Amazon.com is now listing the first volume of Train*Train by Eiki Eiki.  According to the listing, it is scheduled to be released by Digital Manga Publishing on April 29th, 2009.

The Sci Fi Channel is now streaming the first full episode of Gurren Lagann.  The first two episodes are also now available for download via the iTunes Store.  In both cases, the English dubbed version is the one being offered, which was produced by Bandai Entertainment.

Udon Entertainment will be launching a weekly digital comic digest next month.  The digest will appear on Crunchyroll and will be called Udon Combo!.   It will include Kai's 1520 which was a runner-up in the first International Manga Award competition last year.  It will also include Jim Zubkavich's web comic, The Makeshift Miracle.

Seven Seas Entertainment has also announced that they have begun serializing The Ninja Diaries in Metromix Los Angeles.  Metromix Los Angeles is a weekly print and online guide to entertainment in Los Angeles. 

A listing for a DVD release of Magical Witch Punie-chan has appeared on Right Stuf.  Media Blasters is the company that will be releasing the eight 12 minute episodes.  The anime will ship on October 21st as one 120-minute, English subtitled DVD.

Michael Gluck, aka Piano Squall, has sent us a Press Release letting us know that Video Games Live will be perform with the San Diego Symphony at Embarcadero Marina Park South.  The show will include a synchronized fireworks display.  Tickets are still available at http://www.sandiegosymphony.com/summerpops/event.php?id=7 and more specifics about the concert can be found on the Press Release.

Producer Erwin Stoff is developing a live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop for Fox.  The project is in the really early stages of development at this point. 

JapanFiles.com has announnced the HIMAWARI's two albums, "Mineral" and "Pomposo" are now available through their site.

"Formed in 1998 in New York City (and currently now based in Tokyo), HIMAWARI is Takeshi Ichikawa and Lena. They originally met at a Ryuichi Sakamoto event in the city and quickly realized they shared a similar vision for music making.

While based in NYC, HIMAWARI performed regularly at club events in the metro area, and large-scale loft parties in Brooklyn with as many as 3,000 attendees. HIMA also played such events as the CMJ Music Marathon, and were regulars in the Moby VJ Team MOVEMENT events."

Funimation has begun offering downloads of all 11 subtitled episodes of Jyu-Oh-Sei.  DVD plans have not yet been announced for the series.  Each episode costs $1.99 and the entire series can be purchased for $16.99.

Funimation has announced that it has acquired the rights to Baccano!.  Funimation's website is streaming the first episode subtitled.  The password is the name of the series featured train (Flying Pussyfoot).

The New York Anime Festival has announced that Miho Satoh and Masumi Kanoh will be guests at their convention this year.  They are Lolita fasion designers from the Baby, The Stars Shine Bright brand.  While at the convention they will present a panel about their brand and the Lolita lifestyle as well as attending a tea party in their label's honor.  The convention will take place September 26th-28th at the Jacob Javitz Center in NYC.

Toei Animation is now offering English subbed episodes of Pretty Cure and English subbed episodes of Digimon Adventure 02 for download via Direct2Drive.  The first two episodes of Pretty Cure and the first 15 episodes of Digimon Adventure 02 are currently available for $1.99 each. 

Publishers Weekly has revealed that Cartoon Network's Adult Swim will premiere Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit on August 24th in the US.  Media Blasters picked up the distribution rights from Geneon earlier this year, but Cartoon Network had already negotiated the television rights.  The series is based on Nahoko Uehashi's novel, the first volume of which has been published in the US by Scholastic this past June.  Scholastic will be publishing the second volume next April.

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 One Piece DVD (Hyb): Season 1 Part 1 Uncut for $29.99 (regularly $49.98) and Fullmetal Alchemist DVD Box Set 1 (Hyb) (1-4) for $24.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Savings You'll Dig sale, offering 40% off all DVD's and 33% off all CDs and Accessories from Bandai Entertainment. The coupon code is dig and the sale runs from now until July 20th.

Organic Hobby has announced that it will host an autograph session for Takashi Okazaki on July 25th at Comic Con International in San Diego, Ca.  Okazaki is known as the manga artist for Afro Samurai.

Yaoi Con 2008 has announced that it will host Nase Yamato.  Yamato is best known for her manga Pet on Duty and Cigarette Kisses which are being published by Broccoli Books' under their Boysenberry imprint.  Yaoi Con will take place September 26th-28th at San Mateo in Northern California.

