*** BAKUGAN TOURNAMENT AT TOYS R US ***

Click on the picture below to find a store near you that is hosting the tournament. Have fun and good luck!

*** Dir En Grey Album Released! Uroboros - November 12!***

Today is a very special day -- not only is UROBOROS is out in the UK and North America now, but it marks the official release date in Japan, too! Those of you who didn't pre-order your copy can still get it in many different ways. For example, in North America it's on sale for a limited time at Hot Topic. For those of you who appreciate instant gratification, you can get THE WHOLE ALBUM FOR JUST $7.99 DRM-free MP3 on Amazon!

*** ANIMANGA DARK AGES? ***

The rumor started flying not long after Geneon North America's untimely demise last spring...is the anime/manga industry hitting a "dark ages"? Of course with a declining economy and the increasing focus on streaming video, it's not a wonder that a forthcoming decline in production of manga and anime occurs. Reportedly, Borders and Barnes & Noble, two bookshop chains that had been extremely aggressive in expanding their manga offerings, are decreasing their graphic novel orders by as much as 60% for the holiday season. This makes no sense to me since the holiday season should be a prime reason for increasing sales, especially to fans ages 12-18. The question is, what can we do as fans to stop the decline? The answer seems easy...completely stop watching anime online and reading manga from sites such as Onemanga. But the fact of the matter is, none of us, especially the aforementioned 12-18 age group, have enough money to buy all the manga and anime that we want. My firm belief is that the DESIRE for the products is still there, but unless your wallets are comfortably full the bills, clothes and food come way before a "luxury" item such as a book or a show. But to feed our obsession, we turn to the internet. It's a viscious circle, especially for the anime industry and manga publishers, but more so for the fans who get tangled in the web of production decline vs. want. Hopefully, our dark ages will see our knight in shining armour come forth and feed us our manga addiction with a new, money filled flourish.

Update: Even worse...Cartoon Network revealed in September that it would end its Toonami action programming block. This could cause an additional loss of a younger fan base and thus a further decline in sales of video, manga and product (shirts, hats, keychains, etc.).

*** YULECON 2008 ANNOUNCES GUESTS OF HONOR ***

Yulecon announced mid-October its voice actor guest line-up: Clarine Harp, Bruce Lewis, Wendy Powell, Samantha Inoue Hart!

ToyBox is the musical guest of honor! Visit their MySpace page to find out more about this awesome three-"man" band.

*** NOVEMBER 11 RELEASE DATE! ***

The third Naruto animated film, Naruto the Movie: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom, is slated for a North American DVD release on November 11.

Naruto Movie 3!