Well, I promised I’d follow up when there was more news on this, so here we have the final say on what is and isn’t permissible in Otakon’s Artist Alley this year. Hopefully it will clear up any misunderstandings!

First announced on fliers distributed at Anime Expo in 2000, a longterm project of Studio Hard founder, Nobuyuki Takahashi, has been The Anime Press Center (also refered to as Animation Press Center – old url: www.apctokyo.com). Takahashi is widely known as first coining the term “cosplay” in the 1980’s and his company studio Hard has been involved in contract work for many years, producing article contents for major otaku magazines such as Newtype. Going on hiatus for some time, in 2005, the project revived in full force, with the APC having it’s own booth at the Tokyo Anime Fair. Takahashi’s Akihabara Imaginitive Institute drafted the plans for the current incarnation of the APC, describing it in promotional materials as “a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) system showcasing visual contents talent. This highly-precise system that allows for measured efficiency will serve to untie youthful passion through incorporating the following components: an office space used to carry out various activities such as the transmission and accumulation of data to and from around the world; a PC booth area allowing visitors to receive and transmit data as they please; workshop serving as areas to hold multiple public symposiums and reveal the latest visual systems; and top screens displaying digests anime and Video Game CG visuals.” Additionally their plan called for numerous contents business support functions, events and anime premiere hosting and more.
At the start of January the APC was renamed Tokyo Anime Center (www.animecenter.jp), operations will start there on March 15th when it opens on the 4th floor of Akihabara’s new UDX building, a component of the Akihabara Crossfield facility. Although it retains a number of original core functions, the physical layout of the space and and a number of objectives have been tweaked. Someone close to the project has informed ANS that the center will be involved in the Tokyo Anime Fair in some capacity.

Source: Anime News Service

A follow-up on Sunday’s Artists’ Alley post.

Jim Vowles, Otakon’s Convention Chairman, has issued a statement making clear that the rules for this year’s convention have not yet been completely worked out, and that the initial posting was a bit misleading: while the rules will be “tightened”, a fanart ban is not being implemented.

…we respectfully request that responsible media and opinion-shapers
assist us in putting the rumors to rest, and hold further questions on this matter
until after the actual, final policy has been announced.

Doing my part! Hopefully, at least, the initial fan response will have had some impact on what rules do get set in stone. When they’ve made an official announcement, I’ll be sure to post it here.

In other, official, Otakon-approved news, pre-registration has opened, with an attendance cap of 25,000 guests and plans to hold the Masquerade in the First Mariner Arena. (Which makes me even less likely to attend the Masq than I have in previous years…but hey, guaranteed seating, I suppose!) If you’ve been waiting for pre-reg to get your hotels booked, now’s the time!

Source:

Otakon Official Website

I really couldn’t believe this one when I read it…more of a “personal note” kind of post than usual, but hey, I was always supposed to be a bit more personal in this blog than I naturally tend to be…

Otakon’s Artists Alley will be actively disallowing the sale of unlicensed copyrighted materials. If you own it, you can sell it. If you have license to it, you can sell it. But if it has material (images, sounds, etc.), in whole or in part, to which you DO NOT have permission to sell, then that material will not be allowed in the Artists Alley. Anyone found in violation of this rule loses their retail space in Artists Alley for the remainder of the convention. (The above statement will be officially/legally worded and posted on the site during February, after our lawyer and Otakorp President have approved it.)

I’ll point out, in case I come under fire by Otakon, that this is not the final, official policy, it has not yet been publically announced, but was posted on the Otakon BBS by department head in charge of Artists’ Alley. Despite the title of that thread being “Official Changes for Artists Alley – 2006″, it is not yet certain what will happen, especially since there’s been a significant backlash in the fan community that has prompted staff to tell everyone repeatedly how unofficial an announcement it is.

