DEMONDICE.  TeddyLoid. ACME.  You've probably heard of them before.  They're going to be in Los Angeles coming up really soon.  

Earlier today, it was announced that the Obey Me! Boys would be attending Anime Expo 2022. Obey Me!, shorthand for Obey Me! – One Master to Rule Them All, is a dating/romance RPG game.

On the music front, Anime Expo announced the appearance of the group Travis Japan for Anime Expo 2022. Travis Japan is part of the wide-ranging Johnny and Associates organization. First founded in 1962 under Johnny Kitagawa, Johnny and Associates (or Johnny's for short), has pioneered the evolution of male singing and dancing groups in Japan. Some of Johnny's (and Japan's) most famous groups include Arashi, KinKi Kids, SMAP, KAT-TUN, and many others. It's safe to say they know what they're doing when it comes to male groups.

Fanime is coming up next weekend. This is the long-awaited return of one of California's mainstay conventions. It's been a long three years since the last one (having been on hiatus since 2019) and we're finally back in the city of San Jose, CA.  We at The-O Network have been attending Fanime for upwards of 10 years so this is one of our most loved conventions, and given its proximity to many of the staff here, is best considered our home convention.

Nightwish.  Yeah, that's definitely not a Japanese band.  Finnish, actually.

And I can sense the head editor staring at me right now wondering why this post is here.  It's anime-related, I swear.  I'll get to it.

Like many things in life, the first impression of a convention is important.  A convention's first-year oftentimes determines its ultimate fate.  The inaugural OffKai Expo took place between April 29 and May 1 of this year at the DoubleTree Hotel right next to San Jose's Mineta International Airport. As mentioned previously, "OffKai" translates to "offline meetup," and usually in the context of people who have met online through video games, chat rooms, or otherwise, and are now meeting for the first time in person.  That's exactly the name of the game here, and the focus is on Virtual YouTubers.

Nemophila just released their latest song, "A Ray of Light."  If this is any indicator of their upcoming songs, oh man, things are going to be good.

Never thought I'd see Steve Aoki related to Anime Expo but here we are.  Toei Animation pairs with none other than famed DJ and producer Steve Aoki for promoting One Piece Film Red. There's a decent chance that this also means a premiere of the film too.

I always love it when my hobbies collide. If you ask me what kind of music I listen to, I'll describe it as one of two things: metal, and Japanese. Well, this article has both. It's no secret that Beast in Black's founder Anton Kabanen is a big fan of the manga Berserk. You have something like a 20% to 30% chance of pointing to any one song on the band's three albums and it'll involve Berserk. Now, it might not be the most obvious thing to people at a glance, but if you look at the lyrics, it all clicks into place.