Cel Shaded Jason Yadao

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‘Ninja Turtles’ voice joins Kawaii Kon

While I have several sources to go to for anime and manga industry news, there are times when items just accidentally fall into my lap.

Such was the case when I stopped by a local comics store recently and noticed a pile of promotional postcards for the Kawaii Kon anime convention in April.

Of particular interest on this card was a roster of guests, which included one name that went unmentioned before now. That new guest is Mike Sinterniklaas, the voice of Leonardo in the updated "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series, Dean Venture in Cartoon Network/Adult Swim's "The Venture Brothers" and Ataru in AnimEigo's English dub of "Urusei Yatsura."

This is Sinterniklaas' second Kawaii Kon appearance in as many years; he showed up as a surprise guest last year ...

Dancing for a profit

Anime fans and Konami's Dance Dance Revolution video game franchise often go together like peanut butter and jelly, which makes this next item rather intriguing.

As Wilma J. noticed recently, one of the franchise's latest installments, DDR Mario Mix for the Nintendo Gamecube, has become quite the hot seller on eBay. Copies that once fetched $49.99 at retail are now garnering anywhere from $71 to $221.50.

Nintendo and Konami have not commented publicly on whether the game is officially out of print, but a spot check of stores around town shows that it is rare, if not impossible, to find. So if you are still looking for this game at retail price, good luck ...

DVD pick of the week

"Macross" volume 1, from ADV Films: The original Japanese series from which part of "Robotech" was based is back with digitally restored video and the Japanese voice of songstress Lynn Minmay, Mari Iijima, reprising her role in a new English dub. It's old-school cool renewed for new generations ...