It’s no secret that The Wachowski’s SPEED RACER is primed to be the summer’s first big FLOP. Nikki Finke explains:

The real problems plaguing this pic occurred not in the marketing but in the production. Oh heck, they started as far back as handing control of the project to the writer-director Wachowski siblings (since they’re no longer brothers). The Industry scuttlebutt is that Warner Bros Pictures Group prez Jeff Robinov, a one-time agent, gave way too much power to his former clients. Of course, the success of their Matrix franchise justified a certain degree of autonomy. But Robinov and for that matter his boss Alan Horn should have written into the contract that Speed Racer had to clock in at 90 to 100 minutes long — the average for kiddie pics these days — and not the absurd 2 hours, 15 minutes length it is now.

Now we’d gladly sit through 2 hours (we think) of a SPEED RACER acid trip, which looks like nothing so much as playing an auto racing game. But most people wouldn’t. Movie Marketing Madness has more on how Warners dropped the ball

And right there I think you have a sense of how this movie is differing from most of the other tentpole releases this summer: It’s the only one that seems to be sublimating character for visuals. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, heck even The Incredible Hulk have all taken pains to make sure it’s the character every bit as much as the special effects that are drawing people in. I can’t help but think it’s this sterility in approach that’s contributing to the lack of buzz around the movie and its poor tracking. People are engaging with the characters that they’re seeing as more fully fleshed out rather than something that just looks wicked cool.

Be that as it may we have every intention of going to see SPEED RACER. First off, it looks weird, even if it is dreadful. Second, the SPEED RACER cartoon was our first great love. We HAD to be home in time for Speed. We threw horrible tantrums when we missed it, and wore our vinyl-lined Speed-esque kiddie driving gloves until our mom had to just about cut them off our hands and they smelled like egg salad inside. So yeah there’s some nostalgia at play. But we just like Speed Racer.

BONUS: the new Speed Racer cartoon debuted on Nick recently, and it was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray.

This weekend in Japan, the Yakult Swallows baseball team wore throwback jerseys in their series against the Tokyo Giants. Back then, the Swallows were called the Yakult Atoms and had an Astro Boy logo on their jerseys.

Check it out here

Movie screenings and guests like Justin Cook, Rachael Lillis, Jamie McGonnigal, Sean Schemmel, Mike Sinterniklaas, Veronica Taylor, Tom Wayland, Sean Michael Wilson, Steve Yun, and Tommy Yune highlight the extensive offerings fore the anime/manga crowd. There will be COSPLAY!
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What is the point of a Manga 101? If you are into manga you probably already know it, and if you aren’t you probably think it’s all codswallop anyway.

Anyhoo, over at the Del Rey blog, Tricia Narwani explains a fun piece of essential manga history that you can use to amaze your non-Mangatized pals. Why does Hiro Mashima’s FAIRY TAIL remind so many people of Eiichiro Oda’s ONE PIECE? Is it because Mashima was once Oda’s assistant?

NO!

Rather, they were both influenced by the great Akira Toriyama, who created Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball Z among other things:

According to Mashima’s publisher, Hiro Mashima was not only never Eiichiro Oda’s assistant–he has never served as an assistant to any artist at all. Mashima has pretty much been a superstar from the beginning–and from a startlingly young age. Born in 1977, Mashima has already crammed several careers of comics creation into a short period: 35 volumes of his first blockbuster, Rave Master, the new sensation Fairy Tail, simultaneous with a new series for Kodansha’s Shonen Rival , Monster Hunter.

As it turns out, there’s a much simpler explanation for the resemblance, and it’s one of the biggest forces in manga ever: Akira Toriyama. Eiichiro Oda and Hiro Mashima are both members of a generation who grew up obsessed with Toriyama and all things Dragon Ball , and whose styles were forged by Toriyama worship. Another reminder that even masters like Mashima and Oda started out as the same thing: fans.

If you read Toriyama you will see what Oda and Mashima got from the master: an exaggeratedly comic style for adventures; likewise adventures that include as much slapstick as action. But even more they all engage in what Scott McCloud calls “World building.” All three create a complete mythos with richness of character and background.

