Many of you are familiar with the Otacool project Kotobukiya and Dannychoo.com did with otaku rooms and I'm certain many of you heard about the second collage book fronted now by mega cosplay site CURE.  If not, then you guys really should check out the official post over at Dannychoo.com.  Some of you might become rather popular in Japan with your cosplay outfits.  Even my fiancee, Danielle is joining in the fun ^^

Being that I'm an anime store owner, I'll be getting the rights to stock the Otacool 2 book ^_^

so here's the link to preorder it.

This bit of news is a Christmas present for ALL gundam fans. Remember the 1/1 scale Gundam built in Odaiba a few months back to commemorate the Gundam 30 year anniversary (and try to get Japan in for the Olympics)?
Well, it's coming back!
Yep, ANN is reporting that the Gundam will be rebuilt at Bandai's plastic factory in Shizuoka and will stand between July of 2010 and May 2011 (hey..why do they have to take it down? -_-)

The statue brought over a million visitors in it's brief time up so, as long as we treat the thing like the Japanese Statue of Liberty, expect it to be a staple on the landscape.

Ok, not exactly anime related but hey, I'm certain most of you are eager to see Iron Man 2.  The trailer has just been released and many fans are happy to see that it'll star Black Widow, being played by Scarlett Johansson.  The role of Whiplash is Mickey Rourke while the role of War Machine (pictured above) is now Don Cheadle (instead of Terrence Howard).


You might also notice that the Afro Samurai himself, Samuel L. Jackson is playing the role of Nick Fury.

See, I connected anime somehow ^^;.

To view the trailer, click the link above.

I see that finally after a long time, there is some movement in the Member's Blog. Thank you all who are starting to write there. Over time I will link up the member posts with their relevant topic sites. For example, the anime figures page will have member's posts about figures as well to help gain more exposure and make it worth it to post here.

The contest for the Free Nendoroid Kureha Figure is still going due to the long time it took to get even just these few posts. Once enough people post (~10+), I'll do the very hard task of choosing the winner. I'll also sweeten the deal by giving out Google Wave invites to all those who post. Not sure if Google Wave is really that hard to get now but either way, I'll add that for all who post on the blog.

Also, the member's rules got updated a bit. You CAN link to ecchi/sexy anime sites but be sure to warn people of the links and you can write a post as big as you want and post a good amount of images too. I can use the "fullpost html span" trick to shorten the post on the main blog/archives screen or eventually have it automated; so blog to your heart's content ^_^

Ok, that's not exactly how the tree looks (image pending), but in the spirit of the holidays, yes there will actually be a Gundam Christmas Tree.

The news comes from Anime News Network today and here's a quick summery if you don't wish to view the post directly.

There is a 5 meter (~16 foot) tall tree full of Gundam figures that will be lit up on December 3rd in the heart of the anime world; yep you guessed it, in the otaku shopping district of Akihabara.

It's actually to commemorate the release of the new Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next Plus PSP game and the actual flipping of the switch will be done by none other than Amuro Ray's voice actor, Tohru Furuya.

Being that I'm on Long Island, I have the privilege to go check out the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree in NYC but...this year, I'd gladly like to switch spots with someone in Japan of course.

(As for the image above...it's what you think it is, me doing a cheap and quick photoshop image ^^;;)

Continuing again the #FanServiceFriday (#FF) trend with this lovely picture.  Today is Black Friday and many of you were prbably up earlier than this early blog post.  The anime girl in this picture didn't want to get up for the Black Friday rush and is still all cosy in bed.  She will probably just shop online this holiday season.

Ok, admit it, we all drink energy drinks. Some of us (me) drink them like coffee. I have sampled many of the multitude of drinks out there. Most of course are simply liquid sugar with Taurine and caffeine. Many of us love these sugary drinks and some of them come in versions that us anime/video game fans love. As you see in the image there's the Domo drink and the Naruto drink and not pictured is the DBZ Super Saiyan drink I blogged about a while ago. For too long I didn't stock any one of them, but today that has changed. Eventually I will stock the array of drinks with our favorite characters slapped on it but since late 2004...I've actually been selling energy drinks with XS Energy Drink ^^;;, the drink some of you might have seen in the hands of the Orlando Magic during the last NBA Finals. Reason for the long wait was because it was one of those deals where I couldn't sell beyond person-to-person, but since I own my anime store here as a legal business entity, I have the rights to add them to the online store.

Just take a glance on over at the store and you will see a few of the many flavors they have (yes an energy drink that actually has more than citrus and sorta-still-citrus flavors)... like green tea and cherry cola. These aren't the sugar filled guys and they were the first healthy (but taste very good) energy drinks that started around 2001-2002.  They are mainly drop shipped to save people on the shipping plus orders of them netting $75 is actually free shipping. Doesn't mean I won't have them on hand too, to accommodate those wary of drop shipping.

Anyways, before I make this post seem too much like an ad ^^;;, just check the new energy drink section out yourself and you can always ask me questions on them; back a few years ago I was practically an expert on them.

For those who use Twitter, a common Friday post the trend called Follow Friday or #ff to show off people on twitter we think are cool and deserve following. I thought up of an anime equivalent called #FanServiceFriday. It's a way for us to post moments in anime when either a bad anime tries to redeem itself or a good anime adds that icing on the cake. Those nosebleed-worthy moments are part of the anime culture and I say we should get this trend started ^_^

(Note: I'll keep my fan service posts only on a PG-13 or less level as for PR reasons and to keep my twitter and other accounts safe from being banned ^^;;

Also, I wish I could take credit for this but about 6 days ago the first notion of #FanServiceFriday on twitter was by user @alainchristian. Also, the anime blog moggling.com every Friday has a Fan Service Friday post (like the picture above))

My twitter name is @princetrunks btw ^^

Well, the 2009 NY Anime Fest has come to a close. Had a great time. Going to post up some cool stuff in the days to come, including a surprise for the front page of the site ^^ You can check the Flickr feed I used while there. Tried to make it as live as possible but the darn iPhone's battery power kept things at a minimum. As for best cosplay of the event (other than my fiancee being Tifa)...check out this sick, sick Bumble Bee costume.

See NYAF pictures at the official group here.

This poster was at the Kotobukiya booth over at SDCC 09 about a month and a half back. just wanted to pay homage to Shunya Yamashita and his amazing work so far with Marvel. The Rogue figure recently arrived and it looks great. (kept one for myself ^^) Of course the news that happened earlier this week was that Marvel was bought out by, of all companies, Disney 0-O. As long as Disney keeps everything basically the way they were, Marvel will do just fine. Hopefully things don't go down the watered down kiddy route for Marvel. If that happens, chances are Yamashita won't be designing Bishoujo too much longer :-( It's very obvious that Yamashita with Kotobukiya (and sculptor Koei Matsumoto) make very gorgeous versions of American comic book girls. Sadly, the comic book girl figures developed here in the US tend to look like, well...very manly women 0_O, so please Disney...don't drop the deal with Yamashita and Kotobukiya.

This poster was at the Kotobukiya booth over at SDCC 09 about a month and a half back. just wanted to pay homage to Shunya Yamashita and his amazing work so far with Marvel. The Rogue figure recently arrived and it looks great. (kept one for myself ^^) Of course the news that happened earlier this week was that Marvel was bought out by, of all companies, Disney 0-O. As long as Disney keeps everything basically the way they were, Marvel will do just fine. Hopefully things don't go down the watered down kiddy route for Marvel. If that happens, chances are Yamashita won't be designing Bishoujo too much longer :-( It's very obvious that Yamashita with Kotobukiya (and sculptor Koei Matsumoto) make very gorgeous versions of American comic book girls. Sadly, the comic book girl figures developed here in the US tend to look like, well...very manly women 0_O, so please Disney...don't drop the deal with Yamashita and Kotobukiya.

Big congrats to Danny Choo (@dannychoo). As of today he graced fans on his two sites, dannychoo.com and figure.fm with pictures of the prototype to the Mirai Figma figure. It must feel great to see a character that you create as a mascot to your site or just in general become an official anime figure. Many anime fans create characters based on their love of the art and manga artists sometimes get that honor of seeing their characters being added to the plethera of respected anime characters.

Hopefully my day will come when I set up my own mascot (Fumi) to be that. I still have that flash/iPhone game in mind (I didn't forget). As an anime store owner with a dealership with Figma, I'll make sure to aid Danny and Figma in this project by ordering some for my store. More info down the road once pre-orders are given the green light for me ^_^.

Check out more info and the people responsible for the Figma Mirai on Danny's sites.

Big congrats to Danny Choo (@dannychoo). As of today he graced fans on his two sites, dannychoo.com and figure.fm with pictures of the prototype to the Mirai Figma figure. It must feel great to see a character that you create as a mascot to your site or just in general become an official anime figure. Many anime fans create characters based on their love of the art and manga artists sometimes get that honor of seeing their characters being added to the plethera of respected anime characters.

Hopefully my day will come when I set up my own mascot (Fumi) to be that. I still have that flash/iPhone game in mind (I didn't forget). As an anime store owner with a dealership with Figma, I'll make sure to aid Danny and Figma in this project by ordering some for my store. More info down the road once pre-orders are given the green light for me ^_^.

Check out more info and the people responsible for the Figma Mirai on Danny's sites.

Ok, I've been blogging a decent amount about the 1/1 Gundam in Odaiba but there is much more to add about this thing. As of a few days back, Anime News Network announced that wedding ceremonies will now be done in front of the statue! This isn't just something a bunch of otaku decided to scheme up, it's actually being done by a professional wedding groups (known as Take and Give Needs (T&G)) and even by the famed wedding planner, Akemi Ariga. Thing is, applications to have our wedding done will be closing by the 26th in order to get the ceremonies all done before the statue closes on Aug. 30th.

So with that said...who'd want to be married in front of the 59 foot RX-78? Actually, the big question is, who has a significant other who'd agree to this?

Some of you might know that I'm engaged to marry my long time girl friend and AMV master, Danielle. I'm lucky that she' my part asian fiancee who's also a rabid otaku, thus she'd most likely not mind having the wedding there in front of the Gundam. We won't have the chance to sign up for this but our wedding plans for next year might still have Odaiba in the picture. Thing is, Danielle's grandmother used to work for the heads of such companies like Panasonic and her connections might allow us to stay at one of the 5 star hotels on Odaiba (somewhere near Rainbow Bridge). So, for our honeymoon, we might have the luxury to look out the window and see the Gundam..just wish the yen vs. the dollar ratio would change -_- It's getting very expensive to get items from our favorite land.

(PS: Sorry for the lack of blog posts ^^;; I did update the blog's template a bit and added a thumbnailed past posts widget below as well as the "read more" link to help the main page load faster and allow me (and anyone else who'd like to blog here) the chance to write a nice long post. the thumbnail posts widget only works for the main page though and it was a pain to do since blogger utterly fails to be customizable when you use your own site -_-)

Ok, I've been blogging a decent amount about the 1/1 Gundam in Odaiba but there is much more to add about this thing. As of a few days back, Anime News Network announced that wedding ceremonies will now be done in front of the statue! This isn't just something a bunch of otaku decided to scheme up, it's actually being done by a professional wedding groups (known as Take and Give Needs (T&G)) and even by the famed wedding planner, Akemi Ariga. Thing is, applications to have our wedding done will be closing by the 26th in order to get the ceremonies all done before the statue closes on Aug. 30th.

So with that said...who'd want to be married in front of the 59 foot RX-78? Actually, the big question is, who has a significant other who'd agree to this?

Some of you might know that I'm engaged to marry my long time girl friend and AMV master, Danielle. I'm lucky that she' my part asian fiancee who's also a rabid otaku, thus she'd most likely not mind having the wedding there in front of the Gundam. We won't have the chance to sign up for this but our wedding plans for next year might still have Odaiba in the picture. Thing is, Danielle's grandmother used to work for the heads of such companies like Panasonic and her connections might allow us to stay at one of the 5 star hotels on Odaiba (somewhere near Rainbow Bridge). So, for our honeymoon, we might have the luxury to look out the window and see the Gundam..just wish the yen vs. the dollar ratio would change -_- It's getting very expensive to get items from our favorite land.

(PS: Sorry for the lack of blog posts ^^;; I did update the blog's template a bit and added a thumbnailed past posts widget below as well as the "read more" link to help the main page load faster and allow me (and anyone else who'd like to blog here) the chance to write a nice long post. the thumbnail posts widget only works for the main page though and it was a pain to do since blogger utterly fails to be customizable when you use your own site -_-)

Sorry for the delay in my posts, been doing some site updates and I also caught a nasty cold/flu. Anyways, did you know that you can get a college degree in Manga Research? I didn't know either but as per Anime News Network, Kyoto Seika University will have it's first graduate programs in the subject. Yet another reason why I hate, hate the US school system. It took years for video game development to be accepted by the pompous a-holes in charge of US "higher education" when for years it was in Japan. Funny thing is that many so-called "well to do" computer science grads are flipping burgers now since their department is in India now. The only successful people in those fields are..you guessed it, video game developers. I would bet my yearly anime products profits that a major in Manga research will go farther than a degree in say English Literature..but who am I but a former Computer Scientist who makes $$ from an anime business and who can develop video games & who has appeared in Business Week a number of times. Guess the joke's on the US college system XD

Anyways...had to rant a bit but due check out the full story by ANN. Would be a cool degree to get indeed, sure beats English Literature..which why the f$*# did I have to take as well in my Computer Science courses? (..maybe to not have some many typos in my blogs ^^;;;)

Sorry for the delay in my posts, been doing some site updates and I also caught a nasty cold/flu. Anyways, did you know that you can get a college degree in Manga Research? I didn't know either but as per Anime News Network, Kyoto Seika University will have it's first graduate programs in the subject. Yet another reason why I hate, hate the US school system. It took years for video game development to be accepted by the pompous a-holes in charge of US "higher education" when for years it was in Japan. Funny thing is that many so-called "well to do" computer science grads are flipping burgers now since their department is in India now. The only successful people in those fields are..you guessed it, video game developers. I would bet my yearly anime products profits that a major in Manga research will go farther than a degree in say English Literature..but who am I but a former Computer Scientist who makes $$ from an anime business and who can develop video games & who has appeared in Business Week a number of times. Guess the joke's on the US college system XD

Anyways...had to rant a bit but due check out the full story by ANN. Would be a cool degree to get indeed, sure beats English Literature..which why the f$*# did I have to take as well in my Computer Science courses? (..maybe to not have some many typos in my blogs ^^;;;)