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 Ah! My Goddess TV Season 1 DVD Box Set for $34.99 (regularly $59.95) and Kaleido Star: New Wings DVD Box Set (Thinpak) for $31.99 (regularly $59.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is still the Start Summer With A Bang sale which gives you 40% off all DVDs and 33% off all books from Viz.   You just have to use the coupon code "bang" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until June 1st.

Anime Expo has announced that Hiromi Kato will be a guest at their convention July 3rd - gth in Los Angeles.  This will be the first convention appearance he has made outside of Japan.  He is best known as animation director for Paradise Kiss, BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, and CLAMP in Wonderland 2.

Nozomi Entertainment has opened their official website for Emma.  On it they have posted a new trailer for the first season, a contest for Emma artwork, character profiles and background details, an interview with the creator Kaoru Mori, and downloadable content.  The first season of the series will be released on June 24th.

Digital Manga has announced a unique opportunity for comic artists.  Pop Japan Travel's Mind Over Manga tour will be taking place Aug. 21st - 27th and is offering guests a chance to print their own comic in Japanese and sell it at Comitia.  Comitia is one of Tokyo's biggest dojinshi events. 

"The PJT printing package includes black-and-white printing at B5 size (182x257 mm)
with superpost 220kg full-color covers using clear or matte PP printing. Page counts
are available in multiples of four, with copy counts in increments of 50. See
http://www.popjapantravel.com/updates/41/Manga+Printing+Details for complete price
table.

Translation from English to Japanese and lettering are available for $8 per page
plus 6 cents per word (you won't be charged for pages with no text)."

For full information, you can read their Press Release or visit their site at http://www.popjapantravel.com/

Chris Oarr, the sales and marketing representative for ADV, told Ain't It Cool News that the ADV Manga division is still active and will soon ship the later volumes of Yotsuba&! as well as other manga.  Originally, Yotsuba&! Volume 6 with slated to ship February 29th but it didn't.  He expressed his hope that ADV will soon be able to schedule the release of future volumes of Yotsuba&!, Gunslinger Girl, and Cromartie High School.  He mentioned that the delay seen earlier this year was the result of ADV needing to concentrate on their core business of anime.

Lea Hernandez, a veteran comic creator and one time Gainax employee, has pointed out that Tokyopop's new Shining Stars Manga Pilot Program uses a pact that says that artists and creators "agree to give up any moral rights they might have."  Moral rights is a legal concept for the creator'ss rights to be credited for a work and the rights to control the work in the future.  The pact also states that creators give Tokyopop "the right to reformat, adapt, and modify the Manga Pilot for iManga, motion graphics video format, as well as for other ways that may change it in order to display, print, and exhibit it."  Finally, Tokyopop is not repsonsible for crediting the creator in part or in full "when the space available or the conventions of a format won't permit it or if it would have to be too small to read (for example, when the Manga Pilot is viewed on mobile phones)."

The Manga Pilot program allows creators to submit a short, 24 - 36 page, pilot that Tokyopop posts online for reader feedback.  If feedback is favorable then it is possible that it will be expanded into a full title.  However, the pact does not list the fee paid to the creator until after Tokyopop accepts the pilot and says that Tokyopop can request a second pilot for another fee that also isn't disclosed. 

Kadokawa Group Holdings and YouTube have struck a deal which will place advertisements around user-generated videos containing Kadokawa's copyrighted materials beginning in June.  In the past Kadokawa, as well as other companies, have monitored YouTube and removed all copyright-infringing material it found.  With the new agreement in place, Kadokawa will now decide whether to remove or leave content using it's properties.  If they choose to let it stay, any ad revenue it generates will be shared with the user who posted the video.

The Japanese government group in charge of copyright reform is proposing the addition of a fair-use clause, similar to those found in US Copyright Law.  The current Japanese Copyright Law requires express permission for any type of use with the exception of personal, library, or academic purposes.  The proposal would expand exemptions to consider whether it is non-commercial use and whether it will actually influence the market or value of the original.  The Asahi Shimbun paper has pointed out that this proposal has ramifications for uses such as personal blog posts with images and parodies which currently are illegal but largely ignored.

