Ok, so the headline of there is a little bit misleading, I would say, but Turner does own the Japanese Entertainment Network which has announced that it is planning to do two new animated series a year for the American market. Presumably, that means anime-inspired animated series, which probably means bad. Well, unless you get a kick out of the crap that passes muster in this country. If you're wondering what sort of clout JEN is bringing to the table to get people interested in this stuff, then I'll inform you that they helped localized Dragon Ball Z for the US, and that they were the main players in adapting Powerpuff Girls for Japan. Yes, PPG-Z: Demashita or whatever it was called is thanks in large part to them, horrible character designs and all.

That Death Note movie that's been slowly crawling towards theaters finally came out last weekend. In fact, it came out with such a vengeance that it knocked The Da Vinci Code from its number one spot at the Japanese box office. Of course, if you recall correctly, this is just part one of two for the film, with the second part, presumably the continuation and conclusion, set to be released in October.

Well, I like to try to provide you guys with fun, stupid shit to do from time to time, and this might be one of those things. At least, I like the idea behind it. Anyway, AnimeExpo has announced that they will be webcasting some of their events throughout the span of the con. In a press release that they sent out today, the con announced that they would be pairing up with Stickam to bring webcasts of con events to the web at large. The jerks sent out their press release with some word formatting, so I had to fix a bunch of the crap up being as I have Japanese IME support, so it was full of katakana. You don't care about my hard work though.

Full press release after the jump. My ass hurts. I might just save the rest of the news posts for tomorrow. We will see.

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Ufotable has announced that they will be producing a Tales of Symphonia OVA which is set to be released next year. Details are pretty slim, but they announced that Tonosaki Haruo will be directing and that the series would feature character designs by Matsushima Akira. Oh yeah, and the amazingly well thought out title of the series will be "Tales of Symphonia THE ANIMATION" so that's good. Nice to see they aren't trying too hard. But it's Ufotable, so everything will be ok. A nice follow up to the announcement of Tales of the World from Namco this morning. It's a PSP game in the Tales of Series in case you weren't following. Hey! Now I can classify this as Anime and Games. Win.

Did everyone have a happy Father's Day? Well, that doesn't matter, because the otaku nation waits for no man! I don't really know what that means, but let's move right along. I am sort of riding the high of Fate/stay night finishing. Actually, that was a huge downer. I won't go beyond that so that people don't get spoiled or anything, but know that I want to. I want to whine about it from atop my blog posts. By there's no time for that now. We have to weekend rollup, stat.

Manga/Anime/Games

• Ok, I decided that since there is never a ton of game news for me, right now, I will just combine the lot of them. If you have a good Japanese game news site, that's not Impress watch, let me know. I want something more concise than Game Watch. MAKE IT SO!
• Speaking of games, then, there are some Bleach: Heat the Soul 3 screens up over this-a-way.
• Del Rey picked up Densha Otoko ~Bijo to Junjou Otaku Seinen no Net Hatsu Love Story~, which roughly translates to "Crappy Shoujo Densha Otoko Manga That was Made to Cash in on the Story"
• FUNimation picked up Gin-iro no Kami no Agito and mentioned that they couldn't get Duran Duran to let them keep the opening to Speed Grapher for American release. I guess it's fine if some slotty-eyed, chink nobodies want it, eh Duran Duran? Way to crap on your fans in America. Some big racists right there.
• Starz Networks will be showing some anime. These to be exact: The Gokusen, Mirage of Blaze, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Ten Tokyo Warriors, Eiken, Gundress, Weathering Continent. Check your local guide for broadcast times.
• Hey! Here's an interview with Aoyama Gosho, the creator of Conan, Huge Headed Detective. Hope I put those names in the proper order. Sort of hard to tell with all the Americanizing English news services do.
• The FUNimation channel is now live and online in the Los Angeles area on LA 18.3. Please to enjoy.
• This is a bit distressing… apparently kids in Japan are becoming increasingly stupid… that is to say, they are having more and more trouble following manga. How hard is that?! Oh fine, I'll link the English version.
• Also, some gentleman built himself a Mehve from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. No engine in it yet though. I'd buy one.

