For those coming to AnimeFest in Dallas next weekend, you need to know!

The Hyatt Regency, in an attempt to prevent the elevator shenanigans that have plagued A-Kon so many times, will be handing out wristbands to individuals who have registered with the hotel. If you do not have a room, you won't be registered, so you won't get a wristband.

"But why do I want a wristband?" you ask.

Well, it's so you can use the elevators.



Yeah, that's going to be interesting.

Something I spotted on eBay for $30

Billy Sweet Papercraft: MKT4

Togui's Billy Sweet paper toy gets a cute custom by MKT4. Check it out here.

Emergency Assistance

I love to travel and visit different places but sometimes, there are things that happen unexpectedly. Accidents happen when we least expect them. That is why we have to be prepared. Good Sam emergency assistance Plus is the most trusted medical assistance program around. Here's what they have to offer: Good Sam EA+ is a prepaid, medical assistance membership program. Good Sam EA+ is not travel insurance nor is it a healthcare plan. Think of Good Sam EA+ as your personal medical support team, on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, from any place you might be-even a foreign country!

Machinarium Papercraft

Machinarium is a puzzle point-and-click adventure game developed by Amanita Design and was released on October 16, 2009. This papercraft was designed by ceemdee of deviantart. No download is available yet though.

Whole House Water Filter

It is important that the water we use and drink is clean and free from contamination. To make this happen, we need whole house water filters. There is a wide variety of water filters available from different manufactures including Ace Hardware, American Plumber, Brita Water Filters, Coleman Filters, Fridgidaire filters, LG Filters,  Master Plumber, Parker Hannifin, Town and Country, Whirlpool and many more. Check out waterfilters.net for water filters made easy.

A Quote from Kentarou Miura

There certainly is enough of economic hardship to go around right now. I keep reading articles about things like 'why small business is not hiring' in the recovery vs. past recoveries, and no one seems to even be making the argument that maybe there isn't actually a recovery at all, and maybe small businesses aren't hiring simply because, on the aggregate, they are still shrinking.

For us, the Anime industry in particular seems to have an awful lot working against it over and above just normal bad economic factors like weak consumer spending. There certainly have been a lot of 'where do we go from here' type conversations going on in the biz lately, and the answers (so far) are not very forthcoming.

So I got to thinking about things this past week and remembered something Kentarou Miura, the manga-ka who writes Berserk, once said and wanted to share it with you:

"With no relation to class or social background, whether it suits them or not, people yearn for a dream. Sustained by a dream, hurt by a dream, revived by a dream, killed by a dream. And even after being abandoned by a dream, it continues to smolder from the bottom of one's heart... probably until the verge of death.

A man should envision such a lifetime once. A life spent as a martyr to his "dream."

Of this, I think many of us who try to make some sort of living in the 'Anime industry' are, ultimately, destined to be martyrs to our dream.

And you know what? That's OK.

Funimation Delays Yet More Titles - Again

Funimation hit us hard again today with another grocery list of release delays, some of which were in the last change list as well, but this time instead of a week some have been pushed back another 2-4 weeks, which won't please anyone I'm sure.

Here's the changes:

Dragon Ball Z Dragonbox DVD Set #4 (Eps #127-168) - Sep 14 to Sep 21
Slayers Revolution (TV Season 4) DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) (BLURAY) - Sep 21 to Oct 19
Slayers Evolution-R (TV Season 5) DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) (BLURAY) - Sep 21 to Oct 19
Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU DVD Boxed Set (Remastered) - Oct 5 to Oct 19
Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU DVD Boxed Set (BLURAY) (Remastered) - Oct 5 to Oct 19
Hetalia (Axis Powers) Season 2 DVD Set - Oct 12 to Oct 19
Arimitage III Movie Collection DVD (Both Movies + OVA) - Nov 23 to Jan 25

Funi did not cite a reason for the changes this time. We've already made the date changes on the store site. As always, if anyone has an order holding for one or more of the above items and wants to make a change, just drop us an e-mail.

And don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Osamu Tezuka's Cleopatra: Queen of Sex (1970)

Continuing our appreciation of Tezuka's works, here's the one sheet movie poster for Cleopatra: Queen of Sex.

Osamu Tezuka's PUSH

Funimation Reduces the Price of Full Metal Panic TSR

Funimation has reduced the MSRP today on both the regular and Bluray version of Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid:

Full Metal Panic the Second Raid DVD Box (Remastered) - from $59.98 to $39.98
Full Metal Panic the Second Raid DVD Box (Remastered) [BluRay] - from $69.98 to $44.98

Both sets are in stock and shipping at the new prices today!

Bandai Announces October 2010 Releases / Delays Gundam 00 #3

Bandai Entertainment just sent us their October 2010 release schedule, and we now have it available on the store site for pre-order:

Hayate the Combat Butler DVD #7 (Eps #39-44)
Kurokami The Animation Part #3 DVD (Eps #12.5-18) (Bilingual)
Kurokami The Animation Part #3 DVD (BLURAY) (Eps #9-12) (English Dubbed)

In addition to these, Bandai has also moved the released date for both the regular and the limited edition of Gundam 00 Season 2, Vol #3 DVD back a month to October 19th:

Gundam 00 Season 2, Vol #3 DVD (Eps #14-19) - Now Oct 19th
Gundam 00 Season 2, Vol #3 DVD Special Edition (Eps #14-19) - Now Oct 19th

Anime Word of the Week - Neko (猫) / Nekomimi (猫耳) / Nekomusume (猫娘)

Neko (猫) / Nekomimi (猫耳) / Nekomusume (猫娘)

... a catgirl with cat ears, a cat tail, or other feline characteristics on an otherwise human body. Catgirls in character typically exhibit a more cat-like attitude, and may sometimes include cat gestures or sounds in written or verbal communications. A frequent running gag among catgirls is that, when talking, they habitually end their speech lines with the catchphrase nya, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow.

In my experience for common usage, 'Neko' (being the Japanese word for Cat) is usually just used to describe someone as 'cat like'. 'Nekomimi' means 'cat ears', and can refer specifically to Cat Girl cos-play (called Nekomimi Mode) but can also be used to describe any 'cat girl'. Nekomusume literally means 'cat daughter' and can also used to describe any 'cat girl'.


In certain anime and manga series, a boy may be compared to a cat in a similar way that cat girls are. These characters are referred to as catboys. Bishōnen catboys are typically associated with shōjo manga and yaoi; for example, Ritsuka, from the anime and Manga Loveless. In shōnen series, a (usually villainous) catgirl may be portrayed as the leader of a band of anthropomorphic animals. The list of real Nekomimi characters in Anime is nearly endless, but some prime examples include Hiroko from Princess Resurrection, Natsuki Sasahara and Mao from Hyper Police, Sanada, Aiko, Keiko, Yuuko and Eiko from UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, Blair from Soul Eater, Alia and Lotte Liese from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, Aisha Clan-Clan from Outlaw Star, and Merle from The Vision of Escaflowne. Examples of cosplay Nekomimi in Anime includes Hazuki from Moon Phase (Tsukuyomi), Azusa Nakano from K-On!, Chiyo Mihama from Azumanga Daioh, and Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura.

UPDATE: Since everyone is asking, the song playing during the Cat Witch Blair video is Alfie by Lily Allen.

Captain America

Captain America, here is the final version of the Marvel awesome superhero, Captain America. Basically, in this final painting step, I paint and clean up mostly on the background and some additional gasmask goons. As for our hero figure itself, I just did a bit of values tweaking, but mostly trying to maintain what I already painted. The background art, I was trying to keep it as simple as possible. Shapes and values are probably the most important elements in order to keep it in the back and demonstrated some sort of dept in the quick illustration as shown. Same goes to the additional characters in the back, simple shapes and a few values as possible.

Here is the final version of Captain America:

Here are step by step of the painting above.
Previous steps below:
1) Superhero art tutorial Captain America
2) Digital painting Superhero step by step
then


And Final


here is a bigger version: Captain America
Video tutorial Digital painting Captain America

More full length video tutorials

Oh, there's something creepy about how we treated the Japanese back in the day.

