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Aichi To Keep Satsuki's and Mei's House

Date: 2005 June 27 14:10 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Following on from several stories about Satsuki's and Mei's House, Anime News Network cite Yahoo! News Japan, stating that the popular attraction at the World Expo 2005 In Aichi, Japan will stay in Aichi. Previously several other groups and cities all took a keen interest in hosting the replica house from My Neighbor Totoro.

Apparently the house will be transferred to the Aichi prefecture in September, they will not have to pay to buy the house, however they have been concerned about it's high cost to maintain. The Otaku News Crew believe that the building must attract a lot of soot sprites!

Souce: Anime News Network

J-Pop Go July!

Date: 2005 June 23 17:12 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The funky people over at J-Pop Go have just told that that their tickets are now available for their next event. It'll be on Wednesday 13th July at Fluid in London. This time around you can buy their magazine separately from the tickets, so even if you can't go you can read up about all the latest J-Pop events.

Our very own resident club bunny Voxie has written a report on the first J-Pop Go too. ^_^

A Summer of Anime for the UK

Date: 2005 June 23 12:53 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Anime > Film

This summer is a great time to see some big name anime at UK film festivals. There’s the Cambridge Film Festival which is showing among others; Howl’s Moving Castle, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and Steamboy. The NFT will also be having a Japanese animation season, no details are on the site but it’s rumoured that they are scheduling a number of Ghibli films. Neo Magazine is also running a competition in it’s current issue to win tickets to Sky Blue.

Souce: Otaku News

Only 49 Places Left at AyaCon

Date: 2005 June 21 19:07 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Popular UK Anime convention AyaCon are now down to their last 49 places. The convention always proves a hit and once it has sold out getting a ticket to the event is very hard, normally people have to wait for registered members to cancel.

AyaCon 5 is set to be the biggest UK anime convention to date with 1200 fans in attendance. Currently hosting an anime convention of this size is tricky and it's always nice to know that the people running the convention have experience and a proven track record at organising anime conventions. So book now to avoid disappointment.

What will be interesting to see is where will anime conventions go after this. Anime and manga is getting increasingly popular in the UK and more events are being held all the time. Surely more people will want to go to anime conventions run by anime fans like AmeCon, AyaCon and MinamiCon, however there are a only a limited number of venues that can cater for a fan run anime convention in the UK larger than 1200 people, anything bigger and all sorts of logistical factors kick in making organising an event a lot more complex. The Otaku News Crew wonder what will happen next, will these conventions continue with the same capacity, or will they be able to find even bigger venues to hold larger events? Whatever happens we certainly look forward to future fan run anime conventions.

Souce: AyaCon

Tokyo Added to Live 8 charity concerts

Date: 2005 June 18 07:36 | Posted By: Davie

Category > Events

Bob Geldof announced on Friday that Tokyo had been added to the list of cities taking part in the live8 charity concerts taking place around the world. The Irish Singer also said "Three weeks ago Europe agreed, unbelievably, to double aid, throwing the ball back to the Yanks, the Japanese and the Canadians".

Tokyo was added together with other two cities: Toronto and Johannesburg, for the July 2 concerts.
Geldof said the latest additions were arranged to put pressure on the Japanese and Canadian governments to increase assistance to Africa.

Souce: Japan Today

Manga Special At Artists & Illustrators Exhibition

Date: 2005 June 12 14:58 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Sonia Leong over at Sweatdrop Studios has just sent us some details about a special discount at The Artists & Illustrators Exhibition (21-24 July, Business Design Centre, London, UK). For more details read the full press release.

J-pop Go Returns

Date: 2005 June 06 13:26 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Events

Following on from its recent success J-pop Go is back at Fluid on the 13th July. Please click Read More for the latest press release.

IMAF 2005

Date: 2005 June 04 14:58 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Press Releases

Following on from last year’s competition, IMAF have announced a 2005 event and competition. The event part will this time will run for 5 days. The details have yet to be confirmed please click ‘ Read More’ for the press release.

