I'm a little late to remind you that the 12th Pokemon movie (which debuted only this year in Japan) made its American debut on Cartoon Network earlier this evening. So, sorry if you missed that. But I definitely wanted to point out that American dub of the Beyblade Movie will be making its US television debut tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 (Eastern/Pacific)! This movie was actually released in Japan back in 2002, & Nelvana released an English dub of it on DVD back in 2005. But it never aired on Jetix or any other American channel, until now. So the timing on all this might seem pretty odd. But I believe this is actually a good sign that the new Beyblade: Metal Fusion series will be airing on CN next year.

The movie was made during the series' second season, known as "Beyblade 2002" in Japan & "Beyblade: V-Force" in America. So the art style & character designs will look like the second season (each season had its own unique style, though season one was drastically different from the other two). However, this movie actually debuts the character Daichi, who was a main new character in season three. Also, season 2 sucked & was easily the worst of the first three seasons. I'm hoping the movie fairs a bit better.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-20/2009-pokemon-film-on-u.s-cartoon-network-today

The second season of "Hayate the Combat Butler" may be over, but two brand new dakimakura (body pillowcases) have just been announced for the series. They feature two of the main girls from the series, & sorry, but Hinagiku isn't one of them this time around. No, they are of the lead female Nagi (who's both a tsundere & a loli), & her loyal maid & friend Maria.

These two cases are pretty surprising & quite revealing for a series like Hayate, similar to how I was surprised at the cases for Tower of Druaga from last year. Hayate has always been so wishy-washy in how it goes about its fan-service, especially in season one. Sometimes it felt restrained & really restricted, other times it felt a lot more relaxed & showed off some skin. It never went too far though, even at its extremes the series mostly stayed work-safe. Though my brief experience with the manga suggests that Nagi is drawn more sexualized there than in the anime, something that might freak out non-lolicon.

As for the dakimakura themselves, Maria is dressed in the school uniform on one side (a treat for some as Maria doesn't go to school) with glasses to boot, & a somewhat revealing maid outfit on the other side. Not being a Maria fan, her's doesn't really do much for me. The real surprise here is Nagi. She's wearing a very sexy looking maids outfit on one side (no panties to boot) & a fetishy sukumizu on the other- with white stockings. Yowza. Nagi has always been one of my favorites in the series, but never one I was sexually attracted to because of her young age (or at the very least, I fought off any sexual attraction I felt towards her). But these irresistible dakimakura of her are pretty hard to ignore.

They do come at a heavy price though. Each one comes in two versions, one made of "cheaper" fabric & the other made of higher quality fabric. The "cheap" ones will both retail for 8400 yen (~$95), while the finer ones will go for 9450 yen (~$106). Both Nagi & Maria are due out in January. Also as a side note, the yen to dollar ratio just keeps getting worse & worse. Sigh.

Source: http://nijigencospa.com/event/id/915

Keanu Reeves just can't seem to get enough of Japanese culture, so it would appear. First he wanted the part of Spike in the upcoming live-action Cowboy Bebop film, & now it's been announced that he'll be starring in a Hollywood adaptation of the legendary Japanese tale, "47 Ronin." Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious, Wanted) will write the samurai script, & Carl Rinsch (who's amazing work includes the commercial at the bottom of this post) will direct. Here's some information on the project:

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One Japanese otaku has fallen so hopelessly in love with his virtual girlfriend in the hit DS game Love Plus that he's decided to literally marry her. He flew all the way to Guam, took his DS with him, & found a church on the island willing to wed him & the character Nene. He plans to hold a wedding reception back in Japan & has invited the media to attend & document the event. The reception will even be simulcasted online via NicoNico Douga on November 22, so the whole world will be watching. I'm sure his family must be proud.

There's been a lot of talk about otaku demanding the right to marry 2D characters, but here comes a guy who actually goes & does it. Though while he did go through with the wedding, under Japanese law they probably don't view it has legitimate, which is what otaku really want. I'm sure he's happy being with Nene, but doesn't he realize thousands of other gamers with "Love Plus" are also doing ecchi things with Nene as well? Does this not bother him?