Yay! Trains! That makes it all better....

Funimation November 2010 Releases - Now Available for Pre-Order!

Funimation has sent out their November 2010 release schedule and we've got it posted to the store site. Here's what's coming:

Arimitage III Movie Collection DVD (Both Movies + OVA)
Birdy the Mighty: Decode Part 2 DVD Box
Blassreiter Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-24)
Comic Party Revolution Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (S.A.V.E Edition)
Desert Punk Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection II)
Girls Bravo Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-24)
Gunslinger Girl Season 2: Il Teatrino DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection)
Initial D First Stage Season 1 Part 2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26)
Kaleido Star Season 1 Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-26)
Oh! Edo Rocket Season 1 Collection #1 (Eps #1-13)
Oh! Edo Rocket Season 1 Collection #2 (Eps #14-26)
Sekirei Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)


Oh! Edo Rocket

In Edo during the mid-1800's, fireworks maker Seikichi Tamaya and his friends struggle to live under the harsh frugality laws imposed by the strict city magistrate, which ban all luxuries, including fireworks. One day, a strange girl stops by Seikichi's shop with an equally strange request: she wants Seikichi to build a firework that can reach the moon.

Sekirei

Minato Sahashi is extremely intelligent, yet due to his inability to cope under pressure has failed the college entrance exam twice. As a result he has been branded an idiot and loser by many. One day after talking to his yet again disappointed mother he comes into contact with a girl named Musubi who was under attack. The girl runs but takes him with her and soon finds that Minato, while unknown to him, is an Ashikabi, one of the mysterious set of masters that have the genetic trait that can become partners with some of the 108 cute girls, buxom women, and bishōnen called "Sekirei". The reason for the partnership allows the Sekirei to use all their power to win in the competition held by the mysterious MBI corporation.

E-Mail Server Down - Working on It....

FYI to everyone, our e-mail server has been down now for about a half hour, so incoming e-mails are probably bouncing while they reboot the PDS. Software patch gone awry.

Should be back up in maybe 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile we will sit back and enjoy a few rare minutes of digital quiet... -_^

UPDATE: Back up as of 3:27 PM EST. Back to work....

Zombies...

...want the same thing we do.



Indeed they do! :-)

anime hell awa 2010

Part of ANIME WEEKEND ATLANTA, September 17-19, 2010!! For more information visit their website.

Section 23 Nov 2010 Releases - Now Available for Pre-Order!

Section 23 has sent over their November 2010 release schedule and we've got it posted to the store site.

Here's what's coming:

Ghost Sweeper Mikami TV Series Collection #1 (Eps #1-11)
Hell Girl Three Vessels (Season 3) Collection #2 (Eps #13-24)
Taisho Baseball Girls Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-12)
UtaKata DVD Collection #1 (Eps #1-12)
Xam'd DVD Collection #2 (Eps #13-24)
Xam'd DVD Collection #2 (Eps #13-24) (BLURAY)

UtaKata

On the last day of the school year, 14 year-old Ichika Tachibana comes across an old, busted mirror in an unused campus building. When Manatsu, a mysterious girl from inside the mirror, steps out and offers her friendship for the summer, she also offers Ichika magical powers. Now, Manatsu must help Ichika unlock the powers of the 12 Djinn in order to complete her magic training... but perhaps this is something that will prove too difficult a task. Some offers may appear too be good to be true and this one just may turn out to do more harm than good.

Taisho Baseball Girls

In 1925 (year 14 of the Taisho period), after being told by a baseball player that women should become housewives instead of going to school, two 14-year-old Japanese high school girls named Koume and Akiko decide to start a baseball team in order to prove him wrong. During this time, when even running was considered too vulgar for women, baseball is known as "what the boys do" and they face many difficulties when searching members, getting permission from their parents and when learning about the sport itself.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami TV Series

Reiko Mikami is a very beautiful, greedy and skillful ghost hunter, and her dream is to have more and more money. Her assistant is Tadao Yokoshima, who is very perverted, but very loyal, just because he desires Mikami, although she treats him like garbage, and always manipulates him to do the dangerous tasks.