Antarctic Press To Be At A-Kon

Date: 2005 June 02 18:51 | Posted By: Jeremy

Category > Events

Antarctic Press, the independent company that is considered to be the forerunner of American Manga, has announced that they will be guests at this year’s A-Kon anime convention in Dallas, TX June 3-5. This is hot off the company’s recent appearance at Chicago’s Anime Central last May.

Movix Kyoto: Massive multiplex movie theater opens

Date: 2005 June 01 15:12 | Posted By: Davie

Category > Current Affairs

According to Anime News Service, on the 23rd April Shochiku celebrated its 110th anniversary and saw the opening of Movix Kyoto, which covers 7 stories, 12 screens and 2,563 seats. The massive complex will host Kyoto’s first DLP screen as well as TAD sound. This is the largest multiplex movie theater in western Japan. Tickets for the movies can be bought online or via mobile phones and all screens offer Dolby Surround EX, stadium seating and Movix original highback seating. Movix Kyoto will offer big screen digital presentations of Kabuki Plays which were called "Cinema Kabuki".

Souce: Anime news service

Hayao Miyazaki &Toshio Suzuki at US Howl's premiere

Date: 2005 May 31 04:37 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Production > Studio Ghibli

Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki will be among other guest attending the US premiere of Howl’s moving castle. The premiere takes place on June 6th in New York. Many of the cast members for the dub also look to be present.

Souce: Yahoo

Blood At AyaCon

Date: 2005 May 19 17:57 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The popular UK anime convention AyaCon have announced that their guests for this year will be visual kei band Blood. The last AyaCon had MegaTokyo artist Fred Gallagher who proved to be an excellent choice (a detailed report can be found here).

This seems like an interesting choice for guests, since Blood do not have a direct connection to Anime fandom, unlike MegaTokyo which is read by many anime fans. The Otaku News Crew wonder if more Visual Kei, J-Pop and J-Rock fans will register for the convention, who have no real interested in anime, with just over 300 places left at the time of writing this article AyaCon is selling out fast normally the last 200 or so places tend to go very quickly. We also wonder if the popular J-Pop/Rock party at AmeCon last year had any influence on the committee members.

It's good to see that UK anime conventions are experimenting with the type of guests they have and also take the standard anime convention in a new direction. This is the fifth AyaCon, and based on our previous experiences there the convention is normally very well run and certainlly well worth attending.

Interaction to Preview Howl's Moving Castle

Date: 2005 May 12 18:47 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

We've just received some very exciting news about Interaction, the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention, which will be previewing Howl's Moving Castle. It's the long awaited latest movie from Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki, who is also responsible for Spirited Away (the first anime film to have won an Oscar).

They'll also be showing anime musical Interstella 5555, with music from Daft Punk, it's directed by Leiji Matsumoto & Kazuhisa Takenôchi, and has the distinctive Matsumoto character designs, even if they are blue aliens instead of humans! The convention are even screening Appleseed, a CGI movie based on the popular manga by Masamune Shirow (who is best known for Ghost In The Shell).

It appears that the event coordinator David 'Dragon' Cotterill has been a busy man, not only has he helped to secure the film screenings, but he has also managed to get leading anime experts like Jonathan Clements (co-author of the Anime Encyclopedia and the Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama since 1953), to step onboard to run panels and discussions.

The Otaku News Crew are pleased to report that this makes the convention worth while for anime fans, since the film line up is interesting, and being the first to see Howl's Moving Castle in the UK makes it worth the visit alone! It's also refreshing to see that they've got established and experienced anime experts who actually know what they are talking about, more recently we've noticed that there are quite self declared experts appearing at smaller events who have only really got into anime because it's "cool", in reality such people jumping on the bandwagon know little and often turn events into disasters. We've seen Jonathan at previous events and found him to be entertaining and informative.

ADV Films Launches New Titles Exclusively At London Expo

Date: 2005 May 12 17:49 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

With the London Expo this weekend, the anime village is beginning to sound more exciting the more we hear about it. Sweatdrop will be there, and ADV Films UK have just revealed that they will screening some of their titles in exclusive first showings! This includes Gravion, DNAngel and Mezzo.

