KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO singer Isekai Joucho opened her official fan club, 1209Carat., on September 5, 2026, and is part of the studio's ongoing restructuring into KYOKAI STUDIO and UNKNOWN LAB, which will affect how virtual artists are recruited and produced.
Isekai Joucho, a virtual singer with KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, opened her official fan club, 1209Carat., on September 5, 2026. The club's name draws on jewel motifs from her early concept material, extending the visual identity she has built since her KAMITSUBAKI debut into a paid membership space. Annual membership costs 10,000 yen, and monthly membership costs 800 yen, with benefits including advance ticket reservations, exclusive videos, galleries, wallpapers, newsletters, and birthday messages. Annual plan members receive a physical membership card and card holder.
The fan club launch coincides with a major restructuring at THINKR, the parent company that runs KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO. On September 5, THINKR announced it spun off KYOKAI STUDIO and UNKNOWN LAB from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, joining KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO and ALLT STUDIO. The restructuring directly affects how virtual artists like Isekai Joucho are managed, as the new studios will participate in the upcoming THINKR AUDITION 2026, a joint recruitment drive covering both virtual and real artist tracks. The audition opens October 5, and KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO executive producer PIEDPIPER is among those selecting candidates.
THINKR also launched SINGULAR LIVE on the same day, a live streaming platform built for its affiliated artists. This platform, the first initiative of PROJECT SINGULAR, handles regular live streams and revival screenings of past performances, with a PRIME subscription tier at 880 yen per month or 9,680 yen per year. For Isekai Joucho, this platform offers another channel to reach fans, complementing her new fan club. Her activity sits within a broader push by THINKR to consolidate artist content and monetize fan engagement.
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Shonen Jump+ is offering 52 chapters of Kentaro Yabuki's Black Cat for free until November 5. The action manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2000 to 2004, following Train Heartnet, an assassin known as Black Cat who leaves the organization Chronos and works as a sweeper with his partner Sven until a figure from his past reappears. Yabuki said on X that he began preparing the series in his late teens and serialized it from age 20.
Amifa announced the 2026 Pingu Series on October 22, 2026. The lineup has eight products: a slider case, rubber keychain, patch, A7 zip bag five-pack, water seal with sequins, flake stickers 24-pack, stamp 2-pack, and acrylic stand stamp. Designs show Pingu and his Antarctic friends in daily life, with candy-bag cases, fruit-patterned zip bags, and glitter stickers. All items are on sale at Seria stores nationwide, though stock varies by store.
Bandai Spirits will open preorders on Monday, November 2, 2026 for an S.H.Figuarts set pairing Haruka Todo from the original TV anime Vertex Force with the Graviton Engine. The figure stands about 140mm; the Graviton Engine is an assembly kit that reaches roughly 230mm after building. The set costs 22,000 yen including tax, ships in March 2027, and includes three expression parts, interchangeable hands, a Graviton Hammer armed part, and a dedicated base.
Cygames will add the training scenario "Tomo, History Unraveling - Horse-Style Shundai Festival" to Uma Musume Pretty Derby on October 26 at 12:00. The scenario centers on a Shinto ritual held once every 12 years, with a Performance Rehearsal system tied to a Performance Gauge. The new NPC Azuma, voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi, is a shrine maiden who joins as a scenario link character and arrives as an SSR support card in the same-day gacha.
Episode 52 of The Apothecary Diaries season 3 spends its quiet scene on Joka, one of Maomao's sisters at Verdigris House. After Granny and Pairin press Maomao to admit she likes Jinshi, Joka stays silent, then tells Maomao they are alike: society reads both of them by their work and parentage. The episode also keeps the locust threat and the ergot-laced cake in the slums in play, tied by food.
