Happy Pumpkin Day!

Hey everyone! I know we promised you new articles but something very big came up the last few days (again -_-). Anyway, we'd like to announce that CyCyn of Sailor Moon Obsession was our lucky visitor #50,000 and very soon she will have a banner to display anywhere she wants, to show this achievement!

Tomorrow is Halloween, and we'd love to hear (even see pictures!) of what you're dressing up as. Halloween is a day for anyone to dress up, and we know a lot of cosplayers read this blog and they are probably happy that they can go out in public dressed as whatever they want for one day outside of convention season :). So comment below or send us an email with your pictures and we will feature them! It doesn't even have to be about yourself even, if you've got an amusing Halloween costume that you saw (or will see tomorrow) you'd like to tell us about, we will feature it as well!

Watch the Counter!

Could it be you? We are approximately 40 hits away from another milestone for this website, 50,000 hits! We are above and beyond what we ever expected and this site has only been up for just a little over a year and a half! We want to thank all of you (readers, actors, industry) for your continuing support reading this site. Sometimes we can't post everything we find in time, but we are all so glad behind the scenes that you keep coming back no matter what! If you happen to be lucky number 50K, we'd love to hear from you (and see a screenshot). We'll even throw in a custom made banner that you can use in your forums signature or wherever you so desire to show everyone you were our lucky visitor!

Utada, Kumi, and now BoA. . . Where is Ayu?

We're a little delayed with our Sailor Moon articles a bit more than we would imagine, but we came across this today and we thought that we'd share it with you all since we do talk a bit about Japanese Pop Music on this blog. With the skyrocketing interest in anime over the last few years, otakudom in North America has also included J-Pop artists. It's been every otaku's dream that their favourite artists would make the crossover into the English market - so that fans wouldn't have to go to such great lengths to get their albums! Of course, the days of Sukiyaki are long gone, but nonetheless, some artists are crossing the pond! Joining Utada Hikaru, Puffy, and Kumi Koda, now BoA has entered the scene. For those of you who don't know who BoA is, you might recognize her from InuYasha, she sang the 4th ending song, Every Heart. She also collaborated with Japanese hip-hop group for a song called The Love Bug (which was a favorite of mine back in the day). BoA is Korean but sings in Korean, English and Japanese, and is one of the bigger stars in Asia. She has just released her first single to the United States, Eat You Up, and we really dig this track (though she should probably lose the hoodie and show her face a little more)! We've got our fingers crossed that BoA makes it big here in North America. We've posted the video for you all to watch below. Still though, we're waiting anxiously for our other favorite artists to jump across the pond, namely Ayumi Hamasaki. Oh well, perhaps it will happen in time? For more information, check out BoA's American site!

Articles Returning Really Soon, But In The Meantime...

We've Got a Heartwarming Shokotan Story!

Hey readers - I've been talking with The Me and we are both aware how much you are missing reading articles and seeing commercials - believe me, we're having a tough time trying to find time to get these things done. For most of the year now I've been taking on a few computer consultant/web development jobs and the latter has kept me busy (and stressed beyond my mind, as anyone who has had to do anything for a less-than-ideal boss can understand). The good news is that it appears that most of the stars in Japan haven't been up to a lot lately so look forward to seeing a News From The Other Side of the Pond in a few days that will not be split up by Sailor Moon production (though it's sad that the actors are up to little, it actually makes our lives easier when we bing the stories to you!). We've also got some exciting Flashpoint news from around the world to share with you this upcoming week, and an exhibit in Japan with features Sailor Moon.

In the meantime though, we read this really heartwarming and charming story about Shoko "Shokotan" Nakagawa on Kotaku, one of the best blogs for geek culture. We all try to hit this one a few times a week when we have time to kill. Tokyo Game Show (like E3 but some of it is open to the public) just ended, and Shoko appeared at the con to sing at a concert and from the picture here, it looks like she was there for some Pokemon promotion as well. We're not sure if the story in this post is true about the editor's son wanting to marry Shoko because she is pretty and knows lots about Pokemon, but we would not be surprised if it was! Shoko is one of the few idols who is always candid about the anime, manga, and games that she loves, even if the tabloids make fun of her for it. Hey, if you were a little kid and had an idol like this to look up to, chances are you'd want to spend the rest of your life with this person☻! Shoko once again ruffled the feathers of the tabloids when she posed for pictures in Sailor Moon cosplay with popular "newhalf" model , Ayana Tsubaki. Ayana is one of Japan's most popular transexual models, so of course while some parts of culture accept her, others don't. The article did say that Ayana looked impressive in her Sailor Mars cosplay - and we think so too. Aside from her boots, we thought she did a good job! Shoko remarked on her post that it's good to make lots of friends and that it was nice to cosplay with a friend as Sailor Moon characters since it's a story that her generation really enjoyed. She ended the post with an ascii character hugging "⊂二二(＾ω＾)二二つ". We don't care what anyone says about her, but she is probably the coolest of all the idols in our opinion because of her love of cosplay and anime! We've posted the picture here for you all to see.

