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Viewster Launch Omakase Streaming and Merchandise Service

Date: 2015 October 17 08:48 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Streaming Service Viewster have just launched a new package aimed at anime fans. Omakase includes a subscription to their HD Ad-free service, plus a bimonthly box of goodies, including merchandise, music and comics. The boxes will feature limited edition and exclusive stuff. Their launch box will feature exclusive Kill la Kill merchandise.

The Omakase service will be available in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

A subscription currently costs $29 (USD) for 2 months, plus shipping and handling.

Hello Kinmoza Simulcast and License Details

Date: 2015 April 07 15:19 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The Second Season of Kinmoza is now airing. No sooner than the first episode of season 2 was simulcast on Crunchyroll, US anime firm Sentai Filmworks announced that they have the US rights to the second season.

The second season is called Hello!! Kinmoza, and appears to more of the same moe anime as the first season. The show follows the gentle everyday adventures of Alice a British schoolgirl living in Japan with her best friend Shino. They go to school and talk about how blonde Alice's hair is. The show is based of a 4 panel manga.

We must admit that the Otaku News Team have a soft spot for the show. While it's light and fluffy content wise, the animation studio did it's research in the UK and found a location suitable for Alice's house. Otaku News had the world exclusive revealing the British location for Kinmoza as B&B Fosse Farm.

Kinmoza Season 1 is available to buy from Amazon.com on DVD and Blu-ray.

Readers (include those in the UK) can watch Kinmoza season 1 and 2 on Crunchyroll.

Sailor Moon Now Streaming on Hulu and Hulu Plus

Date: 2014 May 19 15:56 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

North American based readers who are fans of classic anime Sailor Moon will be pleased to hear that you can now watch it streaming on Hulu and Hulu Plus. VIZ Media will premiere SAILOR MOON Episodes 1-4 (subbed) today on its free NeonAlley.com.

Those readers outside North America will note that the streams are geo-locked. So you'll have to find your own local legal rights holder to watch Sailor Moon.

Mai Mai Miracle UK and US Release Kickstarter Update

Date: 2014 February 08 15:24 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The big news in anime circles this week has been from Anime Limited and their Kickstarter campaign to bring Mai Mai Miracle to home video.

Within the first 18 hours the Kickstarter hit it's $30K (USD) funding goal. So now they're going for a stretch goal. If they hit the goal of $60K, they'll be able to fund a dub. At the time of writing (with 26 days left on the Kickstarter), they have reached just over $54K. You can keep up to date with news about the Kickstarter here or check out Anime Limited's own website.

Souce: Mai Mai Miracle Kickstarter

Osamu Tezuka's The Crater goes live on Kickstarter

Date: 2013 May 19 10:28 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The good folks from the Kansai Club have sent us details of their Kickstarter to get Osamu Tezuka's The Crater published in English. They intend to publish it as a limited edition run of 2,000 high quality copies.

This is not the first of Tezuka's works to be crowd funded for an English release. Last year DMP ran a successful Kickstarter to get Unico funded.

Johnnys' World: Top of the J-Pops

Date: 2013 January 25 15:36 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Culture

J-Pop fans who can access NHK World will want to tune in for Johnnys' World: Top of the J-Pops.

The documentary focuses on Johnny Kitagawa of talent agency Johnny's Entertainment. The talent agency represents Tsuyoshi Domoto of Kinki Kids and Hey! Say! Jump!.

It'll be broadcast on NHK World on:
Saturday 26th January 2013 - 23:10 (UTC)
Sunday 27th January 2013 - 3:10/ 7:10/ 11:10/ 15:10/ 19:10 (UTC)

NHK World broadcasts content in English and is free to access. It's available in many countries.

In the UK if you have Sky you can access NHK World on Channel 507. If you've got FreeSat you can access it on channel 209.

Failing that, you can also watch the show on-line on the NHK Website, JIB TV, or on the NHK World App on iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad, etc) and Android Devices.

Souce: NHK World

GEN Manga Issue 16 out now

Date: 2012 November 27 13:04 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The good folks from GEN Manga have just release their latest Issue GEN 16.

This issue continues the instalments of Psycho, Android Angels, Stones of Power, Anomal and Alive.

Cowboy Bebop Movie Script Charity Auction

Date: 2011 November 30 14:50 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Current Affairs

The folks at FrontTowardsGamer.com have got in touch with us to spread the word about their charity auction. They've got a copy of the Cowboy Bebop Movie Script, which has been autographed by the US voice actors.

The charity auction aims to raise money to build video game stuffed care packages for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Souce: FrontTowardsGamer.com

Naruto Shippuden The Movie: Bonds US DVD and Blu-ray release details, plus on-line movie marathon details

Date: 2011 October 21 15:37 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

The good folks at Viz have sent us details of the up coming US release of Naruto Shippuden The Movie: Bonds which is due out on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday October 25th 2011.

To celebrate US based readers can watch on-line for a limited time a marathon of all five Naruto movies! The stream is avaiable this weekend until Sunday October 23rd 2011.

Digital Manga version of Neon Genesis Evangelion launches on VizManga.com

Date: 2011 August 16 17:03 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The good folks at Viz Media have sent us details of their latest title to appear on VIZManga. They've just launched Neon Genesis Evangelion with weekly digital chapters for $0.99. It's available on PC and Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android phones and tablets.

GEN Manga Issue 4 out now, plus download free indie manga

Date: 2011 August 15 15:55 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

GEN Manga the company bringing us indie manga from the Tokyo underground have sent us reminder that issue 4 is out today.

They've also released issue 2 for free. They're even extending their subscribers discount. What makes GEN Manga interesting is that each issue is published on PDF, so you can download it and read it on any device that'll handle PDF documents. There's no nasty DRM to worry about, or installing extra naggy software, just one file per issue.

Emma: Victorian Romance streams on-line for free

Date: 2011 August 10 16:55 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The excellent folks from Right Stuf/Nozomi are now streaming the anime Emma: A Victorian Romance on YouTube. They'll be showing one new episode of Emma per week for the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. They're showing the episodes subtitled. So if you fancy an anime series set in Victorian England, now's your chance to watch it for free.

You can get Series 1 and Series 2 from Amazon.com. You can also pre-order The Complete Series Limited Edition Bundle, which features Season 1 and Season 2, it's out on September 13th 2011.

Souce: Right Stuf

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.

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?

Vampire Knight Anime Online at VIZAnime.com

Date: 2010 May 08 09:27 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

US Anime fans can now watch Vampire Knight on-line as it premiers on VizAnime.com. This streamed anime title is only available to people inside the US.

Crunchyroll streams Haruhi

Date: 2010 April 09 19:44 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The good folks at Crunchyroll have sent us details of their latest streaming deal. They've started to show The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Fans looking for aliens, time travelers, and ESPers will be most pleased to hear that they intend to stream the second series later this year too. Crunchyroll's licence covers the Americas, the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Africa.

Bandai Entertainment launches new manga website

Date: 2010 February 16 21:31 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

The good folks at Bandai Entertainment have sent us details about their new manga website.

New dating site for anime fans launches

Date: 2009 September 08 16:33 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Fandom

There are tons of dating sites on the internet. Lots are even specialist dating sites by interest. So it should come as no surprise that the clever folks at Fan Crush have set up a dating site for otaku - Otaku Crush.

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

Geneon Spot audio podcast

Date: 2007 February 24 18:58 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

We've just got an e-mail from the pioneering folks at Genoen who'd like to let us know that they've posted up the latest Geneon Spot audio podcast, featuring an interview with Taliesin Jaffe (the ADR director of R.O.D -The TV-, Hellsing, Hellsing Ultimate, BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, etc.), who talks about script adaptation work and the realities of being an anime voice actor.

Souce: Geneon Spot audio podcast

Hellsing Ultimate website launches

Date: 2006 December 05 15:18 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

The nice folks at Geneon Entertainment have sent us news that they've launched a website for Hellsing Ultimate, the OAV incarnation of the fan favourite anime series. The website contains some details about the series, it's creator, DVD release dates, along with a host of downloads like desktop wallpaper and chat icons.

Anime Forest.com Closing Down

Date: 2006 April 18 11:31 | Posted By: Jeremy

Category > Anime

Bad news for American anime fans. Anime News Network has reported that Anime Forest.com, the popular on-line rental site, will be shutting down after three years of service. An e-mail was sent out to customers of the site informing them of the closing, though reasons as to why were not given. Per-rental services ceased on April 7th, while subscription services will end on April 30. Anime Forest thanks their customers for their support in the e-mail. They will be missed.

Souce: Anime News Network

Adult Swim Fix

Date: 2006 February 20 10:33 | Posted By: Jeremy

Category > Anime

Adult Swim to start featuring classic and new shows on website, seven days a week.

IGN Seek Otaku Writers

Date: 2006 January 03 15:20 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

Unfortunately for us hugely popular gaming site IGN aren't seeking the Otaku News Crew, but they are seeking freelancers who love anime and manga! So if you live in the US, are over 18 and fancy being a freelance writer, why not drop them a line, they'll even pay you! If on the other hand you want to work for free and support grassroots anime fandom then why not contact us! We can't pay you, but we can always give you a sense of satisfaction that is better than money, (honest) and since we're also a lot slacker about deadlines too! ^_-

Souce: IGN

Howl's Moving Castle Set For March 2006 DVD Release

Date: 2005 December 05 16:54 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

UK on-line retailer's Play.com and Amazon.co.uk have started to take pre-orders for Howl's Moving Castle, they both listing the release date as 13th March 2006. Otaku News had heard rumours about Optimum wanting to release Howl earlier, however in order to qualify for an Academy Award, they had to delay the release. What's interesting to note that the boxshots from Amazon and Play are different, which leads us to believe that both sites have produced mock-ups as they are missing vital details on the packaging such as the BBFC rating logo.

A quick check on Amazon.com reveals that they're taking pre-orders for two different versions of Howl's Moving Castle, which are priced the same, we suspect that Amazon will remove one edition nearer the launch date.

If Optimum and Buena Vista can release Howl's Moving Castle in March, they should be highly commended, since the Japanese DVD has just been released this November and Ghibli titles have been traditonally very slow to get US and UK DVD releases.

Souce: Play.com

Kakurenbo Official Site Online

Date: 2005 September 27 15:16 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > DVD

Central Park Media have just sent us details about their Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek website. In addition to information about the CG animation's awards, creators, and English and Japanese voice actors (including Junko Takeuchi - the voice of Naruto), there's a special video recorded at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

The DVD is due for release on October 11.

Souce: Central Park Media

AOL Radio Launches Japanese Pop Station

Date: 2005 July 22 18:00 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

The people over at AOL have just sent details of their new Japanese Pop Station. It seems that AOL Radio listeners enjoyed the Video Game Scores station so much that AOL have added a Japanese Pop station due to popular demand!

Otaku News Adds DVD Reviews

Date: 2005 May 08 18:45 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

Here at Otaku News we listen to you, our readers comments and will always try to improve the site based on what we hear. The most common request we've had so far is for a review section. So the Otaku News Crew started to work away, writing reviews and also writing the code for you to navigate the reviews. At the moment we've put up some DVD reviews for you to read, over time we intend to add a lot more. Currently all editions of Otaku News will show all DVDs, regardless of their region. Eventually once we have a substantial number of reviews the UK and US Editions will only display reviews from their region.

We've also adopted a policy of being honest, so far one review already has a rating of 2 out of 10! We hope you find this addition to the site helpful and enjoying reading our opinions, of course if you don't like it and think you can do better, then by all means tell us, we are always looking for talented contributors to write news articles, reviews and anything else of interest to otaku!

