A weekly look into American otaku culture

Okay, since I have some free time at the moment, I figure I should just wrap up my day of blogging before I go off to the various hentai-themed events for the night. They’re always the most fun.

Following up how excited I am over FUNimation’s release of Negima, we all got a look at the artbox for the series. It’s a wooden box with golden outlines of the female characters on each side. The box opens from the top, and is magnetically kept closed. They said that it was supposed to be like a bentou / lunch box, but I didn’t see any connection. It was more like a jewelry box.

The boxes come with re-useable stickers featuring chibi-version of the female students and a thumb-size figurine of chibi-Asuna. They say that the rest of the volume will also feature a “Special Edition” with another chibi figure. I have a feeling I’ll be getting the box, the rest of the series, and the special edition volume with the Nodoka figure. (^_^)

So the overall impression of the con ended on a happy note today. While there were only two companies present at the event, they did make a very good impression on me.ADV seems determined to remain in the business and re-invent the way anime is teated in America. FUNimation goes through many hoops to ensure that they put out the best quality that they possibly can. So while these seem like hard times for many, there are still a handful of things that anime fans still have to look forward to in the months ahead.