RACS BACK TO SCHOOL SALE - LAST DAY TO SAVE UP TO 10%!!

Just a reminder that our big August 'back to school' sale ends tonight at midnight (EST) , so you only have a few hours left to save up to an additional 10% off any combination of IN STOCK items listed on the store!

To save 5% off any IN STOCK order (no minimum) just use the following coupon during checkout:

BACKTOSCHOOL-SAVE5

To save 10% off any IN STOCK order over $200 just use the following coupon during checkout:

BACKTOSCHOOL-SAVE10

The more you purchase the more you save so be sure to take advantage of this great opportunity to load up on some of the Anime stuff you've been wanting! US customers can combine this offer with our super saver shipping option to save even more scratch on your favorite in stock Anime series, Manga, Figure, or Character Items!

Note: Valid for new orders of IN STOCK items only. Coupon code expires at midnight EST on August 19th so get your orders in ASAP!

Anime Word of the Week - Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり)

Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり)

...literally "pulling away, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive people who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives. The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to people belonging to this societal group. In Western terminology this group may include individuals suffering from social phobia or social anxiety problems. This could also be due to agoraphobia, avoidant personality disorder or painful or extreme shyness. There are also Hikikomoris who may choose this lifestyle for purely cultural reasons.


Hikikomori can be viewed as a social phobia similar to agoraphobia. In the Anime series Welcome to the N.H.K. and Wallflower, the main characters, Tatsuhiro Satō and Nakahara Sunako, are hikikomori.

What It's Like Inside My Head Sometimes...

...frequently after doing customer service.

Yes, that's very much what it's like to be in the Anime business. Thanks for asking...

ninjaHELL! @ San Japan :3 & Anime Overload 2

Hey guys, it's Kubu again with a couple of conventions to report. We ended up doing San Japan and Anime Overload, so this is the first chance I've had to breathe and think about all that happened. For all of the set lists, they are in order of me remembering them, not in chronological order.

San Japan :3
This con was a little awkward because of how we were scheduled - we went right from doing FF7AC into regular ninjaHELL! Our attendance for the second part suffered because people didn't want to stick around that long, but we kept the room packed until after AC.

ninjaHELL! Presents: Final Fantasy VII Advent Children
This went well, all pre-show technical trouble and drama aside. We had to throw parts of it together last minute, some jokes got skipped, but it was a solid riffing, and most of the fans said it was their favorite Presents yet. Thanks have to go to Adam Campaneria ("Prof. Gerald Springer") for filling in when we needed him to.

ninjaHELL! Episode 4 - A New HELL!
This one, like I said, had a smaller audience, but we kept up the energy for a total of 7 hours - leaving me very proud of our group. We showed:

1. Coach Coz and The Kid Crew
2. Sweating to the Oldies 3
3. Mortal Kombat The Animated Movie - The Journey Begins
4. One Got Fat
5. Cautious Twins
6. The Advanced Pokemon Master's Guide
7. Big Bill Hell's Cars (At least 5 times spread out, people requested it multiple times)
8. Hot Chicks - Wounded Children
9. Milk Cap Mania Part 1
10. Hot Chicks - Wounded Children (By Request)
11. Other things that are slipping my mind.

Anime Overload 2
Alright, this was weird. We were scheduled to do a show from 9-12, and a musical themed one to boot, but the con decided to have an impromptu One Eyed Doll concert at the same time. So, once we got past some of our technical issues, we found ourselves competing with the jerk of a sound guy. Who kept turning up the audio from the concert to drown us out. So, in typical ninjaHELL! fashion, we blasted ourselves and made fun of both the music and the sound guy. Needless to say, we thought we were just spitting in the wind.

Until the concert stopped, the dance started and their audio was turned down, and we wound up only lasting 2 hours and 45 minutes as opposed to their 2 hour concert. To make up for this, the con invited us back the next day to perform the last part of our show that got cut off. Which is when we found out that One Eyed Doll also had refused to take the stage if our voices were audible over the speakers.

Long story short, we apparently won.

