If you have the license for a particular property, it’s perfectly fine to use said license to produce huggable and extremely popular body pillow covers—AKA dakimakura—based on various characters from the series. This applies to the Love Live! franchise, as well, but there’s no way in hell …Read more »
It’s one thing to admire the weaponry of your favorite manga and anime characters; it’s another entirely to use them to commit crimes of your own. That’s what one Lupin III fan did in Japan when he allegedly attempted to rob a convenience store using Lupin’s iconic …Read more »
Considering all of the awful words spewed out on the Internet on a second-by-second basis, comparing someone to a nerdy character like Doraemon protagonist Nobita seems about as harmless as it gets. That turned out not to be the case for YouTuber AuronPlay, who referred to Josep …Read more »
A 25-year-old man has been arrested for threatening to set fire to the offices of Visual Arts, a visual novel publisher based in Osaka. His alleged plan shares details with the arson attack on Kyoto Animation July 18 which killed 35 of that studio’s employees. In fact, …Read more »
After a month of stories following the tragic July 18 arson attack on Kyoto Animation’s Studio 1, just 10 of the 35 deceased employee’s names have been disclosed to the public. Among them are Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid director Yasuhiro Takemoto and Free! chief animation director Futoshi Nishiya. This is in …Read more »
You know AirDrop: that thing where you can send images and other files back and forth across Apple devices. Easy way to share photos with friends and all that, but some folks have been up to no good with the feature. It’s called “AirDrop harassment,” …Read more »
It’s now been almost exactly a month since the arson attack on Kyoto Animation studios, and while there aren’t any questions as to who was responsible, the greater reasoning behind it lingers. Shinji Aoba was arrested right after the attack and is still in the …Read more »
The July 18 arson attack on Kyoto Animation was a dark day for the anime industry and Japan as a whole. The weeks since have seen some positive impact in the way people from all over the world have reached out for support and assistance, but there …Read more »
Typically when you read about a One Piece pirate being arrested, it’s the Navy’s problem. The notorious criminals in question end up in the impenetrable underwater prison Impel Down, and that’s that. In this case, however, the subject is another suspected pirate of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece manga. The …Read more »
It has been three weeks since the arson attack on Kyoto Animation that killed 35 people and destroyed the studio’s main office. Today Japanese newspaper Nikkei is running an interview with one employee injured in the attack. The 52-year-old male employee, who has chosen to remain anonymous, …Read more »
The beloved Kyoto Animation studio — which is behind such anime as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad, and K-ON! — was attacked by arson on July 18, killing 35 employees. Since then many fans and concerned people have been coming out of the woodwork to help, and we have a few …Read more »
The story of the arson attack on Kyoto Animation’s 1st Studio building has rocked the anime community and Japan as a whole. The tragic event left 33 dead and 35 injured, and according to KyoAni president Hideaki Hatta, the amount of monetary damage was also …Read more »
Image via Sankei UPDATE: Since this article was originally written, NHK has confirmed the deaths of at least 33 people. Awful news took over news and social media tonight as Japan’s public broadcaster NHK and other outlets reported on a fire at Kyoto Animation Studio 1, located …Read more »
It seems like just yesterday we were posting about the time MariCar was defeated in court by Nintendo. Now the Japanese Go Kart tour service—which rents Mario Kart-themed cosplay to customers and lets them whizz around the streets of Tokyo in annoying little karts that cause no …Read more »
There are a lot of copies of Gosho Aoyama’s Detective Conan manga floating around, and a 26-year-old man in Mie Prefecture recently made off with 80 in total. Aoi Hattori was arrested for suspected theft after he was caught on camera stealing various volumes of the series, …Read more »
Joseph Luster
Matt Schley
Danica Davidson