The New York Anime Fest kicks off today, and we haven’t given this NEARLY the kind of buildup we should have, but it should be a lot of fun. The move from December has definitely given it a better slot, but more conflicts with other shows (like Balitmore Comic-Con and Yaoi Con.)

But this is still a big show. Major guests include Yoshitaka Amano (above), goth Lolita clothing designers Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, horror novelist Hideyuki Kikuchi, voice actress Rie Tanaka, and many more who you can see here.

There are parties. There are panels. Contests! …and all kinds of tie-in events. Oh, and concerts. If we weren’t going to Baltimore, we’d be there.

..and God Len at Japanator has the obit…

Cartoon Network has sadly broke the news that as of today, the 20th of September, Toonami will end all scheduled programming, and die. This, in actuality, isn’t so sad seeing as the only anime to appear on this block currently is Naruto. What is sad is that this once great weekday block, which used to hold all of our favorite anime (at that time) was shoved into a Saturday evening retirement home to live out the rest of its life to entertain drunks, and grounded children.

…and a video tribute.

While some think that the Potty Mouth Batman variant may be the trigger to a new comics witch hunt, it’s more likely that THIS kind of thing will be more alarming if someone wants to make a big meal of things.

Anybody who doubts the rapidly growing influence of Japan’s erotic cultural imports in the U.S. only has to spend a little time playing with a Hello Kitty vibrator while reading a fan-created pornographic Pokemon comic — or visit a “maid café” (now available near Los Angeles and Canada) where the waitresses all dress in costume — to realize it’s not just a fringe subculture anymore.

There is a good argument to be made, based on those characters alone, that we are all “turning Japanese” as the ’80s song goes — especially sexually.

That’s Brian Alexander at MSNBC. Brigid has some needed perspective:

You know that any mainstream-news story that leads with the Hello Kitty vibrator is going to be bad news, and this MSNBC column by Brian Alexander does not disappoint. Did I miss the moment when maid cafes became mainstream in the U.S.? Maybe Boston is just behind the times. I don’t have all day to take apart the fallacies in this article, but let me point out one obvious howler [snip]

To be honest, we long thought that the anime/manga menace might become some pol’s election year crusade, but since we have actual serious problems to deal with, and the national elections seem to have become entirely personality-driven, unless it turns out Obama once dressed as Kenshiro for Halloween, or Sarah Palin bought a complete run of …But, I’m Your Teacher for her kids, this is unlikely to come up.

We’re not entirely sure what that means, either, but the New York Anime Festival is coming up FAST — at the end of the month Sept. 26-28 at the Javits Center. Lots of news is rolling out, and we’ll try to keep up. One of the guests of honor is the Goth Lolita fashion house known as Baby, The Stars Shine Bright, and apparently, you can have tea with them if you have the scratch:

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced designers from Baby, The Stars Shine Bright — Japan’s premier Lolita fashion brand — will conclude their time at the New York Anime Festival with dinner and a cup of tea with 20 fans at a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan. A ticket to the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright Tea Party is priced at $125 and includes a salad, entrée, dessert, and tea with Baby, The Stars Shine Bright designers Miho Satoh and Masumi Kanoh.

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Okay, here is one celebrity we can get excited about — or more accurately, his king yellowtail stew.

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced Chef Masaharu Morimoto — star of Iron Chef and Iron Chef America — will attend its 2008 event as a Guest of Honor. The New York Anime Festival, an anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture convention from the creators of New York Comic Con, takes place September 26th through the 28th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY. Chef Morimoto will attend NYAF’s first day, conducting a question-and-answer session with fans from 4 to 5 PM and a book signing from 5 to 6 PM. Festival attendees are then invited to visit Chef Morimoto’s eponymous restaurant — Morimoto — from 7 to 9 PM on the last day of the New York Anime Festival for NYAF’s Official After Party. Morimoto Restaurant is located at 88 10th Avenue in Manhattan. The New York Anime Festival’s After Party will take place in Morimoto’s downstairs bar and is open to all NYAF attendees, exhibitors, professionals, and press.

