Our very own Roger Lee was on the scene in Seattle last weekend at Sakura-Con 2012 for an exclusive roundtable interview with Nitroplus screenwriter Gen Urobuchi, producer Atsuhiro Iwakami and light novel publisher Katushi Ota. Given in a traditional round-robin interview format, we were joined by representatives from other press groups including SUTORAIKUanime, Radiant Dreamer, Within a Flash of Lightning, Japan-A-Radio, and Sankaku Complex.

I'm sure some of you have noticed we've gotten a new look! We've scaled back on some of the bulk from our previous version and we've also moved on to a new platform. It has been a huge undertaking in moving everything!

As a note, several services and links may be unavailable during the migration process and we will be hammering out bugs as quickly as we can.

It will probably take a couple weeks for us to finish applying the final tweeks and bug fixes, but don't worry, we will continue to provide updates and new exclusive content during this period!

We apologize for the inconvience, but it will be well worth it!

As of February 14th the, .hack series has returned to American audiences nationwide in the form of a three episode long OVA series called .hack//Quantum. FUNimation Entertainment announced they had grabbed the license for this particular installment in the .hack world during Anime Atlanta last year, and have just released the OVA as a pretty Blu-ray/DVD combo. It has been awhile since I’ve seen anything related to the .hack series since I watched the first episode of .hack//roots when it first aired in Japan. However, I have been a big fan of .hack//sign and was eager to give .hack another try.

Before I start, let me get something straight: I wanted to like Okamisan and Her Seven Companions, I really did. With Yoshiaki Iwasaki, one of the creative directors of Love Hina, at the helm and J.C. Staff, who animated Toradora! as well as the Shakugan no Shana series, producing the series, Okamisan and Her Seven Companions couldn't possibly have failed me.

We at T-ONO recently had a chance to interview NIS America producer Jack Niida at their annual press event in San Francisco. With the upcoming release of Atelier Meruru on the PlayStation 3 and Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention on the PlayStation Vita, a lot of fans are wondering what NISA has been up to these days. Here's what we found out.

Though a little dated, better late than never. As with every winter, I make a yearly trip back to Asia and I always stop by Japan for a couple of days just to indulge myself in the wonderful place known as Akihabara. This time was no exception and with the short time I had, I made a quick stop over to Akihabara's Good Smile Cafe.

Akihabara is a constantly changing within Tokyo, and sometimes shops move around throughout the years, therefore, here is a convenient map for exactly where the Akihabara Good Smile Cafe is. Keep note, the pictures were taken in December of 2011. The location may have changed since I last visited.

I also happened to make several trips to Taiwan's newly opened Good Smile Cafe. Full review of the place can be found here:

http://www.t-ono.net/Anime-News/Taipei-s-Good-Smile-Cafe-Madoka-Cafe.html

Photos after the break.

Late post but if you are reading this head over to our twitter page for live updates of NIS America's 2012 Press Event!!!

twitter.com/tononet

In the last Hyperdimension Neptunia, we saw intrepid protagonists save the world known as Gamindustri from evil. In Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2, brought to us by NIS America, we find Gamindustri has been taken over by a dark force called Arfoire. The player’s job is to travel and look for others to help rescue the world again. But, along the way, you need to change the views of people you interact with and convince them to actually join you. The gameplay is turn based with a free roaming component where characters move around the battle area to perform attacks that have different radii. When not in battle, the game is text based and uses 2D backgrounds. (There is a lot of reading involved.) If you’ve ever played a visual novel, then you will find this game to be similar. The first thing you’ll notice in the new game is the intro song called “Kirihirake! Glazy☆star!”[1] voiced by Nao. It’s great, so don’t skip over it; I recommend listening every time you start the game.

[1] Song translated from Japanese reads as “Kirihirake! Gracie☆Star,” but NIS named it “Kirihirake! Glazy☆Star” in the US release.