Jong Hyon Pak used to just be known as a manga editor at Kodansha who was involved with hits like Attack on Titan, A Silent Voice and Seven Deadly Sins. However, after his wife Kanoko died mysteriously in 2016 at the age of 38, Pak …Read more »
Things aren’t looking great for Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka at the moment. The game developer has been arrested by the Special Investigation Department of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office as part of an insider scandal trailer involving Square Enix and the Dragon …Read more »
Mandarake is a popular chain store in Japan where you can buy all sorts of otaku goodies. A few weeks ago, on October 22, several people walked up to the Mandarake Grand Chaos store located in Osaka at about 4 in the morning. The store …Read more »
A 30-year-old man in Japan says that he recently bought a copy Weekly Shonen Jump for 180,000 yen (approximately $1,230). That’s a lot more than your average issue of Shonen Jump, but the price was so high because this issue happened to be the fifty-first …Read more »
Hidekazu Tanaka, a 35-year-old composer known for working on everything from the IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls soundtrack to the opening song “Ichigo Ichie Celebration” for Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!’s second season, has been arrested. Police believe he attempted to sexually assault a teenage girl. His …Read more »
On October 5, the company Kadokawa held a press conference in the midst of a scandal involving an alleged bribery to get Kadokawa in as an official sponsor for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, whose father founded the company, ex-Kadokawa executive Toshiyuki Yoshihara …Read more »
It’s being reported by the Japanese news outlet Mainichi Shimbun that Kadokawa chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, whom police believe illegally bribed an ex-member of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics organizing committee, plans to put in his resignation. The Mainichi Shimbun said it got this information from …Read more »
Chikae Ide, a mangaka specializing in the romance genre, is known in Japan as the queen of ladies’ comics. Her latest book and manga — both titled Poison Love — are about how she was scammed by a man pretending to be in love with …Read more »
There’s a scandal going on with the publisher Kadokawa, because people in the company may have bribed the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics organizing committee to become official sponsors. According to reports, Kadokawa chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa was arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office. In …Read more »
Virtual YouTubers, or VTubers, are treated like they’re real people. They get their own names, biographies, and can get even get in trouble. But while this happens in the world of make-believe, a court in Japan just sided with a VTuber in a lawsuit. The …Read more »
There are reports that a Chinese anime fan got in trouble with police in Suzhou, China for dressing like Ushio Kofune from Summer Time Rendering. The issue was that she wore a kimono, which goes against the current Chinese government’s nationalistic sentiments, and is also …Read more »
Manga piracy, which steals from creators, is a major problem in Japan and abroad. Even though there are many legal places to get manga, people continue to illegally download it online, including at the massive Japanese site Mangamura. While Mangamura has been shut down, the …Read more »
Japanese police have arrested Tetsuya Yamagami for the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, but half the world away a politician in France had a different theory on the murderer. Damien Rieu, who is described as being far-right, put forward the idea that video …Read more »
In February Otaku USA reported on the news that a 28-year-old man named Kohei Ohori had been arrested for stealing school items. When asked why he did it, he replied, “I wanted to get a taste of the world of Love Live!” But loving an …Read more »
Taiko Sasaki is famous for being in the Johnnys’ Jr. idol group 7 MEN Samurai, but his life is not all glitz and glamour. Police just arrested a 17-year-old high school student for allegedly stalking him while holding a box cutter. According to police, she …Read more »
Danica Davidson
Joseph Luster
