Viz Media has announced that the June 6th release of Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow will be displayed in 160 theaters across North America. Subscribers to Shonen Jump will be the first people allowed to purchase advance tickets on April 27 while general admission tickets will begin selling on April 30th.

More details will be available at www.VIZ.com and www.FathomEvents.com in the future.

Source: ANN.

More details on Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow can be seen by clicking more.

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According to ANN, Media Blasters has placed the DVD releases of GaoGaiGar temporarily on hold for an unspecificed amount of time once the 5th volume of the series is released.

As reported by Anime on DVD, some beliveved the announcement of a hiatus by Media Blasters to be due to a lack of sales, however, they have debunked that by announcing that the true reason for Media Blasters hiatus of GaoGaiGar is actually due to the companies shifting of focus towards releasing Voltron.

Media Blasters will be announcing the release dates for the final five volumes of GaoGaiGar at some point in the future.

I have just added a new tab at the top of the page titled “Submit Story”, guess what this is used for!?

The idea is that if you have come across a cool peace of otaku news, a nice article, or have any article of your own, then you may submit it to Otaku Times, and if worthy it will be posted on the main page.

We are also looking for more writers who can submit posts on a regular basis. The idea was never for Otaku Times to be a personal blog by myself and Papa Midnight, but rather a source of information/media for otakus where lots of people contribute. If you would like to apply then please email applications [at] otakutimes[dot].com (with some examples of your writing at hand).

I’m also thinking of adding some Digg like features (i.e. you can view all stories submitted and rate them), and various other commuity features. What does everyone think about this?

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ICv2 News has just released an article which reports that anime releases were down 35% in Q1 2007 (104 releases) over the same period last year (159 releases). One thing to note is that declining releases do not automatically indicate declining sales and could simply infer that anime companies are being more picky about the titles they take up.

Manga however saw a rise in the number of new releases (figures not given), with sales remaining strong. Naruto took the top spot in the “ICv2 Top Ten Manga Properties” listing.

Check out the full article here.

An announcement has been made on the official Naruto Movie website that a fourth Naruto movie will be released in Japanese theaters on August 4th.

The new movie will be set in the same time frame as the Naruto Shippuuden TV series which will make things a little more interesting.

Source: Anime Nation

The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture will once again be gracing our computer monitors this fall; a second season of Genshiken, the anime about otaku, for otaku, has been confirmed on the official website! Sugoi desu ne.

The second series will bring a new member, Chika Ogiue, to the club (as seen in the OVA). It will apparently also replace Kujibuki Unbalance (the anime inside the anime) with a new series.

I’m certainly looking forward to this one.

Via: ANN

In case you were curious as to all the small changes which exist between the DVD and TV versions of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, fear not, Japanese YouTube user Kaze Tokaoru has compiled a number of videos which highlight the differences. Below is the compilation of the edits observed while watching the first DVD:

Additional videos: Haruhi DVD edits version 2, Haruhi DVD edits version 3

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To celebrate the release of “Naruto Unleashed Series 2″ (UK DVDs containing uncut Naruto episodes), Manga Entertainment - together with Virgin, Atari, Neo, and Jetix - are to bring a special Naruto cosplay event to the streets of the UK.

Simultaneous events will be held in London (Oxford Street) and Manchester (Arndale Centre) on May 21st. All attendees will receive free gifts, and there will be special prizes for the best cosplay efforts.

Further details are available on the Naruto Unleashed website.

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Wired has recently posted an article which gives a nice overview of the hugely popular Japanese bulletin-board “2 Channel” (2ch). Here are a couple of extracts:

The 2-channel forum is a Japanese internet phenomenon. This single site has more influence on Japanese popular opinion than the prime minister, the emperor and the traditional media combined.

Today, with 2.5 million posts a day and about 800 active boards split into thousands of threads, 2-channel is the biggest BBS in the world. And while the posts on 2-channel are often nothing more than ramblings of the average Joe, its scope is so widespread and its threads so influential that companies and authorities monitor it closely.

Currently, its 30-year-old founder faces charges in more than 50 civil lawsuits in Tokyo alone and more than $4 million in settlements and court penalties for libel, defamation, copyright violations, privacy and personal injury. But Nakamura is defiant. “I don’t have any intention of paying up to a country whose laws I don’t respect,” he told Yomiuri Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, last month. “As long as they’re not handing me the death sentence, I’m not backing down.”

Via: Japanator

With the recent shooting at Virginia Tech, once again the question of whether or not violence in video games can really cause you to go over the edge and possibly even influence one’s judgement.

Self-proclaimed Crusader-Against-Video-Game-Violence, Jack Thompson, whom is never to far away when an event involving younger people and violence in some form and manner occurs, has already come out and stated that he believes the worst shooting in United States history, which occured not even 48 hours prior to this articles publication, is the result of video game violence. A full statement by Thompson has not yet been released. The problem is that Thompson has been proven false and in some cases, a liar in relation to certain claims of video game violence being linked to person’s choose to commit crimes. Like Kotaku’s Brian Crecente, however, I am saddened by the fact people like Thompson are able to get on national television and spew these erroneus, false, and biased statements. The man is also facing a review hearing before the Florida Bar Association which many hope will lead to disbarment (Losing the right to practice law).

However, It now seems though that Jack is not alone in his views. Dr. Phil McGraw (Pictured Left), whom is a relatively well known psychiatrist whom has his own TV show on which he attempts to solve problems with several individuals, appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live last night to discuss the massacre which took place at Virginia Tech. During the interview, Dr. Phil was asked by Larry, the following: “Why, though — OK, you want to kill someone, you’re crazed, you’re a little nuts, girlfriend drops you, why do you kill innocent people?”. In response, Dr. Phil stated the following:

Well, Larry, every situation is different… The question really is can we spot them. And the problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they’re on a mass killing spree in a video game, it’s glamorized on the big screen, it’s become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high.

And we’re going to have to start dealing with that. We’re going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murders of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.

Full transcript available here.

The question that must be asked is can violence in video games really cause someone to go over the edge? In my personal opinion, I find such to be a rediculous notion. Reason, because psychiatrist try to apply “standard” views to people whom have commited these acts. Can you really apply such views though? For someone to pick up a gun and kill any person for any reason, it has to go much deeper than “I played San Andreas and wanted to act it out”. You cannot just simply place the blame on video games. The practice of blaming entertainment for crime goes back a long time, even when graphic novels were once banned because they “incited youth to commit crimes”.

The next time you see Jack Thompson, listen to what he says, but take it with a grain of salt. Analyze his statement down to the letter. Then ask yourself the question, can video game violence lead to persons commiting crimes?

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