The Writers Guild of Japan announced that screenwriter Toyoto Kogisu died on September 29. He was 69. Kogisu wrote several episodes of the Detective Conan anime between 2000 and 2018, including the 733rd episode, "The Wedding Reception and the Two Gunshots." His work outside anime went to live-action television, with credits on Taiyo ni Hoero!, Hagure Keiji: Junjoha, Sasurai Keiji Ryojou-hen, and Bengoshi Takabayashi Ayuko. The guild announced his death on Monday and did not disclose a cause of death. Kogisu's Detective Conan episodes sit inside a run of more than two decades of the mystery series, which follows the young detective Shinichi Kudo after his body is shrunk. The guild is the organization that confirmed the death, and its notice is the primary record of the date.
SpiralAI announced SpiralLLM on October 21, 2026, an orchestration model for entertainment that grew out of RyzaChat, the AI chat RPG it runs under license from Koei Tecmo Games since August 25, 2026. Instead of leaving everything to one model, SpiralLLM picks specialized AIs and processes for conversation, long-term memory, game state, story progression, and consistency checks, and reconciles their output. SpiralAI has filed patents on the functions.
Episode 5 of STEEL BALL RUN JoJo's Bizarre Adventure devotes itself to Gyro's childhood rather than spreading that material between other beats as the manga does. The episode shows his father as both a doctor and the King of Naples' executioner, a role the Zepelli family has filled for generations, and Gyro's Steel Balls as tools built for executions. Gyro is set to inherit the post at twenty-five, until a boy named Marco is named the first to face his blade.
RIOT MUSIC and Culture Entertainment have announced the full performer list for ESPERA -AdHoc Live Festival 2026-, a virtual music festival on VRChat running November 20 to 22, 2026. The first two days are free, and the November 22 final day is ticketed. Performers include Kiwa Suu, VESPERBELL, Yomi, Kizuna AI, Harusaruhi, Tsukishiro Rui, Shirakawa Shirase, Shikibu Meguri, and Doo/Sakujaku kaza. Tickets went on sale October 24 on ZAIKO, with S tickets at 15,000 yen, on-site tickets at 4,000 yen, and streaming tickets at 3,000 yen.
Ryo Fujiwara drew the visual illustration for FIRESTARTER, the new song from League of Legends virtual group K/DA. The piece shows Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai'Sa in the song's outfits. Fujiwara called the work "super fun and the best" and said he loves K/DA way too much. K/DA released FIRESTARTER on October 19, their first new song in about six years, with MIYEON and SOYEON continuing and two new vocalists joining.
Furyu's Kirby★Diary prize series returns for a fourth installment, themed okaimono (shopping), at amusement facilities across Japan from the fourth week of October 2026. Three items arrive first: three Kirby sweets plushies about 11cm, four shopping mascots about 10cm, and a pink or blue register basket about W50 by D34 by H24cm. The article names a register-style piggy bank among later items.
New deformed school uniform illustrations of 12 Inazuma Eleven characters, including Mamoru Endo and Shuuya Gouenji, will be sold as goods at the Chugai Mining booth at AGF2026 on November 7 and 8, 2026, with preorders on Chugaionline mail order. The lineup includes acrylic stands at 1,870 yen, trading glitter tin badges, a Polaroid shot collection, and Rairai-ken's miso ramen.
The sequel to ABEMA's crime drama Metropolitan Police Department Narcotics Division MOGURA will stream all six episodes free from 21:00 on Wednesday, December 23. Rapper Hannya returns as lead, playing former police officer and rapper Shokichi Izanagi. RAPSTAR 2025 winner Pxrge Trxxxper joins as co-lead Legion, a young rapper drawn into crime, in his acting debut.
KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO announced that ASU and BEMA will play a two-man live titled "I" on February 14, 2027 at Fuchu no Mori Arts Theater Dream Hall in Tokyo. The article calls it the first in-person live for the two, whose music runs on the theme of love, with new key art by illustrator Yoneyama Mai. ASU's third album "BELOVED" and BEMA's first album "LOVELES" get a simultaneous digital release on October 28, 2026.
Moonshot AI announced Kimi K3.1 Pro on October 24, 2026, a 2.8-trillion-parameter MoE model with 104 billion active parameters and a 1-million-token context window. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3.2 it scored 55, above Claude Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, and Gemini 4 Argon at 53. The model arrives free of charge on November 4, 2026, with API pricing at $2.00 input and $10.00 output per million tokens.
