With Comiket now only a 20 days away the number of doujinshi events have dwindled to a handful and most of them are in the far reaches of the country. Last week I saw around four cons in Okinawa and there are a couple today. If there is one trend I have noticed that has surprised me it has to be that the cosplay cons are still going strong. The numbers for those events are still very high. Hmmm...

Anywho, here is the first of a few con alerts for today. We will start off in one of my favorite parts of Japan... Aichi-ken.


Ore to Omae de Choushindou

Tales of the Abyss only Doujinshi Event
Dates: Dec 10, 2006
Time：11：00～15：00
Location: Kariya City Sangyou Shinkou Center; Aioishi １-１-６, Kariya, Aichi
Tel: (０５) ６６－２８－０５５５
Cosplay： yes (100円 registration)
Pictures: n/a
Notes： Catalog is 500円;


Ai vs Gintama Sen2

Gintama only Doujinshi Event
Dates: Dec 10, 2006
Time：11：00～15：00
Location: SunLife Nagoya, Tanjinyamacho 3-10, Nishi-ku; Nagoya; Aichi
Tel: 052-522-2312
Cosplay： yes
Pictures: yes; no motion pictures
Notes： Catalog is 500円;

Many people might take off for Okinawa in the winter for the warmer weather and cool culture but if you are really obsessive you could pass by for a quick con or two.


Comic Island 4

All Genres Doujinshi Event
Dates: Dec 10, 2006
Time：11：00～15：00
Location: Minkaikan 2F Center Hall, Yosemiya 1-2-1; Naha, Okinawa
Tel: (098) 855-5081
Cosplay： yes (100円 registration)
Pictures: n/a
Notes： Catalog is 400円;

Got this in the mail today so I thought I should share this with all of you who have TPspace accounts. You know I actually tried the product myself before 1.7 a few weeks back and the networking ability was crazy. I hadn't even spent a whole hour and I suddenly had two fans and for some reason I began "popping" stuff. I still don't know what popping is but I was asked to do so by my new zoku. So much peer pressure.

Truth be told it did give me a chance to try to re-familiarize myself with TP's titles. As I filled out my favorite manga section, I went through all those titles I have not finished from this pub. It also helped me fill out some holiday gift lists as I found some golden oldens I felt I should share with the "fans". So in an indirect way, I was looking for books and the TPspace experience even lead me to purchase some TP for the winter.

I haven't checked in much since. Really didn't feel like more popping and I reading your comments and email is plenty fun for me. But I passed by again and checked a couple of their new features. Importing you blog into your account is pretty easy. I tried that this morning and was pretty surprised to see how relatively effortless that was. I was not thrilled about the music uploads being only 1000kb (forget podcasting then) but considering server space I thought that was a good decision. The forum accessibility was not as easy though. Still got a log-in request, but apart from that navigation was easy. Actually about the forum, I am pretty old skool so I tend to complain about these a bit (which is why I hardly hit these anymore) but I noticed a strange threaded hybrid function. You don't see each tread; its really individual posts, presented under a listing of minimized posts. I didn't find it efficient at all, but for some strange reason I kinda liked that. Haven't seen that done before, so it made me appreciate TP's code monkey efforts.

Other features... Ah, yes importing DeviantArt. Very very cool. Now I cannot draw stick figures. I can hardly draw straws well, but for those who can draw that is a great place to get share work and maybe get some exposure.

TPspace is sure not for me, I am not into YouTube, I am not talented enough to start creating let alone sharing art or AMVs. I got me a blog with reviews so that's taken care of. But for the Manga Revolution this might work. I'd like to see more exposure to licensed manga. I'd like to see more reviews of any manga period. But for those making manga, living the manga lifestyle maybe connecting is enough. Maybe this manga lifestyle is just merely a User Generated Content world?

Version 1.7 is live!

Hey, Members of the Manga Revolution!
IT is finally here!
Version 1.7 is live!

Sure, as a member of the TOKYOPOP.com community, you've been enjoying the only place where manga entertainment lives. But now we've added some killer features based on your calls to action. But please let us know if you find any bugs by reporting them to bugs@tokyopop.com!

Now you can:
-Create your own polls and check out other member polls—let us know what you think is hot...and not
-Review your favorite manga, anime, film, concert, song, blog-anything in entertainment—and read reviews from other members of the Manga Revolution
-Post your own articles or news stories-you don't have to wait for us to dictate the news
-Rate the usefulness of members' comments
-Import your blog from other sites
-Import your art from DeviantArt

But we're just getting warmed up-share the Manga Revolution with all your friends:
-Email any content to friends, using TOKYOPOP's Private Message or outside email
-Check out the new icons for member birthdays and "online now"

And to make things easier, we're including:
-Number of views posted for all content
-Searchable Tags for all content
-User forums accessible with main login (no separate login or registration needed)

This is just the start as we redefine the U in UGC.

We'll be making some even cooler changes to the site in the near future, so keep logging on to TOKYOPOP.com for the next wave of the Manga Revolution.

Saturday and sunday is always about the Japan releases over here at the MangaCast. And that is mainly because I am usually the only person in the office on these days. So I just try to knock these out while it is quiet.

I'll start today's listings off with some books from Kodansha, again. How about some shojo... So pink!



Nakayoshi Releases for Dec 6

( Covers behind the Cut )

Moving along and we have some shonen. I actually call BonBon shogaku manga because the titles are for younger readers than your Shonen Magazine subscriber.



BonBon Releases for Dec 6

( Covers behind the Cut )

More Kodansha and I think this is the type of stuff that Jarred would like to see Del Rey pick up. I know I wouldn't mind either.


Young Magazine Releases for Dec 6

( Covers behind the Cut )

A quick stop over at Akita Shoten gives us another look at Jarred's holiday wish list.

Oh and check it out, not only is there a new volume of WORST but another vol of Metcha Kyan is out. Easily the best shonen cooking manga there is right now. Ichigo on the cover is obsessed with cooking. Why? Well she grew up in the Tokyo Fish Market. If you had the freshest ingredients and the best cooking supplies you'd want to take advantage of the situation... before it becomes a job.


Shonen Champion Releases for Dec 8

( Covers behind the Cut )

Moving along as I get dangerously close to "officially" catching up with these releases. This time we go onto BBoy territory. And some familiar faces show up in this month's Libre releases. Hmmm... more Sex Pistols, interesting.


BeBoy for December 9

( Covers Behind the Cut )