Hit manga and video game, Alice in the Country of Hearts has been adapted into a film.  QuinRose announced that the movie will follow a new story-line, that still fits with the Alice in Wonderland theme that made the series popular.  Along with a note from the developer, who said that the movie could be easily viewed by both the manga readers, and those who've played the game, and that previous knowledge of the game was not required for full enjoyment. The cast list includes Rie Kugimiya as Alice Liddell, with Yuko Kaida as Vivaldi, Jun Fukuyama as both Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Tsugou Mogami as Elliot, Katsuyuki Konishi as Blood Dupre, Kouki Miyata as Peter White, Daisuke Hirakawa as Ace, Noriaki Sugiyama as Boris, Akira Ishida as Joker, Tomokazu Sugita as Nightmare, Takehito Koyasu as Julius, and Kenyuu Horiuchi as Mary Gowland.The film is set to open in seven Japanese cities on the 30th of July.


Mamenosuke Fujimaru will began a new manga series entitled Alice in the Country of Joker:The Circus and the Lying Game, which  aired in the  June issue of Monthly Comic Zero-Sum.

Alice in the Country of Hearts Volumes 1-5 have been published by TokyoPop, and the future of Volume 6 is still unknown.  Two more video games, Alice in the Country of Clover, and Alice in the Country of the Joker, have also been released.

For a preview of the movie go to http://quinrose.com/game/alice_h_m/movie.html, or click the picture below. All pictures are copyrighted to QuinRose. Source:ANN

Welcome to the World; The biggest online RPG forum, where the player use headsets to enter a world that is so real, it becomes another reality. In this reality, you can be anything, and do anything you want.  Enter brother and sister Shugo and Rena, respectively. Rena has just won limited edition avatars for a special version of the game and pesters her brother to try it. Almost immediately, they are attacked by a level 40 Golem. With the Golem having a good 39 levels over them, you do the math, they would have been killed instantly but for two factors. Those factors names are: Aura, a mysterious girl who-not only saves Shugo's life- but gives him a strange bracelet that will help him defeat his enemies. And then, with a kiss, and an obscure message, that Shugo is the chosen one, destined to follow in the footsteps of the legendary .hackers, heroes that are more myth than reality. The other factor is an administrator named Balmung. Originally a very powerful player in the world, Balmung has turned his talents to administration, the planning of events and of course, the saving of very pretty young girls.

After their adventure, and the restoration of their game lives, they meet a rare items collector, a girl named Mireille. Mireille offers to team up with them because of their rarity, and because she finds them entertaining. Over the course of the book, they also befriend Ouka, a werewolf- this friendship resulted from a rather embarrassing incident, in which Shugo, believing Ouka,who at the time was in wolf form,  to be a NPC(Non-Player Character), gives her a dog collar and begins begging his sister to let them keep her.

Since Ouka is a high-level, and in Mireille's warped senses rare, it is no surprise the two are fast friends.  The next day, when the four agree to meet, Ouka and Mireille are running late. While Shugo and Rena are waiting, a newbie named Hotaru comes to them asking for help curing a sick grunty. (Grunty- a small pig-like creature that is rasied in The World, and can be, when mature,used to ride like a horse.) Apparently the only cure is Phoenix Down, a rare substance, costing more than either Shugo, who has agreed to help, or Hotaru can afford.

They set off to the Valley of Hades, to fight Cerberus, who is known to sometimes carry extra Phoenix Down with him. During this previous interval, Ouka and Mireille arrive, and express concerns over whether or not Shugo can handle such a high-level monster. All ends well however, and Shugo and Hotaru return safely, and the grunty is cured.

The last thing in volume 1 is the reappearance of Balmung, who is hosting a contest. In this contest, male players set out to save the "princess". Rena is chosen as princess and Balmung and Shugo fight it out to see who will rescue her first. Even though it basically ends in a tie, Rena acknowledges Balmung as  her champion.

Published by TokyoPop, .hack//LEGEND OF THE TWILIGHT is rated T, and is highly recommended by this website.

Ja Ne,
Catgirl

At Kawaii Con, Sentai Rep. David Williams released this statement:

a new title that we haven’t talked about yet will be coming out in August: Kobato. It’s a CLAMP project, and we will be releasing that in August, so watch for that one. … It’s a fun, nice little CLAMP title.

The 24 episode series, produced by Madhouse, ran from 2009-2010.Based on the CLAMP manga, published by Yen Press, Kobato is about a sweet, cute girl who has a mysterious bottle that she is able to fill with hearts of people she heals. Once she fills this bottle, she will be able to go to a special place. But- she not allowed to fall in love.She is accompanied by a loryogi, a spirit in the form of a plushie dog. Kobato was 1st animated in CLAMP's second music video, CLAMP in Wonderland 2.

Yen Press, who handles all of CLAMP's USA releases, will publish Kobato Vol. 4 in July.

Clamp in Wonderland 2 can be watched here.

Kobato Trailer:

Biblography:
http://blogs.starbulletin.com/otakuohana/?p=2773
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-05-01/sentai-filmworks-adds-kobato-anime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmhMapzJ0W4Pictures From:
flash-screen.com
fukanounashigoto.free.fr

For those of you who have read or watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the subsequent novels, manga, and anime, you know about her domineering personality, and her love of the super-natural.  Now, some of those hard core fans have created their own religion: Haruhiism, and the followers of this new religion are called Haruhiists. 

The followers of Haruhiism have broken themselves down into seven subgroups: Zen Haruhiists, Orthodox Haruhiists, Kyon Haruhiists, Coptic Haruhiists, Messianic Haruhiists, Eve Haruhiists, and finally Beveraginist Haruhiists.  


The descriptions of each sect of Haruhiism could be construed as offensive by MANY religions, however, if you wish to read about each sect, you may do so here:http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Haruhiism, however,  we'll cover some of the basics.

Haruhistic Commandments:

Some examples of the Haruhistic Commandments include:

• Thou Shalt not be Bored
• Thou Shalt be a Lolicon
• Thou Shalt not tell the goddess she is a god
• Thou Shalt Observe the Sabbath aka The day a new anime episode is released.

 Prayer

5 times every day, Haruhiists preform the highly popular Hare Hare Yukai, which is the ending theme to the anime. However, members are not allowed to pronounce the name of the dance.

Holidays and The Spreading of the Word

Haruhiists celebrate Almsgiving, a day when they give Haruhi-related items to the world. Such as bootlegging Haruhi episodes so those who cannot afford the DVD's to watch them.

The members of Haruhiism have a declaration of faith, "There is no god but Haruhi and Nagaru Tanigawa is Her prophet." For those of you who don't know, Tanigawa was the man who created The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

In the Middle East, a group of children carried signs bearing the slogan stop killing children and Haruhi's image, in an attempt for peace, and to spread the word of Haruhi. 

Haruhiism is rivaled by Kyonism, Kyon is another character in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
*As far as the books/manga/anime go, I highly recommend it, but please pay attention to the age warning.
All pics/info from:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Haruhiism

Kimihiro Watanuki has had a special gift for a long time. He struggles to get some alone time every day and gets frantic whenever he sees "them". He has the power to see spirits. They all seem to have a special connection with him.

While walking down the street, he starts talking very loudly to himself. The spirits are flowing him and never leave his side. While attempting t to get away from the blob of spirit, he stumbles across a "shop" where you can buy wishes. He enters, unaware of what is waiting for him, behind the paneled doors.

A mysterious woman named Yuuko runs the store. Her two adorable henchgirls Maru and Moro are hyper and cute all the time! Anybody could easily fall in love with their enthusiasm. They call Yuuko master, and cater to her needs. They often repeat whatever important or silly thing Yuuko says, and repeat random words of their own. Yuuko has an interesting face, that does not at all lack in mystery and elegance. She has a cute little bunny-thing as her drinking partner, even though he sounds like a 7 year old. Kimihiro is mostly disturbed through his entire experience, and shows it even more when he meets the little bunny Mokona. Mokona (the drinking partner) has a bouncy attitude wherever she is, and brings smiles from most young girls that pass by. Kimihiro is assigned to go shopping as payment for his wish, which is odd, because Yuuko already stole his watch.

While walking he comes upon a girl much like himself. He somehow wants to tell her that everything will be okay, because of his experience. She ends up turning towards him asking how he could possibly understand what she goes through. He never answers. Upon returning he drops off the groceries at the wish shop, and leaves.

* while we know that XxxHolic is not new, we are just getting around to watching it.


Image source: All pictures are drawn and copyrighted to CLAMP, and the top picture came from:
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/xxxholic/images/2667407/title/kimihiro-watanuki-wallpaper
The others belong to me.

 Our heroine, Haruna's only real goal in high-school is to get a boyfriend. After spending all of her junior high life playing softball, she's rather clueless, and approaches one of the most popular boys, Yoh, to coach her. His one condition is that she not fall for him, which is pretty much hopeless from day 1.

 Over the course of time, Yoh introduces her to multiple boys, and fails to keep her in a relationship for any length of time. Slowly, Haruna begins to realize just who she's really in love with and who she'd rather go out with. After firing Yoh as her trainer, and continually ducking him, she finally confeses her feelings for Yoh.

 He goes out with Haruna and her exuberance and lack of experience leads to many small tiffs and  problems, including a fight in which she and Yoh don't speak for days, not wanting to be the one to apologize. However

While High School Debut is highly popular and has a cute story line, the haplessness of Haruna gets rather annoying over time, as does the subtle jealousy of Asa, and Yoh's own aura of angst starts to get on one's nerves.  But, it has considerable merit, and is a nice quick read, only 13 volumes.  If you find it hard to take Haruna, think of her as a female Tamaki ( Ouran High School Host Club), it helps.

 Live action filming for High School Debut started in October of 2010, and is scheduled to hit theaters in spring 2011. Mizobuta Junpei and Ohno Ito will star.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_School_Debut

After watching over half of the episodes, they are only like five minutes long,  and reading the manga as it is released from TokyoPop, I think its a good depiction of our world history, and for that matter the drawings are a lot better than some of the things out there that aren't being complained about. Its good, also as a teaching tool, because it doesn't skim over things like other history books do.In Hetalia, all countries are shamed and praised equally, and people need to get over it. It's growing fan base, and the soon to be released publication of a second volume from TokyoPop, should help lessen the tensions in the Otaku community. 

Book 2 has now hit stores.

Ninja Girls is drawn by an artist who clearly has talent, but has chosen to draw a pointless story full of scantly clad females who do nothing but strip, fight over their "Lord" who happens to  look like he is  a twelve year old, and use fighting styles like "Masochistic Bondage" style.

In the 1st book, all that happens is he is attacked by Kagari who's life he has saved, only upon seeing the horn on his head, she immediately drops into a bow and says she is a faithful ninja, and would die for him.
He is then almost instantly attacked again, by yet another ninja- whom is known by  Kagari. Kagari saves him from attack by Kisarabi by slamming her overly large chest into him, squashing him flat.
Then comes the arrival of the third ninja, Himemaru- who spirits him away in the dead of night after  leaving Kagari in tied up in some sort of bondage scenario.
The story progresses nowhere and is completely undeserving of its 16+ rating. In my opinion, this book needs a M rating and a parental advisory sticker on the front. No self respecting manga lover would buy this excerpt out of a pervert's heaven. The fact that it has at least three books astounds me.  

Tsubasa Those with Wings is a trilogy by Natsuki Takaya, author of Fruits Basket (Furuba) and Songs that Make You Smile- a collection of shorts.

Set in the 22nd century, where all the world has been broken up into three major countries, ex thief Kotobuki and her ex-army friend Raimon go on a long adventure, risking their life and falling in love ♥? With help from Shoka, Kotobuki's ditzy thief friend, Shoka's lackeys, and Adelaide, a brilliant business girl, and rich friend,and Yan, the young leader of a  they trace Tsubasa, a mysterious artificial pair of human brains, that have the ability to grant wishes, all the way to now-mythical Japan.

Kotobuki  is the only one to see Tsubasa in action, until she begs it to forgive her and the rest of human kind; However, she has one main goal, to free Raimon from his army superiors, who exert some sort odd control over him.

Hetalia is a very odd and amusing take on the Allies and Axis powers of WWI. This manga started, as a web comic and then TOKYOPOP bought the publishing rights. However, funny as it may be, some people will likely find it offensive. It makes some jokes that can be taken the wrong way, and portrays Italy as slow but adorable, France as cowardly and so on. Example A:AnimeGlobe Article.

Personally, I found it funny, and cute, but you can't think of countries as real place, the characters have to just be a person, not a real place.

Episodes are short, and the manga has just been released.  It has a huge fan base, and not everyone thinks of it as offensive. in the back of the 1st book is a note from a woman in Russia who said it made her wonder about her countries past. ( I wouldn't use it as a source for a report.)

Hetalia is inaccurate, and just another anime that makes fun of things. It's cute, and a good read. Pick it up and decide for yourself. it's hit and miss like any other.

Hetalia Day will be the 24th of October. The are going to be celebrations all over the world, if possible, the good people starting this, want you to, if you cosplay, to take a picture of you with your countries flag. The have imposed a dress code this year, it can be found on their website.( Click the picture for a link.)Please, know that this is not acknowledged by the mangaka, or publishers, however.
To contact the main branch, email: hetalia.day@gmail.com

The New Hetalia Tralier