At Worlds 2026 in the United States, the official LoL Esports account posted a matchup image comparing Top Esports top laner 369's champion pool with Zeus's. 369's side listed VALORANT agents Clove, Reyna, and Iso. 369 had returned to TES's starting lineup after Zuian's travel trouble, and before the tournament he streamed VALORANT three days in a row. On October 24 Japan time, TES lost 0-1 to Hanwha Life Esports.
Level Infinite announced Marian: Queen for Goddess of Victory: NIKKE during the 4th anniversary livestream "To the Promised Land, Goddesses Assemble" on October 24, 2026. The SSR Nikke is voiced by Kana Hanazawa and enters PickUp Recruitment after the October 29 maintenance, running until November 19 at 04:59. She is an attacker-type unit with a machine gun, Burst Skill III, and the Burning code, and her Burst Skill raises her own attack power while hitting multiple targets. Her squad is Counters, and she arrives with a dedicated background. The same stream announced the 4th anniversary story event "MARIA-n," which covers Marian's past, a separate costume called "Last Affection" shown as a white wedding dress with its own combat effect, plus new outfits for Neon, Nayuta, and Snow White: Heavy Arms, six returning costumes, a Pilgrim selective recruitment, and main scenario chapters 49 and 50.
A collaboration visual pairing Honoka Kosaka of μ's from Love Live! with Sasha from Yamato yo Towa ni: REBEL3199 was released on October 24. The image shows the two characters running together through the streets of Akihabara in Tokyo. The pairing follows a scene in the final chapter of REBEL3199, Chapter 7: Rainbow-colored Reincarnation, in which Sasha sets foot in Akihabara, a district the sources also describe as a setting associated with Love Live!. Chapter 7 begins screening in theaters nationwide on October 30. Two YouTube videos arrived alongside the visual: a recap of the story told from Sasha's perspective and a short video taken from footage in which Sasha appears in Akihabara. REBEL3199 is the latest entry in the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series, rebuilt from the 1980 film Yamato yo Towa ni, and runs seven chapters and 26 episodes. Harutoshi Fukui is chief director and writes series composition and screenplay, Naomichi Yamato directs, and Satellite handles animation production.
Prime 1 Studio has opened pre-orders for Prince and King figures from Katamari Damacy, the first release in its new A-SYMBOL series. Pre-orders began October 22, with both figures scheduled for November 2027. The Prince stands 15cm with a magnetized Katamari that accepts included objects or metal items; the King stands 50cm with a movable neck and cloth cape. Bonus editions cost 10,120 yen and 32,340 yen.
The Limbus Company -Hell Chapter- EXHIBITION runs from November 21 to December 13, 2026, on the ninth floor of Fukuoka Mitsukoshi, the game's Project Moon announced. Advance tickets went on sale October 24 at 10:00 through eplus. The first three days are date-and-time specified; from November 24 a ticket valid once during the period is used. Both cost 2,000 yen. Paid visitors get one of 13 mini shikishi at random.
Rin Oizumi held a release event at Sofmap AKIBA Amusement Hall on September 21 for her third DVD, "Totemo Urusai Kimi ga Suki," which runs 145 minutes and is priced at 4,620 yen. Shot in Kochi Prefecture, it is built on a romance drama with a boyfriend the same age as the viewer. A fourth DVD is set for December 18.
Reservations for the Kuroko's Basketball Christmas Cake 2026 opened on the Priroll online store on Monday, October 19, 2026. Applications through Sunday, October 25 get a 5 percent early reservation discount. There are 16 designs: two group cakes and 14 individual character cakes, each including a can badge with the same design. The No. 5 cake measures 15 cm across and 7 cm tall and costs 5,886 yen including tax.
Eight items use new tactical fashion art of Cero, Shiu, Mike, and Hugh, and two use scene stills, for ten items in all on AMNIBUS. Preorders opened October 10, 2026 and close November 11 at 23:59. Trading acrylic cards run 715 yen each or 8,580 yen per box of 12; glitter can badges run 605 yen each or 4,840 yen per box of 8. A Mike and Hugh badge is the preorder bonus.
