Anime Zen Blog

The 2007 iterations of Gen Con So Cal, Garden City Anime Festival, and Anime Express have all been canceled.

According to a letter from Gen Con CEO Peter Adikson, declining attendance and a lack of dealers’ room reservations caused the California convention to end. Gen Con Indy, however, is still planed for August 16-19.

Daytona Beach’s Anime Express is cancelled due to reconstruction from a Christmas tornado and issues with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s administration: “Several SERIOUS breeches of trust, ERAU policy, and even of the law itself were witnessed and documented by ERAU Safety over the past two years of the convention, and that has unfortunately cast the AGAnime Club in a very bad light in ERAU’s eyes.”

Garden City Anime Festival in St. Ctharines, Ontario is being cancelled due to an unexplained “conflict” among the staff, according to CEO Amanda Hall.

Source: AnimeCons.com

Geneon has signed a deal with G4TechTV Canada to bring the company’s anime series to the network.

Tenjho Tenge, GunxSword, and Trigun are among the initial shows in the deal, with more to come. They run during these times:

Monday-Friday

8:30 pm – 9 pm EST

12 am - 12:30 am EST

Saturday

9 pm - 11:30 pm EST

Sunday

6 pm - 8:30 pm EST

Source: Zannen.ca

Wal-Mart has pulled Yaoi Press’s Yaoi Hentai titles from its online store following a report on Walmart.com’s “anime porn” by The Consumerist.  Source: ICv2

The Funimation Channel is adding a new Pow Wasabi block Monday-Friday from 9 to 11 p.m. Eastern starting tonight. The block will launch with Revolutionary Girl Utena, Dragon Ball, Slayers, and Baki the Grappler.

I have this channel on Sat.  tv. but I never knew it. It is pretty cool to have, even though you get it dubbed.

Kiddy Grade has been renewed for a second season in Japan. No release details are available. Source: Japanator

Otakon and Live Nation are giving away ten pairs of tickets to see Dir en Grey at Rams Head Live in Baltimore on February 5. Only those who registered for Otakon 2006 are eligible for the drawing.

The live action film based on Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo manga finished #1 at the Japanese box office last weekend. The film stars Kou Shibasaki and Satoshi Tsumabuki. Source: Kogyo Tsushinsha

Nodame Cantabile’s 1 a.m. broadcast on January 11 scored a record-breaking 5.4% rating in Japan. The previous late night anime record of 4.8% was held by Hajime no Ippo. Source: Anime Nation

A trailer for Cencoroll, the first anime project to be sponsored by Anime Innovation Tokyo, is now online. Anime Innovation Tokyo is an initiative to sponsor anime by independent animators and small studios. Source: Anime Nation

Netflix plans to sell movies and TV shows, including content from ADV’s Anime Network, for online viewing. Subscribers of the company’s $17.99 monthly unlimited DVD rental plan will be able to download 18 hours of online movies and shows each month, while those with the $5.99 plan will get six hours. The service is expected to open in June.