Various news (anime, hobby, and ero) from the past few days, in convenient sound-bite (text-bite) form!

Say hello to Demo-tan.

From the pages of November’s edition of Afternoon, released yesterday, as well as the newly-updated official site. Check for Kujian box release specifics, manga and anime artist profiles, and information on the first Ogiue mass-produced figure release known to man! The quiverings of my otaku heart…

…but not in a format anyone expected. Read on for the scoop, fresh slightly stale from the pages of today’s Afternoon! This is as official as it gets, folks.

A few of the weekend’s anime notes, courtesy of Moon Phase.

According to this post on the Soft Landing developer’s diary, an alpha version of the game has been made available to select sites for perusal. HD is one of them. First impressions inside!

Yesterday was the official street date for several monthly eroge magazines, and it shows this morning in the backwash of online updates posted at Moonphase and elsewhere. HD brings the lowdown on several new titles and updates on a few old ones - hold on to your pants if you have them, it’s a bit of a rough ride ahead.

In which HD, and more specifically Mainichi Junk, rises from the grave of non-postiness.

The moment all men and women of good (yuri) will have been waiting for since its second season ended in September 2004 (was it that long ago?), the official Marimite site updates with firm release dates for the surprisingly long 3rd Season OVA. Thorough scoopage inside!

A short teaser clip is online in promotion of eroge maker G.J?’s next game, with the working title of “Project Queen”. The clip consists of a silent pan over a mostly obscured character portrait, followed by a video of one of the game’s voice actresses (dubbed “Renka-san”, a pseudonym with some history) informing us that further details will be revealed on September 21st both on the official site and in the pages of PUSH magazine. HD will be keeping track of this release as these details become available; of note at present is the rare videographic appearance of an eroge seiyuu in promotion of a game - the first in what will apparently be a series of seiyuu video introductions for the game in question. (no more)

HD has been getting hits from the island chain in the Pacific for awhile now (mostly in the form of Shingo constantly clicking “refresh” while his other hand is busy…), but today we see what may be the sign of siginficant First Contact between our twin blogospheres.

Shipon delves into the murky lifestyle cheats and hints for living that otaku life on a shoestring, and examines the question “How can I minimize my cost-of-living so I can finally buy that life sized Ayanami doll?”

In which Shingo lays bare the secrets behind the somewhat curious naming of this site. Just what exactly is a “Heisei democracy”?

A response to comments on this post: is Japanese fan activity really just about the Fat Loot? HD combines a healthy dose of Genshiken with a few personal anecdotes to tackle the (anti)social world of Japanese otakudom.