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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.

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

December 2004 London Anime Club Update.

Date: 2004 December 08 18:47 | Posted By: Joe

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

December 2004 Biggest London Anime Club yet?

Date: 2004 December 04 15:58 | Posted By: Joe

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

Steamboy At Sci-Fi-London

Date: 2004 December 04 13:21 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

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

Auchinawa Glasgow Convention for Otaku

Date: 2004 November 29 08:53 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

One of our contributors Voxie from MAME has just discovered plans in Scotland for Auchinawa which "strives not to be an "Anime Convention" but an "Otaku Convention". Our Mission is to create a Convention/Expo in Scotland, the first of its kind, which caters for your needs and wants as fans."

They plan to screen anime, have DDR machines and will also be catering for J-Music fanatics and furries.

It's not set to run until the summer of 2006 so many of the details aren't finalised yet. However it's always good to plan ahead and conventions in the UK often get booked out quickly, so go take a look and get saving to get to Glasgow, if you're not near there already.

Souce: Auchinawa

J-Pop Go In London

Date: 2004 November 07 14:35 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Otaku News have learned about an event scheduled soon in London. J-Pop Go promises to be an evening celebrating a broad range of popular Japanese music, from J-Pop to J-Rock and everything in-between! The event is planned for a central London venue and they'll post up more information regarding tickets, pricing, playlists etc in due course. If you have suggestions, ideas or queries then you can always contact them too. If you're interested in attending then you add yourself to their mailing list for future updates.

We've seen posters, flyers and spoken to the even organisers and they've got lots of cool ideas about this event, so if you're into the Japanese music scene then go take a look.

Souce: J-Pop Go

International Manga and Anime Festival Launches

Date: 2004 October 27 18:20 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

We've just got a press release from a group called IMAF, who will be holding an international competition to find the best manga and anime talent in the world, entrants stand a chance to win big bucks with a total prize fund of $75,000!

The entrants work will be shown at London County Hall from 16th - 19th December. Judges include Koike Kazuo who is best known for writing Lone Wolf and Cub and Crying Freeman.

TokyoPop and Sweatdrop Attract Interest At London Comic Festival

Date: 2004 October 23 17:51 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The Otaku News Crew have just returned from the London Comic Festival, an event that focuses on the British Comic Book industry, it consists largely of underground/independent UK comic book publishers. Representing the UK manga/anime scene were professional manga publishers TokyoPop UK and original UK manga studio Sweatdrop. It was nice to see the interest and enthusiasm both groups generated. All the exhibitors there had a fair number of visitors to the their tables, I didn't do a proper count or survey, but throughout the day it was clear that both TokyoPop and Sweatdrop generated a large amount of interest, more so than any of the other comic book publishers.

Souce: Otaku News

Animex 05 Bookings Now Open

Date: 2004 October 22 18:22 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Production

Those of you in the animation industry should pay a visit to the next Animex International Festival of Animation. This will be the sixth Animex now, and every time it just gets bigger and better. Animex will run from 31st January to 4th February at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough in the North East of England.

This year the emphasis on animation in gaming seems to have increased and as always attendees get a chance to discuss details with industry professionals such as Robin Linn, Director of Animation Production for the Digital Character Group at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Souce: Animex

History of Anime - Presentation by Jonathan Clements

Date: 2004 October 19 16:17 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

We've got a tip off from one of our Welsh readers who suggests we take a look at the Swansea Animation Days 2004 Festival. Apart from covering the nuts and bolts of the animation industry, Jonathan Clements will be giving a speech under the SAND Film strand on "A History of Anime". A few otaku will know that Jonathan has given talks on this subject before and that they have gone down very well with attendees.

Souce: Swansea Animation Days 2004

Leeds International Film Festival Has Anime and Live Action Treats

Date: 2004 October 09 13:21 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

Anime-Europe has brought to our attention the Leeds International Film Festival. They mention the official UK premier of Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence (Sat 6th Nov - 8.30pm, Sun 7th Nov - 6.15pm) and Steamboy (Sat 6th Nov - 6.15pm, Sun 7th Nov - 8.15pm), both of these films are hotly anticipated by anime fans, myself included.

Also recomended is the Fanomenon Film Strand, with some other top notch cult live action Japanese cinema.

The Otaku News crew suggest you check out:
- Electric Dragon 80,000V
- The Live Action version of Cutie Honey (directed by Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame).
- Doppleganger
- Izo
- Ju-on: The Grudge 2

Then there's Otakus In Love the film title explains what it's about, I'll have to put that on my to watch list for the title alone! ^_-

Also if you liked Hero, you will really want to see House of Flying Daggers.

Souce: Leeds International Film Festival

V&A Exhibit - Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800

Date: 2004 October 03 16:54 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

I've just found out that the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are running an Exhibition called Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800. It will have some great Japanese items, including:

- a six panel gold leafed paper screen
- an elaborate painting with gold on silk
- armour from the shogun Tokugawa Hidetada
- a Portable Christian Altar
- Two Dutchmen and two courtesans Hanging scroll
- Food Box (surely they mean bento box?)

