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Anan
2h ago
The special edition of the women's weekly magazine anan, issue 2509, will feature the film Chiikawa: The Movie - The Secret of Mermaid Island on its cover when it goes on sale August 26. The cover shows Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi embraced by Siren, a key character from the movie, with special processing that evokes the sea. The back cover features Shimajiro, a character whose popularity has grown since the film's release. The issue includes interviews with voice actors Aoki Haruka (Chiikawa), Tanaka Makoto (Hachiware), Ozawa Ari (Usagi), Suzuki Minori (Siren), and Mogami Tsuguo (Shimajiro), as well as director Oikawa Kei. A special bonus exclusive to this edition is a sticker sheet titled "Island Memories Full of Stickers," featuring iconic scenes from the film's island adventure. The magazine also includes a photo shoot of the Chiikawa characters from their appearance on the 2026 FNS Music Festival Summer. The special edition is priced at 1,300 yen and will be available at bookstores, convenience stores, and online bookstores nationwide.
2d ago
A Banana Fish pop up shop titled "That Summer." runs August 28 to September 6 at SHIBUYA109 Shibuya store's 8th floor DISP!!! space. The event sells 20 original goods items using original artwork, priced from 400 to 5,000 yen, with a simultaneous mail order via Kadokawa's Kadostore. The theme references "1985 Cape cod."
3d ago
Banana Tiger Studio launched Stonewards into early access on Steam on August 12. The first-person roguelite action game supports solo and up to 4-player co-op, mixing wave defense with procedurally generated mining. It holds a Very Positive rating from about 260 reviews, with 96% positive. The demo at Steam Next Fest in June was well received, and wishlists surpassed 100,000 before release.
6d ago
Publisher TARK and developer Lefto Studio announced on August 12 that the three-player co-op bomb defusal game BOMBANANA! will launch on Steam on September 2. The release time is not yet fixed, so it may become available in the early morning of September 3 Japan time. The game is built around the three wise monkeys motif: the blind monkey can touch the bomb but cannot see visual information, the mute monkey holds the defusal manual but cannot speak or use chat, and the deaf monkey can see everything but cannot hear. Players must build a communication chain through gestures and body language to defuse bombs before the timer runs out. The demo, released during Steam Next Fest June 2026, has been played by over 6 million people and added to more than 1 million wishlists. It also holds an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam from over 5,000 reviews. The full game will include a free mode where players can design their own bombs. The price is undecided, and the game will support 15 languages including Japanese.
Aug 9
Lefto Studio's three-player cooperative bomb defusal game BOMBANANA! has surpassed 6 million players and 900,000 wishlists before release. The Turkish developer, surprised by the response, has partnered with a local publisher and expanded its team. The game is planned for an August 2026 release.
Aug 6
At CEDEC 2026, Nintendo developers Kazuya Takahashi and Wataru Tanaka explained how Donkey Kong Bananza for Nintendo Switch 2 builds its game cycle around destruction. The session covered how voxel technology, prototyped after Super Mario Odyssey, led to a concept where breaking terrain creates the reason to break more.
Aug 5
Kujira Anan's And Yet, You Are So Sweet manga ended with the fourth part of its 60th and final chapter on July 22. Anan announced the ending in May. Kodansha USA publishes the series digitally, and the 14th volume released in July.
Aug 5
Google rolled back the Nano Banana 2 image generation feature in Google Earth on July 31, 2026, roughly one day after its launch, following rapid criticism that it could create convincing fake satellite images of disasters and military facilities. The feature, announced on July 30, let web version users select a location, enter text, and generate images based on satellite photos, aerial imagery, and 3D data. Google pitched it for history education, real estate development, and urban planning, including restoring Pompeii to its Roman-era appearance. Within hours, investigative reporter Henk van Es of Digital Digging generated images of refugees near the Mexican border, Iran's nuclear facilities, a fatal accident in Amsterdam, and bomb damage at a Gaza hospital. NPR produced images of Iranian oil facilities on fire and the U.S. Capitol flooded. Google said the generated images carried the SynthID watermark and were not shown in the main Google Earth view, but screenshots shared without context could pass as real satellite imagery. The company suspended the feature until stronger safety measures are implemented, calling it a temporary rollback rather than a permanent removal. Google has not said when it will return or what the new guardrails will be.
Jul 27
Anime Limited has licensed the Banana Fish television anime for release in the United Kingdom, North America, and France. The company plans a Blu-ray Disc release in early 2027. Netflix will stream the series in select regions starting August 12, including English and French dubs. The anime previously streamed on Amazon Prime Video, which briefly added AI-generated dubs before removing them. Hiroko Utsumi directed the series at MAPPA.
Jul 23
The Donkey Kong Bananza development team won Best Awards in three of the four categories at the CEDEC Awards 2026, held July 22-24 at Pacifico Yokohama North. The Computer Entertainment Association (CESA) announced the winners on July 23. The team took Engineering, Game Design, and Visual Arts honors. The Sound Best Award went to the Nintendo Music development and operations team, giving Nintendo a sweep of all categories. The Engineering award cited advanced integration of terrain destruction and physics simulation using voxel technology. Game Design recognized an exciting exploration experience through destruction leveraging character appeal. Visual Arts honored voxel technology realizing a fully destructible 3D world. The Sound award noted continuous library building of a vast number of songs and provision of music experiences utilizing the characteristics of game music. Shuhei Yoshida received the Special Award, announced July 1, for his contributions to computer entertainment development, including leadership of the PlayStation brand and support of indie games. The Best Awards were determined by votes from CEDEC2026 attendees and speakers from among the previously announced Excellence Awards.
Jul 14
Nintendo announced on July 14 that the Nintendo Museum in Uji City, Kyoto, will begin selling Nintendo Switch 2 merchandise at its Bonus Stage shop from July 15. Items include T-shirts, mugs, a ballpoint pen, a ring notebook, a pin set, and game software package stickers for Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. The museum, which focuses on Nintendo's history, will now carry current-generation console merchandise.
Jul 14
Princeton professor Arvind Narayanan, in a keynote at ICML 2026, argued that AI should be viewed as 'normal technology' like electricity, which takes decades to diffuse. He warned that the idea that productivity gains from AI will lead to mass unemployment contradicts economic data, citing the Jevons paradox. Instead, job roles will slowly transform, requiring organizational adaptation over many years.
Jul 12
Netflix announced it will add the television anime of Akimi Yoshida's Banana Fish manga in select regions on August 12. The series previously streamed on Amazon Prime Video with subtitles, but left that service recently. The 2018 MAPPA adaptation updates the setting to modern day New York.
Jul 1
Banana Tiger Studio announced on July 1 that its co-op mining defense roguelite Stonewards will enter Early Access on Steam on August 11 (August 12 in Japan). The game supports solo and up to 4-player online co-op, with Japanese display planned. The Early Access period is expected to last about a year.
Jul 1
Google announced Nano Banana 2 Lite, an image generation model that outputs images from text in 4 seconds, and Gemini Omni Flash, a video generation and editing model. Both are available on Google AI Studio, Gemini API, and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Pricing starts at $0.034 per 1K resolution image and $0.10 per second of video output.
Jun 30
The Bananya franchise announced a new anime, Bananya At Home Party, to celebrate the first anime's 10th anniversary. It will premiere on July 10 on Japanese streaming services, with a world premiere at Anime Expo on July 4. Returning staff and cast include director Kyō Yatate and voice actors Yūki Kaji and Ayumu Murase.
Jun 27
The Japan-Taiwan co-production Sinsin and the Mouse, based on Banana Yoshimoto's short story and directed by Yukinori Makabe, opens in Japanese theaters on June 26. The film follows a grieving woman who travels to Taiwan and meets a man named Sinsin, gradually finding small joys. Early viewer reactions praise the leads and the film's sensory focus on sound and imagery.
Jun 22
The demo for 'BOMBANANA!', a three-player asymmetric bomb defusal game from Turkish developer Lefto Studio, has seen a rapid surge in popularity on Steam since its June 16 release. The game assigns players the roles of 'See No Evil,' 'Hear No Evil,' and 'Speak No Evil,' each with restricted communication and perception abilities. The 'Speak No Evil' player reads the defusal manual but cannot speak, the 'Hear No Evil' player sees the bomb but cannot hear, and the 'See No Evil' player defuses the bomb while blind to fine details. According to SteamDB, the demo peaked at around 13,000 concurrent players, and the official Discord announced over 200,000 total players. The demo has earned an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating on Steam, with 98% of approximately 700 reviews being positive. The game ranked second on the 'Top Trending Demos' chart during Steam Next Fest. The full version is scheduled for release in August.
Jun 22
Eiga Natalie's Heisei Drama Committee column, written by Terebi no Sukima, revisits the 2006 late-night drama Akihabara@Deep. The piece calls it a symbolic work of the era and a turning point for Gen Hoshino, who met his best friend Toma Ikuta and ally Bananaman through the production. The drama featured Shunsuke Kazama, Toma Ikuta, Gen Hoshino, and Yuki Himura before their major breakthroughs.
