Zaku Curry Noodles

What better way to show your loyalty to Zeon than snacking on these possibly delicious Char Aznable Spicy Curry Noodles? The noodles mimic Char’s cometary qualities with spicy and red peppers, with just a hint of cheddar cheese flavor thrown in for good measure. They even come with their own reusable glass Zaku II cup!

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KyoAni Wants To Turn YOUR Idea Into Anime

Kyoto Animation, the studio behind Haruhi, K-On! and Lucky Star, has announced a new contest aimed at independent authors and artists. The Kyoto Animation Award invites anybody, whether pro or amateur, to submit their work in one of three categories: novel, script or manga. The top entry in each category will win a prize of ¥300,000 and have the possibility of being animated by KyoAni. Runners-up will take home ¥100,000. The contest rules do not mention any restrictions on the location, nationality or professional status of the entrant, nor on the genre or content of the work itself. However, the entry does have to be in Japanese. (Thanks to Dazza for pointing that out.)

So, is KyoAni actually trying to give some aspiring author or artist their big break… or have they simply run out of ideas?

–Via AnimeVice and ANN

The Quest for the Domo-kun Slurpee

I recently read on ANN that 7-11 had begun offering Slurpees and other products featuring NHK’s famous mascot, Domo-kun. Like any self-respecting otaku, I knew I had to see this for myself. After a protracted battle against my hikikomori nature, I managed to undertake the quarter-mile trek to my local 7-11 in search of the legendary Domo Slurpee. This is what I found.

(I apologize in advance for the crappiness of these photos. My camera kung-fu is not strong.)

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Black Rock Shooter and Project Diva Trailers Released

The first trailer for the Hatsune Miku / Studio Ordet collaboration Black Rock Shooter has been posted on YouTube… and it looks AWESOME.

As you may recall from one of our previous posts, Black Rock Shooter is an anime project being developed by Yutaka Yamamoto’s Studio Ordet, and is based on the popular Hatsune Miku song of the same name. It is currently slated for a Spring 2010 release. The project will be directed by Shinobu Yoshioka, an episode director from Haruhi, Lucky Star and Kannagi, as well as one of the many Kyoto Animation employees who left the company in 2007 and joined Ordet.

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Endless Eight Sales Mediocre, But Not Disastrous

The first Endless Eight Haruhi DVD sales figures are in, and the news isn’t good. In its first week, the first Endless Eight volume chalked up 14,104 sales. By comparison, the Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody DVD sold 26,265 copies in its first week, meaning Haruhi DVD sales have dropped by around 54% as a result of Endless Eight. Overall, this places Haruhi third on the DVD sales charts for this week, albeit against other weak contenders like Hetalia, Prince of Tennis and Queen’s Blade.

So what does this mean for Haruhi’s future? Well, the franchise certainly isn’t dead; it is, however, a shadow of its former self. Sales figures from 2006 reveal that Haruhi DVDs used to sell between 28,000 and 38,000 copies in their first week; the E8 sales are less than half of that. It is almost certain that another Haruhi season will be animated; however without significant advertising or DVD sales revenue from the current “season”, this means Kyoani has less money to work with for future seasons. Unfortunately, this could mean that the next Haruhi’s production values will be significantly lower.

Back in 2006, Kadokawa marketing director Takafumi Ishibashi claimed that “Haruhi could become Kadokawa’s big pillar like Bandai’s Gundam series.” At this rate, that prediction very well might wind up being Haruhi’s famous last words.

–Via Cartoon Leap and the Anime News Service archives

InuYasha: The Final Act Simulcast Announced

Viz announced at the New York Anime Festival today that it plans to simulcast episodes of InuYasha: The Final Act starting on October 3rd. The simulcast will be broadcast on Hulu and Shonen Sunday, presumably subtitled in English. It’s also likely that it will only be available to viewers in North America, though this has not been confirmed yet.

Although I’m no great fan of InuYasha, I am happy to see more series getting simulcast. After all, who can argue with free legal fansubs? Hopefully this will be as successful as the Naruto, One Piece and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood simulcasts, and will convince Japanese companies to be a little more liberal-minded when it comes to online distribution of content and overseas licensing. After all, I would love to see simulcasts of other shows like Gundam Unicorn or Dragon Ball Kai. Let’s keep our fingers crossed…

–Via ANN

Microsoft Creates Official Windows 7 OS-tan


As stated in the previous post, many of you are probably familiar with the OS-tan meme, which delights in portraying Windows operating systems as cute anime girls. Originally from 2chan, this meme has become extremely popular, spawning thousands of pieces of fanart, as well as flash videos, internet communities, manga, doujinshi, and even its own wiki. The Japanese branch of Microsoft has realized the huge marketing potential of this concept, and decided to create an official OS-tan for Windows 7, by the name of Nanami Madobe. This name is, naturally, a pun: “nana” is Japanese for “seven”, and “mado” means “window”. Images of Microsoft marketing featuring Nanami can be found below.

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What If Starships Were Girls?

Many of you are probably familiar with the -tan meme, which delights in portraying various inanimate products such as Windows operating systems as anime-inspired moe girls. These -tan girls have been created for a variety of technology-related items, from popular gaming consoles to mobile suits, and usually come in one of two body types: buxom beauty or luscious loli. Recently, blogger Jonathan Wong posed the question “What if starships were anime characters?”, and answered it with four pictures depicting various starship-tan girls based on famous ships from the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. When I saw this, I thought, “Hmm… what a lovely excuse to test out our new lightbox plugin!” Ulterior motives aside, enjoy the images!

First up, we have Enterprise-tan, based on the USS Enterprise design from the new Star Trek film.

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Early Endless Eight Sales Indicators Poor

Although official sales figures for the Endless Eight DVDs are still forthcoming, early indicators seem to reinforce Kadokawa’s pessimism about the much-reviled arc’s market potential. In particular, Akihabara’s various anime-oriented stores have seen low sales, with one employee describing them as “mortal”. Whether or not this will translate into poor sales overall remains to be seen; however, it’s not looking very good at this point.

Despite this, Akiba’s shops still feature a wide variety of colorful Haruhi promotional material, some of it emphasizing the fanservice aspects of the E8 arc. The variety of swimsuit designs featured throughout E8 seems to be a particularly potent selling point. Pictures of a few of these displays can be found below. For a peek inside the actual DVD set itself, check out this post over on Cartoon Leap.

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