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.

Nozomi Entertainment has announced that it is releasing a line of casual wear called Otaku Collegiate.  The first items in this line are a T-shirt and a hoodie.  Both of these items will be available on July 31st and the T-shirt will cost $16.99 and the hoodie will cost $39.99.

Cannes Film Festival has named Wolfie the Pianist as an Official Selection of the Short Film Corner.  The 15 minute short was directed by Toshiki Iwahori and produced by Studio 4°C.  It's about a wolf who receives a letter begging him to play the piano.  Wolfie jouneys across the world to find the sender, and plays his piano throughout the trip.

Bandai Visual Japan has announced plans to enter the rental industry.  Beginning on July 25th they will be renting Char's Counterattack on Blu-Ray.  Following that, they have announced 9 titles that they will rent on Blu-Ray.  They are:

Wings of Honneamise
Patlabor the Movie
Patlabor 2 the Movie
Patlabor
Jin-Roh
Avalon
Gundam F91
Cowboy Bebop Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Escaflowne the Movie

JapanFiles.com announced today that Budo Grape has added two new dates to their US tour.  After making their US debut at A-Kon 19 on May 30th, they will then appear in San Antonio and New York City.  They will be at Sam's Burger Joint in San Antonio on June 3rd, and then at the Knitting Factory in New York City on June 5th.

Bandai Visual has announced that beginning this fall, it will begin releasing Blu-ray discs of it's titles simultaneously throughout the world.  They announced that Freedom would be one of the first titles released under this new strategy.  The discs will include subtitles in Japanese and English among other languages. 

They also announced that Bandai Channel plans to begin selling downloads of its content.  They want to sell downloads for specialized devices, instead of streaming, to protect their material.

Megumi Hayashibara announced on her official site that she will be singing both the opening and ending theme songs for Slayers Revolution.  She has already been confirmed as returning to voice Lina Inverse, along with most of the original cast.

ComiPress has posted an authorized English translation of Manga Zombie.  The book was originally posted in 1997 and is about underground manga artists.  The online translation only covers part of the book, but the writer, Takeo Udagawa, and translator, John Gallagher, said in an interview on the site that they hope a publisher would be interested in publishing a full english translation.

OverDrive has posted the first full preview issue of Cosmode Online.  Registration is required, but is free.  The online magazine is based on the original Cosmode which is the leading magazine devoted to cosplay in Japan.  The first non-free issue will be posted on Cosmode's website on May 25th.

In addition, Broccoli Books will ship the first print issue of Cosmode USA to bookstores in July.

Aurora Publishing has listed the first two volumes of Hitohira for October and December release.  Deux Press, Aurora's boys-love imprint, has also announced four titles via the May issue of Previews.  They are Heavenly Body, Maid in Heaven, Ruff Love, and Two of Hearts.  All four titles are slated for July/August release.

IGN has posted four clips of the English dub of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.  In addition, Adult Swim's website is streaming the first full episode.  The first episode aired on Adult Swim this past weekend.

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 Read or Die (ROD) TV DVD Box Set (1-7, Ltd Book) for $99.99 (regularly $199.98) and Saiyuki Reload DVD Box Set for $84.99 (regularly $159.98).

Also this week, Right Stuf is continuing the Stock Up for Spring sale which gives you 40% off all DVD's and other items from Media Blaters, Tokyo Shock, and Kitty Media.  You just have to use the coupon code "springstock" when you check out to get the discount.  The sale runs from now until April 27th.

Nozomi Entertainment is teasing a new licensing announcement at comingsoon.rightstuf.com  The announcement will be made at 3 PM EDT on May 1st.  The last time they did this, they announced Maria Watches Over Us, so it wiill be interesting to see what they have this time.

Otakon has announced that Madhouse studio's co-founder Masao Maruyama will be returning as a guest to the convention.  Maruyama has been the producer for most of the work that Madhouse has done, including Trigun, Perfect Blue, Black Lagoon, NANA, Beck, Monster, and Death Note.  This will be his sixth appearance at the convention. 

Otakon will take place August 8th - 10th in Baltimore, Maryland.

Viz Media has announced that it will be releasing a season 1 box set of Buso Renkin on April 29th, 2008.  This will be a 3 disc set thta will contain the first 13 out of 26 epsiodes as well as interviews with the English cast and director.  The box will have a foil slipcase and feature exclusive art prints.  It will be priced at $49.98.

Buso Renkin is based on a 10 volume manga series by Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin and Gun Blaze West.

GDH, the parent company of Gonzo, has announced that it will be taking Fujio Akatsuka's Hennako-chan manga online with a limited animated version.  It will be distributing it online with both English and Chinese subtitles via YouTube.  The animated version will take the manga and add motion, dialogue and sound effects to make a weekly series of six 3 minute shorts.  The first episode will debut on April 25th and will be found here.

ICv2 announced at New York Comic Con that it has found that the American retail graphic novel market in 2007 grew 5% to $210 million US.  This is a slower rate of growth than in past years.  It is attributed to Bookstore sales growing as they found that direct market sales in comic book stores actually dropped.

Broccoli Books has posted previews of Koi Cupid and sola.  The first volume of Koi Cupid shipped in March and the first volume of sola will ship on June 18th.  Both titles are two volumes long.