Madhouse, known for animating things such as Ninja Scroll and Paprika, will be creating the opening animation for Otakon XV this August.  The video will be a 90-second segment and will be produced to resemble the opening animation to an anime.  Hiroko-chan and Hiroshi-kun, the convention's mascots, will be the main characters.

Variety.com recently discussed the future of anime and the industry with Gen Gukunaga, the CEO of Funimation.  He says that he expects legal download sales to overshadow Funimation's sales merchandise, which are Funimation's second-biggest asset.

Yoshiki Hayashi announced on March 28th that his group X Japan will be holding a concert in Paris, France on July 5th.  They expect about 20,000 attendees for the show.  Yoshiki said that they plan to show footage of their late guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto at the show "because it is important that all five of us do this."

Cartoon Network has no plans to have One Piece return to it's schedule.  It says that it has already shown all of the episodes that it was sent and does not intend to repeat them.  They have already replaced One Piece on the schedule with Blue Dragon.

Otakon has announced that their first musical guest for 2008 will be JAM Project.   JAM (Japan Animation song Makers) Project was formed in 2000 and currently consists of Hironobu Kageyama, Rica Matsumoto, Masaaki Endoh, Hiroshi Kitadani, Masami Okui, and Yoshiki Fukuyama.  They will be making their US debut at Otakon which is scheduled to take place August 8th - 10th.

I have updated Rightstuf's Weekly Specials.  There are some really good deals this week like the Fruits Basket Thinpack for $39.98 (regularly $69.98) and the Ninja Nonsense Complete Collection Limited Edition for $49.98 (regularly $89.98).

Tokyopop has revealed that it will be publishing Tokko by Tohru Fujisawa.  Tohru Fujisawa is best known for GTO.  The anime was released in the US last year by Manga Entertainment and was aired on the Sci Fi Channel.

Media Blasters has announced it's acquisition of Seirei no Moribito.  The announcement was made by putting the opening animation on Kite: Liberator as an easter egg.  The series was originally licensed by Geneon Entertainment before it closed.

Anime Expo has announced that Shoko "Shokotan" Nakagawa will perform at their convention this year.  She is known for singing the theme songs for Eyeshield 21, Hakaba Kitaro, Yoshimune, and Gurren Lagann.  The convention will be taking place July 3rd-6th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The U.S. iTunes Store now has episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Season 1), Tokko, Noein, and Tactics.  These are being offered by Manga Entertainment and are available in 640 X 480 resolution and will play on personal compueters, iPod Videos and AppleTV.

Bost TV has announced that it will offer downloadable anime episodes for 100 BOST points (equal to about $1.99 US).  Currently they offer just a two week stream of an episode for 100 points, but under the new plan you will also get an unrestricted download of the episode.  BOST says that the downloaded episode will not have any digital rights management so that it can be played on iPod's, PSP's and personal computers.

Currently BOST is offering the first two episodes of The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk and Blassreiter for free to any user who registers by April 2nd.  This is to promote the new system.

Viz Media has announced that it has licensed Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody.  This is the first theatrical movie for the Bleach television series.  Viz plans to have a limited theatrical release in major cities in the summer and a DVD of the movie will be available this winter.

I know that it has been a while, but I have finally updated the list of Specials currently going on at Rightstuf.com.  You can see the list here.

We received a press release recently announcing JapanFiles.com's plans to release tokyo pinsalocks new album a week early.  The cd will be released in Japan on March 26th, but is now available on JapanFiles.com.  This was done to make it available to fans in time for Anime Boston this past weekend.  They will also be appearing in New York City at the Knitting Factory on March 25th.

At their panel at Anime Boston 2008, David Williams said "stories of ADV's demise have been greatly exaggerated."  He then went on to elaborate a bit in the hiccup that was recently seen in their scheduled releases, which pushed all releases back a couple monthes.  The delays were caused when the Japanese ownership of many titles changed hands to new companies.  ADV has now resolved most of the problems however, and is on it's way to returning to a regular schedule.  There are two big titles that are still caught up in negotiations, Gurren Lagan and Keroro Gunso.

