Category > Events
Those of you attending Ayacon and planning on attending next year's conventions Amecon 2006 (August 11th - 13th, 2006) and Auchinawa(November 23rd -
26th, 2006) will be interested in a joint registration scheme which will be running during Ayacon this weekend. The scheme will allow con goers to pay for one con in full and a deposit for the other at the same time.
Read More... | Souce: Auchinawa Committee
Category > Events
A quick reminder to our London based readers, the London Anime Club which is normally held on the first Sunday of every month, will be on 14th August so not to clash with the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow which has an anime events run this weekend.
Souce: London Anime Club
Category > Press Releases
UK Travel company Japan Journeys have sent us details of their package holiday Japan Manga Tour a package departing from London to Tokyo. The highlights include a visit to the fantastic Ghibli Museum, the historical Meiji Shrine, the fashionable Harajuku and the Aladdin's cave of an anime store that is Mandarake.
All of the above places are worth visiting for one reason or another from the cultural value, to the outright wacky. The Otaku News Crew suggest you add the locations to your list of places to visit, for when you're in Tokyo next! ^_-
Read More... | Souce: Japan Journeys
Category > Events
ADV Films UK have announced they will be screening a variety of anime at Sci-Fi convention Interaction. Interaction is running in Glasgow from August 4th-8th. This is a high profile convention which also boasts events such as the Hugo awards. ADV are also providing the centrepiece presentation for a talk by anime expert and author Jonathan Clements. We recommend you make time to see Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Full Metal Panic, Voices of a Distant Star and if you still haven’t seen it Evangelion.
Read More... | Souce: ADV Films UK
Category > Anime
With AyaCon about to kick off in a few weeks, the AmeCon Crew have sent us the details of their Leicester based convention. Set to run from Friday 11th August to late on Sunday 13th in 2006 the convention looks like it's going to be good. The press release they've sent us has the full details and covers pretty much all the questions you could ask at this stage. It's great to see they've got the details sorted out even a year before the events set to run.
The guests include Monica Rial who was a real hoot at last years Amecon and interviewed really well, along with fellow voice actor Greg Ayres.
The AmeCon Crew have also decided to host a Cosplay Ball, which sounds exciting and attendees are advised to wear cosplay or formal wear (which basically means cosplay as Tuxedo Mask ^_-). The Otaku News Crew were at the first AmeCon and we've already paid the deposit for next years.
Read More... | Souce: Amecon
It's always nice when you mention events before the press release is sent out, as we did with the Japanese Animation: Manga to Miyazaki season at the National Film Theatre.
The films selected are all a real treat, and anime who can get to London are spoilt for choice this August, Satoshi Kon's work is great and almost everyone would have heard about Hayao Miyazaki's superb films.
The Otaku News Crew will be attending a few of the screenings too, so if you see us (and know what we look like ^_-) don't be afraid to come up to us and say hello!
Read More... | Souce: National Film Theatre
Category > Events
Last weekend saw this years Artists and Illustrators exhibition. The A&I is a regular event, but this year was the first in which anime and manga style art was highlighted. There were stands from art retailers Copic and Letraset, as well as UK manga style art studio Sweatdrop.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Events
Makoto Shinkai will be in London on August 12th to attend a screening of Voices of a Distant Star and She and Her cat at the NFT, which will be followed by a talk by the creator himself. VODS was animated, written and directed by Shinkai himself. We highly recommend it. For those who can’t make it the DVD is still available from ADV UK.
More information on the screening can be found on the NFT website . As we previously reported the NFT are screening several other anime as part of an anime season. For more information on the film click read more for the ADV Films UK press release.
Read More... | Souce: ADV Films UK
Category > Art
This years IMAF has just launched. They're looking for international talent in the form of artists and animators to identify the best. Entrants have a chance to win some of the $75,000 prize fund which is divided between the categories. The best overall entry will win a generous $30,000!
The Otaku News Crew advise that our talented readers get to work, you've got until the 30th September 2005 to get your entries in!
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
FilmFour have teamed up with Somerset House "to create a night at the movies like no other". They mention the "cutting edge technology and the splendour of the 18th century courtyard" and rightly so.
On Thursday 18th August, 6:30pm they'll be screening Studio Ghibli's superb Spirited Away, the only Japanese anime film to have won an Oscar. Tickets cost £12.50, with all phone and web bookings carrying an £1.75 charge per booking (not per ticket). As of yet it's not clear if the screening will be subbed or dubbed, but we will chase it up and post more details as soon as we find out.
