Continuing our theme from Tuesday, Genvid has announced that they will be giving Sailor Moon themed “reality tours” of Tokyo. The “Warriors of Legend Tour of Tokyo” will take patrons through places described in the series, and show theme some of the real world places at which pivotal show points took place. Then everyone will turn into a bunch of lesbians and make the entire rest of the tour sort of weird and creepy. At night, it says you’ll be visiting “important cultural landmarks” that they then go on to say are temples and Akihabara. So apparently, you can polish off your quote reflection at a temple by grabbing the latest seedy doujin from a back alley shop in Akiba. Also, it says there will be karaoke on into the night. So what it sounds like is a mix of taking your first trip to Japan, and hanging out with friends like you’ve been there a million times. Could be fun.

Full press release post jump.

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Realbuzz, the company responsible for the absolutely disgusting Serenity series of books, is about to drop another load onto the American retail market. That’s right, gentle reader. Is there not enough Jesus in your Japanese picture book? When you read Naruto, do you think, “Wow, there really should have been more parables from the bible interjected into that fight scene?” Becuase if you do, then you will just LOVE the three new books from Realbuzz and Barbour Publishing. The books include… you know what, I’m not even going to pretend to advertise this garbage. You people have crossed the line. I hope your offices get razed. Stop pushing your religious drivel off as manga, and stop pretending like forgiveness, responsibility, and unconditional love are Christian morals. They’re everyone’s morals.

Full press release after the jump.

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At a recent press conference[WMV on page], Bandai Visual announced plans for an upcoming Ghost in the Shell related anime. Very few details were given along with the announcement; the only tidbits they have us are that the show is a collaboration between Bandai and Production I.G. and that they expect to release sometime soon. They also mentioned that they would be releasing more specific information about this and other series at and after the Tokyo International Anime Fair, which will take place on March 23rd through the 26th.

Well, with Wonder Festival over, the figure news world sort of stalls for a bit while everyone posts a bajillion (real number) pictures of the event all over the place! So, in the idea of starting a tradition, I am going to collect all the links I can find to coverage, and order them neatly here for you. Just a note. Some of these links are from prior to the event, but they’re still relevant as event coverage still misses some stuff.

UPDATE: Added some stuff to the list. I think that nearly covers it.

Hobby Channel

• Some random cosplay. I like the lady on page 2.
• Jie-tan cosplay! I like her giant book. (Japanese constitution)
• Navy-san cosplay! She’s missing her sword though. Natural blonde?
• Army-tan cosplay GET!! She is sans spork, which makes me sad.
• Maritan diary with pictures of the cosplay ladies, including Army-tan.
• A Seven Samurai figure from Queen Bee Garden.
• A list of Kotobukiya’s WF2006 winter limited edition offerings.
• A run down of Cospa’s shirts and hats for the event.

Akibajin

• Those WanFesu limited Dark Sabre mini figures.
• Hey! A figure of Cammy from Street Fight ZERO3!
• Oh god! Ganguro Cammy! Noooooo!
• Some coverage of the Reflect booth. I wonder which figure he liked best…

Image Heavy Collections

• Akibajin
• Akibajin’s big WF2006 figure rundown. [NSFW, but naked parts are covered]
• Akibajin’s big cosplay rundown. I like the Rin cosplayer the best.
• Mostly catgirls. [Mildly NSFW]
• Busty figures in this one. But somehow worksafe? Weird.
• Maids and bunngy girls! [Mildly NSFW]
• Mostly school girls with some FF.
• A listing of all WF2006 posts at their site.
• GA Graphic’s WanFesu hub. Multiple volumes on this page. There’s also a handy sidebar. [Some NSFW content, but just don't click the thumbnails that look NSFW and you can be discreet]
• Heisei Democracy’s picture extravaganza! Hurray! Nicely ordered. [Ero section is NSFW, duh]
• GPara’s event coverage. It loaded a bit slow for me.
• And, finally (for now), a listing of all of AkibaBlog’s WF2006 posts. [Some NSFW stuff in the posts]
• Horror.com (a company I found through our Google Ads… click them people, apparently that aren’t all bad) has “over 300 exclusive pictures.” There’s some cosplay pictures in there too. [Some NSFW content]
• Akiba-K has posted an offering of pictures up. Nothing is clickable. [NSFW]
• Galkko posted a few pictures. Nothing new. Click the link in the post to unhide the pictures.
• There is a nice roundup over at Neko Mimi Mode as well. [NSFW]
• Midareuchi has some really nice and informational booth shots. Definately worth looking at for release dates and prices.
• ITMedia’s article about the event. (Not many pictures.)

