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Sunday, February 05, 2012

July 30th, 2010. 11:25 a.m. EST. The arid Baltimore air is heavy. Scattered around a large convention center are hundreds of individuals whitewashed in a mixture of plain and kaleidoscopic colors of varying intensity. There are screams of exultation mixed with laughter and the occasional clank of someone’s elaborate costume being dragged on the ground. Flashes of camera lights, poses, an embrace or two. These are fragments of events I have seen and perhaps participated in before. This is Otakon, once again.

Ok, so it can\'t quite move by itself yet, but any pose you get it into, will be duplicated on screen. Ought to be handy for quite a few things, and a more high-tech replacement of the good old artists wooden human mannequins. It almost seems like a prototype Angelic Layer Angel to me.

Thats right, Hatsune Miku is making her US debut as the star of a Toyota commercial. VIZ Media is the exclusive US licensor for Hatsune Miku, a virtual singing avatar from Crypton\'s Vocaloid software.

Using Vocaloid, with just some typing you too can have a J-pop singing sensation. In addition to shilling for Toyota, Miku has had several sellout \"live concerts.\"

And with that, computers move ever closer to fully replacing us, and the moment when they can convert humanity to meat batteries. Was it worth it?

A Japanese company called neurowear is demoing wearable cat ears that are controlled by your brainwaves, finally bringing cat girl cosplay into the 21st century. The device, a fashion item that “augments the human body and ability” could lead to more practical uses, monitoring the alertness state of people working in dangerous environments. Or they could make other animal versions. This being Japan, I know which way I am leaning. The ears were also demoed to the public in Omotesando, and a video from that follows:

Source: boingboing via JapanTrends

The end of an era indeed. Come this May, Tokyopop, one of the original manga publishers is shutting its doors in the US. What started as a bright promise back in the late 90's with MixxZine, bringing us Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth quickly grew into a Manga conglomerate bringing us titles like Chobits, Initial D, Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Trinity Blood and many others, including manwha and original English language titles.

Trouble with Kondansha back in 2009 when they lost some of their most popular licenses, strong competition leading to a loss of 20% of their market share, and declining sales have all contributed to their downfall.

In a statement on the Tokyopop website, Founder and President Stuart Levy wrote of the company's history and summed it up:



Their German language branch which handles international publishing will remain open,

With the earthquake that hit Japan today, rescue efforts are still continuing, and the loss of life likely to climb, if you wish to help in the effort a number of reputable aid organizations have set up funds. Please follow these links if you wish to help:

Red Cross
Global Giving
The Salvation Army is also accepting donations via text message. Those interested in contributing $10 to the group's efforts can text "japan" or "quake" to 80888. For other ways to help, use this CNN resource list.

Major Japanese publisher, Shueisha, has announced that Oda Eiichiro's One Piece will feature on the covers of every single magazine licensed by the company. The temporary take over is in celebration of the manga reaching a circulation of 200,000,000 copies and will start on January 31st with the release of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Luffy and his crew will appear on 34 magazines including manga, fashion and literary publications. Each magazine will have either special appendices or a One Piece related gift for its readers.

Check out the full list below for the “Straw Hat Pirates” hit list of magazines and release dates!

1/31:「Weekly Shonen Jump」
2/1:「Cobalt」「Seventeen」「eclat」
2/2:「Business Jump」
2/3:「Ribbon」「Weekly Young Jump」
2/4:「Jump SQ.」「ONE PIECE the 61th volume」
2/5:「Margaret」「Subaru」
2/7:「Weekly Shonen Jump」「Weekly Playboy」「marisol」「LEE」「duet」
2/10:「MEN’S NON-NO」
2/12:「Bessatsu Margaret」「BAILA」
2/14:「Weekly Shonen Jump」
2/15:「you」
2/17:「Shousetsu Subaru」
2/19:「Ultra Jump」「non-no」「Seishun to Dokusho」「Margaret」
2/21:「Weekly Shonen Junp」「V Jump」
2/23:「officeYOU」「SUPER Jump」「Myojo」「SPUR」
2/24:「The・Margaret」「UOMO」
2/26:「Cookie」「MORE」
2/28:「Chorus」「Weekly Shonen Jump」

Source: TokyoHive

Weekly Bunshun's December 30th issue calculated that the creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda makes an estimated 2 billion yen (~24million USD) yearly.
The magazine took the number of One Piece manga volumes sold this year (32,343,809), multiplied that by the average cover price (400 yen), and multipled the result by Oda's estimated royalty percentage (10%) to get the tally of 1.29 billion yen (US$15.5 million).

Weekly Bunshun then estimated that Oda earned 749 million yen (US$8.97 million) in royalties for character goods to reach the final total of 2 billion yen.

Source: Yucasee Media via ANN

Akamatsu Ken (Love Hina, Mahou Sensei Negima), Deguchi Ryusei (Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade) and other fellow mangakas have teamed up to launch a website aiming to provide free downloads of out of print manga.

Under the proposed plan, the site will distribute out of print works with the permission of the creators, which will be subsidised by advertising. Manga will be provided in a PDF (Portable Document Format) without DRM (Digital Rights Management). Revenue generated from advertising will be split among the creators of the works.

The website, "J-Comi" (Japanese), is set to launch a beta version on November 26th, 2010, which will feature 14 volumes of Akamatsu's, Love Hina. The site will collect data on the number of downloads as a test of the business model. Akamatsu will post more information on the official J-Comi blog (Japanese) and on his own Twitter (Japanese).

The site will officially launch on January 10, 2011.

Source: Baka-Updates Manga

While on the deck of a swaying ship, no less, four members of the Japanese Coast Guard perform AKB48's Aitakatta for a nearby passenger ship at Senkaku. No idea as to why, but well, why not?

Update: Unfortunately, the video has fallen victim to YouTube's copyright claim epidemic.

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