“All of us here at the New York Anime Festival are honored to have Chef Morimoto join us this year,” NYAF Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “Masaharu Morimoto has done more to expose America to Japanese cooking than perhaps any other chef in the last decade, and we are eager to give him a platform in America’s biggest city to celebrate his accomplishments and open a few more hearts, minds, and bellies to Japanese cuisine.”

Chef Morimoto joins NYAF’s previously-announced Guests of Honor: illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, author Hideyuki Kikuchi, voice actress Rie Tanaka, and fashion designer Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. Tickets to the New York Anime Festival are available now at newyorkanimefestival.com.

Yesterday we trekked out to the Brooklyn Art Museum to see the Takashi Murakami show on its very last day, and so did a lot of other people. Old people, young people, white people, brown people, tan people. Obvious androgynous anime/otaku type folks with thrift store clothes made from a symphony of zippers and an old lady who wondered aloud whether seeing the show was worth the price of a couple of bottles of cheap wine.

When I read the first few captions for the show, it sounded kinda dire — like how Murakami mixed branding and 16th century scolls to license himself and blah blah. I must be so jaded by the commercial art world that I forget that in the fine art world, it isn’t polite to “brand” yourself, even though folks seem to have been doing it since Praxiletes. Anyway, despite the ominous commentary, by the end of the show I was a complete convert. Not that I wasn’t into Murakami before — the show at the Japan Society which he curated, “Little Boy,” (named after one of the atom bombs which we dropped on Japan during World War II) was revelatory and visionary and began to alter my thinking about how Japanese and American cultures could never truly understand each other.

That got me thinking once again about the Manga Moment. Murakami is definitely an art world superstar and for good reason — he’s fantastic. His monstrously large “Gero-Tan Bo Puking” is hypnotic…you could spend an entire day staring at its horrific magnificence and still have more to learn. The Murakami show — also a huge hit in LA — drew such a large and enthusiastic audience of all kinds of people because it is is both timeless and shockingly of the moment. In our special effects world, a naked girl who transforms into a jet fighter with female genitalia on its prow represents more than can easily be taken in in a short span of time.

I was also reminded that while we here in the comics world spend a lot of time analyzing this or that manga trend, we are really missing the forest for the trees here. As I’ve alluded to on this blog before, the otaku “look” and “lifestyle” is just a cool thing for kids now. It has joined the ranks of “punk,” “goth” and “rocker” as a fashion/music/lifestyle category. All this worrying about whether manga readers will grow up to read Tatsumi is beside the point that kids are turning to the otaku life as a refuge from hurt and a regimen for dealing with confusion. It isn’t all about reading. It’s all about appearances.

In our jaded culture, the alienness of Japanese culture still owns the power to shock. At the Murakami show, several paintings had “kid level” captions that explained things very very simply: “This syle is called Superflat because the characters are facing you. Does the mushroom look happy? Sad?” and so on. While one would laud the responsible parent who attempts to inject some culture into a child’s life, the kiddie captions suddenly stopped when confronted with a statue of a naked guy whose giant penis is ejecting a lasso of semen into the air. Does the cowboy look happy? Sad? Confused? Be prepared to defend your answer.

Above: Murakami’s “The Last Cowboy” with shorts which we’ve added in the spirit of Daniele da Volterra, aka “II Braghettone” — the breeches maker.

The big news this weekend was the Anime Expo in LA, with over 40,000 manga, anime and cosplay fans lining up to hear news from all the major players in the field. ComiPress has an exhaustive round-up of links that tell you everything you could ever want to know.

Brigid Alverson has a concise digest which we’ll quote for two of the more interesting panel reports:

ADV: ADV co-founders Jon Ledford and Matt Greenfield acknowledged that the deal with Japanese investor Sojitz has fallen through, but the company has found a new partner. The big but rather vague news is that ADV has a new partner, as the deal with Japanese investor Sojitz has fallen through. More details will be forthcoming at Otakon. While Ledford and Greenfield said they are actively negotiating for new anime licenses, their body language suggested that the manga line is not so robust; the official line is that they would like to finish up their existing licenses but won’t be licensing any new titles in the next 12 months. ANN has video of the panel, which is awesome.

