Today is the last day to get your registration form in for our Tokyo Game Show tour and save $100 while your at it!

And in case you need a little reminder:

The Tokyo Game Show Tour includes:
Hotel and Airfare
Breakfast Everyday
Paided Lunch in Harajuku
“How to Draw Manga” by Manga University
The Ultimate Akiba Experience
Unlimited Game Night in Odaiba

Admission to the Tokyo Game Show

A trip to the Square Enix  Showroom.

And Much More!

The final cut-off date is: August 21st

Last weekend America’s fandom in comics were treated to 4 days full of comic related events. Marvel swooned us with Iron Man 2 footage and DC filled our hearts with the Blackest Night.

However, amongst all the vivid cosplayer trafficking in the center halls, one particular girl left everyone online wondering:

Who was that Rikku girl?

Of course Rikku (a popular female character from Final Fantasy X2) cosplay isn’t anything new. Joining our Tokyo Game Show Tour, you’re bound to run into several Japanese girls honoring the character big time.

But, perhaps it’s just the atmosphere of America. If a cosplayer out here can “nail” (no pun intended) a certain Japanese character the audience goes mad. A “self nerd bashing” comedian’s 210,130 video views and 3 “Rikkued” thumbnails channels taking Youtube’s top viewed videos would certainly say so…

The Youtube Invasion:

Not since the premiere of Internet meme “Keyboard Cat” or “Rick Rolled” have we seen such searches invading all things Youtube and Twitter.

The days following the convention have flooded the internet with the questions “Who is the Rikku girl?!”, “The things I’d do…” or “Rikku FTW”…

Some people have gone as far as to post a Craigslist AD!

But thanks to the combined efforts of L, Batman and the Question,  Intermixi.com is proud to give you an answer.

Hello there Jessica… welcome to the Internet…

Her name is Jessica N., 19 years old from Phoenix AZ. When she wasn’t cosplaying as Rikku, she spent the other days at comic con posing as very sexy rendition of Pikachu.  A revamp that finally most fanboys can’t complain about not being canon.

Intermixi reporters have obtained a facebook and flickr, but due to the nature of privacy we are respectfully asking for permission first, before hordes of fanboys try to make their Fantasy Final…

But in the meantime, let us ask that age old question…

[poll id="18"]

Stay tuned for more!

The team of Intermixi and the all new Kabukicho manga headed out to San Diego Comic Con for a few hours Sunday. Shades of the upcoming Tokyo Game Show tour, the Square Enix Booth made us that much more excited for what’s to come! \

Here’s some pictures:

Don’t forget the deadline for the TGS tour 2009 is coming up. Register today!

This weekend is a road trip to the San Diego Comic Con! As a good amount of the Intermixi staff just happen to be avid comic book fans, we thought of nothing better to show you some premiere trailers.

Marvel has revealed that Japanese animation studio Madhouse (Vampire hunter D, Ninja Scroll, Deathnote) is animating the Iron Man and Wolverine characters in Japan for Japanese audiences.

Here’s your first look at it!

*WARNING* (The following trailer below has been reported to cause severe swelling in the heart and head, due to it’s extreme FAIL)

Me in a bamboo forest

If there’s one thing I always have a problem explain without bias, it’s why every traveler needs to visit the Kansai area of Japan. While I don’t want to take anything away anything from Tokyo as there is so much to do, I have always felt a kinship from the laided back Los Angeles vibe of Osaka coupled together with the underlined serenity of Kyoto. Thus, making the Kansai area my secondary home.

Escape the metropolis and embraced the “essence of old Edo Japan”! You will feel a difference with a breathtaking view of Kyoto from the Kiyomizu Temple, retracing samurai steps at Nijo Castle and river rafting down the Hozugawa River in Kyoto.

When I used to live in Osaka, my deepest relationships emerged from places like the Rock Rock Bar, Club Pure (all you can drink) and Den Den Town (Anime, bootlegs and porno Central). You can walk down the alleys of Namba and immediately start up a conversation with the not so shy Osakans.

With Samurai X being my favorite story of all time, it is a guilty pleasure to run through the falling cherry blossoms in Kyoto. I want to believe I am retracing the steps of the battousai or zatoichi.

It was an honor to share my Kansai experiences with the first Intermixi tour group in 2007 and 2009. We’ll have a great time in 2009. I look forward to more memorable moments on the Tokyo Game Show tour 2009.

With the Yellow Fever Awards all said and done, Intermixi is proud to bring back one of it’s favorite features.

With the Tokyo Game Show tour 2009 coming and all we thought this video would be more than appropriate.

Sunday Night Video is pleased to showcase DEAD FANTASY:

So over the weekend my date happened to be rummaging through my dvd collection for a movie to watch while I went to wash out my Joker green hair. (See forum for pics.) I was very surprised that as a non anime fan or gamer, my collector’s edition of “Final Fantasy: Advent Children” caught her eye. Long story short, I painfully listened to the English version, she didn’t understand anything that was going on but in the end thought it was amazing…

And I guess that got me thinking about the Final Fantasy franchise and what it means to the video game industry, Japan and most importantly the Tokyo Game Show 2009.

Without a shadow of any doubt the Square-Enix (the company that owns the FF Franchise) booth holds pure dominance as the main attraction for Tokyo Game Show every year. And as early as I can recall, every year at TGS was cloaked by a sea of people with only one purpose.

To see the trailers… more importantly to see the Final Fantasy trailers.

With Final Fantasy XIII the talk of Nihonjin gamer town, I can only imagine what the upcoming Intermixi travelers are in store for. I’m at an ease though, with our “Ultimate Akiba Tour” (viewing all the hidden gamer pit stops) and the “Unlimited Game Night” in Odaiba, we always customize and give everyone’s tour experience a unique touch gamer or not.

I admit, I haven’t actually played a FF game in a long time. The commitment the series requires is more than I could even give my date that weekend. But as I flashback to some of my older Japan tour memories, (hunting down the Square-Enix retail store in Shinjuku, finding the Advent Children movie during the scarce period or seeing the Amano’s World wall tapestry in Square Enix headquarters) my most memorable has to have been the time I was surrounded by a sea of 5′4 gamers all staring a the Square-Enix mystery trailer about to begin.

As a cloaked mouse like figure appear welding a keyblade, the trailer ended up being Kingdom Hearts 2. There wasn’t any thunderous applause as you’d expect in the states. Actually everyone sorta just resumed their lives like some mysterious spell had released them. But during that time, as the music of Utada Hikaru’s Hikari filled the air, I felt it…

A universal feeling that pulled upon my heartstrings. That gamer or not, you understood just how big of a movement, attraction and ultimately universal difference the Final Fantasy franchise and Square/Enix is making.

Perhaps at this years Intermixi’s Tokyo Game Show tour I’ll pick up the re-released copy of Advent Children and explain it to my date…. in Japanese.

*All images © BUNSYODO Printind K.Nagami/© JNTO

No it’s not a bad Spiderman storyline…

The dates have been shifted by a day on this year TGS Tour as well an additional day added at no extra charge.

So the new dates are as follows:

TOKYO GAME SHOW TOUR: September 23rd – 30th

KAME HAME KANSAI EXT PACK: September 30th – 3rd

Just confirmed for the tour as well, will be a trip to the Square Enix Showroom in the heart of Shinjuku, Tokyo!

Secluded in the most unlikely of places, anyone visiting Japan will tell you getting here no easy task. But Intermixi did, and we’d like to do it again for you…

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect reason to join this tour, now is that time!

PS: We’re not just done yet. More event confirmations coming soon!

After careful tallying of both the online and offline votes, we not have the accurate count in:

[poll id="17"]

Yes, folks Kenichi Matsuyama is the winner of the final match and recipient of the 2009 YELLOW FEVER AWARD…

Kumi Koda… what happened?

Kumi Koda supporters (who showed such a strong presence in the women conference finals) are obviously crushed and shocked by the turn out.  But, before they jump off that ledge they can certainly take away a few things. Kuu-chan beat the girl most saw as unbeatable, Utada Hikaru. It wasn’t an easy road but fans can certainly be proud of the fact that Kumi Koda will always be the 2009 champion of the women. That is a fever all of it’s own…

(Both Kumi Koda’s and Kenichi Matsuyama’s representing agencies will attempt to be informed of their respective victories.)

Thanks to everyone who voted and be sure to keep checking in for post interviews, analysis, potential candidates for 2010 and await as we launch the next edition of the YELLOW FEVER AWARDS!!

As announced at Anime Expo last weekend, we now have the prices and main itinerary for this years Tokyo Game Show Tour!

Reservations are now open and we are now excepting the “early bird” signup discount till July 31st. Regular deadline is August 21st.

So take a look and sign up today!

Tokyo Game Show Tour 2009

Here’s pictures from last year tour: