Megumi Ogata FanExpo Concert Update

The song list for Megumi's concert is now available. Here's what she'll be singing at the concert:

1. Hohoemi No Bakudan [Yu☆Yu☆Hakusho OP]
2. Homework ga Owaranai [Yu☆Yu☆Hakusho ED]
3. Moonlight Densetsu [Sailor Moon OP]
4. Yuzurenai Negai [Magic Knight Rayearth OP]
5. Platinum [Card Captor Sakura OP]
6. Agape [UFO Princess Valkyrie IMAGE]
7. Fly Me To The Moon [Neon Genesis Evangelion ED]
8. Komm, Susser Tod (Come, Sweet Death) [Evangelion AIR IMAGE]
9. THANATOS - If I can't be yours -　[Evangelion AIR ED]
10. Beautiful World [Rebuild of Evangelion ED]
11. ENDLESS LOVE [Ogata Megumi Original]
12. can't go back my mission [Ogata Megumi Original]
13. Hare Hare Yukai [Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ED]
14. Don't Say Lazy [K-ON ED]
15. My Soul, Your Beats! [Angel Beats! OP]
16. Crow Song [Angel Beats! IMAGE]
17. chAngE [BLEACH OP]
18. Get Wild [City Hunter ED]
19. Unbalance na KISS wo shite [Yu☆Yu☆Hakusho ED]
20. + SPECIAL ENCORE

Additional details are available on the official event page for the concert on Facebook. Tickets are available for purchase online or at FanExpo (Line up and purchase your ticket while entering the concert or pre-purchase at the YOSHITAKA AMANO GOODS BOOTH).

More official details: concert tickets are $30 each (plus taxes and service charges). Purchasers of concert tickets who also purchase FanExpo tickets will receive priority seating at the event. This is a separate event from FanExpo and you do not have to purchase a FanExpo ticket to attend the concert. The concert starts at 7:30pm. Priority seating will be let in at 7:00pm sharp. The concert duration will be approximately 90 minutes.

We hope Toronto fans who attend the concert have a great time!

Megumi Ogata Appearing at FanExpo in Toronto

Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) will be appearing at FanExpo 2010 in Toronto. Fans can attend her Q&A session on Saturday, August 28th at 1pm in room #206C. A deluxe/weekend pass is required to attend the Q&A session. If you have questions for Megumi, you can e-mail them to ogataqanda@punchgo.com

Autograph sessions with Megumi will be taking place on Friday, August 27th at 8pm in signing area BB and on Saturday, August 28th at 11:30 am in signing area AA. All FanExpo passes will allow you in for autographs.

Megumi will also be performing a concert on Saturday, August 28th at 7:30pm in the John Bassett Theatre. This is a special ticket event which costs $30. You do not have to buy a pass to FanExpo to get in, but FanExpo pass holders receive priority entrance into the venue. Tickets are limited to 1300 seats. If you would like to buy concert tickets in advance, you can buy them online here (scroll down to the bottom). Note that no food or drink is allowed in the venue and no photographs, audio, or video recordings are allowed during the concert.

This year's FanExpo will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in the North Building. All events featuring Megumi will be in this building, with the concert theatre in the underground level. The address is 255 Front Street West. Directions are available here. Deluxe/weekend passes are $59, basic/day passes are $29 (for Friday or Sunday) or $35 (for Saturday).

Fans may also be interested in the "Breakfast with the Stars" special ticket event. This breakfast with anime voice actors will take place at 10am on Sunday, August 29th at Manpuku Japanese Restaurant. Tickets are $40 each and will be on sale at the Anime Info Booth (next to the Masquerade Info Booth) during Friday and Saturday of FanExpo.

More anime events at FanExpo are listed here. The full anime schedule can be downloaded here.

Outers and Sailor Starlights Update!

Here comes part two of our seiyuu update - Outer Senshi and Sailor Starlights!


Mika Doi (Queen Serenity) can be heard playing Kotoko Fujioka (Haruhi's mother) in Ouran High School Host Club (one of our staff favorites)! She also played Queen Dessert in the last Pretty Cure Movie Yes! Precure 5 GoGo! Happy Birthday in the Land of Sweets, playing Queen Dessert*. The 2003 movie Levity was just released in Japan, and Mika is the Japanese dub voice of Holly Hunter's character, Adele Easley.