Molleindustria released an update on October 24 removing generative AI voices from the adventure game Future? No Thanks!, replacing them with human voices. The game, set in an environmental socialist utopia, launched September 4 and disclosed AI use on its Steam page after release. Developer Paolo Pedercini said in an October 23 blog post that he faced mockery and insults over the AI use and will refund buyers who feel betrayed.
An illustration pairing Love Live! character Honoka Kosaka with Sasha Iscandar Kodai from Star Blazers: Be Forever Yamato - Rebel 3199 appeared on Saturday, set in Akihabara. Bandai Namco Filmworks also streamed a short video of the Yamato crew touring Akihabara from Sasha's perspective. The seventh Rebel 3199 film opens in Japanese theaters on October 30. The Yamato remake is being released as seven films, and Crunchyroll streams it as Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 3199.
CIAOPANIC TYPY will release a 20-item triple collaboration collection with Sanrio Characters and wiggle wiggle. The lineup covers bags, pouches and apparel for Hello Kitty, Pompompurin and Kero Kero Keroppi, with apparel sized from KIDS to adult so parents and children can wear matching pieces. Designs use wiggle wiggle's Smile We Love motifs, with flowers, ribbons and hearts worked in embroidery and all-over patterns. Advance reservations at the PALCLOSET store open October 24, 2026, and general sales start November 7.
Dynamic Games released Banana Life Sim for Windows on Steam on October 24, priced at 140 yen with a launch discount to 98 yen through November 7. The game casts the player as a banana, with other bananas nearby, in a forest, and the store describes a meditative style of play. It is the developer's third 2026 release after its coconut and weed simulators.
This week's Steam release roundup leads with Mycopunk, a four-player co-op looter shooter about washout robots exterminating a fungal outbreak for the corporation SAXON, and Tape to Tape, a roguelite ice hockey game where losing a match ends a run. Also in the column: FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE and its HD-2D pixel art, plus Big Dig, Cucina Stellata, Stupid Never Dies, GONE Fishing, and Dungeon Inn.
Kodansha's FAIRY TAIL is marking 20 years since its serialization began with a first collaboration with the apparel brand graniph. Ten items, including T-shirts, a hoodie, a jacquard knit, and a fleece blouson, go on sale October 27, 2026. The designs use Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Mystogan, and the Grand Magic Games, with embroidery and prints keyed to scenes and guild imagery from Hiro Mashima's manga.
Polden Publishing said on October 24 that the playtest for Studio Bitdot's Needle In A Haystack Simulator begins next week. The Steam news post gives the purpose as eliminating bugs, gathering feedback, and polishing the game. The playtest includes a hardcore mode and a secret third mode, with details to come. The game has a 5-million-needle haystack and is scheduled for Q4 2026 on Windows via Steam.
A play report from a media preview of Disney Sparkling Link Stars, the mobile game where the player is a Conductor producing Spark Rides and Spark Riders. Pre-registrations have passed 700,000. The preview follows Lise Courage of team [Endelore], a team inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and covers the setting of Lumina Star, the energy source Kirarium, and the yearly Legendary Ride.
AMNIBUS will sell new Medalist illustration goods at Animate Girls Festival 2026 on November 7 and 8 at Ikebukuro Sunshine City. The lineup draws Inori Yuitsuka and Tsukasa Amakawa in starry-sky dresses and suits: trading cards at 300 yen each, BIG acrylic stands at 2,000 yen, plus badges, bromides, colored paper, keyholders, card sets and A4 clear files. Buyers spending 2,000 yen get a random bonus postcard from five types.
Solo Groove Games announced on October 24 that Figure Me Out, a multiplayer FPS for PC via Steam, launches on November 3. Up to 20 players read the number on an opponent's forehead and enter it to score the kill, using flash grenades, smoke, binoculars, and photos to get a clean look. The game has Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, plus a Map SDK that feeds Steam Workshop maps.
