I just wanted to let everyone know that I did some work on the Traveler's Guide and added a bunch of new stores as well as deleting a couple I know are no longer around.

If you know of a store in your area that sells anime, manga and other Japanese Merchandise, please add it to our Traveler's Guide using the control panel to the left or click here.  I'm sure there are other people who would like to know about them and like the rest of the site, our Traveler's Guide can only become more complete through User participation.

Funimation has announced that Afro Samurai will be released on DVD on May 22nd.

Bandai Visual has announced the licensing of Wings of Rean.  They also announced that they have plans to release Wings of Honneamise, Gunbuster and Diebuster (renamed Gunbuster 2).

Del Rey has announced release dates for 5 of their new series.

Alive Vol 1 will be released July 31
Dragon Eye Vol 1 will be released June 26
Make 5 Wishes Vol 1 will be released April 10
My Heavenly Hockey Club Vol 1 will be released May 29
Reformed Vol 1 will be released October 30

Gen Con South Cal, Anime Express, Garden City Anime Festival all announced their cancellation.  Each had different reasons for this. 

Gen Con - South California has noticed a decline in attendence and lack of dealer room reservations.  Gen Con - Indiana however will still take place August 16-19. 

Anime Express is cancelled due to reconstruction and problems with the university.  Apparently there were several breeches of the university's policies and the law the past two years and there for the convention was cancelled. 

Finally the Garden City Anime Festival is being cancelled due to a conflict among the staff.

Otakon and Live Nation are running a drawing for tickets to the Dir en Grey  concert in Baltimore on February 5th.  They are giving away 10 pairs of tickets.  The only catch is that the drawing is only available to people who were registered for Otakon 2006.

Kiddy Grade has recieved the go ahead for a second season in Japan.  There are no further details available at this time.

All 13 episodes of Azumanga Daioh have been made available for free online through February 13th.  You can find them here.  The only catch is they are only in Japanese.

Production I.G. has announced that they will be representing Kodansha in negotiations over the rights to produce a live-action Ghost in the Shell movie in English.  The full story can be found at Production I.G.'s English Website

For all budding artists out there, Go! Comi will be reviewing portfolios at New York Comic Con in February.

Bandai Entertainment has added a new video to asosbrigade.com which includes a release date for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya volume 1.  It will be released on May 29th and there will be a special edition with an art box to hold all 4 volumes.

The final day of Funimation's 2007 Kick off brought us two announcements.  I felt both of which were very anticlimactic as I expected them to save the best for last.  They announced the license to Mushishi which had already been leaked in October when Funimation published a cease and desist order to fansubbers.  They also announced that the Funimation Channel would be showing three new titles from Rightstuf International.  Boogiepop Phantom, Ninja Nonsense: The Legend of Shinobu, and Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars will be joining the Funimation Channel Lineup.

Episode 10 is now available.  Enjoy.

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If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp10.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

Funimation decided to surprise everyone with 3 announcements today.  They announced the acquisition of Shuffle and Ken Akamatsu's My Santa.  Shuffle has a release date of Summer 2007 and My Santa has a release date of Fall 2007.  They also announced a release date for Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa which they announced acquiring in January.  They have announced that volume 1 will be released May 22, 2007.

Funimation announced today that they have acquired the rights to Aquarion.  They have not mentioned whether they have the rights to the recently announced OAV but they do have them for the TV series.    The series is scheduled for a fall 2007 release.

For the second 2007 Kick Off announcement, Funimation has announced their acquisition of Suzuka.  This 26 episode series is based on a manga that is currently being released in the US by Del Rey.  The DVD's are planned for release this Spring.  You can find a list of all of Funimations announcements at the 2007 Kick Off website

The Oscar nominees were announced this morning and unfortunately Paprika was not on the list of nominees for Animated Feature Films.  The nominees were Cars, Happy Feet, and Monster House.  The winners will be announced February 25th.

Johnny Yong Bosch will be the host of the Anime TV video podcast.  The podcast is set to start February 15th.  The shows site can be found here.

SG-TV has made episode one of GR -Giant Robo- available for free here.  The episode will be available until January 31st.

IGN has posted the first episode of Le Chevalier D'Eon here.  The episode is dubbed in English and will be included on the first disc released by ADV Films on Feb. 20th.

The first of Funimations "2007 Kick Off" announcements was that they have acquired Ragnarok: The Animation.  The series is based on the extremely popular online game.  The DVD's are set to start being released in Fall of 2007.  You can find a list of all of Funimations announcements at the 2007 Kick Off website

Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli's President, has said that Hayao Miyazaki's next film will be officially announced in March.

Paprika will be showing at the International Film Festival on Febrary 1-3 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Here are three new trailers online for shows starting in Japan next month.  Warning: These are in Japanese.

Midnight Mile premieres March 3rd.
Strawberry Marchmallow OVA premieres February 23rd
To Heart 2 OAV premieres February 28th

Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library is holding an exhibit called "Korean comics: A Society Through Small Frames".  The exhibit features 83 works by 21 of Korea's most talented artists from the past 40 years.  The exhibit is running from January 16th - March 16th, 2007.

Paprika will open on May 25th in select cities in the US.

Hare+Guu will be joining the Funimation Channel on January 29th.  It will be airing Monday through Friday at 10:30 PM.

Episode 9 is now available.  Enjoy.

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If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp9.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

AnikiCon in Germany has been cancelled due to lack of interest.  It was scheduled to take place April 6-8 in Bonn.

Free Comic Book Day will be taking place this year on May 5th.  This years free comics include IDW's Transformers live action movie prequel and Tokyopop's Choose Your Weapon Sampler.  To get your copy of one of these titles, you just need to visit your local comic shop on May 5th.

Netflix has announced plans to sell movies and TV shows for online viewing.  Included in their initial announcement is content from The Anime Network.  People subscribing to Netflix $17.99 monthly plan will be allowed 18 hours of online movies and shows a month while those with the $5.99 plan will get 6 hours.   This service is currently expected to begin in June.

ADV Films has opened the official Air Gear website here.

Viz has the license to release the Death Note DVD's in addition to it's download license.  In an interview with ICv2, a Viz representative explained that the Download to Own option is for die hard fans that want to see a series close to the original Japanese release.  They also feel this is a good option for someone who wants to try out a series before starting to purchase DVD's.  They still think that people who download will also buy the DVD's so they have the physical product as well as the dubbed version.  The downloads will be subtitled only. 

No information about specific release dates or other info has been announced at this time.

Geneon has announced through a contest with Anime News Network the licensing of Rozen Maiden.  The first volume will contain four episodes and will be released in the spring of 2007.

Viz Media and Nippon Television Network Corporation have reached an agreement to offer the Death Note anime series via digital download in America.  There has not been an official date announced for this service to begin, the Download to Own and Download to Rent service will be available for episodes soon after they air in Japan.  There is no further information about this unique service at this time.

Animazement, taking place May 25 - 27, 2007,  has announced their first round of guests.  Among them are 7 Japanese guests.

Kikuko Inoue, voice of Belldandy from AMG, Kasumi from Ranma 1/2
Akira Kamiya, voice of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, Roy Fokker from Macross
Satsuki Yukino, voice of Kagome from Inu Yasha, Mutsumi Otohime from Love Hina
Masao Maruyama, President of Madhouse
Koichi Tsunoda, Animation Sirector for the Mazingaa Z series, Cyborg 009
Yasuo Yamaguchi, Producer of Sailor Moon
Michihiko Suwa, Executive Producer of Inu Yasha, City Hunter, Detective Conan

They also have announced the following US guests
Juliet Cesario (VA)
Kyle Hebert (VA)
Scott Houle (Director)
Pamela Weidner Houle (Director)

Source: Anime News Network

The list of theatres showing Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles has been updated.

Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, CA - Jan 27th at 12:00 PM
Bear Tooth Theatre in Anchorage, Alaska - Jan 27th and 28th
Megaplex 20 @ The District in South Jordan, Utah - Jan 19th - 25th
ImaginAsian in New York City - Jan 8th - 14th
Studio Movie Grill in Arlington, TX - Jan 15th - 17th at 9 PM
Key Cinemas in Indianapolis, IN - Jan 5th - 10th
The Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR - Jan 5th - 7th
Alamo Drafthouse in San Antonio, TX - Jan 15th - 17th at 7:30 PM
The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA - Jan 19th and 20th at Midnight
Studio Movie Grill - Copperfield in Houston TX - Jan 18th and 18th at 9 PM
The Majestic Crest Theatre in Los Angeles, CA - Feb 3rd

The first two episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist are now available on Adult Swim Fix.

Toonami has gotten the rights to air season 2 of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo.  Illumitoon will also continue to handle the DVD distribution in the US.

In September Cartoon Network will be launching a high definition version of their network.

Episode 8 is now available after an extended hiatus.  Enjoy.

I like feedback.  Please keep letting me know how I am doing

If you have already subscribed in iTunes, then just hit refresh.  If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe using the link in the right navbar of the main page.  Finally, you can listen to this epsiode by going to http://www.anime-bliss.com/podcast/abp8.mp3 or download it by right clicking on the link above and choosing "save as".  Then you can import it into iTunes as a regular mp3.

The show notes can be found here

Episode 1 of Le Chevalier D'Eon is set to premiere February 8th on The Anime Network.  Volume 1 of the series will be released by ADV on February 20th.

The full length trailer for One Piece: Episode of Alabaster is now online here.  The film is set to premiere in Japan on March 3rd.

Yoko Ishida is scheduled to perform at Daigacon, March 2-4 in Bowling Green, KY.

ADV has announced the acquisition of 009-1 by Shotaro Ishinomori.  There are no further details at this point.

The January issue of Animation Magazine announced that Hayao Miyazaki's next project will be based on a Chinese story called "I Lost My Little Boy".

IGN has posted the entire first episode of Air Gear here.  ADV will be releasing the first volume on February 6.

Afro Samurai episode 1 can now be watched on Spike TV's website.  The series premieres on Spike on Thursday at 11 p.m.

ADV Films will release volume 1 of Kurau Phantom Memory on April 10th.  They announced the license at Anime Expo 2004, but nothing more was said until now.

The official website for hte American Anime Awards is now online.  You can now vote for your favorites in all the categories.  THe finalists will be announced on the site in February and the winners will be announced February 24th at New York Comic-con.

Apparently there were some problems with Synch-Point's FLCL Ultimate Edition booklets.  There are printing errors on page 40.  Synch-Point has started a replacement program with the help of Anime Gamers, Anime Kingdom, Anime Pavilion and Robert's Anime Corner.  YOu can also find more information on Synch-Point's blog.

The new Saiyuki OVA, Saiyuki Reload -burial-, has had a new trailer released here.  The OVA is set to be released April 27th in Japan.

Statelight is planning an anime series adaptation of Koge Donbo's Kamichama Karin for 2007.

Gonzo is producing an anime version of Yamato Yoshihiro's Kaze no Stigma novels.

Ufotable is working on an anime film version of Kinoko Nasu's Kara no Kyokai web novel.

Bandai has released a new Dragonball Z game, called Dragonball Z Sparking! NEO for the Nintendo Wii.  The game uses the Wiimote and Nunchuck and retails for 7,140 yen

Funimation has started to announce dates for Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles to hit theatres.  It is currently scheduled for the following dates:

ImaginAsian - New York, NY - Jan 8th - 14th
Studio Movie Grill - Dallas, TX - Jan 15th - 17th (Arlington)
Key Cinemas - Indianapolis, In - Jan 5th -10th
The Hollywood Theater - Portland, OR - Jan 5th -7th
Alamo Drafthouse San Antonio - San Antonio, TX - Jan 15th - 17th
The Brattle Theatre - Cambridge, MA - Jan 19th - 20th midnight
Studio Movie Grill - Copperfield - Houston, TX - 18th and 19th 9pm 
The Majestic Crest Theatre - Los Angeles, CA - Feb. 3rd from 12:00 Noon 

The official list can be found on the Funimation Films website.

MSN Entertainment named Samurai 7 "the best new anime of the year" in their 2006 Year in Review - Unforgettable TV Moments.

Source: Anime News Network

There have been more hidden links found on asosbrigade.com for voice audition polls.  First up the part of Yuki Hagato can be found here.  Next was one for Itsuki Koizumi which can be found here.

Also the Episode 00 that can be found on the main page has had English Subtitles added to the Japanese parts.