Playlist:

1. Sweating to the oldies 3
2. Sing-a-long at Bubbes
3. The Practical Princess
4. Goggles
5. HBTV's Top Rock
6. Big Bill Hell's Cars
7. VD is for Everybody
8. Telezonia
9. Coach Coz and The Kid Crew
10. The Ninja Squad (all but the last 6 minutes of it)
11. Metal Gear Pron 2: Sons of Libido
12. Fish Fight
13. Yatta!
14. Staple-Fahrer Klaus (Forklift Operator Klaus)
15. I Wish I Was A Lesbian
16. Mortal Kombat The Animated Movie - The Journey Begins
17. And possibly some other things that are slipping my mind.

Anime Expo 1993 Opening Animation

Funimation Delays More Titles

In what is becoming a pretty regular event from ALL the R1 studios this summer, we heard from Funimation today who gave us another grocery list of release delays, but most of these are only 1 week pushes so it's not too bad. Here's the changes:

Slayers Revolution DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) (BLURAY) - 9/14 to 9/21
Slayers Evolution-R DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) (BLURAY) - 9/14 to 9/21
Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU Complete DVD Set (Remastered) - 9/28 to 10/5
Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU Complete DVD Set (BLURAY) (Remastered) - 9/28 to 10/5
Eden of the East Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-11) - 9/28 to 10/19
Eden of the East Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-11) (BLURAY) - 9/28 to 10/19

Funi cited inventory delays for the changes. We've already made the date changes on the store site this afternoon. As always, if anyone has an order holding for one or more of the above items and wants to make a change, just drop us an e-mail.

How to draw lion head study

Drawing a lion head study. It's been a while since I've draw or sketch any creature so I decided to sketch something basic. Practice drawing animals is always a good way to explore different forms of creatures, etc. I've learn from many artists who are really good at creatures design, they draw and sketch a lot of animals of all kind. And to design a good convincing monster or creature, you will need to study animals forms or anatomies. For it's postures, movement, expression...anything from animal kingdom that nature gives us.
So as basic as these sketch may be, my point is that you and me need to draw and study more animals if you want to draw and paint a great looking creatures. Same thing as environmental design, you will need a lot of landscape painting or cinematic screenshots study from films.
Here are a couple lion's head sketches. It took me about 15-20 mins each, just a quick line drawn study, nothing more. I just want to get familiar with the form and I wish I would have more time to do study like this everyday and just paint, paint, paint.
Anyway, there are some creatures video tutorials on the site I did a while back mainly dragons, you can also check those out from thumbnails on top of this post.

Drawing of a lion, basic sketch study.

Here are step by step, how to draw a lion:

Final sketch:

Here is a basic video tutorial: How to draw lion


Here is another study of Lion roar step by step drawing:

Final sketch lion roars

Video tutorial drawing a lion's head


Basic stuff today, enjoy. ;)

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VHS HELL: Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla

VHS HELL: Brain 17

Anime Word of the Week - Yandere (ヤンデレ)

Yandere (ヤンデレ)

...a person who is initially very loving and gentle to someone before their devotion becomes destructive in nature, often through violence. The term is derived from the words yan (ヤン) meaning a mental or emotional illness and dere (デレ) meaning to show affection. Yandere characters are mentally unstable, often using extreme violence as an outlet for their emotions.


Character examples include Ryuuguu Rena from the Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni (When they Cry) series, Akira Kogami from Lucky Star, and Sekai Saionji from School Days (you'll understand why at the end...). A variant of the term, Yangire (ヤンギレ), originated in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS and is used to describe a character who is mentally ill and snaps instantly without showing affection for the victim of their outburst.

10 ways to overcome artist's block, get back creativity!

10 ways to overcome artist's block and get your mind back to creative spot. It’s very common, but devastating moment for an artist to feel they’ve lost their inspiration, to encounter a creative block. But suffering from artist’s block doesn’t mean you’ve lost your imagination or ability to execute cool stuff. Good news is, over years of working in professional concept art environment I found that there are many ways that you can beat it permanently. :)

There are 10 simple ways that I usually do to beat artist's block and kill the beast once and for all.
1) If you cannot think of what to draw or paint, try study or copy from master artists. This is a good opportunity for you to challenge yourself and you will discover new things along the way copying the work of artists you like and admire such as John Singer Sargent, Frank Frezetta, or any great artists. There is no shame, all the great artist study or copy the master artists before them, it's true! :)

2) Life drawing session, just go draw from live models or go outside and do some landscape sketch, composition, study trees, leaves, building, people. Just draw!

This one is easy. But I often choose life drawing session because there are people there and it motivate you to draw faster and more. (thanks Luca for reminding me) :)

3) Change mediums. If you draw with tablet, start random doodling with pencil in the sketchbook. If you use pencil, try markers, charcoals, brushes, ect. Explore with new materials and use new tools. You can just doodle random shapes to get your frustration out, it doesn't need to make sense. Though you might find some cool shapes randomly that will give you idea to develop further.

4) Go for a run! That what usually works for me, get sweat and you will be rejuvenate. Believe it or not, your brain will function so fresh after a good long (at least 20 minute) sweat. If you don't run, get into the habit! It's good for your health and cheap. Or you can punch the bag or any exercise you might prefer...as long as you get sweat you will get the same result. Slow walk does not count!

5) Find new inspiration pieces, I do this a lot. Internet is a HUGE collection of information. I usually visit darkroastedblend.com, englishrussia.com, or cghub and look for something cool. Or to avoid the computer, go visit to a local gallery or museum often helps. Or go through art books and magazines. Take the pressure off of yourself and just enjoy other artists' work.

6) Take a new direction with your approach. If you usually start using lines, try start using shapes. If your approach is realism, try cubism. If you start with monochrome, try using color right away. Anything that get you away from your habit or comfort zone.

7) Studying anatomy, just draw random part of the body as studying, something you don't usually pay attention to. Make it a mission of studying just hands for a few days or feet or hair, ect. It's always good to do some review and study.

8) Read cool stuff that will stimulate your visual cortex. I usually go read Greek mythology, Hindu's god, goddess and deities, Chinese mythology and ancient tales like "Journey to the West" or any contemporary science-fiction like Cthulhu, Dune, any zombie story. Then make your own vision of whatever that might be creatures, demons, etc. Watch some visually kickass movies also works.

9) Re-design old cartoons, comics, Manga, or Anime, movies you like. Look at them again, read, browse, then recreate them as your own vision. It's all for the good fun and it can be long and challenging. Kinda similar to #7

10) Sleep, maybe you should get a good sleep possibly. You might be working too hard and your brain don't function anymore. So give it a break. :)

If these 10 tips do not help, it is possibly that you are burnt out. so...you could do #11

11) There are times that the pros called it, "burn out"! If that is the case, it's not your creativity. It's your fire that is slowly going out of flame. It's time to take a break from art totally for at least 3-7 days. Go do something else. If art is your profession, you will have to find a hobby, for real. If not, then it's easier for you. If you are an art student, well this one doesn't apply to you because you have not earn this batch yet. Don't even draw, browse art forum or do anything that relate to what you do everyday art wise. You will come back with all the new idea and possibly OVERLOADED that you cannot wait to get it out of your head.

Hope this information are helpful :)
Art is coming soon. Cheers!!!

PS: if you have any tips that you do to help get a rid of artist's block, feel free to share on the comment. Thank you guys.

Download over 30 minutes of Free videos.

RACS BACK TO SCHOOL SALE - SAVE UP TO 10%!! (BUMP)

It's August, and that means it's time for some 'back to school' savings from RACS! From now until midnight (EST) on Thursday, August 12th you can save up to an additional 10% off any combination of IN STOCK items listed on the store!

To save 5% off any IN STOCK order (no minimum) just use the following coupon during checkout:

BACKTOSCHOOL-SAVE5

To save 10% off any IN STOCK order over $200 just use the following coupon during checkout:

BACKTOSCHOOL-SAVE10

The more you purchase the more you save so be sure to take advantage of this great opportunity to load up on some of the Anime stuff you've been wanting! US customers can combine this offer with our super saver shipping option to save even more scratch on your favorite in stock Anime series, Manga, Figure, or Character Items!

