Director Satoshi Kon's death leaves void in anime world

The world lost one of the contemporary masters of animation last week.

World as viewed by 'Hetalia' now available for fans online

"Next big things" in anime and manga have been in short supply lately, but there seems to be one series in particular that has captured the hearts of fans (particularly female ones): "Hetalia Axis Powers."

Recent Del Rey shifts raise questions for manga's future

The heyday of Del Rey Manga, Random House's mecca for manga fans, several years ago brings its current decline into stark contrast.

Fans stranded in Baltimore start anime miniconvention

Anime fans have been known to come up with some crazy, clever things to do with their downtime, but something that happened after Otakon, an anime convention held a few weekends ago in Baltimore, certainly caught my attention ... as well as a bunch of people who followed along on the Anime News Network forums.

Big Isle tourney to feature world's top 'Pokemon' players

For more than 14 years now, millions of people worldwide have recited a common mantra: "Gotta catch 'em all."

2 more U.S. publishers open Web portals for legal manga

We're deep in the heart of summer convention season, which means just one thing to your friendly neighborhood anime columnist: It's time for me to feel insanely jealous toward anyone who got to attend Anime Expo in Los Angeles earlier this month and/or Comic-Con International in San Diego last weekend and subsequently filled my Twitter feed with squeals of delight over everything going on there.

Ticket pre-sale begins for 'Tales from Earthsea'

The four-year wait in the U.S. for the Studio Ghibli film "Tales from Earthsea" is almost over.

New pop culture convention hopes to recruit volunteers

Every pop culture convention has its "coming out" moment, a defining event that signals to fans that it's setting up shop in town soon.

MangaBento and artist pals present day of free art fun

MangaBento's taking over the Contemporary Museum in Makiki Heights and bringing some talented local artists along for the ride.

Find manga to read online at official sites

When last we left our discussion of online manga last week, I was talking about manga you shouldn't be reading online: scanlations, manga either fan-translated from the original Japanese or copied outright from the U.S.-published books.