There is a reason why you should not imitate what you see on TV. Sadly, 10-year-old Cody Porter (Pictured Right, Below) of Seattle, Washington learned that the hard way this past weekend.

While playing in a sandbox in his family’s backyard - along with five of his peers (including three brothers and two friends), the boy requested of them to help him recreate a scene from Naruto by burying him in the one-foot-deep sandbox, head-first, from his head to his chest.

Once he was buried, the boy was said to have been thrashing around violently. After witnessing this, his friends realized that something was wrong and called for the help of adults. Upon arrival, the adults immediately called for medical help, pulled Cody from the sand and began to administer CPR to get him breathing once more.

Cody Porter; Image: KSDK News

Medics took Cody Porter to the Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center located in Seattle, Washington where he is currently listed in critical condition. After interviewing the five children who were in the sandbox with Cody, the Sheriff’s department named it as a “tragic accident”.

Here is what Cody’s half brother had to say about it:

“They watch a cartoon where they were like sand masters or something and they can manipulate sand or something like that. They came up with the idea that if he were to do this then he would be able to be one of them”

Seattle ABC affiliate, KOMO-TV, did a broadcast of this story which is available online. In it, various clips of Naruto are shown with Gaara (pictured left, above) performing Sand attacks and the characters are described as “sand ninjas” (ANN).

Remember kids, Naruto is an anime, do not try and immitate the fight scenes from the show in real life.

Sources: King 5, Komo-TV (via ANN)

Papa Midnight would like to remind you that picking on people is not cool. Let’s try to be nice and let this kid have some peace, especially when he goes back to school where he’s most likely to get the brunt of his insults (save, The Internet, of course).

Update:  Cody Porter was pronounced dead Monday afternoon. No doubt there will be some idiots who are quick to say that anime is evil and should be banned, but lets hope the fallout isn’t too bad. Comments along the lines of ‘it is a good thing for the gene pool when this happens’ are a little insensitive, the kid died, so try and refrain from doing so if at all possible.

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Pride, a manga by Yukari Ichijo about two Opera singers who go from being rivals to “best partners”, is reportedly being adapted into a Live-Action film which is set to be released near the end of January 2009.

The Live-Action film will star the Half-Japanese, Half-Armenian-American pop-singer Stephanie - who debuted in 2007 under Sony Music Japan with her single, 君がいる限り (Kimi ga Iru Kagiri). Directing the feature will be Shūsuke Kaneko who you may remember from the Death Note Live-Action.

In an attempt to reach the Japanese market, Disney is partnering with Toei Animation in order to create three television shows using Toei’s Computer Generating technology. In addition, Disney will be partnering with Madhouse Co. and Jinni’s Animation Studio.

Disney will be starting out with a short animated film project about a robot which is scheduled to debut in the Japanese market this May.

This partnership provides both Toei and Disney with business opportunities. For Disney, it provides them an opportunity to expand outside of its traditional market and expand its image from the traditional style of The Little Mermaid, Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, and other Intellectual Properties. It also provides Toei - which is responsible for animations such as Dragonball, Sailor Moon, Voltron, and Digimon - with a wider market outside of Japan through Disney’s vast network of distribution.

Source: Forbes [via a geek by any other name] .

Update: According to ANN, Disney will be producing a Lilo & Stitch! spinoff, currently titled Stitch!, in conjuction with Madhouse Co.. Additionally, the name of the previously mentioned Robot series in conjunction with Toei will be titled Robodies. Additionally, Disney is also planning to release a 3D rendered animation film short titled Fireball.  Fireball is a comedy set in the near future on another planet and centers on the character by the name of Rosselle and her two steward robots. All these productions are being created specifically for the Japanese market.

Neo Magazine reports on ADV Films’ recent closing of it’s UK branch in London and it’s new found partnership with the UK based distributor Lace Digital Media Sales.

In an interview with NEO Magazine regarding these actions, ADV Films CEO, John Ledford had the following to say:

Perhaps if so many fans weren’t getting their anime from illegal file sharing sites or unlicensed streaming sites, we might have expanded our UK catalogue more quickly. As it stands now, however, we have a better shot at growing our business with Lace than maintaining an overseas branch.

Citing File Sharing and Sites which provide anime for downloading and streaming by anime licensing companies is nothing new. Companies such as Odex and FUNimation Entertainment have been previously cited as condemning fansubbing and file sharing.

Source: Neo Magazine [via ANN]

According to a press release - and a subsequent post by Kotaku, Square-Enix, developer and publisher of the popular Final Fantasy series, is cracking down on outlets who manufacture and/or sell swords inspired by the series.

Square-Enix has filed a federal lawsuit in the in the Central District of California to seek damages against those whom have infringed upon their IP (seems to be alot of that going around lately). Square-Enix has named at least four manufacturers and retailers in its lawsuit.

The actions taken by Square-Enix came after the United States Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol took possession of a crate of said swords which carried the same designs as those seen in the Final Fantasy series. In relation to the crackdown and investigation by Square-Enix in which many resellers ceased operation and many manufacturers gave them the cold shoulder, General Counsel for Square-Enix, Yasuhiko Hasegawa, had the following to say:

While Square Enix appreciates the enthusiasm of its fans, and values its relationship with them, it is also obligated to protect its intellectual property rights or risk weakening or losing the very rights that enable the company to continue to provide its fans with an exciting entertainment experience.

So without any further details made public or any ideas as to official licensing of swords by Square-Enix (stateside, at least, where these infringements were occurring), the lawsuit trudges on. In the meantime, we shall watch in humor as the guy below laboriously swings around his own custom made bastard sword.

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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.

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/

It would seem that when Appleseed: Ex Machina makes its North American premiere this December 15th in Los Angeles at the Jules Verne Adventures Film Festival, the director, Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Madox-01, Megazone 23 Part III) will be on hand for the presentation. According to ANN, Kiyoto Takeuchi, the screenwriter for the film, will also be joining Mr. Aramaki at Ex Machina’s North American premiere.

As an aside, potential attendees can purchase two tickets for the price of one by entering the code “STARTREK” when purchasing tickets online. Ticket prices range from $15.00 (At the cheapest level) to $200.00.