TOHO animation said on Saturday that the conclusion arc announced last December for the Kaiju No. 8 anime will be a film opening in 2027. The franchise's English X account gave the title as Kaiju No. 8: The Final Mission. Shigeyuki Miya returns to direct at Production I.G. Art director Shinji Kimura drew the teaser visual, tagged "The era of humans is over." The cast had reunited that day for a Defense Force Boot Camp event in Tachikawa.
Creative Assembly vice president Roger Collum posted a statement on the company forum about Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition, which launched October 14 and was pulled from sale the next day after negative Steam reviews over performance, bugs, and broken mod support. Collum said the title was externally developed and never went through internal review or QA, and that responsibility still lies with Creative Assembly. The company said generative AI asset use is under investigation.
Inside's demo roundup names five titles with demos available ahead of release: ANOMALITH, a survival TPS set in a world warped by an "Anomaly" and due October 29 for Nintendo Switch 2, PS5 and Steam; Farming Camp, a camping and farming sim for Switch and PS5; Stellar Blade Complete Edition, the Switch 2 version due November 6 with its collaboration DLC included; a party board game about betrayal among friends; and the latest monster-raising RPG, whose demo has just begun distribution before launch.
zenZeroSim has opened a Steam store page for Zen House: Zed Zero Simulator, a "do-nothing" game where the player watches a house on a grassy plain. It has no enemies and no complex controls. The level rises while the player keeps looking, weather shifts overhead, and the grass is rendered in detail without any gameplay purpose. The game is scheduled for release on Steam on November 4.
The film RYUJI Ryuji, starring Yuya Yagira and opening October 30, will hand out an admission bonus from opening day. The bonus is a photo strip card titled SCENES FROM RYUJI, made from scene photos of the main feature. It carries eight scene photos on one double-sided card, four to a side, including unreleased cuts, with cast members Yuya Yagira, Rina Kawaei, Riku Hagiwara, JUNON of BE:FIRST, Ken Miyake, RYUKI of MAZZEL, and Hideaki Ito appearing in the images. The card is one item per viewing, limited in quantity, and ends when supplies run out. It is distributed at theaters nationwide from October 30 through November 5. Distribution methods and notes may differ by theater, according to the announcement. The film is a new adaptation of Ryuji, set in Shinjuku's Kabukicho between 1984 and 1990, and follows Yagira's yakuza character as he tries to leave the underworld for his wife Mariko, played by Kawaei, and their newborn son.
Sanrio is selling commemorative prints for the top seven characters of the 2026 Sanrio Character Ranking at 7-Eleven multifunction copy machines from Saturday, October 24. The lineup has 15 items: one 2L group bromide at 400 yen, and L-size bromides and smartphone cards at 300 yen each, one per character. Pompompurin, Cinnamoroll, Pochacco, Kuromi, Hello Kitty, Pekkle, and My Melody make up the top seven.
Valve has made the Steam Personal Calendar an official feature, one year after it ran as a Steam Labs experiment. The calendar shows recently released and upcoming games picked for each player, and its daily-learning recommendation system weights playtime, so trying a game for a few minutes does not move it much. Valve's FAQ says no game appears in the calendar for a fee, and that it is watching filter bubbles and working to keep recommendations varied.
Toei Animation released the synopsis and first-look cuts on October 24 for Episode 39 of Detective Precure!, titled "Ojamajo na Halloween," which airs October 25 on ABC TV and the TV Asahi network at 8:30 a.m. The episode is a Halloween story in which the four members of the Cute Detective Agency dress as witch apprentices from Ojamajo Doremi: Akachi Anna becomes Harukaze Doremi, Kobayashi Mikuru becomes Fujiwara Hazuki, Howa Crea becomes Senoo Aiko, and Moria Ruruka becomes Segawa Onpu. Producer Aramaki said Ojamajo Doremi appears as a TV anime within the show, and that the collaboration came together because Detective Precure! is set in 1999 and Ojamajo Doremi also began airing in 1999. He said Doremi herself cannot appear because she is a TV anime character, but asked viewers to enjoy the special direction that turns this on its head. The episode is scripted by Narita Yoshimi, directed by Shinohara Kana, and storyboarded by Shinohara Kana and Shigeya Hazuki.