That ends our Manga minute for today.

Launched last year in a problematic December 7-9 time slot, the New York Anime Festival later announced a move to September 12–14, where it would have less competition from Christmas. However, it has just announced a presumably final move to September 26-28, due to scheduling concerns at the Javits Center. While this is further from Otakon (held August 8-10 in Baltimore) it is now smack dab against the Baltimore Comic-Con, also held in Baltimore. That show has little manga presence, however, so the crossover audience is limited. Several companies and artists exhibited at both shows last year, however, so a choice will be made. PR follows:

The New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced new dates for its 2008 show — September 26th through the 28th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. The New York Anime Festival, a Japanese pop culture convention from the creators of the New York Comic Con, held its first event on December 7-9, 2007. The 2007 New York Anime Festival featured guests including Kobun Shizuno (Co-Director of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone), Peter Fernandez (The Voice of Speed Racer), and J-Pop band UNICORN TABLE and over 100 exhibitors including ADV Films, Bandai Entertainment, Del Rey Manga, FUNimation, and TOKYOPOP.

NYAF previously announced 2008 dates of September 12-14, but it has moved back to later in the month after further discussions with the Jacob Javits Center.

“The New York Anime Festival apologizes over any confusion with our 2008 dates,” Show Manager Lance Fensterman said. “The Jacob Javits Center is always in demand, and getting any dates in the building is difficult. Our new dates are the result of further discussion with the convention center, and we’re staying put right here. We’ll see you all September 26th!”

The New York Anime Festival’s parent show, the New York Comic Con, will take place April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Center. New York Comic Con will play host to Guest of Honor T.M.Revolution, anime guests Justin Cook, Rachael Lillis, Jamie McGonnigal, Sean Schemmel, Mike Sinterniklaas, Veronica Taylor, Tom Wayland, Sean Michael Wilson, Steve Yun, and Tommy Yune, and premieres including CODE GEASS, Emma, Amuri in Star Ocean, Lucky Star, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Tickets are available now at newyorkcomiccon.com.

Stan Lee really is EVERYWHERE. Details of ULTIMO, his manga collaboration with Shamen King creator Hiroyuki Takei will be announced at New York Comic-Con. The announcement will be press only, although some fans can win seats at the panel. The series debuts the same day, April 18th, with a 32 page prologue in the first issue of the new Japanese Jump SQ and concerns two giant fighting figures — Vice and Ultimo — who hover over Farmless City and hold its fate in their hands. You can read all PR in the jump.

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This is the moment of manga. I mean, I know you all knew that, but it’s not just a fast growing comic book category; when people look back at Aught Nostalgia, this well be remembered as the Manga Decade. Or at least that’s what our link round up tells us:

Let us being with Chris Butcher’s photo of what 5000+ manga look like (check link for full sized picture) and continue with this story about Hollywood’s J-Pop mania:

“It’s become a veritable feeding frenzy,” one young and enterprising American producer said of Hollywood’s anime and manga craze over a dinner of German sausages in Silver Lake, a hipster enclave in Los Angeles. “In fact, we’re now looking to other Asian countries like South Korea, China, even Singapore. There are just too many people focused on Japan.”

Last summer’s Transformers movie–whose toys and anime series originated in Japan–was one of the biggest box office draws in an otherwise mixed or dreary 2007 for big-budget Hollywood productions. Appleseed: Ex Machina, about which I’ve written in this column, smashed all previous anime DVD sales records upon its release earlier this month, selling 100,000 units in only its first week.

This story (originating in a Japanese newspaper) can be seen as a bit of hype, but it’s unquestionable that the Manga Look is the look of the moment. And Japan is trying to export more of its cultural influence according to this article:

“Japan is a giant in animation and there’s many things that we can learn. There’s still a huge gap in skills,” Zhou Feng Ying, president of the Beijing Glorious Animation Co, told a seminar at the Tokyo International Anime Fair on Thursday. “It’s very important for us to grow through cooperation,” she added, referring to the animated “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” currently being produced by her firm and Future Planet, a Japanese company. That cooperation brings Zhou’s company access to international distribution and Japanese animation know-how honed over decades, while Future Planet gains a sharp cut in production costs and a chance to tap the potentially vast Chinese market. Such ventures are now seen as key for the industry, since despite decades of global dominance and a boom in the popularity of anime and manga comics, Japan’s foreign anime profits are still surprisingly small compared to the money made at home.