Souce: Otaku News DVD Review Section

Frightmoore University Posts It's 100th Page

Date: 2004 November 28 09:49 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Webcomics

It's been a busy week for me which is why I haven't posted as much news as I would like on Otaku News this week. So today is catch up day! One of the advantages of running your own news website means that you can plug your other side projects now and again (no Spike that doesn't mean you can start posting about all the yaoi you draw).

OK, first up on Monday November 22nd, Frightmoore University an up-and-coming webcomic I'm the webmaster for, has just made the milestone of posting it's 100th page! Gigi has drawn a little celebratory image of the main characters having a little party. Frightmoore has been running since 2001, and in April 2004 when an updated version of the site was launched on it's own domain name were we able to gauge an idea of how many hundreds of thousands of unique users actually visited Frightmoore! If you have read any of it yet, go on and take a look.

While we're on the subject of plugging stuff don't forget to check out The Journey of Light an independent animation project that is currently underway written by our very own Azure.

Souce: Frightmoore University

Strong Yaoi Sales on Amazon.com

Date: 2004 November 14 08:34 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

ICv2 are reporting an interesting trend with Amazon.com's manga best seller list. Apparently Yaoi is three of the top five, four of the top ten and six of the top fifteen manga titles. ICv2 point out that these sales are only on Amazon.com as the American Bookscan list doesn't not match with these sales figures, with only Del Rey's Tsubasa Volume 3 appearing at the top of both lists.

ICv2 speculate that people purchasing Yaoi prefer the privacy and relative anonymity that on-line reatilers offer and that the two main Yaoi publishers Digital Manga and CPM Manga don't have the marketing clout or number of titles compared to other publishers with titles at the top of the graphic novel lists.

Souce: ICv2

GoManga.com Goes Live

Date: 2004 October 26 18:18 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Manga

Recently we ran a press release about Seven Seas producing original manga. Now their site Gomanga.com is live. So far they've got details of four titles on their site - Amazing Agent Luna, Blade for Barter, Last Hope and No Man's Land.

ADV Titles Prove Popular With AnimeOnDVD.com Readers

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

Category > Websites

Those happy people at ADV USA have just sent us a press release detailing their recent success with AnimeOnDVD.com readers. Each month AnimeOnDVD readers vote for what they believe to be the best DVD release of that month. Over the past six months ADV have scooped 4 of the monthly awards.

As soon as the press release was sent, it was already out of date, ADV had won the September award for Chrono Crusade Vol. #1!

Anime News Network and Protoculture Addicts Join Forces

Date: 2004 September 19 09:27 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

At Nan Desu Kan the Anime News Network announced that they are joining forces with independent anime magazine Protoculture Addicts to produce Anime News Network's Protoculture Addicts. This will be the 82nd issue of Protoculture Addicts (out in January 2005).

This is good news for Anime fans in North America (and the rest of the English speaking world too), since Protoculture Addicts has always been an excellent intelligent source of information for fans, combined with ANNs resources it means even better magazine. I look forward to reading this!

Mamoru Oshii to Answer Fan's Questions On-line

Date: 2004 September 03 13:57 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime > Film

We've just had details in from the folks at Dreamworks.
Mamoru Oshii the director of Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence will be answering questions posted to the offical Ghost In the Shell 2 Site's forum. Sign up and Join this thread - http://www.ghost2.com/board/showthread.php?t=62.

Fans will already know that Oshii was behind the original Ghost in the Shell Movie, and the first two Mobile Police Patlabor Movies.

Otaku News Launches!

Date: 2004 August 18 16:29 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

18th August 2004. Otaku News, a new site dedicated to anime, manga and other cool Japanese things launched today. Yes, that's this site! We intend to bring you news for fans of Japan. From Anime to Zen, with a good dose of informative articles and laughs along the way.

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