Many items are being shown for the first time, so we recommend a visit.

UK Conventions Set For 2005 And 2006

Date: 2004 September 29 18:32 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

It seems at almost exactly the same time, both AyaCon and AmeCon have officially announced more details regarding their next conventions!

It was announced at AyaCon 2003 that there would be no AyaCon in 2004, but now they've updated their website saying that "We are currently planning to stage our latest event, AyaCon Five, in Summer/Autumn 2005. We're aiming to make AyaCon bigger and better than ever!" As yet, they haven't revealed a venue for the convention.

AmeCon have also just updated their website. Stating that "The Convention will not be running in 2005, but will be running at Aston University, Birmingham, in 2006. Registrations for 2006 will open shortly."

Read More... | Souce: AyaCon / AmeCon Websites.

Terratag London Exhibition - 'Pornograffiti'

Date: 2004 September 29 17:49 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

We've just got an e-mail from Paul over at Terratag. Terratag t-shirts have been sold at most of the UK anime conventions and Paul even had a stall at the Japanese Food Festival in London this August.

Terratag are also very naughty and as a result, I've always debated if I should add them to the Pirate Anime FAQ. The more astute otaku will know there is a range of Terratag t-shirts with Gundam designs on, Terratag have not paid for a license from Bandai to use any Gundam images, or their likeness. Technically this is a copyright violation, and that generally flags them as a bootlegger. This could land Paul in trouble with Bandai's lawyers, and he could face a hefty fine at least.

Anyway, Paul wanted to point out that he's holding an art exhibition at the Notting Hill Arts Club, his show runs until November 1st, he helpfully points out on the night of October 4th there are going to be 4 scratch DJ's from Tokyo playing live. The crew is called En and features Mc Raita with Dj's Jif Rock, Kiccio and Kaitaro. There will also be a jazz/hip-hop dance crew. So fans of the Japanese music scene will want to get over there!

Japanese Swords in the British Museum

Date: 2004 September 26 17:46 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

Fans of sharp pointy things will want to pay a visit to the British Museum in London, from 30th September 2004 until 17th February 2005 they have the "Cutting Edge: Japanese Swords in the British Museum" exhibition, which focuses on history of swords in Japan, including Koto (old swords), Shinto (new swords) and Shinshinto (new-new Swords). The British Museum is always a great place to visit, so we suggest you visit this exhibition while you can, especially since Japanese swords are really works of art.

For a more details visit the British Museum's Department of Asia Exhibitions page.

Souce: British Museum - Department of Asia Exhibitions

Japanese Films at The 12th Raindance Festival

Date: 2004 September 26 17:16 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

London cinema otaku as always are in for a treat with the 12th Raindance Film Festival, which is dedicated to fostering and promoting independent film in the UK and around the world. For fans of Japan, check out their Way Out East strand, they'll be showing films like:

- After The Apocalypse
- Antenna
- Arakey
- Dead End Run
- Doppelganger
- Lunch Box
- Marebito
- Ramblers

If South Korean flicks are more your thing, check out Arahan and Oldboy. If you're into Chinese gothic shockers then go for Night Corridor.

Souce: Raindance Film Festival

Akita Kanto performance at the Thames Festival

Date: 2004 September 11 17:30 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

London otaku better get themselves to the the Thames Festival which "closes busy streets and transforms the river, parks and open spaces with a rich programme of new creative commissions, a riverside bazaar and night market, family oriented activities, street theatre, music, and more."

This year artistes balancing Kanto poles will be demonstraiting their skills in London while accompanied by traditional Japanese music of the taiko drum, bamboo flute and bell. On the 18th September they will be supported by taiko drummers from Gyosei International College.

Manga Live! At The ICA In London

Date: 2004 August 30 14:14 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Events

I've just found out about an event at the ICA in London. It's called Manga Live, and is divided into two events Manga Live (Fri 03 Sep) and will discuss if Manga can take off in the UK.

The second event (Sat 04 Sep) is the Manga Live! Manga Masterclass which forms a practical demonstration and workshop. The masterclass will also have a special preview screening of Rogue Farm.

Back from AmeCon!

Date: 2004 August 23 15:09 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

I've just got back from AmeCon! Gosh, I was busy! I'll try and get a full write up done tomorrow.

The convention was popular and everyone had a good time.

Monica Rial proved to be an excellent guest, signing panties (and other things), chatting away to all the con goers and even converting a few hardcore sub only zealots to English dubs!

AmeCon 2004 Chairman Interview

Date: 2004 August 09 14:12 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

Paul Bates over at Anime UK News has just posted an interview with Will Blewitt about AmeCon which is set to be a very large and funpacked convention. It makes a good read since it shows how mad running a convention can be!

I even get a mention in the interview because I've sent them a special printed version of the Pirate Anime FAQ to help out, plus I'm running a panel there too! So if you're going to AmeCon go to my panel, please ^_^;;

Souce: Anime UK News

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