Masako Katsuki (Sailor Neptune): She is used as the Japanese dub voice for Kim Cattrall's legendary character from Sex and the City, Samantha Jones. It is very likely she will be used again for the upcoming movie sequel set to hit theaters this coming Summer. She is also the voice of Princess Rose in Gokujo!! Mecha Mote Iincho, a silly romantic comedy about a high school girl who tries to reform a trio of bad boys. She is teaching voice acting as well, and for those of you who want to see a more recent photo of her, here she is hugging one of her students! The student's blog entry says that she is finding her acting classes tough, but that Masako is a great teacher! Unfortunately, despite our best efforts we were unable to find out what school she is teaching through.

Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) continues to play one of her most famous roles as Shinji Ikari in the new Evangelion movies! She also sang at a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Japanese music label Lantis. Lantis is a special music label since it specializes in anime and video game soundtracks. She began her performance in her voice as Shinji saying "The Pilot of Evangelion is Shinji Ikari!" and sang Silver Rain ~Piano Version~. She also debuted a new song at this concert, Silent Decide.






Chiyoko Kawashima (Sailor Pluto) retired in 2001.






Yuko Minaguchi (Sailor Saturn) has had a few roles in some recent anime. In Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae (Hell Girl: Cauldron), she played Nanami Kikuchi. In Hayate the Combat Butler, she played Nagi Sanzenin's mother, Yukariko (another one of our staff favorite animes). In a recent episode of Detective Conan, she played Mina Eguchi.Yuko is also the third star of Sailor Moon to be a part of technology launch parties in Japan, next to Toru Furuya and Kotono Mitsuishi. Earlier this month, she took place in an event at Ikebukuro Sunshine City. At the "Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience" she demonstrated how to use the new Lenovo Thinkpad. She posted a photo of herself learning how to use the Thinkpad with an office staff member on her blog! Unfortunately we couldn't find any photos of her at the event.





Shiho Niiyama (Sailor Star Fighter) tragically passed away almost ten years ago. She is still dearly missed by her family, colleagues, and fans.




Narumi Tsunoda (Sailor Star Maker) can be heard in the supernatural romantic anime Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity. She plays Toshie Takayama in this show about a high school boy who accidentally summons Goddesses in the forms of teenaged girls who want to be humans for a while! Toshie is the school’s director, who intended to destroy these ancestral grounds which the boy used to summon these spirits, thinking that they were useless.




Chika Sakamoto (Sailor Star Healer) leant her voice to an audio tour of a major exhibit about dinosaurs in a museum in Japan this summer. The exhibit featured dinosaur facts, models, and a few near-complete skeletons of over 280 species of dinosaurs!





Sakiko Tamagawa (Princess Kakyuu) is currently playing the mysterious girl Juiz in Higashi no Eden (Eden of the East). She is an advanced work of artificial intelligence that is a mysterious female voice which is connected to twelve special assassins in the series, the Selecao. The anime series ended last June, but two movies are set to be released, one on November the 28th, and the other sometime in January.



And as a bonus, Sailor Galaxia!

Mitsuko Horie (Sailor Galaxia) sang at a special concert on November 15th, celebrating her 40th anniversary singing songs for anime (pictured). She shed a few tears during this concert! Also, the concert featured songs from her fellow judges from the ANISON Grand Prix panel, Ichiro Mizuki and Yumi Matsuzawa. Mitsuko also released an album last August commemorating her 40th anniversary.


*SPEAKING OF PRETTY CURE: it appears sometime last month, the show was pulled mid-run from YTV's schedule. As of this writing, we cannot confirm why this has happened. There is a rumor floating around that the show may finish its run on Nickelodeon Canada, however we're taking that with a grain of salt since most if not all of the programming on that particular channel comes from Nickelodeon. Pretty Cure probably wouldn't jive with programs on that channel!

Yu Yu Hakusho to Get New Episode...

In Pictures with Voice!

