20th Century Boys

Welcome to Kuriousity

News, reviews and features with a focus on manga, self-published works and a Canadian perspective. Enjoy fulfilling your Kuriousity!

SITE RETIRED - Thank you for the years of support and readership!

Posts Tagged Conventions

Short Site Hiatus re: Animinitime Part Two

Two days without a post – we’re not dead, we swear! Though it means a lot people have actually asked. It makes us happy to know readers have come to look forward to Kuriousity’s daily posts and they shall be returning shortly!

Due to an upcoming convention that 5/6 of the Kuriousity are staffing at (just realized that – neat!), the site will be on a short hiatus for a couple more days. Manga news, reviews and that odd stuff in between will return after this weekend and the conclusion of our second Animinitime event.

Until then happy manga reading!


Anime Expo 2010 – Viz Media

Anime Expo 2010 - Viz Media

This afternoon Viz Media had their panel down at Anime Expo. During the panel they confirmed a number of Viz Media titles that’ve popped up on Amazon and retail sites in recent months (such as Genkaku Picasso and Itsuwaribito) and had some new titles for eager ears as well!

You can check out the complete list of titles under the cut:

Read more…


Anime Expo 2010: Digital Manga

Anime Expo 2010 - Digital Manga

Anime Expo, North America’s largest anime convention, is upon us once again this weekend! The internet’s been buzzing with excitement from industry folk, bloggers, guests and attendees alike in the weeks leading up to it – and though I can only speak as a spectator to the spectators – it certainly feels like the excitement has reached a level greater than the decline of last year, which saw less industry-presence and fewer announcements.

The big manga news to start goes to Digital Manga who had their panel on Thursday evening. AnimeNewsNetwork is covering all the major events of the convention and thanks to them I’m able to offer the abridged version here for your curious eyes:

Read more…


Happy Canada Day 2010!

Happy Canada Day 2010!

Adorable image by PantsDancingly

Happy Canada Day from the Kuriousity-folk! Hope all fellow Canadians are enjoying another yearly ritual of wearing our pride under a sea of brightly coloured fireworks, among other festivities your own local area is throwing to celebrate our country’s 143rd birthday. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else – I adore my country… even if they did just raise taxes on Canada Day – but even so!

In Canadian anime/manga news today – Fan Expo has opened it’s registration for the August convention and Animinitime, a single-day convention coming up mid-July, closes it’s pre-registration today along with some prize giveaway draws.

Looking for some fun Canadian content for this special day? Be sure you have a copy of Svetlana Chmakova’s DramaCon on your shelf, Faith Erin Hick’s upcoming Brain Camp on order and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s upcoming final volume of Scott Pilgrim etched firmly in the ‘does-want-now’ part of your brain – to name a very short few.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’re some good books to read, friends to see and fireworks to ogle at like a 5 year old and love it. Happy Canada Day!


Anime North 2010: Day Two

After a good night’s sleep, day two of Anime North officially began. The registration lines began to form fairly early but paled in comparison to the line for the dealer’s room which stretched on hundreds of people down the sunny parking lot. A pleasant change from yesterday, a portion of the parking/line-up area had now been sectioned off from traffic meaning that cars were no longer able to drive inbetween groups of con-goers. Yay for minimizing the risk of getting run over!

And so – day two! (watch out, it’s a long one)
Read more…


Anime North 2010: Day One

Day one of Anime North has been survived! Mostly anyway. I will admit to unfortunately being careless to my two hours of sleep, limited food sources and sorching-in-the-sun heat that rendered me incompasetated by the evening. But a long nap followed by a hopefully full night’s sleep (pending the airplanes taking a halt on the constant very-close-over-head flying) and all shall be right as rain and ready for day two!

But how was day one you ask?
(Photos will be included in a future post as current server problems aren’t allowing me to upload them – sorry!)

Read more…


On-Board to Anime North 2010!

Anime North 2010

Good morning blogsphere – it’s 6:29am and I’m no doubt one of many currently waiting to board a plane and head over to Toronto for Anime North 2010!

