A press release arrived last week from Viz Media that featured several new titles and artbooks set to hit our shores within the next thirty days from famed manga artist Takehiko Inoue.  Here’s a quick bio of him via the press release:

Takehiko Inoue is a skilled artist whose intricately detailed and lifelike visual style has raised the manga genre to a new level. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Culture Award and the Media Arts Festival Award. Inoue’s highly acclaimed series VAGABOND (Rated M for Mature audiences and published domestically by VIZ Media) is a fictional account based on the life of legendary 17th century samurai Miyamoto Musashi.

And now a look at Mr. Inoue’s titles being released:

• REAL - It’s a is a gritty drama that offers a unique twist on the sports manga genre as it focuses on wheelchair basketball. A motorcycle accident, bone cancer, and a speeding truck crashing into a boy on a stolen bicycle all present tragic, life-changing events that turn the worlds of three young men upside down in this gripping new series. These three characters with very different personalities have only one thing in common their passion for basketball.  Real is available now with an MSRP of $12.99 US.
• SLAM DUNK - SLAM DUNK is the highly anticipated 31-volume basketball drama that has been a smash hit in Japan. Sakuragi Hanamichi’s got no game with girls – none at all! It doesn’t help that he’s known for throwing down at a moment’s notice. A hopeless bruiser, he’s been rejected by 50 girls in a row! All that changes when he meets the girl of his dreams, Haruko, and she’s actually not afraid of him! When she introduces him to the game of basketball, his life is changed forever. Selected volumes of SLAM DUNK features a profile of a specific NBA player, their stats, and their signature on-court move. The profiles begin with Volume 1, which features the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and his signature move, the Slam Dunk as a bonus excerpt.  Slam Dunk will be available September 2nd with an MSRP of $7.99 US. Read the rest of this entry »

Nozomi Entertainment sent out a press release announcing their new T-Shirt & Hoodie Sweatshirt featuring the Gravitation stars Shuichi and Ryuichi.  While both items are in the color blue, the Hoodie is a cotton/poly (80/20) blend available from small to extra-large while the pre-shrunk cotton T-shirt will be also include XXL.  All sizes for the t-shirts are under twenty bucks, and the MSRP for the Hoddie is at $39.99.  Pre-Orders are taking place for both these items and will be available at the end of this month.  For more details visit: http://www.nozomient.com/

Source:  Right Stuf!/Nozomi Entertainment

The next report on Kotobukiya is on a new ARTFX+ Statue collection is on the new Star Wars CGI movie, The Clone Wars. The movie is… a prequel to a… side story that takes place… during the prequel saga (pardon my humor Mr. Lucas). The Clone Wars collection is divided up into two (hopefully more) series, and the theme for the first series are the Jedi. The first image below is of Obi Wan Kenobi standing seven inches tall and in his protective armor. The next one is of the movie’s protagonist Anakin Skywalker. Standing just a quarter inch taller than Obi Wan, his dark color scheme contradicts with his teacher’s lighter shade of brown. Last but not least is Anakin’s young padawan Ashoka Tano. The Togruta female stands a bit shorter than her other jedi coutnerparts at 5 4/5″ tall. The familiar figure on Ashoka’s back is Rotta, the infant son of Jabba the Hutt. Collectors will also be interested to know that the backpack that little tyke sits in is also an interchangeable accessory, and can also be placed on the back of Anakin. Finally fans of the series will also be happy to know that each character comes with a bonus piece to Yoda the grand Jedi master, which fans will be able to easily build once they collect all three statues (as you see above).

With an SRP of $59.99 each, the statues are set to hit the streets this coming January.

Next time: Moe statues recap!

Onto the pics!

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Sorry for the delay! It’s funny how one convention can suddenly drop a whole lotta work load ontop of another. To give you an idea about my review, one of the hot topics over AX this year was over its location. There was also talk about moving the convention over to a bigger and better location such as San Diego. So I primarily focused on how things were handled at the LACC and why San Diego would be a bad idea…

So if you have some time, read on as I shoot my mouth off over the biggest con in North America!

Anime Expo 2008

Last month Organic Hobby announced that it will be releasing the resin model of Elizabeth from the series “Strike Witches” in the US Market. This will be in conjunction with the company Beagle.

If you’re looking for information on her, you might have to dig a little deeper than usual. Although her character design is based on the OVA, no seiyuu has been casted as her voice; she has yet to appear in the TV series playing on Crunchy Roll as well. After doing a little research, the closest I could find was one Elizabeth F Beurlung from the original Light Novel. Her appearance is a bit different, but here’s a fun fact, according to a relationship cart used for the novel, she is somehow associated with Lynette Bishop (yes that Lynette). We’ll see how it all turns out in the future.

Getting back to the model, Elizabeth stands at 6 ½” tall; she comes fully painted and packaged in a window box. She comes with several removable parts including her hat plus goggles, glasses, tail and her striker unit. The character designs are directly inspired by Fumikane Shimada’s Mecha Musume’s illustrations. Mr. Shimada has played a major role in creating the girls of Strike Witches, and you can find him credited in the light novels and both mangas.

With an SRP of $75.00, Elizabeth will be hitting the streets this October.

Read the rest of this entry »

So if you’ve been following my blog, one of the companies that I follow closely is Kotobukiya.  I originally met them at last year’s Comic Con and I’ve always had a lot of fun posting their new resin models ever since.  When I met up with them this year I was (at the very most) expecting to meet up with one of my contacts named Shingo, so I could put a face with the name, shake hands, and briefly talk about the companies plans.  So when he offered to open up the cabinets after I took care of some other business, do you think I came back?  (Does a cannon full of flour make a big mess?)

The first pics I have are from two of George Lucas’ biggest sagas Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  The first is from the Bounty Hunter series.  They began the series earlier in the year with several different bounty hunters.  As you can see the stand for each of the figures is composed of a piece of the empire symbol.  A portion of Darth also comes with each of the bounty hunters, and makes up the center piece.  You can buy a similar Darth on it’s own, but you’re don’t mind keeping up with this series, then it really pays off.

The next pictures are from the Indiana Jones universe.  A new experiment by Kotobukiya, these are three goblets themed around the first three Indiana Jones films, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and the Last Crusade.  As you turn the gobblets around, you will see various plot points to each of the movies.  Some details are really subtle such as the “Leap of Faith” represented by a little hole in the back of the third goblet.  My personal favorite is the “Temple of Doom” goblet, not just because it seems to have the most detail, but the little things like the chains that lowered the cage into the lava, or the two little Thungee riding down the mine cart (oh yeah if you ever wanted to know what the Kali statue looks like from behind, check out the 8th picture).

You can check out both of these series and more at http://kotous.com

Next time: The Clone Wars!

Read the rest of this entry »

This was actually announced back in June, but hopefully I will be forgiven… I stopped by the PMX website a couple of days ago and discovered that the convention will be returning to the LAX Hilton on Veterans Day weekend. This will be the second time that the convention will be held during this holiday weekend. Also posted on their front page is the brief announcement on their first musical group, the Visual Kei Band Suicide Ali. This Gothic and eccentric group started in 2005 with two their core members Goshi on vocals and Hiroshi on guitar, followed by their other three members Hisashi, Yuu, and Mst a year later. You can check out their MySpace Page here.

Registratation is expected to begin later this month, but the convention is also holding a monthly contest on their site. The current contest (set to end August 10th) is a sketch of Irene from the series Claymore. It was drawn and autographed by last year’s GOH Takahiro Umehara.

For more details go to: http://www.pacificmediaexpo.com.

Source: Pacific Media Expo (website)

For everyone that has been a fan of something or another, the people and things involed deliver to you a moment that makes more of a fan than you could’ve ever imagined. For me those moments included hearing Dave Grohl play Everlong in acoustic for the first time, or when House wrapped up his lecture in his Oscar winning episode “Three Stories” leaving his students rather somber and deep with thought, and yes even in anime when Megumi Hayashibara began chanting “Dragon Slave” in the first Slayers Movie. Another moment for me was in “Aria THE ANIMATION” when Kawai Eri became the singing voice of Athena and sang Barcarolle into the night from her bedroom window (see image above). As a fan and a “member of the press” there was nothing more that I wanted in that moment than to meet the person behind that voice. It looks like my plans are going to be delayed for sometime.

I recieved word that Kawi Eri passed away on the 4th of August at 11:40pm. Aside from Aria, she has also been credited in titles such as “AIR the Move”, “Utawaremono”, “Bamboo Blade”, “Strange Dawn”, and another favorite of mine “Tales of Symphonia”. It has been reported that she has been ill for some time and died from a terminal disease. No information was given about the disease. Her website http://www.goocompany.co.jp/eri_kawai/ has been flooded with traffic to the point that it is has been shut down from time to time.

For now there will be a wake for her on August 6th and the funeral will be held the following day (August 7th) in Taito, Tokyo.

Source: j1m0ne’s Blog

As summer rolls along, Antarctic Press has several continuing titles for the month of August:

• Fire and Brimstone #2 of 3 - After 5000 years of trying to haling back in the demons that she accidently unleashed, the rebellious angel Brimstone has decided to call it quits.  This of course does not sit well with her partner in crime, the redeeming demon Fire.  Will she let her walk out on the job, or will there be a throw down?
• Gold Digger #99 - Counting down to the big triple digits, Gina and Britanny are rescued from the Dynasty’s Soul Furnace by Jon, the spirit-copy of Grandpa Diggers dwelling in his old journal.  During the frantic escape attempt, Gina discovers that the Dynasty fortress around them has sufficient power to leave quasi-space.  All it needs is a course that will take them home.  Then Brit’s former friend Crescens, now part of the Dynasty, finds the escapees, and a new battle begins.  This time, Brit’ is determined to snap Crescens out of the Dynasty’s control, even if she has to risk her life to do it!
• Gold Digger Swimsuit End of Summer Special 2008 -  Everybody’s goin’ surfin’, surfin’ GD-style for this year’s End of Summer Swimsuit issue!  Hang ten and catch the latest waves of art from GD fans the world over, showcasing the GD cast enjoying sun, sand, and the sea!  You’ll have fun, fun, fun from cover to cover!
• Gold Digger Tangent Pocket Manga Vol. 1 - The universe of Fred Perry’s adventure extravaganza, Gold Digger, is far too diverse and extensive to contain in one series, so Fred began not one but two online comics to develop stories that reach beyond the scope of the main title.  Now these extra-special extensions of the GD-verse are compiled in handy pocket-manga format!  Enjoy the tribulations of Ayane “Mistress” Anno, the gorgeous-but-frightening champion freestyle fighter, in her search to add a little cuteness to her life, and the ongoing adventures of the Northern Edge-Guard, a team of were-cat law enforcers on the magical world of Jade, as they face the problems accompanying new recruits, evil death-wabbits, and more!
• Gold Digger: TIffany & Charlotte #3 of 4 - Charlotte’s ‘mother’, Penny Pincer, offers to take Tifanny and Charlie to Pismo Beach for a weekend getaway.  She even lets Charlotte, who just got her learner’s permit, take a turn at the wheel of the new hydrofoil.  What happens next is…well, not entirely Charlotte’s fault.  After dodging a cross between the Loch Ness monster and a Land of the Lost castaway, the trio make it to shore.  But with all the volcanic activity and pterodactyls around, it doesn’t quite feel like Pismo Beach!
• The Land of Oz: The Manga #3 of 8 - Tip and his friends are reunited as the Emerald City’s defenses fall before General Jinjur’s Army of Revolt.  While the greedy army sacks the city, the Scarecrow devises a plan of escape.  Soon, Tip and company are off on another dangerous trek in search of safe haven with Nick Chopper. But will the party survive their perilous journey to the land of the Tin Woodsman?
• Ninja High School #164 - Since World War 2, Meppy the cat-girl has been fighting bad guys, battling giant crabs, destroying college dorms, showing off her ninja cat skills, and teaching high school gym.  But no matter what she does, explosions and violence all follow close behind, like an unstoppable force of nature.  Now, this unpredictable and unholy force for good has turned EVIL.  If what she did before was as a good guy, what will happen when all scruples go out the window?  And, worse yet, is that an entire city of sociopathic cat-girls she’s recruiting?

Source:  Antarctic Press

NIS America announced last week that Ar Tonelico II will be making its way to our this side of the Pacific later this year.  It will be a direct sequel from the original video, taking place only a few short years after the first one ended.

According to the release, you play a young knight from the Church of Pastalia, who is sent to the region of Metafaiss.  The region surrounds Infel Pira, the second Tower (which is said to represent the Goddess Frelia of the Trio).  At the start of the game, a mysterious epidemic called Infel Pira Dependency (IPD) has been killing Reyvatelis.  You have been sent there to contain the epidemic.

Key features from the original game are expected to make a return including Song Magic, primarily used as a means to end all enemies on the board, and Cosmoshpere, where the user dives into the mind of the Reyvatelis to create new magic.

New features also include:

• Replakia - As you progress through the game and save Reyvatelis, you are given repicas of them called Replakia.  The more Replakias that you have, the stronger and unique  your song magic becomes.  With the Emotion Gauge
• Emotion Gauge - A new feature in the game, where how well you cheer you Reyvateil during battle becomes the key to victory.
• Syncrinity - Something else that they’re trying out, in this installment song magic is cast by 2 Reyvatelis.  The closer their emotions are synced, the stronger the magic becomes.

The release is set between the first and last day of December.  OmoshiroiBlog will keep you posted as new material becomes available.

Source:  NIS America (Press Release)