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37m ago
A roundup of three games not yet released in Japan. NUTAYU's Stellar Trace, tied to Stellar Trace: Kalpa Everlasting, is now a sandbox-style 2D action RPG with Japanese voice acting already recorded and a planned first-quarter 2028 release per TapTap. Mashin Hero Wataru: Divine Dragon Warrior, a licensed idle card RPG, opens October 28. The 3D romance adventure Cloud Dream Journey is still in pre-registration with no next test scheduled.
37m ago
Game Spark's Weekly Spa Ran ranks its five most-read articles for October 16 to 22, 2026. The iOS and Android version of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions took the top spot after a Square Enix update on October 19. The Torneko remaster update placed fourth; entries for RUST MOON and the full list of the remaining three titles are not detailed in the source text.
37m ago
The Japanese government has selected director Rintaro as one of its Persons of Cultural Merit for fiscal 2026. Rintaro, whose real name is Shigeyuki Hayashi, is 85. The citation credits his contributions to the development of television animation through works such as Astro Boy. He directed the 1979 Galaxy Express 999 film, its Adieu Galaxy Express 999 follow-up, and the Emeraldas special, and he is handling the original story draft for Toei Animation's new film based on Leiji Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 franchise. His other directing credits include Harmagedon, X/1999, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, The Dagger of Kamui, Metropolis and Yona Yona Penguin. His autobiographical manga My Life in 24 Frames per Second won the Grand Prize at the 29th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and was nominated for Best Graphic Memoir at the 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Madhouse congratulated him on its official X account.
1h ago
Happy Socks and Hello Kitty released a second collaboration collection, announced October 22, 2026, and on sale October 23. The lineup is eight items: two three-pair sets of sports socks in size 23-25.5cm at 5,940 yen each, and six kids' crew-length socks in sizes 4-6Y and 7-9Y at 1,540 yen each. All items are cotton, nylon, and polyurethane, with reinforced heels and toes.
1h ago
Prime 1 Studio opened pre-orders on October 23, 2026 for a 1/1 scale figure of Kitagawa Marin from My Dress-Up Darling, at 1.32 million yen tax included, with release around June 2027. The figure is 164cm tall and estimated at 36.6kg. The uniform is fabric, two left arm options are included, and the outfit can be removed to reveal the season 1 episode 2 swimsuit.
1h ago
Crunchyroll began streaming English dubs for The Prince of Tennis II U-17 World Cup: Final Member Selection Match and the second season of The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World on Friday, and will start a dub for Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers on Sunday. The Prince of Tennis dub lists Ry McKeand as Ryoma and Richard Barcenas as Adrian, with Sound Cadence Studios producing.
2h ago
Game Spark's third-week-of-October indie picks column lists three PC titles. Mana Alchemy is an open-world Vampire Survivors-style action RPG from METASLA, the developer of Sea Fantasy, with a 2027 release date and no price set. Dungeon Settlers is a colony sim and dungeon crawler with permadeath and procedurally generated dungeons, out September 4, 2026 at 2,480 yen. Trash Day is a physics-based raccoon co-op game for up to six players.
2h ago
GU will start selling a Honda collaboration collection on January 4, 2027. The motifs are 1980s-90s motocross racer uniforms and the CR series, Honda's motocross line. The lineup is a heavyweight sweat full-zip hoodie at 3,990 yen, two long-sleeve mesh T-shirts at 2,990 yen each, and three graphic T-shirts at 1,290 yen each. All prices include tax; GU's official website carries the details.
2h ago
Takashi Kitao, a former Konami programmer, released the open-source JavaScript game engine Playload on GitHub on October 21. Games built with it must fit in 3KB after compression, which works out to roughly 4000 characters, a size that fits in a URL shortened by X's 23-character link rule. Specs include 8 colors, a 160x144 CRT-style display, emoji-based pixel art, and BGM. Sample games include a Space Invaders-style shooter.
2h ago
Sycom took first place in both the satisfaction and recommendation rankings in the gaming PC category of EAA!!'s Gamer Census 2025-2026, a survey that drew 11,850 respondents. The commemorative model, the G-Master Velox Campio Edition 2026, is limited to 200 units and sells direct for 348,000 yen with shipping. Its standard build pairs a Ryzen 7 7700 with a Radeon RX 9070 XT, 32GB of DDR5-4800 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
2h ago
The December issue of Kodansha's monthly Afternoon magazine announced that Haruko Ichikawa will launch a new series, Cosmic Mimimi, in the next issue on November 25. The "neo kawaii sci-fi" series follows Mimimi, who lives in a "cool" and "dreaming" city, and its goal is to make everyone happy. Ichikawa's Land of the Lustrous ran in Afternoon from 2012 and ended in April 2024.
