Variety reports that Square Soft, the software company behind the extremely popular Final Fantasy videogame franchise, is continuing to produce animated material at the $45 million facility constructed in Hawaii in order to produce the state-of-the-art computer animated Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within .

As it becomes increasingly clear that the U.S. (and perhaps the rest of the world) is slipping into a recession, we decided to take a look at the potential impact on sales of the product categories carried in pop culture stores -- anime, comics, toys, games, and movie/TV merchandise.

We wanted to let you hear what some of the retailers that won the Grow with Shojo display contest had to say about it.

This December Viz will publish the first English edition of Kazushi Hagiwara's Bastard!!, while Image Comics will debut a prime example of American 'manga,' Bastard Samurai .

Now Tokyopop is releasing two documentaries that explore Southern California's street racing culture.

Viz has announced a redesign for Animerica, its nine-year old anime/manga magazine.

The biggest surprises at the top of the lists in August are the #1 toys product -- Clive Barker's Tortured Souls from Mcfarlane -- and the #1 anime -- the El Hazard OVA DVD box set.

FUNimation has obtained the rights to produce American versions of the Lupin III movies. Lupin III is a venerable anime property that first appeared in 1969.

The latest film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, Sen To Chihiro Kamikakushi (' Spirited Away ') is about to set the all time movie box office record for Japan, surpassing the $160 million earned by Miyazaki's previous film, Princess Mononoke .

ADV Films has announced that the fourth installment of Studio Gainax's Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water will be released on video and DVD on November 11, 2001.