Source: http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/11/19/otaku-marries-nintendo-ds-nene-is-my-wife

The latest K-On Blu-ray release featured the debut of the series' beloved nekomimi loli Azunyan. It also featured the second beach episode, with all the girls, including Azunyan, sporting attractive swimsuits & even "baring all" in the bath house. Of course this scene was heavily covered with magical steam in the televised version. But for the Blu-ray release, some of that steam was removed & we got to see the scene in high-definition glory. Behold the stunning difference:

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The latest issue of Famitsu magazine in Japan has confirmed that Phoenix Wright is indeed coming to the Nintendo Wii. & just as expected, it isn't a new title but rather ports of the handheld classics coming to the downloadable WiiWare center.

The first "Ace Attorney" game (the original based on the GBA version) will hit the WiiWare in Japan on December 15 for 900 points. "Justice for All" comes out January 26 & "Trials & Tribulations" hits February 23, each of them costing 1200 points. & finally, the special "Rise from the Ashes" trial, the fifth trial that was exclusively available on the DS version of the first game, comes out March 16 for 300 points. Sadly, no American date has yet been announced. But it HAS to be a matter of time. No way these wont hit here.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5407186/phoenix-wright-pleads-wiiware

Viz Media has revealed that they plan to release an official Naruto Shippuden Snuggie this Winter. You know Snuggie, right? The blanket that you can wear, with sleeves! Well this one has the infamous Akatsuki design pattern on it, meaning you too can now look like a deadly rogue ninja... who's cold & ready for bed. Expect these to be all the rage at anime conventions everywhere in 2010.

Source: http://twitter.com/VIZ_Media/status/5777240613

I mentioned a little while back how JAST has started to roll out their high profile A-list hentai games. Now let's take a look at the other major American player in the game, who's also starting to (finally) bring the big names in ero games to our shores- MangaGamer. Back at Anime Expo this past summer, MangaGamer announced a number of big adult game titles like Higurashi & Shuffle, with the promise of more popular NAVAL games on the way. They also said they'd get the first four parts of Higurashi out in time for Halloween, but that holiday came & went without a single one coming out. But don't fret too much, because the MG has updated their release schedule with what to expect & when. The first four chapters will now be out on December 15, with the rest coming out in February.

But the real big news about the release schedule is that several new high profile titles were announced as well. Most notable perhaps is an official American release of the first Koihime Musou ero game, which is tentatively slated for February. This is of course the basis for the popular Koihime fan-service anime series, which currently streams on Crunchyroll. So imagine the all the fan-service & yuri-ness in that, taken to the next level. With both large oppai & petit lolis, it's a game likely to please everyone. Not only Koihime, but MangaGamer also announced the official license of DC ~Da Capo~. Da Capo, while not too well known in the US, is hugely popular in Japan & is about as big as any non-Key game can get. The first one is expected to come out here in June, with DCII only a month later. & finally, MG is talking about releasing an all-ages version of Higurashi WEBSITE for Higurashi. So now everyone will be able to play a game filled with yanderes that want to love/kill you.

Source: http://mangagamer.site11.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=702&start=11#p4106

Just in time for the holidays, Adult Swim has rolled out a really cool unique idea for their online shop. Visitors now have the option of making their own custom AS DVDs, which can hold numerous episodes from a variety of different series. For $20, each disc can hold up to 110 minutes of shows. That's enough to hold 4 half-hour episodes, or 9 "15 minute" episodes (which the majority of Adult Swim's shows are). You can design the DVD menu, the cover image, & even the disc art.

Currently there are about 100 episodes to choose from, with thousands more (& more series as options) available by year's end. Of course, none of the series available right now are anime, & I doubt any of the other upcoming titles will be either, but you never know. This is probably just for Adult Swim original series, but it's still a pretty awesome concept. Check it out & start building here:

http://adultswimshop.com/cat/Build-Your-Custom-DVD.html

The official CaramellDansen YouTube Channel has announced an equally official CaramellaGirls iPhone/iPod Touch game. In the same vein as the DDR or Guitar Hero games for the iPhone, you tap on icons to play along with the song on the screen. The now infamous CaramellDansen song can be played in Swedish, German, or English vocals. The player can also choose between the three CaramellaGirl mascots, each representing a different difficulty level.

Unfortunately at the time of this posting, the game is not yet up in Apple's App Store. Remixed Record does promises it'll be up "soon" though. We also don't know the price of the game yet either, so that's a bit of a mystery as well. Moving on, more awesome video game videos below:

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FUNimation has announced a February 9 street date for their heavily awaited release of the first 13 episodes of "Soul Eater." The first box-set will contain episode commentary, textless songs, & a preview of the manga (which runs in Yen Plus magazine).

In addition to a release date being announced, Funi has also added the first four English dubbed episodes of the series onto their video portal. This is in addition to the first 26 episodes that have already been on the site in subtitled format. You can see a sample clip of the dub above, & another one below:

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Rumor has it that Nintendo is working on their next generation handheld device, tentatively being nicknamed the DS2. Now don't mistake this for yet another new version of the DS, but rather a whole new start like how the first DS was compared to the Game Boy Advance. & according to the rumors, this thing will be mighty powerful.

nVidia are the ones signed up to create the graphics chip for the new device, using their powerful Tegra chip to power it. The nVidia Tegra is what powers the latest version of the Microsoft Zune, which is starting to role out some pretty nice looking games for the MP3 player. But the DS2 will actually be using the NEXT generation of the chip, the Tegra 2. According to nVidia, the Tegra 2 will have four-times the power of the original one. Imagine what handheld games will look like with that much power under the hood.

The DS2 (which might not even have two screens like the DS, no one knows yet) is expected to be formally announced in late 2010, meaning it'll likely go on sale sometime in 2011. So we might want to reconsider picking up the DSi XL when it comes out.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ds2-vs-psp2-article

Despite all the problems that Bandai's been having with their DVDs, they still have a very large library of good titles out there. & now for the holiday season, Buy.com is throwing a Bandai Entertainment DVD sale! Select titles are now up to 71% off, meaning you can get whole series for as low as $10. Or you can get all of Cowboy Bebop for $18, the newly released Sola complete series for $16, or both seasons of Big O for $14. They got tons of Gundam, Code Geass, Lucky Star, Haruhi, Eureka Seven, & a lot more for you to buy on the cheap. So don't delay, take advantage of these great deals while you can:

http://www.buy.com/specialty_store_6b/anime-box-set-sale/65475.html

Recently announced in Japan are a series of ballpoint pens- shaped like the beam rifles from Mobile Suit Gundam! But instead of shooting deadly ammo, it shoots ink. Well, it doesn't really shoot ink, more like if you press it against paper it'll write with the ink. There are four different pen designs with two different colors for each, making a total of eight to choose from. They don't look too comfortable to hold, but they do look pretty awesome. Pre-orders are being taken now if you wish to import:

http://www.strapya-world.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=Gundam+Arms+Ball+Point+Pen

The insanely popular Vocaloid series in Japan will begin offering 5 new characters next month. Three of them will be for the traditional singing-synthesizer part of the game, & include an elementary school girl, a male teacher, & an idol based on j-pop singer Miki Furukawa. These of course are in addition to the 14 already released characters, including the world famous Miku Hatsune.

The other two new characters are for a brand new Voiceroid part of the program. Instead of having the characters sing whatever your heart desires, this new line of characters will talk in plain speech whatever you type in for them. Thing is though, these two characters are extremely young- toddlers even. One is a five-year-old girl named Tsukuyomi Ai, & the other of her seven-year-old brother Tsukuyomi Shota. Shota is quite the appropriate name for the boy, makes you wonder why they didn't call the girl Loli. Though that might be because she's too young to really even be considered that.

Voice samples are available on the website. I don't even want to imagine the vast possibilities of perverted things otaku will have these two young children say to them.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-11-14/5-new-vocaloid-2-characters-offered-next-month