Meanwhile, previously normalized Manchester, Uk has been turned into Manga-chester thanks to a major manga art exhibit:

Urbis displays all of the above, from cutesy to violent, erotic to commercial, informative to distinctive, exploring the way Manga has permeated everyday life in the 21st century. There’s even a photo-gallery of how teenagers in both Eastern and Western countries are dressing like real-life Manga characters. Naturally, Japanese girls adapt the characteristic look with ease. Anyone else looks like they’ve had an unfortunate accident with Crayola and a fancy dress box.

In Florida, Bleach and Naruto vie for supremacy:

The two hottest manga series are undeniably Viz Media’s Bleach and Naruto. Both have been battling it out for years in Japan and in America, and neither is willing to give up the top slots in the manga translation ratings. Tate’s Comics is a store in Lauderhill that caters to manga, anime and comic-book fans. “Some series like Fullmetal Alchemist gain a lot of popularity quickly but don’t last long, while these two lose some of their fan base every now and then, but always manage to find their way back,” store manager Joann Minieri said. “Even then, they never get bumped out of the top five.”

Funimation has been making some of its anime available on iTunes, and now Starz’ Manga Entertainment channel joins suit:

In the other corner, the Manga Shakespeare project is examined once again.

Larry Olson, vice president of marketing for Wiley, says that because of manga’s popularity, these books might get youngsters fired up about Shakespeare in a way more traditional texts or performances cannot. Also, because of their shortened passages and stimulating visuals, they might reach a wide range of ages and be especially helpful for visual learners (who account for as much as 30 percent to 65 percent of the students out there).

Finally, this may be the most important link of all, as nerd-friendly parents attend Anime Expo with their young children, and remain mindful but accepting

As I wrote about yesterday, my wife and I spent the weekend at the Anime Boston show at the Hynes Convention Center, but it wasn’t about connecting with our kids directly — that’s something we do as a couple. And part of the reason is because we like to scope out what’s hot and what’s new on the anime and manga scenes, so we can vet the content for our kids. I do the same for video games. I’m lucky enough to actually get paid (at least partly) to review video games, so that helps me justify keeping different console systems in the house and subscribing to various magazines, and even taking a couple of trips a year to trade shows to really get some good exposure.

Lovable toon robot cat DORAEMON has been appointed Japan’s cartoon ambassador!

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat an “anime ambassador,” handing a human-sized Doraemon doll an official certificate at an inauguration ceremony, along with dozens of “dorayaki” red bean pancakes — his favorite dessert — piled on a huge plate.

Komura told the doll, with an unidentified person inside, that he hoped he would widely promote Japanese animated cartoons, or “anime.”

“Doraemon, I hope you will travel around the world as an anime ambassador to deepen people’s understanding of Japan so they will become friends with Japan,” Komura told the blue-and-white cat.

The move is part of Japan’s growing use of its immense pop culture influence on a more formal and governmental basis — like the International Manga Award established last year.

Doraemon, a fun loving robot cat sent from the future to aid a schoolboy, debuted in 1969 as a manga. Created by Fujiko F. Fujio, Doraemon has appeared in 1344 manga stories, and been adapted into an even more popular anime series. In 2002 he was voted one of 22 Asian Heroes by Time Asia magazine

As ambassador, the helpful blue feline — or at least a movie ABOUT him — will engage in a whirlwind tour set to include Singapore, China, Spain, France, and other countries.

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What have things come to, when even the precocious and eternally cute Hello Kitty is willing to settle a grudge by stepping into the squared circle?

The presser:

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, in conjunction with Gente California and SANRIO Co., LTD., will present the first ever professional wrestling match for the Kitty World Order (KWO). On April 5, 2008, the cheerful Hello Kitty® and mischievous Kuromi® will meet inside the wrestling ring in a classic battle of The Good vs. The Bad. This match between these two beloved characters has been sanctioned by SANRIO Co., LTD. and PWG, and will be part of a live event that will feature PWG World Championship and PWG World Tag Team Championship title matches. The event takes place on Saturday, April 5, 2008 at 8:00PM at American Legion Post #308, located at 7338 Canby Ave., Reseda, CA 91335. General Admission tickets for the event are $20. Please visit http://www.prowrestlingguerrilla.com or http://www. gentecal. com for more information.

Posted by Mark Coale

Codey Porter, 10, has died after playmates buried him headfirst in a sandbox — an act inspired by Naruto’s ability to bury himself in the ground. Despite the tragic and horrible circumstances — his friends buried him in fun and didn’t realize he was really in trouble when he began struggling — the initial news reports are going fairly lightly on the cartoon connection:

Among media watchdogs and those who research the effects of television on children, the anime program [Naruto] has created barely a ripple.

“To my knowledge, there is no research specifically targeting anime,” said Doug Gentile, director of research for the National Institute on Media and the Family. “But what we do know is that media in general do have a very large effect on people.”

Nor is this a modern-day problem. People have been imitating television shows since the 1950s, Gentile said, recalling how boys jumped off garage rooftops, wearing towels like capes and pretending to be Superman.

The major difference today, he said, is that violence is often portrayed more realistically than, say, the TNT bombs that characterized “The Road Runner Show” or “Tom and Jerry” cartoons of a generation ago.

“A lot of the aggression in ‘Tom and Jerry’ is not easy to copy,” Gentile said. “You won’t have access to a ball of TNT to stuff in your brother’s mouth, but you might have access to a sandbox. It’s a horrible tragedy, but it’s not surprising that at some point somebody is going to try almost anything they see.”

Based on focus groups and surveys, The second New York Anime Festival will be held this year September 12-14th, significantly earlier than last year’s Dec. 7-9 time frame. According to the calendar at Comic Book Conventions.com there are no real scheduling conflicts with other shows, although it is coming pretty soon after Otakon which is being held August 8-10 in Baltimore. According to the PR, below, NYAF is now the fourth biggest anime show. Anime Expo and Otakon would be bigger, but what’s #3?

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In Tokyo, a promotion for The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep set on Tokyo Bay is what we could call “pant-peeing good.”

Last weekend’s New York Anime Festival was an interesting experience to say the least. It was only the second anime show I’ve ever attended (I went to Otakon in Baltimore a few years ago) so the hypotheses I drew from the experience can hardly be called conclusions. I welcome corrections or deeper observations. But the one thing I can say with some certainty is that I wish there had been more people from Marvel and DC there. (There were a few people from Marvel and I spotted DC’s new SVP of sales and Marketing Steve Rotterdam taking in a few panels, but that was about it.) It was a real eye opener and no mistake.

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It’s the real-life inspiration for Pikachu and almost as cute! The very rare and mysterious long-eared jerboa of the Gobi desert has been caught on film for the first time!:

The long-eared jerboa, a tiny nocturnal mammal that is dwarfed by its enormous ears, can be found in deserts in Mongolia and China.

Zoological Society of London (ZSL) scientist Jonathan Baillie said the footage was helping researchers to learn more about the mysterious animal.

The species is classified as endangered on the IUCN Red list.

Videos of the long-tailed, giant-eared little fellas hopping about are on beyond adorable.

We want one!!!

[Thanks to Maclaine for the link.]

This may have been a con too far for The Beat…we’re too tuckered to post anything, but we will run some photos by you, how does that sound? Although we apologize in advance because our camera settings were screwed up all weekend and all the pictures came out dark. Above: An overview of the hall.

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We’ll have our own detailed anthropological observations when we’re not feeling under the weather. However here are facts and figures.

§ ICv2 interviews the showrunner John McGeary who estimates attendance at 15,000.