Note: Valid for new orders of IN STOCK items only. Coupon code expires at midnight EST on August 12th so get your orders in ASAP!

I'm An Outta Box Kinda Guy...

Every once in awhile I'll get a grumpy e-mail from someone who has a tiny problem with the BOX their new Anime figure came in. So let me get something off my chest...

My feeling, to be perfectly frank, is that the window box exists for no other purpose in life than to take the dings that would other wise visit the figure inside, and once that box serves it's sole purpose in life - to deliver the figure in perfect display condition to you - it has no other function except to give gracious employment to your local refuse services.

A small part of my personal collection - see, not a window box in sight...

Look folks, get over the occasional dinged corner or slightly scratched up plastic cover on the window box of a figure. It's trash anyway. You know, I had a guy want to return a figure once because the tissue paper wrapping around the box was slightly torn. Dude, WTF! I know there are a lot of 'collectors' out there, I'm one too and I have nothing but the utmost respect for you folks, but for crying out loud - take your figures out of the boxes! I have over Anime 800 figures in my personal collection and I don't have one single window box they came in. I really don't understand how anyone can fully enjoy their investment in a $100 or $200 Anime figure with it still in the original box.

So who cares about the box! Forget it! Your gal has ridden 10,000 miles in that box and wants to get out! Get rid of those stupid boxes and let your figures breath real fresh air! Play with them! Admire them! Show them off! Life is far too short to do otherwise.

And for the record, we won't stop picking and packing your figures so that the damn BOXES arrive in mint condition as well as the much more important figure inside - if it's important to you, it's important to us - I just had to vent a little. Flame me to your hearts content - I can take it! :-)

Media Blasters Delays More Titles

It's only been three weeks since their last big delay announcement, and today Media Blasters let us know they they will be delaying the release dates of another batch of Anime titles, a few for the second time.

Here are the date pushes that will directly impact us:

Queen's Blade: Wandering Warrior, Vol #2, The Beaten Path DVD (Eps #5-8) - From Sep 7 to Oct 26

Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Wolf, Vol #2, Wolf in No Clothing DVD (Eps #5-8) - From Aug 31 to TBA
Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Wolf, Vol #3 DVD (Eps #9-12) - From Oct 26 to TBA

Queen's Blade: The Exiled Virgin, Vol #3, Journey's End DVD (Eps #9-12) - From Oct 26 to TBA
Queen's Blade Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12) - From Oct 26 to TBA
Queen's Blade Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12) (BLURAY) - From Oct 26 to TBA

Voltron: Fleet of Doom Movie (BLURAY) - From Sep 28 to TBA

Most of the pushed releases have been shoved off the release schedule and thus are now dated TBA until they can be rescheduled. At this point I don't want to speculate but most of these will probably not get back on the schedule before November or December of this year. MB's 'official' statement on the TBA's is 'removed from the schedule until further notice'.

They have also delayed a few Adult titles from their Kitty line including Fleshdance (9/7 to 10/5), Twin Dolls (9/28 to 10/26), Oh My Sex Goddess: Megachu (11/2 to 11/30), and Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend DVD and BD (10/15 to 11/16). None of these releases are currently up for pre-order on the RACS store site - and won't be until their schedule firms up a bit.

And yes, I know, it sucks. But anyone who is not expecting things like this in this market has clearly not been reading my weekly newsletter.

Female figure study recline step by step

Female figure study recline step by step.
Here is the final painting, the whole painting took me about a good few hours. In this color sketch, what I want to try out is making brush strokes more visible and rougher than most of my usual digital painting, kind of like the previous Tutorial portrait painting digital which I did a couple weeks back. It turns out close to what I expected. Recently I feel like I want to explore more on brushes and its texture strokes since I've not been using it as much because I wanted to demonstrate in most of my video that default brushes round hard and soft edge can get the job done as good, as long as you understand the foundation of values in general. Many people ask me about custom brushes, what do I use...how can they download it and so on. I just want to point out here that fancy texture brushes will not do you any good if you cannot pull off a decent painting with regular brush in the first place. Yes, there are some trick and such, but you cannot rely on them forever to make you piece shine. What I want most artist to understand is that basic foundation is pretty everything. Go read Three important rules for painting, if one can only master these three (shapes, value, and edges), one can really make his/her own work shine. There are other elements involve, but these three are at the core of your painting or sketch or illustration. Anyway, here is a final nude female figure color study.
Also check out the following painting tutorials, they are new and update of the late 2010 tutorial on female figures.  Most of these are painting step by step tutorials, some include video tutorials.  First for figure study, you can go take a look at female model sheet or female figure study woman body proportion sheet.  Then there is a speedpainting figure study back which I pretty much focus on looseness control and brush strokes.  Also if you like comics style pin up painting, check out Emma Frost X-men first class and 2011 is year of the rabbit.  Both are not really focus on brush work, rather smooth rendering of the skin itself.  And Black Rock Shooter color sketch work is a really stylize that is similar to that of Anime or stylize Manga, but not typical.

Here are step by step
to see the previous steps go to: Nude female figure recline quick color.


Here is a final image


Here for the HUGE image: Figure study nude step by step

More full length video tutorials

-Draw and Paint Women Body Tutorial I: Female Manga Fusion I
-Draw and Paint Women Body Tutorial II: Female Manga Fusion II

Digital painting superhero step by step Captain America

Digital painting superhero step by step Captain America. Continuing drawing and painting of Marvel superhero Captain America from the previous posted, Superhero art tutorial Captain America. I just update the sketch and fresh it out a little more. Well, this one suppose to be a quick couple hours but I got carried away and now I am trying to make the best out of the initial painting. Hopefully it will turn out how I want it to look in the final illustration. At this point of painting, I should leave the figure pretty as is unless there are some drastic change in the overall image. I painted the his facial feature to be a little more expressive, then his gloves/ hands then the shield. Honestly the shield is the tricky one, take me quite sometime to get the perspective to look right. The background will take me sometime to try to finish and make it look, well, good. So hopefully the next post I could finish this one up and look presentable. :)

Here are some more face drawing video lesson or portrait video tutorials go watch Character Design Face Male Merchant Character, or Drawing Male Face Swordman and Learn how to draw and paint face. Also basic instruction for step by step drawing "Drawing humans head female face how to" and step by step still images goto digital painting and drawing learn to draw and How to draw face and head shading. And if you are looking for body, muscles and human anatomy for artist go watch Drawing body muscle torso anatomy each comes with both video and step by step images along the side and Drawing arm muscles bicep tricep video. Have fun watching. Well, hope these short video tutorials and tips are helpful.

Here is the illustration so far "Captain America"

Here are the step by step continue painting comics Captain America:
Go see part 1 of the tutorial here:
1) Superhero art tutorial Captain America



Closed up of the figure

Here is what I have so far

To be continued

More full length video tutorials

Funimation Reduces the Price of Moonlight Mile & Samurai 7 (BD)

Funimation has reduced the MSRP today on both the Moonlight Mile Collection and the Samurai 7 BluRay boxed set:

Moonlight Mile Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak) - $49.98 to $19.98
Samurai 7 Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (BLURAY) - $69.98 to $49.98

Both sets are in stock and shipping at the new prices today!

Anime Word of the Week - Tsundere (ツンデレ)

Tsundere (ツンデレ)

..is a Japanese character development process which describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time. The word is derived from the terms Tsun Tsun (ツンツン) , meaning to turn away in disgust, and Dere Dere (デレデレ) meaning to become 'lovey dovey'. It is considered a moe-inspiring character trait.



Ichikawa Koichi has described Lum Invader of Urusei Yatsura as being both the source of moe and the first tsundere. Other anime & manga featuring tsundere include The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Love Hina, Naruto, Genshiken, Toradora!, Kagami Hiiragi of Lucky Star, Hitagi Senjōgahara of Bakemonogatari, Saber of Fate/Stay night and of course Kyou Fujibayashi from Clannad...