Manga Art Competition At London Expo

Date: 2005 May 10 18:20 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Sonia Leong from UK manga style art group Sweatdrop Studios has just sent us the details of a Manga Art Competition which will be held at the London Expo this weekend. The competition is sponsored by Letraset who will be giving the winners some highly desirable colour professional Letraset Tria Marker collections, worth over £70 each.

So if you can draw and will be at the London Expo then why not give it a shot? ^_^

Typhoon 4 - International East Asian Playreading Festival

Date: 2005 May 10 17:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

We know Otaku News readers are a very cultured group, which is why we've just been sent details about the Yellow Earth Theatre, who will be performing Typhoon 4 - International East Asian Playreading Festival. Billed from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 21st May 2005 at the Soho Theatre in London, it looks like an entertaining showcase for fans of the Far East.

J-Pop Go Report - A Successful Night!

Date: 2005 May 05 07:13 | Posted By: Voxie

Category > Culture

J-Pop Go, possibly the first night of its kind in London town – a club night dedicated to pleasing its crowd with Japanese pop and rock sounds! And that it was, with popular classics from the likes of J-rockstars L’Arc En Ciel, to some of the latest from J-pop groups HALCALI and Puffy.

The night was held at the Japanese-themed social spot Fluid, and the best of its kind I’ve seen so far! Coloured in striking red shades, two floors/bars, with artwork, katakana and anime clips playing across the walls, it proved a perfect venue for the night! The catering was in check, there was Asahi beer and sushi on the menus, as well as some interesting cocktails, including a ‘wasabi martini’! You could only get away with it in a bar like this one!

Anime Costumes Required For WorldCon

Date: 2005 May 02 16:56 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

We've had news from Miki Dennis who is currently organising an international costume display at Worldcon 2005. Currently she is looking for top quality anime costumes, only one or two will be selected, with no money, or prizes involved, but plenty of prestige. She promises transport and secure safe display for the costumes. If you want to take part, e-mail one full length photo per costume to Miki Dennis. The winners costumes will be seen by thousands of people, so cosplayers get submitting! ^_^

Souce: Miki Dennis

Tokorozawa City Campaign On-line for Totoro House

Date: 2005 April 26 16:10 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

Following on from our coverage of Satsuki's and Mei's House and how lots of local Japanese governments want to get the house moved into their area, it seems that some of these groups are actually now campaigning on the internet targeting English speaking anime fans!

Tokozawa Junior Chamber Inc Sent us an e-mail, which basically says the same as this page on their site. This is interesting because to our knowledge it's the first time a Japanese organisation has directly targeted anime fans for a political matter like this. The e-mail and webpage want people to fill out an on-line petition, here at Otaku News, we're always cynical of such things, since they don't often carry much weight in the real world and because it's so easy to automatically generate fake results.

J-Pop Go - Wednesday 4th May

Date: 2005 April 19 16:14 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The people over at J-Pop Go have just sent us an update. The event is scheduled to take place at Fluid in Charterhouse Street, London from 7:00pm to 12:00am on Wednesday 4th May. Tickets are priced at £8 each and are now available online.

Souce: J-Pop Go

IMAF Announce Winners

Date: 2005 April 19 13:51 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The International Manga and Anime Festival have just announced the winners of their first international competition. The London based event started last year as a trial run and has proved very successful indeed. The entrants work was displayed in London County Hall in December. This was a very high profile event, located near the famous London Eye, with a $75,000 prize fund which even ran adverts in national newspapers. We covered the story originally here.

The Otaku News Crew would like to congratulate all the winners in this competition, especially talented artist Wing Yun Man, who is well known in UK anime fandom as part of the Sweatdrop Team, she is also a member of the Otaku News Crew and finds time post the occasional story and draw lovely artwork for us!

Sky Blue At Raindance East

Date: 2005 April 17 16:38 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Events

Sky Blue aka Wonderful days is showing as part of the Raindance: East film festival, and will be screened on Friday 22nd April at the UGC West India Quay and Wednesday 27th April at Genesis Mile End. Also showing which may interest fans of Asian film is 'Red trousers' which stars Mortal Kombat’s Robin Shou, and ‘THREE...EXTREMES’ (24th April) which features films by Takashi Miike,Fruit Chan & Park Chan-Wook. Films can be booked independently or a pass can be bought for £25

Souce: Raindance:East

Tokyo Godfathers Charity London Screening

Date: 2005 April 16 12:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, London UK, have teamed up with Hope and Homes for Children, to screen Tokyo Godfathers. Considering the movie is about three homeless people finding an abandonded baby, it could not be a more appropirate choice for the charity! This Sataoshi Kon film is a superb comedy, with great animation and one you must see at least once on the big screen.

They'll be screening the Japanese version of the film with English subtitles on Sunday April 24th, at 11am. Tickets will be £7 and £5 for concessions. The film is rated 12. If you can get to East Finchley to see it then give the box office a ring on 020 8444 6789 and mention you heard about the screening on Otaku News too! ^_-

Souce: Hope and Homes for Children

Connichi 2005 The Big Anime Convention In Germany

Date: 2005 April 14 16:39 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The folks running Connichi an anime convention being held in Kassel, Germany have sent us their press release for their 2005 convention which will run from Friday the 16th to Sunday the 18th of September.

Last year they had over 7,500 visitors. They plan to have competitions, cosplay, trading card games, an eating contest (yum), a dealers room and even a Go Tournament too! Otaku News have also discovered that like many other European conventions the video programme will have English subbtitles, with one video room in German only. This convention is well worth visiting, so you can even stick around for a week before or afterwards and check out out some of the local tourist sites. The convention will be held in the luxurious Kongress Palais, which quite frankely looks like one of the best venues to host an anime event!

Everyone Wants The Totoro House

Date: 2005 April 12 15:29 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Production > Studio Ghibli

According to the Daily Yomiuri On-Line the Totoro House at the Aichi World Expo 2005 has many local Japanese governments staking their claim to the property.

Many local authorities are keen to get Satsuki's and Mei's 1950's style house from the anime classic Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) moved to their prefecture, not only will it prove a big hit with locals, but it will surely make a major tourist attraction too. The house is already one of the most popular features at the Expo and has been covered on Otaku News before. The Youmiuri article has more details such as "The wooden house was built using joints, not nails, and the glass used in the windows is not new, as the panes were all salvaged from old buildings."

The Otaku News Crew are currently considering collecting signatures so they'll let us live in it! ^_^

Souce: Daily Yomiuri On-Line

Sweatdrop At London Expo

Date: 2005 March 24 12:14 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Press Releases

UK manga style art group Sweatdrop Studios has announced that they will be attending the London MCM Expo and will be running the artists alley section of the 'anime village'. The MCM Expo is running on the 14 & 15th May.

Visit Satsuki's and Mei's House

Date: 2005 March 21 17:28 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

We've been sent details from renowned anime author Helen McCarthy and journalist Ake Sasaki about the World Expo 2005 In Aichi, Japan, it looks like a dreamland for otaku!

For anime fans the highlight has to be Satsuki's and Mei's House, a replica of the house featured in Studio Ghibli's landmark My Neighbour Totoro. Just like the Ghibli Museum, entry to the house is limited to a set number of special ticket holders each day. Expo attendees must enter a lottery in advance to win the privilege of entering the house. As a result some lucky winners have taken to auctioning their tickets on-line, currently the free tickets are going for around $100 USD.

Comic Expo UK -Tokyopop Rising Stars Competition Opens To The UK

Date: 2005 March 21 13:17 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Events

Comic Expo is a new UK comic convention in Bristol 14th - 15th MAY 2005. Which seems to be making an effort to include manga fans within the convention. The biggest news is that Tokyopop UK will be launching its new 'Rising Stars of Manga' competition which for the first time will be open to UK artists. The convention also lists a "Tokyopop cine-manga night" but there are no details so it's hard to understand what this means.
Tokyopop Cine-manga are comics made out of animation screenshots (which with Tokyopop aren't all based on anime e.g. Disney), so it's unclear if it's some sort of presentation, anime screening or broader animation screening.

Also of interest is a talk by Paul Gravett which is billed as 'PAUL GRAVETT gets Re-Animeted. Celebrating 60 years of the genre.'

London Symphony Orchestra with Ayako Uehara

Date: 2005 March 16 17:36 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The more cultured London based otaku will want to get to Barbican Hall, on Wednesday 23rd March, for a 7:30pm performance by the London Symphony Orchestra of Respighi, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky which features Ayako Uehara on piano.

I'm sure many of our readers would have heard of young Japanese pianist Ayako Uehara who became the first woman to win the 1st prize at the 12th International Tchaikovsky Competition held in Moscow in 2002. Last year she had great success at her London debut recital at Wigmore Hall. In this concert programme with the LSO, conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, she plays Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, the wonderfully romantic First Piano Concerto.

Programme:
Tchaikovsky: Piano concerto No 1
Respighi: The Fountains of Rome
Stravinsky: The Firebird - Suite (1919)

Box office: 020 7638 8891

Souce: London Symphony Orchestra

Kyoto Jazz Massive In Edinburgh

Date: 2005 March 16 17:26 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Trendy jazz otaku in Edinburgh will want to get to The Cellar Bar, 1a Chambers Street on Friday 18 March to see Kyoto Jazz Massive -

Kyoto Jazz Massive are two brothers, Shuya Okino and Yoshiro Okino, famous for being DJs, producers, club-runners, label/record-shop owners (Especial) and worldwide re-mixers. They have been among Bossa Electronic Jazz pioneers in Japan since the late 1980s. Older brother Shuya used to be the artistic director of Mondo Grosso and is also part of the Cosmic Village Project. Their work with artists such as Sleepwalker (Masato Nakamura, Hajime Yoshizawa, Tomokazu Sugimoto, Nobuaki Fujii) and legendary American saxophonist Pharoah Sanders is currently exciting audiences across the world.

11pm - 3am, The Cellar Bar, 1a Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1HU
www.getintotrouble.com
Nice!

Souce: Trouble @ The Cellar Bar

Nausicaa To Get Small Scale US Theatrical Release This Summer

Date: 2005 March 10 18:04 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

Nausicaa.net have discovered from "sources close to Disney" that Nausicaa will receive a small scale US theatrical release this summer. Ghibli films always look great on the big screen and we highly recommend that our US readers catch this move when it does get released!

Souce: Nausicaa.net

Kimono Wearers Get Free Transport

Date: 2005 March 10 16:29 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

Following on from our earlier story about the kimono making a come back, the Otaku News crew have discovered a rather creative ploy by Kyoto City, who are offering free public transport and free entry to selected tourist attractions for an 11 day period to anyone wearing a kimono! This appears to be a bid to get more people dressing in traditional clothes in the historic city.

BBC News have more details on this story and highlight that Kyoto is an important centre for the textlie industry. Attractions offering free entry include Nijo Castle, Kyoto Tower and some museums.

Souce: BBC News

A Last Minute Anime Convention for London!

Date: 2005 March 06 22:07 | Posted By: Voxie

Category > Events

I say last minute, because anime conventions are usually given advance notice months in advance. However with the RHUL Anime & Manga convention, it's being held in little over two weeks from now! Held by the society at Royal Holloway University, the event is open to the public. And despite the late notice, it seems they've got everything set up, including anime showings, gaming, a cosplay competition, a raffle, and on-site games including 'Hunt the Mews Mews!' and 'Find the Chibi'..! Representatives of ADV, TokyoPop and Manga Entertainment will also be there. And did we mention the on-the-door entrance fee is just a mere £1.50?? What more reason do you need?

There are rarely any events like this in the London area, so I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't 'do' conventions becuase they're too far!

J-Pop Go Update!

Date: 2005 February 27 08:00 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Events

The folks at J-PopGo! have updated their site and given an updated date Wednesday May 4th for the event.

Competition: Bondi Nami

Date: 2005 February 22 18:04 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Here at Otaku News we love working with people to provide you with free stuff. We've teamed up with the people organising the London Australian Film Festival to give our London readers a chance of winning a pair of tickets to see the first Japanese Road Movie in Australia - Bondi Nami.

