Do you know of a site that's about to go down? Does it have information that should be preserved on the web? Let us know, and we'll save what we can!

You can also help us out by keeping your eyes open for any anime-related events or articles. Clubs and convention-goers -- don't forget our events calendar page! If your organisation has something up and coming, let us know!

• January 5

  Taps microphone... hello? I think we're back now...

  Many folks are undoubtledly aware we've been having a number of server problems over the holidays. As a result, we've been switched to a different server for the time being which means that the search engine function for the encyclopaedia is down again. We'll let you know when that gets back up again. Currently, the site seems to be in a mixed state of updates from various points throughout the year 2002. We'll be re-uploading everything over the next couple of days. Please be patient as we get things back on track.

  For now, we've updated the contest page for January-February, and have a list of confirmed winners for the Christmas Contest up. (Sept-Nov's winner has not been announced yet; sumimasen... ^_^;;).

  For the curious, the clips were from the following titles:

  1. Jubei-chan Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch
  2. Card Captor Sakura
  3. Fruits Basket
  4. Initial D
  5. Vision of Escaflowne
  Thanks to all who entered!





• December 20

  Folks are having problems with the contest, so here are some hints!





• December 04

  Two new reviews are now up for Crest of the Stars courtesy of Justin Swartz so take a look!





• December 01

  The Cafe's 2002 Christmas Contest is now open. We're having a little fun with anime series identification based on theme songs this time round. Be sure to take a look through the rules!

  More updates to be posted shortly.





• October 28

  Just a short update, first off congratulations to Dean Bottino who was selected as the winner in the 2002 Summer Fan Art Contest. His entry "Luminescence" can be seen here. We had a very difficult time with judging as a number of excellent entries were received. Special thanks to all entrants for their efforts which made the contest a huge success!

  Also up at this time, a link and information has been posted to the Calendar for Colassal Con which will be held in Independence, Ohio from Mar 14-16, 2003. Updates have also been made to the release calendar for Japanese video releases in the releases section so take a look!

  Lastly, the Cafe Forum has moved permanently to our poalo mirror site and all links to the forum should have been changed. Please update your bookmarks for the current URL (http://www.poalo.com/forum/)





• October 15

  A few last contest entries from some incomplete entries have been added to the Fan Art contest entries pages. Special thanks to all those who entered! There were a number of excellent entries making it a difficult task to judge the contest! Once confirmation is received, the name of the winner and the entry will be released.

  A contributor's profile has now been added for Leo T. (Tarajis) one of the moderators on the Cafe Forum. He is in the most enviable position of living in Japan at the moment. (Ahh to be in coffee no-man's land...). Also, updated at this time are new releases for anime and manga both in the releases section.

  Special congratulations goes to Daniel King of Ridgeland, MS who was our winner in the July/August bi-monthly contest. Just to let folks know, we will be taking a break from our usual bi-monthly contest and taking November off as we once again prepare for the Cafe Christmas Contest. Contest details will be posted in late November. Please note, there will be a number of different rules this time compared to last year, so all those who plan on participating, please be sure to read the rules carefully!





• September 30

  The last of the Fan Art contest entries are now up. Due to the number of entries, the winner will be announced Oct 15.

  As many people are aware, the message board crashed on the 19th and is currently located on the mirror's site. The amount of traffic the board gets and the feasibility of restoring the Forumworld board will determine the Forum's final home. Please be patient and use the redirect for the time being while we evaluate the situation.





• September 18

  More contest entries for the Fan Art Contest. There are still a number of entries to be processed / uploaded so please be patient for those who entered (final week of entries is still in the works). We had well over 200 entries this year so it's possible that the winner will not be announced until after September 30.

  The Cafe Forum has been experiencing some technical difficulties lately and as a result, we'll be upgrading the software tonight. Hopefully this will take care of some of the bugs that have slipped into the system.

  As many people are aware, Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) opens Sept. 20 in select cities with further expansion on Oct 4. For anime and Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli lovers, this would be well worth catching in the theatres if you have a chance. Cities listed in the Calendar of Events.

  Lastly, the manga release schedule has been updated for Japanese releases for the month of October.





August 30

More updates to the Fan Art contest as well as to the Cafe Contest page. All contest entries up to and including Thursday 29 have been processed. Please note: the Cafe is taking a brief break until Sept 8 so no contest entries / mail will be processed during this time. As a result the Sept/Oct bimonthly contest prize has also been announced. Contest entries will be separated by date stamp of receipt between July/Aug and Sept/Oct contests.





August 22

Lots of fan art entries came in over the past several days! All entries (up to early this evening have now been processed and uploaded to the site. If your entry is not in the gallery and you haven't heard back from us, then chances are the entry was not received. Also up this update is a new review in the Parent's Guide to Anime for Blue Seed and an update for Bubblegum Crisis 2040 so take a look!





August 18

Finally caught up with the Fan Art contest entries! Everyone who entered (except for those from today) should have received a response. If not, please let me know, or take a look through the entries and see if you're listed or not. If not, then you'll need to resubmit.

Also up are a few new reviews to the Parent's Guide to Anime! Reviews are now up for Amazing Nurse Nanako, Bible Black, Chobits, Fancy Lala and an update to Final Fantasy - Legend of the Crystals. *Lots* more to come, so please be patient as we work our way through.

Lastly, a profile has been added to the About the Cafe section for one of our new moderators on the Cafe Forum - Min (Shigureh the Dog). Congratulations and welcome to the insanity Shig!





August 14

Missing pics from the Editorial have been uploaded. (Sorry about that folks). Also, more fan art contest entries (up to Tuesday of last week) have also been uploaded. Lastly, a new review for the manga / graphic novel Dragon Wars has also been completed so take a look!





August 8

Editorial article has been added and the previous fan art contests archive has been temporarily suspended as we reorganise that area.





August 7

And it looks like server problems are still dogging us. So, we've set up a (sort of) mirror to the Cafe. This can be found at: http://www.poalo.com/cafe/. Scripts are giving me a bit of a headache to set-up so forms (this includes the contest form) and the search script aren't working yet as I need to configure the paths etc. Please use e-mail or give us a yell in the Cafe Forum. The Forum and the mirror are all independently hosted of one another so even if one goes down, the others should still be live.

As a result, this update is a bit hodge podge again as I struggle to figure out scripting. Definitely up are more Fan Art contest entries. Entries have been processed up to and including Friday of last week. If you sent an entry prior to this time and haven't received a reply and your work hasn't been uploaded, then chances are it wasn't received. Otherwise, I will reiterate one point from the previous update: link entries for the Fan Art contest will not be accepted. Your image file *must* accompany your entry.

Also updated are new releases for both upcoming anime and manga releases. Also, a couple of links have been added and dead links removed.

More to come shortly...





• July 26

  Looks like the main site's server had some down time yesterday. Hopefully this will be the last of the down time for the next while. Changes this week focussed primarily on the Fan Art contest which got underway last week. All those who sent an entry up to and including early Tuesday evening should have received a response and entry number. If not, please let me know as we had some e-mail difficulties that night. Either everyone received notices or half of you received notices twice and the other half not at all. (If your entry can be seen on the entries pages, your file number is your entry number).

  Also up is the second half of the Vampire Miyu Graphic Novel review: Epilogue - The Past Lies Behind a Door. As always our thanks to the folks from Studio IronCat for the review copy!

  Apologies! Errors etc., were sidelined from the number of contest entries. With regards to the Fan Art Contest. Please note: your file must accompany your entry. No file, no entry; link submissions will not be accepted.