§ IGN reports on Stuart Levy’s amusing activites:

Have the Tokyopop convention planners lost their minds? Not really. Rather than do a typical presentation, Levy wanted to film a “documentary” chronicling a fake Van Von Hunter’s journey from “rags to riches”. But Levy wanted audience participation and guided them to create the footage he wanted. Attendees were prompted to boo on cue, shout lines, throw giveaway armbands and, finally, rush the door as Hunter, Levy and panelist Steven Calcote ran outside, using chairs as “riot shields.” The entire ordeal was filmed through two cameras and, oddly enough, featured relatively little about the manga itself (which is very real). The final Hunter documentary is due to be released in 2008. The manga series, first released in 2005, follows the humorous action-adventures of a hero who hunts evil monsters across the Kingdom of Dikay.

§ The Del Rey crew has a detailed blog.

§ The winner of the World Cosplay Summit US Division blogs.

§ Who attended the show? This LJ post really says it all:

So. Yesterday morning I took the ACT again. When I was done, my parents and I spent an hour stuck in NYC traffic in order to go to the con. When we finally got there (and found a place to park, and cursed out all the people who came in buses) I made a beeline for the nearest manga booth (Emma vol.5, +Anima vol. 6, Apothecarius Argentum vol. 3, Sugar Sugar Rune vol. 7). And then I found shadow_maw, ditched my parents, and we set off to explore the con.

Brigid and various folks have been going to panels and gathering news. Brigid has GO! Comi’s new licenses, ComiPress has Del Rey’s early announcements. Deb Aoki at About.Com has Viz’’s news, which includes new maga by the ceators of Rurouni Kenshin and Death Note. ANN has complete team coverage as well as Media Blaster’s plans for Genshiken. ANN also has breaking news of parental complaints about a bookstore’s manga section, and a US House proposal to limit the import of child pr0n:

The United States House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would expand the online enforcement against “any image of any apparent child pornography.” In Japan, a government research panel on the unification of telecommunications and broadcast laws called for legislation to regulate “harmful materials” on the Internet on Thursday. Both efforts could affect manga and anime that depict fictional, explicit content.

We’ll have more of a wrap-up of the show tomorrow. Saturday was quite busy, but a big question remains dealer sales, as one poster alluded to. Del Rey and Marvel are announcing whatever it is they are doing later today and we’ll tell you what it is if it’s of any interest.

[Top photo nicked from LJinto’s Flickr sgtream.]

The first day of the inaugural New York Anime Festival was a busy one. Crowds were good for a brand new show on a cold, snowy day, which was, in the end, competing against Christmas shopping. That sounds like damning with faint praise, but there were people throughout the hall all day–all in all, one of the better showings for a new show we’ve seen in New York. Total attendance for the weekend is expected to be about 12-14,000, and everyone expects to be slammed today (Saturday.)

No real news we heard all day, The real experience of an anime show is for the fans, and shows generally have a “by fans for fans” feeling. Although this is a “commercial” show, as it is being run by Reed Exhibitions, the kids were in their crazy costumes (above) and seemed enthusiastic. We had to leave before the big masquerade, alas. A few more pictures in the jump.

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The day began with a tediously long crosstown jaunt over to the Javits Center that took 30 minutes to go 10 blocks. WHY do taxi drivers INSIST on going crosstown on 31st St.? Even a bus moves faster on 34th. I asked my driver and he said 34th was the worst because you can’t make a left hand turn. We don’t understand what that has to do with being stuck behind a truck delivering gladiolas for 15 minutes…but…we disgress.

We started the day with a strategy session with the All-Star team we have assembled to cover this show: Kai Ming Cha! Calvin Reid! Brigid Alverson! Ed Chavez! Erin Finnegan! Laurel Maury! Laura Hudson! (We aren’t really manga experts, so we’re not part of the all-star team.) At 1ish the manga troops started assembling, from Tpop, Viz, Del Rey, Yen and near and far.

Milton Griepp kicked things off with a “white paper.”
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We’re going to spend much of the next four days at the Javits center for the inaugural New York Anime Fest, kicking off today with Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga. This is a major event from Reed Exhibitions, which also puts on NY Comic-Con (and a sister company of PW, which hosts this blog.) Big anime events in New York have had a spotty track record in the last few years, but all of the big publishers and producers are in for this one, there are lots of guests, and a wide array of events, including the American leg of the World Cosplay Summit!

