The New York Anime Festival has reported that their unofficial attendence number for the weekend was 18,399.  This includes regular attendees, professionals, press, and exhibitors.  Last year saw just over 14,000 attendees, meaning there was an increase of 24% this year.

Yen Press has announced that it has acquired Hero Tales, Wlecome to Wakaba-soh, and the Spice and Wolf novels.  They also announced two Korean manhwa titles, Sugarholic and 13th Boy.

Del Rey Manga has announced that it has acquired Moyashimon, Amefurashi, and Maid War Chronicles. 

They have also announced the second character guide to CLAMP's Tsubasa manga which will cover the events in volumes 8 through 14.

Yaoi Generation has announced that it has licensed breath.  breath is a five-volume boys-love title by Chifumi Ochi (Honey Senior, Darling Junior).  Yaoi Generation has not announced it's plans for how they will release the title.

Funimation has announced that it has acquired the rights to the live action version of Muchi-shi.  They are planning theatrical showings and a DVD release in 2009.

They also announced that the Funimation Channel will add Ouran Host Club to it's lineup.  The premiere date has not yet been set.  The first DVD set will ship on October 28th.

Bandai Entertainment has announced that it has cancelled the original English release of sola and true tears due to licensing issues, but will release them now as DVD boxes through the Anime Legends lavel.  sola will ship with all 13 tv episodes and 2 video episodes subbed for $44.98.  true tears will ship subbed for $39.98. 

They also announced that they have acquired the North American rights to the Gurren Lagann manga.  No dates have been set for release, but it's website is saying it will ship in 2009.

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 One Piece DVD (Hyb): Season 1 Part 2 Uncut for $29.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Sink Your Teeth Into Savings sale, offering at least 35% off of DVDs from Geneon Entertainment. The coupon code is "bite" and the sale runs from now until Sept. 28th.

Tsubasacon has announced a new record for preregistration for their convention.  They have doubled their preregistration numbers from last year.  This years convention has announced Robert Axelrod (Lord Zedd and Finster from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers), Jen Lee Quick (Off*Beat), Ultraball, and the Astroboys as guests for the convention.  They have also announced a pajama party on Friday night and the results of the first annual fan fiction contest. 

Tsubasacon will take place Sept 26th - 28th at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena's Riverfront Ballroom and Conference Center in Huntington, West Virginia

Digital Manga Inc has announced that their manga rental site, eManga is now open to the public.  To celebrate the opening of the site, the rental price has been lowered to 300 points for 72-hour access.  There are four different points packages being offered currently, the standard being 1000 points for $10. 

Viz Media and Joost have announced that free, legal streams of Naruto and Death Note are now available in the US.  They have also announced that Bleach will be added to Joost's service soon.  The first 20 subbed episodes of Naruto and all 37 subbed episodes of Death Note are available with dubbed episodes of Blue Dragon, Zatch Bell!, and MAR.  Cosmo Warrior Zero, Gun Frontier, Ikki Tousen, Izumo, and Saiyuki are also already on Joost.

Hulu.com has announced that it is launching a channel for free, legal anime streams in the US.  The channel will premiere with 20 subbed episodes of Naruto, all 37 subbed episodes of Death Note, and 12 dubbed episodes of Mushi-Shi.  They have promised that they will be adding titles such as Bleach, Basilisk, Black Blood Brothers, Kiddy Grade, MoonPhase, Peach Girl and School Rumble.  The site is able to offer free streaming by using commercial breaks within the streams.

Summit Entertainment and IMAGI have announced that their CG adaptation of Astro Boy will open in over 3,000 North American theatres on October 23rd, 2009.  They have also promised to announced a marketing commitment from a major fast food chain as well as deals for toys, games, books, and other tie ins.

Viz Media will be releasing two more volumes of Akira Himekawa's manga based on The Legend of Zelda.  The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask will ship on Feb. 3rd and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons will ship on April 7th. 

Cartoon Network announced Saturday morning that it would be ending the Toonami programming block that night after 11 years.  The official announcement was made during the 10:30 PM - 11 PM timeslot that night.  Toonami Jetstream will continue to run it's online streaming service however, and Cartoon Network still has plans to import Damashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z.

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 Bleach DVD Box Set 2 (Hyb) Limited Edition w/Figure for $57.99 (regularly $89.98) and Inu Yasha Season 5 DVD Box Set Deluxe Ed (LE) for $74.99 (regularly $119.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Amazing Deals sale, offering at least 40% off of DVDs and 33% off of all merchandise from ADV Films. The coupon code is "amazing" and the sale runs from now until Sept. 21st.

JapanFiles.com and Sakura-con have announced that girugamesh will be a musical guest at this years convention.  The convention will take place April 10th - 12th, 2009 at the Washington
State Convention and Trade Center in Downtown Seattle Washington.

BCI, Navarre Corporation's video and audio distribution subsidiary, is going to release the 2007 live action film adaptation of GeGeGe no Kitaro this fall.  The DVD will ship October 28th and the Blu-ray will ship November 18th. 

ADV Films Senior Vice-President of Sales Mike Bailiff has said that his company's staff is planning to return to work tomorrow now that Hurricane Ike has left.  ADV Films is about 50 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, but much of Houston and Galveston, especially closer to the Gulf, is still without power.

Resonance Features and The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival have announced that they will host a 12 hour Anime After Dark film festival in Boston from sunset on October 18th to sunrise the next day.  The festival will include Grave of the Fireflies, Project A-Ko, Millennium Actress, Cat Soup, Tekkonkinkreet, and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.  The event will take place at the Somerville Theatre on Davis Square. Attendees are encouraged "to bring blankets, pillows and other items to help settle you in".

The New York - Tokyo organization has announced that it's annual film festival will open on September 28.  This year, Genius Party and the live action adaptation of Grave of the Fireflies will be included in the festival.  This will be the North American premiere of the live action Grave of the Fireflies which was released in Japan this year. 

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 Boogiepop Phantom DVD TV Series + Movie Thinpak for $29.99 (regularly $49.99) and Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD Collection (Hyb) for $29.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Amazing Deals sale, offering at least 40% off of DVDs and 33% off of all merchandise from ADV Films. The coupon code is "amazing" and the sale runs from now until Sept. 21st.

Adult Swim has updated its schedule for the Saturday evening and Sunday Morning block.  Bleach has been moved up to the 11:00 PM time slot.  This has pushed Code Geass and Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit back to 5:00-6:00 am.  Shin Chan and Inuyasha have been removed completely from teh schedule.  They have also put Fullmetal Alchemist back on the schedule at 11:30 PM.

Nagi Noda, an art director and designer known for high-concept videos and visuals, passed away on Sunday at the age of 35.  Noda created the first opening sequence for the animated Honey and Clover series.  She also directed music videos and album art for Hikaru Utada, HALCALI, YUKI, Scissor Sisters, MEG, and other musicians.  She was in a traffic accident last year and was dealing with complications from surgery after the accident.

Publishers Weekly has posted a 12 page preview of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy manga.  Dark Horse is reprinting the manga this month in a new edition that will combine the first two volumes.  The posted preview shows the origin of Astro Boy and features a cameo by Tezuka.

Nan Desu Kan has announced that NOriko Hidaka and Yuji Mitsuya will be guests at their Sept. 12th - 14th event at the Denver Marriott Tech Center in Colorado.  Hidaka is best know as Musica Nova from Super Dimention Cavalry Southern Cross, Satsuki Kusakabe in My Neighbor Totoro, Akane Tendo in Ranma 1/2, Jean in Nadia - Secret of Blue Water, Sojiro Seta in Rurouni Kenshin, and Kikyo in Inuyasha among others.  Misuya is best known as Dr. Tofu in Ranma 1/2, Supreme Kai in Dragonball Z, and Miino and Shaka in Saint Seiya among others.

The Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa, Canada will be screening Princess Mononoke on September 22nd at 6:30 PM and Sept. 23rd at 8:20 PM.

Funimation Entertainment has announced that they have licensed Kaze no Stigma from Gonzo.  The series was directed by Jun'ichi Sakata (Card Captor Sakura, DNA^2).  Funimation plans to release the 24 episode series on DVD in the summer of 2009.

ICv2 has reported that Funimation properties accounted for 32.7% of North American anime sales for the first half of 2008.  The rest of sales are broken down with Viz Media accounting for 15.9%, ADV Films 10.5%, Bandai Entertainment 7.7% and Media Blasters 5% of sales.  The data is compiled by Nielsen VideoScan and does not account for titles that Funimation took over from Geneon and ADV as those began being released in the second half of 2008.

JapanFiles.com has announced that the Japanese hard-rockers girugamesh have debuted on their site.  Their entire catalog is now available for legal download.  In addition, the band's latest CD, "Girugamesh", will be available at Hot Topic stores at the end of the month.  The US release contains the exact same booklet and cover art as the Japanese release, and will be available for under $15.00.

Sony Pictures has licensed the rights to The Sky Crawlers by Momoru Oshii (best known for Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor).  The rights extend to distribution in the US, Canada, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Monthly Dragon Age magazine has confirmed that the currently running Slayers Revolution is the first part of a half year storyline.  The second part of the storyline is currently in production and will begin after a break in the season.  Hajime Kanzaka had already indicated that Slayers Revolution was supposed to be the first part of a story line, but this announcement is the first official confirmation of this.

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 Air Gear DVD Bargain Bundle (Hyb) for $79.99 (regularly $189.94) and Angelic Layer DVD Box Set (Thinpak) for $29.99 (regularly $49.98).

Right Stuf's sale this week is the Net Major Savings sale, offering at least 30% off of all books from NetComics. The coupon code is "netsavings" and the sale runs from now until Sept. 7th.

Bandai Entertainment and Kadokawa Pictures have announced that the Seattle, Washington screening of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will now run until September 11th.  Originally it was only scheduled to show at the Landmark Theatres Varsity Theater until September 4th.  The next stop for the film is Durham, North Carolina on October 6th and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania on November 24th, 26th, 28th, and 29th.

Disney will be releasing Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea in the US next year.  They have not made any of the specifics public yet as to whether it will get a theatrical release however.  Time magazine recently reviewed the movie positively.

Kodansha has announced that it will end publication of Monthly Magazine Z with its March issue, which comes out January 26th.  Currently it is home to Ryoko's Case File, Real Drive, and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 manga.

The 15th volume of bimonthly Comi Di Gi+ also announced that it will be the last one released. 

JapanFiles.com has announced that Love Psychadelio's album "This is Love Psychedelico" has made it's US debut on JapanFiles.com.  It features their hits "Standing Bird," "Fantastic World," and "Lady Madonna."

Gorgeous Entertainment is launching "Anime Masterpieces", a series of anime film screenings and panels that it will be selling to colleges and other institutions in the US.  Each event will consist of an introduction, a film, and then a roundtable discussion with scholars and film critics.  If the institution pays for it, Gorgeous Entertainment will also invite various anime directors to speak on the panels. 

Anime Masterpieces will premiere on September 27th at the Pacific Film Archive at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley.  Grave of the Fireflies will be the featured movie and the panel will consist of Japanese pop culture scholars Susan Napier, Ian Condry and Roland Kelts along with author and translator Frederik L. Schodt.

Cartoon Network's Toonami Jetstream has added a new episode of Zatch Bell which has not yet run on TV in America.  The series was removed from Cartoon Network in January of 2007 after the 77th episode was run, and no new episodes have shown since.

Otakon has officially responded to reports that one group managed to purchase around 14 different tables in their Artists Alley this year.  Matt Smiechkowski, the president of Otakorp, Inc., has stated that they are aware of the controversy but were not able to take any action during the convention.  Otakon's rules state that one group is not allowed to book that many tables, but does not directly prohibit artists from displaying their work at other groups tables.  Otakon will examine the process and try to fix it for future conventions.