Veteran voice actor Mike Kleinhenz died on July 11th of a heart attack at the age of 56.  Kleinhenz is known for playing Kalinin in Full Metal Panic! as well as The Raven in Princess Tutu, Friday Monday in Madlax, and Kabapu in Excel Saga.

Dark Horse Comics has announced that Yoshitaka Amano and Yasuhiro Nightow will have signing sessions on July 25th at Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA.  Amano is best known for illustrating the original Vampire Hunter D as well as designing characters for several Final Fantasy games.  Nightow is best known for creating Trigun and Gungrave.  Yoshitaka Amano's autograph session will take place Friday, July 25 between 12:00 and 1:30 PM.  Yasuhiro Nightow's sessions will take place Friday, July 25 between 5:00 and 6:00 PM and Sunday July 27 between 12:00 and 1:00 PM.  All three sessions will be ticketed events, details about how to get tickets can be obtained at the convention from a Dark Horse employee.

Nozomi Entertainment has posted a trailer for Aria the Animation.  The first 13 episodes will ship as a box set on September 30th and will include only an English subtitled version. 

Anime Supercon has announced 7 new guests for their convention this Halloween.  They have announced Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke in Naruto), Tara Platt (Temari of the Sand in Naruto), Kill Miss Pretty, George Moss (www.gmossdesigns.com), Heather Scott, Brittney Morrow, and Chickenbox!

Anime Supercon will take place October 31st - November 2nd at The Downtown Miami Hilton in Miami FL.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced at its E3 2008 press conference that Funimation and BONES will be providing anime titles for the brand new PlayStation Store's video download service.  The service is available for the PS3 and PSP consoles.  Standard definition and high definition television episodes are available for $1.99 and movies will cost between $2.99 and $5.99 to rent or $14.99 to own.  BONES will be offering Xam'd: Lost Memories to the service, which has yet to permiere in Japan, as part of the store's "Original exclusive content".  Funimation has made available Afro Samurai season 1, Basilisk season 1, Burst Angel season 1, Desert Punk, Gunslinger Girl, Kiddy Grade, MoonPhase, Samurai 7 season 1, and Trinity Blood season 1.

Viz Media has announced the additiona of Bleach, Death Note and Naruto to the US iTunes store.  The first 41 episodes of Bleach, all 37 episodes of Death Note, and the first 25 uncut episodes of Naruto are now available. 

New York Anime Festival 2008 has announced that Rie Tanaka will be a guest at their convention.  Tanaka is best known as the voice of Lacus Clyne in Gundam Seed, Chii in Chobits, and Sugintou in Rozen Maiden.  She will appear at a Q and A session, autograph session, and perform some songs at the World Cosplay Summit.  The convention will take place September 26th - 28th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

Cartoon Network's Toonami Jetstream has added Kiba to its lineup.  Kiba is the first series from ADV Films to join the Toonami Jetstream lineup, all previous series have been from Viz Media and Sho-Pro.  This is the first new series on the site since Eyeshield 21 joined on December 17th, and the only series besides Hikaru no Go to be showing new episodes.

ADV Films has corrected it's list of out of print titles.  Best Student Council volumes 1-6 and Robotech Protoculture Collection are both still in print.  The rest of Robotech however is still on the out of print list.  In addition, 5 Centimeters Per Second and Innocent Venus are both still on the list.

AnimeNation has announced that ADV Films has discontinued Best Student Council, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Innocent Venus, and Robotech.

In addition, Publishers Weekly reported that Tokyopop has cancelled
    * Beyond the Beyond Volume 5
    * Blazin' Barrels Volume 11
    * Karma Club Volume 2
    * Kat & Mouse Volume 4
    * Kindaichi Case Files, The Burial Francs
    * Lagoon Engine Volume 6
    * Lagoon Engine Volume 7
    * Nosatsu Junkie Volume 7
    * Queen's Knight, The Volume 13
    * Queen's Knight, The Volume 14
    * Saver Volume 7

Mythwear's website has been officially updated with a message confirming that they have gone out of business.  The founder of Mythwearm Jean-Binh Valente, cites the closure of Musicland, which owed Mythwear a lot of money, as well as his own health as the reasons for the closure.

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 Dragon Ball Z Season 1 Uncut DVD Set: Vegeta Saga for $24.99 (regularly $49.98) and Dragon Ball Z Season 2 Uncut DVD Set: Ginyu Saga for $24.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Savings You'll Dig sale, offering 40% off all DVD's and 33% off all CDs and Accessories from Bandai Entertainment. The coupon code is dig and the sale runs from now until July 20th.

