Right Stuf has started a new sale and released a list of brand new deals.  You can see their new Weekly Specials Here.  This week some of the highlights include the Fushigi Yugi DVD Box Set 1: Suzaku (Episodes 1-26) for $89.99 (regularly $198.99) and Fushigi Yugi DVD Box Set 2: Seiryu (Episodes 27-52) for $89.99 (regularly $198.99).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Sail Into Summer sale which gives you 33% off all manga and books from Tokyopop.   You just have to use the coupon code "sailing" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until May 18th.

Yahoo Movies is streaming the first 8 minutes of the live action adaptation of Speed Racer.  The video is available in standard and high definition.

Kyoto Prefectural Police's High-Tech Crime Task Force has arrested three people on suspicion of distributing anime and other content via the file-sharing software Share.  The three suspects are in their 20s to 40s and are from Kanagawa, Hiroshima, and other Japanese prefectures.  The three are charged with using a number of programs to share anime files without permission, but they are the first to have been arrested for using Share.

Japan's Copyright Law prohibits the unauthorized upload of material, but expressly allows for the download of materials for private use.  The Japanese government is pushing to change this however to also ban unauthorized downloads.

In a technical glitch after server troubles, ADV Films site began redirecting people to a new online store that is being run by Right Stuf.  This was not supposed to be revealed yet, and the glitch has been fixed so that the old store is now being displayed.  This is the second company in recent months to team with Right Stuf to run their online store, Funimation made this same move a couple months ago.

Bandai Visual USA has annonced that they will be streaming the first episodes of Super Robot Wars OG Divine Wars and Galaxy Angel Rune for free.  They didn't give an exact date for these episodes to be posted, all they said was "in just a few more weeks".

Musician, and occasional voice actor, Gackt has now given a voice to Gackpoid.  Gackpoid is the most recent spinoff from the Vocaloid vocal music synthesizer, originally popularized by virtual idol Miku Hatsune.  Gackpoid uses the Vocaloid engine and Gackt's voice samples to create new songs from lyrics and musical notes inputed by computer users.

Microsoft has announced that its Zune store has added anime titles from Funimation and Manga Entertainment.  The titles include Afro Samurai, Witchblade, and Ghost in the Shell.  These titles have previously been available on the iTunes store and Xbox Live Marketplace.

X Japan has announced that it will perform at the Taipei World Trade Center in Taiwan on August 2nd.  This will be their first Asian concert outside Japan since reuniting.  Their revival began with the song "I.V.", the theme for Saw 4 which included tracks by their late guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto.

Go! Comi has announced that it has licensed 07-Ghost.  The series is by Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara and is currently running in Japan with 6 volumes released.  The US release is scheduled to being in January 2009.

Broccoli Books has posted a preview of Nui! on their site.  The story is about a high school girl and her plush toys which come to life.  The first volume is scheduled to ship on June 23rd.

IGN is now streaming 3 minutes of video from the upcoming live action Speed Racer film.  IGN also has trailers and character profiles from the Wachowski Brothers' remake.  The movie opens in the US on May 9th.

Aurora Publishing's Deux Press label has announced that it will release two volumes of Oh my god! in July and October.  They also announced that they will ship Lovers & Souls in November.  They have also listed Hitohira as a coming release.

Bandai Entertainment has announced that The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will be getting a limited theatrical release.  It will play in Los Angeles and New York City on June 13th - 19th at the ImaginAsian theatre.  The Los Angeles showing will be English subbed while the New York version will be English dubbed.  It will also play in Seattle from August 29th - Sept. 4th at the Landmark Theatres' Varsity Theatre.  They will play the English subbed version.

Right Stuf has started a new sale and released a list of brand new deals.  You can see their new Weekly Specials Here.  This week some of the highlights include the Armitage III: Dual Matrix DVD (SE) + Figure for $12.99 (regularly $69.98) and Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD Collection for $29.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Magical Saving sale which gives you 33% off all manga and books from Del Rey.   You just have to use the coupon code "magical" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until May 7th.

Viz Media and Drawn and Quarterly have both announced that they will be giving away sample issues of manga at Free Comic Book Day, which takes place this Saturday May 3rd.  Viz will be offering a 32 page issue of Shonen Jump with samples of Naruto, Bleach and Slam Dunk.  Drawn and Quarterly will offer a sample of Gekiga which will have exerpts of Good-Bye and Red Colored Elegy.

