Apart from the impressive official guests at this year's Anime Expo, English visual novel publisher MangaGamer brough their own all star line of guests including Akio Watanabe. Watanabe has provided character designs for series including Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, Magical Canan, Nurse Witch Komugi, and Popotan. He is probably most well known for his recent work as Animation Director and Character Designer for the highly successful anime adaptation of Bakemonogatari. Each DVD release in Japan has seen a rough average of 40,000 copies sold the first week of its release! See what he had to say in our brief interview with Watanabe!

Lolicon rejoice! Arcana Heart 3, the fighting game series known for having loads of underage girls, is coming to both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Japan courtesy of Arc System Works. Gameplay-wise, the series’ trademark is the ability to choose Arcana for every character, allowing almost countless ways to customize characters. No word on an American release, but considering Aksys Games’ close relationship with Arc System Works, it’s definitely a possibility. Hopefully this isn’t the only thing that Arc System Works was alluding to in their upcoming announcement in two days.

[Source: Siliconera]

Microsoft has just announced that the Kinect will retail for $149.99, as retailers have been speculating for months now. For that price, consumers will get both the Kinect hardware and Kinect Adventures, which seems to be a series of games that showcase what the Kinect is capable of. While the source does not list an official release date, Amazon is listing a November release date. Most of the time, retailers are about right, give or take a month. The timing is certainly right for the holidays. Anybody who wants to dance around in front of their TVs should start saving up now, it seems.

[Source: Major Nelson Blog]

For those who have a PC and Steam, Alien Swarm, previously a mod on the Unreal Tournament 2004 engine, has just been released for free. Alien Swarm is a top down shooter that can be played cooperatively with up to four players. Sadly, it’s not available for Mac users at the moment. Apparently, the same team behind this project also worked on Left 4 Dead and the Portal series, both of which are oozing with quality. Did we mention it’s free? We like free and we’re sure you do, too.

[Source: 1UP.com]

Gundemonium Collection is a collection of three games, Gundemonium Recollection, GundeadliGne, and Hitogata Happa that Rockin’ Android has released recently.  Developed by Platine Depositif, this collection is a classic bullet hell shooters that hardcore fans and masochists alike will dig. If you enjoy scraping by a wall of bullets by that one tiny pixel of a gap, read on.

We know most of you couldn't be at NIS America's press event, but fear not! We brought back with us gifts! That's right folks, we're giving away free 3 NIS America press event goodie bags each containing:

(1) Prinny Asagi Plushie (not currently available at their online store!)

(1) Trinity Universe Drifter's Guidebook (hardcover)

(1) Z.H.P. Sticker (not available anywhere!)

How to Enter?

There will be three ways to enter with one winner per method:

1. 1. Become a follower of The-O Network Online on Twitter and retweet the following message: "I hope I win the @tononet contest for an NIS America goodies bag! #tonoNIScontest"
2. 2. Like our Facebook page here and comment on the link regarding this contest!
3. 3. Be a member of the community section (free to join) of The-O Network Online and message this profile with the subject header "I want an NIS goodies bag!"

Contestents must be residents within North America. Winners will be contacted directly and will have 72 hours to respond.

(Note: You can enter through all three methods, but you can only win once)

Many people may not know who Sou Miyata is, but they probably have heard about the Muv-Luv visual novel series which he works on in Japan. Muv-Luv was originally a visual novel PC game whose popularity grew into manga and novel adaptations. The series even has an entire toy line released by Volks.  Volks is a popular figurine, doll, and toy manufacturer in Japan.  See what he had to say in our brief interview with him at Anime Expo 2010!

Legendary J-Rock band Dir en Grey has just announced a tour of North America starting in Toronto, Canada and ending in Seattle, Washington. In addition, the band will be joined by Apocalyptica, a Finnish rock band famed for using classical instruments. The tour will start in August 23 and run to September 12. Fans can pre-order the tickets now here, while the general public may purchase them in a week. Full schedule after the jump.

[Source:  DEG Blog via ANN]