That’s it for now. If you guys see any good links I missed, please send them along via the Contact Form or leave a comment. Figure news will get back to normal shortly.

Not exactly breaking news, but it would seem that the people at ANN aren’t the best for that anyway. I’m sure you remember the Canadian government’s site describing the dangers of hentai and labeling anime as “adult oriented material that contains scenes depicting sexual acts.” I sure do. Anyway, according to ANN, they received an e-mail from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police apologizing for the site, or rather, apologizing for any confusion. I guess my issue with that is two-fold. 1.) I didn’t get an e-mail. What is that all about? 2.) We weren’t the ones who were confused. Apologizing for any confusion is hardly admitting you screwed up. But oh well.

ANN received the e-mail on the 17th, the same day that the site was taken offline. If you want to see the old site, I still have it up at the post linked above.

Taiwanese airliner, Eva Air, has announced that it will be hosting Hello Kitty themed flights, daily, between Taipei and Tokyo. One might wonder what is meant when “Hello Kitty-themed” is said. Well, one would receive the following answer. Everything. The plane is covered with Sanrio characters. Mostly it’s Hello Kitty herself, but I noticed a bunny and some monkeys and such. The flight attendants will wear Hello Kitty themed uniforms while they serve you Hello Kitty themed snacks and meals, all while demnding to see your Hello Kitty themed boarding pass, as they suspect you of being a Hello-Kitty-themed-bomb wielding Hello Kitty themed terrorist.

I’ll tell you right now, the official site’s music is worth the visit. I included a picture of the plane after the jump. Please to enjoy.

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Howl’s Moving Castle, an obscure Japanese animated moving picture that you’ve likely never heard of has been nominated for the prestigious Saturn award. Winners of the Saturn get a brand new 2006 Saturn Ion, fully loaded. Wait, no. This isn’t right. Ok. Miyazaki’s film has been nominated for a Saturn award. The award has little or nothing to do with the car company and is given out by the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films. Wow, specific. Anyway, the film is nominated for Best Animation. Spirited away took home the prize in 2003 and last year’s winner was The Incredibles. In the running against Miyazaki this year are Chicken Little, Corpse Bride, Hoodwinked, Madagascar, and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

I would link the site (http://www.saturnawards.org/) but the geniuses have had their site suspended for overusing their disk space or something. Nice. I’d be looking forward to winning that one.

Now, don’t go running to Bemmu.com too fast. They’re not giving away manga to anyone; however, in a press release sent out on the 18th, the company has announced that it will be giving free copies of imported manga titles to well-established scanslation groups. Yeah, I know. This sort of movein America would allow the communists to win, and will never see the equal, but I have to ponder the issues that might arise. With scanslators have a stable reliable RETAILER through which to acquire their manga, I could see Japanese manga companies start to sit up and take notice a bit more, as it could lead to a larger amount of both scanslators and people who download, rather that buy manga. I would offer that American companies better their product, but free is free, you know? Hopefully it turns out for the better!

Full press release after the cut.

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I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but I’m a bit of a Max Factory fan, and to a lesser extent (not that much less) a Good Smile Company fan. Well, with that in mind, I wanted to point out Akinajin’s extensive coverage of the Max Factory/Good Smile booth at Wonder Festival 2006 winter. It shows off the upcoming Gun x Sword PVC, the scantilly clad Mizuho, and AWESOME Etna figure, among others. Many others. Anyway, also be sure to just check out the Akibajin main page for some more Wonder Festival coverage.

Thank you for continuing to enjoy my completely unbiased news coverage.

I’m sure all the fans of dog-eared girls out there will remember the post I put up the a while back about the Inumimi figure from T’s System. Well, Akibajin picked up a copy of the wayward figure and has for us, an expose. Yep! Pictures of are super cute Inumimi from every imaginable angle. Why are you still reading this? Go check it out, and reap the fruits of Wonder Festival.