Competition: Sci-Fi-London Anime On Tour

Date: 2005 February 22 17:48 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

For our lucky UK readers we've got a pair of tickets for each leg of the Sci-Fi-London Anime On Tour event around the country. They'll be showing an anime all nighter, which includes Parasite Dolls and RahXephon. Read the rest of this article for full details.

Bondi Nami Hits London's Barbican Screen

Date: 2005 February 21 16:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

We've just got details in about the London Australian Film Festival screening of Bondi Nami, what's that you cry? Otaku News is supposed to be "News For Fans Of Japan", not "News For Fans of Down Under", well the more clever otaku readers (which is about 99% of our readers) will know that this film is being marketed as "The first Japanese Road Movie in Australia". So if you're in London or can get there, get down to the Barbican Cinema Centre for 9pm Saturday 5th March.

Metrocon Seek Human Chess Pieces

Date: 2005 February 20 12:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Florida anime convention Metrocon are currently seeking Cosplayer volunteers to participate in their Anime Human Chess Match. So if meet all their terms and conditions and can cosplay as one of the characters listed on their site why not give it a shot? It's also interesting to note that they've got ninja and pirate pawns.

The Otaku News Crew are pondering which anime characters are going to be which pieces, we suspect that Gendo Ikari will be a king for one side, while Rosette Christopher will be a bishop!

Souce: Metrocon

Sapporo Snow Festival 2005

Date: 2005 February 15 17:28 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Art

The Mainichi Daily News have some truly fantastic pictures from the 56th Sapporo Snow Festival. Which ran from February 7th to 13th.

The winner this year is the Canadian team who made a carving called Holding Back the Wilderness, featuring a Mountie holding back a bear.

The Otaku News Crew are already looking at how to make these in order to make a carvings of Elfie, Tima and Miyuki at next years event.

Souce: Mainichi Daily News

Sci-Fi-London Anime On Tour

Date: 2005 February 14 18:57 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Following on from the successful Sci-Fi-London Festival at the beginning of this month, the UK's only international sci-fi and fantasy film festival will be on tour throughout February and March.

Lucky otaku in Edinburgh, Liverpool, York and Exeter will get a chance to see the anime all nighter which includes Parasite Dolls and the RahXephon Movie.

London MCM Expo Celebrates Anime - Manga & Cosplay

Date: 2005 February 13 17:18 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

The folks over at the London Expo Event have sent us details of their anime and manga lineup. Not only will they have Cosplay events on both days, but they've also arranged sponsorship from MVM and Neo Magazine.

Guest wise, the Expo has Teryleryl Rothery who plays Dr. Janet Frasier in Stargate SG-1 and has been a voice actress in Dragon Ball playing Agent Mai in the 1995 dub and Raven in the first Dragon Ball Movie. She's also played A-ko Magami in Project A-Ko and Kodachi Kuno in various Ranma ½ features.

Shogun: The Life of Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu

Date: 2005 February 10 11:52 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Since our readership pride themselves on being cultured, I'm sure you'd be interested to know about a major Japanese Exhibition held at The Royal Armouries. Their summer 2005 exhibition will be Shogun: The Life of Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu. British otaku better head over to Leeds sometime this year!

IMAF To Announce Winners Soon?

Date: 2005 February 03 13:55 | Posted By: Azure

Category > Events

The folks at IMAF have updated their forums indicating that they intend to announce the winners on the 21st of February. They blame overseas mail for the delay. Good luck to all the artists who have entered!

Souce: IMAF

Extra Steamboy Showing In London

Date: 2005 January 24 02:59 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

London tickets sales for Steamboy at the Curzon Cinema on February 5th have sold out already! So the organisers have arranged for an extra screening on Thursday 3rd February at 11pm. Steamboy is being screened as part of the Sci-Fi-London Festival. The Otaku News crew hope that more screenings of the film will be scheduled for London soon, lots of people really want to see Steamboy and since the film is set in London it deserves a bigger screening in it's home city.

Souce: Sci-Fi-London

Anime All Nighter In London

Date: 2005 January 19 18:03 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

Lucky otaku who can get to London in the first weekend of February are in for a real treat. The Sci-Fi-London event will be running an anime all nighter with support from Redbull and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (make mine Chocolate Fudge Brownie) and with free Tea and Coffee everyone's sure to stay awake from the midnight starting time until 9:30 am the next day!
They'll be screening:

- Lady Death
- Parasite Dolls
- Sky Blue (a Korean animation also known as Wonderful Days)
- RahXephon The Movie.