Japanese Yu Yu Hakusho fans will be getting an extra bonus added onto the upcoming Blu-Ray release of the first season - a new episode! Well, sorta. Imagine still pictures with voices, and that's what this new episode will be like (known as a "picture drama" in Japanese). The four main characters of the show, Nozomu Sasaki (Kurumiwario), Shigeru Chiba, Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus, Petz), and Nobuyuki Hiyama (Mercurius, Tsunawataro, Eda Yosaku) will return, along with others. We're thinking it will be like the Flashimated manga episodes on Sailor Moon Channel, except in full color. The episode is said to be a brand new story that takes place right after the final episode. We look forward to seeing what this will be like, and we hope fans of YYH will be satisfied. As of this writing we can't say for sure whether FUNImation will release this series on Blu-Ray with this episode, but we'll have to see. The series will be released on October 27th, and will feature 32 episodes over 5 discs. The jackets will also feature new artwork from Togashi himself. Extras include a bonus disc with episodes of the OVA Eizō Hakusho: Ankoku Bujutsukai. For you tech buffs, the episodes will be featured in 4:3 with 1080p resolution in MPEG-4 AVC format with PCM sound. For more information on what all that stuff means, feel free to ask The Me. The boxart for the upcoming release is pictured above, and it will cost at ¥42,000 , which is approximately $435 USD. Yes, we're having a heart attack too just looking at that price!

Each of the actors involved also had a few comments to say about this experience! Nozomu says he was happy to work with them all again and looks forward to getting a Blu-Ray player so he can watch all 50 hours of episodes together! Shigeru felt that nothing had changed in the ten years since they had recorded. Megumi is happy that the series is being released in better quality, and she is happy to work on it again. Nobuyuki is happy that the cast had a reunion after so many years.

News From The Other Side Of The Pond #13!

Toru Furuya Reprises Role in A Ramen Commercial?

Some say it was bound to happen. The Nissin Freedom Project reminded us a lot of other anime series, mainly Gundam, Evangelion and Eureka 7. Now we have learned of a new crossover between Nissin and the Gundam series, wherein Gundam characters revel at the sight of a bowl of noodles after being starved from fighting their battles. The noodles are inserted into memorable scenes from the first-ever Mobile Suit Gundam series. Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen) reprises his role as Ray Amuro, who can be seen here (left side) joyously relieved after seeing a floating bowl of noodles in space, before his delusion causes him to fall out of his spaceship. Banjou Ginga also reprises his role as Gihren Zabi in the commercials (on the same page as above, but on the right). We find it funny the lengths some Japanese companies will go through to have their products appeal to the masses - we couldn’t help but laugh at the randomness of the noodles that floated in space.

Ai Nonaka Inspired by Megumi Ogata

Ai Nonaka is 26 years old, but has dreamed of being an actress since she was very young. In high school, she was the head of the drama club and dreamed of playing the male roles in the famous Takarazuka Revue. However she was not tall enough for an audition there, and turned to radio acting school. Today she is both a singer and a Seiyuu, and sat down with Famitsu for an interview. She revealed that she was inspired by the performances of Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) who typically plays roles of women who are tomboyish, sometimes playing even boys and men. She even got to meet Megumi Ogata when she was a guest star on one of the radio shows that she was acting in, and stayed behind so that she could meet her idol. Ai says that while she is happy to have achieved her dream, she has very little time to herself. She has just added aromatherapy to her daily regiment to help relieve all the stress from being an actress and singing! Ai Nonaka is famous for such roles as Shima Katase in Stellvia of the Universe, Konoka Konoe in Mahou Sensei Negima, and most recently, Fuko Ibuki in Clannad.

New Gackt Album Inspired by Gundam!

Japanese Rocker Gackt released a new album of covers from 0079-0088 Gundam Series on December 21st. Entitled 0079-0088 , the limited edition features narration from none other than Toru Furuya and Shuichi Ikeda. There was a party held that day in Kinokuniya to commemorate the album’s release, and Keiko Han (Luna and Queen Beryl) was in attendance. She once played the role of Lalah Sune on the series. A video message was also shown from Toru Furuya, who was in China for a cultural exchange on that day. Fans looking to purchase either narrated version (Toru’s or Shuichi’s) or the normal version can click the links to find them on YesAsia.com.

Jadeite and Artemis in Upcoming Anime!

Masaya Onosaka (Jadeite) is set to voice the character Jade “J.D.” in an anime to debut this April, Neo Angelique Abyss. There will also be a video game out for Sony’s PlayStation 2 at around the same time. This one is a romantic, magical girl anime which continues from the previous series, Angelique. Angelique is now a Queen and must defend her kingdom from Thanatos, which has consumed many other societies around her in darkness. The show also stars Kappei Yamaguchi (PGSM Artemis) in the role of René. Jade is on Angelique’s side and wants to help so he can see lots of people smiling, however René is a very gloomy and devilish person. The series was created by Koei and is expected to be a big hit.

Aya Sugimoto Takes On New Role...

As a producer! Aya, who is famous to us for playing Queen Beryl in PGSM , and to others for her "modelling", produced a Kabuki show in Japan on the 23rd of December. She attended one of the classes to learn Kabuki, and found that it took a lot of energy ! She found the restrictive movements difficult, and admired the 12 women for their grace and persistence in the art. For those of our readers who are unaware what Kabuki is, it is a style of dance drama that is usually performed by females, though in recent history some men perform it as well. They are usually short comedic plays based on stories along the walk of life. The performers always wear fancy kimonos and a lot of makeup when they perform these on stage.

Mika Kanai Soldiers on!

Mika Kanai (Mimete) put on quite the show at the Suchi Pie Christmas Special December 16th! Despite recent news of her divorce, she sang alongside several maids and put on a very successful concert along with the rest of the cast of Suchi Pie. When she came to perform, not many people knew that it was her, since she rarely appears in public, let alone even to sing. She sang You And Me , the second ending to the most recent video game of the series, Idol Sparrow Suchi Pie IV. Mika also serves as the voice of a character in this game, Misaki Kyoko. Rika Fukami (Sailor Venus) plays the role of Nanjou Rie, but she was not at this event. Mika was supported by a chorus of girls dressed up as café maids, which serve as the premise of this game. She came dressed in a cute black elf costume and sang with lots of enthusiasm! This game is unique because it was formatted for the home market, and is based on the popular Asian matching game of Mahjong. Fans can check out some more information about the series here. As of this writing, we have not heard if this game will be released here.

Masaya Kikawada to Appear in Chronic Complainer!

Chronic Complainers is a short TV Movie that is set to air January the 6th on Fuji’s Tokai TV. It is about life in a department store, specifically the complaints that are received at the returns counter. The department store is 140 years old, and has an aging management that has to deal with a variety of occurrences at the store, such as a drunk person who passes out while shopping, and not wanting to have to reimburse a customer for a faulty piece of kitchenware - that should be the manufacturer’s job! It looks like it will be a heartwarming comedy about the skills needed to cope with such a job, as well as the relationships among the workers. Masaya Kikawada (PGSM Motoki) plays Eren Tatsuya, a clerk at the store.

And thus ends our last article of the year! Thanks for a great 2007!

News From The Other Side Of The Pond #11!

Beware of Fake Rika Izumi aka Chisaki Hama Blog!

Ahh,Rika Izumi, or better known by a stage name of years passed, Chisaki Hama (Sailor Mercury in PGSM). Her whereabouts since last year have only been documented in blogs from the other actresses of PGSM when they have hung out. This year saw something different though, a resurrection! But wait, it's probably not her. It all started last October when someone posted some pretty grainy cell phone videos of Rika Izumi - or so they say. It could be her, but we really doubt the authenticity of this channel. Besides, the only "stars" we know that would post private videos are usually aiming for a different audience. And some of these "private videos" show Rika in situations that look scripted. We don't think that this is Rika and that this channel is probably fake. Late last month, we learned of this website, which features a blog translated by her roommate "Michiko". We thought it was a little shady since it appeared to be a community of all the PGSM actresses, and featured very little of their work outside of the show. We also learned that the English parts of the blog are some poorly translated entries, that are supposedly posted by the stars themselves. Some of the stars though, notably Ayaka Komatsu, have their own blogs elsewhere, and to be able to post comments, you have to pay a fee to be a member of their fan club. Then you can post all the comments you like! We highly doubt they would also run a free site on the side. We're sure if her management knew about how her entries were being copied and frauded around like this something would be done. We have reason to believe that this site is also fake as Jay Navok of Genvid has pointed out that the Japanese probably isn't correct either. We have tried our hardest to contact as many of the talent agents of the other stars, to warn them that content is being stolen, however as of this writing it appears none of them have done anything about it.

Mop Girl Only The Latest In A Growing Trend

Keiko Kitagawa's (Sailor Mars in PGSM) new late-night drama Mop Girl is only the latest in a recent trend in Japanese Television. 10 years ago, "midnight dramas" were not really in existence, and Japanese people were not likely to watch television late at night. This time slot attracts the youth especially and is almost becoming the new primetime for that demographic. Mop Girl is especially popular with viewers aged 20-24.

Phone Girls is out on DVD!

Rina Koike (Sailor Luna in PGSM) continues her ascent in the idol world, and her new series called Phone Girls / Keitai Shoujo was released on DVD November 26th in Japan. It's about schoolgirls who love to talk and use their cell phones! The show has an animated RPG component, as well as a live action drama about a phone girl falling in love on a class trip. Last week all the idols of the show did a live show which will be released on DVD in February. They all played instruments and this was the first time Rina performed the drums for an audience! We were smitten with cute when we saw this picture, Rina is such a darling!!

Megumi Ogata Holds Concert Celebrating 15 Years in Anime!

Yesterday, Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) held a concert in Shibuya O-EAST celebrating her 15 years in the Anime industry. She sang a whopping 38 songs , and opening the show was Moonlight Densetsu, better known as the opening theme of the first four seasons of Sailor Moon! And there cheering her on was none other than frequent co-stars Aya Hisakawa (Sailor Mercury) and Kikuko Inoue (Sailor Aluminum Siren)! She sang hits from all her work, including Cruel Angel's Thesis from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Congratulations Emi and here's to more years of hearing your voice in anime! Fans may be interested to know that Jamiroquai Frontman Jay Kay is a producer of one of the floors at Shibuya O-EAST where fans can enjoy a fine meal while they are at a concert.

In Other Concert News...

Yoko Ishida will also be performing a concert December 24th, to thank her fans. Coincidentally, she is also celebrating 15 years in the industry! Her first hit was Otome no Policy from Sailor Moon R in 1993. The concert begins at 5:30 PM and tickets are ¥4000. For those of our fans who are in Japan and can attend Thankful X'mas, they can find out more information from the venue, Eggman.


Toru Furuya Appears at Yet Another Intel Event!

Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen) is such a technophile! He has made yet another appearance at an Intel event November 25th to promote Intel's processors. This time he appeared at the Special Stage of Intel in Osaka 2007. He joked that the new Core 2 Quad processor has 5x as much power as a Gundam! He did voices of his most famous characters at the event to get the audience's attention, including Tuxedo Kamen! He said something to the effect of not standing for men who break an elegant girl's heart. We wonder why Intel hasn't bothered to hire Vince Corazza to make Sailor Mon fans everywhere swoon enough to buy Intel Processors! Nonetheless, we absolutely love this shot of Toru holding the processor box in his hands!

Mika Kanai And Her Husband Get Divorced :(

Last week, several Japanese news outlets covered the sad news that Mika Kanai (Mimete) and her husband, Kouichi Yamadera have been divorced for over a year. They divorced after around 12 years of marriage in spring of 2006, but this has only come to light now. The two are long-time veterans of voice, with Kouichi being the Japanese dub voice of such hollywood heavyweights like Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey. He proposed to her in 1994 after they had gotten to know each other from co-starring together in a radio drama. His proposal was infamous as he had popped the question to her while standing on a mailbox! Though the cause of the split is unknown, many are speculating that their busy schedules over the last few years was likely the cause. They probably barely had time to spend with each other after their careers.

The two had worked together on many series, such as the children’s favorite Anpanman, Ranma ½, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, and Pokemon. They even worked together on the dub of Tiny Toons Adventures , playing Shirley McLoon and Plucky Duck. While this may come to a shock to us now, friends of the couple say that they had been discussing divorce for several years repeatedly. Mika is now living in the three-story house they once shared, and Kouichi is living in an apartment in Tokyo. The two still remain friends, and neither wishes to speak about the divorce saying that this is a private matter and they will not comment. Mika can be seen next in a sold-out concert December 16th. She and other seiyuu from the popular OVA Suchie Pai will be performing a Christmas special at Live Inn Magic in Tokyo.

News From The Other Side Of The Pond #8!

Megumi Ogata Shares Her Love of Macs With Japan!


