The KINGDOM HEARTS world comes to Steam June 13th. This Steam announcement trailer features the newly re-recorded “Simple and Clean” from Hikaru Utada, one of Japan’s most influential and best-selling musical artists.
FanimeCon • Dreamscape x Senpai Squad Itasha Showcase
FanimeCon to feature an itasha showcase in the Southhall. The showcase will feature itashas (cars decorated with images of characters from anime, manga, or video games) and high quality car show builds. “Race Queen” cosplay will also be featured.
Source: FanimeCon | Dreamscape x Senpai Squad Itasha Showcase
Cartoon Network Announces Toonami Rewind
“If you squint really hard they almost look new…”
Toonami Rewind will begin airing on Fridays from May 31st on Cartoon Network this month, presenting three classic anime series over a two hour time-slot. To start, the programming block will air Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Naruto. It has not yet been announced if Toonami Rewind will include other classic anime from Cartoon Network’s past.
UCSC’s SAMA Presents SlugCon 2024 • 05/19/2024
SlugCon is UCSC’s very own anime convention, hosted by SAMA (Slug Anime & Manga Association). Admission is free!
Join SAMA at the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Merrill Cultural Center on May 19th for an Artists’ Alley, Maid Cafe, panels, games, giveaways, and more.
Source: SlugCon 2024 – A Convention Celebrating Japanese Anime Culture
FanimeCon 2024 • May 24th – 27th • San Jose, CA
FanimeCon is gearing up for their 30th Anniversary, May 24th – 27th, 2024 at the San Jose Convention Center.
Returning Guest of honor Hirokatsu Kihara is a highly accomplished industry veteran with a career in Manga and Anime spanning several decades.
Guest of honor Yuu Hayashi affiliated with Ken Production, voices anime and game characters, and also provides voices for Japanese language dubs.
Fanime’s MusicFest welcomes Japanese Rock Band, Survive Said The Prophet (abbreviated as SSTP) formed in Tokyo, Japan in 2011. The band is most well-known for the hit 2019 single “Mukanjyo”, the first opening of the anime Vinland Saga.
Source: FanimeCon
Nikkei Matsuri 2024 Wesley Jazz Ensemble: Soul Bossa Nova
On Sunday, April 21, the 2024 Nikkei Matsuri was held in San Jose’s Japantown. This is a performance of Soul Bossa Nova by the Wesley Jazz Ensemble.
Source: Nikkei Matsuri – A Festival Celebrating Japanese American Culture
J-pop News Database Crash
Hatsune Miku hard at work restoring our server…
While investigating our recent web server outage, we discovered our WordPress database had crashed. We apologize to our readers for any inconvenience.
Bay Area Rapid Transit Adopts Anime Mascots
BART announced the release of five BART- and Bay Area-themed anime mascots that will help us in our mission to promote public transportation use, especially among youth riders — a growing and reliable ridership demographic. The mascots were the result of an open call for California-based artists BART released in Summer 2022. The call was wildly popular, receiving nearly 500 submissions. Following the call, BART worked with selected artists to conceptualize and create the mascots, which will serve as BART’s friendly and approachable avatars.
Source: Anime Mascots | bart.gov
Keisuke Ueda Unable to attend FanimeCon 2023
— 植田圭輔 (@uechan_0905) May 27, 2023
Duolingo Announces Collaboration with Crunchyoll
To celebrate the sixth anniversary of its Japanese course, Duolingo is adding almost 50 anime-inspired phrases to the curriculum. Japanese is the third most popular language for English speakers on the Duolingo app, and nearly a third of learners cite fun as their motivation for studying the language. This suggests that anime and video games may be motivating factors for some users.