Otaku News - Week in Review (June 11th-17th)

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).