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1h ago
Yoakelabo showed a demo of Yoru no Namae at Steam Next Fest. The novel game is set in an arcade in a regional city and follows two girls absorbed in arcade music games, tied together by a communication notebook kept inside the game center. The protagonist returns to uncover the truth of an incident at the arcade, reuniting with an arcade friend after 10 years. .THi (Hiroshi Takeyasu) and TAG contributed BGM, and a Sound Room plays some tracks in high quality.
1d ago
Thirdwave announced on October 19, 2026 that its GALLERIA brand will sell a set model combining the Final Fantasy XIV tournament commemorative PC with Logitech G peripherals, available from the same day through November 30. Prices start at 375,968 yen including tax. The PC on its own has been on sale since July 2026. The bundle adds a Logitech G502 X PLUS mouse, G515 RAPID TKL keyboard, and G522 headset, and comes in black or white configurations. Three PC builds are offered. The tournament-adopted model uses an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU with 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage, priced at 540,968 yen. The cheapest build uses an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage. The PC commemorates the Crystal Conflict Regional Championship 2026 Japan tournament, and the bundle will build the play environment for the finals at Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival 2026 in Tokyo on October 31.
3d ago
Overlap's BL label LiQulle is running the Gothic Halloween event across two venues within walking distance: a POP UP SHOP at Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara and a collab cafe at STELLAMAP Cafe. Characters from eight LiQulle works appear in newly drawn Gothic Halloween illustrations. The shop runs to October 25, the cafe to October 18, and each venue has its own limited items and purchase bonus.
3d ago
Nojima will run an in-store campaign for [Alexandros] presents THIS FES '26 in Sagamihara, the two-day festival at Sagamihara Gion Field on October 31 and November 1. From October 24 to November 8, Nojima Mobile members who spend 3,000 yen or more get a clear file, and those who spend 10,000 yen or more also enter a lottery for signed goods.
5d ago
Cactile Games released Refund This Game on PC via Steam on October 13. The first-person action game uses a pole vault pole to cross a field of objects and reach a summit, with a two-hour timer on screen. Its stated goal is to clear it inside the window and take a refund. Achievements track both outcomes.
5d ago
Seven Seas announced six new licenses on Wednesday, five manga and one novel series, all scheduled for 2027. The titles are Ushiyama-san, Mouse Royale, This World is Worth Fighting For, The Duke is Obsessed with the Vicious Omega, My House Cat Became the World's Strongest?!, and Alice, All the Way to Outer Space. Release dates run from June through August 2027.
6d ago
ThinkingAI will hold the ThinkingAI Summit 2026 Tokyo on November 10, 2026, at City Hall & Gallery Gotanda in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, with attendance limited to 300. Speakers include Takara Tomy, Bushiroad, Mirrativ, Imagineer, Betimo, South Korea's Underdog Games, and China's Duoniu Technology, plus Yoichiro Miyake of Tokyo University of the Arts, who gives the keynote. Ten lectures are planned for the day.
Oct 10
Party Look has opened pre-orders on Amazon.co.jp for a new color version of Yukimiya Yuge's original character figure Maid Sister Cynthia. The 1/6 scale PVC and ABS painted figure stands about 280mm including the base and is priced at 22,550 yen with tax. It departs from the earlier look with cherry-blossom-colored long hair and a purple-and-white maid outfit. The scheduled release is April 30, 2027.
Oct 8
Dospara is selling two GALLERIA gaming desktops tied to Thirdwave's three wins at AMD PARTNER ADVANCE 2026 JAPAN: Outstanding Growth Partner Award, Ryzen Channel Champion of the Year, and Radeon Channel Champion of the Year. The GALLERIA FDR7A-R57-W pairs a Ryzen 7 7800X3D with a GeForce RTX 5070 12GB, 32GB DDR5 memory, a 2TB Gen4 SSD, and a 360mm MSI liquid cooler. Base price is 399,980 yen.
Oct 8
The ABEMA Channel will launch on October 9 at 7:00 PM to mark the tenth anniversary of the KonoSuba TV anime. It carries all 33 episodes from Season 1 through Season 3, the spinoff 'An Explosion on This Wonderful World!', and the film 'Legend of Crimson', streaming free daily for five days. Each title stays free for two weeks after it airs. Season 4 arrives in 2027.
Oct 8
Google has opened its SynthID Detector to general users worldwide in English, allowing anyone to check whether an image, video, or audio file carries a SynthID watermark. The tool can identify content watermarked by Google tools, and also by OpenAI and NVIDIA, with Apple support planned. It works by detecting the presence of SynthID, the digital watermarking technology from Google DeepMind, rather than judging probabilistically whether a file looks AI-made. Detection survives filters, color changes, and lossy compression, and for video and audio it shows the segments where a watermark was found. Use requires sign-in with a Google or Apple account. The tool cannot tell whether content is human or AI-made, cannot confirm accuracy, and does not cover text. Files without an embedded watermark are not detected at all.
Oct 7
Manga Up! Global added five manga over the past two weeks, with release dates spanning September 30 to October 8. The batch includes Siketainu's magical girl comedy Magical Girl Recruiter Puicho!, the café romance Bitter Knight in My Sweet Café, Ann Siranui's VAMPXIA, the romantic comedy 100 Things the Sheltered Lady and This Commoner Want to Do, and Renjuro Kindaichi's zombie anthology We Are All D***.
Oct 6
Orange Inc.'s emaqi e-bookstore is adding 11 new titles this month, eight of them through the emaqi Premium monthly subscription. The picks include Yuka Tatami's Streaming Under My Control, koma's The Soldier Groom and the Daikon Bride, Yuji Shiozaki's Shin Ikki Tousen, Kaduho's Kill Me Baby, Ryokuji Yoshizawa's And So, We Mostly Destroyed, and Kawakami Daishiro's Song of the Thirty-Year-Olds' Blues. The service also added a chat assistant meant to help readers find titles by mood and preference.
Oct 6
Bombservice, the developer behind the Momodora action games, announced a dungeon-crawling RPG titled Record of Dorathia. The player is a wandering soul who arrives at a place called the Observatory, contracts with the witch Monna, and travels the world searching for the soul of her sister Alma. Players build a party of four from eight classes. A trailer and Steam store page are planned.
Oct 5
Independent developer ynoham released a new trailer for Gunmetal Gothic, a four-player co-op third-person shooter with retro 3D graphics styled after late-90s consoles. Players fight mechanical lifeforms from another dimension in the city of Vestige using guns and spells. Early Access on Steam is scheduled for June 2027, planned to run about two years, with the first five story missions, sub-missions, and the start of the endgame available at launch. A demo is on the store page.
Oct 5
The launch trailer for DISK-Y, a retro visual novel from developer Bibu, is out. It is a spin-off of the horror novel "This Game Is Not Real.," which moved to DLsite and BOOTH after reaching 24,000 wishlists and citing Steam's distribution standards. DISK-Y follows a transfer student named Yu. It is under Steam review, has passed 4,000 wishlists, and is set for a November 2026 PC release at 330 yen.
Oct 5
Third Wave Systems Japan will exhibit at JIMTOF 2026, the 33rd Japan International Machine Tool Fair, at Tokyo Big Sight from October 26 to October 31. At Booth E1064 in East Hall 1, the company will present AdvantEdge, Production Module, and Distorti-sigma, covering cutting analysis, NC tool path optimization, and distortion prediction. An exhibitor workshop is set for October 28, 11:00 to 12:00 in Meeting Room 608.
Oct 5
Nippon TV's Friday Road Show will air two Takashi Yamazaki films on consecutive Fridays, tied to the November 3 release of his latest film, Godzilla -0.0. ALWAYS: Sunset on Third Street (2005) runs October 23, 9:00 PM to 10:54 PM. Godzilla Minus One (2023) runs October 30, 9:00 PM to 11:34 PM, with a 40-minute extension and the main feature uncut.
Oct 5
THINKR, the company behind KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, opened applications for "THINKR AUDITION 2026" on Monday, October 5. The application period runs until Tuesday, December 8 at 23:59. The audition is the company's first across its studios and accepts entries in two categories: the Virtual Artist Category and the Real Artist Category. The Virtual Artist Category is led by KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, which has held auditions three times so far, and this round is the fourth. The Real Artist Category is run jointly by ALLT STUDIO, the newly established KYOKAI STUDIO, and UNKNOWN LAB. There are no age, gender, or nationality limits as long as the applicant lives in Japan. Applicants must not hold an exclusive contract with a production company or record label, and minors need parental consent. KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO General Producer PIEDPIPER and members from all four areas join the judging panel. Outstanding applicants receive proposals and support for activity plans, including song production and lessons toward a debut.
Oct 4
Strange Scaffold announced Something is Wrong with the Library on September 29. The tidying simulation game is scheduled for release on PC via Steam in Q4 2026. Players sort thousands of real books by the Dewey Decimal Classification, author order, and title order inside the haunted Alex Dieter Public Library and Introspection Center, with help from former administrator Philip Shed. Book combinations change each playthrough, and paranormal elements such as The Drowning Room have been teased.
Oct 4
The Dengeki Bunko Fall Festival Online 2026 announced on Saturday that Kien Aien's light novel series This Is the End Stagnation Committee has an anime in the works. The story sets an apocalypse beneath everyday life, with creatures under Tokyo's Shinobazu Pond and a demon lord who looks like a beautiful girl. Kadokawa published the first volume with illustrations by Ogipote on July 10, 2025, and the sixth on July 10, 2026.
Oct 4
Miyu Tomita plays PAGTARO, a rotund yellow pug mascot, in the anime Uncle's Obsession with Cute Things, which premieres this fall. In an Anime NYC interview, Tomita said the character's lines are written only as his catchphrase, "Paguuu!", so she annotates the script with the emotion behind each one and ad-libs extra "Paguuu!" lines in shots where the mascot appears.
Oct 4
The official website for the Draw This, Then Die! anime announced on Saturday that the series will get a second season. The 12th and final episode of season one aired Friday. The adaptation of Minoru Toyoda's manga stars Akira Sekine as Ai Yasumi and aired on NTV's Friday Anime Night block, with Crunchyroll streaming as it aired in Japan.
Sep 29
Thirdwave began sales on September 29, 2026 of six renewed GALLERIA gaming PC models made with Kagura Nana, who works as an illustrator and V-artist. The machines use a specially designed PC case built around visuals that Kagura Nana supervised herself, and the renewed lineup also brings upgraded specs compared with the previous collaboration models. Thirdwave runs GALLERIA as its gamer-oriented PC brand, and the company opened a special page for the collaboration. The announcement covers the redesign of an existing collaboration line rather than a wholly new product family, with the case artwork and the internal hardware both changed for this release. Pricing, individual model names, and ship dates were not included in the material released alongside the announcement.
Sep 20
Kadokawa announced on September 20, 2026, at the "Machisuba Special Stage in TGS2026," that Machico's new song "WOOHOO!" is the theme song for the KonoSuba game "KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! ~Prosperity to This Lovable Town!~" (Machisuba). The track was written for the game. Ikuko Iijima handled lyrics and composition, and Koji Mizuguchi handled arrangement. Machico, who has sung theme songs for the KonoSuba anime, said the song is packed with the power to make a chaotic everyday more lively. The game is an otherworld trouble life RPG with an original story, supervised by original author Natsume Akatsuki with cooperation from illustrator Kurone Mishima. Kadokawa plans distribution in 2026 for PC and mobile, with the date undecided. An X campaign runs from September 20 to September 28, drawing two winners who follow the official account and repost the designated post to receive canvas art bearing Machico's handwritten autograph.
Sep 20
The live-action series of Mamita's 10 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40 manga is also getting a live-action film on January 22, 2027. The TV cast returns. Chihiro Ikeda directs from a screenplay by Yo Saito, after directing the series with Noriaki Kosuge. Kohei Shoji plays Keishi Tanaka and Shunsuke Kazama plays Suzume Tojo. The series ran on TV Tokyo and other channels from July 4, 2025.
Sep 19
THINKR's Strange Eden project held its first fan meeting on August 29 at Tennei Memorial Hall in Kanagawa Prefecture, about half a year after launching in February 2026. Seven cast members appeared: Yukihiro Yoshikawa, Yuga Sato, Hidenori Takahashi, Shohei Komatsu, Shun Horie, Tomoaki Maeno, and Chiharu Shigematsu. The event included talk segments, a reading drama, a live concert, and a cover of Yodaka ni Natte.
Sep 18
Steam is running limited-time free play for Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition, Last Flag, and Jump Space, all open until 2:00 AM on September 22. Sea of Thieves is Rare's pirate open-world game. Last Flag is Night Street Games' 5v5 capture-the-flag shooter. Jump Space is Keepsake Games' space co-op shooter, in early access since September 19, 2025, with support for 1 to 4 players.
Sep 17
Karaoke Kan will hold a collaboration campaign with THINKR's project STRANGE EDEN from October 1 to November 30, 2026. Thirty stores sell six non-alcoholic collaboration drinks at 700 yen each, three stores sell clear cards and 2WAY acrylic keychains using mini-character art, and a singing campaign runs at all stores. Illustrator Sako Shoji is the character designer and Makoto Sanda handles worldview setting and scenario draft.
Sep 17
Thirdwave began selling two gaming PC models under its GALLERIA brand on September 11, both verified as compatible with Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword. The machines are sold at Dospara computer shops nationwide and through the GALLERIA online store, with build-to-order configuration and prices starting from 244,980 yen. Both run AMD Ryzen 7 processors paired with AMD Radeon RX series graphics. The cheaper model, the GALLERIA XPR7M-96XT16G-GD, carries a Ryzen 7 7700, a Radeon RX 9060 XT with 16GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a 500GB Gen4 NVMe SSD. The higher model, the GALLERIA XDR7M-97XT-GD, steps up to a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, a Radeon RX 9070 XT, 32GB of DDR5 memory, and a 1TB Gen4 NVMe SSD, and starts at 439,980 yen. Both ship with Windows 11 Home 64-bit. GALLERIA showed machines at its Tokyo Game Show 2026 booth, where a playable demo corner ran.
Sep 16
Manga UP! Global added three manga this week: Yū Yukishiro's I Need to Quit this Antique Store, the nns, Skyfarm, and Dr. Mine collaboration The Journey of the Half-Elf Dwarven Master Blacksmith, and Mare Tuzumiya's Tsukimi Is All Dolled Up. The first two arrived consecutively, with the third following on Thursday. All three originally serialized in Square Enix's Manga UP! or Gangan Joker.
Sep 15
NOTHING NEW released a new trailer and visual for the We Are Aliens anime film on Tuesday, both built around the heroine Konatsu, voiced by Sakurazaka46 member Ten Yamasaki. Ryota Bando and Amane Okayama play Tsubasa and Gyotaro as young adults, with Yuto Maki and Tasuku Nakagome voicing the characters as children. Kohei Kadowaki wrote, directed, storyboarded, and edited the film, which opens in Japan on September 25.
Sep 14
Episode 10 of Draw This, Then Die! focuses on Hikaru, revealing her mother Hebichika shaped her cold, self-aware drive to succeed. Sachi, previously a comedic side character, becomes the catalyst for change by embracing her normalcy and confronting Hebichika, leading Hikaru to call her master.
Sep 10
Thirdwave began selling an Inaba Haneru collaboration model from its GALLERIA gaming PC brand on September 10, 2026, at Dospara stores and the Dospara online store. The desktop is built around a pillarless case printed with an original illustration by Tatehata Dan, with a heart-shaped window on the side that shows the interior. Inaba Haneru's logo sits on the liquid cooling head, and the interior LED lighting is set to orange at her request. Buyers get a newly recorded system voice, an original mouse cursor, and two wallpapers. The lineup covers eight configurations ranging from 344,980 yen to 704,980 yen, split between AMD Ryzen and Intel Core Ultra models with GeForce RTX 5060, 5060 Ti, 5070, and 5080 graphics cards.
Sep 8
The documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, co-directed by comedian Nathan Fielder, will hit theaters in October 2026. Filming took place over 34 days after Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison and before she was incarcerated. The 174-minute film features a teaser with just two people: Holmes denying the fraud allegations and Fielder pressing her on sincerity. Variety's Owen Gleiberman says the film does not defend Holmes.
Sep 8
PlayWay S.A. announced Thief Simulator 3: First Loot, a free prologue to the latest series entry, developed by Noble Muffins for PC (Steam) with Japanese display and subtitles. It covers the first mission and adds up to 4-player co-op, a feature new to the series. The prologue confirms the co-op support listed among improvements when the May demo was pulled. Noble Muffins, developer of the first Thief Simulator, returns after CookieDev handled the sequel.
Sep 7
Kodansha announced that THINKpod, its business video media launched in June 2026, has passed 300,000 subscribers on its official YouTube channel. The company says the channel is drawing support from U35 next-generation business leaders. THINKpod positions itself against the AI era with the concept that knowledge is not meant to be immediately useful, and has editors from various fields act as planning producers for daily free content.
Sep 7
The anime of Tsutomu's manga Uncle's Obsession with Cute Things revealed four new cast members and its theme song artists. Yusei Yagi performs the opening "LIKE3," and Kaori Maeda, who voices Rio Shigeoka, performs the ending "Totoi♡Kaiwai." The show premieres on Tokyo MX on October 4, with Crunchyroll streaming it.
Sep 5
THINKR announced on September 5 that it will hold THINKR AUDITION 2026, a joint recruitment drive spanning four in-house areas, with applications opening October 5. The audition follows a studio restructuring announced the same day, in which THINKR spun off KYOKAI STUDIO and UNKNOWN LAB from KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO. The two new studios join KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO and ALLT STUDIO in selecting candidates for the audition. Recruitment runs in two categories: a Virtual Artist Category, which THINKR describes as the fourth such audition led by KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, and a Real Artist Category, newly implemented with ALLT STUDIO and the two new studios. Applicants face no age or gender restrictions, and any nationality may apply if residing in Japan, provided they hold no exclusive contract with a production company or record label. Minors need parental consent. The application period runs from October 5 to December 8, 2026, and each applicant may enter only one category. Selection involves members from all four areas, including KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO executive producer PIEDPIPER, who will form new artist projects and offer tailored activity plans such as music production and lessons.
Sep 5
THINKR Inc. released SINGULAR LIVE on September 5, a live streaming platform built for artists affiliated with the company. The service is the first initiative of PROJECT SINGULAR, the studio's announced live experience expansion project. Membership registration is free but required to use the service. Beyond regular live streams, SINGULAR LIVE handles revival screenings of past performances, letting fans who missed a show watch it later. A subscription tier called PRIME costs 880 yen per month or 9,680 yen per year, both tax included, and adds priority access to live ticket sales plus benefits such as online lives that were previously streamed for free. Individual live tickets are sold through TVOD, a pay-per-view model. THINKR, a production studio whose business covers IP development, artist production, management, XR LIVE, and creative production, said it aims to build an environment where fans can keep enjoying content, and described the platform as a theater experience that consolidates its own lives, archives, and bonus content rather than a simple streaming site.
Sep 1
Episode 8 of Draw This, Then Die! follows Miss Teshima as she resigns herself to being unable to create manga and decides to get her teaching license. The episode frames her past and present through the same image of her at a desk with a blank book. The girls take a field trip to find inspiration and craft a fantasy story about giants. The payoff comes when Teshima opens the book she passed to Yasumi and finds it filled with hundreds of creative ideas.
Aug 31
Something We Made will release Toem 2 on September 29. The sequel to the hand-drawn adventure game Toem launches on Steam, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2. The previous game holds an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, with 99% of 9,599 user reviews positive. The new installment adds running, jumping, climbing, new camera attachments, and more.
Aug 29
indie.io released Polylithic, a Stone Age survival game by polyperfect, now available on Steam for 1,600 yen with a 35% discount until September 6. The game supports online co-op for up to 10 players and offers solo play, tribal leadership, character customization, hunger and body type systems, hostile tribes, and dog or hyena pets. It includes Japanese language support.
Aug 29
Tickets for the KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! anime 10th anniversary exhibition, held at AKIBA_SQUARE in Akihabara UDX from October 12 to 31, 2026, go on general sale at e-plus starting August 26 at 18:00. First-come, first-served sales run until October 11. The merchandise-included ticket bonus is a special wooden plate, about 18 cm in diameter, handed out only at the venue.
Aug 28
NOTHING NEW began streaming a trailer on Thursday for the We Are Aliens anime film. The trailer highlights the Heisei era, the time period when the main characters meet. The film, directed by Kōhei Kadowaki, stars Ryōta Bandō as Tsubasa and Amane Okayama as Gyōtarō as young adults. It opens in Japan on September 25.
Aug 28
Hanashi Media announced it has licensed eight light novels for English release, announced in July and August. The slate includes The Hated Prince's Do-Over, Living the Slow Life as a Demon Lord, Shimotsuki-san Has a Thing for a Background Character, and The Sage of the Forbidden Library. The publisher will release the titles in English and Spanish.
Aug 28
Nekki released a new trailer for its single-player action game SPINE - This is Gun Fu during the Future Games Show: gamescom 2026 broadcast on August 27, 2026. The game is set in Tensor City, a cyberpunk metropolis ruled by AI-driven politics, where artificial intelligence determines the value of human lives. Players take on the AI regime with guns and fists, using a combat implant called Spine that boosts physical abilities. The trailer shows smooth switching between melee combat and gunplay, built around a system called Free Flow Combat, where battles against multiple enemies connect without interruption. Actions include seizing enemy weapons, landing counterattacks in brief openings, and parrying attacks with extraordinary physical abilities. The game is described as a cyberpunk action movie you can play directly, with a specially developed combat camera staging the action dynamically. SPINE - This is Gun Fu is scheduled for release in spring 2027 for PC (Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, with Japanese language support confirmed.
Aug 22
Episode 7 of Draw This, Then Die! spends most of its runtime on an extended flashback to Teshima's early days as a manga assistant. She worked for about a year under a creator she admired, Hebichika, learning technical skills like drawing straight lines and backgrounds, and getting her iconic glasses. The review notes the flashback is more cheerful than earlier ones, but Hebichika was a terrible boss who gave poor instructions and ignored her staff's health. The review argues Teshima never found what she herself wanted to write.
Aug 21
Seven Seas announced eight new manga licenses during its Anime NYC panel on Friday, including Boys' Love, Girls' Love, and fantasy titles. The slate includes My Lips are Being Targeted, Scarlet Thirst, Synchronicity Obsession, I Wish it Had Just Been Love, The Duke's Daughter Must Seduce the Demon King... But the Demon King's a Girl?!, Enslaved By My Cats, Goetia Shock, and Witch and Mercenary. Release dates span from June to July 2027.
Aug 21
Filmmaker Kane Parsons released the 16-minute Backrooms series installment Everything Must Go on YouTube on August 18, 2026. The footage originally played after the end credits of the A24 feature film The Backrooms, which opened in the United States on May 29, 2026. It connects his YouTube series with the film version.