Sanrio's supervised brand sanrio house will open its fourth store on the 5th floor of Shibuya PARCO on Friday, November 13, 2026. The shop carries store-exclusive designs led by Hello Kitty in high school girl fashion, five exclusive Shibuya-themed goods types, a first holiday collection with bath sets and lamé tumblers, winter fashion, and a HELLO BAKERY plush line. Openings run on advance reservations from October 30, and a CAPSULE TOY LAND pop-up runs November 13 to 26.
FancyRancy's first-person lawn mowing game 18 Summers tracks a child's growth across seven summers. Each completed mowing advances three years, and the yard changes with the son: a play mat gives way to a sandbox, then a tire swing, then a fire pit and golf clubs. Hidden mementos, including a baby bottle and a pacifier, go into a scrapbook. The trailer drew about 700 upvotes on Reddit's r/IndieDev.
Bandai Namco Amusement America announced on Thursday that the Bandai Namco Cross Store Minneapolis and The Gundam Base Store Minneapolis at the Mall of America will open on October 30, a month after the originally scheduled September 30 date. The company thanked fans for their patience. The two stores join a North American footprint that includes a Brooklyn Cross Store opened in February 2025 and a Gundam Base in Rosemont, Illinois, opened in December 2025.
KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO virtual singers Asu and Bema will stream their 3D live "Cross Night LIVE" in full for free on YouTube Live on Saturday, October 24, with doors at 7:30 p.m. and the show starting at 8:00 p.m. The set mixes original songs and cover songs. Alongside the free stream, the platform Z-aN is selling two paid tickets: a multi-angle streaming ticket that lets viewers pick their camera position during the performance, and a ticket for "AsuBema! Live Pre-Show Surprise Special Talk!", an interview talk recorded for the live that can be viewed after the show ends. Official goods go on sale to coincide with the live, including apparel, acrylic stands, and keychains. Both characters were designed by illustrator Mai Yoneyama. Asu sings material centered on city pop and R&B, and her YouTube channel has about 640,000 subscribers. Bema's channel has passed 230,000 subscribers.
Avail will begin selling Gyugyutto Acrylic Keychain Part 2 and Gyugyutto Mini Stand Part 2 for Cho Kaguyahime! on Saturday, October 24, 2026, from 12:00. The keychains cost 748 yen each and the mini stands 660 yen each, both tax included. Sales run at select Avail stores, excluding the Matsumori store, and at the Avail official online store from the same time. Each product name is limited to one per person.
Nomad Drive, an indie survival driving game from developer Indie Devil, enters early access on PC via Steam on October 28. Players rebuild a wrecked camper van from parts scattered across a randomly generated post-apocalyptic world, then drive it as both transport and base. It supports solo play and online co-op for up to four. Early access is planned to run six to twelve months.
MaM, the Ensemble Stars!! unit voiced by Kosuke Toriumi as Chiaki Morisawa, releases the new song "Last Page" worldwide on October 24, 2026, with sequential availability across music distribution services. The track is a love ballad built on a romance that ends tomorrow, modeled on The Little Mermaid. Saori Kodama wrote the lyrics; KOUGA handled music and arrangement. The release carries the song plus an instrumental, and an official MV is out.
NPO ReverV will hold "Metaverse Fukushikai" on the cluster metaverse platform from 13:00 on November 1, 2026, with free admission. The online event combines VTuber music performances and talks, a universal design fashion show, a welfare lecture, and exhibition booths. Its stated aim is to reach people who have never had a chance to come into contact with welfare, using entertainment as the entry point.
Magmix polled readers about which 2026 fall anime they had decided to watch before broadcast, drawing 168 votes. The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 topped the list with 24 votes, a 14-vote margin over second place. Magic Knight Rayearth followed with 10 votes and The Ice Wall Season 2 took third with 9. Respondents cited trust in the sequel, nostalgia for the older version, and pacing across the three titles.