This should be obvious if you’re viewing the site at our home base, but for those reading via a feed or aggregator somewhere, things are looking a little bit different around here today. We’ll be rolling out further features of the new site design over the coming days, but the bare bones are now in place - they’ll be tweaked as we find out just what works and just what doesn’t, but I think the new four-column layout is a change for the better. I’m excited to be moving into the new place and hope you are too - if there’s anything you’d like to see changed, added or removed, comments and questions are welcome! (no more)

Congrats to everyone who made it through the day yesterday, and a happy 2008 to all! I’m slowly recovering from the zombified state incurred by 10 hours of sleep in the past 72, but once I’m back on my feet here and can put some things in order it’ll be time to start cooking up some serious reportage. Thanks to all who stopped by to say hi at the table yesterday (risking life and limb to get there no doubt), and may the force be with all of us in subsequent doujin-related endeavors. :3 (no more)

Just walked in the door from the first day of Comic Market 73, and before I collapse I’d like to thank everyone who showed for the meet-up afterwards! Akihabara proved to be surprisingly accomodating thanks to the artful assistance of EvoSpace, and though there were a few rough edges I think things went quite well. Lessons learned will be applied for future gatherings (should they occur, and I hope they will). I wish everyone the best of luck on subsequent days of the event, and hope to see some of you on the third day if you feel like stopping by. I’ll try to put up a bit more on day 1 tomorrow, but full HD coverage of Comiket this time around will likely come after things are all wrapped up. Update: and it’s off to day 3, on zero hours of sleep! I wonder how long this adrenaline will last…(no more)

***December 28th bump*** It’s better late than never to wrangle this sort of thing, so what the heck: if you’re reading this and you’re going to be at the Tokyo Big Sight on Saturday, December 29th, why not stop by the coin lockers near the Big Sight entrance at 3:00 PM? The plan at this point is simply to meet up, exchange a round of introductions, and figure out what to do next (if anything); I’m not going to put in reservations anywhere as I have no clue how many people will show, and I know many of us (myself included) might not want to drop 3,000 yen on food when there’s doujin to be had instead. If you’d like to meet a few fellow Comiketting gaijin though this could be a good chance, and if you’re up for something afterwards I’m sure some of us will be too. Meeting spot details below:

Happy Holidays from Heisei Democracy! ***This message brought to you by the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, Ohno Kanako Appreciation Division***

It seems irc.pyoko.org is being DDOSed right now, but those keen to chat in the HD channel can find us live at #naisho on clover.arity.net. Looking ahead to the coming week there are a lot of competing update priorities, the first of which is to squeeze out a WHF report; that’s on schedule for this evening. A December eroge news roundup is in the works, as are several figure reviews; I’d like to get in a few Comiket-related posts as well leading up to the event this weekend, and want to get a copy book finished to sell… not sure when it’s all going to happen, but might as well aim high. If you’ll be at Comiket watch this space for information on a possible meet-up after the event on Saturday! (no more)

I spent the weekend working on a book for Comiket, and while there’s a light at the end of the tunnel it’s still a long way off. I have roughly another 24 hours before the final deadline and it’s a race to the finish at this point, one that will like not involve much sleep… regular updates will resume on Tuesday evening or (more likely) Wednesday morning. I never knew 20 pages of manga could be so long… I just hope the time investment will be worth it in the end. (no more)

Comic Creation 19 is tomorrow, and HD will be there - in not one but two circles. I’ll be hanging out at space A02a, circle スタジオHD (with nothing to sell, still working away at the book for Comiket). Shipon will be there as well, and he’s really gone the whole nine yards: he’s the one-man circle Taiyaki Instrumentality Project, and will be holding court to peddle his wares at space C09b. He’ll have a couple of CDs of music that he’s produced on sale, samples of which are available at his circle site - check ‘em out! If you’re in the area tomorrow (it’s at the Plaza PiO in Oota-ku, Tokyo) and have some free time, why not stop by and say hi? A few additional details below:

I just put the finishing touches on an update to the HD figure release schedule, which for the uninitiated is a way that you can pay more for figures than you really have to and support this site in the process. If for some crazy reason you would desire to do so I highly advise checking it out! In other related pandering, Daiki Kougyou’s [ERO] Sanae PVC is currently in stock at Play Asia. This is possibly the last chance to obtain her via retail channels as only 3,000 units of the figure were produced, and once they’re gone it’s curtains… (no more)

While the hype for Comiket 73 officially began a week ago when Frontier Works announced they’d be hosting Hatsune Miku goods in their industry booth, the real pay dirt hit over the weekend with the release of doujin circle selection results for the event. For those planning on attending (or subsequently obtaining the fallout via other means), now is the time to start checking your favorite circles’ websites and sketching out your preliminary map routes! We’ll continue to provide regular updates as the winter convention season roars into full swing, though if things are a bit sparse around here for the next several weeks it’s because I seem to have made it into the event as a circle myself… more on that as it develops. For more information on Comiket (and doujin acquisition in particular) I recommend checking out the excellent and super awesome incomplete Heisei Democracy How to Comiket guide, linked below:

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)

The figure release schedule page we’ve been compiling for the past few weeks has been updated with links to J-List products as well as Play Asia, including a few items (like Max’s POLO System Pachira reissue - HD review) that don’t seem to be available elsewhere. In a bit of shameless promotion I’d like to remind readers that it’s thanks to your support via affiliates that we’ve been able to get rather more gung-ho here as of late; if you like what you see at HD I’d be honored if you’d consider voting with your purchasing dollars/yens/rupees through our affiliates. Thanks again to those who’ve already done so, and we’ll continue forging full steam ahead! (no more)

At around 5:00 AM yesterday morning the main hard drive in my home computer died. I’m currently trying to get the machine operational again and recover some of the data lost in the crash; I’m not sure how long it will take to reach full operational capacity, but until the home box is restored updates here will be limited to basic news for the most part.

On a happier note, the unceasing endeavors of jetfuel have helped HD transition to Wordpress 2.3 largely unscathed (though a few plugins haven’t quite caught up to the tag-based revolution yet); we’ve also implemented a couple of nifty new site features that you may have noticed over the past few days, including the “Newsbits” bar above the main post column, for random odds and ends; a group of Reviews buttons with handy links to reviews by subject; and a Figure Release Schedule page with information that may be of use. We’ll try our hardest to work through this technical setback with minimal impact to the site. (no more)

The final episode of the School Days TV anime was shown on satellite/cable channel AT-X last night, and by all accounts it surpassed even the most extreme predictions for how the show would end. Viewers are commenting that the pull from TV following the recent murder seems justified in the light of its grotesque and emotionally disturbing content, and many are surprised the episode was even considered for terrestrial broadcast in the first place. Moon Phase considers it an instant legend, and the general opinion is that it marks a milestone in Japanese animation, for good or for ill. The question then is: will you watch it (or have you already)? The screen shots and episode synopsis are enough for me, personally… (no more)

We’ve just upgraded HD to version 2.3 of the Wordpress blogging software, and as a result some site features are temporarily down (site search and polls the most visible of these). We’re working to get everything compatible with the new version, but in the meantime if you spot something amiss please let us know! Edit: I’ll bump this as an FYI until most parts of the site are fixed. Should be soon…

It’s quasi-monthly poll time, and as the topic says the question is simple: how do you access the content of this site? Are you old fashioned like me, stubbornly refusing to use a feed reader or aggregator and relying instead on the magic of F5? Or do you glory in the brave new world of content serialization? Or perhaps you are like the customer in Monty Python’s bookshop sketch? Inquiring minds want to know… (no more)

Notice to anyone planning to be at Comiket tomorrow who would like to meet up with a bunch of scurvy gaijin! The initial meeting time and place are set at 3:00 PM in the lobby of the Big Sight (map and further information here), from which we will travel to Akihabara, where I’ve booked a table for twelve (12) at the Ekimae Shirokiya. It’s a typical enkai dinner set, all you can drink for two hours running from 5:00 - 7:00 PM, 3,200 yen a head. If you feel like joining in, either meet us in the Big Sight at 3:00 or respond to this post with your contact info and I’ll get ahold of you about meeting in Akiba. Hope to see you tomorrow! (no more)

As the post title says, you’ll notice a few tweaks in the sidebar over the past couple of days. Firstly we’ve got a new poll, asking a very straightforward question: Among the big summer otaku events in Japan, which gets you revved up the most? Comic Market (doujinshi, cosplay), Wonder Festival (garage kits, figures, cosplay), Chara Hobby (Gundam, toys, figures), and the Tokyo Game Show (games, cosplay, September is really part of summer in Japan for reals) are the four contenders. A glance at the sidebar will also reveal the presence of a couple of blog feeds we’ve decided to feature here, from EvoSpace over at Akihabara Channel and Zepy at Canned Dogs, two of the best Japan subculture news blogs RSSing today. We hope you’ll favor them with your patronage! Results of the previous poll can be found below:

Friday August 17th, Tokyo Big Sight lobby, 3:00 PM. We’re planning to meet near the coin lockers adjacent to the main entrance of the Big Sight lobby and then head out en masse in search of some place to grab a bite of food and drink and socialization, and myself and