The Yomiuri Online today reports that the Metropolitan Boueki Kaikan Taitou building in Asakusa, the site of several dozen small doujin events each year, has closed its doors to adult doujinshi – perhaps for good. The Yomiuri article cites investigation of the content sold at Abnormal Carnival as the reason prompting the closure (declaring it “judged as an unfit use of public space”), but apparently it’s not just ABC that is affected: Queen’s Coliseum II has been contacted, and we can assume that other near-term events have as well. This development has the potential to put a serious dampener on the niche doujin scene that had depended on the facility for space, and while other privately owned locations are no doubt available for rent it is unclear in what form such events will survive. I’ve sold there as a circle myself on two occasions and been there as an attendee many more, and I’m going to miss the place… we’ll be keeping a very close eye on this situation as it develops. Update: further details below:

Hinazuki Lilina, the second entry in Konami’s Beatmania IIDX figure series, is not dead yet! We thought it was unlikely back on October 6th that Lilina would reach her 2,500 preorder quota necessary to trigger production by the original cutoff date of the 9th, and it turns out that premonition was correct. Instead of dropping the project entirely however Konami gave her a new lease on life, allowing preorders through October 28th. As of the 20th they’re still 314 units shy of the goal, so it’s looking to be a close thing… I don’t know whether this counts toward the preorder total or not, but Play Asia has her listed as available for those pondering the purchase and hoping to influence the outcome of events. (no more)

Izuruha is one of those figures that Hobby Japan puts out on a regular basis to sell their magazines. The only way to get them is to clip out a stamp from a page of the magazine, tape it to a card with your name and address and send it in, thus guaranteeing that you spend an additional 780 yen for the magazine above the price of the figure (and exorbitant postage). I’m guessing they did quite well by this particular piece of promobait, as nothing beats a full castoff for drawing the eye to an unknown character with a vaguely seedy design; I was among the legions hooked in by the promise of leggy PVC, so here’s the HD take on what is admittedly a very nice item indeed:

official site

official site

Japanese adult media, whether it be anime, manga, figures, games, or live action pornography, is intimately linked to the concept of visual censorship. Manipulation is done to all of these that serves in various ways to obscure objectionable content to greater and lesser degrees; while it can vary from the deliberately stylistic portrayal of the offending regions to a thin black bar to a massive mosaic that occupies the entire screen, today’s question is not about the type of censorship but the simple fact that it’s there. Does it bother you enough to be a deal-breaker? Is it irritating, but bearable? Or do you not even notice it anymore? Note that this doesn’t refer to the censorship of themes, merely the obscurement of their visual representation. (no more)

First scooped back in April, the Megahouse-produced Hobby Japan mail order limited Izuruha PVC figure from the Ru/Li/Lu/Ra manga and TRPG was finally released over this past weekend. Back when she was announced much hype was made over both her full castoff and the fact that the body portion of the kit is made from a single cast piece of PVC (meaning no seams); I shot her this morning for our HD review, and she’s looking great. I mention this now because checking over at Play Asia it seems they have her in stock, though at a rather steep premium; this may be the only way for fans outside of Japan to procure her, though, so if you’re interested now’s the time. Preview below: