Welcome to Shibuya-cho

Good morning Boys and Girls, and welcome to another nifty issue. This week we've got a ton of the new Pokemon Miniature Figures Game. Any of you kids out there who have been looking for any kind of Pokemon toy to no avail are going to love these. Not only are they sculpted really well, and fairly larger than your average mini-fig game pieces like Heroclix, Horrorclix, and D&D minis, but they're packaged in ways to make them easier to collect. There are single packages so you can pick the one you want, double packages that have one visible and one secret figure, triple packages that have one regular figure, one exclusive Diamond and Pearl figure, and one secret figure. and then the four figure starter packs that come with three pokemon and one of the trainers -- not to mention game mats and checklist poster. They're totally cool, and cute, and well designed, like a Torchic engulfed in flames, or a Piplup sliding across a slab of ice on its tummy.

We also have a couple of hot DVD releases this week including the sudden release of the new anime, Phoenix, taken from the Osamu Tezuka manga. In a sleek shiny, very shiny box, the stories of Phoenix come to life adapting Tezuka's notorious art style into new animation full of color, drama, and life in a way you've never seen Astroboy even come close (not that classics don't have their place). If you ever wondered what an old school artist would look like these days, this is definitely a vote "for".

The Hell Girl DVD also came out this week, and this one also has a shiny box with black and gold trim, and the unique art of this particularly dark anime in the center. In fact, the people who put this together are so proud of the artwork that this first volume includes a couple of nifty art cards, (smaller than posters, bigger than postcards). Since most of you guys probably haven't heard about Hell Girl, this series revolves around people who wish revenge on someone and make a pact for their souls to send the recipient through Hell and back. Well, not so much back, they kinda stay in Hell. This one's dark, and not really for the kids, but definitely worth a spot by everyone else.

Now, one last mention before I wrap this up, we've got a bunch of manga coming in this week. A lot of cool titles, and a lot of brand new #1s that look like they might be interesting. So you all have to come check us out upstairs this week. God knows I have plenty of reading to catch up on. See you guys next week!

Ja ne!
Mat K.