Characters Yuri Shibuya – a 15-year-old Japanese student who is typical in every way until he one day gets sucked into a toilet and comes out in another world. He has a strong sense of justice. Conrad Weller – Yuri’s godfather who lives in this other world. He is half-human, half-demon and he acts as mentor to Yuri. He’s the middle son of Cecile, the former Maoh.

Characters Rasetsu is the lead female character. She is very gifted at dispelling spirits, but can’t fight a particular evil spirit who torments her every year on her birthday. Kuryu is also a psychic, though he doesn’t appear to be as helpful as Rasetsu. He is the business-suit-type and the oldest character in the series at 26. His psychic power manifests as Kotodama, which is the power to control things by using words.

Some anime are quite merciless in killing off favorite characters. But it’s rare to deeply explore themes of death in anime: funerals, grave-sites and even the relevance of death deities. What we do see is absolutely bogging to Western audiences.

With the recent demise of Borders stores across the nation (world?), the opportunity arose for cheap manga. And where there is cheap manga, there is Tempest nearby. I can smell a manga sale from 34.8 miles away. Despite the sad circumstances, I celebrated by spending way over my budget. And I will spread the wealth by sharing what I bought with you all. In other words, expect reviews in the future.

The last Pokémon game I played was Pokémon Crystal on the Gameboy Color. It's not for a lack of interest -- I've always loved the games. Everyone else in America does too, though, which makes them pretty expensive for a half-broke gamer like myself.

On top of being bright, colorful and completely insane, anime tends to have a wide variety of super-expressive emotions. It can be a struggle for first-time anime viewers to keep up with all the symbols racing around the screen or page. Even seasoned veterans of anime don't understand every circumstance for every facial symbol.

With the recent rise of nerd-power, interesting trends have begun taking place revolving around us. Yes, us: the not-so-little community that eats, drinks and breathes anime. Though we're still far from the mainstream's consciousness, other underground groups have begun openly embracing the programs we have sold our collective right arm for.

Tokyopop, America’s biggest manga publishing company, is gone. We have no reassurance as to who will take over all of their old titles. But there’s a silver lining amidst these storm-clouds. With a titan like Tokyopop gone, the smaller publishing companies get the chance to shine.

Tempest got to interview Scott Melzer and Mike Wall from NoN.D.E. Fanfilms, the people who brought you "This is Otakudom," "STEAM: The Movie" and "Fanboy Soze vs. The Reanimators of the Otakulypse." Be sure to check out their forum!

Tempest here and I got to interview the very handsome Takamasa Sakurai and Kanon. Both were wearing the most incredibly frilly clothes -- they looked like they stepped out of a twisted Steampunk convention that could only be held in Japan.