The Gundam Experience is perhaps my favorite panel at any convention. It’s like a walk through the gardens of Gundam, smelling each Gundam flower along the way. But let’s be honest here, not many of you have the opportunity to attend a convention that might feature this panel. However, this is not true anymore! This latest Gundam Experience that took place at Anime Central this year was actually recorded, and uploaded onto youtube!

The Gundam Experience happened over two glorious days, the one I have to show you is the alternative universe panel, which showcases everything that isn’t the Universal Century. It isn’t the best of quality, and the sound isn’t the most clearest you will ever hear, but it gets the job done. If you want to get just a very small taste of what the real Gundam Experience is like, then check it all out after the jump.

Last week we entered into the depths of hell as we voted for the worst character to cosplay at a convention, or in your living room if you don’t go to conventions. This all arrived from a theory I have that states that bad cosplay seems to radiate from a couple of characters that just can’t be cosplayed, or ones that are cosplayed so much that they just pollute the entire cosplay community around them. The series that is most responsible for this phenomenon is Kingdom Hearts, though to be more precise Organization XIII cosplay is mostly to blame. So please stop for now, at least give us a break until the next game comes out.

Though, it also appears as if you hate it when fat people cosplay, which I can assure you will never, ever be done away with. As long as anime exists, there will be fat people to cosplay its characters; this is a scientific law my friends.

Fat people: 7
Anyone from Kingdom Hearts: 6
L: 4
Organization XIII: 3
Sonic: 3
All Naruto ninjas: 2
Alucard: 2
Dragon Ball: 2
Furry: 2
Bible Black characters: 1
Tron guy: 1
Non furry, furry character fur furry: 1
Keichi Morisato: 1
Anthropomorphs: 1
Bleach pointy objects: 1
Felicia: 1
Fat Naruto: 1
Final Fantasy: 1
Luffy: 1
Rock Lee: 1
Man-Faye: 1
Franky: 1
Jesus: 1
Ivy: 1
Team Rocket: 1
Sexy no jutsu: 1

Meet me after the jump for a duel to the death!

We have a fair amount of releases this week, though a lot of them are rehashes of older shows. Everyone has seen the Dragon Ball Z movies 12-13, but have you seen them on Blu-Ray? Well now is your one and only chance to see them, or else you will have to wait for the special "2012 end of the world edition" of the Dragon Ball movies; which will be pointless because the world will be ending anyways. However, one rehash release is always welcomed in my book, and that is the Fist of the North Star movie. You can’t go wrong with that.

Manga wise we have a new volume of Pluto, which all of you must be reading right now, or else the manga gods will be displeased. Also we have another volume of Zetsubo sensei, which is always really fun read. Take a look at the entire release schedule for this week after the jump.

Ben Huber had to create a 12 month calendar for his final project in his Presentation Techniques class. Like any normal otaku who is presented with such a daunting task, Ben decided to base it off anime, because we all know doing a school project that involves anime is always a lot of fun.

He picked Baccano!, for its unique setting, which happens to be 1930’s America, and its crazy cast of characters. Ben hid within a cave for a week and didn’t leave until it was finished; using the rocks under his feet, and the sinew of wild animals, aka. Adobe Illustrator.   

This is pretty snazzy, and would fit perfectly on any otaku's kitchen wall. I was expecting a little more blood covered Rail Tracer, but not everything can be perfect. Otaku school projects are always super cool, well at least for us they are; so send us your art projects people of Japanator, we are always happy to see them. Check out the entire calendar in the gallery below.

Well, it appears as if years and years of rumors, and disappointment after disappointment of a second season have finally paid off. But it’s too late Haruhi, no one cares anymore about your mystical powers and sculpted ass, just leave me alone forever, we are done!

What am I saying? I can’t give you up babe. Moon Phase reports that there will be a new episode of Haruhi mixed into the old re-airing of the original series. This episode goes by the name “Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody”, which according to Gia is a story from the third novel. This rhapsody will air on the 24th of May, so be sure to turn your tele(torrent)visions on to this episode.

So does this mean that the rest of there series is going to come afterward, or mixed in-between the old episodes; or is this just another big tease? I for one am expecting this new episode to feature Rick Astley jumping out of a nice boat, which then cuts to Haruhi flicking the audience off.

Video 1 (above) P-Man: destroyer of bad CG: Mike Dent of R5 Central turned me on to P-Man at this year’s Tokusatsu Hell at Anime Central. P-Man is your average Japanese guy, that transforms into P-Man using the power of the ‘P’, the greatest letter in the alphabet! (Actually, ‘G’ is the greatest letter in the alaphabet)

Video 2 Norio Wakamoto sings “Cruel Angel Thesis”: Here is the greatest voice actor our ears have ever listened too, singing Neon Genesis Evangelion’s opening song. Just listen to the way he rolls his ‘R’s, this is what a real man sounds like.