Antarctic Press, Del Rey, and Yen Press have also announced that they will be offering free world manga.  Antarctic Press will give away Pocket Manga sized versions of Neotopia.  Del Rey will release part of In Odd We Trust.  Yen Press is giving away a preview of Maximum Ride.

As of April 30th, the Colours TV network has stopped running programming from the Funimation Channel.  They began showing Funimation Channel programming in September of 2006 and initially carried four weekday evening hours of anime.  Recently they decreased this to two weekday hours of programming late at night.

ICv2 has published a report about Nielsen BookScan's graphic novel sales figures for April.  They show that Viz dominated the market, taking 16 of the top 20 slots.  Spots #1 and #2 were Nartuo Vol. 28 and Vampire Knight Vol. 4.  Viz also had 3 other Naruto volumes, two other Vampire Knight Volumes, three Death Note volumes, Hana-Kimi Vol. 23, Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 16, I.O.N, The Best of Pokemon Adventures: Red, and Tail of the Moon Vol. 10 make the list.

Tokyopop had Fruits Basket Vol. 19 and Del Rey had Fairy Tail Vol. 1 hit the list too.

The big announcement by Nozomi Entertainment today turned out to be Aria.  Like most of their releases, they will be releasing the first season as a subtitle only box set on September 30, 2008.  It will retail for $49.99 and you can preorder it from Rightstuf for $37.49.  You can preorder it here

Bandai Entertainment is fast tracking their release of Gurren Lagann Vol. 1.  Having just announced their acquisition of the license a couple weeks ago it is surprising to already see a release date.  Gurren Lagann Vol. 1 will be released on July 8th for $29.98.  They will also be releasing a special edition that comes with a CD for $39.98.

Nozomi Entertainment has announced that it is releasing a line of casual wear called Otaku Collegiate.  The first items in this line are a T-shirt and a hoodie.  Both of these items will be available on July 31st and the T-shirt will cost $16.99 and the hoodie will cost $39.99.

Cannes Film Festival has named Wolfie the Pianist as an Official Selection of the Short Film Corner.  The 15 minute short was directed by Toshiki Iwahori and produced by Studio 4°C.  It's about a wolf who receives a letter begging him to play the piano.  Wolfie jouneys across the world to find the sender, and plays his piano throughout the trip.

Bandai Visual Japan has announced plans to enter the rental industry.  Beginning on July 25th they will be renting Char's Counterattack on Blu-Ray.  Following that, they have announced 9 titles that they will rent on Blu-Ray.  They are:

Wings of Honneamise
Patlabor the Movie
Patlabor 2 the Movie
Patlabor
Jin-Roh
Avalon
Gundam F91
Cowboy Bebop Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Escaflowne the Movie

JapanFiles.com announced today that Budo Grape has added two new dates to their US tour.  After making their US debut at A-Kon 19 on May 30th, they will then appear in San Antonio and New York City.  They will be at Sam's Burger Joint in San Antonio on June 3rd, and then at the Knitting Factory in New York City on June 5th.

Bandai Visual has announced that beginning this fall, it will begin releasing Blu-ray discs of it's titles simultaneously throughout the world.  They announced that Freedom would be one of the first titles released under this new strategy.  The discs will include subtitles in Japanese and English among other languages. 

They also announced that Bandai Channel plans to begin selling downloads of its content.  They want to sell downloads for specialized devices, instead of streaming, to protect their material.

Megumi Hayashibara announced on her official site that she will be singing both the opening and ending theme songs for Slayers Revolution.  She has already been confirmed as returning to voice Lina Inverse, along with most of the original cast.

ComiPress has posted an authorized English translation of Manga Zombie.  The book was originally posted in 1997 and is about underground manga artists.  The online translation only covers part of the book, but the writer, Takeo Udagawa, and translator, John Gallagher, said in an interview on the site that they hope a publisher would be interested in publishing a full english translation.

OverDrive has posted the first full preview issue of Cosmode Online.  Registration is required, but is free.  The online magazine is based on the original Cosmode which is the leading magazine devoted to cosplay in Japan.  The first non-free issue will be posted on Cosmode's website on May 25th.

In addition, Broccoli Books will ship the first print issue of Cosmode USA to bookstores in July.

Aurora Publishing has listed the first two volumes of Hitohira for October and December release.  Deux Press, Aurora's boys-love imprint, has also announced four titles via the May issue of Previews.  They are Heavenly Body, Maid in Heaven, Ruff Love, and Two of Hearts.  All four titles are slated for July/August release.

IGN has posted four clips of the English dub of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.  In addition, Adult Swim's website is streaming the first full episode.  The first episode aired on Adult Swim this past weekend.

Right Stuf has started a new sale and released a list of brand new deals.  You can see their new Weekly Specials Here.  This week some of the highlights include the Read or Die (ROD) TV DVD Box Set (1-7, Ltd Book) for $99.99 (regularly $199.98) and Saiyuki Reload DVD Box Set for $84.99 (regularly $159.98).

Also this week, Right Stuf is continuing the Stock Up for Spring sale which gives you 40% off all DVD's and other items from Media Blaters, Tokyo Shock, and Kitty Media.  You just have to use the coupon code "springstock" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until April 27th.

Nozomi Entertainment is teasing a new licensing announcement at comingsoon.rightstuf.com  The announcement will be made at 3 PM EDT on May 1st.  The last time they did this, they announced Maria Watches Over Us, so it wiill be interesting to see what they have this time.

Otakon has announced that Madhouse studio's co-founder Masao Maruyama will be returning as a guest to the convention.  Maruyama has been the producer for most of the work that Madhouse has done, including Trigun, Perfect Blue, Black Lagoon, NANA, Beck, Monster, and Death Note.  This will be his sixth appearance at the convention. 

Otakon will take place August 8th - 10th in Baltimore, Maryland.

Viz Media has announced that it will be releasing a season 1 box set of Buso Renkin on April 29th, 2008.  This will be a 3 disc set thta will contain the first 13 out of 26 epsiodes as well as interviews with the English cast and director.  The box will have a foil slipcase and feature exclusive art prints.  It will be priced at $49.98.

Buso Renkin is based on a 10 volume manga series by Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin and Gun Blaze West.

GDH, the parent company of Gonzo, has announced that it will be taking Fujio Akatsuka's Hennako-chan manga online with a limited animated version.  It will be distributing it online with both English and Chinese subtitles via YouTube.  The animated version will take the manga and add motion, dialogue and sound effects to make a weekly series of six 3 minute shorts.  The first episode will debut on April 25th and will be found here.

ICv2 announced at New York Comic Con that it has found that the American retail graphic novel market in 2007 grew 5% to $210 million US.  This is a slower rate of growth than in past years.  It is attributed to Bookstore sales growing as they found that direct market sales in comic book stores actually dropped.

Broccoli Books has posted previews of Koi Cupid and sola.  The first volume of Koi Cupid shipped in March and the first volume of sola will ship on June 18th.  Both titles are two volumes long.

A 21 year old anime fan has disappeared while traveling in Japan.  Skye Lynn Budnick, a student at Central Connecticut State University and member of the anime club, purchased a one way ticket to Japan and left without informing her family.  She was last seen April 7th at an inn in Noboribetsu, on the island of Hokkaido.  Her family has traveled to Hokkaido and is working with the US Embassy, the US Consulate in Sapporo, and local police.  So far they have been unsuccessful in finding clues to her whereabouts. 

The Record-Journal in Meriden, CT reports that Budnick left her home in Southington with just her laptop and about $800 in cash.  The family found her itinerary in her email a couple days after she disappeared along with a suicide note that she had written but never sent.  The United States Consulate in Sapporo has asked anyone that might have information on Budnick's whereabouts to call (011)641-1115 (from overseas call 81-11-641-1115)

Vexille is scheduled to play at the Independent Film Festival of Boston on April 25th and 28th.  The CG movie is by Fumihiko Sori who also worked on the production of Appleseed.  Viz Pictures has announced that Maiko Haaaan!!! will also be hitting a few major cities.  It will play in New York until April 24th, then move to Seattle, Washington from May 2nd - 8th.  It will then end up in Los Angeles from May 23rd - 29th.

We received a press release today announcing that a new site Save Our Anime.com has opened to the public.  There has been a lot of talk recently about the troubles that the anime industry is facing due to illegal distribution.  Save Our Anime's purpose is to help educate fans about the problems and unite them to help save the industry that has brought us all together.  They will be bringing news related to this issue to the public as well as offering tips for helping to combat the problem. 

Tokyopop announced at New York Comic Con that it has licensed Tomo Takabayashi and Temari Matsumoto's original novel, Maru-Ma.  Maru-Ma is the novel series that spawned Kyo Kara Maoh.  They also announced that they will be publishing 22 more titles based on Warcraft and Starcraft between now and 2010.

CMX Manga announced at the New York Comic Con that it has licensed several new titles.  They include Classical Medley by Sanae Kana, Astral Project, Suihelibe! by Naomi Azuma, Fire Investigator Nanase, Venus Capriccio, Jihai, and Ballad of a Shinigami.

Bandai Entertainment revealed more details of their planned release of Gurren Lagann.  They are going to start releasing the series subtitled only in July of this year.  They will release the entire series like this between July and September of this year.  They plan to release a dubbed version sometime in the first quarter of 2009.  The dub will be started over from scratch and not use any of what was already done by ADV Films.  Possible online distribution is in the works as is a Blu-ray release.

Funimation has announced that Robotech: Shadow Chronicles will be released on Blu-ray on September.  The disc will contain a new special edition that will contain twenty minutes of additional extras not found on past releases.

Viz Media announced at NYCC that it will be releasing the Hunter X Hunter anime in season box sets beginning in the fourth quarter of this year.  Other season sets will follow at two month intervals.  They also confirmed that Blue Dragon will hit DVD in September.  Full Moon wo Sagashite, Hikaru no Go and Prince of Tennis are all on hold for the forseeable future.

They also announced that VIZBIG editions of the Dragon Ball and Vagabond manga.  They also announced upcoming releases of Cowa! and One-Pound Gospel.  Finally they announced that there will be more Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Black Lagoon, and Oishiinbo coming.  They do not intend to publish all of Oishinbo however, the 101st volume of which just shipped in Japan.

Digital Manga Publishing announced at NYCC that it will be releasing Swallowing the Earth by Osamu Tezuka.  The series was originally published from April 1968 to July of 1969 in Big Comic magazine.  Swallowing the Earth was one of Tezuka's first stories intended for an adult audience.

Yen Press announced at NYCC that it will be releasing Soul Eater, Nabari no O, Sumomomo Momomo, Bamboo Blade, and Higurashi - When They Cry.   It will initially run all five in the Yen Plus anthology magazine.  The first issue of the magazine will be rleased on July 29th.

Del Rey Manga announced that it's New York Comic Con panel that it will be releasing Gakuen Prince, Samurai 7, and Sayonara Zetsubo manga titles.  All three are scheduled to begin in the Spring of 2009.  They also announced that they will be releasing The Case of the Dragon Slayer novel by Kouhei Kadono, author of Boogiepop.

Bandai Entertainment has announced, via it's New York Comic Con panel, that it has licensed Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Ghost Slayers Ayashi, and Gurren Lagann.  Gurren Lagann was originally announced by ADV Films, but was removed from their site and never returned.

They also announced at Kawaii Kon that they will be re-releasing Ghost in the Shell: Innocence on DVD and Blu-ray with an English dub.  DreamWorks originally released the movie on DVD in 2004, but it was subtitle only.  The dub will be done by the same studio that did Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society.

Right Stuf has started a new sale and released a list of brand new deals.  You can see their new Weekly Specials Here.  This week some of the highlights include the Naruto Uncut DVD Box Set 6 Special Edition for $41.99 (regularly $69.98) and Super Gals Season 1 DVD Box Set Thinpak for $19.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Stock Up for Spring sale which gives you 40% off all DVD's and other items from Media Blaters, Tokyo Shock, and Kitty Media.  You just have to use the coupon code "springstock" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until April 27th.

Nozomi Entertainment has announced that they will be releasing the Maria Watches Over Us - Season 1 DVD Collection on July 29th, 2008.  This is the first of several season box sets that Nozomi has scheduled for release in North America.  Each set will include the specials that depict the characters in chibi form that were originally part of each season.