So that explains the anxiety at ADV headquarters of late. Meanwhile, Dark Horse confirmed they are losing some Kodansha licenses:

Dark Horse: They had just one new license to announce, Ikari Shinji Raising Project, an Evangelion spinoff. They passed around the Japanese editions of that and Clover, and someone didn’t return the Clover volume. Not cool! The CLAMP Mangettes are due out in summer 2009. And the Kodansha launch will affect Dark Horse, meaning they will lose some titles, but they wouldn’t give details. And there are no new light novels in the works. (ANN, AoD, Deb Aoki, Ed Chavez, Gia,Japanator)

More: Deb Aoki reports at About.com. Japanator has some photos one of which is ganked above.

The news that ADV was selling off a bunch of office furniture drew the expected cries of alarm:

From http://www.windsorauction.com/auction.asp : Thurs., June 26 at 10:00 am: Consolidation of Large Video / DVD Co. 10501 Kipp Way Dr., Suite 300, Houston, TX Very large quantity of oak, walnut & Ikea style office furniture, computers, servers, phones, etc.

However, determined face fronter Chris Oarr stepped right up and gave their side:

Yes, ADV has hired Windsor Auctions to get rid of some surplus material, including desks, computer monitors, chairs, etc. The auction is taking place today at our warehouse facility on Sam Houston Hwy in Houston. So if you want a good deal on a telephone headset or filing cabinet, get over there by 6 o’clock. Maybe you can get NewtypeCJ’s old office chair!

When you cut back on staff, you’re going to have extra stuff. We hired an auction house instead of a dump truck, because the stuff still works. Sorry we forgot to tell you guys, but it’s a cash-and-carry auction, so we kept our marketing to the Houston area.

Best,

Chris Oarr
Current ADV Employee

P.S. Mention you heard about it on AoD and receive a free stapler with every purchase.

See? THAT’S how to handle a rumor.

PiQ magazine, the successor to NewType, has bitten the dust with its 4th issue:

The current issue of PiQ (Issue 4, July 2008) will be our last.

It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get a chance to see how successful PiQ could have been, but a combination of low advertising revenue, poor business management and a lack of proper marketing and promotion all hamstrung the magazine from the start. We, the editorial/creative/production staff, did the best we could to put together a quality publication, but as we’ve discovered, without a good financial backing, it’s all an exercise in futility.

For those readers that were just starting to get behind the magazine, the staff of PiQ gives a hearty “thank you” to all of you for your support. To those of you who subscribed (or were formerly subscribed to NTUSA), more details will be coming soon.

Johanna has more links and commentary. The cancellation, and current “what ever happened to?>” status of most of ADV’s manga output , as well as the general softness of the anime market will doubtless fuel any more “what the heck is happening at ADV?” log posts, and I guess this qualifies as one.

Just in case you happen to be in NYC this weekend and MoCCA doesn’t cut it for ya, there’s also a big all day event taking place at the Kinokuniya Bookstore: a day of Manga/Anime fashion with a tea party, a movie screening, a reading and more.

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced it is partnering with Del Rey Manga, Samurai Beat Radio, and VIZ Pictures to hold the first Lolita and Maid Fashion Day at the largest Japanese bookstore in North America — New York City’s Kinokuniya Bookstore. Taking place Saturday, June 7 in celebration of International Lolita Day, Kinokuniya Bookstore located at 1073 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan will present a day-long series of events showcasing the diverse world of cute, cool, elegant, and hip fashion in modern Japan, namely Japanese Lolita and Maid fashions.

“We’re proud to help create Lolita and Maid Fashion Day at Kinokuniya,” New York Anime Festival Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “Lolita and Maid fashion have quickly become two of the most prolific ambassadors of anime, manga, and Japanese culture in America, and the New York Anime Festival couldn’t be happier bringing these fashions to New York City — the fashion capital of the world.”