Broadband Watch is a website in Japan that caters to the technological crowd kind of like what CNET is to us. They are currently running a special where they are featuring 100 desktops of celebrities in Japan, and #38 comes from Megumi Ogata, who we all know as Sailor Uranus. Broadband Watch conducted an interview with her and here are the highlights! Megumi has been a loyal Mac user for 20 years, since the days of the Classic II (our older readers may remember those computers!). At home she uses the 17-inch model and she doesn't change her desktop frequently (pictured here, with a censored sticky). She does use the stickies on her Mac a lot though, from writing simple memos, to reminding her of passwords for sites she likes to use. Her husband 20 years ago was a programmer and that's how she got started on first the black and white Mac Classic II, and then moved on to the color model. Her first game was called Makigame and she played it when she wasn't doing housework, and remembers a screensaver with a flying toaster. Her private office uses a Windows Machine but she is happy that she can use Word and Excel on her Mac. She hates Internet Explorer and Netscape, but uses Safari on her Mac, and her only gripe with it is that it deletes her browsing history quickly. She uses Microsoft Entourage along with a memory stick for her email, and she is currently learning how to use Garage Band. We would have expected Toru Furuya to give this kind of interview as he is often seen at many tech events, and never expected to see Megumi Ogata for something like this! It's an interesting read, and fnas should definitely go check it out. She also likes to blog, and fans can read her blog here.

Mitsuishi Kotono Narrates Commercial for Popular Tour

We found a tiny mention of Mitsuishi Kotono (Sailor Moon) with regards to a tour. Mitsuhiro Oikawa is a current heartthrob in Japan, having appeared in many dramas and live action movies. Starting in December, he is going to tour Japan singing on his very own tour, Ichaicha: Cherie, Tu Es Moi (Honey, You Have Me). Kotono Mitsuishi is doing the narration for the TV spots advertising the tour, and she is also impressed by Mitsuhiro. The article also mentions that many of his fans call him "Chest-Kun" because he is often shirtless.


Paprika Wins Another Award!

In 1996, the Animation Kobe awards were created for the promotion of anime and other Japanese visual media. This year marked the 12th anniversary of the awards, and critically acclaimed director Satoshi Kon has another reason to smile as Paprika won the Feature Film Award! The interesting thing is that last year's winner(Mamoru Hosoda's The Girl Who Lept Through Time), was released just a few months ahead of Paprika, but both of these exceptional films were able to win this award because of a technicality in the rules. The Girl Who Lept Through Time was released in July of 2006, and Paprika that November. August was the cutoff date for the 2006 awards. This is Satoshi Kon's second win in this category, his film Millennium Actress won the same award in 2003. On November 12th, there will be an event showcasing the works of all the winners in Kobe, and other winners this year included one of Moon Chase's favorite directors, Isao Takahata, and one of this years hottest OVAs, Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society.

Paprika will be coming out on DVD November 27th, so only a month and a bit before all our readers can finally see this film! On a side note, we'd really like to thank Mongrel Media for the terrible job they have done with the distribution of this movie in Canada. The movie spent most of it's summer run in a single theater in Toronto, and is now being shown for barely a few nights in theaters all over the country. Considering how popular this movie was among the critics and how it was hailed to be a hit, unfortunately the distributor thought it would be better to let the movie sit for a long time in one theater and skip across the country. Even Ghibli films don't get this kind of treatment. We know of several fans all over who were waiting in anticipation to see this movie on the big screen and have heard too many stories of disappointment, and that the United States did not experience these kinds of problems in most states.

Glass Rabbit Is Up For Grabs!

During the beginning of November, the American Film Market(AFM) is set to take place in Santa Monica, California. We told you not too long ago about The Glass Rabbit, which is currently making it's way through Canada through special features from the Japanese Consulate. The Glass Rabbit is now going to be included as part of the AFM, where companies showcase films in the hopes that they will be picked up for production and/or distribution. We're really hoping that it gets picked up - this movie did remind me a lot of the epicGrave of the Fireflies and it does hold potential to be a hit of close to that magnitude. We have since learned that this heartbreaking film is actually based on the real story of the author Toshiko Takagi. All of the performances were very good in this movie - especially of the young girl who played Toshiko, Rina Mogami. Taeko Kawata (Momoko Momohara) played the innocent role of Mitsuko, one of the younger sisters of the main characters. It was an exceptional film and we recommend fans go see this one if they can!

