Beginning July 9th, ToykoPop’s top-selling manga Princess Ai will be headed to many American Sunday newspapers, courtesy of Universal Newspaper Syndicate.
The co-creation of rocker, actress and idol of EMS workers Courtney Love along with Misaho Kujiradou, Yazawa Ai, and others, Princess Ai is reportedly Love’s fantasy alter-ego. Prior to becoming an American idol, Love lived and performed in Japan.
The Princess Ai newspaper strip will run for 26 weeks.
Last Friday, our Michael Davis opined the inherent suckiness of the Playstation 3. Reuters provides us with an amusing follow-up. They inform us that Nintendo Co.’s Wii game console outsold Sony PlayStation 3 by more than five to one in Japan last month: 251,794 units of the Wii to 46,321 of the PS3. The ratio the previous month (April) was four to one.
Sony’s game division posted an operating loss of $1.91 billion in the year that ended March 31. And you thought the PS3 was expensive!
Sony’s going to be spending a half billion dollars upgrading its censor chips – so if you just bought a PS3, you lose. The consensus in the gaming community is that said half billion would be better spent developing cool new games.
There’s no reason to count Sony out, but I’ll bet its CEO and chairman, Sir Howard Stringer, had stayed at CBS.
Anime News Network reports, "In a press conference following a meeting of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s cabinet on Tuesday morning, Japanese Foreign Minister Tarō Asō announced the creation of an ‘International Manga Award’ for manga artists and creators from outside Japan."
Asō, known for being an outspoken manga fan, said "I want to make the award like the Nobel Prize of manga, to enhance the voice of Japanese pop culture and subculture." Asō will lead the task force which will establish the award, funding for which will come from the Japan Foundation, Japan’s endowment to support international relations.
Candidates for the prize will come from general applications and recommendations by publishers in Japan and overseas. Slice of SciFi reports, "June 22 will be the day the Award Committee, comprised of manga artists and publishers, releases their list of final nominees for the award. Japan’s governmental body of ministers will pick the winner and three runner-ups on July 2, 2007."
When it comes to robots, it’s fairly well acknowledged that Japan’s been kicking other countries’ butts since the days of Astroboy. Now, reports IESB, "the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has drafted a hugely complex set of proposals for keeping robots in check. The document, entitled Draft Guidelines to Secure the Safe Performance of Next Generation Robots, extends to nearly 60 pages of civil service jargon."
The document calls for the formation of a special study group — including lawyers — to draw up a set of firm proposals to govern the development of robots. But they’re not counting on robot lawyers!
According to our step-sister website Engadget, "Under Japan’s plan, all robots would be required to report back to a central database any and all injuries they cause to the people they are meant to be helping or protecting. The draft is currently open to public comment with a final set of principles set to be unveiled as early as May."
And did you know Japan is not the first country to draft ethical robot legislation? South Korea and Europe had already unveiled their versions. Apparently South Korea in particular has been wrestling with this for awhile.
The 2007 Hugo Awards, most prized of the science-fiction awards, just might wind up in the hands of longest running s-f teevee series of all time
Three episodes of Doctor Who from the past season were nominated in the best dramatic presentation – short form category: “School Reunion,” the episode that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith and written by Toby Whithouse, Steven Moffatt’s “The Girl in the Fireplace,” where the Doctor saves Madame de Pompadour from really neat looking robots, and the season’s two-part finale, “Army of Ghosts” and “Doomsday,” written by executive producer Russell T. Davies and featuring the Cybermen and the Daleks in a battle scene that made 300 look like a Disney flick.
These three shows are up against an episode of Battlestar Galactica (“Downloaded) and an episode of Stargate SG-1 (“200.”). As usual, the winner will be announced at the World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in Yokohama, Japan from August 30th to September 3rd.
The new season of Doctor Who begins in England this Saturday.
Columns / Glenn Hauman / News
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