Kinokuniya’s Lolita and Maid Fashion Day will include special all-day activities as well as a series of Lolita and Maid-themed speakers and presentations

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Wow. I can’t believe the hating being laid on Speed Racer.

I saw it this weekend, and loved it. Loved every minute of it. It was creative, imaginative, innovative. It was made with care and love. The characters all had story arcs. The story was laid out one scene at a time and made sense. Sure, the whole movie was a cartoon where normal rules of space and time did not apply — in one cityscape you could see a Dubai-like skyscraper topped by what looked like Mr. Peanut, for chrissake — but what do you expect from a movie where a chimpanzee is accepted as a normal family member? It’s got pancakes, Shaft, Segways, Black vikings, ninjas, girls piloting pink helicopters, cars covered in snake skin, races in ice caves where doom befell once before, and Christopher Hitchens as the villain. That’s a good time to me.

The Wachowskis, who both directed and wrote the kid-friendly film, have created a world with its own thrilling, topsy turvy logic. The visual style is like nothing ever seen before, a mash-up of Tron, Blade Runner and Gran Turismo but taken to a new degree of kinetic flair. Backgrounds explode into plastic and chrome speedlines, cars leap and bounce. Deserts are searing orange clouds, fireworks are purple neon. Cars don’t just race, they race through tunnels, not just tunnels, but tunnels animated with racing zebras. Why? Who cares. The internal dynamics require it. The whole movie is shot in bullet time. Yes, it was exhausting — the intensity is too much for a two-hour plus movie. And yeah, if you have motion sickness or are prone to seizures, it will probably kill you.

When it isn’t racing around the track, the story is mostly told through big, big close-ups of the actors. Most everyone complains that the acting is flat, but I think that’s beside the point. The only way to make a successful CGI movie is to keep the actors in the foreground, and keep them likable. If you don’t like Susan Sarandon when she’s making peanut butter sandwiches for an all-night family chassis-welding party, you have no heart.

SPEED RACER captures the rhythms of manga — the sentimentality and emotional overdrive. The characters are always telling each other how they feel in no uncertain terms. It isn’t subtle, but it supplies all the narrative drive the day-glo racing needs.

But the level of opprobrium being laid on this movie is hard to fathom. Over at Nikki Finke, its paltry $20 mil this weekend is rightly seen as a blow to Warners, but the comments are a Newsarama-level beat down. And I just don’t get it. In a world where CGI explosions and digital farting animals are just casually dismissed as the expected mediocrity, here’s a movie that tries to be different and ups the ante significantly. And gets slammed for it. Sure the story is predictable…but so was IRON MAN’s. Anne Thompson rounds up more of the scorn, but is a bit more sympathetic overall.

I think SPEED RACER will have a long life on DVD, and will in time, like Robert Altman’s Popeye before it, become accepted as something that succeeds on its own terms. In the meantime, I fear the Wachowskis will be left in the Hollywood wilderness. My guess is that they really were trying to make a kid-friendly blockbuster; instead they’ve made something crazy and idiosyncratic that will go down as a big $100 million+ stinker.

Perhaps there is one good side to the perceived failure of SPEED RACER: if more little kids saw it, there would be a high chance of an epidemic of epilepsy. Maybe it’s just my ADD talking, but this movie was like a shot of Adderall…it made me feel peaceful and happy.

It’s no secret that The Wachowski’s SPEED RACER is primed to be the summer’s first big FLOP. Nikki Finke explains:

The real problems plaguing this pic occurred not in the marketing but in the production. Oh heck, they started as far back as handing control of the project to the writer-director Wachowski siblings (since they’re no longer brothers). The Industry scuttlebutt is that Warner Bros Pictures Group prez Jeff Robinov, a one-time agent, gave way too much power to his former clients. Of course, the success of their Matrix franchise justified a certain degree of autonomy. But Robinov and for that matter his boss Alan Horn should have written into the contract that Speed Racer had to clock in at 90 to 100 minutes long — the average for kiddie pics these days — and not the absurd 2 hours, 15 minutes length it is now.

