The Anime Blog - We Go Beyond Anime!

Leading things off this month are three contests:

Third International Manga Competition (MIMC)

First, Kodansha’s weekly manga magazine, Morning, is presenting its Third International Manga Competition (MIMC). The purpose of the competition is to find and develop new talent.

The grand prize is $5,000 (US) and there are two second prizes of $2,000 (US) each. The grand prize winner will also have his/her work featured in Morning. The contest is not limited to manga. All types of comics are welcome. The deadline for entry is September 30, 2008. For the full set of rules visit the MIMC website which offers the rules in 11 languages. Here is the link for the English set.

Incidentally, the Morning website announced the grand winner of the 2nd MIMC…Meng-Lin Yu of Taiwan who wrote the short story, “Fairy Tale”. The fantasy has been published as a 32 page print (including some color pages) in the May 22 issue of Morning2 (a special issue of Morning). The two second prize winners will be announced later this month.

Image from “Fairy Tale” originally posted on MIMC website.

RightStuf Contests

The other two contests (one has an anime prize and the other has a live action prize) are presented by RightStuf:

The Anime contest features the box set of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, which was released earlier this month. RightStuf has teamed up with FUNimation and they are offering 4 lucky people a copy of this box set. Here is a synopsis of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid:

It’s tough to keep your grades up without having to take off at a moment’s notice to save the world. But for Sousuke Sagara, undercover high school student and member of the mercenary group Mithril, life in Tokyo seemed the same as always.

But underneath the promising exterior spin the wheels of a conspiracy that threaten to destroy the peace. A new threat has arisen: Amalgam.

An unknown element with advanced mech technology, this mysterious organization has been running things from behind the scenes. As dissension spreads throughout the ranks of Mithril, Sousuke faces his own internal struggle.

Spread thin between schoolwork and war, the powers that be have decided to lighten his load… beginning with Kaname!

The contest is open to anyone 13 years old or older. To enter, simply fill out the entry form and submit it by June 19, 2008. You can view the official rules here.

Honey and Clover/Love*Com Contests

The Live-Action contest features the recent movie releases of Honey and Clover and Love*Com. For this contest, RightStuf has partnered with Viz to offer two lucky people a gift package. Each package includes:

• A copy of the Honey and Clover DVD, plus movie poster
• A copy of the Love*Com DVD, plus mini-poster
• A copy of Shojo Beat July Issue

Here is a synopsis of the Honey and Clover movie:

Honey and Clover is a romantic comedy about a group of art school students who try to scrape by, barely earning enough money buy food and pay their rent. But as soon as an innocent and talented 19-year-old girl enters their lives, things get a lot more complicated as love triangles result.

Here is a synopsis of the Love*Com movie:

Love*Com - Risa Koizumi is taller than the average girl, and the last thing she wants is the humiliation of standing next to Atsushi Otani, a shorter-than-average boy. Fate and the whole school have other ideas, however, and the two find themselves cast as the unwilling stars of a bizarre romantic comedy duo. But as their friendship develops, so do Risa’s feelings toward Otani.

As with the Anime Contest, the Live-Action Contest is open to anyone 13 years old or older. To enter, simply fill out the entry form and submit it by June 19, 2008. View the official rules.

RightStuf Sales

Now on to the sales…staying with RightStuf, their current sale is called Dive into Savings.

This is essentially a clearance sale of select portions of their Geneon stock. All select items are $5, $10, or $15 and many items are “while supplies last”. Because this is a special sale, there are a few additional restrictions:

• Box set items are not included in the sale.
• Quantities are limited. RightStuf reserves the right to restrict quantities purchased during the sale. This way no one customer can load up on all of the available inventory for a specific item. Fair for all, and more savings to go around.
• This sale is for end-user customers only. (No dealers or resellers.)
• There is no coupon code needed. The sale ends on June 15 at 11:59 CDT.

• Anime Nation Sales

• AnimeNation has a new sale. You can get 40% off all Nozomi Entertainment titles. For those of you interested in adult anime, this sale also includes Critical Mass titles.