You can see the HUGE lineup of programming here. Guests are here.

To be candid, we’re not too well prepared for this show. All signs point to a big success, but since it’s a new show on the calendar, we didn’t prep for it much. We were all “Oh, it’s baby Max;s first birthday!” and “Oo, Elisa and George are having a holiday party!” and now it’s “Panel panel panel and then drinks with soanso and dinner with soanso!” But that’s okay. We will be bringing you extensive coverage from the floor. ANN, Brigid Alverson, Kai-Ming Cha and the other top manga journos will all be there as well, and we’ll link to their sure-to-be excellent coverage.

In lieu of a big preview, here are two links from Pop Culture Shock: Five things to do at New York Anime Fest and Erin Finnegan’s New Manga Map of NYC

USA Today via Superhero Hype

By the way, isn’t it “The Wachowskis”…not “The Wachowski Brothers”?

AFRO SAMURAI has made the rare reverse commute: the American-produced manag-adaptation anime in now popular in Japan:

Okazaki’s strange tale initially failed to attract attention in Japan, where mainstream cartoons feature cute wide-eyed heroines or fighting robots.

He sold just a trickle of his Afro Samurai comics in the 1990s, peddling his work to specialized bookstores in Tokyo.

“Okazaki’s work was too weird for most mainstream manga fans, who love cutsey characters,” said Atsushi Sugino of Japanese animation company GDH K.K., which is co-producing the TV series and movie.

It was only in 2001 - after an American executive at anime studio Gonzo, Eric Calderon, learned of Okazaki’s work - that Afro Samurai finally headed to the screen.

Samuel L Jackson as the voice also helped.

The New York Anime Festival is fast approaching (December 7-9) and the programming  schedule has just been posted.

Even if you’re not a manga or anime fan there’s lot of interest here, including Milton Griepp’s ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga on the 6th, and panels on Gekiga and other types of manga during the show.

The New York Anime
Festival is sponsored by ADV Films, Anime Innovation Tokyo, Anime Insider, Anime Network, Anime News
Network, AnimeNEXT, BookExpo America, Diamond Book Distributors,
Entertainment Consumers Association, FUNimation Entertainment, ICv2,
ImaginAsian, Kinokuniya Bookstores, License! Global, Manga Video, New York
Comic Con, NEW YORK - TOKYO, Newtype
USA, Publishers Weekly, Starz
Media, THINK Corp, TOKYOPOP, Video
Business, VIZ Media, Wedge Holdings, Wizards of the Coast, and the World
Cosplay Summit.
 

The New York Anime
Festival’s Guests of Honor include Peter Fernandez, Corinne Orr, Kobun Shizuno,
and Aimee Major Steinberger.  The
New York Anime Festival’s musical guests include HAPPYFUNSMILE, UNICORN TABLE,
and Voltaire.

Disclaimer: NYAF is put on by the same folks as the New York Comic-Con and BEA, who we’ve worked with in the past and they are owned by the same parent company as PW.

A couple of announcements from the upcoming New York Anime Festival. First the announcement of a number of web guests, and also an ICv2 conference:

Pop culture publishing and consulting company ICv2 has announced its first ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: “Inside the Otaku Generation” at New York Anime Festival (NYAF), the new event being launched by the organizers of New York Comic Con.

NYAF will bring together more than 120 exhibitors, and will feature the latest in anime, manga, Japanese cinema, music, and games, as well as the best of anime-influenced comics, animation, and film from around the world. NYAF will be held on December 7-9, 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.

The ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga: “Inside the Otaku Generation” will be held on Thursday afternoon, December 6, 2007 at the Javits Center, on the eve of NYAF.

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We want this.

We want this, too. Kuromi is our kind of Sanrio character.

* Birthday: October 31 (Halloween).
* Personality: Although she looks cruel, she is actually very girly. She loves handsome guys.
* Hobby: She enjoys writing in her diary. These days, she’s into romance stories.
* Favorite colour: Black
* Favorite food: Pickled leeks.