Fellow Kuriousity reviewer Marsha is joining me on what is her second time at the yearly event and my first – being a Canadian anime fan for over fourteen years, it seems about time that I give AN a go.

Expect some recaps, photos and the first edition of a new Kuriousity feature over the weekend as we share our experience at Canada’s largest anime-theme convention! Curious or attending? You can check out Anime North’s website for the complete programming schedule.


ANNCast – Retro Anime, Canadian Cons and Me on Manga-Doom

ANNCast - Viewercast May 21

So doom may be a little grim a word but it’s a rampant sort of tone recently with all that’s going on in the English manga-industry. I popped in on this week’s ANNCast to share some of my thoughts on recent events, in particular DC’s announcement regarding CMX and the disappearance of Go!Comi.

I’m starting to feel like all my efforts to promote CMX are being intentionally smited somehow though – first CMX’s shutdown is announced mere days after we here at Kuriousity make the decision to push out a bunch of CMX reviews (since the site’s been sadly lacking them!) and then here in the ANNCast I tell everyone to go check out CMX’s site and look through the books they have – only to have DC Comics, for some inexplicable reason, strip down CMX’s website today. Yikes. And triple-boo on you, DC Comics. What the heck is going through your corporate mind over there?

Also on the ANNCast this week is a guest sharing her thoughts on the difference between Canadian and American anime conventions. Interesting ideas there. As someone who’s been staff helping run a convention and holding panels more than an attendee of any, I don’t have all that much to go on pertaining to the concept. Comparatively I’ve been to San Diego Comic Con and Fan Expo, which are ‘very’ similar in their target-audience but different in obvious ways because, well, SDCC is in California and Fan Expo is not. I am heading to Anime North next week and New York Anime Fest in October however, so for pondering’s sake, I’ll keep the concept of difference in mind. The discussion about the semi-thankless nature of running an anime convention is interesting too. Super-duper hard work but worth it for all the thank yous and happy fans? Yup!

So check out the podcast if you so feel inclined – it always makes for interesting listening! And beware my voice, which you may be doomed to hear in your mind each time you read one of my reviews from now on ;)


PR: HINAKO TAKANAGA Appearing At Yaoi-Con 2010!

Gardena, CA (May 19. 2010)– Digital Manga Publishing is excited to announce their special guest for Yaoi-Con 2010, the prolific and fan-favorite yaoi mangaka-Hinako Takanaga! The creator of numerous manga, including Little Butterfly, The Devil’s Secret, Challengers, Croquis, Love Round!!, Liberty Liberty, and the soon to be released The Tyrant Falls In Love, Hinako Takanaga has been one of the most popular yaoi mangaka in the US, and will be making her second appearance at Yaoi-Con!

So come up to San Francisco in October, and meet the immensely talented Hinako Takanaga in person, and hear her answer questions about her process and her work!

Yaoi-Con takes place over the Halloween weekend, October 29-October 31, and at a brand new location in Burlingame, CA! For more information on Yaoi-Con, including location, hotels, and registration, please visit their site at: www.yaoicon.com


Start Your Pencils – NYAF 2010 Mascot Design Contest

NYAF 2010 - Mascot Design Contest

Covention season is upon us and that means a lot of things –  but for the sake of this post, it means art contests! New York Anime Fest (which is joining with New York Comic Con for the first time this year) has opened up its annual mascot design contest with snazzy prizes and a one month submission time.

“Announced May 1 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri and running until May 20th, Kinokuniya, theOtaku.com, Del Rey Manga, and the New York Anime Festival welcome artists and anime fans from around America to think about what “Anime”, “New York City”, and (because we’re in October) “Halloween”, mean to them and draw these thoughts into an original character. Whether it’s big, small, a towering mecha, or chibi, we want to see your entries!”

The grand-prize winner will not only have the fun of seeing their artwork used on all NYAF”s official merchandise but will also receive a copy of all the material the art is used on, 10 free passes to the event and 50 volumes of Del Rey manga!

All entries are due May 20th with the finalists announced on June 1st. Then, after a month of voting at their Kinokuniya bookstore in New York, the official grand-prize winner will be revealed at the end of June.

Good luck to all the entrants!


Take me back to the top!