Checkpoint: Miko Cafe, PiQ, Osamu Tezuka

- By now, it's business as usual in Akihabara (well, almost), and the latest otaku attraction is... tadaa... a Miko Cafe (you know - miko, shrine maidens, Rika...). Sounds interesting, although Sankaku Complex isn't impressed at all - and it's no wonder: the news came right after his exquisite miko galleries of mostly-2D shrine lolis.

- ADV's PiQ Magazine is officially shutting down, after a few freelance editors broke the news on their blogs late last week. The PiQ magazine spawned from the asshes of ADV's former Newtype USA, and it lasted for only 4 issues, as its current July 2008 issue is the final one. Proof, once again, that investing in this kind of printed press right now is plain dumb. Especially when you have an incompetent management and marketing team, as was the case with PiQ.

- "The hugely popular Neon Genesis Evangelion Asuka / Rei rearing / kyouiku games have just received another iteration, under the title of (...) Shinseiki Evangelion Ayanami Rearing Plan DS with Asuka Supplementary Plan, due for release on August 28". Shameless rip from Sankaku, screenshots on Famitsu.

- "Man in Sendai found dead buried in his manga". Literally. Must be the funniest death attributed to the earthquake in Northeastern Japan from a couple of days ago - which, oddly enough, was predicted in Osamu Tezuka's BlackJack manga (volume 17), with the same time, date, and location! The mind boggles.

- Speaking of Osamu Tezuka, the live-action movie Dororo (which is based on his classic fantasy / samurai manga) will be released in the U.S. by Universal Studios Home Video on September 23, with English subs. And so will another Japanese movie, called Midnight Eagle. I think we still have a Dororo movie trailer around here, somewhere...

- And in even more Osamu Tezuka-related news, Nicolas Cage joined the cast of the upcoming CG animation film Astro Boy. Or at least his voice did. The film is created by Imagi Animation Studios based on the iconic character created by - you guessed - Osamu Tezuka (the mind truly boggles), and is expected to premiere in 2009.