history and development of erotic animation in Japan: business practises, technology, censorship and market forces". It even promises to explain what fan service is and looking from the talk description it seems like it will have a few examples too. It's good to see Jonathan doing a talk on this subject, as unlike many people jumping on the anime bandwagon claiming to be "experts" Mr Clements is really an expert who knows what he's talking about, having co-written the Anime Encyclopedia and numerous other well researched books on the subject. We wonder how much moe his appropriately named talk will contain. ^_^

Souce: Swansea Animation Days 2007

Manga is conquering Britain

Date: 2007 October 17 17:00 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The Times on-line are currently running an article written by Paul Gravett, about how manga is conquering Britain. It focuses on how groups outside of Japan are creating works in a manga style and calling it manga (in a subject frequently debated by fans, if the artist isn't Japanese does that make it manga). The article also mentions up and coming Sweatdrop Studios and how manga style artwork is increasingly being produced in the UK. The article mentions a few titles, but it is rather short on sales figures, so it's hard to measure how successful the local publications are.

Souce: Times On-line

Dark Horse and CLAMP Team Up For New Title

Date: 2007 August 03 20:17 | Posted By: Jeremy

Category > Manga

Dark Horse signs CLAMP to make new manga for 2009!

Father of Sodoku

Date: 2007 June 16 04:06 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

BBC News have an interesting feature on the father of Sodoku - Maki Kaji who runs a successful puzzle magazine Nikoli.

The article reports on Kaji's discovery of sodoku and also the refinement of puzzles by the magazines readers, who generate 80% of the content for the magazine.

Souce: BBC News

An Interview with Stuart Claw

Date: 2007 June 04 17:50 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Anime > TV

From this Sunday anime fans with Sky in the UK will be be able to tune into Anime Network on Propeller TV (Channel 195). The slot runs from 8pm to 10pm, and currently consists of Coyote Ragtime Show, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Guyver and Elfen Lied. We sat down with one half of Anime Network UK's dynamic presenting duo Stuart Claw at the official launch, gazed rather too hard at the candles (and indeed Joe's camera flash) and took a look at the past, present and future of anime both in Stuart's life as a fan and the general future for wider anime community.

Read More... | Souce: Otaku News

Pure platinum Gundam figure to be unveiled in Japan

Date: 2007 May 13 15:15 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Retail

The Mainichi Daily News is reporting that a pure platinum Gundam figure is to be unveiled in Japan. It was officially unveiled at a jewellery show in Switzerland last month. The pure platinum figure is 12.5cm high and weighs 1.4kg. The "camera eye" in the robot's head is built with a 0.15 carat diamond.

It's called a Gundam Fix Platinum, and we highly doubt they'll be using any Gundam marker pens on it. It costs 30 million yen (just under $250,000 USD or just over £125,000), consists of 89 separate parts. The figure took 2 years to build and is not for sale. It will be unveiled to the general public in Japan at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba on August 18th and 19th. Afterwards, it will go on display at various Tanaka Kikinzoku stores and other locations overseas.

Souce: Mainichi Daily News

Anime Encyclopedia signing in London

Date: 2007 April 18 17:34 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

We've received details regarding a book signing in London. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy will be signing copies of the new updated version of the Anime Encyclopedia next week on Tuesday 24th April 2007 at Farringdons book store in the Barbican from 19:00-19:45. Then from 20:30, Helen will be giving a talk, on "Urban Mythmaking Tokyo Style", followed by a screening of Karas: The Prophecy.

So if you want to get a signed copy of the Anime Encyclopedia and meet the authors then swing by.

Souce: Barbican

Miyazaki's New Movie

Date: 2007 March 22 22:06 | Posted By: Jeremy

Category > Anime

Hayao Miyazaki currently working on his latest movie!

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