Two days ago, we blacked out our website in protest against the US legislation known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) & the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). We'd like to thank you for supporting our decision to do so. While we do not condone piracy, we would rather deal with it over the loss of a free and open internet. The end result of participating in such a drastic move along with major websites like Google, Wikipedia & Craigslist is that 7 million people signed Google's petition against both bills, 162 million people saw the Wikipedia blackout and 8 million of those people went on to get the contact information for their representatives. All in all it was the largest internet protest action to date and in effect has been successful.

Earlier this morning Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) tweeted that just like SOPA, voting on PIPA has been shelved indefinitely. While this is cause for celebration we're not out of the woods yet. The price of liberty is to remain ever vigilant against those who wish to take that liberty away. There will come another time when we are faced with that same threat from legislators who try to legislate technologies they do not understand. As a result, it's necessary that we all remain informed and not grow complacent.

Earlier this year in October, Japan's Tourism Ministry created a plan to boost its revenue, which included giving away 10,000 free flight tickets to Japan. This plan was to recover losses due to the Big Tokyo Earthquake earlier in the March of the same year. A whole plan was devised: the applicants were to write an essay as to why they want to go to Japan on an Internet application and 10,000 lucky people were selected out of the pool. Those people would technically be their advertisement as they would spread their experiences of Japan onto the Internet. All was good... until the plan was cancelled.

Taken from The Wall Street Journal: "The Tokyo-based Japan Tourism Agency didn’t sugar-coat the decision in a statement on its website late Dec. 26: 'The project titled ‘Fly to Japan!’ (to offer flight tickets to 10,000 foreigners with high potential to communicate Japan’s attractions), which had been covered in a number of media in autumn this year, was not approved as a governmental draft budget of FY 2012.'" What would this mean, besides the fact that there are no more free flights to Japan? Well, the money Japan received from various other world powers is for the repairing of their destroyed cities and economy, instead of giving free flight tickets to foreigners (who may not actually even benefit their tourism industry). Well, it'd be a slap in the face to those people who wanted those free plane tickets to Japan. It's not free, guys.

Source: [The WSJ]

By quick show of hands, how many of you have watched The Jersey Shore? For those of you that said no, you probably at least have heard about how trashy the show can be. To be fair, it is about a bunch of people who spend all day tanning and all night drinking and partying with an occasional bar fight in between. So what on earth could this possibly have to do with anime, otakus or weeabos? The "masterminds" behind reality TV series, Jersey Shore, are working on a new project and just like Pauly D has had a negative impact on perceptions about Italian Americans, this project will probably have a negative impact on perceptions of those of us who like video games, anime and manga.

Doron Ofir Casting and 495 Productions, the team behind MTV's hit reality TV series The Jersey Shore put out a press release yesterday in which they announced that they are seeking 8 people for a new "experimental documentary series." (What exactly is an experimental documentary series? A cross  between LSD trip and hipster indie films is my guess.) The series will examine "the lives and relationships of people who love fantasy, fiction, cosplay, comics, gaming and science."

A recent report on the Japanese “otaku marketplace” from the Yano Research Institute has conducted a survey in Japan if a person considers their self an otaku. Out of 10, 102 people who answered to Yano’s survey, 25.5% said they considered themselves otaku or have been called otaku. This is an increase of 5.1% from last year. The most notable area that has seen increase in the market is online gaming, making 299.4 billion yen in 2010. Dating simulation games has rose to 11.1 billion yen through efforts on appealing to female audiences. Electronic comics' profits increased to 54 billion yen by the increase of content, more tablet/smartphone usage, and lower costs. The maid and general cosplay market profits grew as well, increasing to 6.3 billion yen.

You can find more information on how much each category of the otaku marketplace rose from here.

Author’s Note: The term “otaku” is quite subjective these days, so I would like to say that this is increase of more “light otaku” (casual fans) and not so much as hardcore fans.

Sources: [Anime News Network, Yano Research Institute]

LulzSec, the notorious group of hackers that has been causing annoyances around the internet including taking down various game servers, performing DDoS attacks on various government websites, and releasing 62,000 users worth of account information, has finally called it quits after 50 days. But not without leaving a little present behind.

In what is a completely unplanned coincidence, Korean broadcaster SBS announced yesterday that they have licensed the live action adaptation of Tsukasa Hojo's manga (which our Manga Hermit mentioned yesterday), City Hunter, to Hulu. Viewers in the United States, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam will be able to stream the series on demand.

The live action series, which premiered yesterday in South Korea stars actor Lee Min-Ho as Ryo Saeba, a gun for hire with a large libido and Park Minyoung as Ryo's love interest, Kaori. The series takes place in 2011 in Seoul rather than the Tokyo of the 1980s.

I for one have to wonder how they'll portray the protagonists erm... second magnum (for lack of a better euphemism). Let us know if you'll be checking it out in the comments below.

The jackets of the latest volumes of Full Metal Panic! Sigma have announced that there is a new FMP spin-off in the works scheduled for this summer. The project is set to coincide with the publishing of a collection of Full Metal Panic! short stories.

Unlike most spin-offs however, the series will maintain the continuity of the story line and take place 10 years after the events of the original light novel series. The series will be drafted and supervised by original author, Shouji Gatoh, but written by Naoto Oguro.

Last June Tokyopop announced that they would publish the fourth and fifth volumes in the original FMP light novel series, however they've only shipped 2 volumes before announcing they'd be halting North American operations.

Source: [Japanator] via [ANN]

Yuuki Aoi putting her signature on the dress.

A young, rising star in the anime industry, Yuuki Aoi has gained the attention of many anime fans for her outstanding work on some very notable shows (Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica's Kaname Madoka, Gosick's Victorique de Blois, So Ra No Wo To's Noël Kannagi). Yuuki raised ¥583 000 (Around $7142.92 USD) through auctioning the dress she wore on both the Gosick special aired on TV Tokyo, and TV Tokyo's anime variety show, Anison Plus. All of the proceeds will go to a non-profit organization helping with earthquake relief efforts in Japan called Civic Force.