Winners and guests of the 2nd Seiyu Awards (Image via J1m0ne)

Mamoru Miyano won the best lead actor award, while Aya Hirano claimed the best lead actress award. Complete list of winners available on Wikipedia.

Figurines and cosplayers at Wonder Fest (Image from Dengeki, Akibablog and Akibana)

You can view more pictures at Akibana, Akiba-Ch, Akibablog, Heisei and Dengeki. Mind that some of the pics are not safe for work.

The main character (with turquoise hair) of the video is Hatsune Miku (初音ミク), a character from Vocaloid, a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by just typing in lyrics and melody.

The first song is titled “Kurutto, Mawatte, Ikkaiten”, adapted from the ending theme of anime “Sgt Frog” (ケロロ軍曹; Keroro Gunsō). I am guessing that the voice is how the software (or Hatsune Miku) should sound like.

The 2nd song is “Caramell Dansen” by Swedish group Caramell. (Hat tip to reader Brighty)

Hong Kong actor and director Stephen Chow is working with Hollywood studio Twentieth Century Fox to produce a live movie adapted from popular Japanese manga “Dragon Ball”.

Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Manga and Anime

Dragon Ball is created by Akira Toriyama in 1984 and was originally published at Shonen Jump, a weekly Japanese manga magazine. Dragon Ball is one of the most popular manga ever produced and was remade into anime in the 90s.

The story centres on Son Goku as he searches for the mystical artifacts known as Dragon Balls which have enormous power. The later parts of the plots revolve around Goku’s quest to protect the earth from evil forces who want to take over the planet and control the Dragon Balls.

The anime version of Dragon Ball is made into 2 entities, the “Dragon Ball” and “Dragon Ball Z” (DBZ). Dragon Ball adapts the first 16 volumes of the manga, while DBZ covers the later 26 volumes which portrays the adulthood of Goku.

Dragon Ball movie

The Dragon Ball movie will adapt stories from Dragon Ball Z. The movie will start filming by end of 2007 (shooting in Montreal according to unconfirmed sources) and is scheduled to release in August 2008.

Stephen Chow, a long time fan of Dragon Ball, will produce the movie. James Wong of “The X-Files” and “Final Destination” fame is the director.

Justin Chatwin (”War of the Worlds”) will play Son Goku, while James Marsters (”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) will play Goku’s arch rival Piccolo. Other major roles are currently being cast… a few favourites to join the cast include “Heroes” star James Kyson Lee and Hong Kong based actor Edison Chen.

[Hat tip to Japanprobe]

The anime adaptation is directed by Tatsuya Ishihara; the main original Japanese voice actors/actresses (seiyū) include Aya Hirano, Tomokazu Sugita, Minori Chihara, Yuko Goto and Daisuke Ono etc.

Buy the anime series – Volume 1 l Volume 2 l Volume 3

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

The Story Plot

Haruhi is a high school girl who joins and quits every club in the school. Her strange behaviour has made her a hard-to-approach girl in the class. Kyon, who happens to sit in front of her, is the only one that managed to chat a bit with her, and somehow inspired her into starting her own club… the “S.O.S. Brigade”.

Kyon is dragged to become the first member of the club followed by a few others… bibliophile (book lover) Yuki Nagato, timid and cute Mikuru Asahina and a transfer student Itsuki Koizumi. The members of the club aren’t normal people though, as Kyon gradually discovers that they have agenda of their own…

Yuki is a humanoid with supernatural powers created by the Integrated Data Entity; Mikuru is a girl from future; and Itsuki is an esper (with telepathy capability) from a secret agency. All the 3 characters work for different organization, but with a common goal… to observe Haruhi and to prevent disaster from happening.

Truth is, Haruhi has superhuman control over every aspect of the universe, which she is unaware of. She can make things happen, and whenever she becomes bored or discontent with reality, she will unconsciously create a new world to her liking, and that could lead to the destruction of the current universe.

In order to prevent this, the members of Haruhi’s club, including Kyon who discovered the truth, try all their best to keep Haruhi entertained.

Buy the anime series – Volume 1 l Volume 2 l Volume 3

The first season of the anime consist of 14 episodes, and was originally broadcast in an oddly manner, with the episodes not showing in chronological order… oddity seems to fit well with the theme of the anime though.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya turn out to be a true gem that has appeal to lots of anime fans. The characters from the anime has become a favourite among cosplay lovers; and there are some hardcore fans of the series calling themselves ‘Haruhiists’ that are really attached to the ‘philosophy’ of the anime.

Multiple singles and albums have been released relating to Haruhi Suzumiya. The most popular song is probably “Hare Hare Yukai” (literally means ‘Sunny Sunny Happiness’; ハレ晴レユカイ), the ending themed song sang by Aya Hirano, Minori Chihara and Yuko Goto, the respective voices of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yuki Nagato and Mikuru Asahina from the series.

The para-para style dancing (often referred as ‘Hare Hare Yukai Dance’) along with the ending theme song has create craze among Haruhiists and anime fans, with hundreds and thousands of pranks videos being created and uploaded to popular sites like Youtube.

The production of season 2 for the anime series has been announced at the time of writing; the exact date of its release is unsure yet.

Related Websites

Official Website ll Kyoto Animation Website (both sites in Japanese)

Japanese manga fans can enjoy their reading while doing serious business now…

Japanese manga toilet paper (Image courtesy of Banbix)