You might remember this story from about a year ago: Mt. Gox, one of the world’s largest depositories of the digital currency Bitcoin based in Tokyo, was allegedly hacked, losing $450 million worth of the currency in the process. Now after more than a year …Read more »
True story: a 44-year-old man from Kagoshima, Japan was arrested July 6 for selling counterfeit Love Live! pins, reports the Sankei Shinbun. The man has admit ted to the charges. The man was selling the pins on an internet mail order site, making up to …Read more »
Idol groups -- particularly one as big and terrifying as AKB48 -- make their fans do crazy things. I still remember hearing news of a guy beaten near to death outside a Shibuya train station bathroom for some kind of AKB48-related misgiving when I was …Read more »
A man who went on a rampage in Akihabara, Tokyo’s otaku mecca, in 2008, killing seven and injuring 10, has lost his last appeal and will be sentenced to death, reports the Japan Times. Tomohiro Kato plowed a rental truck into the intersection of Kanda …Read more »
Former Power Rangers actor Ricardo Medina, 36, was arrested February 1 for allegedly stabbing his roommate to death with a sword. Medina played Cole Evans, the Red Wild Force Ranger on Power Rangers Wild Force , the tenth season of the franchise, and the villain …Read more »
The 15th Midwest Furfest, a furry convention held in Rosemont, Illinois, was evacuated last weekend when the convention was apparently the target of a poison gas attack. Hazmat authorities cleared out a chlorine apparatus from the hotel’s ninth floor stairwell and evacuated the building. 19 …Read more »
Looks like Aska isn’t the only J-pop artist in trouble for drug use. Kosuke Oba, a composer who has worked with idol groups like AKB48 and on anime like Prince of Tennis and Steins;Gate , was recently arrested for using stimulant drugs. Police were clued …Read more »
39-year-old Robul Hoque received his second conviction over the possession of illustrated child pornography when the Teesside Crown Court of Middlesbrough, England hit him with 10 counts of possessing prohibited images. None of the images were of real people, but the drawings—both still and animated—were …Read more »
Tokyo police have filed charges against an idol group for performing a concert outside Shinjuku station, one of the city’s major traffic hubs, according to Tokyo Reporter. The offenders, Flare-La-Mode Ace, are an idol group made up of seven women 18 to 26 whose theme …Read more »
How the average American pictures jail in Canada. A Canadian man has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for watching anime pornography because it depicted the “sex organs or anal regions of characters who looked like minors,” reports Canada's QMI Agency. Regis Tremblay was …Read more »
It was about a week and a half ago that two members of idol group AKB48 and one of the group’s staff members were attacked at a meet-and-greet handshake event, receiving cuts and fractures to their hands and fingers. Since then, more information has come …Read more »
About a year ago, Shin Megami Tensei and Etrian Odyssey developer Atlus faced something of a predicament when their parent company, Index Corporation, filed for bankruptcy and had its stock delisted. Atlus survived the implosion and was eventually acquired by Sega, but Index Corporation’s founders …Read more »
Anna Iriyama (left) and Rina Kawaei (right) In a piece of news so grisly and odd it sounds almost made up, it was reported Sunday two members of phenomenally successful idol group AKB48, plus one member of their staff, were seriously injured by a man …Read more »
Shigeki Miyazaki, better known as Aska from the J-pop duo Chage and Aska, was arrested Saturday for allegedly possessing methamphetamine and MDMA (also known as ecstasy). Chage and Aska (right). Universal Music, which releases Chage and Aska's music, responded by halting shipments of the duo's …Read more »
One story we're very happy to report at the end of the year is the capture of the man allegedly responsible for a year-long terrorist campaign against the creator and fans of Kuroko no Basuke , the popular basketball manga and anime series. It was …Read more »
Matt Schley
Jason Moses
Joseph Luster