Future US, the publisher of Nintendo Power, Guitar World, Maximum PC and others, is publishing a one-off magazine called Future Anime this month.  Gary Steinman, the former editor-in-chief of Newtype USA was in charge of this Summer 2008 issue.  The issue costs $9.99 US and will be on newsstands until October 21st.  It has a Gurren Lagann cover and 12 posters, but no DVD.  The issue is being used as a guage of audience interest and could be turned into a recurring special or full magazine.

X Japan has begun to reschedule it's world tour following Yoshiki Hayashi's health problems.  The Paris concert will now take place at the Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy sports center on November 22nd.  They still intend to visit New York and Taiwan, and have now mentioned that they want to stop in Korea as well.

A 21 year old Japanese man was arrested on Thursday for posting a message to the 2ch message board.  In the message, posted on June 19th, he threatened to kill voice actress and singer Nana Mizuki and her fans.  It said "I'll use a dagger knife and a two-ton truck to commit a massacre" at Yoyogi where she had a concert on July 5th.  The investigation currently states that the accused only wrote the message to see what reaction eh would get, they did not find a dagger knife of two ton truck at his home.  The concert took place on July 5th as scheduled and Mizuki briefly touched on the subject before her last song.

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of news updates over the past week or so.  I have been sick in addition to the holiday weekend so I haven't been able to get to updating.  I hope to begin doing better in the next couple of days.

Otakon has announced that it will host Kazuko Tadano and Hiromi Matsushita as guests at their 2008 convention.  The couple designed and animated the first two Sailor Moon series among other projects.  Tadano has done character designs for Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Wedding Peach, Dancougar - Super Beast Machine God, Crystal Triangle, and Petite Princess Yucie.  Matsushita has overseen the animation of Sailor Moon, the 1980's Astro Boy, Guyver: Out of Control, Kingyo Chuuihou! and Mado King Granzort.

After announcing their new partnership to distribute Geneon's titles this past weekend, Funimation has announced the first release dates.

August 19th - Black Lagoon season 1, Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage volume 1, Elemental Gelade volume 1
September 2nd - Karin volumes 1-4, Kyo kara Maoh! season 2 volume 1-7
September 9 - Shakugan no Shana series box
September 16 - Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage volume 2, Fate/stay night series box, Hellsing Ultimate volumes 1-4, Rozen Maiden series box
September 23 - Kamichu! series box, Paradise Kiss series box
September 30 - When They Cry - Higurashi volumes 1-4

Bandai Entertainment has launched the official Mobile Suit Gundam 00 website.  The site contains the promotional video that was shown at Anime Expo and has posted the English dub cast for the Meister pilots.  They are:

Setsuna F. Seiei - Brad Swaile
Lockon Stratos - Alex Zahara
Allelujah Haptism - Richard Ian Cox
Tieria Erde - Sam Vincent

The series is scheduled to premiere in America on Sci Fi on November 17th.

Digital Manga Publishing has announced that have invited Hideyuki Kikuchi and Saiko Takaki to Anime Expo 2008 as their industry guests.  Hideyuki Kikuchi is best known for A Wind Named Amnesia, Wicked City and Demon Beast Shinjuku.  Saiko Takaki is best known as the illustrator for Vampire Hunter D, and was hand picked by Kikuchi for the job.

DMP will have multiple panels at Anime Expo including a Vampire Hunter D focus panel with raffle prizes including Takaki's ink sketches of D, exclusive Vampire Hunter D merchandise, and a grand prize of dinner for you and a friend with Kikuchi and Takaki!  Other panels include:

DMP Presents: Hideyuki Kikuchi and Saiko Takaki!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
2:00-3:00pm
WS1

Hideyuki Kikuchi and Saiko Takaki Autograph Sessions
Saturday, July 5, 2008 - 1:00-2:00pm
Sunday, July 6, 2008 - 1:00-2:00pm
Booth #510

Viz Media has released details about the DVD Release of Naruto the Movie 2: The Legend of the Stone of Gelel.  They will be releasing it as a 2 disc set on July 29th.  The set will include 60 minutes os special bonus features and will retail for $29.98.

Devil's Due Publishing has reached an agreement with Digital Manga Publishing to develop an original comic series based on the Vampire Hunter D novels.  Vampire Hunter D: American Wasteland will be a monthly, American style comic.  No further details about the staff or release date have been released at this time.

Funimation has announced that it has licensed Heroic Age from Kodansha.  Currently Funimation is streaming a trailer on the official English website.  The series was overseen by Takashi Noto and Toshimasa Suzuki, the producer and episode director of Fafner, at Xebec.  Funimation plans to release the series in 2009 on DVD.