David Williams announced the license of the series Kiba at ADV's Anime Boston 2008 panel this weekend.  This series was produced by the Japanese division of Upper Deck.

Bandai Entertainment announced that it had licensed Rocket Girls at Anime Boston 2008 this past weekened.  The 12-episode series ran in Japan last year from February to May.

Funimation has confirmed that they have the North American rightst to both Mahou Sensei Negima! OVA Haru and Mahou Sensei Negima! OVA Natsu.  These two OVA are side stories to the original Negima! series. 

Funimation has also confirmed that Romeo x Juliet still has not been licensed in North America.  Questions began being asked when Funimation started sending out Cease and Desist orders to fansubbers of the series.  The have reaffirmed that they sent the letters on behalf of Gonzo as part of their longstanding relationship.

Source: ANN

The May issue of Dragon Magazine has announced that the fourth Slayers anime series will be titled Slayers Revolution.  The announcement also hinted that Xellos will be the main character instead of Lina.  Dragon Magazine's July issue will supposedly have a major announcement about the series.

Bandai Visual USA has announced that they are streaming the first episode of Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time - A Tale of the Eight Guardians for free.  The episode is on their dot-anime.us site and will be available until June 18th.  You have to be in either the US or Canada and use Windows, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player to view the episode.

Tokyopop has announced that it will publish both Otsu-ichi's Goth novel and Kendi Oiwa's manga adaptation.  The one volume manga will be released in September and the novel will be released in October.  Kadokawa Shoten has also signed a deal with Fox Atomic to produce a film adaptation.  J.T. Petty has been signed on to write and direct the film.

A full trailer for the upcoming live action Speed Racer movie has been posted.  The trailer is two and a half minutes long and is available in both standard and high definition resolutions.  The movie is set to premiere in the US on May 9th.

Anime Expo has announced that director Masamitsu Hidaka, best known for Pokemon, will be a Guest of Honor at this years convention.  The convention will take place July 3rd - 6th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

New York Comic Con is accepting questions to be asked this weekend during an open interview with T.M.Revolution.  The top 21 questions will be selected to be asked.  Submissions must be received by 12:00 PM ET.  T.M.Revolution is scheduled to appear at the April 18th-20th convention.

DrMaster has announced that it has licensed the Nephylym manga and Feng Shui Academy novels.  Nephylym's first volume will be released in September and Fen Shui Academy will hit shelves in 2009.

Nozomi Entertainment, the anime production side of Right Stuf Inc., has announced that it has licensed Maria Watches Over Us.  The license includes the first two 13 episode series and the 5 episode follow up series.  The first season will ship as a subtitled box set for $49.99 on July 29th.  The other two seasons will follow as similar box sets in the future.  Each season will also include the specials that showed with them.

The IFC Center in New York City will be screening Appleseed: Ex Machina on Friday and Saturday at midnight.  The showing will be Japanese with English subtitles.

In the British anime and manga magazine NEO, ADV Films CEO John Ledford commented on it's recent closure of it's UK branch and new partnership with Lace Digital Media Sales.  He said:

"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."

Twentieth Centruy Fox has delayed the live action Dragonball movie's opening to April 3rd, 2009.  If it had opened on August 15th as was originally scheduled, it would have been competing with Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  This is thought to be one of the main reasons for the change.

An English trailer for Viz Pictures' release of the first live action Death Note film is now available online.  The trailer is dubbed in English, but the film itself will be released subbed in North America.  The DVD release is planned for later this year.

The Funimation Channel has premiered MoonPhase, Peach Girl, Suzuka, and Black Cat on their station this past Monday.  Also starting this week are Shingu on March 3rd, Ninja Nonsense on March 8th, Record of Lodoss War on March 8th, and Boogiepop Phantom on March 8th.

The New York Comic Con has announced that they will be premiering the English dubs for Lucky Star and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.  The convention takes place April 18th - 20th.  Bandai will be releasing the first volume of Lucky Star on May 6th.