We suggest that hardcore otaku go to the London Anime Club afterwards for a total weekend of anime!

Sweatdrop At The Artists & Illustrators Exhibition 2005

Date: 2005 January 09 15:16 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

We've just got news from the nice people at UK manga style art studio Sweatdrop that they'll be representing the UK manga community at the Artists & Illustrators Exhibition 2005 event and also provide workshops, and four 90 minute long presentations covering aspects of Manga-styled art and it's creation.

The event is scheduled for July 21st - 24th at London's Business Design Centre, last years event attracted over 14,000 visitors!

The Sweatdrop crew can be seen regulary at UK anime events, such at the London Anime Club and other UK anime conventions like AyaCon and AmeCon. Recently Sweatdrop also ran a stall at the London Comic Festival, with great success. Regular readers of Otaku News, will also remeber some of our lovely Christmas Desktop Wallpaper created by Sweatdrop artist Wing Yun Man.

Sky Blue LA Ticket Giveaway

Date: 2004 December 28 18:23 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

We at Otaku News are offering our readers in L.A. (in the USA of course ^_-) a chance to attend the Sky Blue Screenings. We've got two pairs of tickets to give away!

OK, we know it's Korean animation and not Japanese anime, but Koreans have been doing inbetweening and other outsourcing for the Japanese animation industry for years now.

Final Fantasy Orchestral Performance in Chicago

Date: 2004 December 22 18:05 | Posted By: Voxie

Category > Gaming

The Square Enix website has recently announced news of their latest 'Dear Friends - Music From Final Fantasy' concert. The first of a series of concert performances, the event is to be held for the first time in Chicago at the classy Rosemont Theatre in Rosemont, Illinois. Exciting stuff, a definite event for diehard FF fans and orchestral-heads a-like!

London MCM Expo 2005 Is Interested In Anime/Manga Presence!

Date: 2004 December 15 19:30 | Posted By: Voxie

Category > Events

Following up a post made on the boards at www.anime.org.uk, it seems the organisers are very interested in adding some anime and manga presence to the event, held in mid-May next year.

According to the post, plans are already on the go, with anime/manga distributors MVM due to attend. There are also other plans for cosplay and prizes to be up for grabs.

The post also reads that if you (as in anime/manga fans) have any further ideas in mind, you should email them directly at info@londonexpo.com and it is much appreciated.

The event will be held from 14-15th May 2005, at Royal Victoria, London E16. Advance tickets are now available to buy.

London MCM Expo Website: http://www.londonexpo.com

Souce: Anime.org.uk

AyaCon Five: Launch Announcement

Date: 2004 December 14 18:40 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

I've just received the details for AyaCon 5, the next edition of the successful UK anime and manga convention which always proves popular. AyaCon 5 will be held from 19-21 August 2005. Their venue will be the Warwick Arts Centre (University of Warwick near Coventry).

The convention will have use of the entire Arts Centre and extra faclities including a bar, restaurant and additional conference rooms, along with the full nightclub facilities in the nearby Students' Union for two parties on the Friday and Saturday evenings.

Manga Tour of Japan 2005

Date: 2004 December 13 18:08 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Those alert people over at BritAnime have discovered a manga package holiday from 29 March to April 2005 for our British readers.

The price seems good considering the flights and everything, although personally I prefer to go around Japan without a tour guide, discovering things by yourself is a lot of fun! However it is nice to have the option for the less adventurous, or for those who enjoy the convenience of having everything ready for them, especially since many anime fans have a limited Japanese vocabulary, including words such as baka (idiot), which doesn't really go down well when you're trying to book a hotel room!

The 8 day trip includes a visit to the Tokyo International Animation Fair, the fantastic Ghibli Museum, a visit to Akihabara (for all your electronic needs) and also the wonderful Meiji shrine, with huge Tori gates by it's entrance.

Souce: JapanJourneys.co.uk

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