Now we’d gladly sit through 2 hours (we think) of a SPEED RACER acid trip, which looks like nothing so much as playing an auto racing game. But most people wouldn’t. Movie Marketing Madness has more on how Warners dropped the ball

And right there I think you have a sense of how this movie is differing from most of the other tentpole releases this summer: It’s the only one that seems to be sublimating character for visuals. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, heck even The Incredible Hulk have all taken pains to make sure it’s the character every bit as much as the special effects that are drawing people in. I can’t help but think it’s this sterility in approach that’s contributing to the lack of buzz around the movie and its poor tracking. People are engaging with the characters that they’re seeing as more fully fleshed out rather than something that just looks wicked cool.

Be that as it may we have every intention of going to see SPEED RACER. First off, it looks weird, even if it is dreadful. Second, the SPEED RACER cartoon was our first great love. We HAD to be home in time for Speed. We threw horrible tantrums when we missed it, and wore our vinyl-lined Speed-esque kiddie driving gloves until our mom had to just about cut them off our hands and they smelled like egg salad inside. So yeah there’s some nostalgia at play. But we just like Speed Racer.

BONUS: the new Speed Racer cartoon debuted on Nick recently, and it was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

This weekend in Japan, the Yakult Swallows baseball team wore throwback jerseys in their series against the Tokyo Giants. Back then, the Swallows were called the Yakult Atoms and had an Astro Boy logo on their jerseys.

Check it out here

Movie screenings and guests like Justin Cook, Rachael Lillis, Jamie McGonnigal, Sean Schemmel, Mike Sinterniklaas, Veronica Taylor, Tom Wayland, Sean Michael Wilson, Steve Yun, and Tommy Yune highlight the extensive offerings fore the anime/manga crowd. There will be COSPLAY!
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What is the point of a Manga 101? If you are into manga you probably already know it, and if you aren’t you probably think it’s all codswallop anyway.

Anyhoo, over at the Del Rey blog, Tricia Narwani explains a fun piece of essential manga history that you can use to amaze your non-Mangatized pals. Why does Hiro Mashima’s FAIRY TAIL remind so many people of Eiichiro Oda’s ONE PIECE? Is it because Mashima was once Oda’s assistant?

NO!

Rather, they were both influenced by the great Akira Toriyama, who created Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball Z among other things:

According to Mashima’s publisher, Hiro Mashima was not only never Eiichiro Oda’s assistant–he has never served as an assistant to any artist at all. Mashima has pretty much been a superstar from the beginning–and from a startlingly young age. Born in 1977, Mashima has already crammed several careers of comics creation into a short period: 35 volumes of his first blockbuster, Rave Master, the new sensation Fairy Tail, simultaneous with a new series for Kodansha’s Shonen Rival , Monster Hunter.

As it turns out, there’s a much simpler explanation for the resemblance, and it’s one of the biggest forces in manga ever: Akira Toriyama. Eiichiro Oda and Hiro Mashima are both members of a generation who grew up obsessed with Toriyama and all things Dragon Ball , and whose styles were forged by Toriyama worship. Another reminder that even masters like Mashima and Oda started out as the same thing: fans.

If you read Toriyama you will see what Oda and Mashima got from the master: an exaggeratedly comic style for adventures; likewise adventures that include as much slapstick as action. But even more they all engage in what Scott McCloud calls “World building.” All three create a complete mythos with richness of character and background.

That ends our Manga minute for today.

Launched last year in a problematic December 7-9 time slot, the New York Anime Festival later announced a move to September 12–14, where it would have less competition from Christmas. However, it has just announced a presumably final move to September 26-28, due to scheduling concerns at the Javits Center. While this is further from Otakon (held August 8-10 in Baltimore) it is now smack dab against the Baltimore Comic-Con, also held in Baltimore. That show has little manga presence, however, so the crossover audience is limited. Several companies and artists exhibited at both shows last year, however, so a choice will be made. PR follows:

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced new dates for its 2008 show — September 26th through the 28th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The New York Anime Festival, a Japanese pop culture convention from the creators of the New York Comic Con, held its first event on December 7-9, 2007. The 2007 New York Anime Festival featured guests including Kobun Shizuno (Co-Director of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone), Peter Fernandez (The Voice of Speed Racer), and J-Pop band UNICORN TABLE and over 100 exhibitors including ADV Films, Bandai Entertainment, Del Rey Manga, FUNimation, and TOKYOPOP.

