Fans of anime and manga have been very aware of how powerful digital distribution can be, but that power traditionally stemmed from the hands of thieves. Some of them, like Crunchyroll, have become legitimate online distributors, but others like Onemanga.com fell by the wayside. Although many manga fans mourned the loss of that behemoth den of pirates, the industry has finally caught up; however, the original publishers are circumventing oversees licenses. Where oh where does this rabbit hole end.
One of the largest anime convention in North America is sure to attract some of the best cosplays from all around. Check our gallery now!
Arakawa Under the Bridge is an anime adaption of Hikaru Nakamura’s ongoing work in Young Gan Gan. It was produced by studio Shaft and broadcasted in Japan on April 2010. Nakamura Sensei is known for her previous work, Saint Young Men, which was the tenth best manga series in 2009 and received the 2009 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for short work manga. Arakawa Under the Bridge will have a live action film in the spring of 2012 in Japan. Hit the jump for the full review!
As it is tradition, we will be posting updates from one of the largest figure conventions, Wonder Festival! We've seen a plethora of figures and Nendoroids from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and fans will be pleased to hear figures from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Infinite Stratos, and Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. For now, you can check out some of the latest photo updates from the show at the following link:
Ryusuke Hamamoto is a Japanese artist who is probably best known for his character design work on the Petit Eva: Evangelion@School series. Hamamoto-san has also adapted characters from popular anime series (To Love-Ru, K-ON!, Macross Frontier, etc.) for Bandai's figurine line, R-style named after himself.
In one of our most extensive interview, we discuss with Hamamoto-san at Kintoki-Con in Sacramento, some of the various aspects involved in designing characters, how he developed his own unique style, and his inspirations and American influences.
The internet sensation Hatsune Miku is well known around the world. Originally a musical voice synthesizer program named Vocaloid 2, fans have created a whole subculture of music, artworks, and even a 3D live stage concert. See what the creative team, Crypton Future Media's CEO Hiroyuki Itoh and Producer Wataru Sasaki had to say in our brief interview as we caught them at the end of day!
Madoka Replica Soul Gem Pendants and Rings for Sale
Written by Theodore Mak
Although not really figure news, fans of the popular Puella Magi Madoka Magica series will be please to learn that COSPLA will be releasing a replica of the Soul Gem rings while Algernon Products will be releasing replica Soul Gem pendants. Both products outer body is made of silver while in the inner gem itself are made from cubic zirconia.
Each pendant will cost a hefty 15,750 yen while each ring will cost 12,600 yen and are expected to be released in September 2011. Tough choices but would make great addition for fans and cosplayers alike looking to make a contract with Kyubey. In the meantime, you can stare of drool over the photos.
Amongst the various guests that appeared at Anime Expo, illustrator Kazue Yamamoto, who is also President of visual novel company Denbonosu, made a surprise visit at MangaGamer's booth. Yamamoto-san is probably best known for her works on the Izumo series. She was also a Guest of Honor previously at Anime Expo 2005. We got to briefly chat with her during her break and hear what she had to say!