One Piece Grand Line Men Luffy and Trafalgar Law

The 3rd and 4th volume of the One Piece Grand Line Men series is readying a spring/summer release of 3 figurines.

Mihawk will be avalible around late March 2010 while Luffy and Trafalgar Law will be avalible around June 2010. All figurines will be limited in number.

Noruto Vinyl figure

 For this years Wondercon, Kuso Vinyl has released an exclusive figure. The 'Noruto Ninja Spiki' is limited to only 150 pieces. A red eyed chase figure will be limited to only 50 pieces.

More info and pics at: http://www.vinylpulse.com/2010/03/kuso-vinyl-wondercon-exclusive-ninja-spiki-noruto.html#more

Stan Lee Collaborates with Hiroyuki Takei

Shuesha Inc, one of the largest publishers in Japan, has announced that Stan Lee, creator of Spiderman and Xmen, will be teaming up with Hiroyuki Takei, the creator of 'Shaman King' to work on a prologue chapter called 'ULTIMO'.

'ULTIMO' will represent a first of its kind partnership between Lee and a Japanese manga creator.

It will consist of 32 pages, which includes 3 pages in full colour. The chapter is set to debut in a special April issue of the Japanese manga magazine Jump SQ.

Stan Lee says, 'I am deeply honored for this great opportunity to collaborate with an award-winning artist/writer of the stature of Hiroyuki Takei. I enthusiastically expect that the combination of an American story-telling style merged with Takei-san's acclaimed Japanese style will result in our joint creation 'ULTIMO' presenting an original, exciting type of manga that will appeal to comic book fans around the world.'

Official international English title for 'Ponyo' and Miyazaki's inspiration joins Ghibli Museum library

The offical name has been released for the next installment of masterpieces from Hayao Miyazaki.

Originally during its production, 'Gake no ue no Ponyo', has been refered to as ' Ponyo on a Cliff' from its literal translation from Japanese. Now the offical international english title of the film has been annouced as ' Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea'.

Past Studio Ghibli Films have been known to change the titles from its literal translation.

'Mimi wo Sumaseba's literal translation was, 'If You Listen Closely', but it was named and retitled to 'Whisper of the Heart'.

'Omoide Poro Poro', translated to 'Memories Like Falling Rain Drops' but again it's release title was changed to 'Only Yesterday'.

Also in Ghibli news is Miyazaki's inspiration film, Lev Atamanov’s 'The Snow Queen', is set to join the ever expanding Ghibli Museum Library and to be distributed.

Miyazaki once stated this movie is one of his inspirations to work in animation. At the start of his career, Miyazaki went through some tough times and was thinking of leaving animation. However, when he watched 'The Snow Queen', his admiration for the piece gave him renewed determination in notgiving up and to continue working in animation.

Excellent Modell One Piece Series Neo-4

Gomu gomu nooooo..... Megahouse are set to release their Forth installment of their 'Excellent Modell- Neo' series range.

Fans of the series will see the release of 'Nami' (version 2), 'Sanji' and 'Red Haired Shanks'.

Each figure is amazing detailed and crafted, which has spanned throughout the series stand approximately 9" inches tall from the base stand.

The realease date has been set to mid May.

© Murakami Exhibition at Brooklyn Museum

Takashi Murakami, the globally known Japanese contemporary artist, is to hold an exhibition displaying his work at the Brooklyn Museum next month.

If his name sounds familiar then it is possibally due to the fact that he designed and created the album cover for Kanye West's recent album,'Graduation' and he also designed Louis Vuitton's Monogram Multicolore and the smiling cherry blossom handbags and accessories.

Spanning close to around a 100 of his works and projects, the exhibition will highlight Murakami's career and be on display in an 18,500 square foot gallery, revealing works from 1992 up to 2000 and show his progression as an artist.

The exhibition will be to explore his identity and to look into branding. The gallery will open April 5th till July 13th, 2008.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

The eagerly awaited next installment of the 'Final Fantasy' series, from the RPG legends 'SquareEnix' is about to be released on the Nintendo DS.

'Ring of Fates' is set as a prequel to the original 'Crystal Chronicle' that was released on the Nintendo Gamecube, taking place thousands of years beforehand.

Fans who played the original ' Crystal Chronicles' will know that the 'Great Crystal' was broken into different shards by the fall the Meteor, however in this new prequel we see and play in events that happened previous to this, in other words when the 'Great Crystal' was whole.

'SquareEnix' has also released a special 'Gemini Edition', which is a bundled copy of the game and a 'limited edition' stylised DS lite.

Afro Ken

Afro time!

What do you get when you cross a big funky Afro with a dog? The answer, 'Afro Ken' of course!

This Afro wearing hound is one of many cute and cuddly characters from the people who brought you 'Tare Panda' and 'Monokuro Boo'

Although not as successful as arch rival, 'Hello Kitty', he still has a popular following despite merchandise slowly fading, which included everything from Plushes to Pencil cases.

As far as character designs go there are so many 'Ken's' it's hard to imagine that they have not used or tried every idea that has ever been thought up of in the whole of mankind.

Miyazaki's Gake no Ue no Ponyo

An update to Hayao Miyazaki's eagerly awaited next project, entitled, Gake no Ue no Ponyo (literally "Ponyo on the cliff").

The location to where the film is set has been released. It is a small countryside town near the sea - Niura or Shin-ura, which is filled with cute place names like Ponyo ga Hama (Ponyo beach) and Kujira-jima (Whale island).

In 2004, Miyazaki went to a small town in Seto-nai-kai during their company tour. The town is famous of Sakamoto Ryouma having once stayed there (a big hero during Japan’s Bakumatsu period). Miyazaki liked the town so much that he lived there for 2 month and expanded his imagination. The boy's name Sousuke comes from the hero's name of Natsume Souseki's novel Mon, which Miyazaki read during his stay at the town.

Miyazaki gave some further hints, "A small town by the shore and a house on a cliff. There are not many characters. The sea is like a creature. A world where magic appears in unconcern. I animated the sea not as a background, but as a main character." Suzuki told, "Since a few years ago Miyazaki used to say "I want to draw the sea properly and would like to try it again." and he tried a new method."

There is a day-care house for the old next to the nursery where Sousuke stays and it has an important key. Miyazaki said, "A boy and a girl. Love and life. I try to depict those without any hesitation and try to counter the age of nervous disease and angst."

HUNTER X HUNTER IS BACK FROM HIATUS!!

HUNTER X HUNTER cover

HUNTER X HUNTER is finally back on track after being on another Hiatus ( in other words, the author getting ill and having a break) .

The series has been known to be put on hold for a period of time. However it was always worth the wait. As they say, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder'