Canned Dogs

The latest Famitsu has revealed that D3 is going to release a cabaret club game called Dream Club for the Xbox 360. In the game, you spend a year going to a cabaret club to meet these host girls every weekend, and then work odd jobs during the weekdays so you can afford the lifestyle.

You can get to exchange mail with the girls during weekdays or even date them if you get along really well with them, and then you can even use your hard earned money to buy gifts for them!

They’ve got an interactive drinking system called IIS where you use the analog stick to control your drinking and try to get the girl drunk to get to hear stuff she’d normally not talk about. Also if they really like you, you can order for karaoke where the girl will go on stage to sing for you.

I’m not sure I can remember any other game that has had host girls that looked this young, also that one girl looks like Makoto.

Jumping on the Idolmaster wagon is apparently a good idea, because Idolmaster L4U was the 4th best selling game on the 360 for 2008.

Scans: 1, 2

Bonus: Dream Club vs Yakuza 3

Bonus 2: Fallen idols resort to becoming host girls to make ends meet

After DQ9′s release date was announced to change from 28th March to 11th July, a day after the announcement Famitsu immediately put up a emergency discount promotion (pdf) for advertising in their mag for the 19th March and 27th March issues of the magazine.

Special news flash 2 page tie-up:
1,950,000 yen (US$21,000) -> 1,500,000 yen (US$16,000) (23% off)

Middle of magazine 4C1P pure ad:
825,000 yen (US$8,900) -> 600,000 yen (US$6,400) (27% off)

Middle of magazine 4C2P pure ad:
1,650,000 yen ($17,800) -> 1,100,000 yen (US$11,800) (33% off)

The deadline to apply for ads for the magazine is 45 days before the date the magazine goes on sale, and the deadline for submission of the completed ad is 35 days before the sale date. It was already past both deadlines for the 19th March issue when they made the announcement, so it’s really an emergency.

They probably were planning lots of features for DQ9, or Squareenix pulled their ads out and Famitsu has to fill up the holes now.

Via: N-Styles

Shounen Jump, Shounen Magazine, and Shounen Sunday have traditionally been called the big three of weekly shounen magazines, but all three magazines obviously aim for different target markets as can be seen in the manga that they run in the magazines every week.

It’s nice to see the age distribution for magazine readerships, because magazines will usually have a set target market, and focus the contents of their manga to cater to these people. So if you belong in the target market chances are you might like the stuff running in that particular magazine. (or not)

Age is not the only factor in defining a target market, but this post is only about the age distribution anyway.

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The official site for the Bamboo Blade PSP game has started a poll so they can show the demand for a 2nd season of the TV series to the relevant companies. It’s a poll, but there are only three possible choices to vote for and all are for a 2nd season to be made.

You need to put in a name to vote. Also voting period lasts till 31st March 2010, so there’s a lot of time to pick between the three choices.

Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san are on youtube now.

Haruhi is having a classical concert called Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou on the 29th of April, performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Lucky Star website has updated with additional information on the people that will be appearing at the Budokan live concert on the 29th of March:

Hiramatsu Hirokaze (Izumi Soujirou)
Shimamoto Sumi (Izumi Kanata)

Special guests:
Gotou Yuuko (Gotouza-sama)
Sugita Tomokazu (Clerk Sugita)
Ono Daisuke (Ono Daisuke)
Takemoto Yasuhiro (Director)

The entire Haruhi main cast is going to be present at the concert now for some reason.

It was not completed

I can’t stop laughing, how many times do they want to do this!

The nihon keizai shinbun reports that GDH will be restructuring and reducing the staff in their anime department from the current 130 down to 30 people within 5 years. They asked for approximately 50 employees to voluntarily retire in December and 36 people have responded.

They are apparently going to shift their core business from anime to their online game business.

With 30 people left they’d probably have to outsource most of the work. And I guess it’s also possible that the remaining 30 won’t want to stay anymore and Gonzo stops producing anime altogether.

via: anime!anime!

Famitsu reports that Johannes Krasuer II from Detroit Metal City has stepped through the gates of hell to appear in Street Fighter Online now. This is obviously Krauser’s response after seeing Obama appearing in the game last week!

The dream match of Krauser vs Obama to decide the fate of the earth is finally fulfilled on Street Fighter!

Doujin circle Tsudoitei has announced that they will be selling Akita Komachi rice in a rice bag that has a picture of Komachi from Touhou on it. The doujin part is not just the rice bag too, even the rice itself is grown by the owner, who appears to be a farmer.

They’re using grade 1 rice that has passed national quality checks and they’re making sure they don’t break any laws with this too, since laws can be pretty strict when it comes to the sale of foodstuff.

The actual rice bag and parts of the process can be seen at their blog.

Via: gigazine

Information about Negima anime’s future developments were announced at the Negima event held earlier today.

I guess it makes sense that they don’t want to be making a new TV series when the OAD is making huge profits. I hope they get some good animators this time around since the magic world arc would be full of action scenes.

Via: 魔法先生ネギま!～白き翼 ALA ALBA～第6話