New Interview With Flashpoint Creators!

Hey Moonies! Still no word on any airdates for the last four episodes, or if there will be a boxset released soon. Canadians can click here to purchase episodes on iTunes.

We came across an interview though that we thought you all might really like to read. Mike McPhaden, a contributor to the blog Running With My Eyes Closed recently got the chance to sit down with Stephanie Morgenstern (Sailor Venus #1) and her husband Mark Ellis to chat about Flashpoint. This is a really good interview because it shows fans from their point of view a lot of things about the birth of the series that even we didn't know (and we were one of the few blogs to cover the show extensively from the beginning)! We think you will all get a good idea of how hard they have worked to bring this show to life, from the extensive amounts of research, to the handshaking of many big names in TV, to finally moving from a Movie of the Week prospect to a series. One of the highlights of the interview was learning the different names that they tried to come up with for the show's title. Our personal favorite is their daughter's suggestion of "Bad Guys Run Away!" Perhaps that title could be used for a future episode (hey, we'd watch it :) )! Part one is located here, and part two is located here.

Yoshihiro Togashi is #1 But...

He Never Had A Driver's License?

Oh boy. More on this strange fact later - onto the good news! The manga is back! Just a few days ago it reappeared in Jump Magazine, and the 26th volume of the manga was released last Friday. According to sales charts, volume #26 was the top seller last week. We even read a few blogs from fans in Japan who were waiting in the lines to get their copy, and one of them even remarked that reading it was better than... oh wait, this blog is rated PG-13, we can't use that word on the front page!

In his comments at the end of Jump, he said that it was inexcusable for him to keep fans waiting this long, and apologized. We can just imagine fan's frustrations asking why he continues to pull these stunts after reading that... Yoshihiro also revealed he recently got his driver's license and that now people might be able to identify him more. He is 42 and just got his license now?! Was Naoko driving him everywhere? This has only left us with more questions... perhaps it was because Yoshihiro was very busy that Naoko has been out of the manga scene for so long? He says that he wants everyone to drive , and that he has risen to the challenge of this manga, he will not give up. Brave words, Yoshihiro, but please, next time don't plan your hiatus for so long!

For those of you fans in North America, we have learned that Viz will release a dvd boxset of season 1 of the HxH anime just in time for Christmas on December 9th. Every two months after that, Viz will release another boxset.

EDIT: We have a magic number for you! According to this article, Volume 26 sold 487,403 copies!

Daily Yomiuri Asks A Question...

And Naoko Could Be An Answer?!

Yesterday, the Daily Yomiuri (one of Japan's largest newspapers) posted a very interesting article on their website asking the question "Who is the artist who played the greatest role in the 'globalization' of Japanese manga?" And before we started reading the rest, we took a step back and tried to think of who we thought was the spark that started the manga boom around the world in the last 10 or so years. The names that came to our mind were Osamu Tezuka (famous for Astro Boy among others), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), and Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon). The article written by otaku and journalist Kanta Ishida mentioned most of these names, along with Fujio F. Fujiko, most famous for Doraemon. However, it argues that the one person we missed, Rumiko Takahashi, is probably that spark. Rumiko Takahashi is known best for many different works, such as Inu Yasha, Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Maison Ikkoku. The article takes a different angle than we all expected, saying that the globalization of manta is really just the globalization of the feeling of sparks of love. Rumiko was the first female mangaka to write boys' manga in boys' magazines which later created a boom in romantic comedy manga in the 80s. We can understand that she was a big pioneer but when talking about globalization, we think the author forgot to mention when these works spread out to the rest of the world beyond Asia and we don't necessarily agree with his choice. Fans, who do you think is the artist who played the greatest role in the 'globalization' of Japanese manga?