NYAF previously announced 2008 dates of September 12-14, but it has moved back to later in the month after further discussions with the Jacob Javits Center.

“The New York Anime Festival apologizes over any confusion with our 2008 dates,” Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “The Jacob Javits Center is always in demand, and getting any dates in the building is difficult. Our new dates are the result of further discussion with the convention center, and we’re staying put right here. We’ll see you all September 26th!”

The New York Anime Festival’s parent show, the New York Comic Con, will take place April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Center. New York Comic Con will play host to Guest of Honor T.M.Revolution, anime guests Justin Cook, Rachael Lillis, Jamie McGonnigal, Sean Schemmel, Mike Sinterniklaas, Veronica Taylor, Tom Wayland, Sean Michael Wilson, Steve Yun, and Tommy Yune, and premieres including CODE GEASS, Emma, Amuri in Star Ocean, Lucky Star, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Tickets are available now at newyorkcomiccon.com.

Stan Lee really is EVERYWHERE. Details of ULTIMO, his manga collaboration with Shamen King creator Hiroyuki Takei will be announced at New York Comic-Con. The announcement will be press only, although some fans can win seats at the panel. The series debuts the same day, April 18th, with a 32 page prologue in the first issue of the new Japanese Jump SQ and concerns two giant fighting figures — Vice and Ultimo — who hover over Farmless City and hold its fate in their hands. You can read all PR in the jump.

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This is the moment of manga. I mean, I know you all knew that, but it’s not just a fast growing comic book category; when people look back at Aught Nostalgia, this well be remembered as the Manga Decade. Or at least that’s what our link round up tells us:

Let us being with Chris Butcher’s photo of what 5000+ manga look like (check link for full sized picture) and continue with this story about Hollywood’s J-Pop mania:

“It’s become a veritable feeding frenzy,” one young and enterprising American producer said of Hollywood’s anime and manga craze over a dinner of German sausages in Silver Lake, a hipster enclave in Los Angeles. “In fact, we’re now looking to other Asian countries like South Korea, China, even Singapore. There are just too many people focused on Japan.”

Last summer’s Transformers movie–whose toys and anime series originated in Japan–was one of the biggest box office draws in an otherwise mixed or dreary 2007 for big-budget Hollywood productions. Appleseed: Ex Machina, about which I’ve written in this column, smashed all previous anime DVD sales records upon its release earlier this month, selling 100,000 units in only its first week.

This story (originating in a Japanese newspaper) can be seen as a bit of hype, but it’s unquestionable that the Manga Look is the look of the moment. And Japan is trying to export more of its cultural influence according to this article:

“Japan is a giant in animation and there’s many things that we can learn. There’s still a huge gap in skills,” Zhou Feng Ying, president of the Beijing Glorious Animation Co, told a seminar at the Tokyo International Anime Fair on Thursday. “It’s very important for us to grow through cooperation,” she added, referring to the animated “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” currently being produced by her firm and Future Planet, a Japanese company. That cooperation brings Zhou’s company access to international distribution and Japanese animation know-how honed over decades, while Future Planet gains a sharp cut in production costs and a chance to tap the potentially vast Chinese market. Such ventures are now seen as key for the industry, since despite decades of global dominance and a boom in the popularity of anime and manga comics, Japan’s foreign anime profits are still surprisingly small compared to the money made at home.