Figures : Blog Side Special

• Near as I can tell, there weren't any announcements this weekend really, but that's fine. I miss shit all the time, so I am doing some blogside features so that I can link to some of my favorite places and their figure reviews.
• Riuva is going to get two links, mostly because I like to look past the pictures at his lush condo that was built on the backs of murdered babies. So we'll link his IchiMashi figure review first.
• Next, he actually bought that Ono figure that I hate. I don't hate him for buying it, but I still don't like the figure, even after the fountain-side photo review.
• Moeyo clocks in a four links with Monpuchi spotting Amy in Akiba.
• He did the same for Max Factory's Shirakawa Kotori from Da Capo Second Season.
• And his last Akiba spotting goes to Alter's Miyanokouji Mizuho from Otome ha Boku ni Koishiteru.
• Lastly, he slapped together a figure review for everybody's favorite Nanoha, Takamachi Nanoha from… well, you know. They're pink…
• Akiba Blog got some nice shots of Max Factory's September line-up on display in Akihabara. Read that one for sure.
• Nothing to do with figures, but the title image of this Akiba Blog post was very misleading. If your job allows for nipples on the worksite, then click this link.

Ok, that's all I'm doing this weekend. I will get on the other shit later. Get off my back about it damn. Also if anyone has two spare 1GB DDR2 RAM sticks for laptops, then give them to me. I need them to help my blogging experience run better. YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE! Blogging has two Gs right? Whatever. I hope you enjoyed the rollup, I am going to get some good now, at 14:30. I blame all of you.

If you're an NHK fan, and you might be, you probably already knew this, I mean, even I knew it, but I was done blogging for the day, so there you go. Anyway, back on topic, NHK ni Youkoso, the anime based on the hit manga series with hit art by Oiwa Kendi based on the hit novel hit by Takimoto Tatsuhiko hit, has had its site put up. Well, it was up yesterday, but I explained all that already. Anyway, the show is set to air on July 9th on a bunch of channels. The site currently has character, story, staff, and OP/ED information.

Those Kasumi figures that Nuke linked me to the other day finally showed up on some of the larger sites today, but strangely the Black version seems to have disappeared, and has either been replaced by or added to the list with a Blue version. So, anyway, the blue Kasumi is sporting different hair from both of the others, so yeah. Luckily they released even more pictures for me to put up. Anyway, it looks like the price is sitting at 4,725 yen each and there's not bundle deal that I am seeing. They are due out in September, obviously from Kaiyodo as they are now officially Volume 14 and 15 of the Mon-Siuer BOME collection for the white and blue versions respectively.

Take a look for yourself after the jump. I have a whole slew of pictures for both. I will do the blue ones first since she's new.

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Also announced from Good Smile Company today was an awesome little Saber figure, from Fate/stay night. Everyone loves chibi Saber, just like everyone loves creepy cat faced, weird SD Arcueid. Is that how you spell it? Screw it! No turning back! Anyway, the cutest little SD Saber figure in the world comes with a cute little lion to have her ride, and for some god forsaken reason it is going to cost you a cool 4,000 yen. I don't know why, but hey, it's Saber! You know you want it! Her tsundere commands it! Maybe it's multiple figures anyway. I hope? But I doubt it.

Some pictures, plus a lion, after the jump.

P.S. Added a bloglines subscription link under feeds in the side bar. If it doesn't work, let me know. Also, I moved the search box to the top in the right column, that should help with the searching.

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You guys can figure out from the titles that I'm doing figures right? Because I don't care either way. Anyway, that bastard tj han (haha, called you a bastard) beat me to the punch on this one, but he gave some impressions and made so me good points, so check that out. Anyway, the long and short here is that in the list of September released from Good Smile Company (thought I was gonna say Max Factory, huh?) sits Fate Testarossa from Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's. Good Smile Company's rendering of Fate is pretty well done, but I have a few issues myself. Firstly, her eyes look sort of stupid. Just a little to bright. Colors are a bit off. And, as tj pointed out over at Riuva, that sword will be bent down pretty fast. Maybe not, but I tend to agree with him. Anyway, as was said, she's due out in September and she will cost you 5,800 yen.

Pictures after the jump to clue you in about that sword and eye issue.

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Now, I think if you're a fan of the Shining Tears game then you will definitely notice this next piece of beauty right here. Again from Max Factory (who just put out their September schedule), this one was done with some overseeing from Sega for sake of an accurate portrayal, but do you ever have to worry about that out of Max? I don't think so! Anyway this fine figure, Elwin from Shining Tears, also lacks a size spec, but I am assuming all the announcements today are clocking in at 1/8 scale. We'll just run with that logic. Anyway, she is due out in September as well, and will run you a scant 4,800 yen. Elwin is definitely a classy figure, and I might even add it to my collection.

Yes! Production shotta fo you aftah jump! You likey? Likey long time? What that hell was that all about?

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