Del Rey and Kodansha have joined forces to sponser Hiro Mashima as a guest at Comic-Con International on July 24th - 27th in San Diego, CA.  He is best known as the creator of Groove Adventure Rave (Rave Master) and Fairy Tail.  His appearance will include a panel and a book signing.

Funimation Entertainment has partnered with red Planet Media to begin distributing its properties via download to cell phones.  Currently, episodes of MoonPhase and Galaxy Railways are available for purchase via Red Planet's Jump In Mobile service.  Episodes are 99 cents each but are only available to customers of AT&T Wireless.  Funimation plans to branch out and offer full seasons via the service and expand to other wireless providers.

Dark Horse Comics has announced that it will be bringing Hideyuki Kikuchi, the author of the Vampire Hunter D novels, to the New York Anime Festival.  The Festival will take place September 26th - 28th.

Bandai Entertainment has confirmed that Gurren Lagann will run on the Sci Fi Channel starting July 28th.  They will run two episodes a week through October.  Bandai Entertainment has said that it will announce the dub cast in the future as it wants to give fans something to anticipate.

Gainax confirmed at Fanime that it is working on two Gurren Lagann films.  The two movies will combine to tell one story.

Bandai Entertainment has announced that it has licensed Sword of the Stranger.  This is the latest theatrical film from BONES.  The film will be released theatrically on July 18th and hit DVD and Blu-ray in the future.

Bandai Namco Holdings has announced that it will be combining Bandai Entertainment and Bandai Visual USA on July 1st.  It will then liquidate Bandai Visual USA by September.  Currently, Bandai Visual USA has $4 million US in capital and $2.983 million US in assests.  As of last December, it had sold $1.151 million US worth of goods but lost $595,000 US before taxes.

Otakon has announced that Kappei Yamaguchi will be attending their convention as a guest of honor.  The convention will take place August 8th - 10th at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland.  He is best known for playing Inuyasha in Inuyasha, Usopp in One Piece, and L in Death Note.

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 Doki Doki School Hours DVD Box Set for $48.99 (regularly $79.98) and Evangelion, Neon Genesis Platinum Perfect Coll (Tin) for $69.99 (regularly $129.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is still the Start Summer With A Bang sale which gives you 40% off all DVDs and 33% off all books from Viz.   You just have to use the coupon code "bang" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until June 1st.

ADV Films has announced that it is teaming up with Crunchyroll to stream Welcome to the NHK.  Two dubbed episodes are now online and two more episodes will be added every Thursday for the next five weeks.  In addition, select retailers are offering the DVD release of Welcome to the NHK for 50% off.

Anime Expo has announced that Yoko Ishida will return as a guest at their convention on July 3rd - 6th in Los Angeles.  Ishida is best known for singing the theme songs for Sailor Moon R and S, Pretear, Shakugan no Shana, and Ai Yori Aoshi.  She last attended Anime Expo in 2004.  She will be performing with Jyukai at the Nokia Theatre L.A..  She is appearing courtesy of Geneon Entertainment.

AnimeNext has announced multiple guests for their June 20th - 22nd convention.  The convention will take palce at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ.  The first guests announced were Brian and Aidan Drummond.  Brian Drummond is best known a Zechs Marquise from Gundam Wing and Allen Schezar from Escaflowne.  His son, Aidan, has appeared as Shion in the fourth Inuyasha movie. 

They have also announced that Leah Clark will be making her East Coast convention debut.  Leah is an ADR Scriptwriter as well as voice actor who has can be heard as Nodoka Miyazaki in Nagima!, Akane Suzumiya in Rumble Hearts, and Suzuka Asahina in Suzuka.  She has also worked on the scripts for Peach Girl and One Piece.  During the convention she will be running panels on the production side of the industry as well as previewing footage from Sasam: Magical Girl Club.

Finally, they announced that the indie J-Rock Band Rentrer En Soi will be performing live at AnimeNEXT 2008.  This will be their East Coast concert premiere and will occur on June 20th.  Then on June 21st, they will appear at a Q & A session and then have a signing and photo session later on the same day.

AnimeNext has announced that it will host a free screening of the first live action Death Note movie.  The convention takes place June 20th - 22nd at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus, NJ.  You can see a trailer for the english dub of the movie at http://www.deathnotefilms.com.