Meanwhile, previously normalized Manchester, Uk has been turned into Manga-chester thanks to a major manga art exhibit:

Urbis displays all of the above, from cutesy to violent, erotic to commercial, informative to distinctive, exploring the way Manga has permeated everyday life in the 21st century. There’s even a photo-gallery of how teenagers in both Eastern and Western countries are dressing like real-life Manga characters. Naturally, Japanese girls adapt the characteristic look with ease. Anyone else looks like they’ve had an unfortunate accident with Crayola and a fancy dress box.

In Florida, Bleach and Naruto vie for supremacy:

The two hottest manga series are undeniably Viz Media’s Bleach and Naruto. Both have been battling it out for years in Japan and in America, and neither is willing to give up the top slots in the manga translation ratings. Tate’s Comics is a store in Lauderhill that caters to manga, anime and comic-book fans. “Some series like Fullmetal Alchemist gain a lot of popularity quickly but don’t last long, while these two lose some of their fan base every now and then, but always manage to find their way back,” store manager Joann Minieri said. “Even then, they never get bumped out of the top five.”

Funimation has been making some of its anime available on iTunes, and now Starz’ Manga Entertainment channel joins suit:

In the other corner, the Manga Shakespeare project is examined once again.

Larry Olson, vice president of marketing for Wiley, says that because of manga’s popularity, these books might get youngsters fired up about Shakespeare in a way more traditional texts or performances cannot. Also, because of their shortened passages and stimulating visuals, they might reach a wide range of ages and be especially helpful for visual learners (who account for as much as 30 percent to 65 percent of the students out there).

Finally, this may be the most important link of all, as nerd-friendly parents attend Anime Expo with their young children, and remain mindful but accepting

As I wrote about yesterday, my wife and I spent the weekend at the Anime Boston show at the Hynes Convention Center, but it wasn’t about connecting with our kids directly — that’s something we do as a couple. And part of the reason is because we like to scope out what’s hot and what’s new on the anime and manga scenes, so we can vet the content for our kids. I do the same for video games. I’m lucky enough to actually get paid (at least partly) to review video games, so that helps me justify keeping different console systems in the house and subscribing to various magazines, and even taking a couple of trips a year to trade shows to really get some good exposure.

Lovable toon robot cat DORAEMON has been appointed Japan’s cartoon ambassador!

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat an “anime ambassador,” handing a human-sized Doraemon doll an official certificate at an inauguration ceremony, along with dozens of “dorayaki” red bean pancakes — his favorite dessert — piled on a huge plate.

Komura told the doll, with an unidentified person inside, that he hoped he would widely promote Japanese animated cartoons, or “anime.”

“Doraemon, I hope you will travel around the world as an anime ambassador to deepen people’s understanding of Japan so they will become friends with Japan,” Komura told the blue-and-white cat.

The move is part of Japan’s growing use of its immense pop culture influence on a more formal and governmental basis — like the International Manga Award established last year.

Doraemon, a fun loving robot cat sent from the future to aid a schoolboy, debuted in 1969 as a manga. Created by Fujiko F. Fujio, Doraemon has appeared in 1344 manga stories, and been adapted into an even more popular anime series. In 2002 he was voted one of 22 Asian Heroes by Time Asia magazine

As ambassador, the helpful blue feline — or at least a movie ABOUT him — will engage in a whirlwind tour set to include Singapore, China, Spain, France, and other countries.

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What have things come to, when even the precocious and eternally cute Hello Kitty is willing to settle a grudge by stepping into the squared circle?

The presser:

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, in conjunction with Gente California and SANRIO Co., LTD., will present the first ever professional wrestling match for the Kitty World Order (KWO). On April 5, 2008, the cheerful Hello Kitty® and mischievous Kuromi® will meet inside the wrestling ring in a classic battle of The Good vs. The Bad. This match between these two beloved characters has been sanctioned by SANRIO Co., LTD. and PWG, and will be part of a live event that will feature PWG World Championship and PWG World Tag Team Championship title matches. The event takes place on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at 8:00PM at American Legion Post #308, located at 7338 Canby Ave., Reseda, CA 91335. General Admission tickets for the event are $20. Please visit http://www.prowrestlingguerrilla.com or http://www. gentecal. com for more information.

Posted by Mark Coale