Last night I decided that I would attend this years Anime Expo convention. I was a little late deciding, but better late than never!

Everything is now booked, and I will be attending from Friday 29th June - Sunday 1st July. You can certainly expect lots of photos, possibly some video, and if I have time some write-ups.

The special events that I have currently registered for are the SKIN Concert, and the SOS Brigade Invasion Tour.

If you have anything in particular that you would like photos of then leave a comment; I will do my best if I am not busy at some other event (and if it sounds interesting).

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Again, another very busy week, sorry about the lack of updates. Here is an overview of some of the more interesting otaku news that has been posted this week:

Johnny Depp to guest star in Doraemon special

It has been announced this week that Johny Depp will be guest starring in an upcoming special episode of Doraemon.

The special is entitled “Doraemon One-Hour! Pirates Special!! The Great Decisive Battle of the Pirates: A South Seas Love Story” and Depp’s character will be ‘Pirate Captain Johnny’, a character similar to that of Jack Sparrow.

Japanese Government Arts Fund

To help promote the Japanese movie and anime industries the Japan Arts Fund has announced a new round of financial aid, with applications being accepted between July 13th and July 20th. The aid will be available for films, documentaries, and feature-length anime productions (but not television anime).

The Japanese Government will be contributing 54.1 billion yen (US$440 million!) and private donations of 11.2 billion yen (US$91 million) have also been received.

ASOS to attempt largest “Hare Hare Yukai” dance at AX

If you have been following any anime blogs for the past year or so, or are a visitor of YouTube (so pretty much everyone), you will no doubt have seen many real-life re-enactments of the dance accompanying The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s ending theme “Hare Hare Yukai“.

The ASOS Brigade has announced this week that they will be attempting the largest ever (performed at a convention) Hare Hare Yukai re-enactment at this year’s AnimeExpo.

Anime studios forecasting profit drops

As a result of falling DVD sales, a number of large anime studios are predicting large drops in profits. Toei Animation is predicting a fall of 28% or 2.7 billion yen (approx US$22 million), while Bandai is predicting a fall of 3% or 4.8 billion yen (approx US$40 million).

Since I did not have time to post very much this week (lots of deadlines), I will instead post a summary of all that was interesting.

Japanese Second Life Competitor

ANN and others have been reporting on the announcement of a new Japanese virtual world, ‘meet-me’, which is now under development.

Included in the companies helping out with character design are anime studios Production I.G. and Studio Pierrot.

The setting for the game will be a virtual version of Tokyo. Expect to hear about an alpha version of the game late this year.

In releated news, Studio 4°C has announced it will be working on the design aspects of another virtual world called ‘Cyber Megacity: Tokyo’s 0th Ward’.

X-Japan Reunite

After being disbanded for 10 years, the surviving members of Japanese rock group X-Japan have said they will be reuniting to perform a new single and carry out a concert tour. The song will be a new vocal version of ‘Without You’, a tribute to Hide (the bands late guitarist). The first location for the tour will be Los Angeles.

Bleach Movie 2

It has been announced on the official Japanese Bleach movie website that a second Bleach movie will be released in Japanese cinemas this December.

Anime accounts for 26% of searches on Wikipedia

A testament to the popularity of anime outside of Japan, market research group Compete, Inc have released details on their blog which suggest that 26% of all searches on Wikipedia during the month of April were anime related!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ben Heck has done it again. The “Mystery” is over and the secret is out. Meet the sickest (and I mean that in a good way) pair of Headphones around.

A custom Headset, these babies fit snugly around your ears to theoretically provide some of the deepest bass possible, all while simulating perfect 5.1 Channel Surround Sound. All it needs one USB port. As Ben Heck so adaquetly put it himself, these babies will allow you to “hear the cries of dying noobs with perfect digital clarity”. The headphones are available for pre-order at www.eDimensional.com and should be on sale at the retail level this July for about $80 USD. As a writer at The Super Soldiers, I’ll try to obtain a pair of these bad-boys to give you all a descriptive review of just what the “Cries of dying noobs” sounds like with “perfect digital clarity” .

Source: The Super Soldiers

Edit: As it turns out, eDimensional does not have enough to go around and as per such, in terms of immediate circumstances, I will not be able to provide you all with a review. My apologies if I got anyones hopes up.

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Any Otaku who thinks of stolen lingerie automatically would think of Happosai (Pictured Left), the panty-robbing pervert. Believe it or not, Rumiko Takahashi’s perverted character is not the only one with the intestinal fortitude to pull of such a stunt. A Japanese man residing in the Osaka prefecture was apprehended by Police on Friday for theft. In his possession was the following:

1. 2,400 various pieces of lingerie
2. 600 kimonos
3. 5,200 various other clothing items.

60 year old (almost as old as Happy himself) Maeyasu Kawamura’s apartment was raided, during the time in which police found all the clothing items stacked up in a large pile against the wall in his apartment room.

According to police, Kawamura confessed to stealing all the clothing, which included a wedding dress, so he could sleep while buried in them. “He seemed to get a thrill out of sleeping covered in women’s clothes … he seemed to like the smell,” a spokesman for the police commented. ”

Happosai would be proud…

Source: WeirdAsiaNews