2007 What's New

Mar. 19, 2007

We actually aren't exactly ready to go live with a couple of new features, but on the theory that the best sort of debugging is the sort that happens in the real world, we're firing it up anyway for testing purposes--please drop us a note if you notice problems!

Aside from the (hopefully obvious) total re-design of the front door (plus the addition of an RSS feed for those who like that sort of thing), we're officially adding (although it's actually been there for a while) a news feed (with up-to-the-hour anime news from ANN) for those who follow that sort of thing, as well as the re-launch of our deal tips feature, also here on the front page.

Further, we're going to give the blog thing a shot with Akemi's sort-of-blog What's Happenin' in Japan, some random news and pop culture commentary from the woman herself. Also, just in case that wasn't enough, the first couple of Japanese lessons now have audio samples to help with your pronunciation, with more to come.

Mar. 10, 2007

Bit of a gap in there because of copius medical tests, but we've been up to several things:

First, congratulations to our February 1st FSWAJC winner, Li-Mei, and our February 15th winner, Alice. Bit of a delay in selecting the winner for the first of March, but we'll catch up momentarily. Remember, you can't win if you don't enter.

Second, as is rather obvious (I hope), we've been adjusting and improving the site's layout. On the positive side, we've made the look more consistent from section to section by getting rid of those funky righthand index boxes and combining them with the lefthand menu. On the potentially negative side, there's a stripe over to the right reserved for in-site plugs, shopping, and ads. The US medical system is extraordinarily expensive, so I'm hoping this'll help my own bottom line a bit, but fear not--I hate annoying, useless ads as much as anybody, so I'm going to be doing my darnedest to put direct-to-product shopping links that are relevant to the reviews over there so it might actually help you out. This'll take a while since I'm handpicking them, but you can get an idea of how it'll work if you pop your head into the more reviews section.

Third, due to popular request (and despite the "anime" in the site's title), we're going to try adding some manga reviews--most anime is based on manga, after all. Being that I'm only an occasional manga reader, however, it remains to be seen if some of the folks who expressed interest in writing manga reviews will follow through. If you have any suggestions on format or information the reviews should include, by all means let us know.

That's all for right now, but since these major format changes often cause some funkiness, if anything looks funny, try hitting reload. If that doesn't do it, let us know so we can fix it. And stay tuned for a few more new things still in the works.

Jan. 18, 2007

Congratulations to Brian, the very first FSWAJC winner--your Castle of Cagliostro DVD is on the way. The next question is up and there's still a whole bucket o' prizes to win, so go for it if you're inclined.

Jan. 15, 2007

A wee bit of a delay in actually getting any new material up in the new year, but the first winner in the trivia contest will soon be selected, and the question for the rest of the month is up and ready for you to try your hand at.

Jan. 02, 2007

Welcome to 2007. Health is still keeping us behind in the proper updates, but how about a random little treat: We're trying our hand at a cheesy little contest. We'll see how it goes.