Funimation has joined forces with Canadian-based Irwin Toy Company to create IF Labs, a new Fort Worth-based toy company that will be producing toys based on the Dragonball Z Movies and the original Dragon Ball series.

Sailor Moon 's success, first in syndication and then on the Cartoon Network has paved the way for current wave of interest in shojo titles.

While it is true that as in the United States, boys' comics outsell girls' comics in Japan, comics aimed at girls (or shojo manga) represent up to 30% of the huge Japanese market for comics that dwarfs comic publishing efforts here in the States.

Art Asylum unveiled its collection of four action figures from the multiple Academy Award-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .

4Kids Entertainment, the company that packaged Pokemon for the U.S. market, is back with another major anime property, Yu-Gi-Oh , the anime/card game that trumped Pokemon in Japan.

Viz Video and Pioneer have announced a few more details about the Ceres, Celestial Legend DVD they are releasing on July 31st. This will be the first in a series of eight volumes, each of which will contain three episodes of the series.

Viz Comics is publishing English language editions of a series of anime art books that should prove to be an important product line for retailers who deal in anime and manga.

4 Kids Entertainment, the company that packaged Pokemon for the U.S. market has licensed Yu-Gi-Oh , the anime series/collectible card game that trumped Pokemon in Japan. A 27-episode television series and an accompanying collectible card game were hugely popular in Japan in 1998.

Although the official release date is not yet set in stone, Funimation plans to release a DVD of Blue Gender in late June.

Funimation, the American license-holder for Dragonball Z, has announced the acquisition of two new anime titles-- Yu Yu Hakusho and Blue Gender .