In any case, you North American artists who attend this con, be prepared to either voice your concern with the new policy, or buckle down and go the way of the Original Character. Personally, I stopped selling in the Art Show two years ago as a result of some irritating red tape…the credit card requirement scared off many younger buyers, so sales dropped like a rock. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here by expecting that this new no-fanart (and while the Ota staff refrained from using this term, I’m using “fanart” in the most widely understood form, “art using characters that do not belong to you” sense) rule is going to mean a serious loss of profit for both the artists and the con itself. As I understand, Alley tables are pretty pricey, and not only will many artists not return due to the new rules, but if the 2006 artists don’t profit, they likely won’t be back next year. It’s notable, also, that Otakon did NOT come under fire by any copyright holders as far as we’ve been told. To quote the post of a staff member on their BBS, the reason for the change is “to promote original artwork made by fans, and to reign in the most blatant violations of intellectual property rights”.

This could be the first in an avalanche of things that will make anime cons as a whole a lot less enjoyable. What’s next? The AMV contest, or perhaps the Masquerade?

Guess we’ll have to wait and see where this one goes.

Source: Otakon BBS
(requires registration, and linked thread is now locked, but feel free to read through it for yourselves)

The “Tokyo Anime Center,” a comprehensive facility for Japan’s animation, games, characters and other affiliated industries is scheduled to open on March 15 in the “Akihabara UDX” building in the Akihabara ward of Tokyo. The center aims to become the largest center for the distribution of anime information in Japan. The facility will include a digital theater built to accommodate 170 people, a goods store, and a radio and dubbing studio.

Check out Anime News network’s article here!

Links:
Tokyo Anime Center Official Website (Bilingual)

I’m here in Columbus now and this weekend’s Ohayocon report will be forthcoming!

In the meantime, I have a tidbit of news that is not yet confirmed, but I heard during the Q&A at the Fullmetal Alchemist new dub episodes premiere yesterday evening. It’s rumoured that 4 OAVs have been announced for later this year! I’ll report more on it when we have details and confirmation, so stay tuned and I’ll see you all when I get back home!

Several anime features were among the top 20 highest-earning movies of 2005, with Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle ranking at #1. Anime News Network has compiled a full list, with plans to update at a later date with the top 10 Japanese movies of 2005 and the top ten anime of 2005.

Check out their report here!

The Newtype BB Animation Music Download service has recently debuted in Japan, having gone live on December 21st. Starting at about 150 yen per song, 400 selections of anime-related music files are now up for download. Check out the site here!

So sorry about the lack of posts this week! I hope everyone is having a great holiday, for those of you who celebrate it.

I personally was thrilled by an announcement about Little Nemo spotted on Anime News Service. (I played the Nintendo/Famicom game way back when.) It’s great to see it get a full DVD release! Check out ANS’ article below:

Bandai Visual will release the animated film Little Nemo to DVD for the first time in Japan on December 23 at a 8,190 Yen retail. After 6 years of production, the film was made for 5.3 billion Yen. It opened theatrically in 1989 in Japan and 1991 in the USA. About 2 million copies were sold in the US in 1994 upon home video release. The character was created by American Windsor Mckay in the early 20th century. The work has been spoken highly of by such creators as Osamu Tezuka and George Lucas. Directors on the project included Masami Hata and William T. Hurtz. Writing credits included Ray Bradbury, Chris Columbus, Yutaka Fujioka, Jean Giraud, Richard Outten and Edward Summer. The film runs 95 minutes, 38 minutes worth of bonus footage will be added including the original 1987 pilot film. Other extras such as storyboards etc.. are on disc. R2 Importers will note the inclusion of Japanese and English audio. Japanese subtitles can be selected as well.

Continuing in the vein of my last post.

It seems as though nearly all of the titles on the list (compiled by Anime News Service) have some anime/manga influence, or are animations, as you can see!

1. Howl’s Moving Castle (Toho) 19.6 billion yen
2. Pokemon Advance Generation: Myuu to Hadou no Yuusha (Toho) 4.3 billion yen
3. Koushou Nin Mashita Seigi (Toho) 4.2 billion yen
4. NANA (Toho) 4.03 billion yen
5. Yougisha Muroi Shin Tsugi (Toho) 3.83 billion yen
6. Densha Otoko (Toho) 3.7 billion yen
7. Kita No Rei Nen (Toei) 2.7 billion yen
8. Always -Sunset on Third Street- (Toho) 2.5 billion yen
9. Lorelei (Toho) 2.4 billion yen
10. Hoshi Ninatta Shounen (Toho) 2.3 billion yen

Impressive!