This is not exactly world-shaking news: the preciptious downturn in the U.S. economy claims yet another small business. But I suspect the business in question, a Japanese import outlet called ‘Made in Japan‘, is just one of many such closures in the otaku-friendly market in the near future.

“It’s a very tough time for small businesses in New York state,” said Wales, who owns the shop with her husband, Casey Wales. “Right now, there’s just not enough of an economical pull to stay in business.”

Made in Japan, on the Vestal Parkway for about two years, sells manga (Japanese comic books), anime (Japanese animation), Hello Kitty merchandise and other items. The business previously was located on Washington Avenue in Endicott for 2 1/2 years.

Staying open has been a struggle for the past nine months, Wales said. Made in Japan has no employees.

“People aren’t looking to spend money on hobbies right now when they’re having a hard time paying for everything else,” she said.

Anime distributor Geneon, which exited the U.S. DVD biz late last year, has been taken over by Universal Pictures, Inc. Universal’s grab comes shortly after a number of Geneon titles (including the most excellent Black Lagoon) were re-launched through FUNimation’s distribution arm.

UPIE plans to merge Geneon with Universal Pictures Japan, a UPIE subsid. UPIE will own an 80.1% stake in the new entity, Dentsu the remaining 19.9%.

UPIE and Dentsu will collaborate in supporting the new company, which will distribute all Universal home entertainment content in Japan while developing a slate of local pics and other content.

UPJ and Geneon have been partners since March, with Geneon distribbing new Universal DVD releases and UPJ marketing DVDs of Universal catalog and TV titles.

Variety has the whole story here.

According to Reuters/Hollywood Reporter, there are three nominations available for the 2008 Oscars Best Animated Feature Category, and fourteen films trying to snag them. Two of the films are anime: Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers and Sword of the Stranger. No anime has won an Oscar since Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, so let’s keep our fingers crossed!

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I actually haven’t seen either of the films, but they both look great; I’ll watch anything by Oshii and Sword of the Stranger looks good and violent. Both have been licensed, so we’ll get to see them eventually. I think it’s about time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences started paying more attention to anime, though it’s understandable they want to focus on American movies.

According to Variety Asia Online, Japanese film distributor Kadokawa will import Imagi films CGI adapation of Osamu Tezuka’s beloved Astro Boy, for release in October 2009. Though I’ve seen precious little of Imagi’s output other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film that came out a couple of years back, I’m optimistic. The TMNT flick wasn’t half bad, and they’ve shown that they know cool when they see it by nabbing both Astro Boy and Tatsunoko’s Gatchaman.

…so says the ‘Art and Entertainment Editor’ of The Daily Beacon, a student publication from the University of Tenessee Knoxville. Normally I’d pass on giving nonsense like this crediblilty through commentary, but I feel the need to call bullshit when I see it.

The problem this created was not only about money; it affected creativity. That’s because the only people that really bothered to buy the DVDs anymore were the hardcore fans, and hardcore fans have different interests than the regular, everyday fan. Hardcore, maniac fans tend to like their series peppered with the geeky stereotypes of anime: over-the-top violence, excessive use of Japanese cultural references, weird characters and big-busted, scantily-clad animated women (or even worse, overly cute, underage-looking animated girls). So, the animators began adding more of these things into their series to satisfy the only fans that were bringing them real business. While it saves their companies from going under, it kills the final product. Shows became stupid and lost the things that attracted fans in the first place; mostly, all of the heart was gone.

We’ve written about this many times in the recent past, and the true consensus among anime industry types is that anime as a genre still enjoys a wide degree of popularity. It’s the business model that’s tanking. This is an important distinction, and one that I believe Ms. Heriges is missing. In many ways, the internet piracy that many have been decrying as anime’s death-knell is paving the way forward for new business models which will harness the power of information technology in ways DVD-centered business can’t touch. It’s no fluke that FUNimation announced last week that they were throwing a whole mess of content up on Hulu.com, one of the internet’s best resources for properly-licensed video. YouTube has also seen a dramatic shift in licensed properites from anime companies, with some studios generating entire YouTube feeds specificially tailored for their product. 