2h ago
Crunchyroll is streaming an English dub for the first two episodes of the Tougen Anki: Nikko Kegon Falls Arc anime, adapted from Yura Urushibara's manga. The arc debuted October 2 on television and on overseas streaming at 25:00 JST. REMOW's arc synopsis follows Shiki pursuing Yaoroshi to Nikko, where Kegon Falls has stopped flowing and a research facility runs experiments. The announcement did not name the dub cast.
2h ago
The NIJISANJI EN unit Luxiem gets a second kuji lottery, on sale October 31, 2026, built on newly drawn figure skating visuals of Shu Yamino, Vox Akuma and Luca Kaneshiro in purple and black, red and white and other color schemes. Prizes run from die-cut cushions and aurora acrylic stands to posters, charms and can badge and sticker sets. The in-store kuji has prizes A through E and a LAST prize jewelry box; the online kuji has prizes S through D and no jewelry box.
2h ago
LaLa's 50th anniversary campaign runs at Lawson stores nationwide from Tuesday, October 27, 2026, with original goods for Snow White with the Red Hair, Ouran High School Host Club, Vampire Knight, and Natsume's Book of Friends. Buying three eligible sweets earns one of five art sheets, limited to 20 per store. Acrylic stands, badges, nail tips, and reservation items go on sale, and Mamoru Miyano hosts an in-store broadcast.
3h ago
The Chiikawa Shisa Darake Kuji online lottery was announced on October 22, 2026, and sells from 11:00 on Wednesday, October 28 to 23:59 on Tuesday, November 3 at Chiikawa Market Chiikawa Kuji. Each draw costs 1,100 yen including tax. All 12 types are Shisa goods with no losing prizes, spanning A Prize Super BIG Plush, B Prize Armor Shisa Plush, C Prize Face Cushion, D Prize Plush Pochette and E Prize Mascot, plus a bonus for buying 10 at once.
3h ago
KB Securities analyst Kim Dong-won, in an October 20 report, said Samsung Electronics has locked in five-year supply contracts for about 70% of its general-purpose memory production for 2027, and full annual HBM output. Total contracted memory comes to roughly 80% of 2027 production. The report projects HBM average selling prices up 100 to 150% year on year in 2027 and DRAM prices up a double-digit percentage in the first quarter.
3h ago
Frogwares released The Sinking City 2 on August 18, 2026, a third-person survival horror game set in Lovecraft's world. The sequel moves away from the open-world detective adventure of the 2019 original and toward exploration, combat, and resource management with clear Resident Evil influence. Its 1920s Arkham is flooded, with roads turned to waterways, so protagonist Calvin Rafferty detours through buildings and operates sluice gates while searching for his comatose lover Faye.
3h ago
Desktop Mate now offers a DLC character based on 1st PLACE's virtual artist IA, released October 15, 2026 and priced at 2,200 yen including tax. The character appears on the desktop with sparkling effects, poses, sits on the taskbar, can be picked up and moved, resized with a scroll wheel, and set as an alarm that brings IA onto the full screen to announce the time.
3h ago
A mini-interview with Bas, the Netherlands-based solo developer behind Fantastimaker's spaceship-building shooter eXoSpace Combat Engineer, covers the game's design and reception. The PC and Linux title released on September 22, costs 1,700 yen, and carries over 600 spaceship designs and more than 200 parts. Japanese is not supported as of writing, and Bas says official localization in Japanese and other languages is a future goal.
3h ago
NTE: Neverness to Everness added four Anomaly commissions in Ver.1.4, all with horror elements: a tiny-person escape from a giant kitten, a haunted house, a nightmare world, and a ghost bus full of mannequins. The horror varies sharply across them, and new character Kurobane's flight and item use can skip puzzles and chases outright.
3h ago
ZTE subsidiary nubia announced the REDMAGIC 12 Pro+ gaming phone in China, with a global rollout planned. It runs Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Chinese pricing is 6,999 yuan for 12GB + 256GB, 7,999 yuan for 16GB + 512GB, and 8,999 yuan for 16GB + 1TB, with a 24GB + 1TB Golden Saga model also planned. The display rises from 144Hz to 185Hz and hides a 16-megapixel under-display camera.
3h ago
ARCHIVESTOCK Inc., the Tokyo operator of a luxury resale platform, completed a funding round on April 8, 2026 through a third-party allotment of new shares to SAZABY LEAGUE, Ltd. The amount is undisclosed. The company says monthly gross merchandise value in August 2026 grew more than 340% year on year, and that more than 85% of items listed to date are high-end brands.
4h ago
Chofu PARCO in Chofu City will hold "GeGeGe PARCO," a GeGeGe no Kitaro tie-in event, from November 18 to November 30, overlapping with the city's GeGeGe-ki 2026 program. Under the concept "Beware of Yokai," visitors can run a stamp-style rally to find hidden yokai, use a photo booth with the Kitaro family, and buy eight original collaboration menu items plus goods at three limited-time shops.
4h ago
Valor Mortis, the first-person soulslike from Ghostrunner developer One More Level, released October 14, 2026 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5, and its review scores have landed at a 78 Metascore on PC across 53 reviews and 79 on PS5 across 16. Critics agree on the combat and disagree on bosses, story, and technical polish, with scores running from 88 at LevelUp down to 60 at GameSpot.
4h ago
Bandai will release the HG Ultraman 60th Anniversary Edition gashapon in the fifth week of October 2026, at 500 yen per play. The lineup has four figures: Ultraman Zero LunaMiracle, Ultraman Belial, Ultraman (Type A), and Frilled Dinosaur Jirahs. Jirahs comes with a gimmick that lets you remove its frill. Bandai labels the set a special edition tied to the 60th anniversary of HG Ultraman.
4h ago
Helen Chiang, appointed as Xbox's first chief operating officer in July 2026 amid roughly 1,600 layoffs and a business reset, has left the company just over three months later. CEO Asha Sharma said she is grateful for Chiang's years of contribution and will share COO leadership details once plans are finalized. Corporate vice president Kari Perez said the company does not discuss personal private matters.
4h ago
ULTRANOVA Entertainment exhibited Blue Bite at Tokyo Game Show 2026, a 3D romance action adventure set for winter 2026. The game takes place in a world of only women, where six heroines are threatened by a disease called Blue Bite. The protagonist cures them through massage, and choices lead to six endings. The booth introduced the heroines with panels, and no playable demo was offered.
5h ago
The first collaboration between Momoko Sakura's Chibi Maruko-chan and fashion brand LOWRYS FARM goes on sale Saturday, October 31, 2026. The lineup runs to 18 items of apparel and lifestyle goods, organized around matching parent-and-child clothing and character accessories. Pieces include a lip cap key charm in four expressions, eco bags with plush pouches, cushions with stored blankets, plush drawstring pouches, PVC hairpin sets, a famous-scene pullover in women's and kids' versions, and a tote bag.
5h ago
A second Green Parks collaboration marking Milky's 75th anniversary goes on sale Friday, October 30, 2026. The theme is "Which side are you on?" and spans 13 items: seven Milky pieces featuring Peko-chan and wrapper motifs, and Look (A La Mode) pieces drawing on its four flavors and yellow packaging. The lineup includes fluffy cardigans and pants, sweatshirts, blankets, hairbands, socks, pouches, and charms, all free size and tax included.
5h ago
Anime Anime reports that 18 scene cuts from "Cho Uchu Keiji Gyaban Infinity VS Riya" were released together. The V-Cinext screens for a limited run at Shinjuku Wald 9 and other theaters from December 11, with Blu-ray and DVD on June 9, 2027. A November 1 watch party on the PROJECT R.E.D. channel features Kohei Nagata, Ruka Akabane, Kokona Sumi, and Shinka Arisaka alongside producers Ryohei Takahashi and Takuto Watanabe.
5h ago
Bandai will release the gashapon line "Touken Ranbu ONLINE Mejirushi Accessories" from the fifth week of October, priced at 300 yen per play with tax included. The set has six Sword Boys in original raincoat designs: Mikazuki Munechika, Kashuu Kiyomitsu, Kasen Kanesada, Mutsu no Kami Yoshiyuki, Yamambagiri Kunihiro and Hachisuka Kotetsu. Each comes with carabiner and ring parts for attaching to bags and other items. Bandai plans shipments multiple times after the initial release.
5h ago
A Minna no Ranking poll with 3,243 participants and 14,626 votes placed Marida Cruz of Mobile Suit Gundam UC first among all-time Gundam heroines at 90.9 points, ahead of Aina Sahalin at 85.6. Sayla Mass is third and Elpeo Ple and Haman Karn tie at 81.1 points. Nine of the top 10 come from Universal Century works; Tiffa Adill of After War Gundam X is the exception at seventh.
5h ago
The week of October 26 to 31 brings a wide slate of releases across PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2, and Switch. Phantom Blade Zero, ANOMALITH, Dune: Awakening, Hunting Simulator 3, and the Hatsune Miku puzzle game arrive on PS5 on October 29, alongside STEINS;GATE RE:BOOT on Xbox Series X|S. Minecraft and Culdcept Begins land on Switch 2 and PC midweek.
5h ago
Bandai will release CAPSULEVERSE Godzilla in the fifth week of October 2026, priced at 800 yen per play. The set is the launch of CAPSULEVERSE, a new figure brand for capsule display in which figures stand against a relief background drawn from each film. The lineup has four types: Godzilla (1974), Mechagodzilla (1974), Godzilla (1954), and Godzilla (2023). Two figures placed back to back cross their battles inside the capsule.
5h ago
Sega Fave will release the lottery product "Sega Lucky Kuji PINGU ~PINGU'S Donut Shop~" sequentially from Thursday, October 29, 2026, at Ministop and various hobby shops. Each draw costs 770 yen including tax. Prizes include a shopper-style shoulder bag, plush mascots of Pingu and Pinga, patch badges, hand towels and sticker sets, plus a Last Lucky Prize donut shop Pingu plush about 30 cm long.
5h ago
SENA, active in the idol groups Sanmyu~ and MELLOW MELLOW, launched a solo project under Fegment Inc. on October 24, 2026, with new artist photos released. Her first digital single, "Midnight Showtime," will be distributed on November 11. The song is written and composed by sailon and depicts a romance built on push and pull. SENA debuted in 2013 as Seira Niihara of Sanmyu~.
6h ago
Bandai will release a One Piece set in its Yura Yura Squad gashapon line in the fifth week of October 2026, priced at 500 yen per play with tax included. The Yura Yura Squad format is a bobblehead spec in which the head sits on a spring and wobbles. The One Piece set has four types: Monkey D. Luffy, Nami, Shanks, and Buggy. The characters are deformed into figures of roughly 6cm, according to Inside. Bandai's vendor division handles the release. The copyright line credits Eiichiro Oda, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and Toei Animation. Release timing may differ by region and store. The set is the One Piece entry in a series that Bandai is building as its own gashapon brand rather than a one-off tie-in.
6h ago
The musical PandoraHearts Retrace II -madness of lost memory- will archive its October 10 performances on Nico Nico Live. The 12:00 performance streams as a full-view video and the 17:30 performance as a switching video that closes in on the cast. Both play October 31 and again November 8, at 17:00 and 21:00 each day, with time-shift viewing after the broadcast.
6h ago
The Mochiwasa Day collaboration cafe runs at S-PiCK CAFE in Tokyo from November 3 to November 29, 2026. The menu has eight items named for the four cats, Mochi, Chikuwa, Warabi, and Satsuma: four food and dessert plates from 1,320 to 1,760 yen, and four drinks at 990 yen each, all tax included. Orders bring an A4 luncheon mat and one random coaster from five designs. Nine goods use newly drawn illustrations.
6h ago
Studio Colorido and Studio Chromato's Cosmic Princess Kaguya, a musical sci-fi retelling of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, drew favorable English reviews after its January release but little sustained coverage, with 10 Rotten Tomatoes reviews as of the article. In Japan, the film has become one of the year's bigger hits and is generating talk of a larger media franchise. Anime Herald's recap covers what English-speaking audiences missed across roughly six months.
7h ago
Myrmecoman and MoreButterGames added a Co-op mode to the naval sandbox sim ShipCrafter in an October 23 update. Lobbies can be public or restricted to Steam friends. Players can build the same ship together and run campaign missions as a group, with enemy HP and attack power scaled to the number of participants. The update also reworks cloud and sea rendering with ray tracing and changes turret controls.
7h ago
Furyu will roll out three prize items based on the anime Bread Thief, starting in the fifth week of October. The lineup is a super BIG plush about 29cm tall, a mascot ballpoint pen offered in three types including one of the character holding bread, and a large blanket about 145cm wide by 205cm tall showing Bread Thief running with bread.
15h ago
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.
15h ago
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.
15h ago
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.
16h ago
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.
16h ago
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.
16h ago
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.
17h ago
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.
17h ago
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.