If you haven't seen Spirited Away on a cinema screen yet, the Otaku News Crew highly recommend it.
Souce: Somerset House
Category > Events
London Anime Club President Dragon, has just informed us that registrations for the MinamiCon 12, the Southampton, UK based anime convention are now open. It's set for the 17th-19th March 2006. Registration costs £42 per person for the full weekend, and for an extra £10 you can also get a convention t-shirt.
Souce: MinamiCon 12
Category > Events
Our club bunny readers will be pleased to hear that despite recent tragic events in London, J-Pop Go July is indeed still Go and set for Wednesday 13th July. Tickets are still available at venue on the night.
The Otaku News Crew advise that you allow extra travel time to get the venue Fluid.
Regular contributor Voxie went to the last J-Pop go and has written a report of the event.
Read More... | Souce: J-Pop Go
Category > Culture
According to the Mainichi Daily News, students from Oxford University will be performing Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors in Tokyo this August.
The students are from Oxford University Dramatic Society, the oldest theatre group in the UK, which has produced stars like Hugh Grant, Judi Dench and John Gielgud. So with out doubt the quality of their performance is going to be high.
Read More... | Souce: Mainichi Daily News
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. ^_^
Read More... | Souce: J-Pop Go
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
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
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.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop Studios
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.
Read More... | Souce: J-pop Go
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.
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
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.
Read More... | Souce: AyaCon
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.
Read More... | Souce: Interaction
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.
Read More... | Souce: ADV Films UK
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? ^_^
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop
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.
Read More... | Souce: Soho Theatre
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!
Read More... | Souce: J-Pop Go
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
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
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!
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
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
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
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.
Read More... | Souce: London Expo
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.'
Read More... | Souce: Comic Expo
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
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
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!
Read More... | Souce: RHUL Anime & Manga Convention Website
Category > Events
The folks at J-PopGo! have updated their site and given an updated date Wednesday May 4th for the event.
Read More... | Souce: J-Pop Go!
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.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
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.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
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.
Read More... | Souce: The London Australian Film Festival
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.
Read More... | Souce: Sci-Fi-London
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.
Read More... | Souce: London MCM Expo
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!
Read More... | Souce: The Royal Armouries
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
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!
Read More... | Souce: Sci-Fi-London
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.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop
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
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.
Read More... | Souce: AyaCon
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
Category > Fandom
Following on from our previous article, where we guessed that the Christmas London Anime Club attendance would be higher than their last largest recorded attendance in April, when over 206 anime fans visited for the club's 10th anniversary.
This months LAC attendance was high, but not high enough to beat their previous record with around 165 anime fans showing up. As always Christmas treats were available with free entry to the London Anime Club for December, along with a raffle where people won items ranging from an Xbox to Newtype USA and Neo Magazine. Interestingly, there were lots of new faces at this months LAC. There are always new people showing up, but for some reason this month seemed to have a larger amount of new attendees than normal.
Souce: Otaku News
Category > Fandom
The London Anime Club is the largest anime club in the UK, in some ways it's a bit like a mini anime convention, but with fewer a cosplayers. Located in the City of London the LAC's central location means anime fans from around the country make a monthly trip every first Sunday of the month to watch anime and talk to like minded fans.
To date the London Anime Club's largest recorded attendance was 206 people for their 10th anniversary in April 2004. The Otaku News Crew are guessing that tomorrows LAC will be the biggest one yet, since more people are getting into anime and manga all the time and Christmas LACs tend to have high attendances. Fans often like to meet up around Christmas time too, especially since the London Anime Club does not run in January, as the first Sunday of the year is in the Holiday season. The Otaku News Crew will report back with the attendance figures as soon as we get them! Before we do, some of us (as always) will be at the London Anime Club, if you're there too, find us and say hello! We want to know what our readers think! ^_-
Souce: Otaku News
The keen eyed people at Anime-Europe have noticed that Sci-Fi-London will be screening Katsuhiro Otomo's latest anime film Steamboy. The festival will run in February 2005 and has screened anime with great success in previous years.
The folks over at Anime UK News have also discovered that the latest issue (December 2004) of Impact Magazine has a Steamboy Cover, along with features on Steamboy and Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence.
Every otaku should already know Katsuhiro Otomo wrote the classic manga Akira and directed the huge smash hit anime version. Steamboy is a steampunk movie set in London just before the First World Expo in 1851.
Apart from being very high quality anime, it is noted for having authentic looking locations around London, with British bobbies on the beat and other landmarks, which makes a change from seeing Tokyo landmarks all the time in anime! ^_-
Souce: Sci-Fi-London