This film is making it's way across Eastern Canada, and we recommend fans keep checking these links below for information when these films will be playing near them. Side Note: They were all good, but Hotel Hibiscus was a little mediocre.

For Ottawa, click here.

For Toronto, click here or here.

For Montreal, click here.

News From The Other Side Of The Pond #7

It's been a while since we've had a few news stories about the Japanese Seiyuu, so here we come with two short news updates!

Megumi Ogata To Release New CD!


Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) is celebrating her 15th anniversary in the acting business by releasing a CD of covers of songs from anime that she has been in. Animeg is coming out on October 3rd, and will feature theme songs from Galaxy Express 999, City Hunter, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Magic Knights Rayearth, and of course Moonlight Legend from Sailor Moon. The CD is currently available for pre-order from Amazon Japan, YesAsia, and CDJapan. Sadly, the news release just announced it without comment from Megumi herself.

Paprika Coming to CinemaNow VOD Site!

Internationally acclaimed hit Paprika, was released on DVD in Japan in May, and is now coming to a VOD site in a limited run. For ¥420 ($3.70), users of Japan's CinemaNow service can watch the movie as many times as they want for 48 hours. The movie will be offered only until December 5th. This psychological drama stars two Seiyuu that were involved in Sailor Moon, Megumi Hayashibara (Himeko in the S Movie) and Toru Furuya (Tuxedo Kamen). Still no word yet on a DVD release date for North America, but we are really hoping that the Blu-Ray DVD makes it's way over here alongside the standard DVD format release.

New Evangelion Tetralogy To Feature Four Former Seiyuu

Some of you hardcore Evangelion fans may have heard of a new tetralogy (four) of movies - of which the first opens a month from now in Japan. The tetralogy is called Rebuild of Evangelion, and will be an alternate retelling of the entire series and ending with something completely different than the original. Fans can read a translation of his rationale for a revamp here. The reaction of the fans to this is pretty mixed, some are happy, some are sad, and some just have no idea what to expect (like our translator.

The first movie , Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone will open September 1st in Japan. This movie is a prequel, and details about what exactly is going to happen in this movie have been kept mum. The creator, Hideki Anno, wrote the story and has a huge role in the production of the others. The theme song Beautiful World will be performed by popular J-pop star Utada Hikaru , and the popular endings song Fly Me to the Moon will have a brand new remix just for this incarnation. Fly Me to the Moon is sung by Megumi Hayashibara, best known for playing Lina Inverse in Slayers, and known to us as Himeko Nayotake in the S Movie. She will also appear in the movie reprising her role as teenager Rei Ayanami. Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) will also be reprising her role as Shinji Ikari - and to some fans who don't know, her voice is very tomboyish and husky so she is often selected to play male roles. Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon) is also returning to her role as Captain Misato Katsuragi and Akira Ishida (Fisheye) also reprises his role as Kaworu Nagisa.

Breaking News: New Kamen Rider-Crayon Shin-Chan Crossover Special!

We Bring it to You First!

A few hours ago, a news story broke in Japan, and we are probably the first English site to bring this to you all. Crayon Shin-Chan is a popular, long-running, anime which has made its way over to North America in recent years. The animation style is very primitive and looks like it has been drawn with crayons - hence the name. Shin-Chan is Shinosuke Nohara, a pesky 5 year old who lives his life very unusually, with his inappropriate behaviours and misuse of language. Sailor Moon fans if they watched episode 104 of the S series might have noticed Chibi-Usa picking up a Crayon Shin-chan mini-UFO doll (pictured). Sailor Moon was probably the only external production to feature Shin-chan, even though it was so small. It seems that the producers of Kamen Rider are going to make some kind of hour-long, animated crossover special with Crayon Shin-chan. The release will coincide with the release of the Kamen Rider Den-Omovie which will be released in Japanese Theaters August 4th. The feature will be called Den-O vs. Shin-chan King Storm Special!, and marks Kamen Rider’s first foray into televised anime in it’s 36 year history! The special will air on TV Asahi on August 3rd at 7 PM. They don’t go a lot into the plot (except for mentioning Shin-chan's snot attack) , but featured a comment from Rina Akiyama who will play a Queen in the movie. She simply said, that Shin-chan’s transformation "looks good". Since we could barely find any Japanese sites on this special, we are unaware of who will be in it. In the past though, several stars of Sailor Moon have been involved in both series. Shibue Jyoji (PGSM Tuxedo Mask) appeared in Kamen Rider Hibiki as Iori Izumi, and Masaya Kikawada (PGSM Motoki) plays Takeshi Hongo in the new movies. And many seiyuu from the anime appeared in Crayon Shin-chan over the years: Michie Tomizawa (Sailor Mars) as Matsuzaka-sensei, Aya Hisakawa (Sailor Mercury) as Sailor Iyaan, Emi Shinohara (Sailor Jupiter) as Sailor Bakaan, Kae Araki (Sailor Chibi-Moon) as Sailor Muffoon, Kazuyuki Sogabe (Nephrite) as James, Mitsuishi Kotono (Sailor Moon) as Ageo-Sensei, Megumi Hayashibara (Himeko) as Chris Evert, and Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus) as Yoko!

Special thanks once again to our special Toku Correspondent UltraMatt for all his help!

News From the Other Side of the Pond #4!

Toei Anime BB Service Expands to the Windows Vista And Media Center Platform!

Toei Animation is making use of new technologies to further its anime-on-demand service, Anime BB. Anime BB Premium uses the special Microsoft XML variant MCML to integrate itself into Windows Media Center for Windows Vista, and now Media Center can be used to download anime "rentals". A lot of companies are doing this nowadays, you can pay to download something but it expires after a few days (hence, a rental). Fist of the North Star, Sailor Moon, and Galaxy 999 are a few of the launch titles for this new service. No word on what the prices are like for this service yet - but we worked out the conversion for the other method of downloading episodes and it worked out to under two bucks an episode. This new premium service launched on June 27th.

JTB Begins New Talent Agency and School!

The Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) is Japan’s largest travel agency. They have branches all over the world to help Japanese tourists and is one of the largest Japanese companies. On June 13th, JTB announced that they are starting a new talent agency and school. Some popular idols have already signed with them, including Megumi Ogata (Sailor Uranus, Petz) and Rin Takanashi. Their school, JTB Entertainment Academy, was fostered especially to train seiyuu (voice actors) and Ms. Ogata has been named a special instructor. Fans may be surprised to know that Ms. Ogata almost became a teacher - she didn’t think she was pretty enough to be an actress when she was younger! Other famous anime staff will also be instructing at the Academy, including Miyajima Hideji (Producer of the live action Casshern movie), and Kousi Nagasaki (Producer of Blood: The Last Vampire). After a student successfully graduates from the Academy, they have exclusive opportunities to sign with the JTB Agency to be the next rising seiyuu! The school’s first class begain this past April.

Shion Nakamaru Stars in New Movie

Kikoku no Senjo is a brand new movie that will be playing in Japan in July, and will be coming to DVD in September. From what we can tell, it looks to be a movie about forbidden love in 1945 post-war Hiroshima. Shion Nakamaru plays Natsuko Kitazawa, a 19-year old prostitute who is in love with Daisuke Kajiwara (played by Dai Watanabe), a Police Officer. Shion Nakamaru played Black Lady in the 2002 Sera Myu (Sailor Moon Musical) Tanjou! Ankoku no Princess Black Lady (Kaiteiban) -Wakusei Nemesis no Nazo. And for even more connections, Shion also played Riko Saida/Dark Faust in Ultraman Nexus! The critics loved her performance in this movie. Since this is a brand new movie and news is just trickling in about it now , we will let you know more about this movie as soon as we learn more!

Clock Store Owner Continues Tradition!

When we went searching for our news stories, this one came up a while ago, and we juggled the idea of whether we should mention it or not. Since we do try to bring in some culture behind the series to this blog, we finally decided to mention it! In Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Hamakita Ward, there lives a 61-year-old clock store owner, Matsrigotohare Kamiya. Every year for the last 30 years, he has invited kindergarten classes to come to his store to learn how to tell the time. He also shows them many clocks, and also showing them the inside of the clocks, their parts, and how they work. The children like to look at the different kinds of clocks, and they really enjoyed a Sailor Moon clock that he had shown them. It’s nice to know that Sailor Moon still reaches that young generation even today in Japan! We salute Mr. Kamiya for his generosity and compassion towards these young children!