News of the Day

• Figure: Alter augments August lineup with Nanoha’s Vita, Unison
• Figure: Hatsune Miku Figma announced at TAF

Tokyo International Anime Fair Special Report

In figure news from TAF, both the Goodsmile official blog and Akiba Hobby have chimed in with additional reporting on the Figma, fixed-pose PVC, and Nendoroid Miku lineup. Akiba Hobby’s coverage is especially nice for the close-up shots of just about everything in Goodsmile’s booth, including their advertising posters with English translations.

Akiba Hobby also has a bunch of shots of new Shining-series PVCs and Sky Girls PVCs from Eye Scream, an alternate color version of Beagle’s “Mogudan” Kanu Unchou, and more – but perhaps the craziest piece of figure news is that Goodsmile is planning a Nendoroid Plus collaboration with Animate and FREEing to produce a series of 18 Haruhi character “charms” with cosplay themes from the various regions of Japan. At present it seems they may be limited to sale at Animate stores in the corresponding locations of the country, which could prove to be a major headache for collectors… We’ll bring further news on this and other details from the event over the next couple of days.

In anime news, Moon Phase Diary is going nuts with the scoops tonight. There’s way too much there to mention here, but highlights include:

• TV anime Clannad After Story announced, with the same staff and cast as the original
• Koihime Musou TV anime to air starting in July
• CASSHERN will be getting a TV anime adaption in fall 2008
• RIDEBACK is also to be TV animated in 2008
• ROBO CROSSER TV anime coming in 2009
• NECRODRAGON movie now in production
• official site online for TV anime Bounen no Xamdou
• Hyakko TV anime announced
• Zero no Tsukaima gets season three subtitle: “Princesse no Rondo”
• Birdy the Mighty TVA official site renewal
• Highlander anime movie official site open
• Gurren Lagann movie project begins in September

Further TAF coverage can be found at:

• GA Graphic
• Akibaos

Additional Thoughts on WHF Cancellation

A bit of investigation yesterday following the news that World Hobby Festival is ending revealed that S.E. Inc., the company that runs the event, is primarily in the business of analog art supplies. This is an industry that has been hard hit in the past several years as computer applications become increasingly compelling replacements for the traditional use of screen tones, coloring markers, light tables, and other tools of the trade. It seems possible that the industry’s waning fortunes combined with competition from the newly launched Hobby Complex events would be enough to tip the balance against WHF. Here’s hoping the hobby world grows enough to provide a robust base of support for a similar event to return in the future.

Sekirei vol. 6 Released

The sixth volume of the Sekirei manga was released on March 25th, and after reading it over the past two nights I’ve come away quite happy with the way things are progressing. The Wikipedia entry for Sekirei is here, but it’s full of unmarked, massive spoilers and I’d advise against reading it if you want to stay pure for the upcoming anime and hopefully an official English language manga release. My favorite panel from the volume can be found below the fold – not a spoiler, but a bit too nekkid for conspicuous display on the front page.

Today’s ero news continues below:

A trailer for the Sekirei anime was also screening at TAF, and can be seen in GA Graphic’s coverage here.

Ero Headlines

• Eroanime: Milky / MS Pictures May releases scooped – Resort Boin 2, Tsumashibori
• Eroge: tomorrow is the month’s big release day – we’ll bring more detailed coverage tomorrow evening

Chara@’s Saya Dakimakura

I ordered “the world’s first lactating hug pillow” from Chara@ last month, and she (Saya from Bishop’s Mekyoushi 2) arrived this evening. I’m quite satisfied with the purchase after an initial inspection; the price is a bit higher than competitors such as Cospa and Machi Chara, but the printing quality is perhaps the best I’ve seen, the art looks great and the fabric is of a pleasant smoothness that doesn’t feel cheap. I’m strongly considering ordering from Chara@ again soon; both their Cindy-sensei and Oohara Aoi pillows are quite tempting. :3

March ’08 Eromanga Haul

I’ve avoided posting pictures like this for awhile as I feel bad when I can’t deliver on reviews of the items displayed, so hopefully this will serve as some impetus to get my bum in gear and start churning out the reviews again. March delivered a surprising bumper crop of quality manga, more than enough to keep me busy for at least a few weeks (of review writing, of course).

Now that I’m more or less on top of figure news I’m trying to work out an efficient way to add coverage of the other aspects of otakudom back into the daily and weekly reporting on the site. Hopefully that will be reflected in more thorough updates such as this, as well as new weekly and monthly features and the resumption of reviews. Ganbaru kara!

Oh, yeah – having had some time to play around with one, I’d highly recommend that everyone reading this take a leek. :3