What's your biggest regret? That's the central theme to Key's 2008 visual novel Little Busters! where a group of friends tries to overcome their dark past by wondering about the infinite possibilities of the future. The series centers around a group of high school students, as with the rest of the company's endeavors, who form a circle of friends known as Little Busters, and they experience the joys, pains, and surprises of everyday life. From playing baseball to all of the awkward social interactions that come with growing up in an imperfect society, Little Busters! perfectly articulates what it means to be human and retaining your precious memories.

Retsu Tateo (館尾冽) is a female Japanese mangaka best known for her illustrations in Full Metal Panic!  She has followed the main story of series as closely as possible by collaborating with the author of the original light novels, Shoji Gatoh.  Tateo-san is also the artist of her own manga, Endless Eden.  At this year's Sakura-Con in Seattle, we had a chance to talk with Tateo-san discussing how she started working on Full Metal Panic!, her experience illustrating the series, and of course, her mascot frog.

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.