Video 3 Spiral Rangers: Who wouldn’t want to see a super sentai Gurren Lagann live-action series in the future? Sadly, it probably won’t happen, but you can be like me and imagine it did by watching this video.

Video 4 Decade Man is finally a reality: Ever since Kamen Ride Decade hit the air, it has reminded us of Mega Man. Someone finally put two and two together and made it into a game! Well, to be honest it isn’t a new game, but a sprite change to Mega Man 7. You can download it here.

Video 5 This is Japan!: Here is a very nice video of Eric Testroete’s trip to Japan. It’s an awesome slideshow to music that totally isn’t as boring as it sounds. Even though I’ve never been to Japan, this video makes me feel like I’ve been there already; which is incredible.

Video 6 Nico Nico the 3D fighter: Here is a figher that uses many different characters from the Nico Nico fandom, like Miku, Ronald McDonald, that gay porn star, and characters from Higurashi. However, I have no idea where I can download this master piece, which makes me sad.

Video 7 Soul Eater X Yu-Gi-Oh!: Here is another well made crossover opening video; this time Yu-Gi-Oh! appears in the Soul Eater opening. Pretty good, but a little choppy; though what isn’t?

Video 8 Weeks dose of EPIC with JAM Project: You might think that Smash Brothers AMV can’t make a good epic video, but you would be wrong. This one is to the JAM Project song “Crest of ‘Z’s’. I need to get a Wii.

Ever wanted to live out that fantasy of being a Selecao from Eden of the East? Well, Gia has found a nice replica of the phone created by NEC; all you have to provide is the 10 billion yen yourself so that you can have the full Eden of the East experience. According to Anime Vice user HSaabedra, this will be a great phone for motorcycles, because it can be mounted on the gauge cluster and be used as a real-time GPS navigation device. Also, it will have turn by turn navigation if you use it in conjunction with a Bluetooth device.

Being an awesome phone from an anime, means that this phone will be as expensive as hell; somewhere around $700, if not more. No matter, being a Japanese phone and everything means that this sadly won’t work in America. I want this phone, but I also want to have the Char phone as well. Why does Japan have all the cool phones?

What’s going on this week? All of a sudden the American industry is obsessed with One Piece, with FUNimaton’s simulcast on the horizon; so much so that I had to change my pants, twice! This time we have news that Viz will be publishing the newest chapters of One Piece in Shonen Jump magazine. I’m not sure if that means they will literally start exactly where the last chapter left off like they are doing with the anime, or if they are going to go back to the beginning of the current arc.

I wonder why they are doing this? Is it to combat One Piece scanlations, or to get more people interested in the franchise because of what FUNimation is doing with the anime? I would suspect it is the later, because it makes sense that people who are watching the anime on FUNimations video site would want to know more of what is going on in the One Piece world as of recent. This new project will start in Shonen Jump this fall, so start watching it now.

Now that you are interested in One Piece, I’ll give you a little AMV present after the jump.

[Via ANN]

It’s time to showcase an AMV that took part in the Anime Central 2009 AMV contest. Even though it wasn’t a winner, it still was a finalist in the Dance/Upbeat category; and hell, its Lupin, you can’t go wrong with that. This is a nice little, upbeat video that uses scenes from the Lupin III film, Green vs. Red. It’s basically like one big trailer for this film, and it works out wonderfully. A Lupin AMV doesn’t need any kind of deep crazy story, it only needs a bunch of explosions, a hip hoppy beat, more explosions, and cleavage. Even though this AMV doesn’t fulfill my personal high cleavage quota, it still does a good job.

You can download a high-quality version of this AMV here. After the jump, I have for you good boys and girls the second place winner of this two AMV competition. This AMV uses an anime that isn’t used often, Gantz; which just so happens to be given to me by Emperor Lelouch himself (or that’s what he tells me.) The anime Gantz isn’t too great, but it has blood so it can’t be that bad. Take a look at it after the jump.

Don’t lie, you wish you could have dropped everything and attended this year’s Shizuoka Hobby Show. It’s actually taking place right now, between the 14th and the 17th of May in Shizuoka. However, there is no need to worry, because great otkau like the people over at Hobby Stock, and Hobby Show Album, took lots and lots of pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Hobby Show is a modeler’s heaven, showing new models that range from Gundam, to car, to military models. But it also has things like statues and action figures as well. A lot of new models are showcased this show, like the new Master Grade Gundam Exia from Gundam 00; with added chrome blades and badass shoulder cape! Things like this make me want to get back into Gunpla, they make it look so easy. Anyways, take a vacation from your busy life, and enjoy the Shizuoka Hobby Show in the gallery below.