J-rock band, Stereopony debuted in 2008 with ‘Hitohira no Hanabira’ which became the 17th ending song to BLEACH and ranked #25 in Oricon charts. Their second single, ‘Namida no Mukou’ was the ending song to the second season of Gundam 00. It ranked #2 on the Oricon charts. Their singles are not the only ones to rank highly on the charts: their debut album ‘A Hydrangea Blooms’ was released in June 2009 and ranked #7 on Oricon. Their brand new second album, ‘Over the Border’ was especially sold at AnimeNEXT along with ‘A Hydrangea Blooms’.
» Continue reading “AnimeNEXT 2010: Stereopony – Music at the Speed of a Pony”

This year’s AnimeNEXT was from June 18-20, held at the Garden State Exhibit Center in New Jersey. There was an array of distinguished guests including voice actor, Greg Ayres, Japanese designer, Gashicon among many others. I had the pleasure of attending two Q&A panels for both director Kamiyama Kenji and Japanese band, Stereopony.
» Continue reading “AnimeNEXT 2010: Kamiyama Kenji – Cyberpunk and Conspiracies”

Reported and Photographs by Linda Yau

Image courtesy of Book Expo 2010 Press Photos » Continue reading “Book Expo America 2010 – Part 2″

Reported and Photographs by Linda Yau

Book Expo America had some notable changes this year. One it was moved to mid-week. Two, the exhibition show was cut by a day. Three the method for counting attendance was changed in mentioning a number of professionals vs. exhibitioners. There were 21,919 verified professionals, excluding exhibitioners that were at the show. Registered number in attendance though was 27,211, and comparing this to last year’s 29,923. The smaller number was attributed to the shorten show days Next year the format of the show will be going back to three days instead of two days. » Continue reading “Book Expo America 2010 – Part 1″

Train*Train vol. 3
Story and Art: Eiki Eiki
Published by the Doki Doki Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
ISBN13: 9781569700983
ISBN10: 1569700982
Review copy provided by the publisher

Review by I-hsiu Lin

Next stop is Minami-Kitazawa Station…please step away from the closing doors.

Fall has come to Minami-Kitazawa and Asahi Saruta has been there for some time working as a station staff along with his incredibly good looking senpais, dealing with crazy events that are all part of the schedule in that particular station (and some events that are not part of the schedule but are still crazy.) Their policy is ‘Service with a Smile’…and everything that it entails. But Asahi pops the question that might as well have echoed through everyone’s mind: “When did Minakita become the ‘Legendary Station Where Good-Looking Guys are Chose to work’…?

Actually, my question is…who are the guys on the cover?

Time for a flashback or two….
» Continue reading “Manga Review: Train*Train vol. 3″