Jun 21
The television anime adaptation of nonco's manga "Mistress Kanan Is Devilishly Easy" has been green-lit for a second season. The announcement was made on the anime's official website on Sunday, June 20, 2026, immediately after the first season's finale aired. Character designer Akari Minagawa drew a commemorative illustration to mark the news. The first season premiered on April 4, 2026, on Tokyo MX and BS11, and is streamed by Crunchyroll with an English dub. The manga, which began serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in June 2022, has released 13 compiled volumes in Japan as of April 16, 2026. Seven Seas Entertainment will release the manga in English in omnibus format starting July 2026. The story follows Kanan, a demoness who infiltrates a human high school to feast on souls, but ends up in a relationship with a human boy, experiencing love for the first time. The first season was directed by Yasushi Muroya at Studio KAI, with series scripts by Rintarō Ikeda.
Jun 19
The TV anime adaptation of Hibari Ugisu's novel "Tembin" will begin airing on July 6. A second main visual and PV were released, and the ending theme is "Tilt" by the voice actor unit harmoe. Comments from harmoe members Haruki Iwata and Moeka Koizumi were also published.
Jun 18
Lefto Studio released a demo of BOMBANANA! during Steam Next Fest on June 16. The cooperative bomb defusal game assigns each of three players the role of one of the See No Evil, Hear No Evil, or Speak No Evil monkeys, each with a different communication limitation. The demo has earned a Very Positive rating on Steam, with 99% of roughly 200 user reviews positive. The full version is planned for August 2026.
Jun 9
Nintendo announced during its June 9 Nintendo Direct that a new event called DK Challenge will be available exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 users through the Nintendo Switch Online app. The event runs from June 10 to September 1, 2026, and lets players complete challenges set in various Donkey Kong works to earn challenge cards. Separately, the paid DLC DK Island & Emerald Rush for Donkey Kong Bananza will host a collaboration with Super Mario Bros. The collaboration features Donkey Kong and Pauline wearing Mario-themed costumes, with mushrooms and coins appearing in stages. The first of four planned collaboration rounds begins immediately after the Direct ends.
Jun 4
Lefto Studio released the Steam store page for 'BOMBANANA!', a cooperative bomb defusal game for three players who take on the roles of the see-no, hear-no, and speak-no monkeys. Each monkey has a distinct limitation: one cannot speak, one cannot see colors or shapes, and one cannot hear. Players must establish their own communication methods to defuse bombs. The game supports Japanese and is scheduled for release on PC via Steam.
Jun 1
Kadokawa's Dengeki Daioh G magazine announced on May 27 that Rakuda's light novel series Shujinkō no Osananajimi ga, Wakiyaku no Ore ni Guiguikuru will begin a manga adaptation in volume 154 on June 29. The story follows a high school student given a second chance after being killed by a romantic comedy protagonist, only for the protagonist's childhood friend to propose to him. The series ranked #7 in the New Bunkobon category of the 2026 Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! guidebook.
May 31
Fanfare / Ponent Mon will reprint several manga by the late Jiro Taniguchi, including The Summit of the Gods, as well as Hideo Azuma's Disappearance Diary and Kiriko Nananan's Blue. The Summit of the Gods reprint arrives in July 2026 to mark the Everest ascent anniversary; other reprints follow later this year.
May 31
VTuber NewsDrop has published a roundup of original VTuber music released during the first quarter of 2026. The list, updated as of April 10, 2026, includes songs from January through March, presented in no particular order. Notable entries include Nerissa Ravencroft's "Shape the Future" (English Version), Bao the Whale's "Gonna Be Ok" and "Kablooey," and multiple releases from hololive English -Advent- such as "Breakout" and "Unchained." The roundup also features albums like hololive 3rd Generation's "#OperationHeartfulCuties ~You've Got No Choice but to Love the Strongest Idols~" and Ninomae Ina'nis's "re:VISION." VTuber NewsDrop notes that the list is not exhaustive and invites VTubers to submit unlisted songs via X/Twitter. The compilation covers over 80 original tracks and albums, spanning a wide range of VTuber talents and groups.
May 31
Anime Feminist published a review of the first episode of Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy, a new anime adaptation of the ongoing manga. The review describes the premise: the thousand-year-old Gourmet Devil Kanan comes to Earth to devour souls, targeting high school student Youji Kyougi, but he misunderstands her intentions and declares them boyfriend and girlfriend. The reviewer finds the high school setting uncomfortable given the heavy focus on fan service and teenage sexuality, noting that Kanan looks sixteen despite her age. The review compares the dynamic unfavorably to Kakegurui, calling the execution rote. It also notes that the manga is twelve volumes and counting, localized by Seven Seas, but predicts the anime will not get a second season. The reviewer expresses disinterest rather than hatred, saying the joke grows stale quickly.