We’re back, and we’ve moved! Check us out a short hop away, back at our old stomping grounds of www.heiseidemocracy.net/ . The dot com site will remain as an archive, but dot net’s where it’s at – update your bookmarks accordingly, and see you soon!

Breaking radio silence inform any and all that may be interested that at least one representative from HD will be present at this year’s AX. If there’s any interest in staging a mini-meetup, leave a comment and we can work something out.

After countless false starts and years of crushed dreams, we now have confirmation that the second season of Haruhi is in fact quite real, and that a new, never before seen episode has aired tonight.

Will the new series live up to its predecessor? Will it be enough to make up for the interminable, soul-crushing years of desperate waiting?

At the risk of judging prematurely, and having not seen any portion of the episode myself, I feel comfortable answering with a definitive categorical “YES”.

In a shameless return to HD for the first time since my last post (a year and a hemisphere ago) I invite all to peruse my eBay listings, wherein I have put up a chunk of my precious doujinshi collection for sale.

Why?

My GF is not as understanding as Danny Choo’s wife is about Japanese nerd stuff, and unlike Kasukabe in Genshiken, she is not prepared to allow my otakudom to extend to dirty comic books and the like. Figures of girls – yes, computer games with girls – okay, doujin with naughty bits in them – not appropriate.

For all the amateur and professional manga creators of the world who are being held back by poor working environments, the Akihabara Seisakujo is here to solve all your problems. Billing itself as a “Creators Cafe”, Seisakujo offers studio desks and various art equipment, including high-quality scanners and PCs equipped with Photoshop, for a modest hourly charge (starting at 500 yen).

With apologies to TV’s Patrick Macias.

Remakes, relaunches, renewals, reimaginings, whatever you call them, making old things new is all the rage these days. On some level, it clearly smacks of laziness and a dearth of fresh ideas, but like it or not there’s big money to be made in recycling things that would otherwise be lost and forgotten. For now at least. And while it’s not nearly as widespread as it is in, say, the North American movie industry, this phenomenon is slowly but surely making its presence felt in the otaku realm as well.

Taking a step back from the unsurprisingly controversial sentiment of the previous article, here’s something everyone can enjoy!

That’s a lie, but it is something that I doubt anyone will feel very strongly about (famous last words) although I am hoping that someone with a bit more expertise on the subject will be kind enough to chime in. Also, taking an unexpected foray into the realm of the 3D today, but bear with me. At least this one has pictures.

Shokotan recently blogged in praise of a group of American cosplayers, saying that “Americans are really great at making weapons and stuff” and wondering “How can they carry all that stuff around??”. The cosplayers in question have certainly put their hours in, and the results are impressive (although it’d be nice if there were some pictures from a better angle) but what’s more interesting is the statement that follows. “I want to know more about the otaku of the world!” she exclaims “The Internet makes it easy to keep up with the latest productions in real time, so the number of otaku across the world is increasing rapidly”

Now, say what you will about Shokotan. Shingo doesn’t care for her, but I’d call myself a fan. Nonetheless, she raises a very interesting point, which happens to be something I think about quite frequently. In short, how is it that otaku in This Country and otaku in the Other Country can have so much in common, and work toward so many common goals, and yet still have so little contact with each other?

The latest information regarding the third vocaloid character has been released today. The new character is named “Megurine Luka” (I am working very hard not to call her “Luka Migraine”) and features the voice of Asakawa Yuu, probably best known for her role as Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh. I can’t expect her to become a