I suspect that I’m a good deal older than Ms. Heriges, who comments on watching Gundam Wing in the 8th grade. She probably doesn’t remember a time when anime fandom was a chore - when it amounted to signing up via snail-mail to videotape clubs which would trade badly fansubbed 10th generation copies of every grade-z anime series we could get our hands on. You know what was available on television when I was in 8th grade?

Voltron.

Yes, Voltron - the bastardized offspring of two relatively crap series forced into an arranged marriage and foisted on the American public as ‘anime’. I’d have killed for the anime the kids have access to today.

Rest easy, Katherine - anime will be just fine.

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Out of my current crop of review titles, the biggest and most pleasant surprise has been Funimation’s release of the first half of Ghost Hunt.  As you can infer from the title, the series is about the adventures of a Japanese ghost-hunting team.  Half the team’s members are, predictably, teenagers, but Shibuya Psychic Research is no after-school club.  It’s a fully equipped paranormal research organization, and presents a pretty accurate portrayal of modern ghost hunting techniques.

Mai Taniyama is a regular high school girl.  She likes staying after school to swap ghost stories with her friends, especially ones about the old abandoned schoolhouse down the street.   One afternoon, on her way home, she stops to peer into the building’s windows and is surprised to see a video camera in the empty foyer.  She goes in to investigate, unwittingly causing an accident that injures a man hiding in the shadows.  His name is Lin, and he’s the assistant to the head of Shibuya Psychic Research-SPR for short.  His boss is Kazuya Shibuya, the 17 year old owner and CEO of SPR.  Since Lin is out of commission for a while and the camera is destroyed, Shibuya informs Mai that she’ll be taking Lin’s place until he can work again.  Mai agrees, partly because she feels guilty and partly because she thinks Shibuya is hot.  After only a few days of working for him, though, Mai comes to learn he’s almost unbearably cold and arrogant.  She nicknames him ‘Naru’-an abbreviation of narcissist.  The name catches on, and soon even loyal Lin is calling him Naru.

Their first client is the principal of Mai’s school, who wants them to investigate reports of a deadly curse on the abandoned schoolhouse.  They find he’s hired four other people to get rid of any evil spirits haunting the building.  Ayako, a self-styled Shinto shrine maiden; Masako, a famous medium; a former Buddhist monk, simply called Monk; and an Australian priest named John Brown.  The group reluctantly agrees to work together to exorcise the school, but even as they perform their various rites Naru insists that the poltergeist-like incidents have a natural cause, and Masako agrees with him.  Mai doesn’t know what to think, until a mysterious dream offers her insight to the case.  The resolution is unusual, even for a ghost story.

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Despite what I may have written in the past, I don’t want the Dragonball movie to suck. I’d really like to see  some cool live-action anime action on the big screen. Doubt we’ll get it, but ComicBookMovie.com posted a pretty cool picture that purports to be Goku in full-on saiyan form. Is it real? Sure looks like it, and let’s be frank - the producers of this film have nothing to lose by showing us whatever cool stuff they’ve got up their sleeves at this point.

I’m still not sure this is going to get me to haul my ass over to the local cinema on opening night (or ever, really), but that’s some neat makeup they’ve got going on there. Wonder how it’ll look when it’s fully CGI’d?

FUNimation is producting an anime of fan-fave mascot Sgt. Frog, and they want to know what you think so far. A test episode has been placed on YouTube (which we can’t embed here, unfortunately) and comments are being solicited. I haven’t watched the whole thing yet, but it looks pretty good.

Watch Sgt. Frog test episode here!

Motoo Abiko, the creator of pop culture phenomenon Doraemon (a robot cat with a magic pocket), has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government:

Read It!

I’m not familiar with the Order of the Rising Sun, but it sounds totally impressive. And if anyone deserves it, it’s the guy who created creepy-cute Doraemon, who is freaking everywhere in Japan. He has his own fruit snacks, for crying out loud.

I wish my cat had a magic pocket. I checked, but she’s really just fat, so what I thought was a magic pocket was loose skin on her tummy. Ah well, I can’t have everything I guess.

At least my cat has ears.