After a slow few weeks on the news front there's finally some nifty things to mention, plus several plugs too boot!

First off, this week at Manga Recon.. As July came to an end the most recent installment of Manga Minis went up! This is an oversized edition with contributions from five members of the Manga Recon team, including myself. Just a sampling of the books reviewed.. Naruto vol. 30, The King of Fighters Art Book (comic, not game), and xxxHolic vol. 12, plus many more, so go and check it out.

Meanwhile in my solo act for the week, I took a look at the action/comedy/horror series Tokko vol. 1. Yes, Tokko, as in "one of the launch series for Sci-Fi's Anime Monday block." Those who saw the anime might want to give the manga a look, it's a bit different though not vastly so. It certainly looks better, but then again I'm starting to like Tohru (GTO and the Rose Hip saga) Fujisawa's artwork.

In other news..

Dark Horse Manga editor extradoinare, Philip Simon, posted a rough list of arrival dates for several manga/manwha series that have had a question mark hanging over them in recent months! Translucent, Shaman Warrior and Bride of the Water God all got dates, with mentions of Blade of the Immortal, MPD Psycho and Eden all having new volumes on the way as well. Apparently the reason for the delay involved several translators having to bow out of the projects.

Speaking of MPD Psycho, it's probably worth pointing out that as of vol. 7 the series will now be sporting a price tag of $13. Hopefully that won't put people off of it as Simon's stated that DH has comitted to completing the series.

Speaking of pieces of fiction that have live action adaptions (segue!), bad news hit the internet last week with regards to the live action adaption of Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train. For those who don't know, the movie was finished late last year/earlier this year and was originally set for a spring '08 release. It got bumped back until August, then it was pulled completely with no word on a possible release date. Well, it looks like that question has been answered. For reasons unknown the studio has chose to release it to second run/dollar theatres in no major city!

Why does this get mentioned in a blog that's ostensibly about Japanese comics, animation, and popculture things I like..? Because it's the American directorial debut of Ryuhei (Versus, Godzilla: Final Wars) Kitamura! More information with a partial list of the theatre's it's playing at can be found here.

In Tokyopop news, it appears that several more of their OEL titles are getting the axe. Off*Beat is reportedly on "indefinite hiatus", while Shutterbox is canceled despite vol. 5 being finished. Swing by this Mangablog entry for links and more manga related news.

Shifting gears once again.. the podcast R5 Central recently ran a lengthy interview with tokusatsu stuntman, Mark Mushashi! You may remember him from nothing since he's usually wearing a mask and has worked mostly on Japanese tokusatsu. Still, it's worth a listen, and he's been involved in various installments of the Kamen Rider series, and Garo, and I believe he has a part in the upcoming the US series, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight. Plus there are clips of his work in the show notes, so you can get a glimpse of his stuff that way too..

R5 Central: Episode 53 A - Mark Mushashi Interview

R5 Central: Episode 53 B - Mark Mushashi Interview

And don't forgot, tonight on Ani-Monday (11 PM EST), two more episodes of Gurren Lagann, followed by two more episodes of Now and Then, Here and There.