Tsubasacon has announced that it has teamed up with limebarb.com to host a Neko Maid Cafe during it's convention.  Maid cafes are restaurants where the service staff dress as maids or butlers.  They are a major part of Japanese fan culture in Akihabara.  Customers are treated as masters or mistresses in a private home, instead of as cafe customers.  The Neko Maid Carfe will serve imported refreshments for four hours.

Tsubasacon has also announced that they will be awarding Cash Prizes for their costume contest.

Tsubasacon will take place Sept. 26th - 28th at the Riverfront Ballroom and Conference Center in Huntington, West Virginia.

Toshifumi Yoshida has confirmed in a blog post that he is working on the dubbed version of Gurren Lagann for Bandai Entertainment with Bang Zoom! Entertainment and Aniplex.  He emphasized that despite the Sci Fi Channel announcing that Gurren Lagann would be part of it's Ani-Monday lineup, that the deal is not final.  However, they are working to make sure that there will be two new episodes of Gurren Lagann available every week starting in July if the deal does go through.

The cast for the English dub will be annonced this weekend at FanimeCon.

Anime Expo has announced that it will host Toshikiko Seki at their July 3rd - 6th event in Los Angeles.  He has been a voice actor in many anime over the past 25 years including playing Iruka in Naruto, Mousse in Ranma 1/2: Netto-hen, Duo Maxwell in Gundam Wing, and Genjo Sanzo in Saiyuki.

Viz Media has announced that Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach and Zombie Powder, will be at Comic-Con International in San Diego.  The convention takes place July 25th and 26th.  Kubo will be making opening remarks at the screening of Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody on July 25th.  He will also appear at the Shonen Jump panel and hold two autograph session which are each limited to the first 100 attendees on July 26th.

The Japanese pop/hip-hop duo HALCALI is scheduled to perform at the Second Annual Japan Day in New York City on June 1st.  Shota Shimizu, Gaijin a Go Go and HAPPYFUNSMILE are also scheduled to perform at the event.  All performances are scheduled to start at 3:15 PM at Central Park's East Meadow.  HALCALI is best known for performing the ending theme for Eureka Seven ("Tip Taps Tip") and the ending theme for Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z ("Look").

Broccoli Books is sponsering Maika Netsu, artist of My Dearest Devil Princess, at FanimeCon this weekend in San Jose, CA.  Netsu is also known for creating Black Game and Kapreka Number 1.  Broccoli Books is currently publishing My Dearest Devil Princess in North America.

The New York Asian Film Festival has announced that the L change the WorLd spinoff movie will be shown during the June 20th - July 6th event in New York City.

The Sci Fi Channel has listed two episodes of Gurren Lagann as showing on July 28th at 11:00 PM.  This is during the first hour of the Ani-Monday programming block.  Bandai Entertinament announced in April that it had acquired this title after ADV lost it.  Toshifumi Yoshida had indicated that they were working on an accelerated schedule and hoped to release it by July.

Bandai Entertainment has posted a trailer for AIKa R-16.  The OVA is scheduled for a June 3rd release to DVD. 

At Anime Central, Funimation announced that it has licensed Romeo X Juliet.   It will be released in two half-season boxes sometime in the Spring of 2009.  At the same panel, they also confirmed that the release date for Ouran High School Host Club will be revealed on May 30th.

During the panel, Funimation.com announced D.Gray-man would be released in 2009.  They have acquired the digital, licensing, and broadcast rights to the first 51 episodes of the series.  The press release indicates that this will be an individual volume release instead of a collection release.

Funimation has announced that it has acquired the DVD, digital and broadcast licenses for Shigurui: Death Frenzy.  The 12-episode anime was directed by Hirtsugu Hamazaki, known for Texhnolyze, and produced by Madhouse.  Funimation has not announced any release plans yet.

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 Adventures of the Mini Goddesses DVD Box Special for $39.99 (regularly $79.98) and Azumanga Daioh DVD Box Set (Thinpak) for $37.99 (regularly $69.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is still 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.

Nozomi has released a trailer and some more details on their release of Maria Watches Over Us Season 1.  They have posted the first trailer at the series site at http://mariasama.rightstuf.com.  The site also reveals that the DVD collection will be released on July 29th, 2008.  The collection will feature Japanese audio, English on-screen translations, and two English language subtitle tracks, one with regular dialogue subtitles and one that retains Japanese honorifics.  Special Features will include Season 1 "Specials" 1-7, character bios, and liner notes.

