Otaku International

Dengeki Bunko (Dengeki = electric shock) is a publishing label known for having released popular light novels. Their release list includes titles like “Shakugan no Shana” as well as “Spice and Wolf.”

On September 23rd they opened up a special gallery event to commemorate the first release 15 years ago. At Akihabara’s Anime Center it shows various writers’ and illustrators’ limited works and photographs. The exposition will be going on until mid october but on the 5th there will be a big event as part of the Akihabara autumn festival. During this event held at the UDX 2nd building one can meet and receive autographs or signings from writers and illustrators during event hours.

For more information on this event please head over to Akiba Today.

To commemorate the release of the new CD “squarewave surfers ~ memory of 8bit” label VORC Records will hold a special event of Silent Disco in Akihabara on the 14th and 15th September.

The album “squarewave surfers ~ memory of 8bit”is a compilation of “chiptune” artists from around the world - including U.S., Britain, Sweden and Japan that center their music production on using 8 bit chip based machines like NES,MSX,Commodore or the ever popular Game Boy.

Attendants, who are free to bring their own headphones, will plug themselves into a Belkin audiohub which is connected to an iPod and can so enjoy the music in a group atmosphere.

The event will take place on the 14th this months from 14.00 at Ishimaru Soft 2 and the next one at 16.00 inside Hobby Hall. On the 15th it will take place from 15.00 at Rental Showcase Astop.

News Via: Akiba Today

This September, the company behind Art Jeuness will be organising a huge exhibition for a limited time period only at Akiba Square, the event space on the second floor of UDX. It is their biggest exhibition to date and they will be showcasing illustrations from various artists. The ticket costs only 500 yen but if you buy in advance it costs only 400 yen. Better still if you go as a group of more than five (you get a group discount and each ticket costs only 300 yen). The physically disabled, senior citizens and junior high school students and younger get free admission with presented ID.

For more information regarding this exhibit please visit Akibanana.

This piece of news is for Gundam builders everywhere. For the 10th time now Ascii Media Works will hold the Gunpla Contest in Akihabara. The contest running under the name “Dengeki King of Gundam Modelers championship” will have people from all over Japan showing off their creations. There will be two leagues divided by age. The first will be consisting from ages up to 12 and the second one anyone over that. The contest will be lasting 2 days from August 23 until the 24th.

For gunpla builders not living in Japan, you need not worry as this contest is also being held at other locations, the contest will also be held in Hong Kong or Taiwan. For those who are intending to join these competitions, feel free to email me your pictures of the event or your model. I will gladly display them on a post here.

Now all of you may know that I am an American Chinese living in New York City. Therefore in order to write about things dealing with Japan, I constantly read blogs and postings from various parts of the web (I even read online translated Japanese blogs on occasion). So for myself and others like me, the release of Akiba Today is a blessing for we can now read some Japanese news fully in English.

In a press release today, Japanese newspaper and media outlet Akiba Keizai Shimbun announced the launch of their new English news portal AKIBA Today. Their goal is,

reporting in a cross media fashion about the latest events, goods and trends of anime, game and manga culture in Tokyo’s “electric town” Akihabara. We deliver business news aimed at otaku or fans of japanese pop culture as well as corporations.

Well, I personally will be looking into this site every now and then to check up for cool and new info. Hopefully I speak for all us Non-Japanese reading Otakus out there when i say “I hope more Japanese Sites/Companies follows suit.”

Akihabara also known as Akihabara Electric Town (Akihabara Denki Gai), and Akiba. No matter what you call this place there is one thing that remains unchanged. That is the wondrous and amazing atmosphere and content provided in this holy land known as Akihabara.

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