OmochaBox Grand Opening Celebration OmochaBox's new store opened as scheduled on Saturday, September 15 but without any of the planned celebration because of the recent terrorist attacks. The sudden disruption of air travel & freight caused a delay in some of the merchandise from reaching the United States. On Saturday, September 29th and Sunday 30th, the store will have its originally announced celebration and guests plus a live performance of "I'm Gonna Be An Angel." Not announced and unconfirmed are that members of Sailor Jamboree are expected to appear. A recent visit to the store revealed a good selection of manga, some toys and some videos (with more on the way). However, just about any Kinokuniya has more manga and any Suncoast more anime. The store may need a lot more merchandise and a lot more room to make any appreciable impact. Further, the store is not located in a neighborhood especially starved for anime. Regardless, we wish Digital Manga well with this new venture and hope bigger & better stores are on the way.

Repercussions Of Terrorist Acts Omochabox.com is reporting that their new store will open as scheduled on Saturday, September 15, 2001 but that, "...all events and autograph sessions shall take place at a later date." Although this Saturday also happens to be a legal holiday in Japan ("Respect Senior Citizens Day") we believe that the festivities were cancelled out of respect to the victims and their families of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, September 11. On behalf of Sailor Moon fans everywhere, we trust and hope that all the staff at The Program Exchange and Saatchi & Saatchi were not harmed in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. The Saatchi & Saatchi building is located at 375 Hudson Street--just blocks away from where the towers and other buildings have collapsed. Our hearts and sympathies go out to all the families & loved ones affected by these acts. We have also noticed (and applaud) the Cartoon Network for temporarily changing their programming in light of recent events. The network has been dropping some episodes (and even series) which depict massive violence and civic destruction. The weekday feed of Kids' WB seems to have been dropped by most affiliates with local news or news feeds from other sources covering the terrorist attacks and aftermath. Of the 2 week test for Sailor Moon, only the first 6 weekdays will probably be considered valid. One of our members, a dj at a U.S. radio station, had the rather unpleasant task of breaking the news of the ever expanding terrorist attacks to their East Coast morning drive audience. It is a shift they are not likely to forget.

Welcome To His World Kunihiko Ikuhara Girls, Girls, Girls!!! The "ironman" of anime conventions of 2000, Kunihiko Ikuhara, one of the defining directors of Sailor Moon, moved to the U.S. sometime ago and wants to meet you! (Especially if you are a beautiful young female!) This guy's exploits are being documented in an ongoing online project known as the Ikuni Observation Journal over at akadot.com (an anime news site). Read up on his appearances at anime panels, his attempts to get a driver's license, the infamous "Kunihiko Ikuhara Drinking Game" or why not become part of his world?! On Saturday, September 15, Kunihiko will be making an appearance at the opening of the retail version of OmochaBox.com in Los Angeles (Mari Iijima will be there on Sunday). Yes that's right, OmochaBox (which means "Toy Box" in Japanese) is entering the physical world with a real store and Kunihiko will be there for photos and autographs. So if you're in that part of the world, why not plan a visit? "Gamers" mascot Di Gi Charat's design may have been influenced by the wildly popular 60's paintings of big-eyed waifs by Walter Keene. Besides our coverage, interested fans may wish to read an old interview with Mr. Ikuhara concerning, among other topics, a new production of Sailor Moon which we previously reported. We believe that this production is now dead and has been replaced with a different Sailor Moon project (but which we are not allowed to make any comment on). And for those keeping track of such things, akadot.com & OmochaBox.com are both owned by Digital Manga, Inc. which, through its subsidiary, Synch-Point, has been dubbing Tenshi ni Narumon ( "I'm Gonna be an Angel") into English. The new store is actually co-owned with Broccoli Co. which runs the wildly successful "Gamers" stores in Japan. The Akihabara location has seven floors of anime merchandise. (We don't think the West Los Angeles store is going to be THAT big!) The mascot for Gamers is Di Gi Charat, a group of characters so popular that they made a TV series based on them. It appears to us that when Broccoli made the deal for the new store, Digital Manga received some rights for Di Gi Charat. Look for these big-eyed wonders to invade America, soon.