If you enjoyed the Budokai series of Dragonball Z games on the PS2, you might be interested in ‘Burst Limit‘ which will released for the PS3 and XBox360.

Source: Japanator

Update:  A 1000kbps Video Feed has been provided by NAMCO / BANDAI.

Since its inception people have been building innovative mashup applications using the Google Maps API. The otaku niche has so far been unexploited, but thanks to a new mashup by Akihabara Channel this is no longer the case.

The aim of the mashup, aptly named ‘Akihabara Map‘, is to show the location of all the otaku related shops in Akiba (Doujin, Figures, etc). English-language reviews of each store are available by a simple click of the corresponding placeholder pin. Additionally, stores displayed can be filitered to reflect your personal preferences.

I will hopefully be going to Japan next summer, so this map, and my copy of ‘Cruising The Anime City: An Otaku Guide To Neo Tokyo‘, will no doubt come in handy.

Link: http://akiba-ch.com/map/

Happy Holidays from all of us here at the Otaku Times.

INUYASHA Copyright Rumiko Takahashi /2000, 2007 Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, SUNRISE. All Rights Reserved.

Media Create, a marketing research group for the entertainment sector (similar to Nielsen Ratings), has issued a white paper for the 2008 Otaku Industry (yes, Otaku-dom is seen as an industry). According to this white paper, Japan’s otaku market stands at approximately $1.651 billion USD or ¥186.88 billion JPY.

The report breaks down as follows (thanks to ANN):

On the other side of the map, ICv2 has released a report on the North American otaku market which expands on the details they provided during a conference at the New York Anime Festival earlier this month, during which time they estimated the market to stand at $400 million USD for DVD Sales and $200 million USD for manga sales.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chow Yun Fat (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End), will be joining the cast of the live-action adaption of Dragonball to play the role of Son Goku’s mentor, Master Roshi.

Chow Yun-Fat has been previously seen in Martial Arts films including: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, A Better Tomorrow, and Hard Boiled. He joins a growing cast already consisting of Justin Chatwin, James Marsters, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, Eriko Tamura, and Joon Park for 20th Century Fox’s live-action version of Dragonball.

Directed by James Wong, Filming has begun in Mexico City and Los Angeles and the film remains slated for a release of August 15th, 2008.

Anime News Network reports that actress Emmy Rossum (The Day After Tommorow), Eriko Tamura (Heroes), and actor Joon Park (Speed Racer), have all been signed on to roles in the Dragonball live-action. They will play Bulma, Mai, and Yamcha respectively. These three new comers will be joining in with Justin Chatwin as Goku, James Marsters as Piccolo, and Jamie Chung as Chi Chi. Now all we need is a Kami, Krillin, Mr. Popo, Master Roshi, Oolong, Tien Shinhan, Chiatzou, and a few others. We’ve personally got a few ideas we’re musing over but we’d like to see how it plays out before we voice them. The movie is set for a release of August 15, 2008.

As a follow up to our previous report of 4chan’s domain being hijacked, it has been brought to our attention that the 4chan.org domain was recovered yesterday at 8:26:35 PM UTC.

What Diditforthelulz looks like at the time of this post.

Additionally, the host of the site claiming the hack has since suspended the user’s account permanently and is in the process of terminating it. They are also working in hand with Moot, other 4chan representatives, and the FBI to resolve the situation. The site hosting the mp3 linked to in the previous post has also been stripped of ownership by the domains registrar.

In the meantime, 4chan proclaims “4 More Years!” as multiple trolls (including a fake Chris Hansen and a fake Moot) continue to parade our comment space with various vulgarities.

UPDATE: The site which formerly claimed the hack that previously displayed an account terminated page now forwards to Google.

On Thursday (13th December), the popular anime/manga/otaku image board 4chan had its domain hijacked and redirected to new servers.

Instead of the usual image board script, users were presented with a forum system (probably phpBB based). About 45 minutes ago this went offline, with the site showing a ‘this account has been suspended message’. At the time of writing the site displays the text:

Did It For The Lulz Owns You
[Lulz]Vipsta
[Lulz]CeLe
[Lulz]Xyrix
[Lulz]Zodiac

Come to IRC.diditforthelulz.com #LULZ for more information

http://www.diditforthelulz.com/

TeamSpeak: ts.diditforthelulz.com:8767

Sources tell us that the hackers may have been ‘on steroids’ (nvm if you don’t visit 4chan ^^).

To listen to the new owner of 4chan speaking with the old owner of 4chan (moot), check out the following mp3:

http://fuckyoursecurity.com/mootgetsraged.mp3

Some screenshots of the forum system that was implemented:

Official updates from the original 4chan crew can be found at:

http://4chanstatus.blogspot.com/

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Chung (The Real World: San Diego) will be joining Justin Chatwin and James Marsters in the DragonBall Z Movie to play the role of Chi-Chi.

Jamie Chung was chosen based on the following casting call:

Goku’s lifelong love interest, Chi Chi is an attractive, tom boy-ish young woman who has grown up with Goku. She has studied martial arts and has always suspected that Goku possesses talents that are unusual and extraordinary. After Goku embarks on his journey to redeem his grandfather’s death, Chi Chi meets up with Goku and his crew at a tournament of champions where their mutual attraction finally heats up during a training session.

Based upon that, I think we can figure out just what saga of DragonBall Z FOX will be picking up on and just why $100 million will be enough to cover it. To those familiar with the series, here’s a hint: It was still called Dragonball when this saga occurred.

Thanks to SilverGoku!