In New York City, it’s that time of the year again. When birds are singing, Central Park is abuzz, drunk people wander around the Lower East Side all nite long, and it’s time for Asian films! Subway Cinema is once again throwing the New York Asian Film Festival with a monster schedule this year. (Check it here.) To sweeten up the summer even more, Subway Cinema and Ningin are combining forces to give out TWELVE free tickets to (almost) any screening of the NYAFF. How do you win? Easy. Follow these instructions and no one gets hurt: More »

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Pic’s released from new film Avatar, the Last Airbender directed by the king of twist endings M.Night Shyamalan. Being a big fan of the anime series I am a little disappointed by the casting of almost full Caucasian cast except for Dev Patel as Zuko, who in my opinion would have made a better Saka. I am hoping that M. Night redeems himself after his last few films and does not rely on his twist ending ideology to save this film. Here are a few pics released by the studio to start the hype. More »

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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete is hitting a big screen TV near you on Tuesday, June 2, on Blu-ray Disc and it is a digital eye candy feast! Danny posted up about this being released back in April. He was all excited to watch it on his 40″ Bravia XBR4. Well, I got to watch the FFVII Blu-ray projected from a Sony PS3 onto a 16″x9″ theater screen and it was incredible. The detail, the color, the sound — whoa. More »

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I was one of the lucky American movie goers to who got to see THE SKY CRAWLERS (スカイ・クロラ) in its very limited US release at the end of 2008. Lucky you now, it’s finally going to be available everywhere in the US when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releases the DVD next week on May 26. More »

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Del Rey Manga is releasing an X-Men manga with a shojo twist. The title is X-Men Misfits with the story by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman and art by Anzu. Here’s a brief synopsis from the Del Rey official website: More »

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SECRET IDENTITIES gets a West Coast introduction on Saturday, May 30! The entire SI editor staff of Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma will fly out to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to present and autograph SECRET IDENTITIES. A number of the creative contributors to the book are also planning on attending the event! To cap it all off, there will be a reception after the SI presentation. More »

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What’s this you hear all the girls whispering about? Shojo manga?! Manga — FOR GIRLS?! Yes. In case you haven’t taken a walk to your local Borders or Barnes & Nobles, shojo manga is getting big in the US. The Borders by me has an entire section devoted to shojo manga. I’m talking ten feet long, 6 rows high of shelf space. All in English. All Manga. All Shojo. And now shojo manga lives on your iPhone with DRAMACON! More »

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Our favorite part Armenian, part Japanese singer Stephanie (ステファニー) released her new single FUTURE last week. It’s the theme song to HIGH KICK GIRL, the new Japanese movie about, well, a karate girl that can kick really high. (At least it’s for real, actress Rina Takeda is really a black belt and kicks that high — right to the side of your head!) “Future” (the song) sounds like the end of the movie when everyone’s partying it up. (a HIGH KICK GIRL spoiler?) More »

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The SECRET IDENTITIES editors are going coast to coast to celebrate Asian Heritage Month this weekend! They’ll be making separate appearances in Baltimore, Los Angeles, and New York City speaking about SECRET IDENTITIES, the first-ever graphic novel anthology of Asian American superhero stories. More »

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Lots of interesting news today. But seeing how Ningin is talking cosplay today, I’ll just focus on the cosplay stuff. There’s a lot of good cosplay stuff today. Take this girl, Alodia Gosiengfiao, she’s like the Tiger Woods of cosplay. [thumbnails] [originals - dannychoo.com]

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Meet Ningin’s KRAZY! Online Cosplay Contest winner Ali Bader! The fifteen year old cosplayer from Ohio travelled to New York City to compete in the KRAZY! Cosplay Contest and Party at Japan Society. Ali took a break from writing for quizilla.com and horseback riding to talk about the six days it took her to arrive on stage in New York City. More »

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Slow news day today. I’m guessing it’s because today is Sunday. Not many photos to select through but I didn’t find some amusing things. Mostly stuff about cute or hot girls again. Sorry ladies, I’m trying to find some hot guys to balance things out but the rest of the blogosphere isn’t cooperating! More »

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Keio Academy of New York will host an open house this Saturday, April 18, for their “Digital Media Creation” summer program. It’s a fantastic two-week English and Japanese bilingual summer program for American and Japanese students. An impressive lineup of guest speakers has already been confirmed, including Yuji Nunokawa, producer of “Naruto” and “Bleach“. Not to mention, students get $200 off the program when mentioning Ningin! More »

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SECRET IDENTITIES: The Asian American Superhero Anthology officially hits bookstores today! The editing team of Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma have pulled together the first anthology of superhero comics reflecting on the Asian American community’s role and place in American culture. More »

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We have our winners for the KRAZY! Online Cosplay Contest! The winning cosplayer with the most online votes is Ali Bader as “Temari from Naruto!” The prize for voting online goes to AyUta!

Ali will recieve a gift bag of DVDs from Manga Entertainment. She received the most votes at Ningin’s KRAZY! Online Cosplay Contest. AyUta will receive “Akira” from Bandai on Blu-Ray disc. AyUta was randomly chosen from all registered Ningin users that voted. Congratulations to both of them! More »

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Shoji Gatoh’s Full Metal Panic! has been recently reported to be turned into a live-action film by Mandalay Pictures. Another anime bites the dust?

Not much is known about the movie just yet; however, there are rumors that actor Zac Efron may be involved with the project. Could this get any worse? High School Musical already ended his career, does he really have to take down an anime franchise? Let’s hope not. More »

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Japan has a knack for building the most amazing things. For example, the worlds ONLY indoor beach.

Built in Miyazaki, Japan, the Ocean Dome is always sunny, salt-free, shark-less and perfectly temperature year around. It’s basically all the things you like about the beach. There’s even a volcano that spits out fake flames occasionally. Oh and there is a retractable roof! While I love the sun, I don’t think Hawaii can beat this bad boy. More »

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The hit anime Toradora will be invading the PSP on April 30. It is already available for preorder; however, most have already been taken. The game storyline is said to be completely different from the anime and novel; however, the anime voice actors will be the same.

In addition to the game, an extra DVD will be included that features a director’s cut version of a Toradora! Anime episode, the original novel and manga. Also a feature called “Motion Portrait” will be applied and the characters will be displayed with animations in the conversation parts. So no more single screen expressions! More »

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Wow, what a weekend in New York City! The cosplayers, the anime fans, the manga maniacs and the Jpop listeners showed up in full force for the KRAZY! Cosplay Contest & Party! It was completely and absolutely sold out with another 100 people waiting outside just hoping to get in. Special guests include Akihabara singer Reni, World Cosplay Summit 2009: Team USA (& 2008!), head of New York Anime Festival Peter Tartara, and Ningin! The winning cosplayers were phenomenal. Be sure to check both photo galleries one and two! More »

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The Japan Society really has outdone themselves with their latest exhibit “KRAZY!”. At first I was sure this was just going to be a one room gallery of animation cells, but “KRAZY!” is so much more.

They have several rooms dedicated to different facets of exported Japanese media such as manga, anime, and video games. One cool aspect of the exhibit is that it’s interactive and rooms are set up to influence the senses. More »

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