Funimation has announced that it has licensed Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry.  The 13 episode series is scheduled to ship in March of 2009.  Funimation's new website for the series can be found at http://funimation.com/strain/.  They will release the series as a single box set.

eigoMANGA will demonstrate their latest manga and anime projects at two Apple Stores.  The series of workshops will be called "Made On A Mac"  The first will be in San Francisco on May 30th at 6 PM, followed by another in Santa Monica on June 7th at 3 PM.

AnimeNation has confirmed that Super Techno Arts is no longer distributing the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime in the US.  They say this is due to an unspecified issue in Japan.  The OAV was originally released in six volumes between 2003 and 2004.

Funimation Entertainment has announced their licensing of Gunslinger Girl 2 -Il Teatrino-.  The series is the sequel to Gunslinger Girl which Funimation has released previously.  So far there are no further details, but there is an Official Site now available that says it will be released in 2009.

Viz Pictures have announced the details of the DVD release for the Live Action Honey & Clover film.  It will be released with English subtitles for a retail price of $24.98.  Bonus features will include cast interviews.  Viz Pictures has set up a site for the movie at www.honeyandclover.us.

ImaginAsian Entertainment has confirmed that it's DVD supplier, TitleMatch Entertainment, has unexpectedly halted production on the TMS Classics DVDs.  Cat's Eye, Orguss, and Nobody's Boy - Remi were the three series included under the TMS Classics label.  ImaginAsian is still showing these series on it's television network and is looking for a new supplier to bring these DVD's back onto the market.

Funimation has announced that it has licensed the first 26 episodes of Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple.  The series is directed by Hajime Kamegaki (Naruto Shippuden, Fushigi Yuugi) and is the story of Kenichi who is bullied throughout high school until a girl convinces him to join her dojo and train in many martial arts styles.  Funimation will release the series in two volumes, with the first coming out in January of 2009.

Bandai Visual USA has announced that the second title to join their streaming video service will be Super Robot Wars: OG-Divine Wars.  Fans are now able to view the first episode on their site.  It is available to people living in the US and Canada using Windows XP or Vista, IE 6.0 or higher, and Windows Media Player 10 or higher.  Each episode will be available for three months after its release date.

Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump has published the first official image to come from the Live Action Dragonball movie.  It is of Justin Chatwin in his role as Goku.  The magazine also confirms that the movie will open in March of 2009 in Japan.  It will then make it's way to the US and open on April 3rd.  The movie will also star Chow Yun-Fat as Master Roshi, Emmy Rossum as Bulma, Jamie Chung as Chichi, James Marsters as Piccolo, and Eriko Tamura as Mai.

Speed Racer, the live action remake by the Wachowski Brothers', came in third place at the box office in it's opening weekend.  It made about $18.6 million US which was just below What Happens In Vegas at $20.1 million US and well below Iron Man at $50.5 million US.

JapanFiles.com has announced that BESPA KUMAMERO will be performing in concert at Animex 2008 in Monterrey, Mexico on July 5-6 at the Cintermex Center.  You can find more information on the press release or on the event website (in Spanish).

FUNimation Entertainment has announced that they have acquired Save Me! Lollipop from Kodansha.  They have acquired the DVD, broadcast and mobile rights to the 13-episode series.  They project the series for release on DVD in late 2008.

Anime Expo has announced that the director of Stranger - Mukoh Hadan, Masahiro Ando, will be a guest at the July 3-6 convention in Los Angeles, CA.  He has also wokred as director on Fullmetal Alchemist and RahXephon as well as helping draw some of the opening animation for Eureka Seven and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Radical Publishing has announced that it will be hosting Yoshitaka Amano at Comic-Con International on July 26th in San Diego, CA.  He is best known for creating original illustrations and designs for the Vampire Hunter D novels, several Final Fantasy games, and two Gatchaman sequels.  He will be signing copies of his upcoming graphic novel adaptation of The Magic Flute, called Yoshitaka Amano's Mateki: The Magic Flute.

IGN is currently streaming a full episode of the english adaptation of Shin-chan.  Funimation will be releasing the first part of the first season on English-only DVD next week.

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.